February Blahs.....

We had a problem with our heating system around here for the last 2 days. I deleted the post from yesterday since it wouldn't play anymore. I hope you got a chance to hear it. If not-go get you a copy of Josh Groben-February Song- I'm not sure what album but there can't be that many. Look for it. I am a late convert to Josh. My friends have been on the Josh bandwagon for a while and Pam even went to a concert in the fall. That guy can sing a song. I love the crystal clear tone of his voice. No funny stuff just clear and beautiful. Sort of like Frank Sinatra way back in the day. I know-I'm old. I love music though-all kinds and it affects my moods in a big way. I can across the cut from Josh on some other blog and, sad to say, I can't remember where or I would go back and re-load. Drat!

I'm doing a bunch of work for the Pantry today and some much needed house cleaning (bleah) Nothing like a bright sunny day to bring the horror to your attention. I would dearly love to get back to some sewing but I probably will have to wait until another day. I notice that most of you all have not posted anything lately either so I don't feel too bad about my lack of quilty content. Maybe a walk in the sunshine will lift me out of this. I really hate February. I'm not fond of its cousin August either. they are the extreme times. Contrasting in extremes but nevertheless awful. I wonder how it ight be to live in a more temperate climate? When we were in Hawaii-we used to laugh at the weather reports on t.v.- blah blah blah...another day in paradise, yadda yadda. I think I might like to be bored with terminal prettiness-weatherwise about now.

Above are some of the things I've been reading these past weeks. If you get Vanity Fair as I have for 25 years-and you like old movies and film noir, this months Hollywood issue has a fabulous section where they have told a visual noir tale with all famous actors in 40s costumes and make-up as if it was a black&white movie. It's worth the price of the mag. The photos are so great. Very well done and fun to read and look at. The Julia Child book was great. It's the story of her life in France learning to cook as a young bride and mostly told in pieces of her own diary. Very amusing and fun read. The other book is a tale of a woman traveling through China by various methods of travel and the stark realities of that journey. It's a cautionary tale of how you can be in love with the idea of a place and then get smacked in the face with the truth of how it really is. Fun read as well. I will send it to the first person who would like it and tells me so in the comments.

The Better Homes quilting mag is changing its ways-I like it. It's a bit up-dated from the usual traditional stuff and a welcome change. I may give them another try at some point. I cancelled them along with Quilters Newsletter, which now can't possibly suck enough. Anyway....have fun &

See you soon.

Ice Storm halts WIP progress

I did manage to finish my son's quilt and he slept under it last night. No pics though. I've shown it many times already. Some more pictures of the harbor a few days ago. I will probably have some pics of today's ice storm later this week. Right now I have one eye on the chicken soup, one eye on the boys slip-sliding away outside, and one eye on the blog(Oh wait!-that's one eye too many) We have not had a bad ice storm for a long time. I'm writing this as I pray that all the twinkling little branches outside and power lines stay right where they are and don't fall-I've lived through a number of these things and it's not pretty. I live pretty near one of the power plants on the Island, so it usually gets up and running fairly soon, but I hope we stay lit-power-wise,that is. We may get lit, otherwise as well, but I'd like to be able to see the stairs as I trip up them.

I got a great haircut-It's a good time of year for bangs and I definitely needed something to perk me up. All of the pictures we took in N.C. have me looking as if my forehead is THIS BIG. So I asked Diane to give me a little wispy bang thingy. It looks smashing if I do say so. A little less of the helmet head thing and more chunky pixie. Yep, that's me-chunky pixie. My friends Gerrie & Rian made me laugh with tales of their haircuts. I can relate to Rian's in particular. When I worked in the cosmetic business I did a lot of work on runway models at first and then print models. They would often come in needing a quick snip here and there. One day I didn't have time for my own cut(electrician with no lights syndrome)and I took a scissor to my own head. I cut here and there and had a little cocktail and cut here and there-until I had a very, very interesting do. At the time, I got my hair done once a month at Vidal Sassoon. When the guy saw me he yelped and then decided to make it work for me, in the words of Tim Gunn. I had a Twiggy haircut. It was about two inches long and if anyone remembers Mia Farrow in her Frank Sinatra days-that's what I'm talkin' about. Interestingly enough-it became the rage with a lot of models and folks. Recently, I saw a photo of Dame Judy Dench(love her) and she had the same hairdo. Unfortunatley, I have too many chins now. Back then I was a mere slip of a thing at size 8 and 5'2'' It does seem appealing though. I'm also very much interested in the white hair thing that Meryl Streep had going in The Devil Wears Prada- I love that hair color and wonder what it would be like.

Hmmm, things to think about when you're waiting for the sun. Keep a good thought for my guys out there with sleet falling sideways and 17 degrees. They are putting down snow melt which we only do as a last resort. The door are frozen on our cars and the trees are cracking-Brrrr

Walking on water&more stuff from the closet

Here's a picture of the harbor iced over nicely. I'm told that it hasn't happened in a number of years. Funny, but I can't remember. I used to live right on Main St. that leads down to here and I can remember those days and the big freezes but I guess I haven't gotten out in the dead of winter much lately.

Here is a nice little sailboat belonging to some poor hapless soul who probably went away thinking that the harbor never really freezes and breaks your boat in two. There's one or two every year this happens. It's big news for the rag in town they call a newspaper.

Last but not least, we have quilting content for the day. I have spent some time in the closet these past few days for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is that I know there is a box in there with many more nine-patch blocks like the ones in the donation quilt that Deb Geyer quilted for our QOV for a woman. Anyway, this turned up. With it were a few more foundation papers to make some more. The thing is I have to get some more Kona cotton. It's got a really nice texture and feel and believe it or not other cottons look different when the blocks are done. You can tell that a different fabric has been used. It's probably the reason I put them in the closet to begin with.

Well, I'm off to the salon to get a cut. I was desperate for a haircut and my usual appointment was probably going to get cancelled tomorrow because of the snow and ice-The woman who cuts my hair is a treasure and she's booked weeks in advance so I would have had to wait patiently(not) for another time. Lo and behold-I called today to see if anyone had cancelled and YOWSA!! some poor soul did. I will feel much better when I get home. I can take a lot of stuff happening to me but my hair looking horrible is one thing that makes me very cranky. It's all grown out of it's shape and on my neck. You know what I mean. Men never understand these things, my husband was laughing at me because I was be-moaning the foul weather tomorrow and cancelled appt. Now at least I can feel perky.

A raspberry to February & 6 Wierd things

My son will kill me when he finds out I posted this but I had to laugh when we came across it. I used to blow raspberries on his tummy and feet and one day he blew them back at me. It just made me happy to look back at. He still makes me happy, thank goodness.

I think I've done the 6 weird things before but I'll play along again, since there are many more than 6-shut up. Anyway-you're supposed to tell 6 weird things about yourself that your freinds will probably not know already. and the tag a bunch of people-

1-My feet are two different sizes- the right is slightly smaller than the left and I'm blessed with a second toe that is long so it hits up against my shoe and drives me crazy(Oh that's why) I also have restless leg syndrome-didn't know what it was for years that made my legs tingle and strange pinpoint pains and such. I love my husband even more because he has to put up with me constantly re-arranging my legs in bed.It's har d to find a comfortable position and takes a long time to get to sleep. They have meds for it but they are of a sedative nature and I don't like feeling like that. The last thing I need it to be more inactive. I do find walking on the treadmill helps just a little. I always thought it was just the result of having jobs where I stood on my feet for 10-12 hours a day in high heels and such. I'm sure it didn't help. I'll live with it.

2-I'm a history nut. I love all types of history and since I'm also a bookaholic you will find many volumes of many types of history on my shelves.I think it stems from not having much of a history myself. Mainly I'm into Asian, and American Indian and right now I'm reading The Mayflower which is the true story of the years following the landing and founding of Plymouth and surrounding areas. I've probably read about thirty books on Asian(mostly Chinese) history. We had, years ago, a book on the history of the town I live in which included court records of trials of various people-many famous around here-for really interesting offenses, like riding horses on Sunday, an offense which used to get you the stocks. I think a member of a family around here got their hands on it and now I can't find it again.Public drunkenness was big in the early 1700s I'm also reading a book right now called "The United States of Arugula"about the history of the foodie movement in the USA-very good.

3-Unlike some of my friends who shall remain nameless(ahem)I have never been arrested(there's still time for that and only because they never caught me) but I have had a serious addiction. I was addicted to 12-hour nasal spray. You know how they say on the box "do not use for more than 7 days"? I used it for 25 years. So much so that it became such a problem that I had to have the inside of my nose cauterized because I got nosebleeds that wouldn't stop. The second time the ENT did it-I was in such pain that I told my husband if it didn't take and my nose bled-just let me die. I'm never going through that again. Like a hot poker to the brain. Yeah....like that! Again, such are the wages of sin....(hee)

4-I sense things. It's not like esp but sort of an image that comes to me. I think a lot of people have this. It happens, unfortunately, a lot with regard to people dying. I will think of someone who I haven't heard about for a long time for seen-or maybe a famous person, and suddenly within a day that person has died. Its companion is my exceptional BS detector(never fails me) and my superstition about saying things out loud. I have a thing where I get a sense of dread or fear or something that is off-putting about someone or something. It's like a bell going off. I believe that it saved my life more than once when I was single and I find it is very strong with regard to my family, particularly my son.

5-I only drink one kind of tea-It's PG-tips from England and my husband orders it for me by the package of a thousand from Amazon. He's a good soul that man. All other black tea tastes like pisswah(pardon)and is unfit for consumption.

6-I'm a stationery nut. I love papers and pens and cards etc. I must have hundreds of things like that. I can't seem to help myself, and I do eventually use the stuff. The thing is I use the excuse that I'm buying it for someone when I know full well that I don't want to part with it-it being cards note cards etc. I'm currently on a Tuesday Morning Hatbox craze-in which I will store fabric(wheee)

Well there you have the 6 weird things for now- I'll be back with quilt-art news soon. I'm not tagging anyone cause I think I've read everyones already that I could tag. Please feel free to play along if you haven't.