Mel's Own Place

The end of last year was a busy and hectic one for me.  I apologize for being slack on replying to the comments that have been made here.  I hope I haven't permanently lost any friends because of it.


I purchased a calendar and am trying to prioritize and schedule my life so I can get to some point of normalcy.  Sewing and blogging have taken a back seat for long enough!


First project of 2009 was a quick one.  I had purchased an ugly pocket calendar 1/2 off knowing I could spruce it up.  


I went to Fancy Tiger, a stellar shop - I think I'll try to get half of hubby's paycheck auto deposited there.  They have Japanese fabrics, patterns and trims GALORE!!




I made a little slip cover for the ugly cover of the pocket calendar.  (Yes, it's a tad short.)  I had some iron on transfer letters I used to personalize it.  Not a work of art, but I love the fabric so much and I need a calendar of some sort - so, it's perfect for me!

Lissa (who?) has an intestinal infarcment in her small intestine, which means a part of the small intestine has died.  She also has a blood clot by her liver.  


They are moving her to the surgical ICU and will be doing surgery to take out the dead part of the intestine and fix it up either tonight or tomorrow.  They aren't able to give any blood thinner for the clot until after the surgery.


They have had to give her anti-anxiety medicine the past few days and had to increase her oxygen again.




She has been less responsive the last few days.  She will open her eyes when they say her name but won't respond in any other way.  The nurse said that she's not following commands anymore, like squeezing their hands. 


Her stomach and intestines are not working so they had to put her feeding tube right into her vein


The picture here of Lissa is during one of our many, many Hand and Foot games at our parents-in-law's.  She always wins, and she always drinks Pepsi.  I don't think there's a correlation.

{Good}

On my right side bar is a list of things I wanted to accomplish this year. Designing an owl of some sort was on the list, but we can put a check on that one! I took lots of pictures while making this birdie and I hope to make a tutorial soon. (Just in case you are interested.)

Click here for the Owl Tutorial!

not so {Bad}

I don't really have a picture for this title, but it hasn't been too bad that my hubby has taken two weeks off of work!! Urban and I have loved having him around!

the {Ugly}

I think you'll agree the title is accurate for this picture! This is my right wrist just a couple of days after my carpal tunnel surgery. It's totally worth it though and I'm healing nicely - I can even cut and sew fabric now! I may have to get the other wrist done!

Special thanks to my mother-in-law, Geri who took me in and helped me run errands!

Well, I had a ball making these fun blocks! Thanks Pat for the challenge to work with ORANGE! Prior to this weekend, the only time I used orange was to make pumpkin appliques. Don't get me wrong, I do like orange, just never thought about it as a focus color I guess! This quilt top will get a border of all the scraps I trimmed off the blocks. I will work on that during this week, and then get some Minky for the back and the quilt will be ready for Thurber Herkamer Lawrence!! (No, that's not his real name, just a name we all call him since his parents haven't decided yet!) The little one is due to arrive this April. OH! And even though I had a wonderful time during my first cyber retreat, it was accentuated today by finding out that I won an ORANGE GIVEAWAY!!!! Thanks to Natalie from School of Crafts Like me, she constructed the block differently (not like mine or Pat's) and she did some darling coasters out of the OP block that you should check out - real easy and fun!

My secret sister from last quarter, Tina and agreed to swap 3 Spring Cottages - these are what Tina sent me!! Don't they exude springy happiness?? I love them! Oh, and she even offered to make a triangle for my Dear Jane quilt!! How nice is that? Thanks so much Tina!! I love it all!!

On Friday I got to go to an Art Market in Sugarhouse (Utah) with my friends Kathy and Deanie (my mother-in-law). It wasn't as big as I expected, but I was inspired and glad I went. I did pick up a few items. The theme was Valentine's which is not my favorite so maybe the next one (in May) will be better. Kathy thought it might be fun to sell some of the baskets we make at one of the shows. It's a juried show, so we auditioned a basket I made and the organizer of the event said that she loved it and would 'accept' us as vendors if we wanted. We'll see, I kind of don't like my baskets going to people I don't know, I'd rather give them to friends than to sell them to strangers!

We also ended up at Pine Needles, a quilt shop and embroidery shop in Gardner Village. I purchased some fabric that I would not normally have bought, but I'm involved in Pat Sloan's Orange Challenge Sew Along February 20th -22nd, so I thought the pieces would work well for that.

I had a super GREAT day today!!! It's way late and I have to get some sleep, but I just wanted to share a bit of what I did today and then I'll update you on the rest this weekend!

Oh, I have lots of fun stuff to show you!

My friend Tessa was interviewed and posted her answers on her blog. Then she asked if there was anyone that wanted to be interviewed by her and I said "Why not?" She asked me the following questions: 1. What is one of your goals for the new year?

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Now, are any of you willing to be interviewed by ME?

Follow these instructions:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."

2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.

3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

I may have jumped the gun a bit! This weekend is just not a good weekend to rush a MAKEOVER GIVEAWAY, so at the risk of sounding flakey, I'm going to postpone the event until Monday, January 26th. I will have more time to round up and make prizes and think up a free pattern and a couple of games too! I will post my new look as soon as it is ready, so watch for that sometime this weekend! I can not tell you enough how great Shera of Sweet n' Simple Blog Designs is!! She is so good at working with me and understanding what I like! So, consider this as a SAVE THE DATE announcement if you please. NOTICE: I put up a poll on the left sidebar. Could you participate please?

Eight random facts about me: 1. I was adopted when I was 3 days old. 2. I would like to be a funeral director / embalmer and have already taken one class in that field. 3. I owned a quilt shop for 5 years. 4. I have no desire what ever to go to Hawaii. 5. I actually love my mother-in-law and consider her one of my best friends. 6. Worked in a haunted house (forest) while in college. 7. I HATE to cook! 8. I don't like dogs - barking, drooling, barking, poop, barking, barking, barking. OK, so instead of tagging 8 others, I would like YOU to leave at least ONE random fact about YOU on this post!! Photo taken by my 3 year old son; Urban

Here's a couple of little projects.

Glad you asked! I was so excited to get a gift certificate from my sis-in-law (we draw names) to Spoonflower! One can upload a design and they print it on fabric! So you can be a fabric designer! I can't wait to try it and I hope I don't get too addicted! I got subscriptions to McCall's Quilting, Fons & Porter quilting magazines. A gift certificate to Arnie's (where I get my basket weaving supplies!) Gift card to my FAV place to eat; Texas Roadhouse The coolest necklace sets from an Etsy shop I happened upon called Polarity . I told my hubby about the sewing one I wanted and my sister heard me talking about how cool it was and called the designer to have a quilting set made up for me too! I thought it was soooo cool that Cat, the owner, would make a special order set for no extra charge! I also got iPod speakers, clothes, some craft books such as how to bind books, and a trendy sewing book! I got so much creative stuff that my head is spinning trying to figure out where to begin! I think I'm going to have a fun and creative 2009!