Photo Scavenger Hunt: February 2012

It’s been way too long since I participated in the Photo Scavenger Hunt hosted by Kathy and I’ve missed it!  I love a good scavenger hunt and this one is always fun.  So, here’s my shot at the photos for February:

Five.  Messing around with Instagram at my desk at work.  (‘Cause you know, we’re not allowed to have cameras at work.)

Music.  One of my favorite children’s songs.  (Give Said the Little Stream.)

A Train.  By Lionel.

Love.  My first true love — my little 12-year old heart is broken tonight.  Davy and I spent a lot of time dreaming together.   You probably didn’t know this, but we were to marry.

Cupid.  This one was tough.  Cupids aren’t just anywhere you know.

Food.  Looks like I need more color in my fruit bowl.

Empty.   My sewing room candy bowl.

In The Sky.  Naked trees — we’re still almost two months from leafing out.  Hard to believe on an unbelievably warm 65 degree day.

Crowded.  The evergreens are choking out our sidewalk.  Something needs to be done.

Heritage.  The people on the bottom row are my great-great-great-great grandparents.  I wish I had more of those boxes filled in.  My paternal grandfather belongs in the “child” box.

Black and White.  Kitties of course.  Enjoying a promise of spring to come.

Leap Year.  Another tough one.  I copped out and wrote the formula for determining if this is a leap year.

That’s it for February. Hopefully I will be able to be a little more consistent with this challenge this year.
XOXO,
Anna

Dresden Table Topper

And thus endeth one of the most boring weeks in recent memory. It was so boring I couldn’t even muster up anything to blog about. Isn’t it funny how some days drag painfully on, yet the months and years blitz by? I did manage to finish my table topper for the family room.  (Sorry, it looks wonky – I was standing off to the side when I took the picture.)

I don’t really think it’s any less busy than the orange peel pieces were. {Sigh}. I probably should have put it on a solid background, rather than the jumbo numbers. But I love that print so much, plus, I wanted it to have the same feel as the little side table topper that I made a few months ago.

The fabrics are a mix of Cosmo Cricket’s Circa 1934, Sweetwater’s Reunion and scraps from my stash.  They pull out the colors from the stripey rug, which looks a little more muted than it is in real life.

It’s not really a table topper.  It’s a kitty liner.  PaulKitty thinks I moved it out of the sewing room and on to this table just for him.  He’s color coordinated with the background print.

Thanks to everyone for all the Downton Abbey replacement suggestions.  If, like me, you’re looking for something to fill the waiting-for-season-3 void, here’s a list of some suitable replacement series: (If I left yours out, please let me know!)

Upstairs Downstairs
Great Expectations
Sherlock Holmes
The Forsythe Saga
Cranford
Bleak House
Daniel Deronda
Middlemarch
Call the Midwives (which I can’t find yet on Netflix, but I’m hopeful)
South Riding
As Time Goes By
Ballykissangel
The Firm
Mad Men

Whew! That should keep us busy for a while, don’t you think?
Have a good weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

Zip!

Ah. So soon, another weekend has whizzed by. Why can’t weekends last 5 days and the weeks just 2 days?

It’s been a nice quiet weekend here in ThimbleannaLand. I’ve been holed up playing house — baking and sewing.  I made some bread. Yum!

And, I finally had a little time this weekend to work on the table topper for our coffee table. My original thought was to do an orange peel type of pattern. I made some samples, but decided it was too busy.

So, I chose a new path. I’m not sure it’s any less busy, but I’m going with it. I was going to show you the progress, but PaulKitty plopped down right on top of it and said “No. Uh-Uh. Meow. I’m not moving.”

So, instead I’ll show you the mess I’ve been making. Cut a strip, throw the fabric onto the pile. I LOVE making a big mess with fabric!

I’m SO sad Season 2 of Downton Abbey is ending tonight. I’m going to have to find a new diversion. Suggestions Welcome!

Oh, and for those of you with blogspot blogs who are thinking of ditching that AWFUL new word verification, here’s a tip someone gave me about controlling spam. A lot of spam is targeted to older posts, so if you just shut off comments on posts that are older than two weeks, it helps control the amount of spam that you get. I had to do this a few months ago ’cause my spam plugin was causing problems with my comments. I still get some spam, but I just delete it when I get time. I figure it’s much easier for me to delete the occasional spam than for you to have to decipher some scratchy word.

Ok. Off to watch the Christmas Special! Have a good week!
XOXO,
Anna

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Yipes — I’m sneaking in just under the wire to wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day.  I hope your day was filled with Chocolate!

I managed to get my little Valentine’s embroideries done and one of them finished into a pillow to give to MeMum for her Valentine.

I started these a few years ago, so I’m counting them as another UFO finish for this year.  WooHoo!  They’re from an old Bareroots pattern that I’ve had for quite a few years.

And just to prove my true love for Mummy, I took one for the team.  I was sewing along on the machine and zipped my thumb right under the needle.*  Slick as a whistle, that needle zipped in one side of my thumb, poked out the other side, and then withdrew.  It was a case of perfect timing — I heard the machine groan a bit and snatched my thumb out of there in the split second that the needle was up before it came down and started stitching again.  In all my years of sewing, I’ve never done that.  The needle didn’t even break.

I was kind of disappointed that the bobbin didn’t engage, which would have attached me to the pillow.  I could have left that thread hanging through my thumb.  A body piercing badge of honor.  All you belly button piercers got nuttin’ on someone with a sewing machine!

Valentine Smoochies!

XOXO,
Anna

*Pardon the goofy picture — I know it looks like someone’s big toe.  You try taking a close up picture of your own thumb at a weird angle — it’s not easy!  ;-D

Sweet Peep Day

Well, how is your weekend going?  Are you getting all geared up for Luuuuuv Day on Tuesday???  Here in ThimbleannaLand, we had a super fun day with the Quilty Peeps yesterday.  Lots of sewing and eating, as always.  We had a little Valentine’s luncheon in the middle of our day.

Gurney, Junie and I are pinterest addicts, so we spent a little bit of time bringing Jewels into the fold (Holy Cow Woman — were you up all night pinning????).  The reason I tell you this is because Pinterest played a big part in our get-together.  For lunch, I made a Potato and Asparagus Frittata, Jewels made Ina’s delicious Cape Code Chopped Salad, and Junie brought these wonderful dinner rolls that she found on pinterest.

And then, for dessert, Gurney bestowed this beauty upon us — a gorgeous (and divine!) Kahlua Cake (from pinterest).

We had to keep our strength up while we were sewing.  There was lots of snacking.  Junie made the yummy Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips that’s made the rounds on pinterest. (Are you sick of hearing about pinterest yet?)   I was really excited about this ’cause I wanted to try it.  We all loved it.

And Jewels made us these gorgeous Valentine cookies, courtesy of Martha.

In spite of appearances, it wasn’t all about eating.  (Well, sort of.)  There was some sewing.  Gurney worked on the Aurifil block of the month project.  Her blocks are turning out SO cute!

Jewels was knitting a really pretty ribbon scarf.  I love those colors!

Junie continued her fabric folding efforts.  (See Jenny?  Junie just works on folding her fabric here and there, and eventually, she’ll have it all done.  Just. Do. It!)

Junie even had help — we had to chase both kitties out of her fabric boxes.  Bad Kitties.  Scruff says he’s sorry he bit you Junie — I think he’s just jealous that you have so much pretty fabric.

And I worked on an old Valentine UFO.  I was going to work on my applique quilt, but decided to sneak another UFO finish into my year.  Almost done….

And there were gifts.  ‘Cause I have the best Quilty Peeps on the planet.  Jewels brought us each a filled-to-the-brim gift bag.  Lots of candy, cupcake liners and and adorable little dresden plate pin cushion.  Jewels loves anything red, so this is HER week LOL.  I don’t know if I’ll really be able to stick pins into that cute little pincushion.

And Gurney gave me a beautiful pack of homemade greeting cards and a cute little schnibbles pattern.  Gurney makes the most beautiful cards and I’m so honored to have a nice selection to use when I need them.

We had a wonderful, really FUN day.  I love my Peeps and our sewing days — we don’t manage to have them often enough.  We’ll be celebrating our 25th year this year — how lucky can a girl be???  Thank You Thank You Dear Friends for all the wonderful memories and fun!!!
XOXO,
Anna