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Oops. We interrupt our regularly scheduled Top Five Things to bring you Five Other Very Important Things:

One.

Out to Sea has arrived in ThimbleannaLand!

I was very well behaved and limited my choices to mostly stash building stripes. I LOVE a good stripe — especially when well placed on a binding. And Sarah Jane’s stripes are fantastic. I have red, blue, butter and raspberry. Plus that super cute little chevron — I couldn’t resist it in the “water” colorway. And look at that adorable map! I LOVE LOVE that map so we had to have some! I can’t wait to see what projects will start to appear using this super cute map.

If you’re feeling the need for some stash builders or the map, you can find them HERE and they’re 20% off!

Two.

The Aurifil Block of the Month for September is up! It’s by Amy Ellis of Amy’s Creative Side and it’s the pretty autumn leaves you see below. Go to the Aurifil blog to read more about Amy and get the free pattern. And don’t forget to add your blocks to the Aurifil flickr page — there’s a free Aurifil thread drawing each month!

Three.

After a months-and-months-long dry spell of movies from Hollywood, I’m really looking forward to the next several months.
Anna Karenina:

Great Expectations:

On a different note, James Bond (Oh Mr. Craig…):

And, not a movie, but SOOO excited for Season 3 of Downton Abbey. Can’t wait to see the sparring between Shirley MacLaine and Maggie Smith. Here’s a little teaser:

Four.

I’ve been a long-time follower of Morgan Moore’s blog One More Moore. She’s starting a new venture via kickstarter. If the The World’s Best Apple Pie/Crumble/Crisp recipe that she has just shared is any indication, she’ll be wonderfully successful. Go check it out HERE.

Five.

Earlier today, I pinned this cute little cork baby on Pinterest.

And then Ali made a comment(Thanks Ali!) that it linked to a nasty, nasty website so I immediately deleted it. After a little searching, I found a real link for it and re-pinned it. I suppose every single link should be checked out, but who has the time for all that click-through? It makes me REALLY mad when creeps hi-jack the good things on the internet.

And with that, have a good weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

Wow. Here it is August 7th already and I haven’t even posted once in August. Pitiful! There’s lots going on around here, but nothing exciting. I’m super happy to finally see August arrive. Summer is my least favorite season (not a heat fan) but I think August is my favorite month of Summer. There’s just a hint that summer will soon be over. ;-D

So, here are a few tidbits for your August:
We’ve finally had some fairly regular rain showers in the last few weeks. I don’t think we’re officially out of a drought, but there has been enough water to green things back up around here. That makes for very happy flowers. And me!

My little garden plot is paying off and I’m loving it. Every night I can go outside and grab a handful of tomatoes for a salad. And the absolute best is driving by on the lawnmower and popping a tomato or two into my mouth. Yuuuuum Yum! Here’s the tomato haul from last night.

We’re not growing any corn, but one of my very favorite things about August is the corn from the local farm stand. Last week I tried the microwave method of cooking corn in the husks. Oh. My. Gosh. I couldn’t believe it actually works and it’s fantastic. I think I thought it would bomb like the microwave cakes in a mug. The corn was yummy and tender and best of all — no corn silks! If you haven’t heard of this method, you can watch a video here:

While we’re watching videos, I saw this VERY funny video on Pinterest. You don’t need to speak German to get the gist — “So Papa, how do you like the iPad we got you?”:

Another reason I’m excited about August is that it’s vacation month for me. I’ve been busily planning a trip. And that means I haven’t wanted to start any big projects before I go. I am planning a little project though — it involves these towels. ;-D

And one last video…in honor of the olympics!  A special gymnastics demonstration by Paulette Huntinova.

Have a good week!
XOXO,
Anna

We’re having a severe lack of balance here in ThimbleannaLand.  Not that I want to complain or anything, but somebody has to do it.

Rain Balance:
For Starters, there’s this annoying drought.  The farmers are really being hit hard and it’s so sad.

But many of you reading this live in areas with too much rain.  TheSecondChild called this morning and said it’s been raining all week — just 6 hours south of here.  He lives on a second floor overlooking the apartment complex pool and all the rain is cutting into his sightseeing.  (If you know what I mean and I’m sure you do.)

Work/Life Balance:
It’s a Corporate America buzzword.  But, there’s too much work in my work/life balance and it’s cutting into my quilting time.  I did manage to make these pillowcases (with stash fabrics woohoo!) for BigDaddy using Cassie’s fabulous tutorial.  I LOVE this pattern.  No more manky pillows peeking out from under the cute fabric.  And as you know — every man wants a scalloped crochet edge on his muscle car pillow cases.  ;-)

Quilt Shop Balance:
Do you have the quilt shop finder app for your iAnythings? (I tried to find the link with no success – if anyone knows where it is, let me know and I’ll add it here.)

Here’s a map of quilt shops for my area:

And here’s a map of quilt shops for the Salt Lake City Utah area:

WHAT????? Is that even fair???? You Utah girls are hogging all the quilt shops! No wonder you all make such gorgeous quilts.

OK. I’m done whining now. It’s TheManoftheHouse’s birthday so I must run and scare up some birthday activities.
Have a good weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

Holy Schamoley!  It’s been crazy around here.  You probably heard that we had some really bad storms, here in the midwest, last Friday.  Here’s the radar pic that we pulled up on a cell phone — we were at work with a perfect view of the incoming storm when they took all our fun away and made us move away from the windows.  Something silly about tornado warnings.  Look at that hook — that’s not good!

They’re calling it a Super Derecho.  I’ve never heard of a Derecho before, but it’s basically an inland hurricane.  We were lucky and aside from a few snapped trees ;-(, didn’t have any problems.  BigDaddy, MeMum and MyDadLovesMeBestSister didn’t fare so well though — they’ve been without power since the storm, so they’ve been staying with us.  It’s been a good time to have house guests, as the family room is spread throughout the rest of the house while we drag out the painting as long as possible.  Here’s the “aerial” view of the family room — we left the couch parts and a chair to bunch up in the middle.  The couches are currently serving as beds to whatever kids happen to be here — that’s TheFirstChild and SweetiePie as we speak.

It’s working out well for me though — I go to work in the morning and come home at night to a gourmet dinner.  The school where MyDadLovesMeBestSister works has been out of power too, so she hasn’t been working.  She’s an awesome cook and she’s made me realize that I need a wife.  I could get used to this!

We’ve had a little crafty fun too.  TheCuteNieces love to raid the dungeon and they decided to make message boards the other night.  My heart lurched a little when CuteNiece2 chose some of my Ghastlie fabric for her board, but I gladly sacrificed the last of the tree print.

Here’s a finished shot, taken with her cell phone, that she sent me while I was at work.  I think she did a great job.  CuteNiece1 chose old jeans (which I had no problem sacrificing thankyouverymuch), but her board isn’t done yet.

Anyway, that’s been the excitement this week in ThimbleannaLand.  No time for much else, so I’m recycling an old picture to wish all of my American friends a Very Happy 4th of July.  (And a Very Happy Birthday tomy not-invisible-blog-friend Isabelle today too!)  If you live in an area that doesn’t have a fireworks ban, light one for us!

XOXO,
Anna