Thimbleanna – Page 30 – My little online diary.

And … We’re Off!!!

21 Comments / August 8, 2015 August 8, 2015 / Quilting

Holy Cow — it’s been a wild week here this week. I’ve been running around with my head cut off to get everything done for our little break. The kids and I (poor little ManoftheHouse will be holding down the fort here with the KittyKats) are leaving in the morning and we’re going to Glacier National Park and Banff National Park for some hiking and fresh air. We were hoping to camp out a little — I dug the 30-year old tent out of the attic and set it up.

When I unpacked the tent, it was missing a tent pole — not sure where it is. Could be lost in the attic, or maybe someone forgot to pack it up with the tent. Weird. I ended up enlisting the aid of a nice man at Lowe’s and we made a new tent pole. Sadly, we won’t be using it though — no room in the car for a tent and a bunch of sleeping bags. Some of us are clothes horses LOL!

I also managed to get the little doll quilt done.

Every little doll needs a quilt!

Ok — Be Good while I’m gone. I hope you’ll all be doing something fun!

XOXO,
Anna

Stop the Clock!

15 Comments / August 2, 2015 August 2, 2015 / Chat

Ohmygosh — things are spinning out of control here! Can you believe it’s August already? I can’t even remember July!

And did you see the beautiful moon the other day? On Friday, TheManoftheHouse mentioned that the moon was huge and gorgeous on his way to work, so when I woke up before 6 on Saturday morning, I thought I’d go chase the moon and see if I could get a good picture. Silly me — you get one day for those things and that’s all. The moon set much later and the sun was up way before the moon was low enough in the sky to be huge and beautiful. So what’s a girl to do when she’s up at 6:45 a.m. on a Saturday morning (which should be a punishable offense anyway — weekends are for sleeping in!)? I took pictures of corn fields. The corn is looking pretty beautiful out there!

Yeah — it’s really exciting around here LOL. I have been really busy though — August will be vacation month here in ThimbleannaLand, so I’ve been frantically trying to get a bunch of stuff done before I leave. The Aunts’ Quilt is hot off the press and put together for this month’s assignment — I’ll be gone on report in day for the quilt along, so I needed to get ahead.

Now, I just need to make a doll quilt and a pincushion or two by next Saturday. Think it will happen? I’m a little skeptical — I’m not getting home from work until around 8:30 every night, and the little doll quilt is barely started. I need a clone!

So, I’m off and running. I really just popped in to say Happy August! I’m hoping for a FUN month!!!
XOXO,
Anna

Checking In

21 Comments / July 26, 2015 July 26, 2015 / Chat, Store

Boy, I feel like all I do is make excuses for not posting these days. How is it that there’s not a lot going on, but it’s still really busy? Or, maybe there is a lot going on, it’s just not sewing and fun stuff to share???

For one thing, we’ve been put on mandatory overtime at work. Minimum is four hours, but, of course, they’d like us to work more. You can probably guess, I’ll be working the minimum. Their timing is poor — just as MyDadLovesMeBestSister and her family have gone on vacation, which means I’ll have helping MeMum and BigDaddy all to myself for 2 1/2 weeks — which means that there isn’t much spare time to be at work. Don’t feel sorry for me though — I’ll be going on vacation when she gets back.

I’ve also had fun in the kitchen. A cousin that we don’t get to see very often popped in for a quick visit. One night I made the Lazy Day Overnight Lasagne with some yummy Artisan Bread. The Lasagne isn’t necessarily guest-worthy, but it is good and I needed something that I could make while visiting with them the night before we actually had it for dinner. And Artisan bread is SO good and very easy too. The other night they were here, we grilled a Flank Steak — another delicious and easy meal. Just whip up a marinade of 1/3 c. oil, 1/3 c. vinegar and 2 chopped cloves of garlic, marinate overnight, and throw it on the grill for about 15 minutes. It’s wonderful, thinly sliced with a piping hot baked potato on the side. There was also chocolate cake for dessert! ;-D

I’ve been plugging away at this month’s assignment for the Aunts’ Quilt too. Working on the corner blocks …

And prepping some of the scallops that will be used around the borders. I’ve always wanted to make a clamshell quilt, so I played with the scallops a little. I can see that a clamshell quilt would be a lot of work!

And then … two more little things —
1) Pretty new Liberty fabrics in the shop!

and
2) Did you notice I updated the Thimbleanna header? It’s been eighteen months. P-I-T-I-F-U-L. I always seem to forget about the banner somehow. Or don’t have time. Or something!

Ok — zipping off to do a little stitching before dinner duties happen. Have a great week!

XOXO,
Anna

Be a Tourist in Your Own Town

22 Comments / July 11, 2015 July 11, 2015 / Chat

All you regulars out there know that I love to travel. I’ve always been envious of people who live in really cool places where they can house swap — what a way to see the world! The problem is, I don’t have anything to swap. I certainly have a nice enough house to swap, but I don’t live in an exciting place. No mountains or ocean views here in the midwest. Although, if you’re into corn fields or Amish buggies, we’ll see if we can work a deal (ok, we do have a pretty cool little Children’s Zoo, a historic Fort, and Johnny Appleseed’s gravesite, but I’m thinking that’s not enough to entice a foreign visitor!)

If you were to have occasion to visit our ~~boring~~ quiet little burg, this might be the week to do it. Every summer, we have a 10-day festival and it started today. The first day is my favorite day. I start off with Antiques in the Park:

Anyone remember Jarts? They only sold them for a few years before they were deemed unsafe. We had some fun summers playing this game when I was a kid — and didn’t even kill anyone.

And oh man, I really wanted this little doll baby bottle sterilizer set — look how cute!

After Antiques in the Park, I moved downtown to Art in the Park:

And then, all that walking around required a visit to Junk Food Alley and the midway.

It was fun to watch all the little kids playing arcade games. If I were playing, I’d definitely want to win one of those Hello Kitties. I’m way out of touch though — all the little girls were crazy for those cute pink dolphins.

And, of course, I couldn’t leave without my yearly funnel cake. Yum, Yum!!!

On that note, I’m going to go sleep off my sugar-high. Hope you’re having a fun weekend!

XOXO,
Anna