Facebook No More

As of 5 PM yesterday I now no longer have a Facebook page. Why you ask? Because, frankly, it was a time sucker. I would say oh, I'll only be on it an hour or so. Before I knew it  three hours or more had gone by. That was three hours (plus) I lost to the day. I just had to read everything those on my friends list posted. The housework suffered, my quilting suffered and I never got to the studio to work on my art. So I said goodbye to Facebook. I will miss the interaction but I'm keeping contact with friends that have become special to me. I will never regret meeting many interesting people on that forum but it was the end of that season for me and on to the next one. Now I have to get into a routine. I fear that is easier said than done but I'll give it a shot.

I'm sharing a picture of crocuses blooming in my garden last week. It's rained a little since I took this picture so now the flowers are no more but I thought you'd enjoy the sight. It is going down to 17 degrees here tonight. We've been spoiled with such nice warm weather the past week. The trees and bushes are budding out but with the cold tonight they won't fair well and have to start their grow all over again.

With more time on my hands, I'll be posting more often here. Maybe I'll even get into a routine.

Liebster Blog Award

 

 I was selected by Etty from http://zahavaquilters.blogspot.com/ , so now it's my turn to nominate 5 blogs that I love. The criteria is that the blog must have less than 200 followers.

Sheila at http://sheilasquiltworld.blogspot.com/ is always doing challenging projects. I enjoy all that she posts.

I came across another blogger who lives a stone's throw from my home. Jen from http://jensfunlittlethings.blogspot.com/ is quite a cook and I enjoy seeing the cool things she purchases to add to her home. 

I'm fascinated with the interesting pieces of art that Nadia from http://multicoloredpieces.blogspot.com/ shares with her readers.

Karen, Jen's sister, posts at http://mysoulcounts.blogspot.com/  She's a new blogger and writes inspiring posts.

Sunny from http://sunny-quiltingdreams.blogspot.com/ is a prolific quilter (it would be hard to keep up with her) and shares lots of photos taken in her travels.

Spring Is Getting Close

One day it snows and the next day it melts. We are on a roller coaster ride with the weather this winter. Yesterday was beautiful, sunny and a bit cool but promising. This morning a little snowfall that melted already. On Friday I saw a red winged blackbird at the feeder and a Flicker (woodpecker) in the front yard. Both are birds that migrate out of our area for the winter. But yesterday was a sure sign spring is just around the corner.  I saw something yellow in the front garden. Yes! The winter aconites have made their appearance.

I've been adding other pages to my blog:  'Gardening' and 'My Art'. Be sure to click on the subject tabs as I will also be adding links you might be interested in. I've been taking free online art classes and participation is still open. Look for the links on my art page if you are interested in joining in with us.

I've Been Here All Along

I've been a busy (sort of) gal.  Hubby was on vacation for two weeks. We went out to dinner for our anniversary, 42 years in the making! Then he spent some time doing repairs to our bedroom to prepare for new paint. We've lived here for 4 years and finally getting to freshen up our room. The old ceiling cornice was taken down and walls were patched. Then he went back to work and I started painting. Four days later, after I primed and painted walls, and I might add four days to recover, we were ready to put the new cornice up. Ha! My husband used his stud finder and marked where to nail. With the two of us positioned on ladders and the nailing gun in my husband's hands, up went the cornice. And slowly...it started to sag. Turns out the stud finder had failed to locate the proper positions. One ranting husband later, a new stud finder and, oh did I mention the new saw that cuts all kinds of angles, we are ready to try again. (Note: Husbands usually like new tools.) That chore is scheduled for next weekend.

Meanwhile, tomorrow I'm giving my demonstration on hand applique to the quilt guild. I'm all prepared and hope they enjoy my presentation.

We've had an unusually light winter here and amazingly my rosemary that I left out in the herb garden is still alive and well. My husband's not complaining because he only had to get the snowblower out twice this year. With a 350 foot driveway to clear, it can be quite a job.

Here is a little caterpillar that was crossing the driveway this week. Can spring be far behind?

I'll leave you with a picture I took through the back door the other day. It looked like someone had dusted the trees with powdered sugar. That was on Thursday. Today the snow had already melted and was almost gone.

Snow Deprived

It's so strange. Here it is January 12, 2011 and there is no snow on the ground where we live. But the weather man says we'll be endowed with some tomorrow, maybe as much as 6 inches. Whoohoo! We usually have a couple of feet or more by now. However, I'm not complaining. I like driving on bare, non-snow covered roads. Also the temperature has been in the 40's quite a bit so when anytime that snow fell, it melted in a couple of days or so. Oh well. On to another subject... sort of. The subject matter now turns to 'snowmen' as in the quilted kind. I finally finished the quilt I started last year.this is pieced and hand appliqued.

This quilt has 45 buttons sewn on it. Whew!

He is soooo cute! And there is one of these cuties in each corner.

At the latest meeting of the quilt guild I'm a member of I was asked to show some of the members how to do hand applique. I have a month to prepare and I'm so excited about it. I taught patchwork piecing many years ago, before the advent of the rotary cutter. Our methods back then were so antiquated compared to today. I guess I shouldn't say that. It might give away my age. LOL

I'm still debating  on how I want to change the appearance of my blog. Decisions, decisions. But change it I will!

Tired Of Drippy Weather

I'm tired of cloudy and drippy weather. Aren't you? To cheer us both up here's a picture taken this summer of the sunset from my back porch.

Unfortunately it isn't green anymore. The vegetation  is now brown and crunchy. Sigh.....

Now a question for my readers. As I have already stated a couple of posts ago, I'm changing the appearance of my blog. In researching how to improve it I came across an article in which they questioned readers of blogs if they liked having music playing on the blog they were looking at. A LARGE majority said they didn't care to visit blogs where music played. And when I was viewing other blogs today I clicked on a blog that had 'Boogy Woogy Bugle Boy' playing blaring on it. It really was obnoxious and distracting. I didn't stay on that blog long enough to look around.

As you can hear, I have some musical selections playing now and I try to keep them somewhat low key. Do you, my readers, think I should keep music playing on my blog or not? Please leave a comment and let me know your opinion.

I Just Wiped My Post!

What can I say but that it was accidental. Blogger just isn't cooperating tonight so I'll try to reconstruct it. Shaking my head in disbelief at hitting the wrong keystroke. There goes the last half hour.

Starting again: I admit I've been neglectful with posting on my blog. I am too easily distracted by the internet. I read too much news and check my email and FaceBook page too many times a day. This, in essence, eats my time and I don't get anything accomplished. I need to get my priorities in order so I wrote out a time schedule. Ha! Wouldn't you know it, the card this schedule was written on disappeared! Oh me!

I haven't produced any quilting lately but I did make a pouch for my Bamboo tablet and a cover for my printer this weekend. I didn't take pictures of the finished products because they are merely utilitarian but I wanted to share the fabric I used.

Sheep!

 Isn't this cute? I just couldn't resist it! Since I spin fiber, mostly wool, I'm always on the lookout for fabric with a sheep motif.


 A friend and I have signed up for online art classes starting in January. The first class is in mixed media (my favorite) in January. The second class is in watercolor in March. I hoping this will jump start me back into making art.

Tuesday night is the start of the eight day celebration of Hanukkah The Feast of Dedication. I want to wish everyone Happy Hanukkah!