Featherstone Quiltworks

I planned on fixing pork chops with mushroom gravy for dinner.  The last time I made them, I added a big package of fresh mushrooms (saute’d in butter first; this time they’d get a quick spray of PAM), and it was wonderful!  Don’t you hate running to the store for one little item?  And this wasn’t even necessary, but it would be nice.  Two days ago I did my best “living in Europe/walking to market” impression and hiked one mile each way to Target.  That seemed like such a good solution again today, except the rain kept turning off and on, off and on, all day long. 

The sidewalk was almost dry, so it seemed like a fairly safe bet.  DH stayed home and agreed to come and get me if I got caught in a downpour.  It was a pretty uneventful trip, and I just got sprinkled on a little bit the last ten minutes or so of my walk.

I learned some things today:

• You don’t buy very much when you know you have to carry it a mile.  This practice will be good for the budget, as well as for the waistline.  I bought a package of mushrooms and a French baguette (I just couldn’t resist).
• Target deducts 5 cents from your bill when you bring your own bag.
• I walked pretty hard, with an eye on the dark clouds.  You don’t notice how hilly it is between here and Target when you’re driving.  As I was huffing and puffing, the thought occurred to me, “this is just like the program on a treadmill”.  No, Sue, the program on the treadmill is just like walking up and down real hills! 
• I need to get outside more.  And I need to remember to take my camera next time!

–Sue

Today was the first day of the year for our farmers’ market to be open for business.  It’s very convenient for us, as they set up on Sundays throughout the summer, and it’s only blocks from our church.

If I’m not careful, I’ll come home with way too much produce.  I can’t help it — it all looks so enticing, and being locally grown, you just know it’s extra good.  My solution has been to pull out a $10 bill, and that’s it.  I make my choices by walking the length of the market (it’s not very long), then by the time I turn around to come back, I know what I want to get.  Here’s what ten bucks bought this week:

$4 for fresh locally grown asparagus, $3 for a quart of shell peas, $2 for four kohlrabi (we ate two already, so just imagine there are four in the bowl…), and $1 for some HUGE radishes.  I almost didn’t buy the radishes because they were so big, I was afraid they would be too hot.  They were perfect!

–Sue

Does anybody out there in blogland have experience (good or bad) with Photoshop Elements 8?

I’m looking for a photo & video editor.  I downloaded the free 30-day trial of PSE8, and I’m trying to figure out if it’s worth spending the time to learn how to use all the features.

Does anyone have another program they like?

Thanks,

Sue

much too scary and ugly to share with my readers, so this is a photo-less post (you’ll thank me later).  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I inherited (I hope) some of my dad’s good traits: his easy-going nature, his sense of humor and sense of fun, his problem-solving and creativeness, and his honesty.  But then there’s the high cholesterol.  And the moles.   (I told you this was going to get ugly.)  I have my moles checked regularly by a dermatologist and have had several basal-cell cancer spots removed.  Not a big worry — they just needed to go, and need monitoring regularly. 

Have you ever tried to really look at your own back?  Well, being the problem-solving and creative person I am, I got my camera, and went to get a good look in the bathroom mirror.  I aimed the camera back over my right shoulder and took a photo into the mirror.  I anxiously checked the camera display.  OH, MY GOD!!!  It wasn’t the number of moles that was so shocking; I knew they were there.  It was the *ahem* fat.  I have a fat back.  Really scary, really ugly, really fat.  I guess I thought if I couldn’t see it, it wasn’t there.

I started a diet today.  And I exercised today.  And I ordered a new swimsuit from Omar the Tent Maker that has a high front and a very high back to protect me better from the sun on the rare occasions that I hot-tub-it.

I like FitDay as a free online calorie-counting aid.  I used it successfully a few years ago.  It worked for me before; it will work for me again.  Between calorie counting and putting in some time on the eliptical trainer, I WILL look better by fall.  And I WON’T be taking any more of those over-the-shoulder pictures!

–Sue

What would you do if you had seven days at home, alone (i.e., no cooking), to spend as you please?  DH will be out of town for a few days, and I find myself in that happy ever-so-lonely predicament.  (Really, Honey, I miss you already.)  Driving home from the airport this morning, my brain was flooding with ideas of how I want to carefully spend this gift of time.

• Each day I’m going to spend some time at the longarm working on UFOs (well, for this week, and for weeks to come!).
• Each day I’m going to tackle something icky — a closet, a cupboard, the windows, drawers, the mud room – and get some spring cleaning done.  I won’t get everything done, but it will be some good progress.
• Each day I’m going to grab my camera and GO OUTSIDE to take some pictures.  I think I’ll do kind of a pictoral tour of our little suburb that’s straddling the fence between city and country.
• By this time next week, I’d like to have my challenge quilt for the Minnesota Quilt Show in June figured out and have at least the top done.  Right now, I’m mostly just confused *sigh*.

And I’m starting this week of projects off right; I’m  having lunch with a friend today!  Just enough time left this morning to pin my primitive stars UFO up on the longarm, make a pass or two, fold a load of clothes, and take a shower.

Really, what would you do with the gift of a week?

–Sue

My birthday was two months ago, and it seems like at my house, moms don’t usually get cake.  I get taken out to dinner, the occasional present, lots of cards and good wishes.  Just no cake.  It’s not like I NEED cake — goodness knows I don’t.  I’m not even that big a fan of cake.  I would truthfully rather have PIE! 

Shortly after my birthday this year, we spent a couple of days at SIL Grace’s and BIL Ronnie’s house, south of Houston, TX.  It was extra fun, because SIL Lee from Denver was there visiting as well.  When you put Grace and Lee (sisters) together, you never know what will happen!  They had arranged for the most special “quilter’s cake” for me!

Isn’t that just too much fun?  It was also delicious.  And I love the six candles.  Remember how few worries we had at six years of age?  Sounds good to me!

Thank you, Grace, Ronnie & Lee!  I loved my cake.

–Sue

I remember my first decade change, from 1959 to 1960.  All I had known were the ’50s, and it was almost unbelievable to a 10-year-old (almost 11) that the year was changing to 1960.  Wow.  That was 50 years ago.

New Year’s Eve (last day of 1970), my DH proposed to me, and obviously I accepted.  Wow.  That was 39 years ago last night. 

After those two New Years, it’s all kind of a blur.

Yesterday we spent painting DS#3′s double bungalow (I learned it’s really not a duplex, it’s a double bungalow).  I guess we should know what we’re painting!  It’s still going painfully slow.  We came home, and reheated some leftovers and had a nice glass of bubbly…

I should have taken a better photo of my table runner.  It’s from a book by Terry Atkinson, and it’s my favorite.

And I just found out that I “laundered” my cell phone.  What a way to start the new year!  I’m hoping it will dry out and work again, but I’m not too confident.  Well, we’re out to breakfast, and then back to the salt mines double bungalow to continue our paint-a-thon. 

Wishing all of you a wonderful new year. 

–Sue

We live in Minnesota, so we shouldn’t need to resort to a virtual snowball fight!  DS#1, Dave, came home for Thanksgiving; he is home in Virginia working Christmas Eve day and Christmas day, and of course we are missing him!  He must have missed us too, because here’s what he sent me today — a virtual snowball fight with our faces “pasted” in.  There were only five faces, so DIL Lynn isn’t represented here.  She must be the one taking the movie — or maybe she’s in the kitchen making hot chocolate for all of us.

Click here to see the fun on JibJab.  (If you have a slower computer or connection, like we do, it will stop once in a while to catch up with itself.  I know, that’s not very good tech talk!  It’s actually only about 20 seconds long.)  You can also make a video using your family/friend photos.

Thanks, Dave!  We miss you too…

–Sue (Mom)