Diary of a Mad Fabri-Holic

Learn from me and run as fast as you can in the other direction from...

The worst movie I have seen in a very very very long time.

I know, I know it's Johnny.  My love.

And Orlando, who leaves his shirt hanging open for us even in the scene with the frostbite- that man clearly puts his fans first.

But, seriously, spare yourselves the pain of the longest, worst written, most painful movie of the summer.

I mean it. Even if, as my date last night said, you'd pay to watch Johnny read a laundry list, don't go.  Hold out for the laundry list.  Really.

Do you think if I ask nicely, he'll give me my $9.50 back?

Bound and Determined

Done!  Done!  Done!

Did I mention, done??

I got a call Weds afternoon from Pam, the head long-armer at Holly's Quilt Cabin.  Klimtalicious was ready to come home with me!  Pam created a new-to-the-store quilting design for the quilt, as I wanted something somewhat modern and geometric looking.

She calls it "Triangulations." Can you see the detail in this photo?  If it's too small, just click on it for a larger view...  Pam skipped over all the circles for me.  If I want to, I can go back and quilt spirals inside of them myself (for the store to have done it, the quilting would have been obscenely expensive...)  But the circles pop pretty well, and I might not bother.  At 100" long by 91.5" wide, this is one huge heavy quilt to be shoving through my home machine!  Just wrangling the binding on, all 383 inches of it, was enough for me!  Now I just need to whip out some matching pillowcases, but I may have to break down and buy some more fabric.  As this was a mainly stash quilt, and as I had to keep adding rows to make it big enough for the bed, I'm nearly out of decent sized leftovers.

Last week was a week of draining movies as well as draining binding.  Thurs. I saw the truly amazing Pan's Labyrinth with some friends.  I cannot recommend it enough.  The story is well handled and haunting, and the fantasy and reality parts are both shot very well.  The little girl, upon whom the story rides, is fascinating without being precocious.  Warning: the story is intense, as is the violence.  In one of the final scenes, the audience began laughing at some of the violence. I think it was a laugh-or-cry burst of crazy emotion... 

In case I didn't have enough film violence to ponder, Sat. night saw me out seeing Letters From Iwo Jima with a different group.  I have never before in my life almost left a theater because I was so troubled by the violence- but Saturday night I almost pushed my way out.  If anyone has seen it, I'll just say this to let you know when I lost my cool: grenades.  Clint Eastwood has done an amazing job of making a war movie that could be about any war, and about reminding us that every soldier is somebody's son, dad, husband, etc. (or now, also, daughter, wife or mother...)  I admit, part of what threw me over the edge was picturing a grown up Train Boy sent off to fight.  I swear, between this one, Million Dollar Baby and Mystic River, that man owes me a box of tissues. Preferably Puffs Plus with lotion to minimize scratching on my poor red nose!

I've got sunshine on a Sunday day

This lovely sunflower was at the park today when the kids and I went to play.  It's enough to make you smile... And if it's not, then you simply must go see Little Miss Sunshine.  Oh my god.  I went to see it last night with the movie group from my church.  One of the advantages of The Hubby's new schedule- I've never joined up with this group before due to the high cost of a sitter, but last night, he hung out at home and I saw the funniest movie of the year.  Not to sound like a commercial, but really.  Alan Arkin as the heroin snorting grandpa, Steve Carell as a suicidal Proust scholar, Greg Kinnear as a nearly psychotic motivational speaker wanna-be.  And more.  But, I don't want to spoil any of it for you, and so I'll just say again, you MUST go see this movie!

Meanwhile, I'm laying out Nuts and Bolts. I think I am over-thinking it.  There are so many wild colors and textures, and I'm trying too hard to get an even layout, I think. And so I'm giving myself a little bit of a headache.  I've also been knitting away- really!  Remember, I mentioned my co-worker bought  me some Noro Kureyon to make 2 booga bags for her?  #1 is done.  Well, almost.  It's felted and drying.  Here's what it looked like pre-felting:

It felted up beautifully and is drying draped over a shoebox for shaping right now.  Bag #2 is on needles, say, 1/3 of the way through.  Soon it will be done too.  And then, I'll be brave and have my knitting confidence back, and move onto something trickier.  Like, say, a funky scarf.  Yup, Jenifer, you talked me into it.  Well, really, it only took a teeny bit of talking cause I really wanted to try this one.  What am I talking about?

I joined this fun sounding swap.  Basically, you get a secret pal type partner and make them a super funky scarf. And you get one from someone else.  Ideally.  We shall see.  My color-iffic swap-o-rama experience sucked (though I've been told to expect an "angel" type package from that exchange sometime soon), but my Secret Pal from the Secret Pal 8 has been awesome.  So, I'm one for 2. 

And now, I need to finish laying out Nuts and Bolts so that I can work on the place-mats for my folks.  I sort of over procrastinated on the last 4, and now, I have to finish them by Friday to mail by Saturday.  I can do it...  But I should probably get started NOW!

Arrrrrr, pirates and fabrics, arrrr

Happy Job Share to Me!  Happy Job Share to Me!  Yesterday was my first "free" Friday- free from work but also free from a paycheck. We'll see how that works out, eh?  After dropping the kiddos off at daycare, which is paid for 5 full days a week anyway, The Hubby and I did three amazing wonderful things.  (Don't worry, this post is still G-rated!)

Thing #1: went went to an LQS that is in the process of having their summer sale.  20% off nearly everything.  Now, 20% is not all that much off, but, if you're like me, and you've been hankering for some Kaffe Fassett fabrics, 20% off is a great deal.  Most stores around here sell it at about $10/yard.  I have found an on-line retailer with limited selection BUT great prices, but you still have to pay shipping fees...  So, while The Hubby sat in The Hubby chair at the store (this store also has a Lego type table for the kids, smart folks that they are) and listened to his iPod, I browsed.  And, came home with this pile:

The purple batik on the left and the black-on-black print on the right are not Kaffe's.  Gasp!  But, the go with the pile so well.  I bought these with a plan in mind, so, even though I have cheated on my fabric diet, I'm not just buying to buy...  I went home and dug through my stash and came up with these to add on:

Then I went on-line and ordered 2 more prints for this project, along with an assortment of grey solids, for a project coming up soon.  The 2 additional prints are also Kaffe's.

All of this loveliness will be used to create Nuts and Bolts,

the cover quilt on the recent Better Homes and Gardens Quilt Sampler issue.

I'm not usually a magazine girl, as I've said before, but, the cover quilt was designed by another Quilt Maverick!  I really enjoy her blog- she uses loads of my favorite colors and fabrics...  If Texas weren't so darn far away, I'd road trip it over to her store.  I need to love her for another reason- she was one of the first and most loyal customers of my former boss's pattern line.  In fact, in the magazine, in one of the shots of the store, you can see not one but TWO quilts from Kari's patterns displayed prominently!!  (Click the photo for details).

Oh, that reminds me- at the local LQS sale, I had another great Mountainpeek moment.  The LQS having the sale is the store of Lynda and Nancy and Possibilities.  Many of you know their books and fabrics, right?  Well, for the first time EVER, I noticed they are carrying 2 Mountainpeek patterns in the store!  Go, Kari!!!

My oh my, this post has gone on forever.  If anyone is still reading- Thing #2 was to go see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie.  Yum, Johnny Depp.  Yum, Orlando Bloom (who is only a few days younger than me and should run away with me, right?)  It was a very enjoyable movie with gobs of eye candy.  And much more swashbuckling action, this time around.  One downside, apparently the theater staff did not know how to turn off the overhead lights, and for the first 20 minutes of the movie, we were sitting there in not-the-dark, which REALLY annoyed me.  I went to complain, and see if they could in fact turn off the darn lights, and so did at least 7 other folks.  Finally, they did, but it seemed a very very difficult chore.   Many many folks were wearing piratical accouterments.  My favorite was the grown woman, looking older than me, in pirate hat with fake sword, making fun of the older guys with no life that were taking the movie too seriously.  Um, someone get her a mirror?  Now, I just have to make it one more year to see #3...

Thing #3 was yummy yummy lunch at a local deli.  I love this place.  The food is always to die for, and, it has a very authentic feel. It's not a chain or franchise, and the same staff and customers have been there for a million years.  Should you be in Denver and need some pastrami, go there!

Then, The Hubby had to go to work, and I hit my favorite thrift store before going to get the kids.  We had a fun night playing with more of those bath tub tints...

F.O., F.O., It's back to work I go...

Well Howdy and Happy Monday to everyone out in blog land. I'm coming off a weekend that went on forever, and yet was not long enough to suit me.

First, I did it!  The star quilt and the work baby quilt are done!

  Well, mostly done.  I tied the baby quilt, my first ever tied quilt.  Don't really plan to take it up as a technique, but it was good in a pinch.  It's bound and ready to go to its new home.  The star quilt was quilted at the LQS, and now I have bound it  (found that damn thimble, hooray!).  But, it has several popped seams.  The product of a bit too much easing, I suspect.  Please, anyone- best way to fix popped seams after quilting????  HELP!  Both of these quilts have been hanging over my head for some time, so it feels excellent to be done.

It was also a movie-madness weekend for me.  I Netflixed a documentary that I have been dying to see.  It was wonderful- an interesting look into the lives of these particular wheelchair bound folks. Hackneyed as it sounds, I laughed, I cried, and I loved it.  I cried like a little baby at the end.  The Team USA members put on a demonstration of wheelchair rugby at a vet hospital, and at first I was so confused- I thought they were at a high school for amputee kids.  And then I realized these kids, these baby faced kids, were actually war veterans. Really makes ya think- I wonder how many kid soldiers are permanently disabled for every one that is outright killed.  What the cost, in arms, legs, and scars, of the war?

I also FINALLY went to see the movie about my man in black, Johnny Cash.  Damn, but it's every bit as good as you have heard.  Did I ever tell you all, I love Johnny Cash?  Train Boy was born not quite 48 hours after Johnny Cash died, and had he come on that day, I made the poor Hubby agree we'd change his intended name to Johnny (I was 9 months pregnant, emotional and probably scary at that point, so he agreed.)  Train Boy held out for his own day, and so, we went back to the original plan.  I went to the movie all alone last night, as my date had been ill and had to cancel twice. I really missed her, but I had a lousy weekend and needed to have a pick-me-up...

Princess Girl is driving me batty, hence the lousy weekend.  She has taken to falling apart at the drop of a hat, flouncy pouty tantrums and nasty behavior all over the place. The triggers are minor little things, but she just loses it.  (She's going to be 5 in April, to help paint a picture...)  She threw a huge fit at school when a fun field trip came to an end. She didn't want to leave the ice rink, so she thought it made perfect sense to pitch a fit.  She gets out of bed all the time, and I know sleep deprivation is a major part of the problem, but how do you get a 5 year old to fall asleep?  We are currently using a very harsh system of discipline (not physical, so don't call social services yet...)  I took all her favorite toys, mostly stuffed up friends, as she calls them, and stuck them in a garbage bag.  She has to earn them back through good behavior (one at a time).  If she throws a fit, they go back in the bag.  It's sort of working.  Sort of.  But, really, I am at my wits end with her.  Sigh.  I had no clue what I was getting into when I told The Hubby I wanted to have a baby... 

Now, I'm back at work. I'd kill for a three day weekend.  Almost literally.  I need to finish a draft of my thesis by 2/14, and yet, I can't get motivated.  I am thinking of asking my boss if I can use a few vacation days to just get it done...  Wish me luck.

Martha by Day, Tim Burton by night...

Today was a pretty good day, aside from a small but annoying hangover from my lovely girls' night in last night.  I always manage to forget that appletinis are pure booze until after I drink one too many.  But since I only do that every six months or so, probably not too big a deal.

I was good mommy today!  I put aside my own projects, and finally made the kids pillowcases for their beds.  Princess Girl got unicorns and Train Boy got outer space.  Of course, I might actually be bad mommy, since I parked the kids in front of the TV while I worked.  I finished the first one during Blues Clues, and the second one during The Wiggles.  Then, the kids had lunch and an all too brief nap while I finally hemmed the new "kitschen" curtains.  The Hubby promised to put up the new curtain rod tomorrow, so of course I'll be posting a pic.

I braved a birthday party at My Gym with the kids.  Train Boy got great joy from the ball pit.    Princess Girl ran into an old daycare buddy, and had the time of her little life. I survived the other moms- not too much Muffia action.  I felt very cool as I was sporting  my new thrift store Gap linen dress over jeans, with my new thrift store Kenneth Cole Reaction Mary Janes.  I am sure my extreme cool and panache went unnoticed, but hey, I felt special.  And secretly cooler than all the other moms.

Raced home to be greeted by wonderful buddy who- hold your breath and don't get too jealous- watched the kids so The Hubby and I could catch a great new flick.  Since we're both Tim Burton fans, getting to see Corpse Bride on opening weekend was a wonderful treat.  And my wonderful friend was so cool- she even gave Princess Girl a pedicure.  We'll see if I can be so cool next week when I watch her kids and she and her hubby go to the movies. 

Now the night gets better- The West Wing and Desperate Housewives all in one night?  Hot damn!  Tivo rules, again!