I inspired someone!

A few months ago my ex-sister-in-law visited. That one was hard to introduce.. uhh this is my ex sister in law, her husband and her step daughter, my niece. We have a strange family, we stay friends with our siblings ex's, my sisters still talk to my ex even though i haven't in 6 years! We figure they were family once and just cuz my brother didn't like her anymore, doesn't mean i don't have to. Now in this case my brother has passed so he didn't get mad that i invited her to come and visit me in Texas!

Anyways, she was always crafty and i of course showed her my work while she was here.  About 3 weeks later i saw she had been to Jo Ann's and then the other day she posted this and tagged me in it! Its beautiful!



Amy's Trip Around the World


I would like to think i inspired her to quilt again... lol.

In my family we always had the tradition that we made each other Christmas ornaments each year, Amy made beautiful ornaments the funny thing is the one that i like the most from her are these exact colors!

My progress since Wednesday... none. I took apart my sewing room. I have had furniture in storage since i moved into the ranch. At the time i moved in two of Ralph's children lived there with their spouses and we had 8 in a 2 bedroom house. One couple moved out immediately, the other hung on for a year and since he moved out we haven't had the time to get my stuff from storage. This weekend were going to and i have a dining room table that i plan on putting in my room. I have been using 2 round tables that we have for our next restaurant and well, it was a pain, i need a big rectangular table, i couldn't lay stuff out on them cuz the middles sagged. I cant wait till Sunday! I have missed my table, it needs to be refinished, but honestly i love it just the way it is. It was an old science lab table, sturdy as heck and i took the laminate off leaving glue and old paint, i think a perfect patina. lol Ralph just thinks its ugly, but then again, hes not the one who will have to do the work to refinish it!

I also have two dressers that will probably go in the room for fabric storage. I really need that because I'm running out of places to stack it!

For my living room an old china cabinet that i plan on displaying some of my quilts in. That might inspire me to do something with my living room! The couch and love seat we had we gave to the kids to take with them because it was pretty worn, we had planned on replacing it but now theres no room because we bought stuff for our next restaurant and i needed someplace to store it! lol someday i will have a normal house that doesn't have 42 chairs stacked in its living room. If i would just clean out the room that used to be the garage, i could store the restaurant stuff in there... i don't know, maybe bringing back some of my furniture will inspire me to make it a living room again. It just seems were never home and the bedroom, kitchen, sewing room and office are where we spend all of our time anyway!

Its Friday, I'm gearing up for a busy day of slinging pizza. Hope yall have a wonderful weekend, I will post pics of my improved room when i get it finished Sunday!

Its another grandbaby! This is Allysa Ann Madison and she is 2 days old. She has the thickest black hair i have ever seen on a baby.. i swear she already needs a haircut! She weighed a whopin 9 lbs 2 oz and i am so proud of her mamma, she was a trooper! She belongs to Caty and Jonathan... Caty is my manager at zippys and ally is the reason im working so many hours!! Ally, like her cousin Tristin born in June, has a mad face looks just like ralph... so she has a paw paw look too!  Ally is grandbaby #12 and #13 is already on its way (Buck and Sharon are expecting)

speaking of 12 grandbabies... oh my its already september... ralph and i had the "christmas is coming and we should start buying presents now" talk today... which always translates into christmas eve a mad dash to the stores to fight the crowds. Ralphs previous wife was my best friend and i miss christmas eve shopping with her. That woman could SHOP!!! She could find incredible deals and the cutest clothes, for teenagers... who can really shop for a teenager? I tell you that woman could do it. I am not lydia however and a christmas eve dash to the store without her equals really lame presents.

I think actually last year we decided to not buy the kids something, just the grandkids and we both woke up on christmas morning looked at each other and said, it dont feel right... LOL we then went to the only stores open within a 30 mile radius (gas stations) and we actually found gifts for all 6 kids! So yeah... the last christmas was pretty lame and this year id like to do better!!!

So im trying... I want to buy cool gifts too!!! I will in no way be as good of a shopper as lydia... but in my own way, id like to get them things they want, need, treasure... you know i have that "perfect christmas" syndrome thing in my head that i know i will never live up to... but i would like to do a little better than i have in the past.

On the treasured gift part, I am making everyone a quilt (omg its september and i have a ways to go) Id like to make the girls all something for their kitchen too... not sure what yet... some project that i can make 6 in a day would be good! The other gifts... i have no idea. Our budget isn't huge and there are so many to buy for (he has 6 kids, 5 daughter/son-inlaws, 12 grandchildren) 

Anyways... my progress on christmas presents

Tristin - done and he is using it already

Ally - done and she has it already

Trinity - done

destiny - done

waylon - done

ralph - done

sharon - quilting

bridgette - flimsy done

wesley - flimsy done

caty - needs borders

dallas - piecing

adrianna - piecing

faith - piecing

harley - cut out

landon - cut out

trevor - cut out

leah - fabric purchased

buck, travis, jonathan, chris, jess and coleman - im making denim rag quilts, one is finished, the others i have the denim cut, i just need more flannel to finish them.

phew... i think thats all of them...

anyways, i took some pics the other day of some of my recent work and inspiration. I sat down to blog about that but i got sidetracked and its now time to pack up and go home... so tomorrow i will post about my quilt progress i promise!

its to hot!!! and another grandbaby!

I haven't done ANY of my goals for this week because it is still WAY too hot!! We have been hitting over 100 the entire month of august and i am WAY over this heat wave drought thing! It really is too hot to be wrestling the quilt and all of my goals this week seem to have involved wrestling quilts.... so i have been working on... surprise surprise... three different quilts that weren't on the list to finish!

One of them is just a leader/ender project. I am going to make an ocean waves with 2 1/2 in squares made into half square triangles... yeah... i know... this one will take forever!! But i have about 40 of the oh... 888 or so squares i need.

One is the red and blue that i showed last week, ive been making some progress, but i need more red fabric! All of a sudden i cant find red plaid shirts anywhere I spent another 15 or so on yard sales again (more vintage sheets for 50 cents and a bunch of shirts, but only one of them was red! OHHH but i got some cute fabric in some of these shirts... just wait!!!)

The other which i am loving is a hst in a diamond pattern, it is reds, blues, greens and yellows with white.

As far as pictures, i am searching for the battery charger for my camera and CAN NOT find it anywhere! I cant take a picture till i do so i am going to look tomorrow.

the grandbaby.... we found out this week that Buck and Sharon are pregnant again. They are the couple that had waylon a little over a year ago. That will make #12!! We are still waiting the arrival of Ally, #11 which should happen in the next week or so. Caty is getting SO big, i swear she is going to have a 10 lb baby! She is no longer working at zippys... so we have about 8 more weeks without her and then i hope she decides to come back. I really miss working with her!

Change

My hearts are finished! woo hoo i made myself finish the last one before i could blog! lol. Its dark in here today so i will take a picture tomorrow. I did do a few more 4 patch squares last night... it was too dark to do the applique so i had to work on something while we watched a movie.

On the radio show front... we have to change platforms. We have been using a format that is designed for talk radio and now that we are playing mostly music... we have to change. I have known it was coming for a while... but they finally asked us to move yesterday. So... we dont have a show till i find a new home this weekend. Ralph and I are having one of those deep discussions about it. Right now it would be really easy to just walk away. there are things we dont like about doing the show, but we both know in our hearts that we would miss it way too much. So we are doing the "what we like/dont like" about doing the show so that we can do something that we both enjoy.

That has lead to the whole conversation of peace and joy in our lives. Ralph and i both view ourselves as entertainers. In the western music world there are dj's that see their role as promoting western music, or preserving history... we dont see that as one of our goals. We do the show purely to entertain. We happen to love western music... so that is what we like to entertain with... but the show is so much more than spinning tunes. The banter between them, the jokes and the interaction with the audience is our version of entertaining. Our shows this last month or two, they haven't been as entertaining as we would like. My theory on this is we have been streached so thin, have been stressed out so much... its hard to bring others joy when we arent feeling it ourselves.

We talked about what brings us peace. For me that is why i started quilting again right now. It brings peace to my heart, there is the joy of finding and touching the fabric and it doesn't matter how stressed out my day was, i can come home, pick up some fabric and let all of that go away.

For ralph it used to be the radio show. A little over a year ago his wife died of cancer, through that battle, there were two hours twice a week, that ralph could put that behind him and not be that man about to lose someone he loved. Me too... it really was therapy. Somehow the show turned into WORK for him though since. He hasn't been enjoying the work part of it and it shows... so... what ever we do... it cant be WORK (well unless we start selling advertising on the show and then a little work would be ok... but for it to be so much work with no pay... its just not fun!) But... the peace and joy conversation did sink into ralph and i think he will be looking for what brings him joy. Its been a hard couple months and he needs to find it again.

Anyways... the whole point is... im not going to get much quilting done this weekend because im going to be creating an online radio station. We are going to decide what we want, how were going to get there and im going to make it happen. Who knows what we will end up with... i just know we would both miss it too much if we didn't keep doing it. It is still 2 hours twice a week that we aren't stressed out, broke pizza joint owners!

OK... the sun came back out... heres a picture for ya!
My pretty little row of hearts... boy im glad that is done!

OK, one more picture. This is my two sisters and I in West Virginia in April. The first one is Becki, she is the oldest and it is her birthday today!!! The next is Sandy.... then me. We had so much fun that day exploring and playing and remembering our childhood. But... i hope becki has a wonderful birthday!

my new helper

we also live with wesley. He is sharons son... he was helping yesterday as i laid out what i have finished so far to take a look. Wow... i have alot to do yet! It seems like i have done more than that! lol.


Wesley is a good kid when its just him and I. He is sweet, interactive, affectionate and talkative. When his mom is around you would never know it. Most times when i say something to him when shes here, his response is to hit me. He doesn't show affection, his speech is worse (he has a speech problem) and he turns into a monster child. It makes living with them a challenge. ugh... i could go on and on here and it would turn into a rant so im not going to.

Ralph is off horseshoeing again. He has a really busy week this week with the horseshoeing. He hasn't worked as much as normal at the store because of it so Im working the lunch shift today to make up for some of that. Its normally my day off. This afternoon i should get some uniterrupted quilting time and im determined to finish the hearts today. I have 3 more to do!

black coffee

Ive had to drink my coffee black this morning because im out of creamer and there is not even any milk in the house... i really dont like my coffee black, but the alternative is no coffee and that is even less acceptable.

Sammie cat was helping me again this morning... ive decided he feels the same about applique as i do. I love how it looks, i love the finished product and i included quite a bit on the faith/harley quilts because i think it suits little girls... im just ambivalent about doing it! Its not the most exciting thing there is.

Having said that... its holding up my progress on the faith/harley quilt so I am determined to finish the row of hearts this week. I finished one this morning leaving 4 more to do.


I am going to have to work on my photo taking skills... the colors in this are not the best.

I had to make a deal with myself... i can go back to the little squares that im loving as soon as i finish the hearts!



During my break yesterday i was reading quilting blogs. I have really enjoyed this... it is keeping me motivated and inspired as im making progress on my work. But... poor little waylon was just screaming in the next room (he is about 6 weeks old) I finally had to go see what the problem was, momma was giving him his medicine for thrush and it did not make him a happy camper. When she finished i picked him up and he settled down, so i brought him out to the computer with me... he enjoyed the quilting blogs too, there were lots of pretty colors for him to look at. I had the camera and this was the best shot i could get of myself holding the little fella. He is a little cutie and im loving having a baby in the house. (im loving the grandmother status too... i get to love him and coo at him and think aww how cute... but i dont have to get up at 3 am and feed him or change his diapers!)

Yesterday we did a catering job for the Chamber of Commerce Meeting. We did a 6 foot sub! I cannot believe i forgot to take a picture for ralph. We had come up with the idea together but he couldn't be there since he was horseshoeing. But the sub went over well and hopefully we reminded the business community that we have great lunch food. Our lunch crowd has become mainly oil and gas people in town and i dont see alot of locals. I did end up working from about 9-2 during the day and then from 5-10:30 last night. Last night was really slow and caty and i got alot of cleaning jobs done... but then a half an hour before we closed it made up for the slow night... we got BUSY... i was happy but i hate when it happens right before we close.

We dont have alot of catering experience... i definately learned some lessons yesterday for the next time. I did have too much food but i will learn what i need as i do more of the jobs. I would rather have too much than run out!

the oil and gas business is still booming in san augustine. Its been amazing. We drove the back roads home the other night and you can see 6 rigs when you go home that way, going home the highway last night i saw one that must have just went up in the last couple days. We of course love that they are getting closer to our house and cant wait till they put one on our property! (sorry if your an environmentalist... but if you owned 100 acres and stood to make a quarter of what they bring out of the ground... you would be excited too) But for now the increase in business at the store has been great. Right now we normally slow down but were not, it keeps growing and i would say that the oil workers are now about 40 percent of our business. they are predicting that the drilling will go on for at least another 6 years and are saying that eventually there will be a well every 40 acres in east texas. I say bring it on... i like the business and the economy in this little town has never been this good!

ok... back to hearts... i might be able to finish one more this morning!!!