procaffeination

early morning is the very best time of the day, innit?!?

well, for ME it is, anyway... 

however, Some People Who Shall Remain Anonymous but her initials are Auntia are downright mean in the morning...

it is best to Leave. Her. Alone. till she's finished at least one cuppa sumpin...

i bought this cup for Auntia's morning coffee...

truer words were never spoken

and when i finished this quilt...

well, THOSE greens don't match!!!

i gave it to her to wrap around her shoulders on chilly winter mornings ... that way i can hug her without endangering Life and Limb...

i really shoulda put on some shoes before i stepped outside

cuz Life is safer that way...

Cuppa Sumpin was pieced and bound by me 

and was quilted with steaming cuppsa sumpin by Liz Bowman

A yawn is a silent scream for coffee

Author Unknown

dèanta

Auntia's calendar tea towel quilt...

scottie dogs and bouncing balls and snowflakes

a year later than it was supposed to be...

do you think that hot guys make up for using old linen and being very, very late?

she said it was worth the wait after she read the name...

MacDubh Gots Balls!!!

and feasted her eyes on this guy...

ooooo!!! man in kilt!!!

i am so over linen tea towels, lemmetellya...

good advice

bee doo bee doo...

bottom ...... (giggle giggle giggle)

pretty is as pretty does

my mom used to bake the best oatmeal cookies in the Whole Wide World... 

the only thing that was wrong with them was that they were ugly... 

seriously ugly... 

one is the loneliest number that you'll ever do...

my friends made fun of them cuz they were so ugly... 

two can be as bad as one ... it's the loneliest number since the number one

but they also loved to eat them and would ask me if there were any of my mom's ugly oatmeal cookies in my lunch bag... 

now THAT'S what i call me a breakfast bowl of oatmeal!!!

and if i was feeling generous i'd share one or two...

my mom's ugly oatmeal cookie recipe is getting kinda ugly, innit?!?

dianne's mom's ugly oatmeal cookies - now YOU can bake some, too, cuz pretty is as pretty does...

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.

Confucius

can we build it?!?

yes, we can!!!

the big picture

Gumdrop

Gumdrop - my oldest granddaughter - has found her inner elf

she told me that she is my own personal Elf On The Shelf and not to try any Funny Business because she WILL be reporting back to Santa...

i get no respect...

sigh...

eyes only

december tenth

gobble gobble

a thanksgiving miracle

remember these bear paw blocks?

well...

they ran around and around

and chased themselves into this...

Running Bear Loves Little White Dove

with thanks to Jennifer of Bronze Wombat for giving this little quilt the perfect name

this may not seem like a thanksgiving miracle to anyone else, but it is because:

a) with the exception of the brown for the paws, the fabric was ALL from the Magick Shoppe's Hoard

2) i actually used a panel before it had a chance to go out of print or get lost in the Magick Shoppe

thirdly) RBLLWD was finished in less than two months - which is a record time for ANY quilt that i have ever started and finished (thanks in a big, big way to Longarm Quilter Extraordinaire Liz Bowman) 

the panel is from this collection by this artist

Princess On A Pea - First Nations by Denyse Klette

and it is awesome!!!

Liz quilted dream catchers all over it...

how does she DO that?!?

and they are awesome!!!

the backing fabric is called Five Cent Peace...

lucky buffalo nickels

and it is awesome!!!

i LURVE this quilt!!!

mountains and walking and shopping and weaving and swimming and music and men in kilts

gotta write this down before i forget that it happened...

it was the weekend after Labor Day ... Auntia and i took LuLu with us to Estes Park for the Longs Peak Scottish Irish Highland Festival 

aka Men in Kilts...

first we walked through the town so we could shop for caramel apples and candy and coffee and christmas tree ornaments and other stuff that we don't need but want anyway...

LuLu and Auntia ... behind them is the river that flooded last year and wiped out most of the roads in and out of the town ... it behaved while we were there

and when we checked into the hotel, LuLu wanted to swim...

the water was FUH-FUH-FUH-FUHREEZING!!!!

she was singing Let It Go and letting go ... which made me very, very nervous

she spent more time in the hot tub than in the pool...

ah... now THAT's what i'm talking about!!!

when we woke up the next morning, the car looked like this...

is that a shamrock?!?

which seemed rather fortuitous... 
we skipped the parade this year and went directly to the fair grounds...

the clans tent is ginormous!

which meant that we missed the crowds and we were able to do some more shopping...

wee lassie

we ate Meat On A Stick and Cheesecake On A Stick (my favorite) and walked around the festival grounds a gazillion times while LuLu practiced her numbers by counting the men in kilts...

we saw The Wall That Heals...

and found one of the names that the eXMan asked Auntia to look for...

rest in peace, Larry

it was an emotional experience ... so many names of so many men and women... 

LuLu learned how to weave in the weavers' tent...

over and under and over and under

and over and under and over and under

and watched jousting...

cheer cheer cheer cheer ... ooo!!! that's gonna leave a mark!!!

that night we went to the tattoo and when we came back to the hotel, LuLu turned her weaving into a little blanket for Leo the Leopard...

smirk smirk smirk

and when we left on sunday morning, LuLu left a message on the door...

so glad that isn't MY patio door!!!

after we took her home, LuLu wrote these thank you notes...

dianne?!? seriously?!? she NEVER calls me dianne!!!

we had a lotta fun!!!

thank you...

to our veterans, living or gone, for your service to our country

kinda creepy...

sewing these together was no fun at all ... ick

the Little Guy is the naming block for the Big Guy...

the Big Guy needs borders... 

maybe red roses...

or maybe not...

i am undecided...

whaddayathink?

“Though my skull is the size of a soup bowl, everything in the universe—and more—can fit inside my imagination. And guess what? My imagination tastes like chicken noodle soup.” 
― Jarod Kintz

abby normal

franken-kit-kats ... even less fun to make than the werewolves

i dunno ... they look more like zombies than Frankenstein's monster

recipe and how-to video are here

note to self - stay away from this website next halloween

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Ah! Very good. Would you mind telling me whose brain i DID put in?

Igor: Then you won't be angry?

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: I will NOT be angry.

Igor:  Abby someone.

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Abby someone. Abby who?

Igor: Abby ... Normal.

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Abby Normal?

Igor: I'm almost sure that was the name.

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Are you saying that I put an abnormal brain into a seven and a half foot long, fifty-four inch wide GORILLA?

Young Frankenstein

to the moon and back again...