Australia...

Well that narrows it down a bit! I received some goodies from my Stitchers' Angel in today's mail and they are beautiful! My angel made the Blue Wren's Nest tote from Cinderberry Stitches for me and did a fabulous job on it. It will be perfect for my little applique blocks to live in and is adorable. Inside the tote was an Australian fat quarter with kangaroos on it...too cute!
Thanks to my angel...I love it!

It's good to see that someone is stitching because I've done virtually nothing for the past two days. Have felt out of sorts and unproductive. I did load a quilt onto my machine, but haven't started the quilting. I have been knitting while sitting, so at least something has come of my laziness. Tomorrow will be a long day...I'm working at a Weight Watchers center an hour from here in the morning, then we're starting two new meetings in our state capital, one of which already has 57 members. From there I'll pick up my daughter for a doctor's appointment, then afterwards will be my guitar lesson. Maybe I needed to relax and rest up for tomorrow! :o)

I've also got two trips scheduled, both of which I'm very excited about. In a few weeks my youngest and I will be heading to Providence, RI to visit my older daughter at school. We'll leave on Saturday morning and come home on Sunday night. Then later that week I'll be running away from home. I've booked a room in Lancaster, PA for 2 nights and I'm going...all by myself! I've never been away alone before, I'm not sure I'll know how to behave!

Gone...

I don't know where the week went, but it was gone fast! I got a lot done this week. I did some customer quilting...this is the back (click to embiggen!), the front is gorgeous. And I did some more quilting for customers....
And a little more customer quilting....
I took a some time to watch the birds...
And I did a little stitching...totally screwing up the part where I was supposed to stitch panels for BOTH ends of the caddy. I hope my partner likes it anyway! :o) Today I stepped away from the quilting machine and was off from my job with Weight Watchers, so I did some cleaning and decorated for Halloween. I hate Halloween and would much rather decorate for fall, but....I don't have any fall decorations! I inherited my mother-in-law's Halloween decorations when she moved to Arizona, so that's what I put out. Pictures over the weekend of those.

I also straightened up the attic today while the temps were cool. I found 4 tubs that I hadn't looked at in several years. Two are crystal and glass and two are a treasure trove of old linens from my grandmother and great grandmother. I never could decide how to properly display them...there are a lot of cutwork napkins...so I packed them away. I'll share some pictures of those as well, once I've laundered and pressed them. If anyone has any suggestions on what to do with them, I'd appreciate it!

I'm off to a party tonight to remember a friend's father...today was his birthday. In his dad's honor, Van is having a screening of Darius Goes West. I'm bringing my little pretzel things...there will be kids there and I'm sure they'll like them!

New Life...

has been breathed into an old cabinet. Back when my mother was in nursing school, about 50 years ago, my grandfather made her this sewing cabinet. When she decided she no longer wanted it, I scooped it up and moved it to NY with me. It was covered with a wood veneer, which was peeling off, so I stripped it down, painted it white and for some reason, sponge painted it with a colonial blue paint. I guess because it went so well with the blue and mauve wallpaper in my sewing room? A very 90's thing to do...

Inside the cabinet my grandfather built all sorts of cool spaces for sewing supplies..thread holders, little curved drawers that swing out to hold buttons and what not, pegs to hold scissors and even little racks to hold patterns, which he carved out in the shape of scissors!

I decided it was time for an update. I'm going to be painting my laundry room cabinets black and decided to do a trial run on the sewing cabinet. Eventually it will have a little quilt on top of it along with a few odds and ends, but I have to make one first.

I even found great little knobs to complement the black...

And...yesterday was my father's birthday, so happy birthday dad! :o)

Strangely Quiet...

It's suddenly very quiet in my house. The boss just left with our daughter to head to college. He's going to be up in New England next week on business and timed his trip to be able to take Ellen up to Johnson & Wales in Providence, RI. They had planned to leave tomorrow morning, stop at the Mystic Aquarium on their way up and then get into Providence at dinner time. Tropical Storm Hanna changed their plans, so they're heading to Mystic tonight to avoid the drive in the rain and wind tomorrow. After visiting the aquarium, they'll continue on to Providence when the weather lets up some tomorrow. I'll miss her, but I'm willing to bet I hear from her just about every day. And if I don't, I'll be calling her!

Grace will spend the weekend recovering from her first three days of high school (which she loves!) and watching horror movies. I'll be quilting and cleaning. Do I know how to have fun?