Small Things Amuse Small Minds

I finally got all my triangles cut for OC step 2, and made a little test block. It is little, and not perfect, but almost. Now I have to admire it a little, and then I can get sewing.

New Camera

I have ordered a new camera for Mother's Day, it will be from my husband. I was wondering if anyone has one of these models, Kodak Z1012 IS. I have an older Kodak 5 megapixel camera that my brother got me for Christmas a few years ago, and it is great, but now that I'm retired, I hope to take more pictures, and probably do more cropping, so for that reason, and because I would like a longer zoom, I am upgrading. Also, I have a grandson (who by the way was born on my birthday, so is my birthday buddy) who is in the house too much, and I thought I would pass along my old camera to him, as he has an interest in photography. By getting a fairly early start (he is 12) maybe he will develop an interest that will get him out more and give him a creative outlet. I am giving it to him with the stipulation that he delves a bit and learns about photography from the ground up, apertures etc. He is home schooled, so my daughter is going to incorporate it into his lesson plans.

Bits and Pieces

The weather has been beautiful lately, and my husband and I need exercise badly, so yesterday and today we have been taking walks. Yesterday, we went to downtown Clermont, and walked and visited the quilt shop. I didn't buy anything, just looked around a bit. Today we went down to the lake. We need rain, so the water is down, but it still is pretty, and there was a nice breeze most of the time. We were hoping to see a little wildlife, but all we saw was a squirrel or two, some ducks and birds. The bird ab0ve caught a fish while we were watching him. We hope to walk every day.

We worked up an appetite, and I had seen Basil Pesto on someone's blog, I apologize that I couldn't find it again, but I will post who's when I do. (I found it, it is Sophie Junction.) We stopped at the grocery store on the way back and got what we were missing and boy was it quick and easy and delicious. I would recommend it to anyone.

This is the picture from her blog, and here is her recipe:

Pesto Sauce
INGREDIENTS
2/3 cup packed, coarsely chopped fresh basil
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons pine nuts
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 clove garlic, peeled
DIRECTIONS In a blender, combine all the ingredients. Makes 4 servings. Toss with cooked pasta–I've become a fan of Barilla Plus angel hair pasta–and save the rest for something yummy later in the week.

My husband and I both liked it a lot. The only thing was my blender wanted to just spin, so I put it in my Magic Bullet. If anyone wonders if those are any good, I can tell you that I sure do like mine. I got it when my mother was still able to eat, and it was great for pureeing her food. I would buy one again in a flash.

Then the mailman just came and brought a package that included the luggage tags for our trip in June, so it has been a pretty good day so far.

I will now try to work on my OC for a while. I have the small squares cut out and the small triangles half done. I just need to finish those and then cut out the large triangles, and I'll be ready to sew step 2.

After that, hopefully, it will have cooled off a bit, and I will mow the front yard and maybe pull some weeds. This weather is great.

Share the Love

Amy on Memoirs of a Mommy has shared the button for her personal challenge of not just reading the same blogs and going on, but leaving comments and also visiting new blogs and leaving comments. She is aiming for 10 a day, but has left it for others to set their own goals even if it is just 1 a day. Being a fairly new blogger, of only 1 month, I thought that I would join in, too.

Google Reader

I had good intentions (isn't there a rather unpleasant road that is paved with those?) of getting busy on my Step 2's for the OC today, but I started off doing a little surfing, and was reading back on MaryQuilts blog and she mentioned that she was surprised more bloggers didn't use something like Google Reader.
Quote:
"The biggest advantage in my opinion is that I don't spend time visiting blogs that haven't updated since my last visit....a disadvantage is that there's a delay between a new post and the update on the reader service."
Anyway, I set up an account, and spent about 5 or 6 hours going through blogs I visit, reading through them and looking at pictures and adding them to Google Reader. I will still use the Mystery Quilter and Stashbuster rings, but will also be a regular visitor of Google reader, as I sometimes get a little frustrated with the rings. Sometimes, I think that people may have joined but taken off the link, so I look and look (either that or I am just missing it) and then have to backtrack.
Anyway, I think that this will save a lot of time, and be a better way to keep up with blogs that I have become interested in.

CowgirlQuilters 300th Post Prize Giveaway

Kristie Layne of CowgirlQuilter blog is celebrating her 300th post with a prize giveaway. Just go to her blog and leave a comment and you will be entered.

Orange Crush Step 1

Yeah me! I have to have my little triumphs when I can, so even though I am still 2 steps behind, Yeah me!

I have them (the step 1 blocks) 25 to a ziploc bag, and they aren't as scrappy as I would like, but they are done. This step made me aware that I am kind of light on lights, so I may need to get a few more for the next 2 steps. I did buy a bundle of fat quarters to use for the scrappies, but now I decided to possibly save them to make another of the Crazy Big Blocks. I am trying to have a woman's and a man's quilt in reserve for things that come up, and maybe a baby quilt, too. The Crazy Big Block that I just made, and sent off to the quilter today was supposed to be my reserve ladies quilt, but it has somewhere to go. Now on to step 2, and the scary triangles. I am the queen of squares and rectangles, so this will be good for me. "When you're green you're growing, and when you're ripe you're rotting." or so my favorite saying goes. It helps me get through things that are outside my comfort zone.

My other favorite saying is Shakespeare I believe. "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none." I think that is beautiful, although some days I feel like changing it to trust none.

New Bed

Our old bed still looked okay, but if you just walked by (a slight exaggeration) it squeaked. We have had it for about 42 years, and it has moved from place to place with us, many many moves. This is our new bed. Due to my mother's not being able to be left alone, we bought it sight unseen, except for a picture on the furniture companies web site. I guess it's not too much of a surprise, that due to inflation we paid twice as much just for the bed, as we did for the whole bedroom set 42 years ago. It just so happened that it ended up being delivered on my birthday, so I got my new bed, and we had supper with one of my grandsons and my daughter and her boyfriend, so mostly it was a good day, except my husband has been in a bad mood all day, so that kind of put a damper on things. This was just the bed, we kept the same mattress and boxsprings, but in about a week, I have a headboard, frame, and mattress and boxspring coming for my sewing room. We gave my daughter the one we had when we got my mother's hospital bed. That one is supposed to be delivered the day before Mother's day, so I guess this is the year of the beds.

Crazy Big Block IV and Digital Cameras

Finally, the last entry on my Crazy Big Block quilt until it comes back from being quilted. I messed up my measurements, and thought I didn't have enough room on the oxford cloth sheet I got for a backing to add my extra border, but had looked at the wrong measurement. So, it only ended up 60 x 72. I am thinking of giving it to a cousin who just lost her husband, but since I don't live near her and haven't spent much time with her since I was in fifth grade and we shared a room for about half a school year (my father was USN and on a Med cruise so we stayed with her family for a few months) I need to do a little research through my niece to see if she is the type of person who would like a quilt. The good thing is she is short like me, so 72" long would probably be enough.

I was thinking the other day about how great digital cameras are. It is so nice to just grab the camera upload the photo and add to to a forum or a blog or email it to family and friends. Are we spoiled or what? No more buying film and waiting to take all the pictures, then waiting to get them developed, and the expense. One roll of 24 was probably about 11 or 12 dollars, so with what you save with the digital camera it really does pay for itself in a relatively short time. Just my old mind marveling about the new-fangled.

Crazy Big Block III

Here is my Crazy Big Block quilt with the sashing. I still intend to do a small border of the cream color, and a large border of the not quite right roses, and at the two long ends another strip of about 3 inches wide, possibly of bricks. For me this is going along pretty fast, and I hope to finish the top today or tomorrow. It should end up about 58 x 76. Landsend had some oxford shirting sheets on sale, so I ordered a twin sized pink striped sheet to use for the backing. I figured if people buy the shirts at thift stores, why not for a backing. Well, back to life, we have errands to do and then hopefully my husband will be up to helping me with a little yard work. Have a nice day.