Remember Clare.....she is my best dog, my sweetest dog...right now it is 4:30 in the morning and she is keeping me awake, with what I think is a stomachache. She whines to go out, then does nothing but eat grass. Looking up "why does my dog eat grass" on the internet, they say it is because she has a stomache ache or a need for fiber. Now she is sleeping and I am wide awake....hope somebody out there is having a good nights sleep, it certainly isnt me.

Hoping today isn't spent at the vets.

Here we are my favorite quilters....The quilt behind us is the one we were there to learn to make. It is called "Kaleidescope". We were all very excited to learn as we all like the design.
The class was at the quilt shop in Jonesboro, called "Quilts and Fixins". A great shop with lots of fabrics that are completely my taste. Kathy taught the class, fixed lunch and then we all shopped, then drove over to Denise's house to go thru her fabric she is selling before she leaves for Germany next month. Great deals and gorgeous fabric. We will miss you Denise.

Burning and Stripping

My bee is doing a row by row quilt, each member makes a row a length of their choosing, with fabrics they like, put it in a box and swap with the other bee members, until each member has contributed a strip to each persons box. We are getting down to the end, and will be getting our boxes back at our March bee meeting. We are all excited. This is one strip I made. Three more to go, yes, I am always behind.



We have discovered outdoor burning. We live in a relatively rural area outside Atlanta, so we can do it, when we obtain a "Burn permit" It is so cool to cut down scrub trees and fallen branches and not have to lug them to the dump, where the bin is always full. This picture has Clare coming and checking the area out.

She gets especially excited nowadays because our neighbor who owns the 10 acres next door, has decided to bring his horses to live on the property. They roam about freely, and Clare thinks she should be allowed to chase them freely.
We do beg to differ.

What to do with this....

Ever make something that you always wanted to try, and then once you finished it, you thought, "hmmm, not perfect". Well, this was it! I hesitate to call it anything, my daughter loves it(she's not a quilter), but do I quilt it, frame it or make a pillow out of it (outsized pillow, of course), but what??? I have to decide to do something, it has been sitting on my design wall for months, just saying to me "I am not perfect". Granted the picture is small, but I see the big error, why can't everybody else.

I digress. We have been thinking about clearing the trees out of the backyard, to make a grassy usable space, for maybe a wedding reception, or just a place to have in the backyard that is not woods. Of course, it is expensive, but in this economy...what to do?

I went to a "book club". It was okay, but I guess I am a little crazy, but if you have a book club you should spend the time talking about the book, right? Not all about your next trip to Vegas so everybody can say "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas". They were all very nice, and very kind to us newbies, but I guess I am too much of a control freak to like their format.

Tonight is my quilt guild meeting, am looking forward to the new place we got to meet. It is large, has a good PA system, and we will have a guest lecturer, I am sure a great time will be had by all.

Birthdays, Birthdays

We had three birthdays right in a row, my sons in November, my daughter in law's P in Dec and my soon to be daughter in law's Em in January. Amazingly, we got pictures of at least two of the three.










Then in Feb we will have my others son's birthday and mine two days later. And then a huge dry spell until July.

I am watching these kids grow older, but so appreciative of the fact that they all live in this state, and we can celebrate together, as a family. I can envision many birthday parties with grandchildren in the future, and realize how important ones family can be. Despite some poor menu choices, I still love having these birthday parties. Thanks kids!

They're engaged!

Yes, finally my son and his wonderful girlfriend Emily are engaged. I only have a few pictures of them together, this one was taken last summer at our favorite sushi restaurant. They suit each other very well and are very much in love, and we are all so happy. Now is the wedding planning.....and we are very lucky to have my daughter in law to help with that.

Back to the real world

Thought I would take a picture of the Christmas tree just before I had to take it down. Several ornaments are no longer on it, compliments of Clare, the wonder dog. The lower portion of the tree has been pretty unadorned from the beginning, as a precaution, but she still managed to grab some of the higher ones.

We loved having all the kids here, they all spent the night xmas eve, then we opened gifts over breakfast xmas morning.