Flowers for Me!

My husband sent these to me at work for my birthday yesterday. Well, YOU knew I wasn't at work yesterday. Why didn't he?


It's the thought that counts, right? And I did get them when I arrived at school this morning.

You SHOULD go here (click on the picture)

and check out the fabulous, wonderful giveaway. You know how much I love giveaways (even if I've never in my life won anything). It's so much fun to find new blogs!
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Birthday Giveaway Draw: The winner is...

Despite my VERY young age (ahem, what number did you think was in front of that 9?), I am an old-fashioned girl who doesn't know how to use a random-number generator, so I've printed out all your names and put them into a basket.

I'll reach in and pull one out:

Do you see that? The winner is...

Shirley! (I have no idea why this picture won't load the right way)

Congratulations! I'll send you an email, Shirley, and get your info. Thanks to everyone who visited my blog and entered the draw. I hope you keep coming back.

Now I'm off to work... yes, even on my birthday, they're making me work. Actually, I'm heading to an in-service, which is worse than work. I'm questioning why I keep signing up for these things when I have so much trouble staying awake if I'm not the one teaching, talking, and moving around. Let's just say, I really sympathize with my students who have to listen to me rabbit on for an hour and a half every class. But at least I TRY to be interesting.

On the upside, lunch is included. Hope it's diet-friendly. I could use all the help I can get.

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Have a great day!

Monday, Monday... I miss the weekend already

Loser Monday update:

'Nuff said. Let's move on.

You HAVE to head over to bitty bits and pieces and see what Kim is giving away. Wow! She has some absolutely gorgeous prizes. On second thought. Maybe you shouldn't. If you don't enter, I have a better chance of winning.

I had a productive weekend. I started a few days ago with this:

What is this? It's a bag of fabric, flannel scraps, to be specific. I used to teach sewing (and a host of other subjects) at a junior high. The grade 7 project was pajama pants and the students always gave me their scraps. I had intended to make a denim and flannel rag quilt out of them, but it never happened. When I was looking for a pattern to make a baby quilt for Jane Marie, I dug them out and produced this:

Believe me, there are still lots of flannel scraps left over just in case I ever do decide to make that rag quilt.

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I just realized I forgot to make a label for the quilt... and I already washed it. I guess I won't be mailing parcels tomorrow after all.

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It's Monday again. Too bad - I was really enjoying the weekend. Lucky for you, though, there are still a couple of days to enter my Birthday Giveaway! Just scroll down and leave a comment on the Giveaway post. Next time I talk to you, I will announce the winner. Oh, and for the record, the car is not part of the giveaway haha. And it wasn't a birthday present either. Mr. P is generous, but not that generous.

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Hope your Monday isn't too painful. ☺

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The Blogging Award Goes To...

Pat of A Little of This and a Little of Pat has given me a blogging award for, she says, "being a kind and generous person." Well, I am honoured! Thanks Pat! You have made me feel very welcome here and I appreciate your kindness. I would love to pass it right back to you!

Being the new girl in the neighbourhood isn't easy, you know, but I'm having fun meeting people and reading other blogs. I've got a huge list (more than what's in my sidebar) of blogs I visit. Therefore, I am passing this award on to some of my favourite bloggers:

Sharon at Red Geranium Cottage - Sharon's blog makes me laugh out loud (NOT just lol, but actually, really laugh out loud). Sharon was also the very first person to comment on my blog; she has been a great source of encouragement in blogging and the Diet Challenge 2009. Cheers, Sharon!

Andrea at Welsh Quilter - Andrea always has such nice projects to share - beautiful stitchery and neat ideas that make me want to do more. Thanks for the inspiration, Andrea!

Lola at ...And Sew on - Here's another gal who is quick to share her creations and her philosophical musings. I love checking in to see what she's working on. Brava, Lola!

Autum at Creative Little Daisy - She's just so sweet! And have you seen the pictures of Bayleigh? They'll make your heart melt. Autum's blog was one of the first I started to read on a regular basis. Hugs to you, Autum!

Dawn at Gahan Girls - Dawn posts the most beautiful pictures, especially of her dog Gideon. And I love her house (from the photos, anyway). Plus, she always replies to comments. Thanks, Dawn!

Lucy at Attic 24 - I don't crochet, but Lucy sure makes me wish I did. You should see the blankets she makes! Beautiful, Lucy!

Jen at Miss Punkie Pie - Jen just makes me laugh. Her posts are witty and interesting. Not to mention that her daughter has the cutest little face!

Anna at Thimbleanna - Anna's posts are like reading a story book with interesting "characters" (see her sidebar). She is always so positive and seems to enjoy everything she does!

Choosing only 8 bloggers was really hard. Honestly, there are so many of you out there writing great stories, showing us amazing quilts and other projects, hosting giveaways, giving advice, answering questions. I ♥ blogland and all of you!

The weekend looks promising, once again. I feel so blessed to have had so much time to sew lately. At school we're in that in-between time before semester 2 starts. My marking is caught up so I'm free from having to bring home work in the evenings and on weekends. That said, I still didn't get anything done during the week. It was busy in other ways. Today, after I make the obligatory phone calls to my mum and my friend Cheryl, I will hide up in my sewing room and attempt to finish Jane Marie's baby quilt. I'm hoping to mail it out to her on Monday. No pictures to show you yet, so I'll leave you with this:


Ummm... it's a picture of my new car! (except mine is black) This is part of the reason I didn't get any quilting done this week.

Don't forget to enter my Birthday Giveaway! XO

Announcement: Giveaway!

Remember when you were in school and the ANNOUNCEMENTS came over the PA system in the morning? Well, they still do that in schools. Nobody ever listens to them, though. That's what email is for haha.

Aaaanyway... I have an announcement of my own.


A week from today is my birthday... and it's a very significant birthday... it ends with a 9. That's all I'm tellin' ya. In honour of this birthday NOT ending with a zero, I'm having a giveaway. It's my birthday, but you get the presents!

So, just leave me a comment on this post by midnight on January 27 answering the question: What do you want to accomplish by your next birthday? On my birthday, January 28, I will draw a winner. If you mention this giveaway in your blog and provide a link to mine, I will give you an extra entry (just be sure to let me know you did).

What can you win? For starters...

• Your own Itty Bitty Kitty (this one was made for my Mum; you will get a fresh one
• Create a Quilt by Joyce Mori
• Quilt block Wallies
• A package of 6" charm squares (you tell me the colours you like best or if you'd rather have flannel)
• Whatever else I dig up that will fit in the box

Happy Quilting (or knitting, or sewing, or paper-crafting, or whatever it is that you do and love) and remember:

We do what we must so that we can do what we want.

(from the movie The Great Debaters).

Loser Monday

Can you relate? I'm thinking this is the exact reason I didn't lose any weight this past week! What else could it be? Where's that wagon, 'cause I think I fell off it again. Sigh. I'm restarting TODAY. Really, I wrote down breakfast in my little orange notebook (it was 4 points).

I'm also going to blame it on my low iron and vitamin B12 levels. Yep, that's what the doctor said this morning. I need to buy multivitamins with iron, and get a B12 shot every month. I'm hoping that gives me enough energy to actually make it to the gym every couple of days. Lately I've been coming home from work and just dozing off in the big, comfy chair. When I wake up, I'm kinda dopey and I don't feel like doing anything, least of all exercising. My workouts have been infrequent. So, where's that wagon I need to get back on?

How often do you weigh yourself? I've been doing it every day, sometimes multiple times a day (just to see if it's working, ya know), but I think I might have to cut down to once a week. Perhaps Monday morning... bucknaked... before breakfast. That oughta do it!

Enough about dieting. Everytime I try to lose weight, I find myself OBSESSED with food, like the glorious supper I cooked Saturday night. Chicken with Peach Salsa (using the WW corn flake chicken recipe, but I had no corn flakes so I used crushed wheat thins instead) with parsnips (yummmm), green beans, and brown rice. Oh. So. Good.

This is the peach salsa, made in those last dying days of summer before school started.

I need to think about something other than food for a while. Yeah... I spent the weekend sewing a baby quilt for Jane Marie. I'll post a picture when I have it quilted and the binding on. Sewing the top is never a problem, but it sometimes takes me DAYS to figure out how to quilt it, and I approach this step with DREAD. I mean, I put all this effort (and fabric) into creating the top, what if I RUIN it with a crappy quilting design or uneven stitching? Arrrggghhh.

Okay, panic attack over. On with the day!

Oh, and stay tuned. I've got something good planned for later this week...

Oh and oh again...

JoJo at Home Sweet Home is having a giveaway for her 100th post. Visit her here to enter! I did and here's my answer to her question:

Four Feet and a Tail

This is Rex. Our first-born. My husband and I got Rex about two weeks after we were married, so he's 17 1/2 years old now, and still going strong. We named him Rex because my husband wanted a dog, so I figured a cat with a dog's name was the next best thing. But the name suits him. "Rex" means king, and he was truly the king of the house (and the neighbourhood) in his younger days. It was also a fitting name because, as I wrote home to my mother, "He Rex the furniture, he Rex the curtains, he Rex a good night's sleep."

And this is Abby. She's 9. Abby's a real sweetie, but a bit timid. She doesn't like loud noises and will hide behind furniture during storms. She does, however, love body heat, so she's always snuggling up to someone.

Meet Derby. He's the handsome fellow in the picture at the top of the page. Derby is 3 1/2 and as devilish as he looks. He's an attention-seeker, a food stealer, and Daddy's boy. He thinks he's the Alpha Dog. (He's wrong; I'm the Alpha Dog.)

And this is an Itty Bitty Kitty I made the other night. I was bound and determined to do something creative and finish it that evening. It probably took me longer to find the pattern in my messy sewing room than it took to make him. I think he's pretty cute, so he's going to be tucked into the parcel I'm sending to my mother (with the Union Jack pillow). I think she'll give him a good home!

And for the rest of the weekend, I plan to sew a baby quilt for sweet Jane Marie. I was inspired by this at Sister's Choice Quilts. I don't have time to order the pattern and it looks easy enough for me to figure out so... I'll let you know how it goes.

The weekend looks very promising - no marking! Hope you enjoy yours.