A Week of Mondays: Mini-Quilts Week 7

Title: "Bubble Flowers" (yeah, I know - very unoriginal, but I couldn't think of anything better!)
Materials and Techniques: made using satin stitch, varigated thread, rag edges and buttons
My inspiration for this one came from this funkitude quilt, and looking at it again makes me wish that I had come up with a better name!

A Week of Mondays: Mini-Quilts Week 6

Title: "Zen Tree Meditation"
Materials and Techniques: made from fusible web and free motion quilting. It was inspired by a book I bought on healing mandalas - the mandala was "Two Trees, One Root" (granted this is only one tree)

A Week of Mondays: Mini-Quilts Week 5

Welcome to a week of Mondays...mini-quilt Mondays, that is!

I'm playing catch up with my mini-quilts, so every day I will show off the latest addition (the photos weren't taken on the best of days, so bare with me)

Title: "Hey Butt(on)head!" Materials and Techniques: made from yo-yos and buttons, machine and hand stitching (I forgot how much I love the look of buttons on things).

What's In Your Backyard? - Update

Had to show off pictures from the midpoint (or what I like to call the "so close to being done, I'm surprised that I'm not yet" point):

Friday night saw my sister, my nephew and I hauling cinderblocks from behind the fence to behind the shed (did you know that cinderblocks gain weight the longer you lug them? Maybe I was just getting weaker with each block, because it sure felt like they went from weighting 10lbs each to 100lbs by the time we finished!!)

(if you click on the picture, you'll see it larger than life)

Saturday, I hauled all the pipe and metal to behind the shed and raked.
I know it's not 100% pretty yet, but it will be soon. I have to figure out what to do with the old cook stove (hiding under the tarp), dismantle the fence and take care of the wood splitter. I was just so tired and sore that I couldn't have done more if I wanted to on Sunday!

I can't wait to see that space totally empty, to get the compost in, seed it and have a lawn again!! I'm giddy with the thought!

What's in Your Backyard?

backyard
Originally uploaded by faerytreecreations

I know I blogged about this last year...but tis the season and this year, I'm actually getting stuff done! The picture is tiny here, but click over to flickr and you can see it a little larger (esp. if you go into all sizes). This is the before picture. I took Tuesday and Wednesday off from work for a 5 day weekend (Monday was Patriot's Day - observed only in Maine and Massachusetts) and all I did was rake and rake and rake some more!

My brother helped on Sunday - we got rid of all that rotting wood behind the shed and two truck loads of leaves. Then I borrowed my parents' truck and got rid of another 6 loads of leaves! My nephew will be over tonight to help me move all the crap and cinder blocks from behind the rotting fence to behind the shed (out of sight, out of mind). Then the plan is to take down the fence and when the transfer station starts giving away it's free compost, I'll dump it in that soon to be crap free area and seed it, thus reclaiming a portion of the yard that hasn't been used as actual "yard" space in YEARS!

I'm hoping that I can get the garden tilled tomorrow and the fence up (to fend off any future veggie munching visitors) and possibly get my peas and beans in, as they are getting a bit big for their britches...er...pots on the porch!

As soon as I get the "After" pictures taken, I'll be sure to post!

Oh, I'm hoping to make next week a "Week of Mondays" - miniquilt Mondays, that is. I have a bunch done and photographed...just waiting to be posted!

Have a fantastic weekend!

New Toy!!

I have a new toy! Mum and I hit a REALLY good sale the other day and with our 50% off coupons, we each bought a SideWinder (for only $17.50)!! The SideWinder is a one button, portable bobbin winder that runs on batteries and fills bobbins without having to un-thread your sewing machine (which drives me nuts!). I haven't tried it out yet (which is killin' me!). I just haven't had time; I'm still working crazy hours - as a matter of fact, I'm still at work...14 hours straight and counting (:^P) and the concensus is that we'll be in late again tomorrow.

This weekend...this lovely 3 day weekend (Patriot's Day observed only in Maine and Massachusetts)...will be a rakin' the lawn, painting the coffee table funky, finishing the last 4 mini quilts (managed to get 5 done during my mad dash mini quilt catch up session) kind of weekend. I'm so looking forward to it!

And I've been inspired. I had a meeting in Brunswick on Tuesday and stopped into a furniture store called Seaside Mercantile (no website, unfortunately) because their window display featured an aqua colored couch with a purple sofa table behind it and an aqua and cobalt striped hutch off to the side. It was fabulous! It inspired my thoughts concerning my living room. I love painting rooms in great colors (remember my hall), but I've never been able to figure out just what to do with the living room (look here beyond the crazy cats to see the wallpaper and woodwork and here is the carpet and my hand me down couch). My idea is to rip off the wallpaper, paint the walls an eggshell color, slipcover the furniture in different colors, make new and funky fabric curtains, paint the coffee table, side tables and entertainment center in funkatude colors and patterns and paint my own canvases to go on the walls. I've never been a fan of white walls, but I think I can get behind this! Now it's just DOING it (there are still many projects that need finishing first).

Oh, we're done for the night and it's only 10:30 - Whoo hoo! I'm goin' to bed! Night!

(oh, if any of this is disjointed, blame 14 1/2 hours of work, sleepy eyes/brain and the fact that I'm going to post this without anal retentively rereading and editing it!)

Good Morning, Sunshine

A 12 hour work day

a 5 am alarm

all I want is a cup of tea that I can drink with my eyes closed

mmmmmmm......

Random Happenings

On Tuesday, we had a staff meeting in my office and my boss left his mug behind. Now I could have been nice, cleaned said mug and returned it to his office, like the polite and respectful employee that I should be...but if I started acting polite and respectful to him now, he'd wonder what was wrong with me. So instead, I sent him a ransom note...

It reads:

"Dear Mr. McCarthy,

Please read carefully. We are a group of individuals that represent a small foreign faction (well, not that foreign, but foreign enough). We respectively hosted your staff meeting, but thought your lack of cleanliness and absence of memory was very unprofessional. Therefore, we have your John Wayne mug in our possession. It is safe and unharmed at the moment, but if you ever want to see it again, you must follow our instruction to the letter.

You must bring $10,000 Colombian pesos (about $5.47 US) to the President’s Office by noon tomorrow. Leave the money on the table and your mug will be returned to you within two hours. Do not involve the authorities. If you call the police or tell anyone about this, your mug will come back to you in pieces! For the safety of your mug, you must do as we say!

You will be hearing from us.

Hugs and smooches, your friendly neighborhood mug-nappers"

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Man, I love my job.

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Okay, so I know I haven't been around much, just a little random blogging and practically no visits to other people's blogs or flickr sites...aaaaand I'm about 5 or 6 weeks behind on Mini-Quilt Monday, but soon enough the legislative session will be done and I'll actually have more time to create, take pictures, paint, see friends, have a life, etc. etc.... Anyhoo, despite all the things I need to be doing for work, I have a ton of ideas swirlin' in that brain of mine that have absolutely nothing to do with work...like the tunic and tank patterns I just created the other day and the squeaky snail for dogs that I came up with for my etsy shop and the random doodles that I want to paint on canvas...just because I think it would look funky.

Anyhoo, back to the old grindstone and all that fun stuff.

Hugs and smooches, your friendly neighborhood mugnapper :^)

Black and White Day

Most of these photos have already made their way onto Mount Vernon Street in their color version - today I'm exploring their colorless qualities.

Vodka, anyone?

A Vodka Party in celebration of Nina's new house (actually, any excuse for a party will do!)


Funny thing is Nina's not in any of these pictures ('cause she's the one taking them)!

What's that old adage about curiosity and the cat?

Little Mr. Man found a new place to explore

my house is his playground and all the contents mere objects for his enjoyment

Lost

Have you ever turned the sounds around you into music? The sound of the garbage truck, the tappity tap of fingers on a keyboard, the sound of the refrigerator or the furnace turning on? Have these sounds ever called up a whisper of forgotten music, a tune you can’t quite place a name or words to; that makes you wonder – is it some music that someone has already created or did it come from you, from somewhere inside you, all your own tune?

When I was young, I used to call up fiddle music in my head…slow, mournful Celtic airs that I would drift off to sleep to. I never knew where they came from; if they were something remembered or created in my own subconscious. I’ve never really been able to read music, let alone what it would sound like just from looking at it on a page, nor do I play an instrument, but I could call up music within me and my chest would get tight and a knot would form in my stomach…like I was on the edge of a revelation, like one more step would open the flood gates of memories from some long ago time...some time before I was born, before I or my parents or my parents parents were even a thought in the mind of the Universe.

I lost this ability some time ago. I suddenly noticed that I couldn’t do it – the music was done; the band had packed up and moved on to their next venue. It broke my heart that my personal concert was over. But was it really? If I had tapped into this unforeseen ability once, couldn’t I do it again? Couldn’t I find what had changed so drastically in my life that would cause this gift to disappear…and change it back? I have contemplated this over and over, a million times over in the last six years. So many things have happened – the end of a relationship and the subsequent crash of the world you had created as it shattered around you, the loss of one’s self at the end of that relationship, the loss of a loved one, starting over, not knowing how to reclaim what you once were…before it all started.

Last night I caught the whisper of a fiddle tune, just as I was drifting off and it woke me up with a start – a sit up in bed, confused, straining to hear as the whispers fade kind of start. This morning I woke up with a feeling…a change is coming; it’s singing in my soul. It’s making my heart pound faster and louder and that feeling, that revelation…I could reach out and touch it.

A Foggy Day in Boston

It was a foggy, rainy morning when my mother, sister, niece, best friend and I headed to Boston for the New England Spring Flower Show. And despite that pouring, driving rain...we had fun!

Here are the highlights:

My cousin Mike (a Boston cop) made it down to see us just before our bus left (don't you love that green sweatshirt that Jess is wearing - it was bought by her sweet and loving aunt for her 13th birthday!)

Mike, my sister Dina, Me and Jess in front of the Cheers Indian in Faneuil Hall

Jess got to celebrate her 13th birthday at an Irish pub, much to her delight!

Flower Show favs:

Juli having a good time

Betcha can't tell that these three are family (or related to me for that matter)!

So I know I'm behind in my Mini Quilt Monday. No excuses, I'm just a slacker, that's all! My hope is to have 3 to share with you by next Monday (St. Paddy's Day - whoo hoo!).

Happy Wednesday!

Boston Bound

This weekend, I am Boston bound - looking for that bit of spring pick-me-up at the New England Flower Show and some shopping with my mother, my sister, my friend Juli and a bus load of other people.

I will, as always, take a ton of pictures. Here are some of last year's treats:

Mmmmm....green grass, sweet scents and bright colors to perk up even the most winter-depressed soul! After yesterday's snow, sleet and ice storm coupled with a crazed work week, this is a most needed trip!

And in honor of my trip to Boston and St. Paddy's Day looming 'round the corner, a little Dropkick Murphy's for your listening pleasure:

I'm Shipping up to Boston

For Boston

and my all time fav - Boys on the Docks

Until the next time I get a moment to breathe...