Making progress

I agreed to make a lap quilt several months ago for a neighbor. She supplied all the materials and I was going to put it all together. Then life got in the way, along with a new grandbaby and a long visit with my grand-dad, and the quilt was laid aside for long periods of time without anything happening on it. I finished it yesterday and my neighbor was quite happy when I delivered it to her. I am so glad it's done, I can't tell you. It's been one of those jobs where I've known I should get it out, and I should've worked on it more diligently, but I didn't want to so there was some anxiety and a bit of guilt and a lot of procrastination. It is super cute, but I will never make anything out of chenille fabric again. It's a pain in the arse.

Now that that's out of the way, and with dear little Buttercup back at home with her peeps and Grampy's visit winding down, I was able to start on another project. It's another Fun and Done lap quilt and it's too too sweet with pink, orange, green, and blue, and it is for me. ( A Grammie needs something cutesy to lay down on the floor for a baby to roll around on.)

It's kind of exciting to have plans!

If I've learned anything

about blogging it is that blogging while feeling anger and/or despair is a bad idea. The sane, sober people will think you're

• crazy,
• drunk,
• or crazy drunk

and I'm just not going to set myself up for that.

So while I'm sitting here simmering and stewing and wishing for a "do-over" option in my own life, and wishing everyone else success, peace, and a good night's sleep in their lives, I'm keeping it to myself and signing off for tonight...

I've always liked Victor

"What a grand thing, to be loved! What a grander thing still, to love!"

~Victor Hugo

rumors and lies

Big ol' whoppers I tell myself:

1. Since people don't notice when I color my hair, they also don't notice when my roots haven't been touched up in far too long.
2. People don't notice that I have a moustache.
3. People don't notice that I'm basically and fundamentally a flake.
4. People do notice me, though. I mean, I'm not invisible, right?
5. When I read on MSNBC that insomnia causes your brain to shrink, they don't mean me.

Have big headache. Must find excedrin pm or acceptable substitute.

The little things

can make a big difference. It's been a good day.

Fifteen things I have

I, at this very moment, have the following:

1. a going-on-two-months houseguest.
2. a headache.
3. a raging case of pre-menstrual syndrome. (homicide, anyone?)
4. two giant, monstrous zits.
5. wrinkles.
6. dry, sensitive, itchy skin.
7. dishpan hands.
8. thinning hair.
9. cellulite.
10. a big rear-end.
11. clutter in the house.
12. weeds outside.
13. insomnia.
14. clowns to the left of me.
15. jokers to the right.

My cup has runneth o'er. It must be time to go to bed.

My Little Friend

He's such a sweet guy. That dimple in his chin absolutely kills me.

the aftermath

My Pretty Girl came to get little Buttercup and take her home. Although there is now significantly less stuff laying around the house, and there's a noticeable quiet descended upon us, there's definitely a little bit of moping around too.

Hopefully we'll see them again in a few weeks.

What?

We had an old friend, Diana, over today to admire our dear little Buttercup. She brought along her sweet and oh-so-lovable 8 year-old daughter Anna Katherine. She was very concerned that Anna Katherine not hurt the baby, and was gentle with her, and very careful, etc.

At one point Diana kind of shouted, "Watch out for the hole in her head!"

So quite naturally Anna Katherine shouted out, "Where?!?!?!"

(I showed her where a baby's soft spot is. It was kind of a let-down. As you can imagine.)

Sweet Patootie

The little bundle was all bundled up today because it's cold. And rainy.

Look at those rosy-red lips. Look at those long, curly lashes. Avery is so lovely, so perfectly scrumptious.

Look at that furrowed brow. Avery is so fun and funny. (She doesn't like the camera flash.)

She's a sweet patootie, all right. Even when she's sleeping.

Bubbles

What a cutie! This baby is the most fun, sweetest, smiliest baby around. She's a love.

It's Done.

And it was sort of fun. Now that it's finished I can say it.

Here's a Public Service Announcement: Don't try to make a quilt in two days. Especially when there is an extraordinarily darling baby around to distract you every 2 minutes. Because the longer you sit at the sewing machine, the quilting becomes more and more tedious and goofing off with the baby gets more and more tempting.

Fun and Done?

Are you tired of hearing about this quilt yet?

Well, it appears that we've run out of Fun before we got all the way to Done. We're really hoping to finish the whole thing tomorrow.

What is wrong with you people?

This cute little sister goes from "I might be getting a little hungry" to "Clearly I have not been fed in days" in literally just a few seconds - much less time than it takes to make a bottle. She thinks we are all just a bunch of amateurs at this baby-tending stuff.

Little Miss Buttercup doesn't suffer fools very gladly.

Fun and (not quite) Done!

My mom and I started sewing today and got a pretty good start on our 48 squares. We've got enough of them done to lay out and see how the finished thing is going to look. It's going to look gorgeous.

It's been a busy day - filled with a sweet little chickie, and service for a good cause, and sewing.

And tacos for dinner. Yummo.

bloggity blah blah blah

"Never before have so many said so much about so little to so few". - author unknown.

I saw this in reference to blogs the other day and found it so fitting, especially to my own blog. The fact that it's February means I've been posting entries for over a year. I think I've only missed the days when I was in Austin when Avery was born, and a couple of the days when I was without a home computer.

It's hard to write a post every single day. Sometimes I worry about repeating myself. Then I remember that the 5 people who regularly read my blog know me well enough that it isn't any surprise to them if I repeat myself. Then there's also the fact that if some thought, idea, or experience was momentous enough for me to blog about, I'll probably try to tell you the same story when I see you. I never have anything new to talk about in person because I had to write something the day before!

There's a bit of self-aggrandizement involved with a blog. A little "Here's my fascinating life, you beautiful World Wide Web. Now recognize me! Write me comments, send me roses, give me respect and validation." I realize this, and I want to compensate for it. And then I realize that compensating for it is a form of self-aggrandizement. A sort of "Did you notice how humble I am?" kind of thing. It's hard to portray myself accurately - I don't know if other people see me the way I see myself. Probably not. But the part other people can't see is part of what I want to share. Does that make sense? Probably not.

A person could drive herself crazy trying to write a blog.


(This concludes your daily serving of AmyDubDub. I think I have managed to exactly capture the essence of the quote.)

Fun and Done!

My mom called me before she left home for her long trip and asked if I had anything for us to sew when she made it to the Dub house. She wanted to know if she could bring her sewing machine.

Luckily, the next day at quilting group we learned a new technique for a pieced quilt (the pattern is called Fun and Done!) that quilts itself as you piece it. That way, when you're done sewing the pieces together you are completely finished with the quilt. There's no layering the pieced top with batting and backing, no basting, no quilting, and no binding with its hand-stitching and mitering of corners.

I picked out some fabric last week and today I finished cutting out all the pieces so that when my mom gets here all we have to do is sew. I think it will be really beautiful when it's finished.

(I wonder if there is a handicraft in existence in which I enjoy every single step. I hope there is and someday I hope to find it. As for quilting, I like the sewing and I really like the having a handmade quilt. I don't love cutting out the pieces or the ironing. Or maybe one day I'll have a child who will do all the drudge work and I'll have only the fun stuff to do in a project.)

In 48 hours...

...this little bundle of Buttercup joy will be here at her Grammie's house. There is much preparing and anticipating and "are they here yet?" to come in the next couple of days.

Lemon Tart

I like everything about lemon tart. It's sweet. It's sour. It's got whipped cream on top. It comes with crust. It's hard to beat lemon tart.

I think if more people had lemon tart once in a while the world would be a nicer, more friendly place. I had one tonight - our Relief Society had a Dessert Night at La Madeline.

It doesn't get a whole lot better than Girls Night Out with a side of lemon tart. I brought some of my lemon tart home with me. So tomorrow afternoon when I'm wondering if any of this is worth it, I'll pull out my leftover lemon tart and I'll remember that things will get better.

Things always get better. Some things get worse first. But then they always get better.

I know, I know

It's 10:30 pm. Some people want to know. They want to know why I haven't posted anything on my blog today.

It's because today's been slightly off. I'm tired and allergic and a little asthmatic today. Which is not fun.

Grampy and I watched Funny Girl tonight. I thought it would end as it started - fun. Sort of like Candy Freak. They both went downhill pretty fast. Don't you just hate it when you're all set up to be entertained and then it turns into sad, lonely, and rejected?