Thursday, September 24, 2009

Fall in the Kitchen with Pumpkins

There is an old wooden tray I use frequently that is so Vintage with its chips and layers of paint, just reminds me of Fall. I turned it upside down on a fall table cloth then wrapped it a couple times with pretty Fall ribbon and topped it with those sweet little pumpkins I made last week...then pulled out my favorite fall tapers and I think it looks cute.



Can you tell those are pumpkins on the table?



This little vignette with my Great Grandmother's wardrobe in the background truly makes me happy. When I pass by it it says Family, Warmth, and Comfort.

And to make this week even more special, I'm going to visit my BFF this weekend! Have NO idea what we will do but there will be lots of talking and laughing...and a little embroidering.

I hope your Autumn is cool and crisp with all the comforts of the Peace He gave to us; the Peace He left with us

Warm fall hugs,

Melissa

Friday, September 18, 2009

Pumpkins for Autumn Fun!



Pumpkins are calling my name!

Look what I found online:

http://schlosserdesigns.blogspot.com/2008/09/tutorial-fabric-pumpkins.html

Aren't these cute? And she is offering a pdf download FREE so we can all have fun with these! I picked out this material at the fat quarter sale last weekend.



I selected cinnamon and paprika tones with burgundy and plums. Some I love, some were selected for me so I had a nice balance.

This is the weekend for the Texas Quilters Online Retreat. Its our first and like many retreats, we are each working on our own projects and keeping in touch online.

As you can guess, I am making pumpkins: Only three so far but aren't they cute??



For the biggest one I enlarged the pattern to 125%. The Medium is made per the pattern and the little one is shrunk to 75%. These are perfect Table Top or Buffet top size. I can see these at 200% for a bed or to set on the floor or on the porch.

Also, if you like the look where embroider thread is pulled between the pumpkin sections, this pattern would be so easy to do that way.

Oh, and I just sewed that stem in while I was sewing the sections together. Stuff it first, lay it inside the pumpkin, sew across the top and it will look great when you turn the whole thing inside out!

I hope you hop over and get your copy, I'm making a set for my MIL and her sister and my mom. They are fast to make! I'm addicted and will probably have these little things all over the house!

One more thing...I was inspired by a pumpkin online and I reworked it a bit for embroidery, as I am making the pumpkin embroidery part of a table runner with these same fabrics.



Well, that is what I'm up to this weekend.

Hope your weekend is fresh, cool and fallish!

Have fun,
Melissa

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Hobbit foot and Beer

So what was I doing all this time?

Well, the AC was fixed that same day, yay! And we are still spinning the thing. Keeps the humidity low when the humidity is high. So we use the AC. Keeps things from warping, getting mildewed, that sort of thing, cause, as my son explained it to me: 100% humidity is not the same as a swimming pool. Ok, now I know. So there, it is a gas rather than a liquid. Fine, make your momma feel 'tupid.

ANYWAY

As luck would have it the MMA fights were on about 3 weeks ago. Have I mentioned I live with males? Come Monday morning I rearrange the fridge and later start cooking dinner. The older male is in the living room requesting salt or pepper along with more iced tea and I am not paying attention and pull the 'whatever it was I needed' out of the fridge only to realize WAY too late that a beer bottle from Saturday night is in a free fall from the top shelf of the fridge all the way down to the foot.

It fell perfectly and caused enough pain that I was going through my 'not nice' vocabulary rather quickly. I am SO glad it didn't break cause I might have stitches that I would want to scratch and clip with the tiny embroidery scissors beside me here.

Are you like me, you ignore the pain, that caution that floats through your head and just keep right on going. Well, Two weekends in a row I did just that. We had some fabulous sales here and I had coupons for LOTS of things so I wasn't letting a little gimp foot me out of the store...for 2.5 hours.

So Monday means the bruise swelled even further than it was, need ice, call Dr. Gorgeous if it doesn't get better and make sure to limp appropriately through the house washing and cooking and be careful, above all!

Next weekend my very very BFF came into town, we had a BLAST! and I stood on the thing looking at fat quarters laughing and chatting it up with other crazy quilt sale ladies at the quilt store. We were there talking walking/standing for maybe an hour and a half. Had a FAB time. Ran next door to our fav Mexican restaurant, sat and filled our plates with salt, chips, salt, cheese dip, salt and guacamole...it was luscious!! And most swell worthy!

Sunday, Hubby is now threating the emergency room. The foot is broken, may need amputating and then what will you do. Hmmm....it did look really bad. And BFF thought perhaps there was an ongoing bleed, small nick (she explained) that bled slowly. OK, thank you all!

I began to wonder what walking on a faux foot would feel like.

So Anti-Inflamatory diet, ICE, sit on bum and hope. I don't mind seeing Doc G but geeze, not surgery and amputation! Monday repeat, Tuesday hobble about with ice, Wednesday more of same...and be SO thankful the foot is close to normal size.

I knew you wanted the details first...now the foot which has been renamed Hobbit by the younger males.



The little black speck shows the very small space the beer bottle hit when it landed on my foot.



A very sweet friend in Oklahoma checked with me several times and worried over it. Thank you Joyce, it isn't even hardly green anymore.

Another friend very generously dropped something on her foot in solidarity and I think hers is hurt worse than mine. (((hugs)))

A precious friend in New York asked if the beer was OK. Yes, Terri, the beer survived, thanks for the concern. LOL, love Terri, you'd have to know her. 5 kids, pigs, gardening, moving all over the north east, it will give you a twisted sense of humor, bless her heart.

So, there you have it.

I think what really bothered me most about the whole thing was not being able to stand up long enough to shave my legs and thinking I might have to see another human that way. 'Did you see that fat lady's legs?' I could just hear it...

Well, now you know.