Happy Birthday Deloris Smith wherever you are

Isn’t it funny how things stick in our minds over the years? Deloris was my best friend in St. Casimir’s grade school. After all these many years, I still think of her on her birthday, which is the day after mine. Yes, I had a very nice birthday yesterday. Thank you Kim for a lovely lunch and such a beautiful bouquet. And so nice of all the friends and relatives with their phone calls and cards and good wishes. I thank you all for thinking of me.

Lately, I’ve been in the sewing room doing some (horrors) mending and repair. But, it does make me feel better getting some put-aside tasks completed. I have a saying tacked up in my sewing room:

Nothing is as fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of uncompleted tasks

Now if only I would pay more heed to that …

I have a recipe for you today.

Hocus Pocus Crispies
This is one I’ve been making since 1977; the photo is scanned from the old recipe I had cut out from a magazine. It’s a family favorite and a company favorite. I remember SIL Tammy really enjoying these when she came to visit and she has them in her favorite recipes.

I went to the pillsbury.com website and did a search for the recipe and was surprised to find that it was “not found”. And a google search was fruitless. I thought that would never do – so, I am putting it online. Here’s a link to the PDF – http://anotherpat.com/HocusPocusCrispies.pdf
Enjoy!

Hand soap and a smile

We’re all looking to save money, eh? Well, this will cut your liquid hand soap expenses in half. We like the Foaming Hand Soaps and had read that you could make your own by mixing half liquid soap and half water. We’ve been using it for a few weeks, cuz I wanted to make sure that it worked before I blogged about it.

You have to have an empty bottle from foaming hand soap; it has a special dispenser. In a measuring cup, I poured in ½ cup of liquid hand soap and ½ cup of water and stirred it with a spoon. I poured the cup of liquid into the empty 7.5 fl oz bottle of foaming hand soap with the special dispenser. Works just as good as the original stuff.

I didn’t know they had this on youtube -- I saw this some time ago. If you don’t get a smile from this one, it ain’t my fault – Laughing Babies --

Found while looking for something else

I just found the coolest place to subscribe to podcasts that are all about “things computer”. Years ago, there used to be a TV show called “Cnet Central” that had all kinds of tips for computer users and news about the latest “gotta haves”. In today’s paper there was an article about making your computer run faster - http://tinyurl.com/csuk5d

The article mentioned a video to watch on how to install more RAM in your computer. It said to go to cnettv.cnet.com , which I did and I found a ton of informational video podcasts that I could subscribe to. I immediately subscribed to Apple Byte, Insider Secrets, Cnet Top 5 and Quick Tips. It gave me the option to choose iTunes and they’re downloaded and waiting to go into my iPod Touch. They also had a little video that had 3 tips on how to make the most of AdAware, which I watched.

I will definitely be back to Cnet to see what else I might be missing! LOL

A Needlebook Saves My Needles

I don’t know about other parts of the world, but I do know in South Florida that if my handsewing needles are exposed to air when they are stored, a corrosive-type thing happens to them. I like to keep them handy and out in the open, so I thought some kind of needlebook would work. And it does. Some time ago, I searched the WWW and found a few sites that had needlecases, books. I liked what I saw on http://www.thehappyzombie.com/blog/, click on “Strawberry Delight Needlebook”. I wanted to put it on the lamp base behind my serger and it wouldn’t fit, nor fill that space. So, I thought to make my own shape. A kidney shape would do rather well.
DD Kim saw it and asked if I’d make her one. She also liked the kidney shape, even though she didn’t need that shape. So, I went into EQ6 and designed one for her. It had to have a butterfly in it. The butterfly is a symbol of life, joy and hope. And those are the things I wish for my daughter. I have given her lots of butterflies over the years.
I do not attach the pretty embroidered cover to the needlebook. It would take more room to open out a hinged cover to get at the needles. With 4 layers of felt, the bottom half acts as a pincushion when it is in use. The black felt is stitched down the middle and either side opens like a book. And I haven’t had any corroded needles since I’ve been protecting them in the needlebook.

AOL Quilting Community Project #2

I have put up another project from the old AOL Quilting Community. This one’s from Tish Douglas, again. Tish designed this one in the days after 9/11/2001. Complete instructions, with graphics, are available as a PDF--
http://anotherpat.com/qt/flagquilt.pdf

I have a list up with another project on it and more will be coming –
http://anotherpat.com/qt/index.html

Several quilters have sent in pics of their Flag Quilts – http://anotherpat.com/qt/gallery6.htm

An afternoon with a Monarch

After spending a good part of the morning in the sewing room, I spent a couple more hours there this afternoon watching the Lifetime movie “The Queen” with Helen Mirren which I’ve seen before. Ms. Mirren was excellent in the role as the Queen. I love stories about the monarchy. I got hooked on the PBS series about the Royal Family that was on not too long ago. Loved the little details they told about what goes on in the Palace. Like the butlers who dust the loooong dining room tables by putting fluffy socks on their feet and dancing on the tables! And all the protocol that has to be followed. Was very interesting.

I like to watch a good movie when I am sewing. It can’t be an adventure where I have to actually watch every minute of the movie. Although I’ve been known to get to my sewing only during commercials. It’s surprising how much one can accomplish during commercials!

I’ve got a few things in the sewing room that are causing me anxiety. And anxiety is something that should never be in the sewing room. So, I figure when I finish them off, the anxiety will be relieved and then I can start a new project. I’ve treated myself to a Ricky Tims pattern & kit – “The Family Tree of Life” which has a Convergence Technique as the background. His hand-dyed fabrics are to die for! But, I am not going to start on it until I finish up a few things. And then I can blog about the things that I finish. LOL

Hope your day went well and maybe you were able to spend some time sewing, too.

Fabric shopping, EQ, iPod Touch

I’d like to thank Penny & Andrea over at ElectricQuilt for creating a whole bunch of traffic to my blog today! I was mentioned on the EQ blog for my entry on Friday.

I had sent EQ an email saying I had found a good marriage between the iPod Touch and EQ and they agreed and posted my link today. In the EQ blog it said -- “She moves images from EQ to her IPod Touch and takes the IPod to the fabric store! Not only does she save paper, but going from computer screen to IPod screen, she doesn’t have to deal with the way printers and monitors are calibrated.”

There definitely is a difference between the colors I see on my monitor and the colors that print.

I've got a quilt that I will be making here in the not too far distant future and I will let you know how the iPod Touch helps me with my fabric selection.