Congratulations to My Daughter

I just wanted to write a quick note to publicly congratulate my daughter on the successful completion of the writing fellowship she was awarded in the last semester of her freshman year.

She is now officially qualified as a writing tutor and is employed at her university's writing center. 

Successfully completing this course was no small feat.  It is a graduate-level course and it required hours of writing, study and evaluation.  She worked conscientiously and was rewarded for her work.  As an extra bonus, the fellowship allowed her to fulfill her senior year internship.  Not bad -- polishing off your senior internship as a first-semester sophomore.

Great work, my sweet girl.  I am, as always, very proud of you. I am blessed.

Happy Birthday, Jane Austen

Though it's a bit late in the day, I want to acknowledge the birthday of Jane Austen, one of my favorite authors.  :)

Jane was born December 16, 1775,  in Steventon, Hampshire, England.

Love and Freindship (yes, that's her spelling of friendship) is one of the juvenilia writings authored by Jane when she was 14 years old.   Below is a favorite passage of mine from Love and Freindship -- a series of letters.  All misspellings are the young Miss Austen's.

"Beware of fainting-fits… Though at the time they may be refreshing and agreeable, yet beleive me they will in the end, if too often repeated and at improper seasons, prove destructive to your Constitution… My fate will teach you this… I die a Martyr to my greif for the loss of Augustus… One fatal swoon has cost me my Life… Beware of swoons, Dear Laura… A frenzy fit is not one quarter so pernicious; it is an exercise to the Body and if not too violent, is, I dare say, conducive to Health in its consequences — Run mad as often as you chuse; but do not faint –”  Letter 14, Laura to Marianne

I will endeavor to do my best to "run mad" and "not faint".  ;)

Deck the Halls 2008

I participated in the last craft show for this year on the 6th, and became ill on the 8th. I'm finally beginning to feel better, thankfully, so I will share a bit of my Christmas decorating.

I'm missing three trees this year -- my sewing area, entryway tree and the basement family room, but here's what I did manage to get done.

The tree in the living room.  I can't seem to get a picture that shows the tree lights in all their glory.   :)   I like lights -- lots of lights; there's 1000 lights on this 6 1/2 ft. tree.  Actually, it does fluctuate between 950 and 1000, as half of the second strand keeps going on/off, on/off.  The Lionel train underneath is a Santa Fe diesel from the 1950s, I think.  My husband is the train guy.

A few of my favorite ornaments:

This little pair of socks is my favorite.  They're the Christmas socks I purchased on the day I went into labor with my daughter. She wore them on her first Christmas. I have a sweet, sweet picture of her wearing her Christmas socks, but she's also wearing her birthday suit, so I won't post the picture -- but it's cute...really cute.  :)

My daughter purchased this ornament for me at the second craft show I did this year.  I *love* snowmen.  The woman in the booth next to mine made several of these and sold them all.  No surprise to me, I think it's adorable.

This little ornament set has hung at the top of every Christmas tree for 25 years.  I wonder if they still sell those little cheap, plastic nativities?

Unfortunately, we don't have a fireplace and as such, our stockings are not hung by the chimney with care.  They're on the TV stand.  This is not an endorsement for Olive Garden, that's just what happened to be on, but I am impressed with the quality of the picture on the television.

Moving to the kitchen table:

The candle looks wonky because my husband has a thing about playing with shaping candle wax while the candle is burning.  I have no idea why.  I'll admit I have roasted marshmallows over candle flames, but not very often.

Normally, I have a tree on the buffet that sits in our entryway.  Here's this year's decoration.  I like it, but I miss the tree because the tree has LIGHTS (usually 200 on a 2 ft. tree -- all white lights -- with the ornaments I used in the bowl). 

In the master bedroom, my Shabby Chic-ish tree:

This tree appears to have a large bare spot, but it doesn't.  There are tiny little angels and rosebuds in that area.  Here's the nativity that's under the tree.  You can see one of the little angels right above the star.

Here's a few more pictures from the living room:

My husband was in the high school band and played the bass drum. My MIL buys him a drummer boy nearly every Christmas.

There's a pretty wreath on the front door, but I forgot to take a picture.

I realize my decorating is not magazine spread worthy, but we like it.  :)

Would you like to win a fabulous handbag?

If you're interested, head on over to Lila Tueller's blog and try your skills at deciphering morphed celebrities. The grand prize is a handbag made by the oh-so-very-talented Lila using fabrics from her upcoming fabric line, Soire'e.

Isn't the fabric lovely? It's certainly worth the effort and you'll have fun, too!

You May Have Already Seen This, but We Need a Laugh

In these times of confusion, we turn to some of our most respected political/social figures for the answer to that age old question: Why did the chicken cross the road?

SARAH PALIN: Before it got to the other side, I shot the chicken,
cleaned and dressed it, and had chicken burgers for lunch.

BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a change! The chicken wanted change!

JOHN MC CAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure right from Day One! that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?

COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

AL GORE: I invented the chicken.

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

AL SHARPTON: Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens.

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his current problems
before adding new problems.

OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so badly. Instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

NANCY GRACE: That chicken crossed the road because he's guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road.  Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

JOHN LENNON: Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken 2008, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken 2008. This new platform is much more stable and will never crash or need to be rebooted.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

Happy Anniversary!

Twenty-five years -- a quarter of a century!

Happy Anniversary to us.

Few wedding pictures survive due to a certain someone; but we love her just the same. :)

Patterns, Bags, Books -- Mamma Mia!

I hope all of you enjoyed the long weekend. My daughter and I headed for the theater to see Mamma Mia! The Sing-Along. We'd seen Mamma Mia! (twice) and I had no idea they were releasing a sing-along version until I was channel surfing through a bout of insomnia. I had never, ever gone to a movie more than once until Mamma Mia! The first time we saw it, we were invited to go with my sil(s) and I wasn't too sure about it. I generally don't like musicals --not even Grease. But this movie/musical is fabulously fun from the word go. It's definitely a "chick flick". We laughed a lot and even cried a little, too. If you haven't seen it, you need to hurry! The sing-along has a limited release - only one theater in our area is showing it. And if you do go see it, do not leave when the end credits start because you'll miss one of the best parts of the movie. Trust me on this and stay put until it's text-only . :) .

After the movie we paid a visit to Barnes and Noble where we purchased some books from the bargain section.

I did manage to fit some sewing into the weekend. I completed four bags for the fall craft fairs. I took photos, but they didn't turn out well. Here's a so-so quality picture of a bag I made for me. Nothing fancy, but I like it. The fabric's background is a dark plum color. It's prettier in person. :)

On Saturday the mail carrier delivered Heather Bailey's Daily Spice Halter Apron with a little bonus pattern for a felt flower. I think I'm going to use a fabric from Amy Butler's "Charm" collection for my first apron. I purchased two yards of it from the bargain table at a local quilt shop more than a year ago.

Though I'll have to keep the project the back burner while I keep working on bags for the craft shows. It frustrates me that I'm so far behind.

Again, my apologies for the poor photos. I'll try to do better next time.

Oh, one more thing concerning Mamma Mia. Yes, I've heard all the brouhaha about Pierce Brosnan's singing. He stays on-pitch and as far as I'm concerned, that's all that's required for this movie. He could sing to me on or off pitch anytime he wanted -- not that he'd want to, of course...I'm just sayin'... :)