Anniversary

This is always a good day for me. It is a celebration of the day that I married my wonderful husband. Yep, our anniversary, 45 and counting. He makes it so very easy to be married -- to stay married. He is kind, supportive, loving, generous....spoils me at every level. I actually have a shirt that announces that; it says "SPOILED" on the front of the shirt. Often when I wear it, someone asks me, "Doesn't that shirt bother you?" My response, "Are you kidding me? I am proud to be spoiled. I work at it, so does my husband." He also makes me laugh, a lot. He makes me smile, a lot....hmmm, I think I am going to go put a smile on his face, too. See ya....

HO HO HO

HoHoHo. I met Santa Claus, today, in person !! It was so delightful.

I had made my list, and checked it twice....unfortunately it was not my Christmas wish list, it was a list of the of errands I had to accomplish, today. So, with my car packed with gifts to deliver and my wallet not nearly packed enough, I set out. One of the items on my long long list was purchasing some produce from a local market. So, there I was, arms full of gorgeous Lousiana oranges, heading back out to get in my car. There was a gentleman looking at my car and grinning. Silly me, I was pridefully, thinking he was admiring the jazzy car, itself. When I approached him, he smiled and said, "You must be delivering Christmas presents." I said, "As a matter of fact, I am." He said, "I am too. I am delivering freshly chopped meat and freshly made sausage." "Wow," I said, " I have been a very good girl, too. Of course, that all depends on how one defines, 'GOOD," heh heh." We both chuckled and I sat in my car getting ready to drive off when the man (Santa) waved his hand at me to stop. He reached in his sleigh and got out a package. He came over to my window and handed me a lovely container of sausage !!" What a surprise. Yes, Dianne, there really is a Santa.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

Happy Birthday, Daddy

Today would have been my Dad's 88th birthday. Happy Birthday, Daddy, wherever you are. I love you.

Hello, my name is Dianne and I am the person who is supposed to be attending to the business at hand, like this blog. Either I am trying to set a record for the longest time NOT adding to her blog, or I am in danger of being fired from my job....oh, wait, I am not being paid for doing this, anyway....in fact, I am the boss....DUH.

I can proudly announce, "We did it." My daughter and I both walked the 3-Day 60 Mile 'Walk. The amazing thing was that Brandy, even with her sore leg, completed nearly every step. Also, I am delighted to say that for the second time, I never even had so much as one little blister. Lucky lucky me. The more impressive thing was the number of walkers who continued with tons of blisters, sore legs, shin splints, bad knees, etc. They are the champions. I have to say that the most difficult thing for me was trying to sleep on a mattress that lost its air and not having enough blankets so we put on nearly every stitch of clothing we brought and slept like lovers, cuddling, trying to keep from freezing to death. In spite of all that, I am thinking of signing up, again. Hmmm, more data for sending me to a looney bin....

One of the things that has kept me busy is completing that Block of the Month quilt. I did it in about two weeks. As I said earlier, there is a reason that it is called "Block of the MONTH." It was enough to burn me out on quilting for a while. Good thing I bought a needlepoint canvas at Market, heh heh.

Oh, I finally remembered to put a photo of the new rug I was asked to make for the Roc-Lon corporation. Ta Da.

The size is 7' x 10'

My stress level is through the roof. Husband, Tom, left for New Orleans this morning. I am trying to ship, pack, work on a quilt that was "due" two weeks ago, make desserts for my meeting tonight, etc. all the while trying not to think about "worse case scenarios" when it comes to our daughter's health. Add to that a major case of GUILT for not even being there in New Orleans while all of this is coming to a head. Later folks. Have a great week if I do not see you before then.

(nada)

Finally back home. I can never understand how one can be so exhausted from just sitting and waiting...and waiting...and waiting....We actually left Brandy in New Orleans. The doctors had no tests scheduled for the weekend so we decided to try our best to get some things done before Monday when they are supposed to run additional tests. We tried to check Brandy out of the hospital for the weekend but it got way too complicated. Fingers crossed that she is released by Tuesday and gets to go to California with me. Right now we do not even know when the surgery is supposed to happen. It seems that there is an inverse correlation with the number of folks involved and the amount of information that is given.

(0 miles)

I am thinking, exactly how many miles can I possibly get in between now and the walk???? Probably none. Big Fat Zero.

Tomorrow we leave for New Orleans and the doctor's appointment. Gone until the weekend, then leave for The Walk. Today was the second of the two day Artists' Studio Tour. I had a great time demonstrating how to make glass beads, but, again, no time to walk. Now to pack for New Orleans, ship some packages, pack for the San Diego thingie, then the Thanksgiving trip the day we return from San Diego. Am I babbling? Feels like I am babbling. If I do not return until after the Holiday, have lots of Turkey, and even more pie, heh heh.

(4 miles)

Definitely looks like I am working on another month long hiatus. Believe me, it is not intentional. I am long overdue learning the meaning of, and USE of the word, "NO." I keep trying to blame someone else, anyone else, for the predicaments I manage to get myself into.

Check out this situation: A local quilt shop owner asked if I would choose the fabrics for a block of the month quilt. Mind you, she announced this in front of about 25 women who all said, "Hey, if Dianne is selecting the fabrics, I want to register." O.M.G, talk about pressure. I am going to need Valium, big time. It is one thing to pick fabrics for your own quilt, but for 50-60 others?????? Did I say, "NO thank you?" Of course not, remember, I do not know the meaning or use of that word."

. Now, this is no ordinary quilt. It probably has 50-60 different fabrics and could have more if one chose to do so. The quilt is fabulous. In fact, I am the one who talked the show owner into purchasing the pattern. What amazes me is why every shop who sells sewing machines does not use this quilt to teach the owners about different stitches, feet, a variety of techniques, etc.

Anyway, there was no way the shop had enough variety in her fabrics to make this baby. So, on the spur of the moment, I headed to Dallas to Moda and P&B fabrics. A few thousand $$$, and two days later, I began making a sample quilt. This was nearly two weeks ago and I have now gotten about three hours of sleep each night. My goal was to complete the quilt by this Friday (today) HA HA HA HA. Talk about delusional..... There is a reason this was called a block of the MONTH. Sigh.

Did I mention that I had agreed to participate in the Artists' Studio Tour which also happens to begin tomorrow morning? You guessed it, I have done nothing to add to my jewelry or anything else. I headed out to the studio tonight to try my best to practice beadmaking. My torch has been on the fritz for weeks so add that to my stess list.

Did I mention that our house has decided to spring several leaks with all the torrential rain? and, one of the places that was affected was the bathroom in the studio? I returned from Market/Festival to major mold all over the ceiling. Of course, my husband decided to wait until today to repair the ceiling so there is dust and gunk all over the place. .....

Did I mention that we then leave on Monday for New Orleans for my daughter's surgery? We should be gone all week, returning Sunday so I can host the Pokino group on Monday, home two more days then leave for San Diego and the 60 MIle Breast Cancer Walk, returning on Monday, leaving on Tuesday for our family Thanksgiving, returning December,...then...well, that pretty much eats up the month of November and somewhere in there I am supposed to finish remaking two bedspreads my mother bought, make the dust
ruffles and matching pillows before heading to the Feasting? Talk about delusional-- talk about stupid human tricks....David Letterman, book me now.

(6 miles)

Hard to believe it has been nearly a month since I added to my Threads. Oh well, We have yet to settle on a date fro Brandy's surgery. I often wonder what the doctor does when it is someone that they care about who needs attention .

Quilt Market was not what folks expected, that is for sure. The assumption is that shop owners are trying to save some $ by having the distributors come to them rather than spend the money on travel and hotels. I can certainly understand that but it is not good for the rest of us who spent large $$ getting to the show and setting up a booth. Oh well, such is life. My favorite part of the whole thing is seeing other people's creativity, getting to meet the designers and creators of so many awesome things, just talking to everyone. We all know how much I hate to talk, heh heh.

Quilt Festival was another thing altogether. It was great. My daughter calls these "Ego Trips," and I concur. How could it not make your day when so many different folks come to your booth and say, "I love your booth, your products, your sense of color and design, etc,??" I am definitely not immune to any of that. I love it. Probably the best was the owner of one of the booths that specializes in African materials who saw me walking around (spending while my son watched the booth, hee hee) and motioned for me to come to his booth. He said, in the most wonderful accent, "I just love your booth. It is the best booth in the show, I want to live in your booth. I want the rug you have on the floor. " He was just a doll. I offered to make a rug for him out of his fabrics and you would have thought I was giving him the moon.

Speaking of my "walking around," just going to the bathroom ends up costing me big bucks. It got to the point that whenever I told my son I had to go to the bathroom, he would reach into the cash drawer and hand me $100 bucks because no matter what aisle I took, I saw something I "needed" to use in my designs....now if I can just live long enough to try all of them out, gulp.

Finally, we have photos of our daughter's wrecked car. I am posting them and repeating, "We are lucky; we are blessed."