Time flies and it's just so much fun! Not!

I worked quite a bit on Baby Girl's curtains this weekend but I don't have pictures because Baby Girl has borrowed my camera for a school project.

It's for her Communication's Art class, and I'd like to know when classes like Communication Art, came into being?

One of her brilliant projects was to, 'make something out of stuff'.

I kid you not.

And she's to draw 5 pictures, and the professor would like at least 4 hours to be spent on each one.

Really.

But the camera is to be used for an assignment wherein Baby Girl is to 'manipulate nature in an artistic way' and photograph it'.

I could have helped her with that one.

I would love to have a picture of the noisy bunch of red squirrels, that chose Saturday morning to have a turf war in the tree right outside my bedroom window, all tied together by their nasty little tails.

That would be manipulating nature at it's best!

Baby Girl hates this class and finds it to be a total waste of time.

But I think the real reason Baby Girl hates it, is the fact that, said Professor is over forty, pregnant, and doesn't shave her armpits!

Or as Baby Girl says, "Hans, you have nothing on her!"

I had to work at the inn last night, and tonight, therefor no sewing.

Last night's excitement involved Vet Tech Girl phoning me at around eleven PM and all I could hear through her hysteria was something about rushing to the hospital.

Only after my heart was in my throat did I realize that she was talking about her baby pitt bull, Duncan.

Apparently when Vet Tech Girl got home from work she discovered that one of Duncan's eyes was dilated.

Heavens to Betsy.

After a wild ride (that I'm sure Duncan thoroughly enjoyed) to the emergency clinic that Vet Tech Girl had just arrived home from, and an examination (that I'm sure Duncan thoroughly enjoyed), no one was any the wiser as to why Duncan's eye was dilated.

He now has an appointment with a doggy neurologist.

I kid you not.

I hope this girl never has children.

I don't have to work tomorrow night and I look forward to an evening of uninterrupted sewing (that is if Duncan doesn't get a fart stuck crosswise!), and if I can wrestle my camera away from Baby Girl I just might have some updated pictures!

Do you think he hears what I'm saying about him?

I think I might be in trouble!

Or blogger might be in trouble.
I've lost two full posts tonight!


Even after saving them!!!!


This is the fabric I just bought tonight so I can make curtains for Baby Girl.
She and 6 other girls live in a big old house with big old windows, and there are no curtains!
This is what caught my eye and I had to have it.
The sales associates loved it too.
Whether Baby Girl and her friends love it remains to be seen.
But I say beggers can't be choosers!





I placed my hand and a pair of scissors on them for scale.



































And when the hell did 'calico' get to be so expensive?

Even with coupons I spent way too much.

A little catching up.

Just a small re-cap of our weekend.

Here's Captain Hans doing something he's never done before.

He's fishing.

When I first met Hans and he told me that he liked to sail, I assumed (I know!!! Never assume!) that he probably also liked to fish. I was floored (and a little disappointed) to learn that fishing was just something his family never did.

Fishing was something my family did quite a bit of while I was growing up in my little swamp town and I still love it.

This little pole came with a lovely fishing guide complete with descriptions of Mako Sharks and Blue Marlin. Hans eagerly devoured all of this information and I fear that

I ruined his day when I pointed out that this particular pole wasn't going to cut the mustard with those big boys!

The perfect office.

Every work day should start with a Bloody Mary.

I really wanted to bake something in my little propane stove, so I bought a chocolate chip (what else!) muffin mix that only required water and then improvised by putting my muffin cups into a frying/baking pan.

Here is the 'before' baking picture.

And the slightly lopsided 'after' picture. I think I need to invent an insert for baking pans so that they can convert to muffin pans. On a boat, space is at a premium!!!

A pretty sunset and a fishing pole that never caught anything!

I feel like I was held hostage....

... by my internet connection!!

I finished my Teardrop last week and had hoped to spend my weekend posting pictures etc... but I had an extremely slow connection so I had to wait until tonight.


Hans and I took Friday as a vacation day so that we could take advantage of the beautiful weekend and get in some sailing. Hans had business in the Baltimore area so he drove down to MD earlier in the week and then I flew down on Thursday night to meet him and by 9:00 that night we were on board and ready to go.


It was a fantastic weekend of sailing as we had up to 20 knots of wind for a good deal of the time and our Miss Kitty performed admirably! Hans had her sailing at about 5 knots, 45 degrees into the wind and I've probably mentioned before, that we've been told our Bob Johnson, Island Packet Catamaran can't do that, but she does.


I wanted to spend time reading and commenting on my favorite blogs but after about an hour of trying to connect, and then waiting for about 10 minutes for each blog to appear, I said 'the heck with it' and just gave up!








Isn't this a pretty purse?

When I went to the quilt shop where I buy my 'better quality' fabrics, I had already picked out a purple and yellow combo (big surprise?) when the sales lady (no doubt trying not to cringe) aimed me in the direction of this color combo.



I think it turned out very nice.



And when I was boarding my plane, a lady behind me remarked that it was a really great bag!!!













I think the stripes lined up pretty good for me.


























And here's Sally Stitch wearing my finally completed Burda 06-08-124, and carrying my Teardrop purse.

It's really hard to see but the colors of the purse and the shirt are really very close.

Note: I had to take the top in almost an inch on each side because it was too baggy. Most likely because I tend to like a snug fit.

Anyway, it feels good to be back in the blogging world and tomorrow I will get completely caught up on my reading and posting!

The Women

Tonight, Turner Classic Movies is showing the original version of 'The Women'. A movie full of vicious gossips, loyal friends, and backstabbing bitches; I feel it conveys the most realistic portrayal of the intricate and tangled relationships among women, of any movie that Hollywood has ever produced.



I think the first time I saw it was about 15 or so years ago, and as an old movie buff I couldn't believe I'd never seen it before. I also couldn't believe that someone hadn't tried a remake of such a fabulous film, but I was wrong and from what I've read, The Opposite Sex from 1956, was a remake and a dismal failure.

Maybe we need to learn that sometimes, perfection, cannot be duplicated.

Would I want to see a remake of It's a Wonderful Life?

Well, I did, and it was awful. Poor Marlo Thomas was thrust into the female version of George Bailey and it was, at best, pathetic.

The wit and rapid fire dialogue of the original 'Women' cannot be surpassed and unfortunately with the evolution of time, the original plot just can't hold water either.

These days no matter how much a woman may love her husband, not very many women would take back a sniveling idiot who drops his drawers for the counter girl at Saks, and ends up marrying her!

Period.

But in the original, which was made in 1939, it is believable because back in those days a 'good' woman was loving, and forgiving, and understanding.

Today, she refuses to be the door mat, the 'oops I made a mistake so please take me back', woman.

And thank God she doesn't need to be.

But I still hoped that somehow the new version would be a keeper, something that everyone would rave about, and that I wouldn't mind spending a few dollars on to go see.

Apparently that's not going to happen but that's ok, because at 8:00 tonight I will be tuned into TCM (instead of Nancy Grace), and I will once again enjoy, The Women.

And I'll enjoy every bitchy second.

Oh No!!!! It's ALIEN DOG!!!

Well, he'd be called Alien Dog if 'The Examiner' (Bat Boy lives in the White House, Bat Boy spotted at Disney World...) was to get a hold of these pictures.

These are just a few, of the approximately 1,000 pictures, I've taken of the Vet Tech Girl's new puppy, Duncan.

Oh my, I can't even imagine how nauseating I will be if I ever become a real grandmother.

Actually, I would be completely happy if my kids opted for pets as opposed to kids.

A lot less worry!

Here is Grandpa Hans with Duncan.

Duncan loves Grandma Laura, black roots and all!

Lots and lots of Duncan kisses.

Finally, Duncan and Grandma Laura are both worn out.

Hans and I went for a huge bike ride today, and when we got home we invited Vet Tech Girl up for a visit, with the stipulation that Duncan be included.

He was wound tighter than an 8 day clock!

Finally, after 'sitting, speaking, shaking hands and having little piddle accidents, Duncan started to calm down. Vet Tech Girl works with him constantly to ensure that he has a proper upbringing. Every time he eats, she takes his food bowl away from him, gives it back, and then takes it away again. This is to make sure that he doesn't become possessive and therefor aggressive with his food, as it stands; he doesn't react at all, he just looks around as though nothing has happened. Hans dropped a carton of eggs on the floor by mistake, so they were put into a bowl (eggshells and all) and given to Duncan, who proceeded to chew and scatter egg shells all over Hans' deck. We grilled steaks and Duncan got the left overs.

His diet consists of portions of raw meat, raw bones, and doggy supplements.

I kid you not!!! Vet Tech Girl has done all the research, I promise.

She takes him on 'play dates' to a friend's home, who has a female pit bull, and even though Duncan's the one with the heart murmur, he wears that poor dog out.

At one point, in his extreme excitement, he whipped around and nipped me with his sharp puppy teeth. Vet Tech Girl girl immediately went into mommy mode and astonished me by saying in a rapid fire way, "Don't let him do that! Every time he does that you grab him by his lip," and roughly demonstrating on herself, she harshly pinched her own lip, "and yank it down!"

Dear God, I hope that girl never has real children of her own as someone would surely turn her into Family Services!

I don't know, you tell me!

Since the inn is experiencing its 'fall' slowdown, I wasn't on the schedule last night and this is what took up too much of my time. I decided to get some sewing done so I dug out my Burda 06-2008-124 that I traced off back in June.

This fabric is a slippery jersey that I purchased in Paris this spring, and since I didn't want to ruin it, I did my homework.

I didn't have a stretch needle so I used a brand new ballpoint. I placed stabilizing paper under the fabric so that the feed dogs wouldn't greedily suck everything into the bowels of my machine, and then I set my stitch to zig-zag.

I was pretty proud of myself when the first couple of seams screamed along slicker than snot.

And then....

... things went straight to hell.

My upper thread kept breaking.

And breaking.

And breaking.

C'mon!! One of the sleeves took about a half an hour to set in place and it should have taken about a minute.

I grabbed some scraps and tested them with both straight and zig-zag stitches and it appears that the zig zag is the problem.

But why?

I've googled until I'm cross-eyed and I still can't find the answer.

Actually, I think I recall having this problem with my machine a long time ago in my first life. I have a Janome New Home 2000 that I bought about 15 years ago when my kids were little. All of a sudden it seemed like every time I did any embroidery with it, the upper thread would shred and the machine would stop. I took it to my dealer and they couldn't find anything wrong with it. (I get the same reaction from my doctor when I tell him about my PMS!).

Now, years later, it appears that I'm having the same issues.

I want to be able to zip a shirt together in an evening and not go through this agony.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Am I supposed to be changing the upper tension?

What happens is my upper thread 'shreds' and then breaks. I've changed needles and the problem continues so I know that's not it. Perhaps something with the back and forth motion of the needle is causing it?

I guess I'll have to take it in to be looked at, but I hate to have to do that, if it's just a matter of my being stupid!

Any help would be greatly appreciated as Sally Stitch cannot stand modeling inferior products!

Ouch!

This is what I found tonight.

The poor little soul got a little too nosy.

Then there is this version of a mouse trap.

A couple of hours after finding the above corpse, I sat down on my couch, thus prompting a mouse to scoot out from underneath and scurry across the floor.

Believe it or not I only screamed once and then, heaving a big sigh, went in search of my trusty mouse catcher.

In the meantime Chlorox took up the chase and trapped the poor thing in a corner and then sat down to patiently wait for it to move again.

I took over and placed the bucket over as much of the mouse as I could (considering that it was wedged tightly into a corner) and then used the handle of the brush to scooch it all the way under the bucket. Then I slid a piece of heavy paper underneath, flipped the bucket over, and plopped on the top.

The little guy is now over in another neighbors yard, hopefully finding shelter in a falling down shed and not coming back to my house.

Chorox, still waiting for her little friend to come out and play.

An almost finished purse, and some quilts

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was going to ask the quilting ladies if I could take some pictures of their work. Well, I did, but I really didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked because I hated to impose myself on them too much! And even though I brought some of my purses with me to show them, I left them in my car because I'm still not confident in my work. I guess I'm a bit like my mother in that respect; far too critical of myself.

I did confess to these ladies that I have a blog (I thought they should know why I was taking pictures of their work). I told them the name of it but, I don't think anyone wrote it down and maybe they won't check me out. At this time, Hans is the only person I've told that I have a blog.

The first picture is of a really pretty bag from 'You Go Girl' and I'm so disappointed in the fact that my picture is blurry and I have no idea why. The colors are beautiful and the bag really stood out. There was another really cute purse with a ruffled flap and I thought I took a picture, but I didn't!!!

I love bright colors and this immediately caught my eye!

A pile of pieced squares ready to be turned into a quilt.

A partially completed quilt top.

Look at all those tiny little squares, pieced into even bigger squares!!

I think I would lose my mind trying to do that.

I remember years ago when I went to my girlfriend's aunt's house. Her aunt was (and still is), a truly gifted quilter. Well, at that time the aunt's 80 some year old mother lived with her, and this older lady's comment to me was, "I have no idea why someone would want to cut up a bunch of material and sew it back together again."

Not something we usually hear from an older generation.

Here is my Teardrop purse, before inserting the frame.

And after inserting the frame.

Let me tell you I thought I was going to turn myself inside out getting this baby into its frame!! I just had to take a deep breath and go for it. How Nicole ever managed to draft such a purse pattern says a lot for her training because even though at first you think, 'impossible', it just falls together! All I have to do is make a strap and sew some beads to the frame and I'll be done.

I think it makes a pretty, fall purse.

Chlorox just happened to stroll by and she said, "Hmm, I need a new purse."

"I'm thinking I really like this one."

"I'm head over heels in love with my new purse!!!!"

That Chlorox! She's such a diva!

Enough already!!!

Do you have any idea how nerve racking it is, to sit here and listen to mice chew their way around my living room ceiling while Chlorox (the chief mouser in this house), sits here dozing beside me?
Almost as nerve racking as a dentist drill; something I'm all too familiar with!

Poor little Jiminy Cricket

Tonight when I got to the inn to work I said, "What the hell is that chirping noise?"

And guess what?

We have a cricket.

In the kitchen.

And God Bless his little soul, he chirped all night.

At first it was cute but I've got to tell you that after awhile it could drive you nuts.

He never stopped.

From what I can remember, crickets in the house (or inn?) are supposed to bring good luck. I suppose it could be true for people but I don't think it's so lucky for the poor cricket. But I did have a calm night and I'll take that anytime.

Now get this.

We have a group staying at the inn and they are a bunch of quilters (not quitters!).

Here's what they do.

They bring all their fabric, and sewing machines, and they sew all day long for about a week.

How fun is that?

Actually, we have several groups that do this. The Happy Hookers hook beautiful wool rugs, and then we have several groups of quilters that use the inn throughout the year.

I've mentioned in some of my other posts that we have several dining rooms at the inn. These ladies take over one of those rooms and set their machines up for the week. Then they get their complimentary breakfast (and it's good, believe me!) and have lunch and dinner either at the inn or wherever they feel like going and sew their little hearts out the rest of the time.

Someday I'm going to do that.

Every year I peek in on them and I happened to have my Beach Bag (full of my clothes and make-up bag etc...) and my Snap Purse with me, and of course I had to show them, and of course they loved them and they told me to bring my other purses in on Wednesday which is my next scheduled night. I'll take them but I hope they don't look too closely at my work!! And I'm going to ask if I can take some pictures of their work to post on my blog.

Really though, wouldn't you love to be able to stay at a beautiful inn for a few days and sew all day long with your friends?

I know I would.

And if I ever find myself in a position to do this, I'm sending out a welcome to all of you to join me!!!

Even Jiminy Cricket will be welcome.

Hey waiter, there's a tooth in my soup!

Wait a minute, that's not just any tooth!

No!

It's my temporary crown.

That was just put on YESTERDAY, for God's sake!!!

And so began the painful saga of a crappy weekend.

On Thursday I sat through a two and a half hour ordeal that involved the grinding of an upper back molar down to nothing, and having a crown placed.

I was thrilled that I was not scheduled to work at the inn on Friday night, nor at my office job on Saturday morning (three of us rotate the Saturday morning schedule), so that meant Hans and I could go out dancing all night on Friday and sleep in on Saturday.

Not!

Friday evening, we had no sooner started sharing a bowl of chicken gumbo when I realized there was something very hard in my soup. You guessed it, my temporary crown was indeed 'temporary"!

With tooth in hand, and heart in throat, I ran to the ladies room and realized very quickly that there was no way that tooth was going back in without help.

A quick call to the doctor's office resulted in an appointment for the next morning at eight AM.

It wasn't long before the pain started and by the time we got home I couldn't get to the Vicadan (wisdom tooth, different doctor) fast enough.

Just take a serrated knife and shove it through one of your teeth, saw back and forth for a few hours and you'll get an idea of what I was going through.

Two hours later I took another Vicadan (my prescription states, one pill every 4 to 6 hours) and had to have Hans call the emergency room as I was in severe pain and the doctor wasn't returning my midnight calls.

They told me NOT to take another pain pill but that I could take some Ibuprofen, which I immediately did and after awhile the pain subsided and I was able to get some sleep.

Hans was not a happy camper! I've had a couple of bad experiences with my dentist in the last couple of years and Hans wanted a piece of him. The dentist was lucky because it was his partner that was on call, and who took care of me the next morning, and not him.

It didn't take long for him to declare that a root canal was necessary and we were going to do it right now.

And he did.

I also had to go to work at the inn Saturday night so I went straight to bed when we got home so that I would be able to function and hopefully not drool all over my customers!

I now have to go to another city for some more work and then back to my dentist to finish up.

Are they going to charge me for the root canal?

Probably.

Should I have to pay for it since the only reason I needed it was because a poorly placed temporary fell out?

I don't think so.

Am I a big pushover?

Yes.

This same doctor once prescribed Penicillin for me and I'm allergic to it. The replacement antibiotic was Clindamyacin which was far too strong, and put me in the hospital for a week with C-diff. I also had a cap placed on a front tooth and during the procedure he must have gotten too close to my sinuses because my nose ran freely for about 3 days after he was done (and I mean like a hose!). All of this has happened since I started dating Hans so you can see why he's a little unhappy.


And the reason this doctor didn't return my midnight calls was because I called him from my cell phone earlier and that's the number he kept. I called from my land line later on, and since it was so late, and since he didn't recognize the number, he decided it was just someone looking for drugs and ignored me!


I told Hans that these so called Golden Years of our lives aren't so Golden.



I think they're pretty damned rusty!

Some new purchases

For Hans' birthday I made a canvas, helm pod cover for the boat and I was very excited to be able to use up some of the grommets that I'd purchased on sale at WalMart. But I couldn't seem to get them to work properly and for once in my life it paid off to be stupid!

Why?

Because grommets that are used for boat canvas need to be either brass or stainless steel and mine were neither. If I'd been able to successfully install them, over time, they would have rusted.

So I went to a boat supply store and found the above grommets and since they are brass, I'll be ok.

So here's why mine wouldn't work and I really did feel stupid. Once you line up your grommet and washer (with your fabric sandwiched inbetween) and place the grommet tool over the whole thing, you then strike it a couple of times with a hammer. Well, I pounded the hell out of mine and nothing happened; the grommet and fabric all fell away from each other every time.

But during my garage sale when Hans and I were sitting in the driveway (fending off offers of 50 cents for things like my lawn mower etc...) I had a brain storm. Into the house I went, and out I came with a huge hammer (not my little one), and proceeded to beat the hell out of a grommet right there in my driveway.

It worked like magic (and caused my neighbors to roll there eyes yet once again).

All I needed was a bigger hammer and that's all! I'll finish the pod cover the next time we head down to the boat.

I bought this fabric after work yesterday and the colors are a lot prettier in person. They will hopefully, magically transform into a purse sometime this weekend. And do you see what the fabric is hanging off of?

An ironing board!!

Believe it or not, I didn't have one. At least not a full size one, mine was one of those tiny wooden ones and it was a pain to use. I was strolling through WalMart last night and saw ironing boards with a big $10.00 each sign, and before I could worry about how I'm going to fit in Hans' apartment this winter, I snapped it right up!!

Right underneath the board you can see Chlorox peeking at me. She has not left my side since I got home. She doesn't care to make another trip to the Big City anytime soon. Here is The Beast aka Harry Houdini. There is no locked door that can hold this girl back!

The end of a wild and whacky weekend

We managed, minus one engine, to limp back into our slip on Sunday and the Engine Doctor came to visit on Monday. Miss Kitty's diarrhea came as a result of chronic constipation as she had a lot of carbon built up in her lines (apparently she suffers from PMS too!) and everything blew! So she got her lines cleaned out and her oil changed in both engines. The good Doctor probed, pounded, and praised her, and had her purring, in no time flat.

She was supposed to have her oil changed on the Friday of Labor Day weekend but our mechanic had to cancel. Miss Kitty didn't like being stood up, had a fit, and sulked her way through the weekend.

We're finding out that Miss Kitty does not like to be taken for granted.

While we were away, I received too many emails (consisting of 'I will never babysit for you again!!') from Vet Tech Girl who was watching my two girls, Chlorox and The Beast. Chlorox did indeed spend the whole time under the bed and The Beast hissed at everything, including Vet Tech Girl, all weekend. Also neither cat ate or drank anything (Chlorox; maybe, The Beast; I hardly think so) resulting in a lecture about failing kitty livers and other maladies that can beset a cat that fails to eat etc...

The straw that broke the camel's back however, was when Vet Tech Girl arrived home from work at 2 AM (she works odd 12 hour shifts), threw open the bedroom door where she had locked the kitties for the night, only to discover that The Beast was missing.

And even the Beast isn't smart or agile enough to use a door knob.

Poor Vet Tech Girl raced around the apartment and as a last resort, opened up the kitchen door to her deck, only to find The Beast staring impassively back at her.

It took some figuring but here's what The Beast did.

She managed to squeeze between the air conditioner and the window and as she's something over 20 pounds I have no idea how that was possible.

BUT, the deck isn't under the window. The only thing under the window is an aluminum awning that covers the door that's directly below, and even then it's about a 3 foot drop. She had to have landed on the awning and then slid off to the paved driveway, meaning she fell a whole story. And then instead of heading out into a busy street or worse, she found the very narrow circular steps up to the apartment where she patiently waited for Vet Tech Girl to come home.





You see a lot of this at the docks. People love to boat with their pets.














I swear this is the same group of ducks I fed earlier this summer, only now they're all grown up.











Here's the good Doctor's tool kit. Miss Kitty love getting the blue glove treatment. It made her feel special.

This is what was sitting in my front yard when I got home.