The Girl and the Pacific Ocean

P and I finally made it to Coronado Beach on Thursday. We left early that morning. We weren't sure if it was going to rain... It was still warm though!

P ran up to the water. I took some shots of her when I noticed the fin in the water (maybe 20 meters away from her!) I was about to tell her to come out of the water since I wasn't sure if there were sharks in the water. But then, up it came... dolphins! We both got so excited about it! 

If you click on the photo, it enlarges and you can see the fin!

Take care,

Me

Coming Off The Wall

I was cooking in the kitchen when I felt some wind and a big sound right behind me. You would never guess what happened!? The wall cabinet that held our microwave, indoor grill and some serving platters came crashing down! It landed on top of my glass mixing bowls which I had just used 2 seconds prior! 

I was worried that it landed on top of our Bose Iphone stereo system which my Iphone was currently on! But the bio trashcan (white rectangular thingy with blue lid right underneath) which I was using to clean up my mess  and the microwave which slid out in the fall prevented that part of the cabinet to crash it. I would have been beyond mad!

M wasn't mad about the cabinet falling off the wall... but boy, oh boy, he was upset that another one of our favorite mixing bowls was gone. Oh well, we'll shop for new ones :-) The only casualties of this great fall were 4 serving platters, 2 mixing bowls, one cabinet and the grill! That's not too bad! :-)

It's time to reorganize the kitchen!

Take care,

Me

The Diva

One thing that you can be sure of is that when you are around P you'll definitely will be entertained. We were shopping at the Horton Plaza down town San Diego. We walked into a second hand bookstore which had some knick knacks right at the entrance. She threw them on, struck a pose and said: "That's right, you want to be me!" LOL

Take care, 

Me

The Kid on the Shoe

One of the sights that P and I saw in San Diego was "The Kiss". P ran up to it, hopped on the shoe and struck a pose. I had to take a picture of this...

I told P to hop off right after I got the picture because other people were patiently waiting to take a picture as well. As it would have it, P hopped off to the back and saw that there was a sign... "Do not sit on the statues!" Uuuppppssss! :-)

Take Care,

Me

A Definite Keeper

I am always amazed how much I lucked out in the husband department. Not only does my husband adore and love me... he also walks the dog day and night..., and he cleans the kitchen every night!

I wonder what I did to deserve him...?! :-)

Take care,

Me

Nini's B-day Quilt

Look, this is what I am working on right now... a "wild" quilt for a "wild" child! :-)

Hopefully I will be done with it soon!

Take care,

Me

Something New For Dinner

I was watching German tv last week when I saw the tail end of a new Philadelphia Cream Cheese commercial. Normally I don't pay much attention to commercials but this one caught my eye because the cream cheese was brown. Could have been a trick on the eyes... but I am sure that it was brown! You don't want to know what I was thinking :-)

Anyway, today M and I stopped by Tengelmann's on the way home from dog school. We only meant to turn in our recyclables but ended up walking through the aisles to get some things for our sandwich dinner. (We both don't feel like cooking!) If you remember the end aisle in the store is the refrigerated area. M was looking for a specific cheese spread (something with egg!) when I saw that they had Philadelphia Cream Cheese with Milka chocolate!

Hmm, of course, I picked up a tub to try for dinner!

P didn't like it. It isn't Nutella after all! I didn't like it because it had a funky after taste. M didn't like it because it reminded him too much of chocolate pudding. He can't have that on bread! It just has a weird texture... Yuck!

I feel guilty for saying this but I don't think we'll be finishing the tub. I can't toss it out because someone else like S might want to try when she comes over. But I can see that it somehow ends up in the back of the  fridge where M will find it 3 months from now. He will open it up, make a disgusted face and toss it. So maybe we should toss it now... that way he won't have to face a moldy chocolate cream cheese later on :-)

Is it available in the States yet? Would you try it?

Take care,

Me

A Framing Project with P

P gave me a coupon for Christmas that promised me that she would work with me on a project. I was so super happy with this coupon that I held on to it for a while to make sure that I am not going to “waste” it!

As we looked at all our photos from our trip, P wanted to print out a ton of them and put them up in her room. I told her that those pictures needed to be displayed in style so we would have to get some pretty cool frames. We looked in the P.X. but they have only 2 picture frames in stock ( and I mean that they actually only have 2 each in the store!). P wanted at least 9 so that wouldn’t do. We looked around but couldn’t find what we wanted. They were either too expensive (Euro 81) or not her style!

So we picked up some plain wooden ones from Ikea where we paid Euro 5,40 for 3 packs of 3 each. 

You can’t beat that price! We also picked up some white paint and 2 brushes at OBI’s for Euro 13.

We got started right away without having to use sandpaper on the IKEA frames because they came already all smooth with no finish on them. One thin layer of paint was all that we needed. It gave the frame a nice white finish without covering the grain of the wood too much. 

There also wasn’t a long drying time at all. We were able to doodle on the first frame by the time we finished painting the last frame. We used regular colored sharpie pens for our “drawings”.

 P also drew a couple of characters of a show called “Adventure Time”. I never even heard of that show, but maybe you have?

Here are the frames on display in her room. 

It turned out better than we imagined. By the way, the little peace signs are the ones we picked up on Claire’s clearance shelf for $1.99 at that mall in Atlanta.

I loved working with P on this! It gave me the chance to do something with her while at the same time we were able to talk about everything that is going on with her right now…

Take care

Me

A Baby Quilt

People have often offered to pay me if I would make a quilt. And until now I have always refused. I feel that if someone gives me money then it has to be perfect, and since I am far from being perfect I can’t quilt for money. Sorry!

But S’s friend asked me if I would be willing to make her a baby gift for a friend who just had her first girl after three boys. I don’t know what possessed me to say yes… I might have gone to bed mumbling to M about why he didn’t stop me…! So, if S’s friend doesn’t like the quilt and my feelings get hurt, I can blame it all on M! :-)

The only guidelines I received was that it should be pink but not too much. Girly yet not too much… Hmmm, this is so vague that it is almost scary. But I think I found a good balance.

So here is one side:

The fabric with the hearts is my focus fabric. I used the colors of the hearts to pull the fabrics for the other stripes from my stash. It is pink with a healthy dose of yellow, green, and blue…

The other side is a novelty print from Michael Miller. It reflects the colors of the pieced side.

 I don’t know the name…  It is girly with a dash of sophistication. It makes me happy looking at it and that is all that matters.

The quilting is very simple. I sewed straight lines (kinda like zig-zag) from one side to the other. I deliberately went for the wonky look because I knew that I can’t seem to quilt straight lines :-)

All in all, it's a very simple quilt that can be done in a couple of hours minus the hand sewing on of the binding. It might be something you could consider making when you next get invited to a baby shower!

I am a bit worried about giving it to S’s friend. What if she doesn’t like it…?

Take care

Me

A Birthday Quilt

I had a burst of energy… I don’t know where it came from but as my dad likes to say “never look in to the mouth of a gifted horse”! Okay, okay, I do know where it came from! M kept everything away from me so that I could put in some quality time with my sewing machine. I was able to piece the birthday quilt (and quilt it!) for S. I picked up a 5-yard bundle from "The Scarlett Thread" store with a free pattern. Isn’t it fabulous?!?!

I decided to applique the 6 left over blocks on the back. It gives it a certain charm!

It’s gorgeous. All pink and delicious! Memories of S floated through my mind as I worked on it. The first time I met her (right outside of GEMS school!). She was such a tiny thing. All smiles… and shy too! She hid behind her mom… she is still a bit shy! She has such a fun personality. It’s hard not to be happy when you are around her.

Even though I am tempted to keep it... it’s going to be wrapped up in a box and sent on to her new home. I hope she likes it as much as I do!

Take care,

Me

A Quilt Status

It’s done! Yes, it’s done. I finished the Peace quilt. I wanted to do just some basic quilting on it. But that’s not to P’s taste. It has to be fun she told me. So now it is full of stars and hearts.

I got the backing from IKEA. P saw the fabric (2 packages of 3 meters each for Euro 12) and decided that it had to be the back of her Peace quilt.

Now all that was left to do was the binding… P has been bugging me about it almost every day. So I got my butt in gear and just sat down to do the binding. It took 2 movies to finish it. And now I have a very happy girl snuggled up in it.

P’s room is almost finished! But I will tell you on another day about it.

Take care,

Me

A Quilt Status

I haven’t been able to do a lot this month. I do have some really good excuses though. There was a trip to San Diego and to Atlanta. Also, there was a birthday, a bit of work, oh, and family things that needed to be taken care of!

But, I finished piecing the Peace Quilt! I'm immensely proud of myself…

Now, I only need to quilt it, to bind it, and of course wash and dry it!

Take care,

Me

Once upon a time…

…there was a maxi dress that hung lonely on the sales rack in H&M. Along came this woman who looked at it and had to smile. She couldn’t fathom why anyone would make a maxi dress for children. They are way to busy running and jumping around! But she say potential, and of course, she couldn’t pass a good deal… after all, it was only Euro 5.

So home it came! However, it languished in the closet for a long time.

Two years to be exact! A girl needed some warm weather clothes and the woman remembered the neglected dress in her closet.

So out it came! Chop, chop and 30 minutes later she had a “shortish” dress and a skirt.

Now we have a happy woman, a happy girl and a happy “maxi” dress/skirt. Hopefully they will live happily ever after!

Take care,

Me

P.S. I forgot to take a picture of the maxi dress… sorry!