The Day After

So whatcha up to bloggy peeps? Are you out getting those Black Friday deals? I'm dying to know, since you couldn't pay me to go out in the crowds. Thanksgiving was over in the blink of an eye and I even got to bed early and slept like a log. A LOG PEOPLE, A LOG FULL OF TURKEY!!! Frankie and I were up at 5 am though watching the news. Lots of people buying big TV's !!!

Much to my own disappointment, the Pixie's didn't come clean the remainder of the kitchen, so I will work on that today. Pots and pans. They're the worst. Frankie already hit the road and was back in her town shortly after 9am, the traffic so light. Bret is off to work, although he's feeling tempted by electronic deals. HE'S A CRAZY MAN!

I'm home alone admiring my new quilt. Elizabeth's trunk show quilts from her book came home after a year, and she gave this one to me!!! I popped it right up on the wall and will leave it there till the Christmas decorations go up, whenever that is! Then it will go right back up for spring. Is it the cutest ever? All my favorite colors and CHERRIES. What a great friend.

Ok I guess I ought to get cracking around here. I'm not leaving the house so it's all about comfy clothes and CSI marathons and getting some stuff done. I FEEL LIKE SEWING!!! And I have barely sewn much at all since market.

So tell me everything peeps! xo

Everyday Blessings

It did look a lot like fall out the window, leaves everywhere. I feel guilty about that, they mostly fall on my neighbor's yard and we're not good at keeping up with them. We're truly blessed here with wonderful neighbors on both sides.

I had coffee with Alice-Jane the other day and she suggested that I head over to our friend Ann's to see her wonderful fall display.

Naturally since timing is everything, Ann had just taken down all her fall displays getting ready for Christmas. She's going out for Thanksgiving so she thought she'd get a jump on things. Being a good sport though, she hauled out boxes of her amazing gourds for me to photograph over some dainty little Spode cups of coffee. She's a trouper. And she knows the blog must be fed.

I mean really it was POURING down rain and still she did it. Now there's a friend to be thankful for.

These are all gourds that she's dyed with Rit dye or shoe polish, then varnished. They're so amazingly beautiful... we just tossed them in the fireplace but you can tell they're wonderful.

It was late and dark out when I went over, so the photos really don't do them justice. I sure appreciate her doing it for me. I'm lucky to know Ann through my friendship with Alice-Jane. Alice-Jane lives next door, and is one of my greatest blessings. I was pretty much a self absorbed yuppie when I had Frankie, involved more in work than in life. We didn't know our neighbors, we both just worked and came home and then worked more. But AJ came over with a baby gift that day I came home from the hospital and since then has continued to give me the gift of friendship for these 21 years. I would say that she and Bob have had more influence on who I've become than any other people outside my family. And for that I am truly grateful.

Ok peoples. There's lots to be thankful for isn't there? Even when things seem dismal. I hope you all have a great day... Happy Thanksgiving. xop

Oil of eBay

I should probably just file this away under my own particular brand of crazy, but look what I scored on eBay recently.

I know, I know, it's not the kind of thing that you usually see people showing off, darling vintage tidbits of fabric or little figurines or old quilts in perfect condition for $10.95. It's boxes and boxes of discontinued soap. And how unhip is bar soap anyway?

I don't care though, it's one of the few unscented soaps around and I am thankful for the person with the foresight to stock up on the clearance deal. My own stash had run out. So I'm good to go for another few months.

So add that to my list of things to be thankful about. Like family and friends, jobs with health insurance, good healthy food to eat, a place to live..

Hmm Weird

I know, I'm letting you down peoples, not doing anything fun and exciting to report on. At least not at the rate you've come to expect. This week will be busy for sure, there's turkeys to buy and other stuff. You can read about how the PKM household rolls here.

So anyway, last week was busy, well busy in that I did some stuff, but not a lot of stuff. I finally finished my little project for Jen of Tula Pink. Here's a little shot of my sewing kryptonite. Tiny hems. But Jen if you're reading, the package is on the way, hopefully reaching you before your Thanksgiving dinner.

Frankie came home for a couple of days, and we celebrated her birthday with cake and a wii! Bret and I are nursing our wii tennis elbows this week.

Elizabeth alerted me to this last week. Holy Crap! The old Lucky's shopping center was torn down! I got out late in the day and missed all the excitement. I didn't imagine that it would ever happen. Probably only interesting to locals, that place has been an eyesore for many years. You can read about it here.

As you know, the saddest part of not working at the shop is missing all the people. Last week I had the happiest day ever running into some old friends at American Harvest. I could have just wept a little it was so good to see them. Here they are from left to right, Judy, Diana, Elizabeth and Sharon. Man it was great to see you guys. You made my day!

Ok peoples. I know you're busy. I should get busy too, my sewing stuff is all over the dinner table. The mom's will be over for Thanksgiving, and it would be asking too much to have them sit around the coffee table, wouldn't it?

HOLY COW PEOPLE

My friend Holly has a fresh new blog! Go check it out! She's one cute Urban Chik.

Paris to the Moon

After a day in Disneyland we hauled our sorry tired behinds out for some shopping on the way home. I'd heard about the little shop Paris to the Moon last year and was absolutely dying to go. You can use your fav search engine and find a ton of blogs showing pictures far better than mine. I was having too much fun to really get some good non-blurry shots. Anyway, I was dying over the place.

This is Darrin the owner of Paris to the Moon. We all totally hit it off and were yakking our heads off the whole time there. We knew a ton of people in common and of course I'm a world class name dropper so it was CRAZY. The Famous Debbie Thibault has her back to us, she didn't really want to be captured for the blog but you know how relentless I can be. She's such fun to talk to and I totally want to party crash when she comes to see Sharon and Roger next week. (and on the flip side, I'm sure she's already called ahead and has the restraining order in the works, isn't that how it always is with me? )

For years Frankie had her bedroom ceiling covered with paper lanterns, this makes me want to recreate that again, adding in some pretty parasols.




Darrin shared a story with us and the end of it was 'and then they gassed him.' I'm sure we were talking movies and experiences and we laughed like hyenas over it and had to say it like a million times.(well we did anyway, I'm sure Darrin was hoping we'd just move along quietly) It's one of those things where you had to be there and I don't want Darrin to think we've forgotten.

The whole store is magic and my photos don't come close to capturing it. I love the layering of objects, Darrin is surely a master of display. You can walk around and around and still see things you missed. Delightful. I wish I was local.

We left with a couple of big bags full of things, but I left it all with Frankie to sort out and I'm hoping she's going to bring my stuff to me when she gets home tonight.

Temperatures were in the nineties when we were in Southern California. I'm sure you've all seen the fires on the news, but since we'd been vacationing, we didn't realize the extent of them till we got up Saturday morning and the sky was dark and ash was floating through the air. Most freeways north were closed which made getting home a challenge. Thanks to my mother-in-law and the internet, she got us around the fire and onto 5 north just above Castaic. You could see the fire line from the freeway over pass.. FREAKY SCARY and we weren't even that close.

I took this picture from the car window around 3:30 p.m.

Hey its your birthday

Today is Frankie's 21st birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE PIE! This is the first birthday she'll be away from home. I guess she really is grown up.

Last weekend we went to Disneyland to celebrate both Bret and Frankie's birthdays. We found her hat from the first time we did Disneyland on her fifth birthday. It cracked her up. We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel and they gave Bret and Frankie Birthday Buttons and told them that magical things happen when wearing. Yup, every park employee wishes you a very happy birthday! It was fun.

And at the end of the day Friday this was waiting for them when we got back from the park. It was a great day, but man, we need to train before going again, we're not the spring chickens we used to be staying at the park from the opening to the close.

So little Frankie, have a super birthday. Sorry you can't be home with us but we'll see you tomorrow. Love you Pie!

*Pie is short for Scooter Pie.

The Morning After

Can you believe I'm throwing in a post-market post? Well I am. Our day after market plans fell through, so we had a day out and about. Elizabeth is talking about that day, and I think you should go read it first, then come back, she tells the story much better. I'm just showing some photo highlights. What's with me an the leaning pictures? Anyway, here goes..

any day starting with this is all good to me

I love this, whatever it is

good lunches

I love junk, I would have a rusty junk filled (well not quite this filled) back yard if I could. Old grandma style is what I call it. You know full of little paths and odd ball crap. I appreciate beautiful yards don't get me wrong, but nothing gets me all tingly feeling like this.

Look at that design. I love it. And the colors. I know you'd see something like that framed as art in a fancy house but I'd love to see it jammed into some secluded corner of my back yard.

Ok yeah, its not like you'd wear your best white pants and sit on these. But still they're beauties in my book.

I love this poor old frog. My mom collects frogs... she has from the ridiculous to sublime and all frogs in between. So when I see old frog yard art I go crazy. Even a one eyed old frog.

Perfect shutters. And the little pot holders, pure 'grandma yard'. I don't care about being a grandma at all, I just want that kind of magical backyard.

Stuff. I love seeing stuff, but really don't need to own tons, except maybe those old school house style lamps. I would love those.

so wrong but so right

This would have been a much better with rusty old chairs

Everything is bigger in Texas, get a load of this cornucopia!

Really, does this even need a caption?

Adios Houston. See you next year!

Lackidaisical

Hello peoples, how are you? Seems like forever since I've sat down to talk about what I'm actually doing. Which is not much. I haven't turned on my sewing machine since I came home from market even. What's with that? I did some work for my SilverStarCelebrity, I'm working on a project for another celebrity and getting ready for a quick weekend trip to Disneyland to celebrate Bret and Frankie's birthdays!

I just found out that Terry Atkinson has a blog. I have made so many of her designs over the years. They're great for beginners and accomplished quilters alike. I think her instructions are the best around, clear, concise and with the best illustrations. I'm always so envious of Roseann and all the fun things she's doing in Minnesota with Terry and all the wonderful friendly people there.

Ok peeps, have a good day. xo

And now for the winners

Now that I have my own little paper-eater, I couldn't let Mellie be the only star of the blog world. Binnie needs her chance as well, although she's not nearly as cooperative.

She's a bit skeptical.

She's much too much on the go. She has things to do.

She's motivated. And she loves paper.


See, constant movement.

Here's our winners.

Email us with your addresses. Candace, I know you're on vacation, so I'll hang on till you're back. Have a great weekend peoples. Thanks for following my quilt market stories and for all the great comments. And thank you Cyndi for providing the darling patterns for my give away today! xo

Just when you thought it was over, more quilt market

Today I'm just all over the map with my photos, I'm too lazy to try and get them into better order. End of the week and all that!

Here's Tenny and Courney at Things, a wonderful booth that was filled with old textiles, sewing notions and my personal favorite...

...anything with a state name on it. I'm crazy for that stuff. Or possibly just crazy. I'll let you be the judge.

Now considering that we were at market for 5 day across from Jere'e (aka Jessie) you'd think I'd have a plethora of delightful photos to show you. Sadly, this is the very best one. But keep checking on her blog, I'm sure soon she'll be sharing the plethora of delightful videos she took.

I don't know if you remember from last year, but we met Katherine from Norway. We went nuts because we'd seen photos of her shop just days before. She came back bearing Green Gate for us, I can't tell you how exciting that was.

We met Renee, of Liberty Star. I LOVED her booth. I used to do a lot of primitive quilts, dark colors etc, and I have a ton of rusty stuff stored in boxes. I love how she's using fresh new colors with her old metal. I found it so inspiring, took plenty of photos and again, this is the best one. Pitiful. It's such a darling booth.

Neighbors and friends, Boulder Creek Designs!


Here's Minnick and Simpson's booth. Seriously, I could not LOVE THESE TWO MORE. I could go on and then on some more but that would just be embarrassing. For all of us.



I used to hook (rugs, come on people) a lot more, and Polly's rugs really inspired me to get my half completed rug out and work on it.

Here's Angela from Moda. She works on, among other things, the Moda Fabricmatcher. Have you tried it yet?

Look at this crew. Gina was cracking us up. I could hang out with these people ALL. THE. TIME. Elizabeth, Gina, Laurie and Polly.

More neighbors.. they'll have some exciting news soon! They were so much fun to hang out with.

Down the aisle a bit, Joanna of Fig Tree Quilts with our friend Diana the Amazing Quilter. Joanna had some lovely offerings this fall market, check out her blog for some more wonderful booth photos.

Another favorite booth is the Lecien booth. There are so many lovelies there, little kits, bags, quilts all displayed in the most delicious manner.

Here's a shot of Monica's wonderful quilt made as a free pattern for Lecien featuring the wonderful Minny Muu fabrics.

Here's Elizabeth in front of her quilt. It's also a free pattern available from Lecien.

Of course no final market report is complete without a photo of the wonderful Julie, Elizabeth's sister-in-law.

So that's it peeps. The end of quilt market photos! Stay tuned, I'll announce the winner of the drawing soon! xo