Lots of good stuff . . .

I got a fat, puffy envelope in the mail today from Gina. I won a prize by being the 10,000th visitor to her blog. Her blog is the prize and it is a wonderful, fun place to go every day. I opened the envelope and found this wonderful Presencia thread in gold and blue. I have wanted to try it so I loved getting it. She also included a wonderful quilter card. Thank you, DearGina!

It is so good to be home and spend time with Bob and the Weston. I visited him yesterday afternoon at his house for a few hours while his mom and dad were working. I went out to my car to get a camera and he decided he wanted to drive and talk on the phone. And then today, Bob and I picked him up after the football game (we lost - nothing more to say about that). We watched a bit of the Lion King and he talks continuously while he is watching. "Oh, no!" and then "Poor Simba" and on and on.

Yesterday we got Meagan's school picture through email. She was working on a smile. Last year she would not smile for anything and did not want to have her picture taken. So this year she really tried to work up a smile. I love the picture. She is going to be 4 in a few months. She is not too impressed with the school picture taking process. Smart girl!

An inspiration hit me to make a baby quilt. I want something to quilt tomorrow that will be forgiving and fun so I can "bond" again with Miss Daisy and love doing it. I had this pajama satin fabric that is lined with flannel and then found this cute fleece for the backing. So that is going to be my quilting project tomorrow.

I also have a customer project that I will take back to Laramie to finish some piecing on. It is this star quilt, all hand pieced, but it is not square. Whoever made it decades ago just kept adding the stars and it became a very long parallelogram. I am going to try to get it into a rectangular shape and then quilt it . I love working on these vintage pieces and will enjoy this if I can figure out how to get it into a rectange with 90 degree corners.

Home again, home again . . .

It is good to be home. It has been almost a month and that is too long!

Here is a cute picture of our little Elmo from last night. I guess he had a good Halloween even though he wasn't sure at first he wanted to be Elmo. I love his independent spirit!

I like my new "warrior woman" avatar so I am going to keep it for a few days to celebrate. It is in my Viking blood!

Needing a fabric fix . . .

I am needing to immerse myself in fabric and do some sewing. It seems there has not been enough time for that so I am anxious to have four days at home. If nothing else, I am going to just sit and "feel" my stash. LOL!

This piece is one of my current favorites. Everytime I look at it I see a different flower or pattern. I loved it when I bought it and I have had it for a while. I keep thinking it will talk to me about what it wants to be. Today, I heard it loud and clear. I will share that later. What piece from your stash is your favorite?

Verizon "opt out" info . . .

My Verizon wireless is my only phone here in Laramie and I found this very interesting. The info below was sent to me by my sis and I checked it out. You may have already received the notice, but wanted to call it to your attention. The notices were sent out a week or so ago.

Verizon Wireless is mailing a notice advising wireless subscribers that if they fail to Opt Out within 30 days, Verizon will begin SELLING their Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) to “third parties and affiliates”. CPNI information includes all the calls you place or receive on your cell phone (along with date, time and call duration). Verizon intends to allow “targeted ads” created by their affiliates sent to your phone. There's more details in the blog. The opt out number is 1-800-333-9956. If you have more than one phone on your plan, you have to opt out for each one.

I also did some sleuthing and here is a page from Verizon's policy blog - more info is in the comments following the entry.

http://policyblog.verizon.com/PolicyBlog

I just called the number and it is easy to "opt out" with a robot person on the other end.

The week ahead . . .

Here it is noon on Sunday. Bob and Jesse just left and we had a wonderful weekend. Our Montana State University Bobcats lost - that wasn't so good, but we had fun going to the game. Our beloved Rockies lost, but we enjoyed watching the game at a great restaurant here in Laramie. So, win or lose, with my Bob here, it was a plus.

I have decided to try to do 4 days of work in 3 days. I am planning to head north on Friday and stop to visit with a couple students doing internships on the way through their towns. The weather looks "iffy" on Friday and it looks like Thursday will be a better travel day. I am going to work really hard to travel on Thursday to take advantage of that window of good weather that is in the forecast. Of course, it can always change which is common in the Northern Rockies about every 25 minutes.

I am anxious to get home for a few days. I miss my Bob already!

The boys will be here this weekend . . .

My Bob and our good friend, Jesse (guy in the green shirt), are coming to Laramie tonight for the weekend. The Montana State Bobcats play football at UNC in Greeley, CO on Saturday so we are all heading over there. The team is staying in Fort Collins so we will go down there tomorrow night to visit with the boosters and parents who travel with the team. My friend, Suzie from here at UWyo, is going with us to the game on Saturday in Greeley as she is a UNC alum. UWyo is playing UNLV here - another great game and I wish we could see them both. It is going to be an "A" weekend! I am kind of glad they are leaving on Sunday morning so I will have a day to get caught up with work - and rest!

I have everything we need for cranberry margaritas when they get in tonight. Of course I also have a crockpot of chili brewing. I have a great recipe for cranberry margaritas . . .
11⁄4 cups good tequila
11⁄4 cups frozen cranberry juice cocktail concentrate, thawed
1 cup canned, jellied cranberry sauce
10 T. lime juice or the juice from 5 limes.
6 T. Cointreau
I mix it all in a blender and then pour half out and blend each half with ice for blended, but you could pour over ice for on the rocks and rim the glasses with salt.

The iPod is a great addition to The Cottage. I can't believe I never had one. I also bought a little dock with speakers - very inexpensive - but it works to shuffle through the different songs. I then had to visit the iTunes store to download a bit of music. I have quite a variety here from Yo-Yo Ma to Willie Nelson with Aaron Copland in between. My spirit is soaring! Now to get my work done.

And - if you have had the strength to read this far - I am so sorry our Colorado Rockies did not play better last night, but I am still thrilled they are in the World Series!

Elegant laundromat . . .

After being so empowered with my friend's hunting story, I decided I had to face the reality that I needed to do laundry. The Cottage does not have a washer and dryer so it was off to the laundromat. But this one is pretty special. I drove to Denver to Gail's house (2 and a half hour drive) and had a wonderful visit AND got my laundry done. As you can see this laundry has a nice "sitting room" and a wonderful view off the deck with a little snow still on the golf course from the weekend storm.

When I walked into her family room, she had the quilt "Centennial Sky" hanging on the wall. I lost my breath. We both worked on the quilt. She did the piecing and I did the quilting. These pictures do not do it justice to reflect how it looks in that room. I did a similar one for another friend as these are sister quilts from a Denver Shop Hop a couple years ago. But Centennial Sky has crystals and the light was so beautiful shining in from the huge windows that each crystal was on fire. It is a beautiful quilt - and stunning in that setting.

Of course we had to do some shopping. I found some great buys on dresses for my granddaughter which I will get in the mail today. I also bought my first iPod (classic) with a speaker setup so I can have music in The Cottage and do some podcasts for my courses. And I got a new Rowenta iron and heated mattress pad. I had to have the basics as well as music for my soul. It was a grand time at the "laundromat". Thank you to Gail and Jim.