'Splain..

Can someone please explain something to me? Why is it that when I have two, count them, two years to finish a project for an exchange in February, 2010, that I wait till now to start it? Why!?! It's not that I don't love the person I'm making it for. It's not like I didn't have the time somewhere in the last 700+ days.

All I can say is "me bad"! But a simple pattern plus great fabric should work! Getting it quilted - now that's anthother thing. Wish me luck!

Happy New Year

I know this has been a difficult year for a lot of people for a number of reasons. The economy has impacted so many of us in ways that we had no idea would happen. Perhaps your family has been touched by health issues, relationship problems, job losses , the loss of a home, or worse, the loss of a loved one.

My prayer is that you have a renewed sense of hope as we look to the New Year. May you know that the God that created the universe, the Lord whose birthday we just celebrated is there to wrap His arms around you, to protect you and to give you peace.

Have a joyous, happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Love from Miss Jean and Maggie

I Have a Code In My Node

Well, it finally hit. I've been dodging this cold for a week and now it's here. I've been taking Airborne so that has helped. Up until now, that is. Yesterday was spent taking son to Sacramento to the airport, dropping my sewing machine off for a service, taking Mom and Sweety out to lunch on the way home, going out to dinner with friends and then going to Target. Full day. Maybe too full. Anyway, I'm down for the count.

Trouble is, when I get like this I get a little, shall we say, spacey. I think of all kinds of things I should be doing. Must be the drugs. My sewing room is now a disaster after taking down the peg board and trying to figure out what I'm going work on as a gift for a friend. It's due the first of February and I've known about this exchange with my quilt group for two years. So me bad!

Then the poor gardener and UPS driver had to witness me in all my sick messy haired, pajamas and bathrobe glory. Pitiful.

I just finished my comfort food breakfast. Milk Toast! Nectar of the Gods!!! Toast with hot milk poured on it and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. I took no pictures. You are welcome. What, may I ask, is your comfort food? Is it toast and tea? Is it something nutritious or something decadent? What makes you feel all warm and cozy inside when you are sick

I'm going back to bed now to read my new Robyn Carr book, Forbidden Falls. I've been waiting months for it and this is the perfect day to get started on it.

Have a healthy day!

Merry Christmas Everyone

May you and your family have the most blessed and precious Christmas and a New Year that is filled with love and good health. May you feel the presence of the Lord in all you do.

Thank you to all of my blog friends for being such an important part of my life.

Making a list.........

"Let's see. I need to speak to Miss Maggie Dear in California. According to my Naughty/Nice List she is a Scottish Terrier Dog. Hmmmm........ Interesting!"

"Maggie! Are you there? I need to talk to you."

"Oh, goody! It's Santa! Yes, Santa, what can I do for you?"


"Well, Maggie, I need to get ready to make my deliveries on Christmas to all the good little boys and girls AND all the good little animals. I just wanted to make sure that you have been a good little puppy this year. It's been reported that maybe, just maybe, you had a few, shall we say, issues with your behavior."


"I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about!"

Your Help Needed

Is this not the cutest little quilt you have ever seen? Holly over at Lakehouse Quilts has created this darling fabric panel. She has challenged a number of her best quilt industry friends to come up with their version of a quilt using the fabric. She has been show casing their talent over on her blog. Amazing! Run on over there and take a peek. I'll wait for you......... Back? Ok! Aren't they the cutest?

Here is where your help is needed. This past year Ireland has been devastated by floods and the wonderful folks at Quilt Irish magazine are doing their part to help. You can read about it here. The darling quilt above was put together by none other than Elizabeth of Late Bloomer Quilts. She has a warm spot in her heart for all things Irish and Scottish, having Irish heritage herself. To help out she is putting her quilt up for auction. Whoever is the high bidder will send their winning bid directly to the specified agency and Elizabeth will send you the quilt. That is a win, win situation if I've ever heard of one. So if you can, go to Elizabeth's blog and bid.

If you cannot bid but would like to help out, go here. There are other things you can do to help.

A big thank you ahead of time for all of your help and a GREAT BIG HUG AND THANK YOU to Elizabeth. When you put quilters and bloggers together you get perfection!

xo

When I first stumbled upon blogging I was thrilled about discovering this new forum. It held a world of talent that I could learn from. Crafting, quilting, decorating, gardening, cooking. The list is endless. Then I started to actually get to know some of the bloggers which was just icing on the cake. Some have become real life friends that I have met. Others are my "virtual" friends that I cherish just as much. Blogging fills a part of my life in a wonderful way. I feel connected and enriched and grateful that I have been able to be a part of such a loving and talented community.

But with every joy in life there is sorrow as we all know. Through these blogs there are Mothers asking for prayers for their sons or daughters going off to fight a war. There is the young mother showing such joy at the birth of her child, only to pass away suddenly shortly afterwards. There are tragic accidents that leave us speechless and in awe at the resilience of the human soul. Even the passing of a dear pet tears at our hearts for these that we only know via the computer.

One of the first blogs that I discovered was written by Jen in Australia. She was using her blog as a journal to write down her journey with cancer. She was a beautiful girl with an adorable son, Jack. As I sat at the computer this morning to check on my "friends", I realised I hadn't checked in with Jen for a while. Sadly, she has passed away on December 9th at the age of 40 after her long and courageous fight.

Please stop by her site to give your love and prayers to her family and especially little Jack.

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

Psalm 116:15

Two Great Blogs

If you haven't been by an visited Kim at Daisy Cottage you must certainly do so now. She has a wonderful blog that showcases her many talents as a decorator, has absolutely the sweetest little dog in the world (next to mine of course) and is a true friend to many.

If you pop on over there today for a visit you'll get a double treat!! She has a guest blogger who is none other than my friend Becky from Sweet Cottage Dreams. Sweet is the operative word here. I love Becky to pieces. I did a post about how I met her here. It's one of those blog stories where you see them on a blog and wish you could meet them and then you find out they live 15 minutes from you. It's truly a small, small world.

Run, don't walk, on over to Kim's blog and read Becky's guest post. She has a wonderful, inspirational story, gorgeous pictures of her holiday decorated home and a GIVE AWAY!!

xo

Snow!

Here are some more pictures from my recent trip to Denver. As you can see we had snow. It started snowing in the evening and I managed to get these first two shots after dark. It was just beautiful!

It was 28 degrees outside when I got up this morning here in central California. I hadn't been watching the weather reports and I have quite a bit of frost damage to my plants. Mostly summer annuals that were ready to go anyway. Tonight I am going to go out and cover my citrus and some of my other more tender plants. They are predicting rain and possibly snow on the valley floor tonight! We don't get snow very often here so hopefully I'll have more snow pictures for you soon. I can't wait to see what Maggie thinks of all that white stuff!!!

*By the way. Thank you all so much for your help with my curtain rod dilemma. PKM suggested contacting Country Curtains, which I did. Their sales person was very helpful and I know now what to do. Hopefully, I'll be able to get the window covered soon as it's chilly in the bedroom without any curtains.

Have a restful and warm Sunday afternoon.

xo

Calling all decorators!

I have a window problem and I need some advise. I have a sliding glass door in our bedroom. We recently redecorated and now I'm looking for window coverings. I have the drapes - some beautiful green/cream embossed panels that I found at - K Mart! Yes, K Mart! They are actually very lovely and just the perfect shade of soft green that match my green walls. Yes, the green walls painted Grasslands green by Kelly Moore that is so beautiful it brings tears to my eyes. Well, after 22 years of pink wallpaper anything would be an improvement!

The curtain panels are to be used with either rod pocket curtain rods or rods with clips. No problem. My problem is I want to put a sheer pinch pleet patio panel behind the drapes. I'll keep the drapes pulled to one side most of the time and want the ease of using the draw for the sheers. Just enough to let in some diffused light and to hide the dirty windows (keepin' it real here folks!).

My problem? I cannot find hardware that will suit this. It needs to probably be a double rod - traverse in the back and rod type in the front. I can't find one anywhere. I've checked all over the internet, Penney's, Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, etc.. What do I do, ladies? Do I hang the drapes higher and the sheers lower? That would mess up the length I'm sure.

I suppose I need this:



Any help and advise would be greatly appreciated.