Flickr Account Hijacked

My Flickr account has been hijacked! No no - it hasn't been hacked, it's been taken over by my husband's family. It's a good thing - for them, not so much for my photo stream. Bran's grandmother moved into an assisted living facility almost a year ago. The house she lived in she'd been in for 90 years. You read that right, 90 years. She grew up in the house, rented the house from her mother, and finally raised her own family in the house. It is beyond amazing to me that anyone would stay one exact location for that long. Talk about comfort zone.

When Bran and I were at her house helping, his aunt began pulling boxes and photo albums full of photos out. We agreed to scan the photos for the family. Little did I know what kind of work I was getting myself into. Anyone who thinks that Bran was going to scan the photos is kidding themselves - I'm the one who gets things done. lol. He's a good man, and he does plenty - and I mean PLENTY around here. (He vacuums, shampoos carpets, oils wood furniture! - I mean really he's a catch.) But he's not good with the long term projects. That's were I come in. I'm the queen of spending an hour a week on something until it's done.

So, slowly, the photos are being scanned. And, slowly, I'm uploading batches to my Flickr account. Sharing them there is really the easiest I think. Not everyone is going to want all the photos, and Flickr will allow family members to download the ones they want, or send them directly to be printed. In the meantime there are going to be big chunks of my husband's family in my photo stream.

Here's a cute snap from her set: Mimi at Disneyland 1970

Explore

Every once in a while I check my stats in Flickr for two things. One, photos that have had more than 100 views and two, photos that have been "Explored". Explore is a strange thing. She's kind of a flighty bitch who loves your photos one day and discards them the next. So, according to Big Huge Labs, I've had a total of 11 photos "explored". I'm kind of in shock to find that there are currently three lingering in her good graces. I'm very excited and honored that these photos have made Explore, but kind of mystified in a way as well. None of the photos are the best on my stream, maybe just the most interesting? Two of the photos are scanned copies of old family photos and the rest are of quilts and quilt tops. None are really what I would call Explore worthy - but I'll not complain, I'll take the compliment and run with it.

So, thank you all for viewing my photos, commenting on my photos, and fav'ing my photos, that's all got to be part of that Explore algorithm on Flickr. If you're interested, a full set of all my photos that have made Explore can be found here.

Anyways...today I thought I'd work on some UFOs - I've got a TON. I need to get a quilt on the quilting frame and the machine in the cradle to get some quilt tops quilted. Unfortunately what I really want to do though is work on a quilt top that I started with my friend Jim back in November when I was in California. That quilt is calling to me... I'll keep you posted. :)

Grumpy Princess

Hi all, happy St. Patrick's day!

Hubby asked for an Irish meal for dinner today. So I made him corned beef and colcannon. Earlier in the day I even made some Irish soda bread for him to have with his afternoon tea. What a lucky little turd he is. The things I do for that man on my day off...lol. He's so nerdy cute that I just can't say no.

What I really want to show you is this print I just purchased from The Doom Girls' shop on Etsy. I found the shop on Badbird's blog, her stuff is cool - you should check it out. (And she has some frakkin fantastic free embroidery patterns). Anyways, I saw this little princess looking out at me from her shop and I had to have her. I'm quite well aware of my mood swings and my princess attitude, lmao. Check her out, she's fabulous:

Munki Top

I finished piecing my Munki Munki/Heather Ross quilt top on Saturday night. Look at this yummy sherbety goodness! lol. Is sherbety even a word? Well, the quilt is pastel and I thought it looked like sherbet. Yum.

Now I've got to get this on my quilting frame. I've got a couple other quilt tops that need to get on the frame as well, so now I've got to decide. Do I finish one of those older UFOs? Or do I jump right in a finish this one? I'm actually leaning towards finishing up one of those older UFOs first. But, for now, this quilt top is laying on the bed in my spare bedroom, which is also my office, so I get to spend the day looking at it between the real work. :)

I also think y'all should know that every time I worked on one of those "Jungle Book" blocks I was totally singing "I Wanna Be Like You". Yes, I'm that kind of nerd.

Dia de los Muertos

Yes, I know it's a little late for Dia de los Muertos, but I had this idea almost a year ago. It took me little while to find enough suitable fabric for it. The finished quilt top was completed mid October of last year. With my trip to California, then Thanksgiving, and Christmas I finally got the quilt quilted in January. But, then I had to finish a quilt for my mother to be off in the mail this week. So...this week I finished two quilts! Yes! After I quilt, bound, and mailed my mother's quilt back to her I decided it was time to finish hand sewing the binding down on this Dia de los Muertos quilt.

I apologize for not taking any photos of my mom's quilt. OK - I'm not really sorry...but it was kind of cute. Even cuter when I was done - lol. :)

Are you wondering why a Dia de los Muertos quilt? Two years ago Bran and I took a fabulous cruise down the Mexican Riviera with one of my closest friends and his partner. Brad (my friend) loves Mexico, and every year they have a Cinco de Mayo party decked out with fabulous paper banners and Talavera pottery. When I ran across the sugar skull fabric I knew I had to make this quilt.

After completing the quilt top I took it to my local quilt shop to find a backing. Those poor ladies didn't know what to make of my quilt. I think that they appreciated the work, but didn't quite get the skulls and skeletons. But, they were friendly enough and agreed with me when I decided on the Kaffee Fassett fabric to back it with. They did talk me into quilting it with variegated thread which I'm not sure I love, but Bran likes it. I'm hoping that Brad likes it as well.

It's in the mail to Brad and Jim next week. I hope they don't fall over laughing. :)

Another Give Away!

Heather of A La Mode Fabric is offering another give away. Yummy Munki Munki and other Heather Ross designed fabric is included! Go check it out. :)

http://alamodefabric.blogspot.com/

Happy Valentine's Day!

Well I don't have anything new to post as far as my projects. I'm working slowly on a couple of things, but I'm really focusing on a quilt my mother made. She made the quilt top and shipped it to me to back, quilt, and bind. It's totally not my taste - but it's cute. Maybe I'll share when it's done.

Meanwhile though I did take a stab at royal icing! I made the cookie dough, then left in in the fridge for a week. lol. When I did get to the cutting, baking, and icing step Bran wanted to help. Actually we did the whole thing in short bursts. Letting the cookies cool completely and letting the icing dry before moving on the next step. It really wasn't as time consuming as I thought it would be - so we'll be icing more cookies in the future. Bran's not really artistic, but his cookies were fun and whimsical. Fun times. :)

Happy Valentine's Day, Lunar New Year, and Mardi Gras! :)