Will...Post...SOON...

Hi and sorry for the long absence and creepy picture. It's called Sleepwalker.

We have been out of town, celebrating Avery's FIRST BIRTHDAY. It's just amazing to me that he is already a year old!!!!!!

Like an idiot, I forgot my camera. Hopefully I'll be emailed some great pics.

In the meantime...I'm off to bed soon. We drove all night and I got an hour's sleep before I had to go to work. Sleepwalking right now...but I don't look quite as creepy as that pic, hopefully...

Killer Ginger Salad Dressing

I thought I'd share the recipe for my favorite salad dressing. With its boatload of garlic, ginger and black pepper, this is not a dressing for the faint of heart. You'll either love it or hate it and if you love sweet dressings, I'm guessing you're gonna hate this. But if you're a confirmed salt-a-holic with a passion for garlic, read on:

Ginger Dressing
3/4 C olive oil (use a decent olive oil)
1/4 C soy sauce (use Kikkoman's!! Low sodium's ok)
1 lemon, juiced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tablespoons minced fresh ginger root
2 squirts of honey from Mr. Bear
ground black pepper to taste

Blend in food processor. Or, if yours doesn't work because your husband finally gifted you with the food processor you'd been hinting about and when you plugged it in for the first time, it didn't work and then your husband gave you the receipt so you could exchange it and you waited so long to exchange it that by then you'd lost the receipt and now you have to pretend that you always just happen to use the food processor when he's not around - blend this dressing in your ancient blender. Pour into some sort of container (I use a Good Seasons dressing-cruet-thingy.) Refrigerate.

A couple of notes:

1) I adjust the ingredient amounts to taste each time I make it. Sometimes the garlic and ginger seem stronger or weaker, so I make it as the recipe says and then taste/adjust it before I pour it into the cruet.

2) Let the dressing sit out for a little while before you use it, because it gets gloppy and weird if you try to serve it straight from the fridge. I think the olive oil starts to set up at those cold temps.

3) Here's an easy way to deal with fresh ginger: Peel the root, put into a baggie and freeze it. To make the dressing, just grate the ginger right into the blender container. The frozen flakes look like snow and you will probably need more that 3 Tbsp that way. Plus, your hand will freeze while you're grating. But it's a small price to pay for this delicious dressing!

Another PROUD MOMMA Moment

This is me after accepting the gorgeous award earned by our older son (Travis, Avery's daddy) for being inducted into his high school's inaugural class of the brand-new Dr. Ashby C. Kilgore Hall of Fame!!

I felt short.
But I still rocked the Steelers scarf.
You know I hate pics of myself,
so I blurred my face.
But you get the general idea anyway.

Travis was inducted for his outstanding baseball career at Woodside High School. He was team captain and MVP and led his baseball team to the Peninsula District Championship, the Eastern Region Championship and the State Semi-Finals in 1998. Also in 1998, Travis was named Peninsula District Player of the Year, Eastern Region Player of the Year, was a First Team All-State selection, played in the elite VHSL All-Star game and was named in the USA Today All-USA Team.

Good times.
Thanks for the GREAT memories, Travis!

Paula Doesn't Own Your Mouth

It is just cracking me up. Seriously, people are OUTRAGED that Paula Deen chose not to disclose that she has diabetes and that she is now endorsing a diabetes drug.

SO?????

Have you watched her show?

Did you think
she was cooking HEALTH FOOD?
Did you think
looked like the PICTURE OF HEALTH?
Whose responsibility is it
which foods go in YOUR mouth?

Probably not Paula Deen's, LOL.

Shameless Bragging Wednesday

Shameless bragging on my kid!
Please take a second to
CLICK HERE.
It will take you to the
ESPN Stats and Info blog with
INCREDIBLE graphics that our son
(Zoey's daddy) MADE FROM SCRATCH.

Using Photoshop.

He's self-taught.

And this is not even part of his
actual job at ESPN.

It's something extra that he does
because he enjoys the challenge of
teaching himself Photoshop skills
and applying those skills to an area
that interests him - sports.

Be sure to hover your mouse
over each player who appears to be
standing on a circle. You'll see
that player's stats pop up!

I hope you're as impressed as I am, LOL!

What a difference a few years
can make. If you're the mom of a
teenage boy, take heart.
More about THAT soon!

Thanks for stopping by.
Don't forget to click that link!

Thanks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ruby Bridges entering school
escorted by federal marshalls

Every year at this time I am charged with trying to explain to a new crop of 5-year-olds the importance of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It's a hard job.

Every year, I smile at the irony of the situation. Because of the courage and successes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr (and the many other freedom fighters), my students have no concept of the IMPORTANCE of these same brave people. Why would they? They have no experience with anything like this:







My students are awed by the fact that someone could go to jail just for sitting in the "wrong" seat or drinking from the "wrong" water fountain.

Or that the color of your skin would determine where you could eat, or who you could play with or where you were allowed to go to school.

This year, I just wanted to say thanks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I'm grateful that your bravery made the importance of your own life so hard to teach.

HOT (Glue) HELL

Sadly, that is where I reside.
But I'm looking to relocate
REAL SOON.No, that's not my hand.
And I'm not sure you can glue
a computer circuit board.
But the glue gun looks familiar.

My old glue gun was a "hot mess",
as they say in South Carolina.
It leaked glue and produced giant blobs
which oozed out from under everything I glued.
I was almost relieved when it
finally glued itself permanently
to a paper plate.

In a fit of frustration,
I ripped off the paper plate and
donated the gun to the Goodwill.
(Buyer beware and I guess a
functional glue gun is better than none.)

So I bought this.It claims to be a "detail gun".
As in, I'm supposed to be able to
glue rickrack on things without
feeling like I'm gluing with a ladle.

Now it looks like this.Incredibly, the "precise" tip fell off.
The stand broke.
And I'm getting a sad feeling of
deja vu from the paper plate.

Anyone have a glue gun that you love?
Is it possible to get a decent glue gun
without spending a fortune??

You Mean We Are Supposed to TEACH the Kids?!

I thought it was just testing, LOL.
Even in kindergarten.

Wordless Wednesday

Aaaallllmost wordless, because I can't shut up.

AMAZING!

Maybe It's Me

I just found two new blogs that I absolutely love! If I remembered where I'd first seen them, I'd give someone credit. Anyway, it occurred to me that the two blogs couldn't be much more different than they are! Looking at pics from them, I wonder how they would appeal to the same person. Scroll down. Is it just me, or do you love them both, too?

Here's the first one I found. It's called Handmade Ryan Gosling. Truthfully, I was not sure WHO Ryan Gosling was (one of those young actors that seem to get younger every year, apparently). But now I get it. People submit pics of him with clever captions. I assume most of the people are women who sew or are at least crafters, judging by some of the captions:

Ryan Gosling not my idea of "hot".
(I prefer this

or this),but some of these captions ARE funny.
At least to me.

The other blog is all photographs taken by some genius woman named Brooke Shaden and the blog is simply titled Brooke Shaden. Her photos are eerie and beautiful and haunting...at least to me. Here's my favorite so far:

Is it just me, or do you love them both, too?

My Folk Art Pleasures

As promised yesterday, here are my Folk Art Pleasures quilt blocks thus far. I apologize in advance for the poor quality of photographs. For example, the stars on A3 are actually not solid black, but are very pretty dark blue prints. I also did not bother to press these blocks before I snapped the pics. I posted the original quilt at the bottom, so you can see what I've changed.

A2

A3

A4

B1

D1

D2

D4

The original by Lori
Hope you liked them and thanks for visiting!

Lori Smith Needs to STOP!

LOL, at least that's what my great friend Linda and I always say. Lori Smith (CLICK HERE) is a quilt designer/genius and she needs to be stopped, because her patterns are SO ADDICTIVE. That's a picture of her spectacular Pieces of Time quilt. We won't talk about the fact that I've completed all 31 blocks and it has STILL become a UFO, waiting quietly for me to jump in and tackle those borders. We also won't talk about the fact that I have her Heritage pattern, still untouched. But that's not really what this post is about.

So if you remember my Be Mindfuls, you may recall that I promised you a peek at a project that's near and dear to my heart. It all started with Lori again, and her wonderful Folk Art Pleasures pattern. I LOVE the pattern, but I also love Jeanne's idea (CLICK HERE to visit her Spiral blog) of redesigning some of the blocks to better fit my own life.

With apologies to Lori for muddling up her borders with letters and numbers, here is a pic of her Folk Art Pleasures (FAP) quilt.
Many of the blocks are perfect for me, just as they are. However, some will "fit" better if I change them. For example, see C4, the chicken one? I have no particular 'truck' with chickens. I never had one as a pet and I certainly don't eat them, so that's one block that I'm going to change. And there are definitely not enough (or ANY) cats in her blocks. And see B2? I'd like to be holding the hands of TWO little boys, rather than just one.

Thus far, I've only completed 7 of the 16 blocks: A2, A3, A4, B1, D1, D2 and D4. I'm working on A1, and that's my current Be Mindful project. I'll post pictures of my blocks tomorrow, even in their current, wrinkly/un-ironed state. But if you've made it this far in today's post, you deserve a reward. Here's a closeup of my version of A3 - it's FOSTER! Here he is in real life:
And here he is in a fabric tree. Check out his Mad Eye, LOL.
In real life, he doesn't go outside and he doesn't have red moons. But his eyes really do look like that when he looks at our dogs.

If you click on the Mad Eye pic, you can see some applique "warts". In particular, you can see the pencil line where his tail connects to his body. (I've since learned not to draw the bottom of that U-shape, because it's hard to turn it all under.) I guess I'm still Celebrating Imperfection. CLICK HERE to read the Warts and All post.

Check back tomorrow to see the rest of the blocks and thanks for stopping by!

Time Out for an AWWWW Moment

I think I've been extremely restrained thus far.
We spent a week visiting Zoey over Christmas
and I have not posted the first picture or
even a single Proud Nannie Moment.

However, THIS I just had to share.
OMG do you love her eyes, or WHAT?Click it to get even
more wonderful Zoey-ness.

And I need to snap some pics of that project
I mentioned the other day.

That will be an easier
photography subject for me.

At least the project won't be
zipping around like Zoey does!

Be Mindfuls

(No, this is not my studio
but I sure LOVE those letters!)

So this year, for the first time in as long as I can remember...I've made no resolutions for the new year. Kim of Kim's Big Quilting Adventure allows as how resolutions just set one up for failure. Thinking back to my past resolutions...she's right. They rarely last through the first month of the new year.
This year, I decided to make 'be mindfuls' instead of resolutions. I'm going to continue to be mindful to eat right and drink more water. I'm going to continue to be more mindful of my blessings than I am of my frustrations (well, at least in theory). And I'm going to be really mindful of DOING MORE OF WHAT I WANT TO DO.

I seem to spend hours each dayrushing around, doing stuff that I HAVE to do. By then, I'm usually too tired to do anything that I WANT to do...other than staring at the Jane Velez Mitchell show or the Nancy Grace show.Since I HAVE to do the things that I HAVE to do...I'm not real sure how to work in more time for fun stuff. But last night, I made an effort and dragged out a hand-sewing project that I haven't touched in forever. I really enjoyed working on it- this project is special to me and I'll post some pics of it.

What about you?
Any new year's resolutions??

Lessons Learned #3: DON'T WHINE

because it could always be worse.
Definitely don't say,
'WHAT ELSE CAN GO WRONG?!"
because you are sure to find out, LOL.

I try to remind myself of this daily.
It's easy to feel sorry for yourself,
and I certainly do have
my share of solo pity parties.
Then I see something like this:

Oh my GOSH. What an inspiration she is!

HAPPY NEW YEAR.
WE ARE ALL SO BLESSED!