Happy ten-year-old with her new backpack!

Shannon is thrilled with the orange fabric bundle I found for her at Tumbleweeds Quilt Shop. She can barely wait for me to cut the bundle up and make her backpack. I'm thinking it needs to brighten our table for a week or so first....

love this quilt shop!!!!

I've been waiting all year to get back to this shop! The girls and I checked out Tumbleweeds Quilt Shop in Barnstable last year on our way off the cape. I was blown away by all the amazing fabrics... Kaffe Fassett, Amy Butler, Valorie Wells. And the books. Hundreds of them!

Last year, I was expecting an average quilt shop... There were so many amazing fabrics, I didn't know where to begin! I also had three kiddos waiting for me (not so very patiently). And it was the end of vacation. Guess how much money I had left for shopping?

This year, Tumbleweeds was a PLANNED visit! While my aunt took two of the girls swimming and sight-seeing, Maggie, HER BOOK, and I went to this amazing quilt store! See all those holes in the Kaffe Fassett fabric wall? Those bolts are on the cutting table :o) What a gorgeous pile of fabric... so glad it's coming home to New Hampshire!

Oh! The manager, Mary, has a blog! Check it out! http://tumbletalk.blogspot.com/ Or you can just click on tubletalk on my blog list to the left :o) That's her holding the orange bundle with the posie on top! Isn't that an uber-cute way to bundle the fabric? My ten-year-old had a bout of homesickness last night at bedtime (we're all getting ready to be home). I pulled out that bundle and showed Shannon "her new backpack". What smiles! She wants me to incorporate the flower and ribbon into her pack!

In the meantime, it sure makes a great bouquet on our table!

the backpack goes on vacation

Ok... one thing I love about this backpack is that it keeps my hands free for more important things :o)

free pattern

Ok... it is taking me a little longer than I anticipated to turn all my scribbles and sketches into finished patterns.... But the back pack is ready for a test run! I would love to have a bunch of you give this a try :o) Just send me an e-mail with your address. I can e-mail or snail-mail it to you. Please share your feedback with me... good and not-so-good :o) If I missed writing down any steps, I really would like to discover my error *before* sending the pattern to the publisher :o) And if you blog, I would love to have you share photos and comments as you give the pattern a try!

Oh! I am starting a second blog! This blog will remain primarily a quilting blog. If you've enjoyed my goofy-just-about-life musings, check out http://happythought42day.blogspot.com/ As always, I love followers and comments!

naming our puppy

Soooo... on April Fool's Day, we *really did* get a puppy :o) Since I was substitute teaching on April first, my dad picked her up for us. I talked with the man we were getting her from and worked out all the details. But I forgot to ask what her name was. All day long I wondered.... I hoped it would be something fun or quirky. But a good, basic name would be ok, too. The only kind of name that would really bother me would be the really-Disney-pink-froo-froo type of name like Princess or Fifi.

Hmmmmm... I should have known better! I pulled in the driveway and Dad introduced me to "PRECIOUS"! That's kind of *beyond* Disney-pink. That's like Disney-fuscia!!!! Uh oh... dilema! We spent a week gagging every time we said her name.

Luckily, she didn't seem to realize that she had this ultra-feminine-prissy-froo-froo name. She is a lab... all tongue and wiggle with not a bit of brain. Her back end overtakes her front end sometimes, sending her into a sideways wiggling scramble as her front end tries to catch up. When she moves quickly, her skin arrives abruptly a second or two behind her frame. She usually moves quickly, so her skin seems in a constant flux, wondering just where it should hang. And that tongue! 5:30 in the morning is such a happy time for our puppy! She takes a flying leap onto the bed, lands on me and starts licking any body part sticking out of the blankets. (The fact that I like 6:30 better dampens her enthusiasm *NOT ONE BIT!*)

But back to the name dilema.... After a week, we realized that our puppy came as readily to, "Goofy Dog," or, "Puppy," or, "Hey You," as she did to, "Precious". Maybe it was all that gagging? So we started trying on different names. The only trouble was that we were starting to get used to Precious. The gagging was just a little choke, not a full-out retching noise now. But, really, she is a LAB! No lab should be stuck with a Disney-esque name. And to watch her practically turning upside down wriggling with joy, front end and back end competing for the lead, she has not a stitch of ladylike refinement and dignity! Soooo... we compromised. She gets to keep, "Precious," but it is like that obnoxiously long, we-have-16-generations-of-Mathildas-first-name that gets shortened to an initial. "Precious," is now, "Precious Wiggles!" Or, "P-Wiggles," for short. (Very appropriate first initial when counting the number of new spots on the carpet...)

But all jesting aside, P-Wiggles is a joy! She rides with me each morning to bring the girls to school. And every morning, she is amazed and overjoyed to discover that we found our way home again! She spends the next 5 minutes wriggling and licking and running around the house and bouncing. Like I just pulled off some amazing magic trick! If I'm home, she follows me around, trying to lie on my feet. While I was cooking my oatmeal a couple of days ago, she moved and lay down in a new space three times in just a couple of minutes. "Sink or stove, Mom??? Make up your mind so I can get some rest!" And if I am gone for a couple of hours, she somehow goes into overdrive and stores up a week's worth of greeting. Ahhhhh! Puppy love :o)

Now if we could just teach her to tell time....

A few smiles for Fools Day!

We love April Fools Day around here! When my oldest daughter hit 3rd grade, the pranks started... blue milk, a rubber band around the sink sprayer, plastic wrapped soap, tied together cabinet doors, hidden utensils. After a particularly bad soaking one year, I decided it was WAY PAST time to join in the foolery! The next year, I switched all of Maggie's books and sneakers from her knapsack for oversize board books and a glittery pair of red Dorothy-style heels. The following year was plastic-wrapped desks and chairs when the girls got back from lunch. And fake flower deliveries. Then I started dressing up. One year as a gaudy fairy complete with tiara and wand. I visited each of the girls' classes and crowned their classmates, dubbing each one with some ridiculous title ("Sir Froo-froo," or "Lady Puffle-Snizzle," etc.).

Then there was the giant rabbit. The bunny hopped and danced and raced around each of the girls' schools. It was my first year visiting the highschool. I was nervous... what would the reaction of a couple hundred teens be to a giant rabbit? I shouldn't have worried! Teens are a natural fit for hilarity! Half the kids at the highschool have photos on their cell phones of a 5'1" bunny! Just a couple months ago, Maggie's English class was reading a book about a teen with an... ummmm... rather *interesting* mother. Class discussion centered around, "how would you feel if your mom did these crazy things?" Maggie was able to say that *her mother* had the fictional one beat! Several of her classmates were startled... "that was your MOM in the bunny costume last year???" (By the way, my very serious kiddo also said that she loves her kooky, zany mom and not knowing each April what I will be up to next!)

Well... this year, the giant rabbit was scheduled to sub in one of the schools. But Santa visited! And left all the girls costumes! I also texted the older girls and told them we got a puppy. The biggest joke of all is that the PUPPY is REAL :o) My dad and I have been on the lookout for a lab puppy for a while and he picked her up for me while the girls and I were all at school!