I am having a "GIVEAWAY" ..............This week in history.........pay really close attention........

My little Snuggle Bug (LOLOLOL) and I will be married 34 years on Saturday.

9/25/1976

(look at his long skinny fingers!)

This was my Grandpa and Grandma Wray...(I don't remember them {I hope this was long before my time} but that must be where my gardening, flower loving genes came from! At least I didn't get their nose!)

I wonder how long they were married?

I wonder if my marriage will last that long?

Maybe if I can stay out of the fabric stores and stay out of "time out" it will last a long time!!!

I threw this one in for fun!

Grandma Goldie, Mama, Me and Robin. Not sure what was up with Robin's shoes, I do not remember them!! UGLY!!

Look at my really long and skinny fingers!

This is the cute little fellow that I married!

Always an animal lover!




Now look again at those long skinny fingers and those long but very skinny legs!!
How about those T-straps???
Love me some T-straps to this day!!
I would wear them every day if they made my legs look like that again!
~

I always get emotional during the week before my wedding anniversary.
Way back in 1976, on the week before my wedding day, I would walk from my house to Danny's every morning to help him and his family make molasses. Of course I just walked out there to be with him and to eat his Mother's GREAT country cooking!!!
The weather was beautiful that week, there was a nice chill in the air and it was really misty each morning. As I walked through the hayfield to his house, I was thinking that
"I Was The Happiest Girl in The Whole USA!!!"


As I have been traveling to work this week, I have noticed that the early mornings have been sorta misty just as they were 34 years ago. Almost brings tears to my eyes when that happy feeling comes back to me. I just knew way back that it would be the most awesome thing in the world to be "Mrs. Danny Moran!!!!!!!!!!!

It is pretty awesome.....most of the time!!!!!
Of course I was only 14 at the time, what did I know??


Now.........
like I said.....PAY ATTENTION......
I have never done a give away on here and it is LONG over due.
I am so sorry for being such a slacker in that department too.
I hope that somehow I could make it up to you though.
In honor of my anniversary....(well can you think of a better reason??) I will host a giveaway!!


I have never been a fan of those giveaways that give you all those rules about if you do this and do that then you will be entered....yada yada yada........HOWEVER.....I have something in the works and I regret that I have no choice but to ask you to do a little legwork here.
I can't tell you as of yet what that is all about but ALL you have to do to win is become a follower and leave me a comment telling me how much you would like to be entered in this drawing!
See Easy Peasy, right???
A drawing for what, you are asking??
You will be entered in the drawing for a table runner just like the one above!
(only it will be completely finished, lol)
A Moda French General ~ Lumiere de Noel Table Runner hand made and quilted by me.


RULES:
1. The deadline for entries will be October 23rd, which just happens to be my prince Charming's Birthday!
2. Become a follower of my blog. If you are not a follower you can not be entered into the drawing.
3. Leave me a comment on this post. Anonymous comments are not allowed. If you can read this blog you can get you a Goggle Account set up painlessly and securely that will allow you to follow me and leave comments with out having a blog yourself.
4. You will only be entered once for the drawing even though you are a follower and leave a comment too. Once per person but you have to do both.

GOOD LUCK!!!

I LOOOOOVVVVEEEEE IT!!

My job that is!! So far it is everything I wanted and even more!!

The Dr's are fabulous, the staff is superb, the manager is awesome, the work is old hat due to my many years in a surgery office and the office is beautiful and laid out perfectly! The equipment is new. The computer medical records is easy peasy!! I am loving it so far!! Tomorrow I will play a cardiology nurse for the day!!! That brings back memories too, from my days in CCU and a cardiac surgery step down unit.!! My first job with this company was 13 years ago and I was hired by a guy named Tom and as it turns out he is my boss again!!! I loved working for him!!! So that was an extra special bonus too! I saw him yesterday and I could have squeezed him into!!



The biggest extra special bonus is the attitudes of the girls that I work with.......OMG!!! Talk about positive people, I have never been around a bunch of nurses and ancillary staff that are so positive. The nurses all have gray in their hair...woot woot they are all my ageish and the front office staff are a little bit younger but so personable and funny. Sooooo nice to the patients and coworkers. I wasn't used to that in an office setting, we usually had some great people and some that you just cringed to see them scheduled to work!!! I think the staff in this office should train all the other offices around!!! There is teamwork here like I have never witnessed anywhere!!



Now the parts of my job that are not so desirable.........
1. My schedule was changed on the first day, seems that my manager was wrong about Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, don't know for sure what it will be now????? Still only 3 days a week tho.
2. I have to park a zillion miles away and I have bad knees, at least we have elevators!! The old knees really hurt me yesterday, not so bad today.
3. I have to leave home. I am doing OK with that because I am looking forward to working with this great group!

All and all I could not have asked for a better job!!! Yes Terri, I am sorta liking the idea that I can get dressed up and go out and talk to grown-ups all day!!! Oh and did I mention that I love surgery and cardiology patients???? YES!!!! So I pray that this positive attitude continues! I have a lot of fabric to buy!! ;-)))

Moda Lumiere de Noel by French General Table Runner

Now that was a mouthful and don't make me type that name out again!

I do love me some French General fabrics though! If I were rich

I would buy them, every thing they design and manufacture!

They are my Anthropology!

I made this runner Saturday from a pattern that Robin gave me for table runners to be made out of charm packs. It's called Triangulations.

It was very easy to make and I thought the above said fabric was going to be just perfect for this pattern but I wish I had used fabric with more distinct darks and lights.

I think the design would have been more prominent.
It's still just perfect for me and my dining room table!

Of course it was quilted on this!!

Yep, it came at 6:15 or so yesterday. I thought I would have a stroke waiting on that brown truck too. I got her in and all put together, played/fingered with/drooled over the accessories and then went to wind the first bobbin......OMG this machine is soooooo fast! I about fell out of my chair, scared me to death! Have you guys ever worked in a sewing factory? Well I have and those industrial machines are so fast that it takes a lot of getting used to. I was afraid that this was going to be way tooooooooo much power for me!

However when I finished the bobbin and got my sleeves rolled up and my courage built up, I stuck my tongue out the side of my mouth for concentration, I kept my hands way away from that needle and began to push down ever so slightly on the foot controller and she started off nice and slow! Whew!!! I can control the power of this machine with my foot after all!

It is a dream to sew on! Sews beautifully! I can't even describe the difference between this one and my other machines for quilting. Of course it only has a straight stitch but I have the other machines for the decorative stitches. This baby will be my Quilting Princess!

I AM SO HAPPY WITH THIS DECISION!!

Now I have to practice keeping my foot off the thread cutter button on the foot controller!

I hit it a couple times and cut my thread when I wasn't ready to stop, while quilting the table runner. That'll come with time! That's one feature that I loved about industrial sewing machines.

See "Becky leves here Juki!"

I am not very good at free hand cursive yet!!

I am out the door again today in class but when I get back I will try to post the pictures from the professional photographer who stayed at The Fairy's Rest over the weekend!

They are awesome and made me cry when I saw them.

She posted them on Facebook yesterday and they were quite the hit!!

In about a 3 hour period I had almost 400 hits on my website!!

woowoowooo!!

It's on the truck......

and it's somewhere in my county as we speak!

I can't hardly stand myself today!

I am just giddy in anticipation of hearing that big brown delivery truck whirling down my dirt road today. I will be out that door in a flash, choking down the ever widening cloud of dust that he stirs up when he races to my house to deliver my treasures!

Is it wrong to be in love with your UPS driver?

I don't even know his name but he sure does bring me nice gifts sometimes!!

~

I made it thru my first day of work, well orientation that is.

Other than getting lost it wasn't too bad.

I was on the schedule to be in the office today and a computer class the rest of this week.....5 days and I am only part time? So my manager called me last night and asked if I would just wait until tomorrow and come to class.....fine by me...I knew my Juki would be here today!!

In a few minutes UPS called to confirm that it would be here between the hours of 8AM and 7PM, and that someone had to be here to sign for it!

Good thing my manager knew that I needed to have the day off!

8AM til 7PM???? What sort of time frame is that?

Enough to drive me even crazier!

I won't be able to get a thing done while I am waiting to hear Frankie barking and that big ole motor hum..........

I guess I will just go upstairs and make another table runner to practice quilting on it!

I made a really cute one Saturday that I will share soon.

Bummer!!

I have had my wings clipped yet again it seems. I had my pre-employment visit at the hospital on Wednesday and I was to print off a slew of paperwork to take in with me. I have this new computer and it has Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8. I was on the computer and the phone talking to anyone who was anyone with the entire IT system for at least 8 hrs on Tuesday before they finally decided that we are not compatible!! I became very very familiar with my computer that day. I now know how to disable a firewall among many many other things!

However I changed around so many settings such as the one to "erase your history" and it did just that. It erased my search history and continues to erase my search history. Also it has decided that I do not need to leave comments on peoples blogs any longer!! I was able to leave a comment on one blog this morning.....in triples, when I went to delete 2 of them it deleted all of them. I really screwed something up!! I have got to take time to re-change some of these settings that I changed, if I can remember all of them. so my blog friends will still like me!!

Guess I shouldn't be on here anyway. I have WAY too much to do. I have to go into town to the bank to take the deposit that my dearest husband did not take and drop off as he drove by. Said he forgot it! Huh? 30 miles away, I might add. Then I have to clean up the yard in front of the hair studio because I have hair clients coming tomorrow morning. Then sometime in these 2 days I have to get The Fairy's Rest fluffed up and ready for guests that are coming for the birthday party on Sunday. Then I get to start work on Monday!! Yipee Yay!! Do you think I will get all this done? Oh yeah and I have tomatoes to can in my free time too!

I finally told Danny about the new sewing machine and he didn't jump for joy and turn sommersaults but he didn't chop my head off either. I think he was thinking that is was funny that I wanted so much but didn't want to work a public job, but that I had to now!! I know how he thinks!! Scary!!

I'll be back soon!

out with the old, in with the new....

A year ago we were right here in this field getting up hay.
Sunday we were one hill over doing the same thing except there was not a cloud in the sky!
There was a nice cool breeze a blowing to make the work of loading 100 bales of hay so much easier on my dh.....afterall they are "my goats" and I heard that a LOT that day!!
I heard it loud and clear when I dumped half a trailer load right back out in the field too!!
hahaha He wasn't laughing but everyone else was!
I was afraid for my life for a few minutes and I was dodging hay bales that I thought he was going to throw at me!!
He cooled back down and has sorta chuckled about it since then!!!
Nothing like loading hay twice!!
I/we are so fortunate to have a really good coonhuntin buddy....dh's coonhuntin buddy that is....who always gives us enough hay for my goats!! Can't buy friends like that everyday can you?
He has really good hay and my babies just love it!
Danny is working really really hard to get a hay shed finished, maybe tonight, to store the hay in this year. The other building that we have been storing the hay in will then be tore down to get started on my new goat barn!!!!!
Oh giggle giggle!!
I am sooo happy with that one too!
That other building has been an eyesore for 9 years to me.
I have been promised for 9 years that it wouldn't be there much longer....but it still stands......this is the year for it to come down though!
I hope to have a new goat dairy barn by spring time, with a nice milking parlor and a milk room complete with a fridge and sink!!
He gave me the dimensions and I have to design the barn to my liking.
I have changed my mind so many times......only where the stalls will be, the rest is pretty concrete. Oh giggle giggle........



I have also done some more out with the old in with the new around the house.......I have just sold 2 sewing machines on etsy (2 more to go) and I have a new one on the way.......sshhhhh......I just couldn't find the words to tell him about that new one yet!
Good thing he doesn't read my blog!
I have shown it to him and he said "well you are going to work and then you can buy it."
He just didn't know that I would buy it before I got a paycheck!!
Mums the word!!
Yep it's this one right here!!
A Juki TL98Q just like Amanda Jean's!
I have done my research and it is sure to be the right decision for me to go with this machine.
I have watched videos featuring this machine, read the reviews and drooled way to much on my keyboard. I just called them up to talk about it and within 2 minutes it was on the way from California! sshhhhhhh........
It will be here via UPS on Tuesday. The UPS man comes in the evening at about the same time that Danny gets home....I will more than likely not be here when it is delivered because I will be at work. I will have to find a way to tell him before that package arrives!
Any suggestions?
He may not take this as gracefully as he did the dumped load of hay!
Hey, we were on a very steep hillside and it couldn't be helped.....at least that's what I told him!
The day before a lady dumped a WHOLE load out in the field, so I didn't feel so bad!

Can you quilt that out?

Funny funny video here about quilting!!

Go on over and check it out!!

That song was written by me!!! hahaha

The Fairy's Rest is hopping!

Morgan
Danny

Emma


Colton and Emma




Morgan...(I plan to do this one in charcoal)

Just when I get ready to go to work The Fairy's Rest gets to rolling too!! That's a good thing though! We were able to go down ourselves for a 24 hr jaunt on Sunday evening. We had a great time too! We had a nice weinie roast using the tractor wheel as a fire ring....nice touch Danny! Our neighbor, Jesse, came over and we had a really nice cool evening under the stars. The weather has cooled down and could not have been any prettier this weekend!!

We have such beautiful Autumns here in SW Virginia and I am ready for the leaves to change colors. I can't really believe that I am feeling that way so soon. I think it was the super hot summer that we have had!!

We had such a peaceful laid back time on Sunday evening with Jesse, slept very well in the cool crispness of the night....as guests....that was way cool!! Til the smoke alarm went off at 4:30 AM for NO reason and scared the beegeesies out of me. lololol Not too funny when you remember that the last thing you did outside was have a FIRE, even though it was watered down with the water hose! We had no work there to do, no painting to be done, no cleaning, we did mow but oh well we won't dwell on that one, no decorating, no gravels to haul, no decks to build, etc etc.......we were REAL guests!!

I tried to go in with the mind set that it belonged to someone else....you know as if we were paying guests so I could hunt for things that could be wrong and let the owners know about them. I searched and searched for problems and the only things I could find were there is a picture that needs to be moved about 1" in the living room and there is not enough time in my life set aside to stay there more often!!!!!!

We both really needed this R&R and the time to fall back in love with the place.

It worked. We both were so happy!!

Of course this trip was topped off with a great picnic lunch on the outdoor picnic table with Leslie and her family and Morgan.

No pictures....way too laid back to think about getting the camera out.......

We then hooked to the boat and went to the lake for one last excursion before the cool temps.

The water was barely warm enough to swim but we did.

Sad that summer went by so fast, but looking forward to a great autumn!

~~~

We have some great weekend guests coming to The Fairy's Rest this weekend too.

She is a friend of mine.....Chelsa is a friend of everyones actually....one of those young, beautiful, super contagious people who everyone wants to be around!!

She is also a professional photographer!! woot woot!!

Look out folks, there will be lots of really cool photos of the place coming soon!!

She joined The Fairy's Rest on Facebook, before she even knew it was my place, and asked if she could rent the place for a weekend as a birthday surprise for her Mother!!

She said her parents have always loved Fairystone Park!

She had the sweetest comments on the place too!

I feel so honored to have her and her family as my guests!!

Chelsa has a blog and you can see some of her work here.

She is a very very busy lady and with all the weddings and senior portraits she doesn't have time to update her blog very often. You can always join her page on Facebook and see her work too. Chelsa Yoder Photography on Facebook.

(I hope that link works for you.)

She is just as excited to have the time to get away with her family as I am that she is coming!

I can not wait to see how she captures the place on film!!!

I sure hope they all enjoy their stay as much as we did!

That's a great birthday present for her Mother, don't you think?

She's a good kid!!

Floyd French, Turkey Tracks and Juki Spiders.....

I had to show you this scrub top!

I told you that I had some cool new fabric from Michael Miller!

This is called Zinnia Path!

I fell in love with it when my eyes first hit it and went straight to the cutting table with the bolt!

I love every thing about it!

I am very proud of this one. This is probably my bestest one that I have ever made.
I cut it from another scrub top so that is always a risk. The other top was also an unfinished one from about 2 years ago so that was an even bigger risk! All I needed to do to the other one was sew the pockets on and yet they were not on there???? hmmm???

This placket area of the V-neck is always a problem area for me and a lot of others. I used to see a neat scrub on someone at work and I would go straight to see if the V was straight and I could tell if they were homemade or not!! Those girls probably thought I was staring at their cleavage!

I have over the years finally figured out how to make this placket come into a V and actually lay down! Big pat on my back from myself!

I was just pondering about a new quilting machine just last night.....pondering enough to dream really stupid dreams about it all night long too.......and I had decided that all I need is a powerhouse single stitch quilter such as this Juki that Amanda Jean has over at Crazy Mom Quilts. I decided that I do not need all those bells and whistles that my Baby Lock and my Bernina and my Kenmore already do and I never ever use all those fancy stitches anyway...................well why don't I use them? I was awfully happy when I bought all these machines because they did all these stitches but why??

So I played with some of the many stitches on my Baby this morning and found a favorite of mine that I will call "Turkey Tracks" and I put it right across the tops of my pockets just because I wanted to!!

I also did a fold down stitch down edging on the pockets that I will call Floyd French!

I live in Floyd County Va and it reminded me of a French seam but wasn't really French at all!!

Funny how my mind thinks isn't it?

ie. the spider in my new Juki quilting machine last night...........

I made some very very nice side slits on this one too.

Gotta have room for the belly when I bend over!



These old drab numbers just pale in comparison to my new fancy smancy top don't they?

Danny said that I was going to have fun for the first week at work showing off all my new clothes that I made!!!!! Well, maybe so!



I used to work in a sewing factory...imagine that??......and I would go to the mall and see a top or dress, what have you, and I would go home and whip me out a pattern (a rigged up pattern) and make the same top or dress. I used to come home in the afternoons and just make me a new top to wear to work the next day like it was nothing! Those were the days......why did I stop doing that? Maybe the family decided that they needed meals prepared or laundry done??? I dunno! Maybe it's all their fault that I don't have a nice wardrobe today, maybe they broke my good habits??

Just like it's my kids fault that I am fat!

I used to get my workout wear on and slap an exercise vhs tape in the vcr

and in about 2 seconds I would have 2 scantily clad little girls right under me donning their "lidtards" (leotards) and legwarmers!! hahaha I would get so frustrated that they were in my way that I would just go to the fridge and make me a sandwich or something and sit on the couch and watch the two of them working out in their lidtards! They would figure out pretty quickly that it was no fun and want what ever I was eating!!!
Then they grew up got married and have kids of their own!!!
HAHAHAHA!!!! Paybacks are fun!!






Here is my Newspaper Quilt that is in progress.

I am in such a habit of this quilting stitch now. I used it on my pinwheel quilt too. I WILL try something different on my next pinwheel quilt that I am piecing now.

I can do others but this one just feels comfortable to me.

I have been watching videos on youtube of different quilting techniques so watch out!







I love the back!

No I am not quilting it this way this was just staged for a picture!!!

I am a little over half way thru with the quilting.

I just realized that I did not have any binding fabric so I will make a trip to Schoolhouse Fabrics for some matching fabric....come to think of it...I bought the fabric for the border and did I not get enough for the binding too??? I have to hunt for that!

A blog award? Me?

I am humbled beyond explanation!

My dear Sista over at Hickery Holler Farm gave me an award!

She chose me! Me! Of all people, me???

This makes me so happy, the fact that someone sees the humor in all my craziness in my life, and the fact that they want to share all this craziness with others!!

Now here lies the problem.....

I have so many great blogs out there that I go to and trying to just pick a few of them out to receive this award is too hard!

So therefor I am giving this award to "all" my blogging friends!

Now I ask you all who visit here to please understand that you are a winner here and I ask you to please accept this award and post it on your blog!

Go forth and share this with all your bloggy friends!!

Thanks again to thecannedquilter for choosing me!

I have received so much inspiration from her for about a year now since I found her, maybe more than a year, I'll have to look that one up!

All things that she does in a days time just overwhelms me and I pale in comparison to what she can do in the kitchen or sewing room!!

I just wish we lived closer!

HUGS!!!!

I have worked my butt off!!

Literally!! I have been dusting off my nursing scrubs preparing for the new job! Yay! hahaha
I was starting to get really uncomfortable in my scrub pants when I quit work 17 months ago, they were just about to burst at the seams! I was really dreading the fact that I would HAVE to buy all new ones this time. Of course I could make them myself but that is time consuming and costly too. You can really get the cutesy factor by making them yourself and I do make the tops myself and get the best compliments off of them too!! I did buy some Michael Miller fabric at the fabric store last week to make a top.....and beads to make some jewelry to match!!

So I sucked it up and went to my closet yesterday and got the tops only out and tried them on and to my amazement I had almost grown out of two of them! Now how did I do that? I mean sitting at home doing nothing but getting fatter and fatter??? That's what my mom told my cousin that I was doing! Urgh!! The rest of the lot fit just fine so they will be washed and fluffed today!

This morning I went back to the closet and reluctantly drug all those pants out and started with the ones that I knew were fairly roomy first. They were fairly roomy still!! Alright!! Then I went on down the stack....yes we nurses usually have a slew of scrubs, mine mostly from not wanting to do laundry in the middle of a 5-6 12 hr day stretch.....I went all the way to the bottom of the stack and they all fit great!! I have toned up my bottom half!! I will say that I have pumped up my top half with muscle and let's just keep it at that!!! hahaha!!!

That really made my day too! It even helped me mentally to try these scrubs on and remember that I have one of the very few public jobs that you can actually work in your PJ's!! They are very comfortable...when they fit properly that is!!! I also need to have somewhere to go to wear my extensive Dansko collection ;-)

I am quilting off and on on my Newspaper quilt that I started to quilt in 1/2010!! That's what the label that Robin made for me says anyway!! I can only do so much at a time because it's a fairly large quilt and it wears me out lugging it around and around on the machine. I plan to go upstairs and cut out several scrub tops from fabrics that I already have, purchased for that purpose, and try to slap them together assembly line style so at least I will have something new to wear on my first day of work!!!!!

Now you have got to go over to Robin's blog and read her post about what her husband got her into last night!! I laughed til I almost cried at the thoughts of this pregnant daughter of mine in this situation while her husband was about 8 hours away!! Of courseIwould kill him when he gets home if he was mine!! Go on over there for a funny funny story! Enjoy!