Two New Roles

This new year brings two new roles for me. In March, my dearest and only brother and his wife are expecting their first baby. I am so excited about being an aunt!!! I wasn't able to be at the baby shower yesterday but of course, I sent a big box of goodies to Michigan for my future niece (nothing pink though, I don't do pink).
Yes, there was a quilt in that box. A sweet little 30s nine-patch.
I quilted it myself too.

The second new role was unexpected. I was promoted to a newly created management position at my day job last week. So now I am officially middle management and officially a Dilbert cartoon. In keeping with this economy, I got a very itty bitty raise with the promotion, so am still stuck working two jobs. But I am grateful for the opportunity and the challenge.

We Now Return to Our Regularly Scheduled Stella Bella Blog...

Hello! Do I still have any readers left out there in blogland? I have been absent for too long and I apologize for being incommunicado lately.
I wish I could say I was out being wicked....

Or on vacation to some exotic place...

Or dogsledding with Jack and Shiloh...

Or that my laptop was hijacked by Morph...

Or that I was hibernating with Edgar and Stella...

Or solving the world's problems with Gomez...

But really, I have just been busy with life and taking care of people who needed my attention. So I am back in blogland

AWOL

Yes, I have been AWOL from blogland this week. It's been a busy week--not much sewing done, not much of anything done, just busy with work and life. Saturday was our Silver Thimble Quilt Club. I grabbed whatever project was in my bags and worked on it. I made the pieces for 130 3" nine-patches for the Double Delight quilt and that took most of the 5 hours. Check Pat's blog for some photos (I forgot my camera). I need to get caught up on everything and post some photos. Hope to do that soon.

Today was a day off for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. I have a million things to get done today. One project (ordeal???) was taking Gomez
to the vet for his annual check up and he is now rather annoyed with me. Here he is looking sweet. I think I will get snubbed for the rest of the day.

OK must get back to chores...

Hibernating!

I'm sure everyone has heard or seen Atlanta's continuing ice and snow. I bet even the researchers at the Antarctic research station have seen the footage of Atlanta drivers sliding and crashing into each other. We still have below freezing temperatures and scattered snow left in shady spots. I don't remember ever having such a long period of really cold weather here in the South. At Chez Crazy Cat Lady, we are all in hibernation mode. Nothing much going on here but staying bundled up in quilts.
This is the amount of snow that can shut down Atlanta (about 1/2" or so) with a little ice underneath.
My oak leaf hydrangea in the snow and the poor camellias that are probably a lost cause.

One way to stay warm is to do some major cooking and hang out in the kitchen. I decided to make some hearty comfort food--Shepard's pie. Lots of fresh veggies

Mashed potatoes and parsnips mixed with non-fat yogurt instead of butter and milk
Here it is ready for the oven.
Super yummy goodness and there's lots more for the rest of the week until we thaw out.

Snow, Ice, Windchill is Zero..

all schools canceled, and....no snow day for me.....not happy. Grrrrr....

Wishing for a Snow Day

Very short post tonight (problems with the internet--maybe the tubes were frozen...). I am hoping that tomorrow brings snow snow snow and cancel cancel cancel for work on Friday. Let's all wish really hard okay....ready....SNOWWWWWWWW!

Thank you! More from the frozen ATL soon.

PS: it was colder here than in Anchorage, Alaska--what is up with that???

Starting the new year

I started off the new year busy sewing. Although I am not making it an official resolution, I am going to be diligent on getting UFOs finished. Starting off, I finally got around to putting the borders on my Mardi Gras quilt (aka Bonnie Hunter's Orange Crush mystery quilt).
(This is half of the quilt--too big to get the whole quilt in the photo--and the backing fabric). This will be the next quilt off to the long-arm quilter...

I also finished another quilt top (photo after it is gifted sorry!) So that is TWO quilt tops finished and it's only January 4th! Yea!

While I was in Michigan, I made a zillion of these for Bonnie Hunter's Double Delight quilt. Still need to make a zillion more I think. I also have pulled fabric for the Carolina Christmas quilt, got caught up on BOMs, and cut all the strips for my fabric swap. Whew! We are on a quilting roll so far!

Brrrr!

Was it supposed to be this cold in Georgia? It was 19F this AM when I was out at dark-thirty to work at Starbucks!!!! It is only a whopping 27F now. Edgar Poe is sleeping in the sunlight, Morpheus is "helping" me type, Gomez has not moved from the heat vent, and Stella is prowling around looking for trouble or someplace warm, I'm not sure which.

I know we are all tired of the holidays but I know a few of you out there will enjoy these (belated) photos of the cats and their presents (and commentary):

Morpheus: "Hey she didn't even bother to wrap the presents this year"

Gomez: "How are we supposed to open this box?"
Edgar: "Hey let me see!!!"
Gomez: "I think this one is mine."
Stella: "Are you sure? I think the biggest present should be for the smallest cat"
Gomez: "JUST WHAT I ALWAYS WANTED!!!!!!"
Gomez: "Don't even think about it Stella!"
Stella: "Fine! I like this mitten better anyway and this mouse too"

After Stella and Gomez wore themselves out playing with the toys and fighting with each other only a little, Edgar and Morph did get to play too. They all had fun playing in the box and with the paper bags too. Thank you to Purrfect Play for making handmade, giant, organic, catnip-filled toys.

Has anyone made new year's resolutions? I decided to skip the resolutions this year--they are always the same anyway. Lose weight, eat healthy, blah blah blah. Quilters always want to use up their stash too. To start out, my sewing buddies and I are doing a reproduction fabric swap to make Bonnie Hunter's 16-patch and pinwheels quilt.

Here's my darks/mediums and the lights. Seventeen fat quarters of each! That's a lot of fabric! Did it look like I made a dent in my Civil War stash----No!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!
I arrived back in Atlanta yesterday afternoon. Visits to Michigan always go by so fast and I was sad to leave. It is nice to be home though and the cats definitely missed me. Morpheus has been a "velcro" cat and is never more than 5 inches away I think. Gomez started meowing at me the minute I walked in and had a lot to say. Most of it I think was about how S. didn't know that kitty treats are delivered directly to the cats and not just put in their bowls. Apparently this caused quite a bit of confusion... Cats do not appreciate confusion....Edgar and Stella wanted lots of attention.

I am happy to see 2009 go away. What a rough year. 2010 has got to be better. The cats, S. and I spent a quiet night at home and watched our latest Netflix addiction--The Wire. I am beginning to agree that it is the best TV series ever, even surpassing The Sopranos. We are in the middle of season 2. At midnight we listened, not to fireworks, but gunfire since in the South apparently you have to shoot off guns at midnight. Is it just me or does the possibility of ending your new year before it begins not the best means of celebration?

Today, I am catching up on emails (200+), blog posts (300+), and laundry (a ton?) with Morpheus, of course. Holiday and Michigan wrap-up posts coming soon...