Can Someone Please Press Pause???

I am not ready for November. In fact, let's rewind back to October. I am still trying to wade through blog posts and emails. If I haven't commented or replied, I am sorry and I will get through everything and I thank you all for commenting and emailing and just being out there in bloggyland.

Since I returned from Michigan, I have been running around like my hair was on fire, working working working. For my day-job, our office relocated over the weekend which means all last week was packing packing packing, supervising movers late at night and on the weekend, and starting tomorrow unpacking unpacking unpacking. So I worked all weekend there and at SBux and missed Bad Melisa's Spooktacular party , and missed watching "Nightmare Before Christmas" and singing along with all the songs and missed carving pumpkins. Foo!

I also missed posting a photo of my super-fantastic-best-birthday-cake-ever that I had in Michigan. (thanks again Mom!!!)
I always ask for Halloween-themed b-day cakes since it's a week before Halloween. Lots of purple, a moon, plump frosting pumpkins, polka-dots and a witch--now that's a cake!!
The cake is marble cake with buttercream icing and is from Sweet and Savory Bakeshop. This was the BEST bakery cake I've ever had--perfect tasty cake and perfect not too sweet, creamy frosting. I heart Sweet and Savory Bakeshop but am REALLY glad it is nowhere close to me or I would have to make up some holidays to celebrate....I'm just saying.

Oh hello is this blog ever going to get back to quilting????? you are asking. Yes, I am working on something right now that should be done this upcoming weekend since November is dragging me along with it....

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Hope everyone is having a happy Halloween and over-indulging on fun-size candy bars :) What is your favorite? For me, it's a toss up between Butterfingers and Reece's Peanut Butter cups and sometimes Snickers. Twix are good too. Maybe I better try them again to see what I like best...

No trick or treaters this year so far. Bummer. It's damp and drizzly and cool outside and there are not many kids in the area anyway. I think the most that have come in a year is around 10. Someday I'll live somewhere with lots of trick or treaters and then I'll decorate my house big time! Just like Martha...

In the meantime, I took some photos of houses in Michigan for inspiration. Halloween is celebrated a lot more than in the South. If you aren't too scared, check out these great houses
I love the coffin with the vampire and the big ghoul on the front facade. Nice old house too.

This person went all out with all the well-known horror movie themes. The huge spider web is a nice touch.
This house is very spooky at night with great lighting effects too.
I would love to sit on the porch of this house and see neighborhood kids' reaction!!!

Autumn in Michigan (with photos this time)

I've been back from Michigan since Sunday but have been working overtime at day job plus SBux so I haven't had time to blog.

I had a fabulous time and it went by too fast. Unfortunately, it rained every day except for the day I arrived and the day I left. I did get a few photos of the leaves between the rain drops.

I know Karin wanted to see goodies from our quilt shop visits. My mom, SIL, and dad (we always drag him along...) went to Lake Street Mercantile and found Halloween fabric on sale. I have yet another idea for a Halloween quilt so I picked up these fabrics and some great ric-rac at Guildcrafters.

Lake Street also had some great shirtings and neutrals that just *had* to come along.

Mom and I did some sewing while I was up there. She is working on the Hocuspocusville stitchery and has a block all done! I am so jealous, mine is in little bags in a plastic bin waiting for me to start. My SIL worked on costumes for a play. I worked on "Scrappy Nines" and made a Halloween "smart bag" that was kitted up at another of my favorite quilt shops Mabelena's (sorry no website or blog).

Isn't this a great Halloween bag? I want to find some "bat" buttons to put on the folded over edge to tack down the handles.

My SIL besides quilting, making costumes, and lots of other crafty stuff, does papercrafts. She made me an awesome Halloween treats jar and filled it with caramel-apple flavored candy corn (make that "used to be filled" I had to try them out).

The TSA screeners at the airport were unfamiliar with Halloween papercraft treat jars and they had to check it out. It was deemed "nonthreatening" I guess and I was allowed to bring it home. Good thing!

Autumn in Michigan

Hello from Michigan!! [Waving to Cathy at Quilt Obsession since I am 900 miles closer] I arrived on Wednesday evening to spend my birthday weekend with my family and enjoy a change of scenery.

Wednesday was a perfect autumn day here. I had forgotten how beautiful fall leaves were in the north. There are pumpkins everywhere, cornstalks in the fields, and houses decorated for Halloween.

Thursday, we went on our traditional when-I-visit-quilt-shop-hop to Lake St. Mercantile and Guildcrafters. My mom and my SIL found the fabrics they were looking for and I bought some helping-the-Michigan-economy fabric (the BEST kind!). We had a fabulous lunch at my favorite deli (The Bread Basket) where they have HUGE sandwiches and make their own bread, corned beef, brisket, etc. I had pastrami and swiss on rye and brought half of it home. Because we were too full from lunch, we skipped dinner and went to Cook's Dairy later for ice cream. (Do I have a great family or what?) I brought a quilt kit with me and got it cut out last night too.

Today it is raining, but we are going to ignore that and go to a cider mill and hopefully a pumpkin patch for pumpkins. Also a trip to Mabelena's quilt shop. I'll post photos when I get back to GA.

Happy Fall Y'all!!!!

Where has October gone?

Can someone please tell me what happened to October? I seemed to have misplaced a week or two and suddenly it's almost time for the Great Pumpkin to come.


I apologize for being a sporadic blogger recently. I have been suffering with allergies something awful and have been in an antihistamine daze I think. I even forgot to post about my Thimbles sewing group last Saturday. It was fun but I didn't get much accomplished due to some bad sewing karma. Poor Sarah cut her finger with the rotary cutter. Luckily we had nurses-who-quilt on hand to do some first aid (and they didn't even charge a co-pay!!). I ended up cutting half of my quilt blocks wrong. Egads! Maybe the Sewing Goddess needs to be appeased with some fabric acquisition offerings....hmmm. Now that's an idea!

October at last

I'm so glad it's October. Fall has arrived in Atlanta with cooler weather, less humidity, and clearer skies. October is my birthday month and my favorite holiday, Halloween, wraps up the month with fun and candy purchases, always with the pretense that I'll actually get a trick or treater or two this year.

I took a little blogging break because I was just tired and didn't have much to say. No sewing this past week or last weekend. Just a lot of vegging with the cats, taking naps, and reading books. Working more hours at Starbucks and my feet hurt all the time and the house is a mess.

But now it's October, it's three days into the month, and it's going to be a better month. It's time for apple cider and Halloween mugs.
I feel better already.

I read two great books this past week. I highly recommend both of them. The first is The Confederate General Rides North by Amanda C. Gable.


I loved the main character in this book, 11-year old Kat McConnell. The author so realistically captures the imagination and spirit of an intelligent, curious girl trying to understand and comprehend the world around her while dealing with the uncertainty of the moods and action of an apparently bi-polar mother. It's a tale told with truth and heart.

The second book is Homer's Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned about Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat by Gwen Cooper.
I liked Dewey, the Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World better. But really, I'm a sucker for a good, touching cat story. And besides, Homer is the most awesome name for a blind cat ever. Readers who are owned by cats will not be astonished at the capability, love, and fearlessness of Homer. We know that if cats had thumbs, they would rule the world.

I'm off to catch up on catching up now. Happy Autumn!

Positive Changes

I feel Fall in the air. There is a smidgen less humidity in the air here in the ATL and the A/C is running less (both very positive changes). I love Fall--it's my favorite season. Be prepared (forewarned??) for lots of Fall-inspired posts. I'll wait until October to start the Halloween-themed posts...

A BIG positive change for me is that I demoted myself at Starbucks from shift supervisor to plain ol' barista. After 6 1/2 years of being "in charge" during my shifts, I am now not in charge. This means less hours and less stress (let's do a happy dance for less stress--even a smidgen). Less hours means more sleep, more time with people--and cats--in my life, more time for quilting and reading and all the fun stuff I like to do, and yes, even more time to get rid of clutter in my house. Just being able to come home after my day job and gasp--have an evening at home--is going to be great.

Hooray for Fall! Just don't remind me that holiday season is coming up...