Old man winter paid his debt.....with interest!

Old man winter finally paid a visit to Colorado. We just got a Spring blizzard and are loving it!!! We've had weeks, probably more like months without any significant moisture. There are plants popping up already, but the grass is still brown and we've been watering for the past few weeks. I have a really bad feeling that the water restrictions will be pretty strict this summer. Bad news for my lawn that's barely hanging on already.

Officially, Arvada got 11 inches in about 6 hours. It has now died down to a light powdery steady fall of flakes, but man was it a doozy today. The wind was crazy, and all the roads were blocked or closed because of accidents. A sheet of ice to deal with on the ride home.

Fortunately, our employers let us out early, but so did everyone else's so it was pretty crowded on the roads mid-day.

Here are a few pics just so you know I'm not lying.I forgot how the cold and frozen moisture does not matter when you are 6 years old. Took a couple hours for this little guy to get tired of it all and come inside for some hot chocolate.

This is what 11 inches of snow looks like when a snowblower cuts through it.

The crazy things kids do when there's snow involved.

We had a lot of fun since there wasn't school today. We'll see if they have school tomorrow. Doubtful.

Bovine intervention

You know, I was really hoping that this post would have been our last 'Johnson Luck' post for a while, but there's always some kind of excitement happening around here.

The boys went to the lake this weekend to help Kirk's folks with some work on their house. It's out in the country east of Denver and it's a nice get away for us being only an hour or so away.

I stayed at home to get some mad work done in the craftroom because I have a craft show coming up in April that I'm feeling totally unprepared for. I spent ALL day down there on Saturday and made a lot of progress. I even ordered a Pay for View movie so I could finish up some handwork I needed to do to finish a table runner. It was fabulous, having all day to enjoy my work with no interuptions of "mom, can i have some water"......"mom, do you want to play Star Wars?"...."mom, can we go to the park?".

I got up Sunday and went to work at my p/t gig, and came home to see that the boys were back and my car was safely parked in the driveway......

Looking like this!!

Apparently, on the way to the lake, a wild chupacabra baby cow ran out in front them. Driven by my husband with my son in the backseat. In my car.

Here are more pictures just because I find them amazing.

See the evidence in this one? (cow hair)

I'm a scrapper

Well, I got most - ahem, some - of my scraps together for my Nothing but Scraps project.

They started out in a big pile, and then because I always overthink things, I put them in a bag to grab from randomly.
Here's what I came up with - an idea I totally stole from this post.

I've never worked with white fabric before, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

This table runner will be for sale at my first craft show coming up in April. I've got to get busy, the items from my etsy store keep selling, so my inventory I was going to use at the craft show is diminishing right before my eyes. Not that I'm complaining or anything.

Not enough pins

Yellow Brick Road
Originally uploaded by quayandco

I've been working on this secret project for a couple of weeks now. I've been really surprised with how well it's turning out.
Sometimes when I'm putting a quilt together, I get nervous about half way through, second guessing my fabric decisions, pattern, etc. This one looked great when I had all the fabrics piled together. Then I started cutting, and that's when I started getting worried about things. However, the more it went together, the more pleased I became.
UNTIL THIS HAPPENED!!
No matter how many pins I baste with, I always get puckers. At the intersections of stitches, the fabric moves. I try with all my might to ease it in and avoid the ugliness that I know is coming, but to no avail. I always hope that when I wash it, the puckers won't be as noticable, but I know better. They will forever be a flaw in a very special item I had hoped would turn out perfect.

Does anyone have any tricks to avoid this? Do you baste with pins?
The last quilt I did was for my son. It was lap sized and I decided to baste it with the spray stuff since the same product worked fabulous on a table runner I had done. It was a disaster. I think I didn't lay the top onto the sprayed batting the right way. Anyway, I've been afraid to use a basting spray ever since.
I'm frustrated and sad that this secret project will not be perfect.

My first swap!!

Look at the beautifulness that showed up in my mailbox the other day! (yes, i just made up a word).

I came across Ashley in blogland who was in need in of the green version of Peas and Carrots. Well, guess what has been sitting in my craftroom for the last two years?? Yep, just what she needed.

So...I just completed my first online fat quarter swap!!

She sent these fabulous fabrics after I told her I really like the color red. Perfect.

The only problem is that now I'll have to save them for a super special project. I can't cut into these for just any old thing you know. Quilters out there know what I'm taking about.

Unfortunately Jennifer.....

I saw a funny little game to play on one of my favorite blogs.

Go to Google and type in "unfortunately (your name)" with quotes and everything.

I gotta tell you though, with a name like Jennifer, some predictable stuff comes up.

Here's what I found that didn't include Jennifer Aniston or Jennifer Lopez:

~Unfortunately, Jennifer is still recovering and she isn't ready to play tennis.
~Unfortunately, Jennifer seems to have replaced her ex-lover with a 62-year-old stalker.
~Unfortunately, Jennifer also suffered a stroke at age 3 and partial paralysis on one side of her body.
~Unfortunately, Jennifer loved it and quickly climbed on, her arms round Cloud’s waist. (Now that's what I'm talkin' about!)
~Unfortunately, Jennifer will have to fill out the paperwork again and stand in line because we both have been removed from the electronic renewal system.
~Unfortunately, Jennifer just doesn't have the time to design tattoos for people she is not tattooing.

I've learned a lot about myself. Apparently I'm a paraplegic who's too busy tattooing to deal with my lover Cloud (boy or girl??) so I've taken on a 62 yr old stalker. Less commitment that way.

Scraptacular!

Anina over at Twiddletails has started an awesome challenge for us quilters.

We are to make a quilt, or quilts using all scraps and we can't buy any fabric for the project. My favorite part of her "rules" is that there are no rules!

I can't decide what kind of quilt I want to do. I really like this one from Crazy Mom Quilts, and the new hotness of spiderweb quilts all over blogland.  Or maybe I'll just start sewing stuff together and see what happens! 

Lord knows i have enough scraps to do 100 quilts!