info. about a blog quilting party -

    While following a link-up I found on Sumo's Sweet Stuff's 'Market Yourself Monday('s)', I learned about a Blogging Quilt Festival currently going on. Those of you who know me, know how fascinated I always am with quilts. Some are such beautiful works of art. Some are  just oh so cuddable looking. And all of them represent hours of love filled labor. So I of course had to go check it out. Originally, I thought I would go back and link up the quilt that I had made for Analyse, but the guide lines very clearly state new postings only :-[  Oh well.
     I am also currently pondering which of the 12 quit patterns that I have ear marked in the quilting books I had picked up at mission type stores, I am going to make for our soon to arrive grand son. Decisions, decisions .....  ;-p

    In the mean time, I knew that many of you too would enjoy looking at all of the linked up quilts, so I am going to be a nice friend and share the 'how to get there' info. with you. Aren't I grand?  o;-p
  

Blogger's Quilt Festival 2011
being hosted by, Amy's Creative Side
May 13 - 20
(for any of you whom might want to link up your own posting)
Find all of the link-ups --> HERE <--

    I would be interested to lean which are your favorites.                       

it's our Anniversary :->

On this day,
of this month,
in the year 1980,
we joined our life's together
and became husband and wife. 

(picture taken by 'Bill plus Jean Photography')

It is now 31 years later.
We've gone through a lot of the "for better for worse".
And the "in sickness and in health".
I still promise "to love and to cherish 'till death do us part."
And I hope that last part is m-a-n-y years off!!!

Brian, Thank-you for still being, my husband, my lover, and my friend.
I LOVE you!!!
Cheryl


Last year I posted links to lots of the stories of our life together. Go HERE to see/read it.

For Analyse's upcoming 2nd Birthday

   Analyse's 2nd birthday is coming up in June :-)

       Here's a picture of her from her first Birthday Party.

   And here is a picture of her from last month.

                       (click on picture to see it larger / clearer)
   Cyndi's sister Emma is using fondant and baking the main cake, but they asked me to make some cupcakes too. As you know, Analyse L-O-V-E-S Elmo (R). But she is also very familiar with all of the Sesame Street Characters (R). So that is going to be the theme of this years party for her.
    Byron suggested that I make some Cookie Monster(R) cupcakes. I went google(TM) searching for Cookie Monster Cupcakes - I found some good ideas HERE  and  HERE.
   They had also previously requested that I make a banner. Humm mmm, should I try to sew one, or what? Again I did a Google search for ideas. I found several which inspired me.
    Banner ideas - HERE (craft style)- HERE - HERE - HERE (actually a card, but still triggered some ideas) - HERE - HERE  (another craft type one)
   This afternoon I am headed out for a l-o-n-g over due 'therapy time' with Robin P.. And I am also going to have my chauffeur (Amy ;-) )  take me shopping for materials one day this week. Think we'll try checking out the fabric store, the party supply store, the used book store, and probably Hobby Lobby(R) or Michael's(TM) for supplies.
    Right now I'm not sure if I want to make a craft banner, or a sewed one ... we'll see ...
    Also not sure if I can handle hitting all of those places in two days, or if it turns into  multiple days of hunting excursions.
     While doing my Google searching, I also found some whole party decoration ideas - HERE (a 'TON of details' party we can pick and choose from) - HERE (a site which is all about all types of themed parties!) - HERE (lots more ideas to pick and choose from) - HERE (I love the different colored table cloths!)

    Rest assured that I WILL be doing postings later on about what I did end up making, as well as about her party there and all. We are still deliberating also doing a party for her here.

   Vertigo or not - I am gonna be doing some fun crafting!!!

    For Analyse's birthday. And later this week, we are sitting down with Brent and Kayla and going over all of the details so far towards their wedding in Oct.. And figuring out more details. And I'm going to start working on the flowers for the wedding (silk).  And...

    The fun parts of being a Mom and a Grandma!! :->

Remembering Rascal

    Last Monday marked the one year anniversary of when our beloved cat Rascal left this earth. Sometimes we will hear something and question what Rascal is up to, only to sadly realize it couldn't be him.
    In honor of Rascal's memory, I decided to go back through our previous blog and make a 'directory' of sorts of all of the postings about Rascal.

    For the record, there were probably more postings about him. Byron had set up our Xanga account as a easy way for us to communicate with all of the 'part-time kids' we had at the time. We could let them know about events we planned, things that went on in one another's lives, as well as things from our life's.
   But I didn't get the difference between the huge wide web and email. At least not as far as space on them went. So at one point in time, I went through and deleted a whole lot of the postings from the beginning of the blog, thinking that I was freeing up space .... You learn as you go. I've been thinking about trying to google search for them and see if I can find them still floating around in cyber space. If you have any tips on doing so, PLEASE let me know them!

   August 21st, 2005 - I don't have night vision!

   August 25th, 2005 - I had interrupted his nap

   February 8th, 2008 - Time shared basis

   February 11th, 2008 - (the last paragraph) our moving blanket

   December 4th, 2009 - the " ~  Early Wed. evening Dec. 2nd" part

   January 21st, 2010 -  An example of inter-species animals communicating with one another.

   May 12th, 2010 - Rascal - Oct. 1994 - May 10th, 2010

   November 30th, 2010 - "I'm Thankful For - Our Pets"

    Will we see Rascal again?

   May 23rd, 2009 - Animals in heaven

A chuckling tribute to my mom

    The following email came via my dad. I decided to use it as a posting seeings how Sunday is Mother's Day. My mom was an English major. But much to her shurgrin, I was not.
    Oh, I love words mind you. I love the scenes one can visualize via putting certain words together. The tales they can be used to tell.  The warmth they can be used to spread. The beautiful music some people's voices make when reading them. Etc.. I think that the English language can be a very beautiful wonderful thing.
   But it can also be an ever so frustrating one. For every rule applied to it, there is umpteen dozen exceptions. And how in the heck the 'phonics' system is suppose to work, is beyond me. Way to many words are not spelled any wheres close to how they sound like they should be. And punctuation. Yet again so many conflicting rules.
   I could go on, but I'll spare you. (Who just applauded?!! ;-p)
   In honor of my mom and Sunday being Mother's day, here is today's chuckle courtesy of my dad - 
 
You think English is easy???

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse refuse more.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture. 5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass  drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row ...
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. 

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?  

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.. 

English was invented by people not computers and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why when the stars are out they are visible but when the lights are out they are invisible. 

PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ?

P.PS. Why is a bra singular and panties plural?

Then there's this- a two letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is UP
It's easy to understand UP , meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report ?

We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UPexcuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP . We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. 

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP ! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP ,you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP .. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP...
When it rains,it wets the earth and often messes things  UP. When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry  UP .One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP , for now my time is UP , so........it is time to shut UP !  

Oh... one more thing:

What is the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night? U-P


{sorry the sizes of the fonts are this are so mixed up on here.  I tried getting them all alike.... aw well.}

complimentary phone call ;-)

    When Byron called the other day, he had sounded really groggy and out of it. In what I thought was the background, I could hear Analyse making sounds. Then Byron's voice informed me I was on speaker phone. I took the cue and started talking to Analyse. "Hi Analyse, How's grandma's sweetheart? What ya doing?" That kind of stuff.
    Suddenly while I was talking to her, Boo started going ballistic at somebody he could see out our front window. "Boo!!!" "Hush! I'm trying to talk to Analyse."  That seemed to get his attention, because he instantly came over and with his head cocked sideways, gave me a ever so quizzical look. I tried holding the phone up to his ear while loudly telling Analyse to talk to Boo. Boo was not in favor of the phone next to his head, but the sudden motion of his ears and the change in his expression told me he had heard her voice. His then pawing at my leg, was full indication that I was suppose to pull her through that phone! :-)
    I went back to talking to Analyse for a bit, asking her if she was having fun with her dolly, etc., and for a short bit, she answered me. Then I heard her happy chatter fading away and knew she had headed into another room, to tell her mommy all about everything. ;-) Cyndi was being told about "gaa--ma" and "Boo" and other things I couldn't quite make out. ;->
    Suddenly Byron's still groggy voice is saying, "thanks mom, I'll talk to you later."
    ??!??
    "Wait, Byron, what did you originally call me about?"
    "To see if you could cheer Analyse up. She's been kind of whiny and cranky lately, and I thought maybe you could cheer her up. You did. THANKS! Now maybe I can get some sleep and she won't drive Cyndi crazy. Thanks again Mom!!! Love you. Bye."  click.

    Well all-righty then. :-D   So glad I could be of service!!! ;->  What a thrilling phone call, from this grandma's perspective! :-]

NOT just for Easter 04

   [  In light of the fact that this upcoming Sunday is Mother's Day, we have changed our 'Seasonal Smile Pictures' accordingly  ;->   ]

    Today's posting is #04 in the series 'Not Just For Easter'. At least for now, this is the last segment of this series. Yes, 'for now', I'll 'splain it later. o:-)
    'Not just for Easter 01' featured the 'pink bunnies' cookies.
    The ducky cookies, which were made from a totally different recipe than the one the bunnie cookies were made from, were featured in 'Not just for Easter 02'.
    'Not just for Easter 03' featured the 'Rice Krispie(TM) eggs', which this year I had taken up an additional notch. ;-)
     That then leaves the chocolate covered ducky cookies, as the only thing left on the platter yet to be featured.

    Here then is the info. about 'Not just for Easter 04' - the chocolate covered ducky cookies.
As with the other cookies, these cookies can be made for ever so many other occasions / events!  Change your cookie cutter and wa-la! You'll have a whole new type of cookie ;-) I had shared a couple of ideas for other occasions in the '01' posting.

    The idea for making the chocolate covered ducky cookies was not a priorly planned one. They just sort of happened. As I previously shared with you, I had baked up the ducky cookies ahead of time, got behind on things, and had our 'kids' frost them for me Easter Sunday. They frosted a lot of them, but not all of them. Not a problem.  The day after Easter, Brent and Brandon had to work; Byron, Cyndi and Analyse headed back out of town, and I dropped down into low gear, with every intention of getting back at things the following day. But that night a storm moved in. A very low pressure, lots of thunder, shake my vertigo all up type of storm. :-[ That Tuesday turned out to be a 'barely get out of bed due to a migraine', type of day. :-/.
    Then Wednesday I did an 'outing' with Wendy S.. Thanks again Wendy! It was GREAT to spend time with you!!!
    That evening I wandered into the kitchen with every intent of clearing away the balance of my Easter goodies. There sat the double boiler pans from melting the chocolate for the Rice Krispie (TM) eggs. And not far away sat the bread bag with the not yet frosted ducky cookies. "I wonder...."
     I couldn't leave it hanging like that. My curiosity had been tweaked and I knew I would not be content till I experimented and found out. 

     The pan of melted chocolate had been covered tightly with plastic wrap. I removed it and heated it back up. Then using one of my wonderul little metal frosting spatulas, I liberally spread some of the melted chocolate chips onto the cookies. I did ten of them. After all, I wasn't sure how these were going to taste.

    Later that evening, I fixed myself a glass of milk and tried one.  Oh  My  Goodness!  They were absolutely amazingly yummy!  They no longer at all tasted like a sugar cookie!  The combined flavors of the cookie and the chocolate had magically transformed them into a scrumptious shortbread delight!   The taste brought to mind my Aunt Susie's Toffee Bars, only moister  (no offense intended Aunt Susie!!  you know I love those bars of yours ;->). As well as one of the types of cookies the certain girls sell every spring, in the little green box's (;-p).
    The following day I ate two. One in early afternoon and one in late evening (thus allowing ample time for all calories from the previous one to have evaporated o;-b).
    The following day I repeated that process.
    And the day after, I knew that I had to finish converting the yet un-frosted ducky cookies into shortbread delights. I had plenty of the frosted ones on hand to fulfill my 'plans', so wasting the leftover yellow frosting wasn't a huge deal. Wasteful? yes. But now I had yet another goody to add to my goody bags. Bonus!  And sometimes a good 'bonus' trumps 'wasteful' ;-p

    For the record, I had decorated these bags y-e-a-r-s ago (using a rubber stamp and then colored fine tip markers), with the idea to use them for... . They then got tucked away inside a plastic bag. And there they have sat. Waiting.. and waiting .... they have now been used! ;-D

    This is the point in a posting, where I give you step by step instructions on how to make the goodies. That then is always followed by the recipe. The thing is, I've already given you both recently. So I am just going to refer you back to them.
    Go HERE to get the recipe for the cookies themselves.
    And then go HERE to read/see how I melted the chocolate.
    Combine the two, let the frosting set up for a good half hour at least, and then enjoy! ;->

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 
  I 'plan' on linking this particular posting up to: 
~ "Recipe Swap Sunday('s)" are hosted by Cassity, at 'Remodelacholic' (http://www.remodelaholic.com)
~ "Homemaker Mondays ... Yours, Mine & Ours", are hosted by Jen, at '11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven' (http://rtheyallyours.blogspot.com/).
~ "Market Yourself Monday", are hosted by Sumo, at 'Sumo's Sweet Stuff' (http://sumossweetstuff.blogspot.com/)
~ "Tuesday's Tasty Tidbits", hosted by Susan, at 'Permanent Posies - Creative Chaos' (http://permanentposies.com/) 
~ "Tempt My Tummy Tuesday('s)", are hosted by Lisa, at 'Blessed with Grace' (http://blessedwithgrace.blogspot.com).
~ "Whatever Goes Wednesday('s), hosted by Michelle, at 'Someday Crafts' (http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/)
~ "Recipe Swap Thursday('s)", hosted by Alison, at 'Prairie Story' (http://prairiestory.blogspot.com/) 
~ "Full Plate Thursday('s)", hosted by Miz Helen, at 'Miz Helen's Country Cottage' (http://mizhelenscountrycottage.blogspot.com/)
~ "Sweet Tooth Friday('s)", hosted by Alli, at 'Alli 'n Son' (Parenting and Life with a side of Chocolate) (http://alli-n-son.com/)
~ "Foodie Friday('s)" (#2), are hosted by Bianca, at 'Little Brick Ranch' (http://www.littlebrickranch.com/)
~ "Sweets For A Saturday", hosted by Lisa, at 'Sweet As Sugar Cookies' (http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com)