Saturday, March 31, 2012

Current Obsession, pinterest, anyone???

Hi, my name is Catherine, and I am addicted to Pinterest.

Not just the quilting, and knitting, and gardening (which many of you might expect), but the food board, oh my!!! And I don't even cook that often. Seriously, unless it can be cooked in the crockpot, I am probably not going to cook it. I'm never home to cook it. Seriously, I leave the house by 7 every morning, and am rarely home before 7pm, and which point, cereal and a banana seems like a perfectly balanced meal. With a diet coke that is (yes, I am addicted to diet coke, but we'll save that for another post, another day).

Seriously folks, hours lost to checking out recipes and and great photography of food that I will probably never make. Okay, some of them I will make, but most will never happen, but it is fun to dream!! In all I have made a total of 1 item from my pinterest board named "2 make for dinner". 1 out of 634 pins for food. That's .15%, not 15%, or 1.5%, but .15%. Seriously, I really want to start trying some of these, and work on eating at home, and eating out (or cereal for dinner) less. And pinterest is full of great ideas for that -- setting up cooking parties, or doing all of your chopping and bagging for the week, and popping everything in the freezer, so that you can literally drop the entire bag into the freezer on a given morning and have a great meal when you get home from work. Now I just need to buy a crockpot that has the timer feature and I should be good to go.

In my quest for trying some of these amazingly photographer items, I have decided to try something from my pin board every week to see if it is any good -- sort of a challenge to spend less time pinning and more time cooking. So my goal is to try one thing each week, and report back on its success or failure. This week, I tried an "easy lemon cake" -- and the title was no lie (except that I made mine into lime cake, rather than lemon). It has exactly 2 ingredients, and you need 3 tools from your kitchen (mixing bowl, spatula, and banking pan). And it was so good, that it got wolfed down at work, and I didn't even get any....but on everyone's experience, I'm going to rate it a B+. Easy to make, seriously, it took 23 minutes total, (and 22 of those were in the oven), and clean up was super easy, and it was demolished.

So, if you are interested in what silliness I get up to on pinterest, follow me at Queenie Quilts. and I'll let you know how my challenge to myself goes.

Happy Quilting (and Pinteresting)

 

Monday, March 19, 2012

Simple Blessings -- And the Magic

So...it was St.Patty's day over the weekend, and while I usually celebrate with a green beverage and some green pancakes for dinner, I was working at the Glendale Quilt Show, so the usual green celebrations were put on hold for a week or so. I was feeling a bit blue about foregoing my usual celebrations and missing my family, and was a little depressed. And then I started feeling guilty about being depressed, since I really have nothing to be depressed about. In fact, I have a million things to be thankful for....a great family, amazing friends, a good job, and a small business that I LOVE. Really, with all of that, what do I have the complain about? And the answer is absolutely nothing.

So, instead, I want to spend the next 28 days being thankful for all of the amazing things in my life, some of which I occasionally forget....has anyone else been reading The Magic? It's the new book by Rhonda Byrne (author of The Secret). And it is basically a daily devotional on life improvement by being thankful for what you have, and not looking quite so much at what you don't have, or what could be better, or what's not quite what you wanted. I want to concentrate on the great things, the amazing thing, the things that really inspire me. So -- I'm starting with 10 things that I am thankful for -

1. A great job, which pays good money. (the day job)
2. A fun job, which is steadily growing in profitability. (the 2nd job)
3. An amazing family, who are as much friends as family.
4. Amazing friends, who might as well be family.
5. Great clients and customers who challenge and inspire me.
6. Accountants -- to handle the taxes.
7. Shoes -- because they make me smile.
8. Mike and Molly (yes, the TV show) -- because it makes me laugh.
9. The kitties -- because they keep me warm at night, and entertain me with their antics.
10. The MAC -- which makes the technology of everyday life easy.

So, let's believe in The Magic -- and be grateful for the Simple Blessings in life.

Happy Quilting!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Hello Monday

Hello, Monday!!! How did you get here so soon??? I can't quite believe where the time is going, it seems to be flying at an ever increasing rate. I spent the weekend in the lovely Mesa, AZ at the Arizona Quilt Guilds show. It really was a great show, and we had a lot of fun. Best of all we got to hang out at Scott's place and attempt to spoil him. It was great to have a "home" to come home to each night after the show, rather than a hotel room. And we found the best margaritas....at B.J.'s of all places. I guess I must usually order a beer or a diet coke when I go there, because I had never had their scrumptious margaritas. I think I will have them again, and soon, since there is now a B.J.'s just down the street from the house.

This week promises to be a crazy week, with a multitude of activities as the real job, the #2 job, and the house. Here's the list of activities from Teux Deux for job #2 :
  • Watermelon Pattern Proofing
  • Key Lime Pattern Proofing
  • Sprouts Pattern Proofing
  • Cut out Summer Solstice (class April 15th)
  • Cut out Glacier Star Extension
  • New fabric prepped for the booth 
  • Glendale Show Prep (must buy cash register tape!!!)
  • Shipping, shipping, shipping
  • Prep for Saturday Sampler at the Glendale Show
The Glendale Guild Show is this weekend in Burbank and the Marriott right by the airport -- they have a Saturday Sampler -- a 2 hour make and take, mini-lecture, etc from 6-8pm, so stop by and see me if you can, and learn about Judy's new contest for Bali Fever, and get a free paper piecing cheat sheet!!!!

Happy Quilting!!!

Catherine

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Bakersfield, Hemet, Santa Cruz, Mesa, Glendale...oh how I love you!

Well this week is all about a show in Mesa, Arizona. We are going to the Arizona Quilt Guilds show in Mesa (in fact, we are already here, but setup isn't until tomorrow). It's a great show, a bunch of guilds get together and have a huge quilt show. We had a great time last year, and are so excited to be back. I have essentially emptied the online store and brought everything with me to Mesa. Oh yeah, I ordered a whole bunch of new stuff too. So, if you are in the area, stop by. If not, get in the car now, and I'll see you on Saturday.

I kind of can't believe that it's that time of year already. The crunch time where we have 5 shows back to back in 5 weeks, and it gets a little bit nuts. Seriously, I haven't done laundry, or cleaned the kitchen or even called my Mom (sorry Mom, in my defense, I did try a couple of times, but I got the machine and you know how much I hate talking to the machine).  It's just crazy, with 5 shows in a row and a full time job, I just kind of lose track of days and even weeks, and suddenly I wake up and it's April 1st.

But it's all good here, exciting and busy is just how I like it. Stay tuned for information on the new class schedule, and hopefully some pictures (provided I figure out how to get them off of the iphone -- you know it takes me a few days to figure out all the technical details).  In the meantime, if anyone has any info about how to get photos from the iphone into iphoto let me know....

Happy Quilting!!!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

One day........soon?

One day I will learn to Purl (I can knit, but only the knit stitch).
One day I will visit Rio de Janeiro. And see the statue, you know the one I'm talking about.
One day I will buy a house.
One day I will get organized, okay, this one will take longer than a day...but I'm going with it.
One day I will relax with a margarita in Trunk Bay, USVI.
One day I will visit Catalina Island (one day soon in fact, I'm going in just a few weeks).
One day I will finish my Glacier Star.
One day I will learn to trust my heart and follow it without being fearful or doubtful.

I really wish that one day would come soon, I've been waiting a really long time now.....

Here's to finding your dreams and going after them full throttle!!! Do it now!!!