No Juice for You!

It's been a challenge here in the PNW, first with a cold front dumping 20" of the white, fluffy stuff on us - we were without power for 129 hours before it was restored. Just as I got the fridge emptied into the garbage can, and SOME of our clothes washed, a rain-and-windstorm came along and plunged us into darkness again.

So today, I was hap-hap-happy when I saw a power truck heading down our driveway. Crews were out checking poles and lines before turning the power back on...AGAIN. I ran out to greet the guys and find out whatever I could. I also told them how VERY much we appreciated all the hard work they had been doing to get the power on to tens of thousands of us. One guy asked me "So what time yesterday did you lose your power again?" I told him around 3:00 p.m. He said "Yes well we noticed that you were not using your power wisely after we turned it back on yesterday, so we took it away from you and gave it to others who really needed it."  I said "Ahhhh...it was the Facebook, wasn't it?"  He nodded and said "Yep, and we are going to turn it back on real soon but we'll be watching, and if you don't do better, we'll just have to turn it off again."

Of course, I was standing on the porch, giggling...and amazed that they could possibly still have a sense of humor after the freezing cold, wind, rain, and lack of sleep they have been enduring to make sure we got power back as quickly as possible. A smile and a wave and they were off...sure enough, 20 minutes later, There Was Light! I have to admit, I was back on Facebook in only 10 minutes, tempting fate...

Weather and Other Stuff

Phew! We have been hit with an epic snowstorm! Some places near me have two feet of the fluffy white stuff...I went out a few hours ago and measured 15" but it's snowed heavily since then so I have no idea what's out there now. Here's a shot from the front porch. The Jeep in the background made it into town at 6:30 this morning, but didn't manage to lose all the snow on the roof during the drive. My car in the foreground hasn't moved for days and is almost completely buried.

The puppies still wanna go jump around in it, although Ben had to shovel a path for Diesel because he's short and old. Watch out for the "yellow snow" not only because of the dogs, but because Ben has been fixated on writing words in the snow...like "Ben," "Jeep," and I don't know what else. Men! Boys! They got that equipment and they just wanna use it!

UPDATE: It's now at 20" - took the good ole' Omnigrid out on the deck...

Wow! That's 20 inches now! Yikes!

The angle makes it look only 19 1/2" but it really IS a full 20"!

Meanwhile, Adam had to get the back-blade on the tractor last night to plow the LLH (last long hill) on Apron Valley Road so he could get Katie's car towed home. And the snow snapped some poles on the Hippie Chicks enclosure, but they are safe and warm inside the van.

Adam came down to the house this morning and dug his knee-high rubber boots out of the closet. He hadn't worn them for YEARS, and he found rice in one boot, and gold foil-wrapped chocolate coins in the other boot!  Adam said "Maybe they went to a mouse wedding..." WTF? So, like, I provided all the food...and they didn't even invite me to the wedding, LOL! I can see the rice, but where did those  mice get the coins? I usually keep some in the freezer...maybe they swiped them when they were in there getting ice for their Mousetinis? ;-)

Miss Piggy was quite interested in the "booty"

And here's what One Eye, the cat, thinks about the whole mess...


Pffftttttt! Just give me some more catnip...

In the  meantime, I made YET ANOTHER of those Scrappy Daisies table runners! I really need to start some other projects!

Front

Back

I really AM working on some other things and will post those soon. Hopefully, we won't lose power (crossing fingers and toes here!).

Block & Roll

It seems, with the New Year, I wanna be a "joiner." Not just in swaps - and I've already signed up for one of those. But also for sew-alongs and BOMs. Although, I am NOT going to bee signing up for bees, LOL! Well, at least not yet ;-)

I found the Craftsy Block of the Month, bookmarked it, pondered, lurked, and pondered some more. Then a friend on Facebook put herself out there and asked if anyone else was going to participate. That's all it took. I signed up and committed myself (not to be confused with commitING myself, which may be NEXT!).

So I dove right in and last night I whipped up the first two blocks - Asterisk and Wonky Pound Sign. I sat through the video even though it was a bit slow for me, but yet, I learned a few things, so I'm glad I did! I had a FQ bundle handy, so I chose 3 FQs. They used Kona Snow for all the background - about 2 yards, they said. I didn't have 2 yards of Kona anything handy, but there were 2 FQs of white-on-white in the FQ bundle, so rather than wait, I used one of those. I'm going to have to fill in with other background fabrics as I go, but that may just make it more interesting. As least that's what I'm telling myself.

Here are the first two blocks. Of course that's Asterisk on the left and Wonky Pound Sign on the right. My Wonky is not quite as wonky as it should be but I'm happy with it.

Then I noticed there was a video for February. Oh goodee! I was really in the mood and thought well, I could just whip that one out too and I'd be ahead of the game! No matter that the video was only 19 seconds long - that should have been my first clue. I tried to ignore that and clicked on Play. Here's what I got:

Har Dee Har Har, I say...well, Crafsy, ya got me, and I deserved that. Tail between my legs, I'll slink away and wait til February. At least they LOVE me :-) It's nice to be LOVED :-)

Now that the two January blocks were done...oh and let me explain that, well I'm guessing anyways...two in January and then one each the rest of the year through November, leaving December Ok I sat through the first few minutes again and it's TWO BLOCKS per month for a total of 20 and then sashing, binding, quilting, etc. So now, I "know" me...and I "know" I'd be lucky to remember the first of each month to go find the block, let alone remember where I stashed the previous blocks! One might be on my cutting table...and another in that tub-o-fabric in the dining room...another mixed in with the new shipment I got from Burgundy Buttons or Fat Quarter Shop. So I pondered how can I make sure I wind up with a pile of blocks come December....hmmm....so I decided to make a "block roll." I had eyed another block I wanted to make, so I grabbed a few chunks of fabric and went for it. I made a 12" block, then added some frames and scraps to it to measure about 15" x 18" - making it a couple inches wider, and several inches longer than the 12 1/2" Craftsy blocks. I added a layer of cotton batting and backed it with flannel, then added ties to one end.

The idea is to stack the blocks as they are finished in the roll...

roll it up...

and tie closed.

Until the next month. I'm being patient. Really I am. Ok, maybe not so patient. But apparently I have no choice because Craftsy SAYS I have no choice :-)  So now don't YOU want to join in the Craftsy BOM?