Becky Goldsmith's Blog, page 9

One of those days...

Today was one of those days. You know the kind... you have plans to get a lot done and then things happen. My day wasn't a total loss—I did get some writing done—but other stuff (mostly of my own making) kept popping up..

We needed a new screen door on the front of the house. We bought one a week or so ago and it needed to be painted. It's going to get cold tomorrow so I thought I'd get the thing painted. No big deal! The painting went pretty quickly, about an hour. I also made cookies because we have folks coming for dinner, another hour.

Then I thought to myself "Self, surely you can hang that screen door!" And as it turns out, I could. And then it got interesting.

We had gotten a 2-part screen door. The door itself has two openings. The bottom one is designed to accept a decorative/supporting wood insert. The insert was painted and ready but when I set it in, it didn't fit! It should have fit, every bit of paperwork said it would. But it did not.

Back to Lowe's where I got a different one. Luckily, I checked it this time before I painted it because it doesn't fit either. Sigh.

So, it was my own fault that I lost a good part of the day but the screen door is in place (without the insert, but there you go) and the cookies are ready.

Tomorrow should be a more productive day. If it isn't and you some high pitched screams from Texas, that will be me.

 

Mom's North Pole...

My mom has been working on a Welcome to the North Pole quilt for a little more than a year. She finished the blocks about a week ago. I had promised to set them together for her, which I was able to do last weekend.

It's pretty great, don't you think!

When she started this quilt, I would do my 'applique teacher' thing and make suggestions about how to do one thing or another. Sometimes she took my suggestions and other times, not so much. She made a lot of stuff up on her own—and it works!

I had gone through my fabric and taken her a variety of choices that I thought would work in her quilt. Darned if she didn't make it work. 

Mom thought about using felt for the reindeer and the antlers and that worked well. She went to JoAnn's and got some fuzzy stuff (minky?) for beards. It's cute! She'll do more embellishing after I get it quilted. That will be in the spring, after I get the color book finished. This year she's going to hang the top as it is now. 

Now she's ready for a new project. I've drawn a pattern for her from an antique butterfly pattern. Eventually that will go up on the website because if mom likes it as much as she does, I'll bet some of you all will too :-).

Have a great weekend!

We have a winner!

Lori F. won the copy of Quilt Essential and I have sent her an email. Lori, all we need is your address and the book will be on its way to you. Congratulations and happy reading (and sewing!)

We have a winner!

Suzanne won the copy of Making Quilts. I can hear sighs from those who are not Suzanne, so how about another give-away!

My publisher sent me a copy of Quilt Essential which is a very nice book ideed! The quilts have a modern/contemporary flavor but even if you prefer traditional quilts, there is a lot of good information to be found between the covers of this happy book. I have enjoyed flipping through it—very gently—now it's your turn!

Leave a comment below to enter the drawing. I'll have my random number generator choose a number on Friday. Good luck!

 

 

Fighting procrastination...

I subscribe to Chuck Green's Ideabook newsletter. While always interesting, every now and then he links to something that really resonates with me. Yesterday he linked to a post from wait but why about procrastination. It's a quick read that you may enjoy as much as I did.

 

I have to admit that I am not as good at staying on task as I imagine myself to be. Now I can picture the invisible but energetic instant gratification monkey that lives with me and who is often hard to ignore. But I'm going to try to put him on a leash today! 

The blog, wait but why, posts once a week on Tuesdays. Because I am not going to spend the day procrastinating, I won't look at past posts until later. Maybe much later :-). So I've added a link to wait but why in the list of my favorite blogs at right. That way we can all find it when we time to kill spend.

PS—if you haven't entered the give away from my last post, you have until Sunday, 11/3 to enter. Leave a comment on that post, not this one, to enter. Have a nice weekend!

 

Treats, not tricks :-).

In celebration of the day, how about a give away? I wrote about Kathy Doughty's wonderful new book earlier this month... would you like to win a copy? If so, leave a comment on the blog and on Sunday I'll choose a winner at random. If you leave a comment, be sure tocheck back Sunday afternoon or Monday morning to see if you won. Sometimes there's an email link to you in your comment, and sometimes there isn't. If I don't know where to send the book, you might miss out.

And because it's Halloween and because Steve and I did dress up on Saturday (with friends) to attend a Halloween wine stroll in downtown Sherman, I thought I'd share a photo. The six of us were mad scientists. Steve stuck to type and went as a mad bug scientist. I channeled Marie Curie and was radioactive-ish. I added glow-in-the-dark necklaces and bracelets after this photo. Our group won the adult costume category!

Have I got a drink for you!

I recently decided that I wanted to find a tasty, alcohol-free, evening beverage. I love a good mai tai and I wondered if I couldn't alter my favorite mai tai recipe. What makes this mai tai so good is the ginger liquer, but I didn't want the alcohol so I made ginger syrup. 

Ginger Syrup

I made this recipe up—feel free to play with the amounts. Combine the following ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, simmer for about 20 minutes. Cool. Strain. Put in a bottle or jar. Refrigerate.

1/2 cup of sugar
1 cup water with approximately (I'm going to try this with honey next time)
1 tablespoon of thinly sliced ginger.

(FYI- this is really good stuff. I think it would be a nice flavoring for tea, or even water.)

Here's the drink I came up with. I'm calling it...

Gingerfire OJ

Orange juice (I prefer a brand with no added sugar)
1-2 tablespoons of ginger syrup (recipe above)
Optional: a splash of grenadine
A straw dipped in hot sauce (I like Frostbite).

To make a Gingerfire OJ, add 1-2 tablespoons of ginger syrup to a glass. Fill the glass 2/3 full with orange juice, stir. Add ice. (I use ice from Sonic. Crushed ice would be good, or just regular ice if that suits you.)

The fire comes from the hot sauce. Dip a straw into the bottle of hot sauce to coat the inside and outside of the bottom 1/3 of the straw. Unless you want lots of fire, do not put your finger over the end of the straw! Stir the drink with the hot straw. Garnish with fruit, or not.

 

 

On pumpkins… and pain.

It's sinus infection season in north Texas and I got one on Sunday, and the insane headache that goes with it. I barely got up off the sofa for two days. I felt pretty pitiful until I was out and compared notes with other north Texans, many of whom would have been on the sofa if they could. My antibiotic kicked in this morning and it's nice to be back up and at it.

I have come to realize, once again, that I don't handle pain well. That seems obvious... none of us like pain. But there are so many people who have chronic pain and I don't know how they cope, day in and day out. When I feel good, it's easy to imagine that I could deal with it—but I don't know that I could. This is a reminder to me to 1) be more compassionate and 2) to be thankful for every pain-free day.

Now, to the pumpkin part of the post! Ever since my mom moved to Texas a few years ago, she has been involved with pumpkin carving with her great-grandchildren. I very rarely get involved—this is her thing. This year they did the deed on Sunday. I got off the sofa and took some pictures...

This is not an in-the-house activity... they make the mess in mom's garage.

I'm especially happy that I did not have my hand in any pumpkins, but the kids didn't seem to mind.

Bear spent his time tied into a chair and he mostly enjoyed it. He was noisy, but happy.

Jack was given his own, sharp knife and he worked with it well. 

I think Christopher had a good time—although he looks a little grim here. Maybe he has on his Halloween face?

 

That wasn't so bad...

I have a new tear duct! I have high hopes that this is going to work. For any of you who might be facing this surgery, know that it was not bad at all. My nose is a little swollen but my face is not bruised and there was very little pain. The bruise from the IV in my hand hurt worse than my face did. 

I took it easy for 2 days then yesterday I did a little cake and pie baking because we celebrated Jack's 6th birthday last night.

I took pictures of the present-opening. Jack was the center of attention in my photos, but it was fun to look back this morning and see what Bear was doing while we weren't really paying attention. Amazingly enough, he did not end up spilling Lorna's mai tai.

Everything old is new again in toys... Jack got a big Lego set, a game, some Thundercat action figures (when did they come back?), and clothes. Sue, Celia's mom, is the best shopper for kid toys—way better than I am. I do love the google-y eye glasses she got him...

I'm back to work on the computer. I hope to finish the text on the book in the next week and then turn my attention back to making quilts. That's the fun part and I am ready for it!

 

 

 

Boo!

I did not decorate much for Halloween but I did pull out my black cat, tinsel spiders, and the skull. When I push the magic button, the eyes on the skull light up and it makes a spooky noise. It turns itself off—too quickly in my opinion.

I'll never forget the year I bought the skull. Jack was 2 or 3 and it scared him—a lot. He looked at me as if I had betrayed him! I had to hide it until he got older. At 5.99 years old, he can take it now. Bear is only 7 months old, but I am not showing it to him. (Bear pulled himself up to a standing position yesterday, at my house! That's new.)

In other news, I'm showing this photo today because of the eyes on the skull. Tomorrow I am having a new tear duct drilled from my right eye to my sinus. Those of you who have been reading the blog for a while might know that I've had surgery to open my lacrimal duct 3 times. For whatever reason, this very standard way to treat a blocked tear duct has not worked on me. The next step is for an oculoplastic surgeon to drill me a new one. I do hope it works because the next step is not easy.

Why do I need the duct to be open? Because my eye makes tears and they don't drain. They wash down my face. It's not only annoying, it makes the skin around my eye feel bad. And I get a lot of eye infections (that's not good at all.) It's gotten to the point where I can no longer wear eye makeup... and you know, that's not all bad. I can't foof (phoof? pfoof?) up as well, but it saves a huge amount of time. And washing my face is lots easier. But still... I just bought new mascara and it's just sitting there. 

If I don't post for a few days, that's my excuse. It's not supposed to keep me down for more than a day or two but I might stretch it and watch Netflix for an extra day :-). I want to see Orange Is The New Black... 

PS—If you don't get the newsletter, I did put up a new video on how to use the Clover yo yo maker. If you don't know how to use it, you should watch this. It's a really cool tool!