I'm back from visiting family for the holidays, and I have so much to show and tell. I also had a long day at work, so I'm just popping in to share some pictures of the quilt that was worked on, although not finished, and I'll catch up some more very soon.

I took the four-pointed star quilt with me, and my sister, sister-in-law, and I put it up. Cary didn't like the way the corner was looking, so he decided to fix it for us.

Please notice that he is wearing a wrist pincushion. Maybe I should add this to his mySpace. I'm sure his fans would be impressed.

We didn't get a ton of quilting done, but it's well underway and I hope to finish it soon.

Hello lonely little blog. I have been doing lots of stuff and taking lots of pictures and right now I’m visiting my family in Idaho, which is so very fun. The above was taken in Idaho City at this crazy, strange, abandoned second hand store. I’ll be back soon!

Sheesh, I finally did it. I sewed the darn pocket on.

I was hoping it would look like a tulip. It sort of does, right? I’m okay with it, I think.

I’m getting pretty good at sewing binding to things. Here’s my helpful hint for seam binding: if you’re going to be going around curves, make sure you use bias binding. Sure, it’s more of a pain to cut out, but there’s no way I could have used straight binding to do this.

Another project I’ve been working on is up and running. This one is a collaboration with my sister. We both have new cameras and new-(ish) versions of Photoshop that we want to learn how to use, so we decided to share the process with everyone. Each week we’ll exchange pictures and then play with them in Photoshop-she has Elements, and I have CS2, so there should be something for everyone. We’ll also share links and resources and other fun stuff relating to photography and Photoshop. I thought it would be kind of cool to have a site for those of us who don’t really know what we’re doing, but want to learn. We’re posting step-by-step what we do, so you can follow along at home. And of course, participation in the comments section is highly encouraged. So please visit, and spread the word!

And lastly, if you need a song for your Valentine on Thursday, I must admit to being partial to this one. You can buy it on Cary’s Myspace page.

I got a lampshade, so that’s one project down. I took my lamp with me to Lamps Plus, and tried a bunch of different styles, and I think I was right about the drum shape, and Keri was right about the burlap-y fabric. I still think I’d like a yellow shade, but I think I’d have to do that myself. Maybe one day I’ll get brave and recover this shade, but I’m enjoying this one in the meantime. It creates a really lovely glow in the room too.

I tried a white shade and it looked really horrible, it made the lamp look rather dirty.  I mean, I know it’s old and a little dinged up, but i love that about it. In fact, when the salesman came over to help me, he changed out the old harp for a new shiny brass one. Then he thought he was being so generous and offered to let me keep the new one for free. I didn’t bother trying to explain that I like the old, tarnished one much, much better, and please get that nasty shiny one off my pretty lamp. I just smiled and nodded, and changed it back as soon as I got home. I know it doesn’t even show with the lampshade on, I just don’t see why I’d need a new harp when the old one works just fine and the patina matches the lamp. There was also a lady at the store offering me advice on the shades that I was looking at, and she was all for me getting a bell-shaped shade because it was more feminine. She claimed to be an interior designer and I didn’t know how to politely tell her that despite the fact that my lamp is, in fact, quite flowery, I didn’t want it to be too frilly. I’m such a wimp that I bought my shade and walked around the perimeter of the store to get to the exit so she wouldn’t see that I ignored her advice. It’s so good to know that I can come here, to my blog and there will be you lovely readers who understand what I’m doing. Thank you!

I stuck to my Saturday plan pretty well, and finished reading Harry Potter late that night. It was a very satisfying read, and although the book has its flaws, overall I liked it. There were a couple deaths that were particularly heartbreaking, and I was feeling emotionally drained the rest of the weekend. If anyone wants to talk about it, add your thoughts to the comments, maybe we can have a book discussion there. I really need to talk about it! So if you haven’t read it yet and want to remain un-spoiled, stay away from the comments!

And now I have another request. If you have a moment, could you go here and submit my brother‘s name for unsigned Sunday? I would love to hear his music on the radio, and if he has more fans in San Diego, that means he’ll play down here more often, and I’ll get to see him more. That would make me happy! I’ll have a little thank you giveaway later this week :o)

Lucy approves of my lampshade choice too.

It’s always good to come home. I’ve been back since late Monday night, but have been busy catching up at work and at home. Next week will be all about catching up on blogs and comments, I think! I love getting comments so much, so if I haven’t responded to your comment in the last couple weeks, you’ll be hearing from me soon, I am definitely not ignoring you!

I went to bed last night to a light, sprinkling rain, and woke up to a few inches of snow. The picture above is my little town. Click it to see a really big version. That’s pretty much the whole town right there. Sometimes it feels like stepping back in time when I come home.

This is chicken alley. You can’t see it, but our shed is to the right (the bikes are leaning against it), and there is a short wall on the left, so the chickens hang out there a lot because it’s sheltered from the weather. We had some pretty high winds last week, and Mr. Lucy told me that one of the Barred Rocks had ventured out of the alley onto the driveway where she was caught in a gust of wind and went feet over tail, just like a tumbleweed. And then she went back into the chicken coop. I guess she didn’t like the wind too much. In this picture, several of them are running to me, hoping for a treat. Too bad I just have my camera, they already had plenty of treats today!

In another wind and animal story, there were also some very large gusts that blew a chunk of shingles and the top of our chimney off the roof. Our insurance company sent someone out the other night to tarp the roof, knowing that we had a storm coming in. The contractor put a big, black, plastic bag over the chimney pipe. Yesterday morning when I let the dogs out, Bear was looking at the roof and barking suspiciously. I think he thought the plastic bag was a person standing on the roof. It’s good to know that we are safe from suspicious plastic bags.

So it’s a new year, and I’m not making resolutions, exactly, but I do have plans to take better care this year. I’m going to take better care of myself and my home and of course, Mr. Lucy, who is going to be eating more vegetables this year, whether he wants to or not. Happily, I have a three day weekend, so there will be much cooking of aforementioned vegetables, as well as some serious cleaning and clearing out of the house.

Oh, and you can read more about how I rang in the new year here. There may be video of me behind the microphone, but I plan on doing every thing in my power to insure that it does not see the light of day. All in all though, it was a crazy fun time. Although why does silly string take less than 5 minutes to spray out of the can, and 5 hours to clean up?