Penny Smashers, Unite!

While on my vacation I finally gave into a nagging compulsion.  For years I have stared at those penny smashing machines whenever I would come across one.  I saw one while we were in Monterey and there was another at the Aquarium.  I was good.  I walked away, from both of them.  But then we stopped at the Sea Lion Caves and there was another one.  I looked at it.  I checked it out.  It was electric and had 3 stamps in it.  I was good.  I wandered through the gift shop and looked at all the stuff.  I even bought a couple of signs for the bathroom at the store.  I checked the smashing machine again as we left and we did leave BUT we didn’t get far before I had DH turn around and go back.  I got 2 smashed pennies, one for the Sea Lion Caves with, of course, sealions and one for Heceta Head Lighthouse.  Did you know there are websites for Penny Smashers, Penny Presses and Penny Squishers?  They have lists of where you can find a machine, how many dies the machine has and what the dies look like AND you can join a Smashed Penny Collectors group.  How cool is that!  AND there are people who have their own personal smashers!  Way cool!  Well, I printed a list for Oregon and stopped at the Seaside Aquarium and smashed two more pennies – Seaside Aquarium with an octopus and Tillamook Head Lighthouse.  Now I have to collect pennies pre 1986 because those are the ones that are all copper, without zinc(or whatever)filler and did you know there  are smashers in Europe?  I feel another vacation coming on.  Isn’t OCD a wonderful thing?

Vacation

Well, dispite the fact that I didn’t update as we completed our vacation, we did have a nice time and we did stop at several quilt shops and a couple of Harley shops.  We did drive back home via Pacific Highway 1 and what a beautiful drive.  The weather was more cooperative on the drive home in that we didn’t run into any rain, it was windy and cold but no rain.

We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge (go south so you don’t have to pay a toll) and I was suprised at the amount of pedestrians on the bridge.  They need to charge a fee to walk out on the bridge (maybe they do), they would make a small fortune just on them.  Of course the view was spectacular.  The sail boats were out and Alcatraz was still floating out there.  We went to Point Reyes National Seashore with the specific plans to do some birding but with the temperature and the wind, if you couldn’t see it from inside the car going 40mph, it wasn’t there.  We saw cows.  Lots of cows.  It seems that the area was a great place to raise cows as there are 8 – 10 historic farms that date back to the 1800’s.

We got to drive through the redwoods.  For all the times that I have driven through California, I have never been through the redwood forest before and I must say that they are something else.  DH wanted to get a souvenier of our trip.  Something having to do with the redwoods and were told to stop at Trees of Mystery because they had nice stuff.  Well, in typical Vincent tradition, we got there at 5:05pm.  Needless to say, he never got his souvenier.  We did stop at the Lady Bird Johnson Grove where we actually got out of the car and went for a hike.  It was in the afternoon and was about a mile long through the redwoods.  It was astonishing.  Some of the trees would easily take 6-8 people holding hands to surround the trunk .  They are so different from the fir trees in the Pacific Northwest.  Where fir trees grow as a single trunk, redwoods will grow and sort of ’split’ part way up and can have several trunks.  Because they grow this way, they have their nutrients going up the outer parts of the tree around the bark.  I stood inside one tree that had been damaged by fire.  The core of the tree was gone up to 15 -20 feet and I could spread my arms out from my side and still be several feet from touching the sides by another two feet on each side, but the tree still stands and grows.

We continued up the coast of California and into Oregon where we decided that we would drive to Astoria on the Coast Highway.  By the time we got to Newport, OR. I had decided I had seen enough quilt shops to last me until I got to Longview, WA. where I had to stop at Momma Made It.  She has moved into a new store front and I wanted to see it.  This is a quilt store that carries only reproduction fabrics as in civil war and turn of the century and whenever I get down that way I have to stop.  Of course I had to buy, also.

All in all I don’t remeber all of the quilt shops that we stopped at but I will try to remember all the cities. 

California – Eddie’s in San Jose, who so kindly mailed my car keys home to me when I managed to leave them on their counter and didn’t notice them missing until the next day or so.  The other quilt store in San Jose was closed on Sunday when we finally got around to stopping,  Albion, Mendocino, Fort Bragg, Ferndale and Eureka.  I must say that I enjoyed The Itsy Bitsy Quilt Shop in Ferndale quite a bit.  It is appropriatly named, it’s tiny but it is packed with the most wonderful fabrics.  Bold, bright big print fabrics that I could have easily taken home a couple of yards each of every thing she had.  You must visit if ever in the area.

Oregon – Brookings, Port Orford, Bandon, Coos Bay, Florence, Waldport and Florence.  All of which display a different style and taste.  When I go to other shops on a trip, I don’t usually just buy fabric unless I have something particular in mind.  I mostly look at patterns I might want for my store, kits and cutsy stuff, displays and ideas.  I especially like looking at local designers patterns.  I found a great block of the month for the Oregon area that I had to have, so I bought 2  of my favs and if I get around to actually making them I might get the rest.

We got home a couple of days earlier than we had planned but it was nice to be home.  Our daughter was kind enough to watch our dogs and she was happy to go home earlier than expected.  I took Sunday off  since someone was scheduled to work but I got stuck on Monday when I tried to sneek in for a bit.  So I have been work, work, working, doing lots of things but not getting lots accomplished.  UPS managed to lose a box of notions and I have waited another week for the replacements to show up.  At last they came today and I got my notion wall replentished.  Tomorrow, hopefully I will get some fabric out on the floor.

MYSTERY IN THE BACKYARD

We got a frantic phone call from our daughter last night.  One of our cockers came in from outside with blood on his ears.  This happened in the late night and she wasn’t real sure what she should do.  She relayed the story of both dogs going outside into the backyard like they do all evening long.  This time black dog came back in but brown dog didn’t.  Soon black dog wanted back out.  He seem excited.  He went out and then came back in but still no brown dog.  She was getting concerned that brown dog wouldn’t come in when finally he did and low and behold, he had blood on him.  She checked him out and there appeared to be a couple of bites on his ears.  I told her to trim the fur off his ears so she could get a good look at the wounds and clean him up as best she could and apply some hydrogen peroxide.  We discussed what could have happened.  Did he meet with a coyote in the backyard?  We have seen one there but if he was attacked why didn’t he yelp?  We were all very concerned.  We told her to take him by the vet in the morning and to let us know what the vet thought.

It seems that the little bugger is just fine.  The injuries to his ears appear to be scrapes and the consensus is that, believe it or not, our little brown dog probably caught a bunny or some other such critter and the critter scratched his ears trying to get away.  We haven’t told our daughter to go out in the backyard to look for the poor creature so we may never really know what happened but that seems to be a more likely story then him being attacked.  Who would have thought that either one of those dogs would ever managed to actually catch something.  They are fast, don’t get me wrong, but they aren’t always the brightest bulbs in the chandelier.  Maybe they chased down a rat (Yuck).  I would prefer to think that than those cute bunnies.  The rats tend to be slower and more confused than those wild bunnies.  Let’s just hope that he hasn’t unleashed his inner Cujo.

IT’S ABOUT TIME

Away, away, away, I have finally gotten away.  DH and I have been out of town for awhile.  We’ve gone south to a soccer conference but any excuse to go somewhere is a good one.  We managed to drag the weather with us, though.  It rained pigs and chickens a couple times.  It was unbelievable the amount of rain that fell at times.  Northern California thanks us though, as they have needed the rain.  Keeping in mind that it is only the first of March, the last couple of days have been rather nice, cool, but do-able.  I haven’t had much time to spend quilt shop hunting yet.  We will get into more of that as we work our way back home.  So far we are talking about going up the coast.

We went to Monterey Bay yesterday and had nice weather but only had time to go throught the aquarium, as we had to get back for a group dinner.  We have a wonderful aquarium and if you ever get the chance to go, you should.  It’s a bit pricey at $29.95 a person but the viewing and tanks are fantastic.  They have one area that are just jellyfish.  I could sit there and watch them all day.  They are gorgeous!

I hauled my featherweight with me but I don’t know if I will actually use it.  The room we are in now has such a small table to be able to work on and for me to use my computer I have to go to the lobby to connect.  In room service is $10 a day per computer so I trek mine downstairs to check everything.  By the time I have checked Email, bank stuff, blogs and all, I’ve used up the morning.  They have a Quilt and Textile Museum in San Jose and I walked to it this morning.  They have a Chinese Fiber Art exhibit now, which was nice to walk through.  They were mostly woven wall hangings and some embroideries, all interesting.

Tonight I have another dinner to go to.  DH wasn’t thinking clearly when he signed up for this thing so he managed to forget to register me and he has been looking around for an extra ticket to the dinner.  He has managed to obtain one so I guess I’ll get fed.  But that also means I can’t get into any of the other attractions that are going on.  That’s OK as it is all soccer related but it is always fun to wander throught the booths collecting all the free stuff.  I are here through tomorrow then we start our travel home.  We plan to stop at shops and wildlife spots.  There will probably be a Harley shop or two, also.  If I find anything interesting I’ll be sure to pass it along.

Later.

TA-DA!

pict0001.jpgI have a ta-da.  I finished my poinsettia.  I made it in pinks because one of the ladies in my store made it in the reds and so I thought I’d do it in different colors and I like pink poinsettias.  The quilt top is all needleturned except for the center.  That is fused as it contains 41 stinking small pieces that I refused to turn.  Once I get it quilted, which will diffinately finish the look, I’ll add some beading and maybe some yarn.  It may be tough going through the layers as there are up to 4 and 5 layers that have been fused.  I used Lite Steam a Seam 2 so I’m hoping that will make it a little easier.  I also picked batiks to make a white batiks (for as white as you can get batiks) to make a 2nd version.

Ok, so I don’t have this weblog thing down yet but I did manage to get a photo up even if it bigger than a house.  Hopefully I will do better next time.  If anybody has any ideas I listening.  But it looks good, don’t you think?

Haley’s Update

Haley was in surgery when we showed up Wednesday.  They had an extra operating room so she got in first thing that morning.  DH & I sat around all day waiting for her to get out of surgery. There’s not much as boring as that.  She went in at 9:30am and was done by 2:30pm but didn’t get to her room until about 4:30pm.  All went well.  She now has a couple of plates in her arm and a bunch of screws.  Everything went back together in find order and should mend well.  She got moved upstairs to the 8th floor from the 6th floor and she is doing fine other than pain.  Today she gets up and moves around and she starts to do some therapy on her arm to get it moving.  It was mentioned that she MIGHT get discharged today but I think that is alot of wishful thinking.  We don’t plan on it happening until tomorrow.  She is no longer on morphine but on pain pills.  They have her unplugged from most everthing.  So, here I sit, keeping her company.  Her Dad will be up later.

It’s Been Awhile

I thought I’d type some while I wait for my daughter to get out of surgery.  I’ve been spending the last few days at Harborview Hospital while my daughter waits to have surgery on her arm.  She had a bit of an accident on Sunday while a group of us were on a motorcycle ride to Ocean Shores.  We didn’t make it there as DD ran off the road, over an embankment and broke her arm.  We still don’t really know what started the whole event but for some reason as she went to wave at a fellow biker coming the other direction, her front tire grabbed on a spot, she couldn’t lean into a turn and she clipped the fellow rider which turned her wheel to the left and she shot across the road, over the embankment, her bike hit a tree and she was thrown 15 to 20 feet into the bushes.  She always rides in front of me on her bike so I got to watch it all.  With the thought of my oldest brother’s fatal bike accident a year and a half ago in the for front of my head, I was terrified until I heard her voice.  God was with her because she only suffered the broken arm, which however is broken in several spots about 2″ above the elbow.  They are putting in a plate and screws to hold it together so it can heal.  It took them an hour or so to get her on a board and drug up the embankment so she could head for the hospital.  It’s one heck of a way to get an helicopter ride.  They tried to take her to TG and then St Joe’s but both were full so here we are at Harborview in Seattle.  Her Dad and I have been coming up since Sunday afternoon to sit with her and keep her company.  Her friends have been wonderful and have visited her everyday, also, as they can after their work.  She was told last night that she was 3rd on the surgery list for today but that they probably wouldn’t get her in.  When she called this morning to say she was being put on a gurney to prep for surgery, I figured they were being proactive so if they got that chance she would be ready.  Now that I’m here, she is already in surgery and must have been the first one in.  It will be interesting to find out why.  Harborview is a trauma center and things are done on a worse case goes first and so she has been the low man on the totempole and for her to go before the other two cases is, well, I don’t know.  Oh, her motorcycle is toast.

It’s been busy store wise and I have thought about signing in many times but just don’t get to it.  I don’t know if starting this blog was the smartest thing but it’s up and going and it does give me a place to voice my thoughts and let anyone who wants to know what is going on to plug into and check.

We went to a quilt show this last Friday and Saturday at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds to hock our wares.  the Handi Quilter 16 was very popular but we didn’t sell gobbs of stuff so we now have lots of wonderful kits at the store.  Those of you within shopping distance need to come in and check them out.  I actually got some time to sew on the HQ16 for a bit and I think that I’m ready to put a quilt on it and stitch it up.  It runs very smoothly and was fun to play on.  Maybe I will actully get some tops quilted.  I’ve been very hesitant to use it but I think it will be fun.

 We’ve gotten lots of fabric in.  Several floral lines of which we have made lots of Lucile’s FLower Garden kits and a new venture into turn of the century reproduction fabrics.  It has attracted alot of attention since it has been sitting out waiting to get logged in.  It is now out on the floor and ready to go home with you.  I was planning to have the 3 new Block of the Months ready before the end of the month but with what has been going on it’s been pushed back a little.  I’ll try to get them ready this next week.  The ladies have been wonderful through all this and though it is sunny and nice and time to do work in the yards, they are looking for some company.

Well, I need to go now.  I’l  keep you all up dated on DD progress.  Bye.

Happy 2008!!!

We sat up to watch the fireworks at the Space Needle so we can’t be called “old fuddy duddies” ’cause we went to bed early, but I must say that trying to figure out what to do while you are waiting for the fireworks takes alot of effort for us couch potatoes.  We ended up watching Men in Black 2 and that little pug, Frank, was pretty funny.  I know, I could have been downstairs sewing my eye balls out, or cleaning my sewing room so I can find things better, but remember I mentioned ‘couch patatoes’.  I did get my poinsettia applique out and worked on it in between getting up and eating.  When the fireworks finally went off, after all the hub-bub about the best show ever, they pooped out.  It’s too bad because it looked like it really could have been a wonderful display.  It least they didn’t show the display over a second and a third time like they usually do.  Someone must have tripped over the electrical cord and unplugged the computer because they had to set the rockets off by hand.  So much for bringing in the new year.

There hasn’t been alot to do today, either.  DH has been watching bowl games.  We both went into our respective business and did some work, checked messages and I entered all the new customer names into our database so we can keep track of all that you buy.  It gets to be time consuming and I don’t get the time to enter them during the day, usually.  Tomorrow will be the first day of inventory.  I really hate doing this but it needs to be done.  If we get in and work I’m hoping to finish in 2 days.  We will see.  I’m waiting for a hand held scanner to show up so it will make the recording much faster, but it was supposed to show up Monday but it didn’t.  Ain’t it the way.

We had our annual clearance sell the week after Christmas as we always do and it went well.  We’ve been at our new location coming up on a year and I must say that moving into downtown Gig Harbor has been a good thing.  It’s too bad that it took getting kicked out of the old location to do it.  And it’s hard to believe that Pierce Transit hasn’t done anything with those properties yet.  They park and ride was supposed to be completed by now and they haven’t even started.  Well, enough of that.  It’s 2008 and there are too many things to do and go to be rehashing bad news.

I mentioned this site in my January newsletter for the store and I got an email asking me what the site address was.  What a blockhead!  I knew I’d forget something and I forgot to list the address.  Oh, well.

Time to get up and have a snack.  Then I think I’ll work on my applique or maybe read my new Sue Grafton book.  Bye

Merry Christmas!

It’s Christmas day and as I look out the window it’s snowing.  When I look again it has quit but it will start up again.  That’s how it is here.  It’s about 1pm and I have already been to the quilt store to try to finish getting ready for our big year end sale (oh, it’s snowing again).  It’s funny how even when you put off the things you need to do, Christmas still comes and goes whether you are ready or not and as Christmases go, I’m never ready.  We had a small Christmas Eve dinner with the kids last night.  Our kids were here (we never know if our son will show or not) and we had Raclette which we found out about from a Swiss friend of ours.  It involves an appliance that fries and broils at the same time.  You can fry things on top while in a small tray/pan you can broil things under the grill.  It’s a great group dinner as you are visiting while, you cook whatever you want.  Our daughter spent the night as she was going to be coming back today anyway and figured she’d save the toll fee on the bridge.  I’ve been to the store and quilt store and we are now patiently waiting for our son and friend so we can open presents. (still snowing)  We are watching a 1979 FA Soccer Final between Arsenal and Manchester United.  Yeah, I know, exciting.

DH and I spent Friday – Sunday up in Squamish, BC, Canada to take pictures of eagles.  This is a huge winter site for bald eagles and DH is getting interested in photography.  So off we go.  We left at 11am and got there around 3:30pm.  We checked out all the eagle sighting places  but it was getting dark so there wasn’t much to see.  Once we were getting ready for bed, don’t cha know, it was snowing.  Well, we were prepared for snow but taking pictures in the snow is a bit of a hassle.  Fortunately it doesn’t get light real early so we got up at 6:30am (but it could have been 4am).  We had to get to where the birds are before it gets light or you miss all the feeding frenzy. (Yeah, I said feeding frenzy.) Well, I’m pretty much a fair weather anything person so taking photos out the window of the car is where I’m at.  We did get out and trek around some and it really wasn’t bad (better than rain).  I got some nice photos but DH wasn’t real happy with his.  Oh, well.  We did this both Saturday and Sunday mornings but it rained Sunday (I did not get out for photos) and we were out of there by 9am on our way home. (I should have been home getting the store ready for our sale.)  No, we had a good time and I’m glad we went.  But now it’s Christmas and well, I’m back to where I started.  The dog just came in and, yes, it’s still snowing.  We have 2 dogs – black dog(BlkD)and brown dog(BrnD).  Both dogs got chewies from Santa and as soon as BrnD left his chew to follow DH then BlkD grabbed BrnD’s chew and ran with it under the dining room table.  Which now that I think about it, I have to clear off a year’s worth of fabric and quilting stuff off the top so we can eat our Christmas dinner (prime rib, yum!).  I know it’s a year’s worth because the sewing machine that I took to a retreat in January 2007 is still there on the floor.  Pretty sad, huh?  Now we are getting phone calls from the Mothers (mine will be 88 in January and his is 84) because of the snow they don’t know if they should come.  We’ll be planning a carpool here pretty soon so I better get going.  And it is still snowing. 

For those who have found this blog, I wish you a Merry Christmas (because that’s what I do) or Happy Holidays for those who don’t.  Enjoy where you are and I will get back soon. PGVIN

Christmas in the Harbor

Last night was our annual Lighted Boat Parade in the harbor and some of the shops stay open until 9pm.  I stood and watched the parade out my office window. It was a beautiful clear, cold night and the boats were great.  They start about 6pm and they jump into the parade as they are ready then float around the harbor 3 or 4 times.  Afterwards, people can do some Christmas shopping. 

I worked on a Christmas present for one of my kid’s friends.  I managed to sew a couple of rows upside down so I did my share of ripping and restitching.  I am also working on a large poinsettia pattern from O Carol Designs for myself.  It won’t be done for this Christmas but it better be for next.  I think that I will carry the pattern in the store after the first of the year and maybe even have a work day for those who want to make it.  You should go to www.ocaroldesigns.com and see the beautiful floral patterns she has for sale.  I’ll let you know when I finish mine.

We had several groups of people stop in and shop and share our hot chocolate and cookies.  I guess we are officially open for the Christmas season.

Later, PGV