Moon Over Minnesota

We had an incredibly bright moon last night, actually this morning at 4:34 a.m. What was I doing up at that hour? Letting out my elderly dog. I'd love to sleep through the night once in awhile, but it doesn't happen anymore. Sammy isn't usually the reason; it's usually snoring or worrying or temperature issues. I'd appreciate any ideas on how to get a middle aged woman to sleep through the night. Ha If you enlarge my shot, you can see the trees a little and some wierd flecks of color. I think I must have something on my lens. I also heard an owl hooting while I was out there, so between that and the moon, and getting to go back to bed and sleep a few more hours, it was worth it. Happy Friday everyone, it's been a looong week!

Block of the Month Progress

Here's the progress on my last year's block of the month. For those quilters who are interested, its the WinterBerry fabric line from Maywood Studios. The patterns are created using templates from Marti Michele (set B). This was definitely a learning experience for me. Lots of little triangles, lots of margin for error, lots of errors actually. I also got my new machine mid-year, so that didn't help any. All in all though, I'm happy with how it turned out. It took a lot of creativity to make everything square, so my most important lesson was how important accuracy is. I made the first block for this year in a big hurry and it didn't turn out too well. After futzing so much with this quilt, I decided to start over and do it right from the start this time. I still have the outer borders to add, but it seems that a sewing room reorganization is in order first, so it may take awhile. Now off to the dentist!

GRRRR!

I chipped my front tooth today. I originally chipped it on a fork at Olive Garden, had it repaired, it fell off again, had it repaired. This will be the third time. I chipped it while blowing my whistle at some naughty kids at recess. Having a decent sense of humor, I do realize it's funny. Even the girl at the dentist laughed when I told her how I did it. I'm just afraid they'll want to do a veneer this time. Not exactly what I wanted for Christmas!

What a Difference a Day Makes

I had to show pictures of this bush in our yard. I don't remember it being such a bright red other years, but it is about the last color I have in the back yard so I have really been enjoying it this week. Incidentally, my flash went off on the picture on the left. I took it after work yesterday, around 4:45, and since it starts getting dark so early I needed flash. It is so strange to have it completely dark outside by 5:15 or so.

Skywatch Friday or Not Ready For This!

I woke up this morning to this; gray sky, snow falling, the ground completely white. It's really pretty, but after the record highs we've had this week, I wasn't ready for this. We don't have school today due the end of the first quarter. I would be sleeping in, but we're off to our Block of the Month class this morning. I'm just about ready to show a picture of last year's completed top, maybe tomorrow.

Voting as a Celebration

My polling place, coincidentally is at the school I work at. I noticed it was pretty slow in the middle of the afternoon so I slipped in to vote on my afternoon break. After school I usher the kids onto their buses and as I was coming back inside, I ran into two of my daughter's friends. They were grinning ear-to-ear and told me that they had just voted for the first time. They said they felt powerful and were really excited about it. Later as I was walking through the parking lot to leave, I overheard an older lady talking to some younger ones about the 60's, reminiscing I guess. People were coming in a steady stream at that point, hurrying in after work. I got into my van to drive home and got to thinking about what a privilege it is to be able to vote in the way that we do. In my town, the voter turnout is expected to be the highest ever, around 80%, so I'm happy that so many are taking advantage of it. It really is a celebration in many ways. Part of my celebratory mood had to do with the fact that the ferocious campaigning is over, part of it that the weather is still so beautiful, part of it that I think my candidate will win. We'll see, but if you haven't voted yet, get going!! And please, tomorrow, can we just all get along no matter what the outcome is? In other words, no sour grapes? I'm going to be tempted to leave a few "neenerneenerneener" comments at some blogs tomorrow, but I'll take the high road.

November Nice

After a beautiful weekend, it's lovely again today. 74 degrees, in Minnesota, in November, unreal!!! Our weekend included a fun Halloween party Friday night at some friends house. We were all supposed to come dressed in black and then there were many costume parts to choose from as embellishments. I spent the night in a red wig and scarf. I looked ridiculous I'm sure, but it was fun. I kept having these rather serious conversations with people forgetting I had this wig on. DH wore a hat with long dreadlocks coming out underneath. Everyone told him it looked quite natural on him. We spent a lot of the evening outside around a fire, having smores, and visiting. I did a lot of cleaning on Saturday and then watched Gopher hockey game. We had to be at church early for choir for All Saints Sunday. After a nice nap, I got in some more sewing Sunday night. I'm finally making some good progress on getting last year's BOM put together. I hope to be able to show the finished top by the end of the week. I think I'll be ready to crash early tonight. Sammy is still on Daylight time and has been waking me up at odd hours, so I've been tired all day. It looks like a couple more nice days until we're back to the usual weather and possibly some snow later in the week. :(