Best Bingo Prize of All

Look at this gorgeous artwork! This is a Natalie Lowry original. Done especially for me. Doesn't It look fantastic on my purple painted living room wall?

Don't you wish you were me?

Mmm Godiva Chocolate

For Mothers Day this year, my son Joshua bought me a box of Godiva chocolates. I immediately gave my mom two of them and my dad two also. Mom said to never give her Godiva chocolates , as they are just too good. So with a great suggestion from my sister Marian, I gave her this.

When she opened it there was a letter on top that said, "Dear Nana, I know you made us promise not to buy you any Godiva chocolates but it's the holdays and we hope you'll forgive us and still love us. -josh and jess"

When she opened it inside we these pictures of josh and I eating Nana's Godiva Chocolates!
I smeared chocolate all over my face for effect. Here is her reaction.

What's Christmas without Octopus?

Look my little sister, Sara, made for my Christmas tree! Christmas cephalopod for the tree. Isn't that wonderful? It sure makes me smile. My sister can knit anything. Check out here website here and see other cool things she makes.

My Wonderfully Awful Christmas Tree

It takes a certain sort of person to love this tree. My mom and I were in Wal-mart looking for lights for my daughters tree and saw this 4 ft tree on display. Mom said I simply must get this for you!. This was the display model. All the rest had sold out. I have done what i like to call the "Dr Suess Tree" last year. My sister bought me a wonderful collection of neon gren,blue, pink and a selection of purple ornaments and I hung them on my white tree (see pic on the left).

Well those ornaments look great on this purple tree. However the picture dont really do it justice. When it's lit I can't stop smiling. True it is Christmas gaudiness to the max, but I am not out to impress the world. Anything that makes me smile after a long day at work, is fine by me. And this tree is unique to me. No one in my family has one even remotely like it.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

River of Time

This beautiful quilt is made out of batik fabric. In case you have never used batik fabric. It's more closely woven to hold up under the dying process which means there is less distortion of the fabric during the cutting and sewing process. My sister Marian collected batiks for years. Recently she pulled them all out to make a quilt, I was there and she gave me some of each fabric. It was such a wonderful day (couple of days actually) spent ironing and cutting all these batiks and laughing and chatting with my sister. She had enough to give me 4 in centers and 2 1/2 inch strips of everything. She also cut squares and strips for herself and all the rectangle for the original quilt she had planned. I came back from my visit to Dallas with 2 bags of precut pieces. I separated them into two stacks. I pulled out the oranges, yellows, reds and the few browns most of the pinks and half of the purples into one stack. So I was left with all the blues, greens, limes, blacks, some pinky magentas and half of the purples to make this beauty. I had enough squares left over from this project to make a blue couch throw as well. I used the warm colors to make a throw as well. But that is another story.

Sometimes I like to look at this when I am missing my sister and think about how fun that visit was.

Welcome to Apes with Tools!

I guess I will jump on the blogging bandwagon and see if I can find enough interesting things in my life that you might enjoy.

Of all the quilts I have made, this is my favorite. This quilt is one that my mother and I made for my oldest son as a wedding gift. This quilt is titled "Lucky Stars 2". The combination of blues, aqua and lime greens was chosen to fit the location of a beach wedding. This is favorite color way. I could and probably will make 2 or 3 quilts with this color scheme. I love it that much.

I told my son if the marriage didn't last a year, I wanted the quilt back. (After all, bachelors live like bears. I didn't want it hiding in a nasty cave in the woods) So anyways...I got the quilt back. I guess that's the best thing about this divorce.

Stay tuned for more quilts and the stories behind them and other crafting goodies. And maybe some pictures of some cute grandkids.