Joining the APP craze....

My Fitness APP
Fun little gadget I came across this weekend. For those of you who are number geeks and APP geeks and an organized geek...and a fitness geek...and a food-tracker geek (or geekess, I suppose).....this may be a fun APP to check out. FREE download this past weekend; not sure if it's still free. And hey! If you have the APP, or choose to download, let me know!!! There's a fun lil' feature where you can "add a Friend" and keep track of each others' successes. It'd be SWELL to keep tabs on each other. Besides, it keeps me honest :0)

I worked out tonight.....it's only been SEVENTEEN DAYS since my last workout! e-gah! Bad me, bad me, bad me. So, I TRIED to push myself a bit; besides I was in a pretty schnazzy mood after school today; smiling, happy, all-in-all, a great day today!

But....HA.....without having the consistency of working out, my running form was something to be desired. Twenty-six (26) minutes into my treadmill jog, with the monitor reading "Only 4 minutes left" to me....I started chanting....{{in my HEAD, because otherwise I'm sure I would have gotten a few strange looks, and a good amount of chuckling....}}

That which doesn't kill will only make me stronger.
And now, add the stress to the following parts and see if you can hear the cadence I had going on.....

(1)THAT - (2)WHICH- (3)DOESnt - (4)KILL will - (5)ONLY - (6)MAKE me - (7)STRONG-(8)ER
Each "beat" hit when my left foot struck the tread; must be all that HS Marching Band training I had growing up; the measure always starts with the left foot.

Anyway, with a good hearted sense of humor, I finished my 4 minutes with a pat on the back.

Then I figured....I hadn't had enough punishment yet, so.......SURE!!! Let's do some Tris/Bis and ABS!!!!!!! Again I say.....e-gah! My abs had a few choice words for me.....something along the line of "um, lady! Excuse me! You haven't been our friend for the past few years and you just NOW want to kick-it-in-gear as if you haven't sat on your duff for a few months!?!?!?"

Oh Abs....we have such a history! I thought it'd be like riding a bike; ya know.....you don't forget how to ride and you can get right back on....

Hmmm.....I think tomorrow they'll remind me JUST how long it's been since I've "ridden that bike."

In closing......I heard this quote today and I thought I'd pass it along...

Here’s an example of child abuse: Love without discipline.

It's fun to ponder things sometimes, huh?

New Year's Eve Mystery - top done; Orca Bay almost with a correct layout

2011 New Year's Eve Mystery

(73" x 87")

On-point setting; bonus triangles used in a pieced inner border

This will be set aside and be added to the Must-Quilt list

While relaxing with Cassie and the movie "Yes Man," I finished up ripping out my orange string placement errors on Orca Bay. The orange "sashing" rows are now completely pieced CORRECTLY! I did not rip out the four Ohio Star rows I sewed oh so long ago now.....

:|

However.....

when I look back at this layout (with the light Ohio Stars in the "center" of the green strings),

I still like it better.

Therefore, tonight, I'll sit and rip those last few rows.

I will ALWAYS judge layouts with pictures in the future BEFORE actually sewing rows together :0)

Pictures on my desktop

There was a time when my desktop (computer desktop, that is) was a DISASTER!!!! Files scattered all over; clustered together in similar categories in SOME attempt for organization. Now-a-days, I keep my desktop rather neat-n-tidy; files being placed into appropriate folders.

Tonight, I decided to give you a viewing of the random ".jpg" files that currently are on my desktop, in need to being either deleted or filed into appropriate folders... Just cuz.
{{I only have SEVEN image files on my desktop right now. Seven! See......I'm getting much better at keeping my files organized :0) }}

A little math-joke humor that I wanted to share with my students. I really don't have a folder yet for "school jokes" or for "jokes" in general. I guess I simply don't save them all that often.....

Ah! THIS was a coupon I created for Linda; we teach at the same school, and she is on my "list of 5" for 2012 to receive something homemade. Being the quilter she is, I thought I'd offer a free quilting service. When Carol did this for me (2009?), I LOVED the offer!!!! I didn't have my quilt frame/machine yet at that time, so I was SO VERY appreciative of the offer.

Mmm.....I haven't forgotten about this image, but can't seem to file it anywhere OTHER than my desktop. If there EVER was a picture worth a thousand words, huh? It breaks my heart, but is an EXCELLENT reminder of the power we all have in our words towards youth. I can't seem to remove it from my desktop; it's too powerful to "hide away."

Of course, there HAD to be a "dream of someday" quilt picture!!!!!!

OH! Hello Mrs. Skattebo. {{yeah.... "official" school picture}}.

Last night, I was working on our school's website. It's that time of year when scholarships are piling into the Guidance office. As the school's webmaster, I created an image "quick-link" from the District's "For Parents and Students" webpage for our Seniors to find the scholarships easier. This is a good reminder that I can now delete that clipart.

Tee-heee!!!! Some humor is always fun! I sent this to our 7-12 secretary a few weeks ago. I send her "good vibes" as often as I can because without her....oh BOY! Our 7-12 wing would be a completely different place to work!!!! She's amazing and needs to hear it :)

That's all folks. What about your desktop? :D Any goodies? Too MANY goodies?!?!?! :)

Happy Wednesday!

Attitude :0)

Seriously.....WHERE does the time go day-to-day??? It's January 23rd?!?!? What happen to the other 22 days of January so far? It seems like I blink and the day is over; time at school Fah-LIES by....**insert ZOOM sound affect** and then by the time I tidy my classroom, try to keep things neat and organized for my next day, pick up the girls, get home to make dinner (or HUG Paul when HE makes dinner!!!), shoosh Cassie off to basketball or Destination Imagination, help Caitlyn with her homework, keep Candace out of the other sisters' hair, send them off to bed and put my feet up to breathe..... It's 10:00 WAY too soon most evenings......and I KNOW I need to get my lil' tooshie to bed otherwise I'll pay for it the next day when it all repeats itself......**pant-pant** {{of course, I failed to mention all my evening school work that also gets fit in there}} :D

And lately the weekends have been just as crazy-busy **enter car horn sound**....it's almost like a new voice has taken over control here.......like..."COME ON!!! We've got things to do! Gotta get there, gotta be here, gotta prep for next week's classes"

Oh my word.....

AND...

(BUT?.....)

I keep smiling!

Afterall, it's ALLLLLLLL about attitude!

Oh, lil' grumpy-faced-man.....you are SO RIGHT! You are my new buddy!

Are you still smiling?????

Oh, and nope :( Not a whole lotta quiltin' going on.

Some Basketball and quilting (NYE mystery)

No sleeping in for us yesterday - nope, nope, nope. It was a Saturday morning full of basketball; the first non-sleep-in-Saturday of five coming up over the next handful of weeks.

Caitlyn had Little Lakers basketball practice and inter-school scrimmage from 8:00 - 10:00. This is her first year playing the game; she says she's enjoying it, but I would put a million dollars on it if our school were to offer gymnastics, she'd dropped basketball in a heart-beat and join gymnastics. However, we're a small school and gymnastics is not an option. (I foresee cheerleading in her future though).

Cassie's first game started at 9:00 in a different school, so we missed it but heard she played well despite a 10-12 loss. I was told she made the last three baskets and almost made a game-tieing shot with a few seconds left on the clock. She's really finding her love for the game.

Her second game was at 11:00, so we all were able to watch. The coaches do an excellent job making sure all fourteen girls (YIKES!!!!) get an opportunity to play. The periods are 6 minutes in duration, and they (coaches) switch out a full 5-person squad every three minutes. Cassie again made some good plays and landed a couple of buckets. She's improving on her dribbling skills and I THINK she's growing into her height nicely, finding her coordination. WHEW!

I didn't do ANY quilting yesterday, unless you call ripping out my 8 rows of Orca Bay while sitting at the games quilting. I suppose it could be considered UN-quilting :0) Then, the rest of the day, I totalllllly relaxed in the glider with my feet up, reading on my Kindle App and reading the back of my eyes from time-to-time too.

However, today, once the morning got started; coffee brewed; laundry well underway....

I spent an hour piecing four more blocks for the NYE mystery quilt's setting triangles. I simply cut them in half diagonally. I KNOW I will lose the points once a border is attached, but it was the price I accepted in order to have the half-blocks as setting triangles. I literally only had 2" of my background fabric left (aside from some crumbs) once finished, so I couldn't do the setting triangles like they needed to be done. {{I still think it'll be great, even though there won't be any pretty points along the center's edge}}

Naturally, all those bonus triangles needed to be pressed and pieced to be put into use. Once completed, I'll have 77 bonus pinwheels that will find their way into the outer border. Somewhere I must have another HST "lost" because I SHOULD have enough for 78 pinwheels. I looked for a bit and then gave up; no biggy. I'll make 'em work :0)

So, now... I have my feet up once again, waiting for the Packer game to start. GO PACK!!!!!

I also have to spend SOME time on my school work; I have yet to do that this weekend. BUT, the upcoming week marks the end of the term, so Pre-Calc will be wrapping up. Two days of review and a final and then....DONE with PC for the year.

What we all need - A quilt along!

Judy is at it again! She's trying to motivate us all with a quilt-along to help fill some QOV requests from Alycia.

You can never have too many projects going at one time :D, and it's ALWAYS nice to make quilts along-side a bunch of other awesome ladies all over the nation (and WORLD for that matter), all at the same time!

So....jump on over, link her "quilt-along to your blog (I know I have to!!! She posts like a MAD-WOMAN and I have a hard time keeping up with her during my work week), and join in the fun!

Some fabric sanity...subtle Orca Bay differences and NYE Mystery layouts

Without time to sew lately, I at least played around with the Orca Bay layouts.

You may recall my post last week where I was panicking that my orange strings (Bonnie's blue strings) were going the wrong way. Here are the 8 rows I had pieced, with strings going the WRONG way, that will SOON be ripped apart and fixed. At least only 8 rows were completed and NOT the whole top! Whew.

Pictured: Orange strings going RIGHT way, mimicking Bonnie's 100%. For those of you who say "Ah, Amy, your 'wrong' layout works." I disagree. If you "relax your eyes" with both pictures, you simply MUST agree that a diagonal pattern is CLEARLY visible when the orange string blocks are placed in the CORRECT arrangement as opposed to my WRONG placement pictured at the top of this post. The strings accompany the diagonal pattern created by the Birds in the Air triangular blocks made with the green strings.

However, as I have been watching more and more quilt tops being completed, a few ladies chose to switch around the Dark/Light Ohio stars. So...pictured: Orange strings going RIGHT way with LIGHT Ohio Stars in the center of the green strings. And...me thinks me realllllly likey it!

This project has been an excellent reminder of TAKING A PICTURE and looking at it before making final decisions. Just seeing it in print (on screen) gives such a different perspective than just standing in front of it.


Therefore, since I was downstairs with my camera, I decided to layout my New Year's Eve mystery blocks as well.

Pictured: layout as suggested.

But then came some playtime with an on-point layout. Ooooo.....THIS is a fun a layout! BUT, those green setting triangles just don't work.

Grabbing my extra blocks, and folding them diagonally in half......v'iola! Oh yes. Quite lovely and most likely what I will end up doing in the end PENDING I have enough background fabric to make a few more blocks to create the setting triangles.

So...no sewing, but ideas ideas ideas galore rambling in the mind.

I hope your Tuesday was glorious!

It's back :| grrrrr.....

Around 1:00 today, the acute twinge of pain returned, and has been growing and building ever since to an [almost] intolerable pain.

It has been MONTHS since I've had this sharp pain, and it frustrates me that it has returned. Ibuprofin hasn't helped much...a bath hasn't helped much...I guess it's time for me to just call it a night, cross my fingers that sleep will come quickly, and catch up with school work tomorrow.

On a quilting note: I hope to get some time in this upcoming weekend, but I am not planning for much of anything during this week's evenings.