*MY* Version of Book Club

A couple of weeks ago, after choir practice, a few of the ladies were talking about a book and when the book club should get together to discuss it. Well, I never like to come in on the tail end of a conversation so I asked about it. My friend, Vicki, offered to loan me her copy of The Heretics Daughter. They were going to get back to me on the date for book club. Vicki dropped of that book and another one (which I have just loved, Saving Cece Honeycutt) but since I was busy with other things I didn't start reading right away.

Fast-forward to Monday last week, Vicki called to let me know when the ladies were getting together and that we needed to bring our books. I told her that night didn't work for me AND I probably wouldn't be finished by then anyway. So it was agreed that I would get her back her book. I told her... no problem...

Oops!

There's a problem... I love to read in the bathtub...

This is only the second time this has happened to me in four decades of tub-reading (kind of sounds like palmistry or something, doesn't it?)   But why did it have to happen with a borrowed book? (or my scriptures... they took the first dip in the tub in 1977!)

Doing the only thing possible, I bought Vicki a new copy of her book (I even transferred all of her pencil underlinings) and left it on her doorstep.

So today at church she asks, "Do you need to get back my copy of the book so you can finish?"

I had to confess, "Nope, I got my own copy!" Then I told her why... and we laughed! I also told her about the first time I dropped a book in the tub and how I used my hairdrier to hasten the drying process... I never had to worry about the pages sticking together any more!

Maybe you should stick to your own version of book club... mine's kind of soggy.

It's a Sickness

Last month I went to visit all of my family in California and had a lovely time... and as usual I came home with a project! Rebekah had this wonderful canvas bag embellished with Suffolk puffs (aka yo-yos) and buttons.

I HAD to have one!

Since Beatrix only *sips* diesel fuel... we made several trips down to town to get what I needed for MY party bag. I looked at Bek's and thought, "Hmmm, I think I'd like mine a little larger!" (What WAS I smokin'?)

I've been working on this bag for the last month, pretty much neglecting any other project except indexing... it is another one of my sicknesses! Sometimes bigger isn't always better... my finished bag was going to be big enough to fit a sleeping bag in... I'm not joking! So it was time to improvise. I have a fun cow/pinto purse that I got recently and taking some cues from it I constructed this bag. But since it was going to be significantly bigger I needed to add a few things. First, I wanted to have a hard bottom. I dug around and finally sacrificed an old scrapbooking accordion folder thing to make the bottom. But then I wanted to be able to wash the bag without the plastic bottom, so I added a second zipper to the bottom seam of the lining to facilitate that. After lots of *make-it-up-as-I-go*...

This is my finished party bag!

The stats:

• 63 Suffolk puffs
• 5 yo-yo flowers
• 8 appliqued flowers
• 15 appliqued leaves/grass
• 70 buttons
• 29 beads

Bek, who shares many of my sicknesses, added pocket to her bag. We MUST gave pockets. So this is my pocketed inside. (You can see the zipper in the bottom.)

I have HAD a whole stock of old zippers and used one for my new bag. And I just happened to have some zipper pulls left over from Christmas so I put one on my bag. It makes me happy.

Now lest you think me a mean girl who doesn't want to share her ideas, I will tell you that I've looked in vain for a publishable link for this great project. I will share what I do know. Here is a photo of Tita Leach's (of Rickerty Raggs) original bag.

Bek got the magazine from a friend and she thinks it is Australian Homespun Magazine. I've Googled all of the possible combinations I could think of and all I could come up with is a possible address tita_leach@yahoo.com.au. I've sent her an email trying to get more information and will update here if I get anything.

UPDATE****

If you are interested here is Tita's email to me.  Or you can just wing it (but remember that bigger isn't always better!)

Hello Joanie,

Yes the bag was published in Homespun magazine from Australia. I never made up a pattern for it as it was being published through them. You could contact Homespun and see if they have a copy of said magazine. If memory serves me I think it was published last year. I was surprised how popular it was. I am off to the US on Saturday as I am taking a quilt tour. If you get no joy from Homespun please email me again. I will be back in Oz at the end of May. Lovely to hear from you,

Kind regards Tita Leach.

Also check out the first comment it is from Homespun Magazine. (Yay little Joanie! I uncovered the link!)

Gordie-boy's Big Day

Somebody had a birthday. Guess Who? Gordie-boy!

THE OLDEST AND YOUNGEST MEMBERS OF OUR FAMILY- GRAMPY AND CHLOE

I asked Gordon if I could mention how old he is and he said, "No, but you can say Medicare paid for my last doctor appointment!" Then I looked at this photo and thought- duh... no, mystery here.

Stuart cooked up a surprise party for his Papa. He arranged for everyone to show up at 7 pm. I quick scooted Harley outside (he's not good at keeping things on the down-low) and all of these people sneaked into the house, downstairs and were standing behind Grampy playing at his computer. When they started to sing "Happy Birthday" it startled him! "That was a good trick!"

"I Kiss You, Bonx!"

My friend, Breanne, just had her fourth baby. How can a girl have such consistently darling children? When #3 was born Breanne lived in our neighborhood and asked if I'd do a photo shoot for her. It was my first shoot for someone outside of the family! I remember looking through the bazillion photos and thinking, "Ah-stink! There's not a good one in here!" But after a couple more viewings I started to see I really did have some good shots. Then a couple of weeks later I went back and took photos of  Baby K and her cousin!

And now Baby K is two and a half! "I kiss you, Bonx!" is only one of the things she says and does to her new brother.



I was excited when Breanne called and asked if I would like to do a photo shoot for new brother, *Bonx*. What a lively group. I suppose that having been at Grandma's all day watching conference with all the cousins may have contributed to the mayhem! We started with the group shots. What a train wreck!! Have you ever tried to get all four children to look at you at once? Hmmm, not easy. But I was able to do some cloning and come up with this nice group shot.



Then we did sisters- (Baby Big-girl K was not excited about this!  I cloned out M's hands right under her chin!)



and brothers... too bad nobody loves this sweet baby boy!



Then on to the baby fashion parade. What a patient little soul!

First an owl-



Next a turtle-



Then a bear with a bare-bum!



And we can't forget the old-man-face!



It wasn't until post-processing that I saw I'd caught Breanne and family reflected in Baby Bonx's eye! LOVE IT!



We ended with the stork pose... oh my... we should have started there. Bonx wasn't too happy with this! Poor little man was just out of energy for anymore funny business with costumes and props!



But what a darling baby...

80-degree Lamb Day

I remembered last night as I was getting ready for bed that I hadn't recorded my *very scientifical results* about March and the whole Lamb/Lion thing.

This was definitely a SOFT AND FLUFFY LAMB DAY! A-break-all-the-records-for-highest-temperature-in-Utah-in-March-DAY!

Can you believe how beautiful it is? That's my sweet little house with Maple Mountain as the back drop!

Of course, you must know also that this morning's (4/2/12) low temperature was 26 degrees! Yep, that's how we roll here in Utah... it's called

THE WARM BEFORE THE STORM!