Happy Zombie

Have a napkin or bib ready… I was just at QuiltersBuzz and Gina has a really nice post about the recent Road to California Quilt Show. I wish I could have gone… next year for sure! Anyhoo… Gina has a link to the R2C winner’s gallery. Jaw drooping drop dead gorgeous drool inducing quilts. The quilts are the Manolo Blahnik’s and Prada’s of the quilting and textile world!

I’m neat, I’m tidy, I’m organized… I’m full of crap. I’m exposing myself in the hopes my public humiliation will bring about change. THIS is my reality. Stacks, piles, notes, more stacks, more piles… and then there’s the disorganization in my head too. What was I doing? Where am I walking too? What was I gonna get?

As you can see in the photo, I have totes and bins, ready to be filled and tucked neatly away. But sigh, I’ve just stacked those into piles as well. My studio/office is just shy of being 10′x10′. I can use the lack of size as an excuse, but the gist of it is, is that if my space was 100′x100′… my mess would only be bigger.

I recently redid my studio/office. I (read: my DH) hung white cupboards and base cabinets with a counter also. The walls I painted this soft, soft pink (they used to be a light butter yellow). All my treasures were parading neatly on little shelves. My fabric stash cozy in the cupboards away from sunlight (now THAT’S funny… sunlight, in Oregon!). So what happened? I don’t know! I’m going to point a finger at the pink paint. Just because.

Yesterday I picked up more cabinets at Lowes and I’m filling them with skinny shelving so I can have 10 or 12 shelves to make my piles in/on. I’m hoping this is the ticket and I’ll soon have the neat and tidy space I dream of. When I’m at my computer, my back is to the mess. By having this photo on my blog I can’t escape it. Plus it’s helping motive me to get off the computer and get crackalackin on the studio/office redo. BTW… no longer a studio/office (I’m tired of saying that)… it’s officially now a STUFFICE! Stephen Colbert’s not the only one who can make up words!

I have set up a Flickr photo pool for the Potholder Swap. Feel free to join the pool any time (a half hour after you’ve eaten of course)!

I’m having one of those “sigh… I love blogging” moments today. So I’m cruising around Blogland this afternoon, seeing everyones photos and reading wonderful little tid-bits of their lives. I thought to myself how awesome it is that bloggers like to show morsels of their lives, stopping for a moment to snap a photo to share. Where once there was just life going on, now thanks to blogging life just stops for an instant with the opening and closing of the shutter and we truly stop to smell the roses.

Maybe it happens outside the gates of Blogland? I do not know. I do know that I catch myself seeing things in a new way now that I want to capture the moment for my blog. I catch myself saying, “FREEZE… this is for my blog”. My son even says things to me like, “Don’t you want to take a picture of that for your blog?”. In reality only 1% of things I snap end up on my blog or I end up writing about. It’s just the mere fact that I’ve stopped (like the Road Runner putting on the brakes with his feet) for those few seconds to enjoy the extraordinary beauty of an otherwise ordinary moment. For months I’ve been trying to figure out just how it is that blogging changed my life (aside from the wonderful sister friends I’ve made). And today I had this realization!

You may find my Happy Meal weird, or boring, or that I’m koo-koo for Cocoa Puffs… but for a few seconds while I snapped the photo of my Beckmann’s German Farm Bread and Saag’s German Bologna (Best Lunch Ever)… I experienced the extraordinary beauty of an ordinary moment. And that my friends is what I call “The Bloggers O”!

SIGN-UP FOR THE POTHOLDER SWAP IS NOW CLOSED
Swappy good fun… it’s a potholder swap! Easy cheezy fast and fun. Nothing tastes better then a casserole removed from the oven using a beloved potholder. Both my boys at some point in their younger years each made me a potholder, and to this day they are my favorite to use.

This swap is for one potholder and your favorite casserole recipe. Your potholder can be quilted, embroidered, crocheted, knitted, a vintage gem… it’s up to you! First time to join a swap? This is a fun and interactive way to meet other crafty bloggers, as well as have something to cherish, hold, and use that goes beyond your computer screen and keyboard.

So… who wants to play!?!?
SIGN-UP FOR THE POTHOLDER SWAP IS NOW CLOSED
1) Sign-up deadline is February 5th, 2007 at 11:59 PST.

2) To sign-up, email me at thehappyzombie [at] gmail [dot] com with your: IRL Name & Blog Name

Snail Address
Email Address
Blog Address
Flickr Address (if you don’t have a blog)

3) You will receive your swap partner on February 6th.

4) The deadline to mail your swap partner the potholder and recipe is Feb 14th. I will send a reminder a few days prior. Please email me once you’ve sent out your swap. If emails come back invalid or unresponsive, you will be removed from the swap (I know… I’m so mean).

5) This is an international swap from the United States. If you wish to only to swap within the US, please let me know so you don’t get matched internationally.

6) If you don’t have a blog or Flickr, please email me your photos of your swap (sent and received). Once the deadline has come and you’ve received your swap partner, I will have a photo pool of the swap. UPDATED: I have set up a Flickr photo pool for the swap. Feel free to join the pool now!

7) This is a serious commitment and a lot of fun. But… [begin Mommy voice] If you fail to send to your swap partner… I will out you on my blog [end mommy voice]. The more the merrier… tell your bloggy pals about the swap and encourage participation!

Fake Questions… Real Answers:

Q: Can I make my potholder now, or do I have to wait until I’m paired with my swap partner?
A: It’s up to you. You can make it a reflection of you, or you can wait and find out what your SP likes. Chances are your SP will say “do what you like”. I personally think it’s more fun to receive something that reflects the person who made it.

Q: Can I make an oven mit?
A: SURE! You can make an oven slipper if you like! Ok, not really on the latter.

Q: I signed up but have not heard from you.
A: If you have not received a thank you note from me for joining the swap… that means I did not get your email submission. Be careful with my email address. It’s “THEhappyzombie”. Don’t forget the “the”.

Q: The health department issued me a citation and confiscated my recipe box. I have no casserole recipe to send. What do I do?
A: How about a “Top 5″ list of your favorite food haunts in your hometown. Myself being one who is recipe challenged… I would love that!

Buttons! Would you like a Potholder Swap button for your side bar? Easy cheezy… just paste the code below into your sidebar and you’re done! There are two buttons. One with a white background and one in aqua. Pick one… pick two!

For a button, copy and paste this code:
<a href=”http://thehappyzombie.com/blog/?p=97″><img src=”http://bp0.blogger.com/_CqYDMUhDoEk/RbPv3b8KjeI/AAAAAAAAAJc/-i4tL6ZDtJM/s320/phs_buttonaquared.gif” border=”0″ alt=”Potholder Swap” ></a>

My current project is a shop quilt. Just a sneak peek. I [almost] always stick to the rules when doing a shop quilt, but this one I modified with an “Anna Lena butterfly”. The butterflies are tiny and finish at a 3” block. Small blocks, but big in fun and cuteness.

This little quilt project I will make for myself too, especially because of the yummy delishous fabric from my sister friend Karen!

I got tagged by Raesha with the 6 Weird Things About Me meme. I’m supposed to write six weird things about me. The problem is narrowing it down to six, so here goes!

1) I eat my fries with mayo. If you’re German and reading this… it’s not so weird.

2) When I buy fabric yardage, especially fat quarters… I refold them so you can’t see the raw edges. I also like all my FQ’s to be folded the same way, into a neat little chubby folded pillow of cotton delight. Is this weird or anal? Don’t answer.

3) I like to pull the little “pills” off fabric and roll em around my fingers. I’m sure it’s some weird Freudian thing that dates back to babyhood. Ok…. That’s REALLY weird. It’s how I live.

4) I can’t just sit. Sitting and doing nothing, for example watching TV. I have to be doing something with my hands at all times (I’m guessing this is how #3 fits into my life). Quilting, embroidering, appliquéing, etc. It’s why I don’t like going to the movies. And to my English teacher Mrs. Nuccio at Foothill Intermediate in Walnut Creek… way back in the stoneage of 1975ish… you sent me to the office for not sitting still and playing with some elastic band I had from sewing (home ec). You said one day I’d grow up and be a well behaved young lady and sit still. I’m still waiting. Oh, and Mrs. N… I had a cigarette on the way to the office.

5) I can’t sleep on an airplane. Too many conversations to eavesdrop on! And what if I miss the food service while sleeping?!

6) I can’t drive my car without toting along a cup of coffee. I also never get lost while driving. I have this internal TomTom I’m equipped with. I may forget why I’m going there… but I know how to get there.

My turn to say… TAG! YOU’RE IT:
Pam
Wende
Paula
Cindy
Jackie
Angelina
Jenny

I haven’t posted a Sew & Tell in a while… maybe because I haven’t sewn in weeks (talk about being too ill if I’m not quilting!). A few quilts from recent past… pre-blogging stuff! There’s a designer I discovered a little over a year ago I just love, and her name is Lori Smith. I can open a magazine or my favorite catalog (Keepsake Quilting, the “Victoria’s Secret” for quilters!) and see a quilt and I just KNOW it’s by her because it’s something that makes me want to run and make it. And that’s saying a lot because I find more pleasure in designing my own.

Anyhoo… Lori has a really cute pattern pack called Fat Quarter Quilting: Four Fabric Quilts. These quilts I made are the finished size of a fat quarter. All you need are four fat quarters (five if you use a FQ for the backing). The first two I have made were samples for the shop, so I kind of stuck with the fabrics/colors like in the pattern (though I do dig the black & white with the birdie toile) .

I hope I don’t sound like an infomercial… I just want to pass on something fun, fast and pretty. These little patterns are a great way to use some FQ’s you just love but don’t know what to do with (plus you get six patterns in a pack - talk about bang for your buck!). From start to finish this is a nice little weekend project. Piecing, quilting and binding…. HUGE satisfaction in getting a quilt done fast! The quilts finish nice and “square” (I know, I know… they’re rectangles!), though my photography is not (ugh).

The third was purely for me. It’s the same quilt as the second one but made with some of my all time fabric. I love, love, love this fabric collection by Linda Hohag for P&B Textiles. Did I mention how much I love this fabric??? This quilt took a little longer since I hand quilted it… but boy was it fast to quilt compared to quilting a bed size quilt! Satisfaction!