EEEK!!! LOOK WHAT I WON!!!!

Oh dear Lord!  I can't believe it!!  I've been entering contests left and right trying to win one of these GO! Baby fabric cutters.  And I can't believe I won one.  I got an e-mail today from Jennifer at Ellison Lane Quilts.  And I just love the way she informed me I had won!  The subject of her e-mail was one simple word:  Giveaway.  I open her e-mail and there's a note that says:  Deborah, I think you might want to check out my blog post! http://ellisonlane.blogspot.com/2011/07/accquilt-go-baby-winner.html

Now I'm out putting slobber on my laptop screen trying to pick out three dies.  I thought I knew what I would get - I mean, I really did!  But oh my!!  I'm still new to quilting and really don't know which dies will be the best to select.  I had thought, "Okay, I'll get the 2.5" strip die because I have to put bindings on every quilt I make, and that means I'd use it each and every time I make a quilt."  Then I thought "Hmmm....cutting strips isn't that difficult.  That wouldn't really be much of a time saver for me."  Then I was talking with Debra at Debra's Design Studio trying to pick her brain.  She got me on the road to thinking if I purchased a die for squares, I'd merely have to cut that square in half to get triangles.  Yeah!!  That sounds really cool!  But what size squares/triangles are the most popular with quilt patterns?  When you don't have a history of making quilts, you don't know what size to get.

I was thinking of getting the Bountiful Baskets by Alex Anderson (not sure if they have a dollar amount as a ceiling for the dies) because I've always thought I'd like to make one of those quilts, and the die for it is twice the price of the others.  Whatcha' think?  

So....anybody want to jump on the wagon and recommend dies and tell me why you think I should select a certain one?  And this is a GO! Baby, so not all the GO! dies will work for it. 

Squeal!!!  I'm so dang excited I keep opening the e-mail and looking at Jennifer's blog all over again, just so I can see my name on her post as the winner!!!

Still playing with my granddaughter

Well, it's been a fun week, but it's almost come to an end.  I've had my 5-year old granddaughter since Friday afternoon, and my oh my, I'm finding it hard to believe I had twins and kept my house in order.  Maybe it's just the fact that as a grandmother I'm all about trying to do fun things with my granddaughter and not focus on keeping things clean around the house.  I've discovered (yet once again!) that she's more content to sit and play games on the computer than going places and playing. 

We went to the pool for 3 hours earlier this week.  Stayed in the pool the entire time.  She had a blast, and I did too!

Went to a puppet show yesterday, but left less than 10 minutes after it started because she was "bored". 

Today we will have our last full day together.  We plan on visiting her aunt and uncle (my daughter and her husband) who live about 40 minutes away.  I hope to do some shopping for clothes and shoes for her while we're out.  But with the way things are going right now, it doesn't look like that will happen.  I mean, how many excuses can you come up with to delay brushing your teeth, brushing your hair, and getting dressed (how much easier it was when you could put what you wanted to on her and didn't have to worry about her opinion about what she wanted to wear).  There are so many excuses to slow down our departure.  Just getting breakfast down her was a 30-minute playtime. 

I haven't had time to play with the new laptop, or even load the software for my camera.  HA!  I haven't even taken any picture since she's been here.  What a terrible grandmother I've been.  Well, I really haven't.  We've had so much fun since she's been here - playing on the computer (we've found so many websites for games), making a tent with two chairs and a quilt hung over them, snuggle time at bedtime, practicing spelling and reading, and our short foray into the sewing room this morning.  Hopefully we'll find time after our visit with her aunt and uncle for her to try to sew a small blanket for her bunny rabbit.  She picked out some fabrics that sadly don't look good together, but they're what she wants, so that's what she'll have.  It took a long time for her to make her decision.  She selected six fabrics for blocks to make her center, and then four fabrics for the border (a different color on each side).  Hey!  Maybe I can remember to take photos when she's sewing.  Yeah, right!!  Anyway, I need to cut the six fabrics for the center blocks.  I bought one of those glue sticks and will glue the fabrics together so they won't shift when she sews them.  Hopefully we can get that done this evening before bedtime. 

I've kept up with everything going on with all of you while she's been here.  While she's been playing on the computer with her games, I've been playing on the computer with mine.

The week has flown by, and it's hard to believe it's time to take her home.  I know I need to take my energy pills, because when I get her home, I'll be cleaning my mom's house.  There will be plenty of dishes and clothes to wash, floors to vacuum, bathrooms to clean, and groceries to buy. 

When I return, it will be back to the daily grind of my life as a Budget Analyst, with numbers and spreadsheets and getting to work at 6:00 a.m.  One of the reasons I don't look forward to retirement - I like having structure to my life.  Knowing I have to do specific things each day.

Hoping all of you have had a lovely 4th of July with your families, and you remembered the reason we celebrate this holiday.

Support our Troops - Send coupons

I received an e-mail from a friend in Germany today.  In that e-mail was the below (which is verbatim).  Please take note that coupons overseas are good for six months after their expiration date.

Please share this information with others as appropriate, particularly folks in the US who may not use all or have expired coupons to send along in support of the overseas military families.

The Army Community Service office in Kaiserslautern, Germany, has a coupon program to help benefit US military families in the area on their purchases at the local military commissary. Coupons are sent in from individuals and organizations back in the US to help the families save money on their food and other purchases. The commissaries benefit too by receiving a processing fee on all redeemed coupons (and that potentially saves all taxpayers).  PLUS, most coupons are good for up to six months after their expiration
dates in the US. So, no need to throw away expired coupons back home, just send them along for the ACS program over here.

The mailing address is:

US Army Garrison - Kaiserslautern (which can be abbreviated USAG-K)
Army Community Service
Unit 23152
APO AE 09227

Normal US postage may be used. (No need for international stamps.)
Thank you for your support.

Note from me:  I remember shopping at the Commissary in Heidelberg.  When I walked in the front door, there was a box full of coupons.  Many of us would stand at the counter and sort through that box to see if we could find coupons for purchases we planned to make.  Unless we subscribed to the local paper from "home", we had no way to get coupons unless it was out of magazines.  Postage to mail your coupons is minimal because you are not paying to mail to a Europe address.  You are paying to mail to a US address.   So please support our troops overseas.  This costs no money on your part (other than postage).  Just grab extra coupon flyers from the grocery store when you visit the next few times.  Or throw your expired coupons to the side.  When you've got a stack, mail them off.  Or send a shout-out to friends and family and get a large collection and put them in a manila envelope.  Or send out a shout out to your bloggy friends.  Do it.  For the troops.  So get out there and spread the word.  Please.

I've done it - I bought a laptop

I've loaded Norton Antivirus, and other than a quick e-mail to my daughter to tell her it was up and running, this is the first thing I've done.  Yep, I have my priorities straight!  My daughter was my go-to person when I was trying to figure out what to buy.  I'm clueless about all these giga's and mega's and all.   You might as well be talking Greek when you talk to me about that stuff.

So - hopefully I'll figure out how to download the software for my camera, and then the photos from my camera.  I have some of you saved under my favorites, and I'll have to get those off the work-issued laptop, so I can "reach out and touch you" when my heart desires.

It's gonna be a slow process.  Because I'm such a doofus with this electronic stuff. 

My family gets so frustrated with me because it takes me so long to make decisions.  I've been talking about getting new cell phones, changing cell phone plans, and changing internet/cable providers for months and months and months.  Seriously - at least six months.  I just never seem to make a decision.  I've been talking about getting a new laptop for over a year.  Yep.  Sad, but true.  A year.

I've already seen things that are different with this laptop, and it's going to take this 58-year old woman some time to find out how to maneuver around.  God help me.

But needless to say, I'm so excited ! 

Questions about Google Reader

I’m new to all of this blogging stuff.  I’m finally figuring out how to read new posts with Google Reader.  Yay me!  Up until this point, I’ve always requested post updates via e-mail.  But sadly, I didn’t create a new e-mail account for those e-mail updates.  Nooooo…I wasn’t smart enough to do that!  So when I get home for work each day, I sometimes have 50+ e-mail notes from bloggers that have a new post to their blog.  God help me when I leave and go out of town for the weekend and don’t have access to my account for two days.  I can come back and it’s not an exaggeration to say I sometimes have 150 or more e-mails.  So I’m figuring this Google Reader stuff out.  It’s been slow, but it’s happening!

But I’ve got some questions:

1.        Why do I see everything for one bloggers post, but only maybe the first paragraph of another bloggers post?  Is there something I can do so I can see the entire post?

2.       I see a listing of blogs down the left-hand side of Google Reader.  At the top, I see a heading entitled “subscriptions” and I’m thinking the number that appears at the end of that heading is telling me how many new post updates are being displayed (those that I haven't read).  Is that right?

3.       Under the heading “subscription”, I see a list of what I assume is the title of the blogs I follow.    Correct?

4.       Why is it that sometimes I go through all the unread blogs, but there are still numbers displayed after the heading “subscriptions”?  I can look through the listing of posts (all ninety gazillion of them) and I can see numbers at the end of the blog title, and when I click on the blog title, I see posts displayed that I didn’t see when I was scrolling through the new posts.  Huh?  Why is that?

5.       If I read a post that I want to “open” (what other word would I use?) either to read after I’ve gone through all the new post updates, or to enter a contest, or to leave a comment or whatever, is there a way to do that without going back up to the title of the post, right-clicking and then opening it in a new tab?  Surely there is a way to do it easier than what I’m doing.

6.       How do I un-follow a blog I am following?  I’ve been reading blogs for about six years, and my tastes have certainly changed a lot in those six years.   And is there some sort of courtesy you go through to let a blogger know you’ve un-followed them?  I know that a lot of you are concerned about the number of followers you have (I don't know why, but maybe one day I'll understand).  And I know you get concerned when you lose some.   So please educate me.  I want to be a good girl.  At least about this.  Yeah, yeah.  I pick my battles.  I don't always want to be a good girl.  That's no fun!

Is there anything else I need to know about Google Reader that I haven’t already touched upon in this post?

My H2H Charity Quilt is finished

Debra at Debra's Design Studio just completed the quilting on my H2H Charity Quilt, and I'm so pleased with the final results.  I worked in Kosovo and Bosnia, and the locals I worked with loved bright colors.  I'm making the assumption the folks in Romania love bright colors too, so I hope I made the right choice with my color selections.  Being fairly new to quilting, I was bumfuzzled as to what pattern to use, so Debra came up with this one.   This was my second time to do a 9-patch block.  The first time?  The first time was my initial introduction to Debra.  She had asked for donations of 9-patch blocks for a quilt that she would make that would be auctioned for the American Cancer Society.  She even had to send me the 9-patch instuctions and answer my questions about her color requirements.  I know I bug her to death with all my questions, but she's been a trooper about it, and has been there for me every time I've needed her.  And I've needed her a lot. 

Huge thanks to Debra!!!!
This is my first 9-patch quilt, and my first charity quilt.  I did it.  I can't believe it.  I did it.   Yippee!

Chance to win iPad2 and $1,000 in cash and Cool Video

Still Blonde After All These Years has two posts that really caught my attention this evening:

Are you interested in entering a contest for a chance at winning an iPad2 and $1,000 Total Cash?   The giveaway begins on June 6, 2011 at 12:01 am EST ends on June 20, 2011 at 11:59 pm EST.   Head on over there and throw your name in the hat.  I'll wait....  hum, hum.....whistle, whistle...

Okay...you back now?  Okay!

Well, now that you've done that, how about taking a few minutes and having some fun!

Still Blonde After All These Years also posted a really cute video showcasing “American Pie” and some of the fun-loving residents of Grand Rapids, MI.  The video was shot on May 26, 2011, and they have already had about 3 Million YouTube views!  I can't imagine the planning that went into this video.  I loved it!  I remember having to write an essay in college based on the song "American Pie".  There was all this controversy about who the song was written about - Elvis?  Buddy Holly?  The Big Bopper?  Richie Valens?   Ha!  Some of you young whippersnappers know who Elvis is, but probably don't have a clue who those other people are.

So - that was some serious stuff and some fun stuff. 

I LOVE music, and those Michigan residents looked like they were having a blast filming the video.  I'd love to do something like that!  That is sooo me!  Fun, fun, fun.

Good luck with the giveaway, and let me know if you enjoy the video.