It’s funny how fabric can inspire you as a sewist/quilter/junkie/whatever you want to call yourself.  

I’ve been thinking about this the past couple of days, after I posted the block I made for Valerie for PTQB to Flickr:

Valerie’s inspiration was this quilt and she sent out some Heather Ross Mendocino in the browns & aquas plus a couple other random fabrics.

And my brain immediately started whirling around in my head, trying to figure out what it wanted to do.  All because of the fabric.  I was excited! 

It’s so much easier to get excited about making a quilt block when you lurve the fabrics you were sent to play with.  As was the case in the situation.  I have a much more difficult time figuring things out when I’m not so into the fabric being sent.

Of course, not being restricted to a specific block certainly helps.  And when I saw that Jacquie added in some Hope Valley, I decided to copy that little trick AND add in a dash of Flea Market Fancy, plus a bit of my own Mendocino.

Apparently, a few other people love the fabric combo too, based on the Flickr comments and favoriting going on.  Which brightens my day even more!

Okay, I’m done now.

…Liberty of London for Target quilts and shams at the local Targhetto.

For reals y’all - I hadn’t made my weekly lunchtime pilgrimage over to the Targhetto yet, so I popped over there mere hours after I expressed my extreme excitement for the Liberty stuff.

And there it was!  Well, the quilts and shams, at least.  Apparently this particular Targhetto didn’t get the memo its not supposed to be displayed until March 14.  That was only Liberty stuff I found though - I scoured the store for any other signs of Liberty to no avail.

And it’s so terribly tempting too… that $60 price tag is actually for the king quilt.  The full/queen version is $50.  The standard sham was $20 - can’t remember the price for the king sham.

The quilts are absolutely gorgeous - the prints just take your breath away and the machine quilting on them is pretty good.  The fabric feels a little stiff (definitely not the soft lawn fabric that I can’t afford to buy), but I think a good wash/dry cycle will correct that problem (and I know y’all would do that anyway). 

So sorely tempted to buy either the pink flowers on top (can’t help it, obsessed with pinky shades lately)…or the B&W version in the middle.

I just have to make Steve understand why I so desperately need more bedding items - and why I can’t seem to finish a quilt of my own.  But seriously, it’s almost impossible to a make a quilt yourself using designer fabrics for less than $50, let alone with any print by Liberty.  Heck, I’m pretty sure Target sells other quilts that have a more hefty price tag than the Liberty stuff.

PS - I deffo got a weird look from a Target employee as I attempted to covertly take a photo with my phone - it might have worked better had the phone not made the camera click noise.

Anyone else planning on bull rushing their friendly neighborhood Target store on March 14??  Clothes, bedding, dishes, lamps, a beach cruiser (OMG, it is so cute!!) garden tools…  I mean seriously - a Liberty hand trowel?? 

Click on over here, select “Pattern Your World” and just run your mouse over the different swatches to see an example of an item that will be available in that print.

And if you don’t think that print above isn’t already adorning my iphone background, you are sadly mistaken!

While my days of using blogger are now a year in the past, I’m reading on some of your blogs that they’ve made some changes in the dashboard or whatever that are causing major frustration when you’re trying to put up a blog post.

So if you’re using Windows, I would suggest you give Windows Live Writer a shot.  I’m using it for this blog (albeit not for this post), and think it’s great.  It should work for blogger, wordpress, typepad (I think).

It will import your blog template, so it knows how you have things set up.  But it keeps everything offline while you write your post - but don’t forget to save every once in a while if you’re writing a long post or keep stepping away from it!  I had a post disappear after I accidentally clicked the X in the program because I hadn’t saved it.

My absolute favorite thing about Live Writer is how easy it is to add pictures to my posts.  I’m going with the very simple copy & paste method.  I’m either copying directly from my photo folder and pasting into the blog post, or (in the case of the Dear Olympians posts), I was doing the right-click copy on images from the internets and pasting into the blog post.  Except for the Evan Lysacek cockatoo photo - that was a bit of magic involving a paused video and the “Print Screen” key on my keyboard and paste directly into my Live Writer blog post.  You can even resize & crop your photos right there in the Live Writer screen. 

And you can always preview your post before you publish, so you know how everything will look when it gets published.

Of course, there’s also a way to add tags & categories and schedule posts.  The spell check works well - maybe a little too well, actually!

I haven’t figured out any functionality that the Live Writer software doesn’t have that I’m used to.

Word of caution - I always do the “custom installation” when downloading programs, so I can uncheck the extra crap Microsoft likes to throw in with it’s software.  Maybe some of you have never explored this option before, I’m fearless because if I totally screw something up, my geeky hubs can always reformat the whole computer.  If you don’t have a geeky husband, don’t despair - just look around, I bet you can find a geeky guy or girl to help you out. 

Note: The photos have nothing to do with this post, but there are a lot of words here with nothing to look at.  Since I’m not using Live Writer for this post, I couldn’t tell you how many words it is, but it’s a lot.  These photos are actually part of my efforts to document my 28th year of life in photos - I need to set up a separate blog for them, they’re residing solely in Facebook at the moment.  And in case you were wondering, Steve is making crepes from the Julia Child cookbook in an el cheapo IKEA wok.  And they tasted wonderful!

So when we first bought our place, we were inundated with offers for a whole bunch of crap.  Including a biweekly withdrawal for our mortgage payment.  Which sounds great, because ultimately, you end up making a whole entire EXTRA payment on your mortgage each year that is entirely principle.  Which, for us, is huge.  And if you have a nice 30 year fixed mortgage, you can shave off years of your mortgage and save literally thousands (if not tens of thousands) of dollars in interest.

So I took the bait and inquired as to how the process worked.  For a fee of less than $5 every biweekly period, the administrator of this program would draw out half your monthly mortgage amount out of your account.  AUTOMATICALLY!  No thinking/remembering on your part.

Sounds like a good plan… except that mortgage interest is calculated on a monthly basis.  So the administrator can only make a payment on your behalf on a monthly basis.  And then when you have accumulated enough for an extra principle payment, they also pay that on your behalf.

But wait - why couldn’t I do this myself??  Especially in this day & age of online banking.  So I double-checked my sanity with a mortgage loan amortization spreadsheet (just do a template search in Excel), plugged in my normal monthly payment + extra principle payment every year (or even better, an extra half payment every 6 months), and came to the same conclusion about the wonderful savings the bi-weekly payment administrator could offer me.

Simple answer - I CAN do this myself.  And without paying a $250 initial fee + the $4 biweekly fee.  And earning interest on my money, not this outside company.

To make it even easier, I bank with ING primarily, and you can easily and quickly set up a bazillion accounts:

So each pay period for me (Steve’s payroll is on my payroll off-week, so our household gets paid every week), I funnel half of our monthly mortgage payment amount into the “House” account.  And I set up auto-debit with my mortgage provider, so they just withdrew my payment from this account today.  I have the separate account just so I can easily see how much non-mortgage funds we have in our normal checking & savings.  And in theory, these extra mortgage funds could be used for a household emergency, rather than an extra payment, if need be.

MORAL OF THE STORY: I know a lot of you already have the mortgage thing figured out and set up to your liking, but maybe your friends/relatives just bought their first house, or re-financed recently.  And they have received this offer in the mail.  DON’T let them sign up - they can do it themselves, setting up their own payment system.

And lest you think that smart people wouldn’t be duped by this wonderful offer, well, I almost was, and one of Steve’s co-workers actually was (and this is an engineer - with a Masters degree, I think - working on some secret project that helps ensure the security of our wonderful country - at least, that’s what I assume they’re working on).

ALSO - If any of you are interested in setting up an account with ING (their interest rates are always better than the rates at any of the major banks), let me know, and I can email you a referral - and I think we both get a “referral bonus” when you sign up.

So I alluded to the fact that I did some shopping at Urban Outfitters & Anthropologie a couple of weeks ago.

I’m a bit worried I hyped this too much.  Because you can spend an arm and a leg in either/both of those stores.

I think I only spent an arm – Steve was monitoring me.

The owl bank from UO – I made the sales chick get me the rubber stopper bottom from the window display owl, because mine didn’t have one and it was the only one left.

I would have bought this owl couple rug from UO had I seen it.  Too cute!

Hoot hoot switchplate from Anthro – I had to order it via phone since they didn’t have it in the store, but they did ship it to me for free.

And I didn’t go into Anthro with a plan to buy the Fox knocker, but he spoke to me.  Really – his head moves up and down.  He said “buy me.”  And so I did.  And then decided I should look online to see if I could send another one to the Foxy-in-laws.  But I decided I liked his black/gold brother better, so I ordered it for me.  Mr. Copper Green Fox Knocker will be sent with the MIL’s other birthday presents in April.

And I added some F letters to my collection, and started my wall at the top of the landing on the stairs. 

That picture is horrible though – I had a filter on the camera that did NOT work with the lovely fluorescent lighting in the stairwell.  I will get a better picture another time.

So the top left F is from Anthro – currently on sale for $4, so not all the letters are left.

The 3D wire F (right center) is from UO, as is the recycled metal F (center bottom).

I already had the giant F (Joanns, needs a new paint job, not feelin’ the blue w/red & white polkas anymore), the little black F (Hallmark circa 2004 before I was married, but knew I needed it), and the funky patina F (left bottom) is from World Market.

FYI – Now accepting the letter F for my wall.  If you find anything that isn’t a photo, you’re more than welcome to send it my way!

So I decided that since I didn’t have that many entries for the CSN $50 giveaway, I would try the “let the nudge a name written on paper off a plate full of catnip” method.

So I prepared my feline treat.

And sure enough, the catnip draws them in like flies to honey.

And nothing happens except Radar and Syl nosing out the catnip.  There’s a couple of sneezes, sometimes they accidentally snort it. 

Is catnip a gateway drug???

Eventually, Radar got bored and/or annoyed with the paper.

So then it was down to Syl.

And then he gave up too.

Steve and I started watching District 9.  Which is 1 hour, 52 minutes long. 

(Side note: that movie was NOT my cup of tea.  I appreciated the underlying theme, but didn’t really enjoy the execution.  The aliens kept making burp & fart noises when they “talked.”  And I don’t think it’s Best Picture-worthy, so good thing it’s not really a contender.  Side side note: While I immensely enjoyed The Blind Side, I also don’t think that’s Best Picture-worthy either.  So I don’t think I’m being too harsh with my review of D9.)

Finally, after the movie was almost done (like 15 minutes left, at max), Syl came back to the plate ‘o catnip.

And…

VICTORY!  But he knocked off 4 slips of paper, all at once.  Fortunately, he then proceeded to try to eat one of slips, so Steve declared that particular slip the chosen one.

After nearly 2 hours of kitty nonsense, the winner was determined to be:

What??  You can’t read that because my flash blew out the name because I’m still pretty darn amateur when using my Xsi??

Radar couldn’t read it either.

Well, it says that Brenis is the winner.  And what did Brenis want to win??

These cute Rachael Ray baking dishes because “my kids have broken all my baking dishes!”  Well, fear not, Brenis, CSN Stores will soon rectify that situation!

I really wish I could have granted all of your wishes – maybe I’ll get to do this again??

Wanna know what I would have chosen if I could have won my own giveaway? 

These Le Creuset wok dishes to use when Steve makes his yummy stir fry.  Have I mentioned I like teal??  Maybe I’ll just have to get myself the dishes anyway.  Shhh!  Don’t tell Steve!!

Last Saturday, I met up with Michelle at the South Bay Quilt Guild show.  It’s always interesting to meet someone you only know through blogs and emails, but she’s a complete sweetie!  The show was sort of interesting – a lot of quilts that aren’t really my style, but no matter what fabrics and patterns are used, I always appreciate the effort that goes into them. 

But this gem wins the crazy prize:

Yeah, Michelle is holding up a dime to show exactly how small a 1/4” FINISHED hexagon is.  This little mini was amazing!

Naturally, the vendor mall was slightly more interesting… although it didn’t seem as good as it was last year.  However, I discovered that a Japanese fabric store opened up last fall that’s about 5 miles away from me.  AND they had a ton of fat quarters they were selling for $2/each.  Yeah, the really nice linen-cotton blends that normally sell for $15-$20/yard. 

So this is what I came away with:

Piggies, owls (of course), hedgies, bees…

Forest, Echino cars in 4 colors (the yellow cars are totally going to my DQS8 partner).

And this wonderful voile Alice in Wonderland fabric – now to figure out what to do with it…

Saturday night, Steve and I ventured to downtown LA, which has become much more interesting in the past couple of years.  We were there to see a charity comedy event in support of A Better LA, although I purchased our tickets on the day where the proceeds were going to Haiti relief ($90K raised just for Haiti alone, $1M raised in total).  Hosting duties for the evening fell to a certain Mr. Will Ferrell and his partner-in-crime, John C. Reilly.  We were provided with 3D glasses on our seats, and at one point were instructed to put them on.

Yes, the goofy men spoofed Avatar in “3D.”  JCR was quite fluent in Navi, uttering such grandiose phrases as “wannahockalugee.”  We could have done without the comedic stylings of Tim & Eric.  But we both absolutely loved Demetri Martin – he definitely didn’t pander to the audience, and there were some one-liners that a good portion of the audience didn’t quite latch onto as fast as Steve and I did.  Kinda funny when we would start laughing before the audience at large – but I’m not that smart, I can’t remember anything specific he said.  Demetri totally has that geeky look that I find attractive in guys, which also increased the Like factor. ;) 

And to cap off the night, we were treated to the musical stylings of Tenacious D.

Jack Black is truly entertaining, if just for his facial expressions alone.  And while their music isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, both Jack & Kyle G are true musicians (and Kyle can play the crap out of the guitar).  The D definitely rocks my face off!  And now I really have an overwhelming urge to watch School of Rock again.

Sunday was more low-key, although we met up w/the gang at Disneyland.  No pictures, which means I’m taking our little jaunts to Anaheim for granted.  We did go see the Aladdin show @ California Adventure – and holy crap, it was a full blown production (albeit half the amount of time of a normal musical).  Moving set pieces, a bunch of backdrops, a flying carpet, etc. etc.  Plus, I loved that Genie threw in some updated references to Twitter, Lady Gaga, etc.  Glad we got to see it, it’s going to be shutting down soon (and hopefully replaced with an equally spectacular production – maybe a condensed version of the Lion King Broadway show??).

Back for another round of letters, as the end of the Vancouver games draws near.

Dear Evan Lysacek,

Hi there, it’s me again.  Congrats on the gold!  However, to quote the always hilarious Wanda Sykes, "Fix that hair!  You look like a damn cockatoo!"  But I guess it’s better than a Russian mullet (see below).

Caw, caw!
Michelle

Dear Russian Mullet,

How do you feel about being the hairstyle of choice for a tool?

Just wondering,
Michelle

Dear Any Skiier or Snowboarder Who Has Tumbled Down a Canadian Mountain,

Ouch!

Wincing,
Michelle

Dear Joannie Rochette,

I’ve never seen such a bittersweet performance as your short program.  And I know your mama is smiling down at you from Heaven.

With tears,
Michelle

PS – Nice medal!

Dear NBC Speed Skating Commentator:

Pretty sure that squealing with delight over a skater pushing into the "number first position" isn’t grammatically correct. 

Laughing at you (not with you),
Michelle

Dear Olympic Committee,

I’m surprised you expected less risqué behavior out of snowboarders.  They don’t tend to be meek souls who hide out in their rooms after winning medals - they celebrate and boy, do they know how to PART-TAY!  Apparently what happens in Vancouver doesn’t stay in Vancouver - perhaps Vegas should try to host a Summer Games??

Definitely not shocked or appalled,
Michelle

The giveaway from CSN Stores is now closed - I’ll try to get a winner picked tonight!