A blubbering mess

A blubbering mess, yep that describes me fairly well this week! That darn nasty cold that everyone has seems to have found me. Something about those watering eyes, aches and pains and sneezing noses reduces us to a whining, sniveling mess. I talked to my Daddy in Pa today and he had it too. 91 years old, he recommends a nice hot toddy, knock yourself out he says!
On the brighter side, look what arrived in my mail box today. Some Valentine love from my twin munchkins Aiden and Brandon!

Two cute little twin hand prints with a sweet message inside. Very folk arty! Did you lick those candy hearts boys?
Don't you just love novelty prints, I found these two on my last fabric outing.

I am always a sucker for kitten fabric, and these are darn cute!

And then we have the Pirates! I am going to make pillowcases for Alex and Williams visit next month.
And speaking of my little 3 year old William, I spoke to him on the phone a little while ago. They live in OKC and he went on and on about the big storms they had yesterday. They went KABOOM and it RAINED and SIRENS and the lights went OUT at dinner and it was DARK and on and on he went in his cute little voice.
Well, I have dinner made and bubbling away so now I can head upstairs and sew some quilt blocks together before hubby gets home.
Enjoy your day!

Lunch with my boy!

What a fun day I had today! Jerry and I drove down to visit Jon at KU. I did not dare show up empty handed so yesterday I made his favorite treats Haystacks and Peanut Butter cookies.
First stop was the apartment which I had not seen yet. Had a quick little tour, all nice and clean. He even showed me inside the frig, which was pretty darn empty, do you think that was a subtle hint LOL? I couldn't help but notice the kitchen counter decoration, unusual don't you think? Little plastic sharks from a favorite night spot "The Sand Bar" and I don't want to know what you do to earn them because he has quite a collection going on here!

Next stop was the downtown strip for lunch because we were all STARVING! Lots of fun shops on the strip, I thought the signs in this window were fun.

We had lunch, or breakfast I should say at Miltons and OMG it was so worth the wait! I had my favorite eggs Benedict and Jerry had I don't know what there!

Here's Jon and girlfriend Carly holding up their loaded plates. I don't know where little Carly is going to put those giant hunks of french toast but I'm sure she is used to Jon not letting any food grow cold around her. Aren't they sooooo cute.

After lunch Jon and Carly gave us the campus tour and what a pretty campus it is spread out along the top of a big hill. I would have taken more pictures but alas my camera battery light was blinking, thank goodness Jon was probably thinking. Just enough juice left for one last picture at the student union of Jon and his famous Jay Hawk!

Love you guys, thanks for the fun afternoon, SWAK!

Cupid sighting!

February, a month with a little holiday to chase the winter blues away. I just love the colors of Valentines Day, bright reds and pinks, lots of glitter, hearts, flowers cupids and bows. Love is in the air and oh, lets not forget the chocolate! Now that the kiddies are gone I don't decorate much for Valentines Day. I do however scatter vintage valentines all over my kitchen hutch, you can't help smiling just looking at them!

Cleo and I have been busy playing cupid here, packing up boxes with Valentine/birthday love to mail out to the munchkins. Just look at this cute, cute book I found for Alexander- "Love Splat"! A purrrfect story for Valentines Day: Splat has a crush on a cute girl kitten at school and
a special Valentine card he agonizes over giving to her. So cute, the illustrations are to die for! Splat looks a lot like Cleo and Alex just loves Cleo even though the feelings are not quite reciprocated on her part.

My dear hubby has been in Vegas all week, I am feeling pretty jealous:( Sitting at a cafe in the warm sun having his little lunch break he calls me while I am bundled up here in 6 sweaters. I don't want to hear it! I have to tell you, the day he flew in he went straight from the airport to the golf course, imagine that LOL! So he's playing golf and a celebrity played through in front of his group, I guess that is golf course etiquette. Anyways, it was Justin Timberlake, my girls would have died! Jerry said he was very nice and thanked them for cutting in before teeing off.

I have my nice bundle of Moda "Its Snowing" fabric layed out on my cutting table upstairs just calling my name. Cleo and I plan on spending the afternoon stitching up a new quilt. And then I suppose we better do a little cleaning, make it look like we actually did something "constructive" before Daddy gets home LOL!
Have a fun week!

Out of hibernation

Oh my gosh time just slipped away from me. Seems like I have been hibernating, staying inside snug as a bug whenever possible. January is not a favorite month of mine, it has no sparkle or pizazz or little holidays to make it bright and fun. By now many of us cold weather people have full fledged cabin fever. It is also a really busy month for sewing and stitching on some handwork while we are cooped up inside. I have cut many, many kits this month, keeps me busy and I hope many of you happy and content.
Now, you may have noticed I changed the color of my blog background, just for this weekend.
And why is that? Well you must have guessed it, Super Bowl Sunday is fast approaching and in honor of MY HOMETOWN I have caught STEELER FEVER!

Cleo has her terrible towel out and is ready to cheer her team on.

And look what arrived on my porch from UPS. A big cold packed box from my BIL and SIL in Pittsburgh, cheese & potato stuffed pierogi and stuffed cabbage rolls for the game, OMG!!!! Thank you Steve and Julie, how fun is that!
Even though It has been many, many years since I lived in Pittsburgh, I still have people tell me I have an accent. So I will leave you with a little Pittsburghese talk before I go...... Before the game I will RED up my house and then go WORSH my hair, add some CREAM RINSE to make it nice and soft. I think I'll use GUMBANDS to put it up in ponytails or maybe I could URN it to make it nice and straight like the old days. Next I will make some SAMMICHES for the game and make sure there is plenty of POP and URN CITY in the frig. YUNZ all come back now!
Like what accent? Liar, liar, pants on FAR! LOL, LOL!!!!!!

Cleaning and Vampires!

It has been almost a week since my boy moved out, and gosh it has flown by fast! No time to think about it much, just wading through the aftermath, I have been cleaning....alot:(
Some children leave lots of stuff behind, well maybe yours don't, but mine did and I have been trying to put it all in some sort of order.
By night time I have been ready to just relax and watch a new show or read. I ran in to Target earlier this week for some reason which I've long forgotten, and while there I was in search of a new book. I always need a book on hand. Their selection was awfully disappointing though, same old books, I mean Kite Runner and most of the other book club selections have been there forever and ever and ever. I was ready to give up and head over to Barnes and Noble but really didn't want to as it was getting late plus it was bitter cold outside, like 1 degree cold, and then I saw IT. Twilight, first in the vampire series LOL!

Now I have to tell you this book is REALLY off the beaten path for me. I don't care for mystical creature books, super hero's, things that fly... including vampires! Both my grown daughters read the series and couldn't put it down, so I said well..... I'll just give it a try.
OOOOOOH, I was up late that night reading in bed, Cleo and I were so scared! HA! Actually the book is well written and a fast read. Like the Harry Potter series, it was meant for a much younger group of readers and I haven't decided whether I am hooked enough to buy the next one. I am however wondering if Edward will bite whats-her-name and turn her in to a vampiress, so maybe I'll get sucked into the next book afterall, no pun intended!
I am just itching to get stitching. Lots of ideas on paper, tomorrow I'll browse through my fabric stash and hopefully find what I need to get started.
Enjoy the weekend!

An empty nester..... again!

My clock has been ticking away much too fast this past week, counting down the hours and minutes until my last chick leaves the nest.... again.

We already had this practice run down pat 4 years ago, I should be good at this leaving thing. When Jerry and I moved to Kansas we settled Jon in at Oklahoma State University. Boy, he looks like such a baby here, he was only 17 after all!

Here we all are in his tiny little dorm room. Oh, and just look at that baby, that's my 1st Grandson Alexander, he came dressed in his little OSU shorts to help his Uncle move in too! Nothing like a baby in your dorm room to break the ice LOL. Gosh we all look young, just look at that hairdo Barbie Jo LOL!.

2 years later Jon came back to live with us in KC and attend college here locally.
Now he's off again, today is the big move out day, going to KU for a big finish, and boy oh boy is he ready and excited!

I have had mixed feelings about this day the past few weeks.
Knowing today was the big day a friend at Hallmark said "go home with a happy heart Barbie Jo". And I thought well that's a pretty neat way to look at it, how cool is that!
I'm proud of you Jon, hard to believe you are going to be a Jayhawk! And people you will laugh, its not like he's going to school in Hong Kong, Lawrence (KU) is only 40 minutes away LOL!

A new year!

A Happy New Year to all!

Another Christmas come and gone and here we are beginning a new year already. We have had our fill of Christmas music, cheese balls and eggnog. Time to move forward, this past week has been catch up time for me. Getting my hair cut, taking care of all those little me things I was too busy to do before the holidays. Jerry has been home all week, using up the last of his vacation. He has devoted many hours of his time repainting the guestroom, from red to a much lighter shade called Parmesan... many coats of paint and a little grumbling but its looking good and will be a nice fresh change for our guests this year. In between coats of paint we were able to enjoy dinner out and a movie- The Curious Life Of Benjamin Button.

Our Christmas puzzle provided hours of entertainment throughout the week, I finally put the last pieces in last night.
Today I am packing up Christmas, whisking away all the tinsel, greenery and glitter.
While I pack up Christmas our son Jon is packing up his belongings. He is heading off to KU this semester. Lots going on here as we march in to this New Year. As for me, I am anxious to return to normal and begin sewing once again.
Have a happy weekend!