My Return to Hell

It's tomorrow. 

I have to go back there tomorrow. 

I will no longer be myself.

I will become unstrung.

I will have no concentration.

The simplest tasks will be difficult.

I will continually be on the verge of tachycardia.

My stomach will be flitty.

I will not sleep due to micemares. {Meglish}

I will be startled every 2 minutes, perhaps more frequently.

I will feel things crawling up my legs.

I will veiw every spec of dust as mouse poop.

I will wince when I open a drawer.

I will jump back from cabinets.

I will stand on chairs.

I will scream like a raving maniac. 

I will be afraid to look at Alvin's mouth.

Perspective....

I will see my love, Frannie.

(she will sense my hysteria & commence the customary licking of the feet)

I will see my children.

I will visit my Bubbly at her new house. 

It will be Thanksgiving.

I will return to Lola. 

I will finally have the opportunity to stitch out my Claudia lessons. 

I have all this to take back for Lolafication.

Nope...not helping.

I will not be able to focus on Lola...

I will be completely preoccupied with keeping myself safe from furry intruders. 

I do not want to go there. 

I simply can not.

It's too much for me. 

There have been 10 caught in the past month. 

I'm sure there are colonies living in the ceilings & walls. 

Nests in every nook and cranny.

I suspect they have crawled on my precious fabrics. 

What if they are in the folds of my yardage?

What if they have snacked on my treasured batiks?

Traversed my beautiful Lola?

Attacked my batting?

My thread stash?

My waiting for binding pile? 

Murray has again today met again with his incompetent exterminator. 

They can't find the entry point. 

Why must this man hire idiots?

They assure me they are only in the storage room & no where near my studio.

Do they think I am mindless?

Of course they have been out of the storage room.

Alvin brought one to Herman....IN THE KITCHEN. 

How hard can it be to rid a well kept home of rodents?

Isn't this his specialty?

How can a grown man be outsmarted by hordes of disgusting one ounce creatures?

Usually writing helps me put things in perspective. 

Not today...

I'm overwrought. 

How will I ever board that plane tomorrow?

And why am I regardless of lizards?

But completely terror stricken by the thought of a single mouse?

Heres a link to a NYT article that I found today...proof that it is truly a rag.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/nyregion/white-rat-in-the-curious-incident-is-unexpected-broadway-hit.html?_r=0

How is it these people can entertain a rat in their home?

At least I know I am not the MOST unhinged person alive.

I just can't imagine being back there living the horror. 

Where is my mommy when I need her?

I request your prayers for my fortitude.

Try to be kind...

Fantasia Fractured

Free patterns are never really free.

At least for me... 

I loved this panel...I only wish I'd photographed it before I cut it up & pieced it. 

Another blogging mishap to add to my long list.

It appears I'm on a panel kick...very odd as I was never much of a panel fan.

The colors on this are fabulous, the composition is aces. 

This should have been a relatively easy one.

And, it would have been if I'd just approached it without the pattern.

But, I didn't. 

Of course, there were 4 different corners...

And they were confusing.

But, I was ok with that. 

Since dither is my norm, it's nice to have a project to blame now & then.

Makes me feel, uh.......reasonably dithered.

It worked out fine with the weaving border effect in tact.

(By this time, I abandoned the pattern and had gone rogue)

What I wasn't ok with was the D cup aftermath in the fractured center.

I followed the cutting & piecing directions to the letter.

I used more pins than a bulletin board attaching the border.

I NEVER pin.

Well, obviously not never...but rarely.

At the quilt shop, she CAREFULLY cut the panel.

(She was so exacting I was rolling my eyes, fearing I may miss Jeopardy)

Still...D cups. 

Ok, maybe C cups.

Either way, cups too big for my boobs.

Did I just say that?

Isn't it bizarre that I write this blog in large part for posterity, yet still allow myself to appear cuckoo?

My lineage will refer to me as 'the one with threads on her clothes & bats in the belfry.'

Remember, things are rarely as they seem.

Again...I find myself adrift...

I did get nice compliments from my IG family. 

& it does look ok if you're riding by on a galloping horse.

(After all, the fullness does not change the glorious colors or completely destroy the composition)

& it kept me engrossed all through the dull football weekend that Mr Bixby finds so amusing.

I guess there's always a bright side...

There's that perspective word again.

Lolafication will be challenging...but I think I can tame this beast.

We shall see how it comes out.

I had intended it to be a wallhanging.

I suspect it will be far too cattywampus to hang & will just serve as a cuddler.

Even after applying perspective, this still enforces my belief....

free patterns are never really free...you get what you pay for.

At least in my universe.

St Vincent not St Francis

As my sister was kind enough to point out....

The movie we saw, and loved, is St Vincent.

Not St Francis as I wrote in my previous post.

It ain't easy being a dingbat. 

Carry on.

Sunshine

If you're here for the Quilty eye candy...skip this post.

There was no sewing today...

There wasn't even sewing yesterday. 

Yesterday, I was sick.

Like..can't pick your head up sick.

Today. I just had a headache. 

So, we went to the beach.

We got in lots of selfie practice.

At the beach.

With our fruity cocktails...

At sunset.

It was a spectacular Fort Myers Beach sunset. 

And the full moon over the pool was perfection. 

I've enjoyed my time with Murray here. 

Rodents, Punta Gorda & St Francis

John went to check on Alvin at lunchtime today.

Alvin greeted him at the door with a mouse in his mouth.

I simply cannot go back there.

But I must go back there and save my stash from mouseification {Meglish}

Plus, I have to make Thanksgiving dinner.

Who wants to eat in an infested environment?

Murray informed me he caught 7 mice in the 2 weeks after I left. 

He hired a pest control guy who guaranteed results.

Where are the results?

How is this man still in business?

Why is this happening to me?

AHHHHHHHHH!

While I understand my reaction is irrational, there is nothing I can do about it. 

Except wring my hands while my heart is pounding, obsessively thinking about mice crawling all over me & feel sick in the tums.

As you might have guessed, these activities do nothing to rectify the situation. 

We spent the rest of the day rewarding ourselves.

I saw some fabric at Gloria's Stash in Punta Gorda last week.

I've been thinking about it ever since.

It's been haunting me....literally.

I woke last night from a dream about it.

Do you think this means I am disturbed?

Nevermind, I already know that answer.

Today, we drove up there and I bought a yard.

(should have bought 5 and made a stack & whack)

It's called Wanderlust...isn't it delicious? 

I mean...please...I NEEDED it.

It was keeping me up at night. 

Even Murray agreed I should have it.

It's all his fault.

(I bet mice hallucinations keep me up tonight)

I didn't do any sewing today...just cutting.

We were hardly home all day.

Here's a peek....

I'm hoping to start sewing in the am.

****Quiltnerd alert****

Tonight, we went to see the movie St Francis.

We both LOVED it.

It was touching, sweet, sad, funny & thought provoking...all at the same time. 

Bill Murray & Melissa McCarthey were so real in this movie. 

The little boy was perfection....I wish I knew his name. 

Even all the supporting roles were awesome, especially Naomi Watts.

There was not one irritating thing about this movie. 

It was just right. 

(Except that we had to sit through over 20 minutes of previews. 

20 minutes...of my time....and I PAID to get in there. 

I find that excessive and think they need to limit it to 5 minutes.

I will admit I liked the 2 minutes looking at Matthew McConaughey during the spaceship one)

****mini rant alert****

Ok...back to St Francis...

Grab your hubz, kids or a friend, and go see this movie.

(& save yourself the trouble by arriving 10 minutes after the listed start time)

I baked some cookies for Pat & Jim.

When I brought them down, Pat said Jim was already in bed. 

He's not feeling well....

Maybe the cookies will make him feel better. 

I just read that ginger is a great healer. 

Only one more week in my slice of paradise...

Lizards are so much better than mice...

Why is that?

Keep it kind...(unless it's a rodent)

XO

Miscellaneous Monday

I got in a bit of sewing this morning while Mr Important Pants did some computer work.

Who knows what he was working on?

I finished this flimsy, which is important in my world.

(I like it here in my world, they know me here)

 

I'm calling it Berries in the Orange Grove.

It's bright...& citrusy...& berryish.  {Meglish}

Isn't it weird that I named this quilt?

I never name quilts.

Well, sometimes, I do.

Like right now.

It's happening again, isn't it? 

The incoherent rambling...good thing I'm here in my own world.

I plan to practice Claudia designs on it upon my return to Lola.

I've been drawing them out in the evenings while I watch tv. 

I hope I can find a lime green backing for it.

Who am I kidding...I'll find the backing.

If I look.

I wonder if I will look.

The suspense.....it's engrossing. 

I hope I can sleep tonight.

When he was done with his Mr Important Pants tasks...he became Clive and invited me to lunch.

Clive Bixby is so much better than Mr Important Pants. 

Clive LOVES to eat out.

I decided it was time he saw downtown Fort Myers.

We ate at Fords Garage.

It's a cool place, good burgers, & touristy for Clive.

After we ate, we walked around window shopping. 

Well, I window shopped.

Mr Bixby bought a golf club beer bottle opener. 

He says it's for his boss.

Yeah, right.

Just look at the window we found!

Just for my Toots...her very own Dollar Store.

I love that there's a huge heart in the window.

We strolled along the water a bit...

The Fort Myers Riverwalk...or Harborside...

Or whatever it's called. 

We are perfecting the art of selfie teamwork.

When you are old, selfies can be challenging.

Not wrinkles & gray hair challenges, although those are serious problems. 

I mean actually TAKING the selfie.

After all, we were not raised in the Age of Technology.

We remember Kodak film.

And pay phones.

And typewriters.

And clocks with hands.

We have found if he holds the camera & I push the button, our results are better. 

Unfortunately, I find it necessary to make a face, squint or bite my lip while pressing the button.

I will work on this....

I'm so weird.

See that bridge behind us?

It leads to one of my favorite quilt shops.

It was hard being that close & not visiting. 

My sacrifice is immense.

My suffering unending.

I think Mr Bixby might finally be unwinding. 

He's reading JFK The Smoking Gun.

Riveting...NOT!

Men are so peculiar. 

I'm now going to enjoy a glass of wine with the hubz.

DWTS & Limey are on tonight. 

It's so nice to have someone to watch with me. 

Keep Kindness...XO

Stuff

When Murray went to Mass, I stole a few minutes to sew.

99 Dublin blocks. 

Then we walked to Taste of the Town.

Today was a perfect day to sit outside, eating, listening to music and people watching. 

It was fun, even if Murray got a sunburn.

We had to be back by 430 for some football game.

I took that opportunity to sew a bit more.

The color is off, but you get the idea.

Yesterday, my neighbor brought over a quilt from Indonesia. 

Fans..

His parents were missionaries & brought this back to him upon thier retirement in 1990.

He spent his childhood over there...so cool.

It's batik...but I'd never seen batiks like these before. 

Browns, blues & blacks...

Not stamped, but HANDPAINTED!

All hand pieced & hand quilted, as well.

The design of the batiks reminded me of the Australian fabrics in stores today.

And the quilting design resembled what I would consider Celtic quilting.

What a treat to see such an awesome piece. 

I've had a great year of quilt viewing....that's for sure!

Tonight is part 1 of RHONJ Reunion...

Murray & I have a date with a bowl of popcorn & those crazy broads!

Guilty pleasures...

Remember to be kind.

XO