Whoa!! What Do You Mean 'It's the end of December' ??

Has it really been since SEPTEMBER that I posted??

Why yes, I do believe I must have fallen off the planet!



Or it would seem that way here anyway, huh? Oy! The fall flew by and I was too busy to breathe. My DH's work took him out west for 7 out of  8 weeks which put me in severe-single-working-mother mode. I survived, I think. But boy, I'm in no hurry to repeat THAT again anytime soon! Add to that a child who got and stayed sick for almost 4 weeks straight (he's fine now), a big renovation design job, LOTS of quilts to quilt, the holidays, etc. etc...... and.....well no wonder I haven't been here! Thank goodness for Facebook or I would feel completely out of touch. :)

This whole year has flown by. When I look back through the pictures on my phone I marvel at just how much happened. It was the Year of the Flood, AKA The Great Clean Up/Out , the necessary studio renovation. The Year of All Star baseball traveling, from District to State to Regionals! The year of the eldest starting high school...and DRIVING! The year of starting a new business (yay Sew Sisters!) and juggling it with the old (yay design projects!). It was the year of friends getting seriously sick...and finding their way through to places of healing - four still with us and one gone to the place where there is no more hurting. I'm thankful for each of my brave friends.

It was the year of loss and gain, good and bad. A year of LIFE.

Thankfully the Mayans got it wrong...we're still here. And you know what that means...We get to keep at this adventure called life. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see what the next year has in store!

Talking About Blogs

Today I'm at the Yadkin Cultural Arts Center in Yadkinville, NC speaking about blogs!

Almost There and the BIG NEWS!

The renovation is mostly complete! I am hoping that by the end of this weekend the last of the studio contents will be back in place. It's been a long, and at times overwhelming, journey...but it's sew much better than it was! Bright, cheery, and of course with a splash of 'slime' green!

And...

It now has a longarm quilting machine in it!!!
















For a while now, Lisa Alley and I have been tossing about the idea to join forces to start a business. When the flood came and everything fell apart (so to speak) in the studio...well, I just knew it was time! If you have to put things back together why not make them much better than they were before?

We are Sew Sisters, LLC. We're up and running! We provide longarm services, make commissioned quilts and more. Hop over to www.sewsisters.biz and check us out! We are on Facebook and have a blog too. Please come visit us often, and bring your friends :)

And do keep coming to see me here too. I promise there will be studio pictures soon!

Oooh...pretty!

Hmmm....what to do with all this thread...

:)

WE WON!!!!

The Southwest Forsyth Little League Juniors Blue All Stars won the State tournament!!!! A four game undefeated sweep! Couldn't be prouder of these guys!!

On to Regionals...GO SW!!

( note: I have no idea why the picture posted so large in the original post...I did it via mobile and have never had that issue. I guess it was that big a victory :) Correction  to size via desktop post-publishing.)

Feeling "Crabby"

These are so dang good I just have to share...

My garden has been producing lots of zucchini so I have been searching out recipes. A girl can only eat so much chocolate cake, you know? Wait, what am I thinking... LOL!

Nevertheless, I found this savory recipe for "Crab" cakes that are so good my whole family devoured them! It gets 8 thumbs up:

2-1/2 cups shredded zucchini, lightly salted
1 egg, beaten
2T melted butter
1-1/8 cup plain bread crumbs
1/4 cup minced onion
1-1/2 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning

Flour (about 1/2 cup)
Oil

Combine first 6 ingredients, mix well. Form into patties and coat with flour. Fry in a pan lightly coated with oil over medium high heat until golden brown on both sides.

That's right...there's no crabmeat in these! And they are amazingly good!

Little Pieces of Normal

Still pushing hard on the renovation and the light at the end of the tunnel grows bigger each day! I'm almost done with the carpet...

And I've started putting little odds and ends back in place...

It's far from finished...there's lots still to do to get everything back in and sorted, culled, and organized. But those little pieces of "normal", just seeing small things in place, give me a big boost to keep charging full steam ahead.

Won't be long now! :)