Alex Girls

Yesterday and last night were awesome reminders of just how good I've got it. I've got some of the greatest friends in the world - and here are three of the oldest (as in - I've known and been friends with these guys since 7th/9th/10th grade!).



Since Julie's shower - we've been talking about getting together in the cities just to scrap. It worked out - in the emails it sounded like we'd have a few hours during the day to scrap, relax, visit - whatever we wanted to do. Nancy was spending the weekend with her sister's family in St. Louis Park - so wanted to head back that way before it got dark. We wrote out directions, hugged, posed for the above photo, and said goodbye.

I really thought Julie and Mike would have to leave soon after that - as they'd be heading home (about 3 hours away) and wouldn't want to be driving too late. To my surprise we spent another 6 hours after Nancy left looking at old pictures and talking - and then we dug out my old VCR, plugged it in (it still works!) and watched our Girls Weekend videos from 1996:



and 1997:



It was a lot of fun - my face hurt from laughing so much - and the videos brought back so many great memories and times we've had together.

Here's to my "Alex Girls" - I love you all and can't wait 'til "Girls Weekend '07!"

The Quilt

Ok - I waited til today to post pics of the quilt - so it would have it's own "day" :). I started this baby about 3 years ago. My friend Terry's sister knew I wanted to attempt one. She gave me a photo copy of a pattern, shhhh, and brought me to a fabric store. (To do this again - I would totally shop with coupons and sales - do you know how expensive flannel can be???) Anyway - I carefully chose rich reds, yellows, and blues to match Lonny and Jaime's (at the time) living room. It was fall. Must have been fall of '03. I worked at Terry's sister's house. She had a rotary trimmer and cutting mat. I cut squares for hours and hours. After that night, I didn't pull this stuff out until this past spring. I opened my cutting mat and trimmer that I had purchased just DAYS after that first night - for the first time here in MPLS - Spring '06. (ya - I know).



I finished cutting squares. Cut more squares out of the batting material - and then the fun started. I started making the little "sandwiches" by pinning flannel, batting, flannel and then sewing an "X" over it with gold thread. The sandwiches were by FAR the best part of the project. Then, I put the sandwiches together to make 9 stips of quilt. Then, I sewed the 9 strips together. At this point, I was so proud, only to find out that the most time consuming part of the quilt was ahead of me - the cutting. So I had to now take scissors to all the unfinished edges - and cut them - so as to cause fraying when washed.

This is what brought me to Christmas - and I was able to present this cut quilt to them -but I wasn't done. Finally, yesterday, I brought it to a laundromat (for the industrial sized machines - and so as not to clog my lint catcher). Another friend suggested I wash it with a product called "color catcher" - which I did - and so far, none of the colors have bled into each other. I was very happy with the laundromat results - and my first "Rag Quilt" turned out exactly as I had hoped!



I hope Lonny and Jaime enjoy it - but it's already proven to be a hit with Alice, Icky, and Nipsy - so that works for me too!

:)

Happy New Year!

Well - it's 2007 - and here I am. My Christmas break seemed really short. Mom and dad were here and then gone - even tho we did a lot in the short time they were here. Then I had a few days to myself - and before you knew it I was back at school! Ok - I did manage to sneak in some fun. Julie took me to a Timberwolves game (went to another one just last night also - if you're keeping score - that's 3 games this season!). Her tickets are even closer than our upgrades from the other time Paul and I went.



It was a lot of fun. Here we are - Julie in her Christmas Wolves hat - and you can even see the kids behind us who kept kicking our chairs the whole night! :)



New Year's Eve was outstanding. We had our first real snowstorm of the season - which was ok - since I had my jammies packed with a plan to stay at Heidi's new condo. Let me tell you - she put out quite the spread! She even had her punch fountain going! Julie and I brought snacks (enough for a party of 20 or so) and Heidi prepared a four star menu - steak, shrimp scampi kabobs, fresh green beans, baked potato, and we had a chocolate fountain with things to dip for dessert.



I don't think I stopped eating all night - I for sure donned my jammies a little early - to take advantage of the elastic waist band! - as you can see in our "Just before the ball dropped" timed-photo!



So, I'm back at school and back into my more normal routine. Hope you are having a wonderful start to the new year!