Driven by guilt......

Happy Friday Blogland Neighborhood! Hope you all had a nice Easter or Passover and a good week. Oh, and Kitty was just tickled pink that you all loved her Easter bonnet!

Well .... today's topic is GUILT ! We here at MBIAJ Headquarters are amazed at what can be accomplished when driven by guilt ....(that's Guilt not Quilt). For us here at Headquarters, that "guilt" is the lack of employment (the kind that comes with a paycheck) for the past 3 weeks, and on and off before that for a couple of months due to decreasing referrals to the homecare agency I have worked/contracted with for the past 14 years. In addition to the very time consuming job search for something that doesn't involve commuting at least an hour or more, the interview process and the tons of paperwork that goes with that....time has been spent cleaning things normally ignored .... this is DEFINATELY guilt driven !!! WHY you ask? Well, because this morning after the gang left for work and school, and we (me and my "staff") had yet ANOTHER day stretching out ahead of us the first thing that crossed our mind (like the other days of unemployment) was "an entire day to sew and draw ! YAY!" .... but just as fast as that thought flitted through our brains, the GUILT monster came and knocked it clear across at least 5 states ..... that little "Guilt Voice" kept saying ... "how can you sit and do something fun when you aren't bringing in a paycheck? You should at least clean some stuff that usually gets put on the back burner when you're too busy working to clean it (including the back burner!!) So today's gross cleaning project, fueled by guilt was ....





.....cleaning out the fridge (and trust me , it needed it!!) (and don't look too closely because I didn't feel THAT guilty to do a thorough enough job to pass Martha's standards...)








Anyhow you'd think with the free time left over after the job searching aggravation and all the cleaning, cleaning , cleaning (which by the way has come to be known as the "Thankless, viscious cycle " .... because it IS !!!) alot more would have been accomplished on ......





.....the "fabric covered button/yo yo project" (which is lingering and hopefully won't be dying a slow death in the UFO pile)..... and I KNOW that next week when hopefully the employment issue has been resolved and it goes from one extreme to the other (i.e. no work vs. so busy there's no time to blow your nose) that I'll be kicking myself .... just KICKING myself for not ignoring those dang GUILT feelings and saying to $%@& with the cleaning .....I should have spent the time SEWING and DRAWING instead !!! (but that's not what I was taught at "Our Lady of Perpetual Guilt" by Sister Mary Martyr.....)

OK, it's a GORGEOUS day outside so it's time to haul my butt outside for some fresh air and exercise .... then later I think I'll have some whine with dinner!!!!

....then tomorrow.....yes TOMORROW the plan is to sew GUILT FREE !!!!

Be back soon!

Toodles!
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Happy Easter !!!!

Happy Easter Blogland Neighbor-hood ! Kitty in her new (finally decided upon design) Easter bonnet and the MBIAJ "staff" wish you all a day of chocolate bunny and marshmallow peep eating bliss !

Be back soon!

Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Hankie eggs AND the quest for Kitty's purrrrfect Easter bonnet design.......

Good afternoon Blogland Neighbor-hood. Well, here it is Good Friday and we still haven't come up with an acceptable Easter bonnet design for Miss Purrsnickety Kitty....(as you can see by the crumpled paper and rejected prototype)....she says so far none of the designs "do anything for her" .....they just don't capture the "real Kitty" ..... SO, (after counting to 10 for the 100th time) we suggested taking a little break from the hat thing and working on something else ...."Fine!" she says .... besides, she says she was late for her manicure and pedicure.....whatever....

OK, now that we got rid of her for awhile the "Sewing Dept " wants to show you a little project they came up with that actually involves NO SEWING !!!! This project came about as a direct result of the "Great Sewing Room Clutter/Crap Clean Up Project" as it has come to be known. It's amazing what was found in the dark recesses of cabinets and drawers in there (unfortunately no cash or winning lottery tickets ... oh well....)

Anyhow, look at some of the stuff we forgot we had ....


...lots of pretty hankies that were my mother's and grand-mother's (and a few I bought) , some wood and styrofoam eggs, rick rack in fun colors, and a few pipe cleaners.



....first place the (fake) egg in the center of a hankie....




...second have your assistant (Daisy in our case) sit in an Easter basket and test how well the fake eggs roll around ....



....next pull the hankie up around the (fake) egg and secure with a piece of the pipe cleaner (or a twist tie)...



....cover up the pipe cleaner or twist tie with the rick rack and tie a bow... Ta Da !! DONE !! Easy as pie...well, not really since we can't make a decent pie dough to save our lives .... but you get the picture ....




......anyhow, here are a bunch of "Hankie Eggs" sitting in a basket waiting for the Easter Bunny from Weight Watchers to give his seal of approval (no calorie eggs!! ...that should earn us a few brownie points!!!)

OK... time to get back to the drawing board and try and come up with an Easter bonnet design that suits you know who....

Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Hoppin' down the bunny trail .... sort of.....actually more like a cranky trudge down the bunny trail.....#*@#%.....

Good morning/afternoon Blogland Neighborhood! Has an entire week gone by since our last blog visit?!?!?! How the heck did that happen? and what the heck did we do all week? hmmmmmm......nothing really earth shattering .... but here's a little recap....(feel free to take a nap during the recap .... we were kinda bored too)




....first of all, we had some warmish days so the daffodils started to bloom! But then .....




.....we had some snow (just a dusting) early this morning .... (the Easter Bunny will have to wear his/her long johns I think!)

Let's see .... what else has been going on around here .....




....we finally located this magazine !!! AND not only paged through it (marveling at the very fun and organized studios of such celebs as Miss Monica Happy Zombie and Melissa just to name two) ....but we got the bug (yes the spring cleaning / get rid of the crap and clutter bug!) ....sooooooo....




...we confiscated this book shelf from Matt's room to put fabric in (these are piles of fabrics matched up for imaginary future projects that were scattered all over the floor).... not as neat and tidy as it could be but better than it was!


...here's an over all view from the far end of one side of the room .... LOOK! is that the surface of the cutting table !?!?!!!! why yes it is!!! under those baskets holding yet more future imaginary projects!!!



...OK... and here's the other side of the room .... the drawing table ....the messy fabric bins next to it have been lovingly cropped out of the picture ... along with the piles of magazines we're still going through!! (talk about your HUGE time waster!!) .... and since we're running out of steam for this spring cleaning project, the messy fabric bins and piles of magazines will probably stay right where they are..... don't judge us!!!

....in between slogging through way too many magazines, the sewing dept has sewn a fabric covered button or two onto a yo yo ....at a snails pace...
















....and the "Drawing/Coloring Dept" worked on a new Easter project design that doesn't look like it'll get past the doodle on scrap paper phase until maybe NEXT Easter!....


.....why? well the obvious .... as usual the "Drawing/Coloring Dept" and the "Sewing Dept" come up with these brilliant ideas AT THE LAST MINUTE and, as usual there are a zillion interruptions, including ......



.....Kitty .... who dropped in this morning asking for help making her Easter bonnet....





.....looks like we should get off of the computer and get to work! Lot's to do....cleaning, sewing, go grocery shopping, get fingerprinted .....(for a possible job NOT for commiting a crime .... although that may depend on my mood swings!!!)

Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

April showers bring ......

Happy rainy April Fool's Day Blogland Neighbor-hood! Any good April Fool's pranks? Usually here at MBIAJ Headquarters there are at least a few plastic spiders hidden in a cereal box ..... but nothing so far ..... makes me kind of nervous....the day isn't over yet .....just what are they planning in their devious little teenage brains...... hmmmmmm.....can't be caught off guard .....

Anyhow, along with April Fool's Day April also brought showers today....(as you can see by the polka dot rain boots, school bus yellow rain slicker, and hot pink umbrella ....an outfit I'm sure Stacy and Clinton from What Not to Wear would just cringe to see!)

.....and as they say "April showers bring May (yo yo) flowers" !! Well, that might not be exactly how that saying goes, but the Sewing Dept here at MBIAJ Headquarters has been busily making ....



....a bunch of yo yo's and.....




.....a bunch of fabric covered buttons ....





.....and they were thinking of doing something with this stuff... exactly what? they're not sure so you'll all just have to come back for another visit in a few days to see (hopefully it won't be longer than that BUT the Sewing Dept's track record for speedy completion of various projects hasnt' been stellar.....)

ANYHOW ......Enjoy your April Fool's Day .... and go splash in an April Shower puddle!

Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

TGIF !!!

Good morning and TGIF Blogland Neighbor-hood! Well, sometimes you just want to crawl back in bed and pull the covers over your head (and take a little sewing project and a good magazine with you!). The reason?(this time....)? Well, unfortunately it seems "the city" has invaded our quaint little town of Jim Thorpe, Pa ......



.....2 days ago there was a drug bust (heroin) just a couple of blocks from both the high school (where Evan is in 10th grade) and the elementary school. If that wasn't bad enough, the 4 drug dealers from out of town got away from the police ....first by car, then on foot .... with GUNS !! We here at MBIAJ Headquarters were, as usual completely oblivious to what's going on .... Headquarters isn't in town, but on the outskirts right next to the State Park (translation: miles and miles of woods where armed criminals can hide from the State Police helicopters searching for them).....anyhow, Shadow and I were happily outside putting stale bread out for the birds and sort of noticed helicopters but didn't pay much attention to it (since there are occasionally search and rescue helicopters flying around looking for lost hikers in the State Park).....then Mr. Moonbeams called and informed us of the situation and that we should stay inside and lock the doors.....minutes later the school called with a recorded message informing parents that all Jim Thorpe schools were on a complete lockdown .... PANIC MODE here at MBIAJ Headquarters ..... THEN , looking out the front window there seemed to be an awful lot of SMOKE coming from down the street in the woods ..... UH OH! They just had a warning on the news the day before about how dry it has been (something we always pay attention to since, like we said before , we live in the woods and next to miles and miles of more woods!) .... well, due to armed criminals running around somewhere we couldn't run down the street to see what was on fire ....



.....luckily the fire dept from the other side of town came zipping over here and put out the brush fire before it turned into something major! Then, about 2 PM we got another call from the school informing us that the lockdown was over and the police got all 4 drug dealers and the kids would be coming home on the bus at the regular time ..... PHEW !! Crisis over .... but we want to know WHO INVITED "THE CITY" to our little corner of Mayberry !!

Anyhow, not much in the way of sewing was accomplished this week here at MBIAJ Headquarters what with armed criminals running loose and brush fires and all .... we hope to get a few more meesly little yo yo's made this weekend (we just thought we'd set our expectations low to start with and anything over and above will be icing on the cake....)

OH! speaking of yo yo's ......take a look at these .....




.....can you say "Super Size Me" !?!?!!?! Those things are HUGE !!! I think you could probably wear one on your head for a shower cap !!!












....those huge yo yo's were in this magazine ....




...Sew Hip ....lots of cute projects in this magazine from across the pond!















Well gang, it's time for us to crawl out from under the covers and go face the real world ...and we do have some good incentive today (in addition to the plan for some stitching time) ... today is opening day for Annie's Ice Cream (the local ice cream stand) !!! They open today after school at 3 PM !!! YAHOO!!! This is the social event of the month! Everybody and their cousin will be there today ! (makes me think I'm in the wrong business!!)

Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Happy National Quilting Day !!

Happy Saturday and Happy National Quilting Day Blogland Neighbor
hood! This was news to us ....not that it's Saturday....although sometimes what day of the week it is IS news to us because we sometimes lose track....but not this time .... today we're on top of the situation and KNOW that it's Saturday .... what we did not know (until we read that Busy Little Quilter Amanda's blog) is that today has been declared National Quilting Day ! Now , of course this does not mean that , like other holidays eg. Christmas and Easter, we only participate in that activity on that specific day.....no... nope .... National Quilting Day is more like one of the many food holidays listed by American Food and Drink Days.....such as National Chocolate Brownie Day on Dec. 8th, and National Cupcake Day on Dec. 15th AND National Chocolate Covered Anything Day on Dec. 16th .....like quilting, we indulge in these FABULOUS pastimes all year round .... it's just that now we have a specific day to recognize that fact !

...so, to celebrate one of our favorite pastimes, we're gonna indulge in some chocolate (that's another pastime that ranks way up there in the "favorites" category) and then go on a little field trip to our local quilt shop and get us some fabric therapy !! What?...we don't need any more fabric ?(have you been talking to the Big Cheese Mr. Moonbeams? and whose side are you on anyway?!?!) ....ANYHOW we also don't need any more chocolate but that never stops us ! ....besides, Kitty has been hinting that she wants some fresh and pretty fabric for a new Easter dress and hat....so, the Sewing Dept has to go with her ....Right?

...HONK HONK HONK !!!! (Miss Impatient Kitty is out in the driveway laying on the horn).....gotta zoom!

Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)