finally

A finish!



This is Curly Q Ewe by Little House Needleworks and I stitched it over one on 18 ct. Waterlily with Crescent Colors and DMC as listed.

A really fun stitch but it seemed to take me forever, probably due to work getting in the way.

Here it is under the frame that was purchased for it. It's from Crescent Colors as well and made for this design, it's the one pictured on the chart model.



Gosh, I can't believe Thanksgiving is only one week away. Time to get my menu ready and go shopping! Hopefully the weather will cool down some, I really don't like it when it's so hot outside and there's so much baking to be done...I end up hot and sweaty and not even in the mood to eat anything when it's finally all cooked.

Today I am sitting here waiting for the service tech from Haverty's to come over. Our new leather couch stinks! Not sure if it's just "new leather" smell, or if it's some chemical they used to treat it with or what, but I have to cover it with a blanket just to sit on it, otherwise it gives me a raging headache. Just what we had in mind when handing over all that dough, lol!

this was fun

On Friday of the quilt show, I met Mark Lipinski. He signed one of his magazines for me.



He uses the term "cupcake" a lot I think, so he really didn't know just how appropriate it was for me, hee!

Anyway, I embarrassed myself by telling him I only recently started reading his magazine and the only reason I picked his out of all of the others was because of the cute Pug on the cover, his Tulip. I am not enough of a seasoned quilter to actually know which quilting magazine is the best, so the Pug was the selling point. How lame is that?

But he was oh so gracious and funny and it was the highlight of my Friday in Houston. My friends started calling him my boyfriend and wouldn't leave the whole "quilt naked" thing alone, but that's ok!

Mark said to be sure and watch for the Jan/Feb issue for a Tulip surprise on the cover! I just went ahead and subscribed right then and there!

houston, we had a problem

Wow. Words really fail me when sitting here trying to think of how to write about my trip. To say it was exhausting is putting it mildly. I am just not cut out for that kind of thing. Luckily for the people who put on the show, there are thousands of ladies who are, I'm just not one of them.

This picture is just one end of one row at the show, there were 30 rows of vendors, not to mention all of the quilt exhibits.



The above picture was taken when sitting down, and I thanked Jesus profusely for the available chair (and thanks again).

We made it through about half of the rows on Friday and I got the chance to pay THREE DOLLARS for a coke and TWO DOLLARS for a bag of potato chips but was so happy to have something cold and also, something that tasted like BBQ, that I didn't complain. Oh heck no. Here's my wallet, just take it.

The hotel transportation (and I use that term very loosely, the actual transporting of their guests was questionable) promised they'd be there to pick us up when it was over the first night, but when we called they told us there was a private party she (the nice lady who drove the shuttle bus) had to take care of. Right in the middle of when their "guests" were needing to get back to the hotel. Bless her heart, on her last trip to the convention center before her private party, she crammed as many of us into the bus as it would hold, legally and otherwise. Have you ever seen grown women arguing about who's been in line the longest, shoving their way into a bus that is meant to hold 12 people MAX?? I stood back and said there's no way I'm going to push my way onto that bus, I just refuse to lower myself to that level.
Well, luckily my right butt cheek ended up getting a spot in the very back of the bus (and I should probably say van, because it wasn't really a bus) on top of a wheel of a dolly or something like that. I think it was a wheel but my butt went to sleep before we could figure it out.

Imagine a "fluffy" cupcake, careening around in the back of a van, in the CARGO area with three other happy quilters, two of which were more crippled that she is and one of which wasn't even on the right shuttle but didn't figure it out until half way there (she just jumped on the first available cargo space and didn't even ask!! That's self preservation at it's finest, I tell ya what!) all around downtown Houston. Oh it was a just dee-lightful!

(Oh and PS, I'll tell you later about the women who rode their brooms into our hotel at the same time as us and who were also on the shuttle the same times as us because that was fun stuff too).

Then, when we crawled out and off of the van, we hobble into the hotel and decide to just eat there because we're too tired to track down anything else (we find out later, there really wasn't much else...that was open anyway). Wait in line 20 minutes but realize we're LUCKY because others have been waiting for 45 minutes, to be seated but there's no menus because they're all at "the big table", meaning, the table of 8 that was seated prior to us. Yes, you guessed it, ALL of the menus were taken. So we wait for a menu and then realize, there is ONE server. At the hotel restaurant! And one bartender. And one "helper" (who did a fine job of setting tables, considering her limp). We found out later that they were OVERSTAFFED. I kid you not. It's a long story, how we found out, but that was straight out of the babe calling himself management. They didn't even KNOW there was the hugest convention of the year going on a few blocks down the road. Yes, overstaffed, so we were so blessed, thank you Jesus for these lukewarm cheese sticks. Yum!

All that was fine, I mean really. Life is good, right? I'm serious. We were so cheerful and happy and no, that is not sarcasm you hear. All of us have faced life or death issues so we knew how to put it all into perspective. We were laughing about it all and can appreciate how very lucky we were to be there experiencing it all. Hoo boy. We made it back to the room and talked about what we'd see and do the following day and then my roomies quickly fell asleep because they were exhausted.

They were really tired (and one a little under the weather) but sleeping well.
And by well, I mean sawing logs that would've made Paul Bunyan proud.

Uh Oh.

I forgot that a certain cupcake is a light sleeper and didn't even think to ask in advance if there would be snoring on this trip.

And yes, there would be, thank you J.. (oh never mind).

Picture me with a panic stricken look on my face and trying not to curse. You know if I was still smoking, picture chain smoking and heavy cursing.

So.....long story short, I call my hubby and say, what oh what shall I do, I got ONE HOUR sleep last night and he says, let's get our own room, I'll drive down! (and he was so lonely without me anyway, seriously...we're joined at the hip, he and I...all these years together).

And so I did. And then he did. And yes, he's good, very good, like that. Coming to my rescue and all.

So he drove down that afternoon, while I slept and we stayed in Saturday night and ate junk food because everything around the hotel was closed and we were both too tired to put forth any effort into finding something decent (and I swear, I've never eaten less on a trip in my life).

Then the next day we made it back to the show and had a grand ol' time for a few hours. Fun was had at the Silver Needle booth. DH found some music he liked and bought 6 cd's. I found this hooked foot stool I'm going to make:





I took several pictures of it because the "kit" was only the hardware for the stool and not any wool strips, so later on I'll get the fun of picking out my own colors and cutting the strips! Oh, I did purchase the canvas too so thankfully there won't be tracing involved.

And I did get a quilt kit too, while there but have been too busy with work and whatever else to get a picture of it, so that'll happen later. (Also have a signed quilting magazine to show you which is too funny but haven't scanned it either).

(What is it about when you take two nights off from work, all hell breaks loose and you end up paying for it for weeks? I'd already said before that every single time I take off, something happens and I end up being punished for it. Well, it happened again, my coworkers wife had a heart attack(!) and subsequent stent placement and she's fine now but I get to work many extra hours to make up for my two measly nights off).

And BONUS! I upset people (without even trying or knowing about it), during and after the trip! I loved that part. Nothing like trying to have fun and yet pissing people off instead, yippee!

But here was the best dang part of the whole trip:




Going home. Home to the Pugs, home to the new very expensive leather couch that stinks.

Heading north on I-45, the Sam Houston monument, which I've always loved, especially at night when it's lighted, (which it wasn't for this photo because we were hightailing it back home during the day).



Good-bye Houston, we hardly knew ya.

off to the show...

...the Quilt Show in Houston Texas! I'm headed there bright and early tomorrow (Fri) morning with my BFF and her (our) Mom (she's really not my biological mother but she calls me her "other" daughter, so I call her my "other mother", and we're just tight like that) for three full days of quilt related madness! Maybe (hopefully), some stitching...I'll be taking some WIP's with me.
As you can see, I have a few...

This is my Spooky Spots by Shepherd's Bush, started last year...tried to finish it up this year but it didn't happen. I can't get motivated on this one, which is weird because I like it.



And this one is BOAF's Halloween Fun. Didn't get it finished either because...well, just because...



Like I said, I have been all over the place, stitching wise, because what I'm able to work on is dictated to me by how much my hands hurt that day. I pick up one thing and can tell by a few stitches into it, that it's just not going to happen, so then I pick up something else, or nothing.

So. I also started on Curly Q Ewe, by Little House Needleworks, over one on 18 ct. Waterlily...



and Lo, A Rose, by Bright Needle, over 2 on 32 ct cream Belfast:



I'm sorta not liking the thread that most of the letters are stitched with, it's WDW London Fog. It has parts of it that are pretty dark, which isn't my favorite. But I pulled the DMC equivalency and didn't care for it, or any close to it, so just decided to stick with the London Fog for now.

OK, in gastronomical news, we recently had Salmon Patties!! Woo hoo, how exciting is that?! LOL. It's about as basic as it gets, but we hadn't had any all summer, somehow I forgot about them which is strange since it's like a tradition to have them in the summertime, always with mac & cheese...



and I halved Ree's recipe for cinnamon rolls, and it still made FOUR PANS full.



They were pretty good, although I didn't use enough cinnamon. If you make these, be sure to use a LOT of cinnamon (even more than you think is enough). Also, I used much less butter than she did, in the filling. It worked out fine.



And here are some Deep Fried Oreos, which we had at the fair in October:



I'd heard so many good things about them. But all I can say is "eh"...nothing to write home about...



As we stood there waiting while the lady fried them, it seemed to take forever and all I could think of was how much grease they must be absorbing as they fried.
And y'all know I loves me some fried foods, but geesh....greasy Oreos just ain't my thing.

So now I must pack and get together all of my projects and tech stuff (camera, laptop, cords for everything). Wonder if I can pack the Pug to go with?
Maybe there will be time to post from Houston if there's anything exciting to share :)

Happy Halloween!!

Well, I have a really scary picture of myself from 1976 with a shag haircut that would've scared the pants right off of ya, but decided to share this one, circa 1972, instead! Wouldn't want to run off my faithful few (although this one could very well do it anyway).....





On the back of this, my mother wrote "Halloween! She's a lady from India - The "Hope" Diamond is a spare droplet from a chandelier"

First off, I love how she said "a" chandelier...did we have more than one chandelier to have said "a" and not "the"...that's just too funny...surely we must have. We were rich in chandeliers at that house. They matched that funky wallpaper that was oh so tres chic at the time.

Secondly...I didn't care that much about the droplet because HELLO I had on MAKEUP!!
At EIGHT years of age!!! LIPSTICK!! And a LOT of it!! I was HOT STUFF!!

Gosh, my face probably hasn't seen that much makeup in all of the years since then, put together! (on second thought, there was a slightly blurry time in my teenage years that may have seen a little lip gloss...it was shiny and drippy and smelled like bubble gum and I went through about a tube of it a week...but except for that, barely any at all)

Halloween is FUN! Oh Yes!

Hope you all have a day full of treats and doing something fun :)

me me'd and tagged

I have to admit that I am the world's worst at playing along when being tagged by another blogger. It just takes me forever, if ever, to get around to doing my part.
Thankfully,some nice peeps don't give up on me and brighten my day anyway.

SO...earlier in the month, Melissa, Michelle, and Carol gave me this award:



Thanks to you three, because you all make me smile and I love to read your blogs!
Now, I'm not sure how many people I'm supposed to tag with this, but since it's so late in the game, guess the rules don't matter anyway(and some of these people don't even know me, lol). So here are just some people who bring a smile to my face:

Nancy because she's always been so faithful to leave a nice comment on my posts and because she's got such a sweet spirit that comes through in everything she does.
Ree because she's just so funny and her recipes are to die for.
Suze because she's funny and she likes dragonflies!
Michelle she likes making yo-yo's, and also, because she's funny (do you see a pattern here?

Well, there are lots more, but I'm running short on time, so there it is.

Nancy tagged me for a "me me", which was to tell seven things about myself.

Golly, I hope you all can contain your excitement when you read these doozies: I tried to list things you may not already know (although I'm pretty transparent, so whatever)

1. I don't like cooked fruit but love peach cobbler and apple cobbler and will eat everything in them except the fruit. And especially if it's hot with a scoop of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream on top.

2. I am a hand cream junkie (almost said whore, what's that all about?). I love hand creams and lotions and am always looking out for the next best one. Right now I'm stuck on L'Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream And also, their foot cream. Best stuff ever, trust me. Oh yes, I'm hopeless when it comes to most lotions.

3. This forty something, fluffy (ahem),white girl can totally enjoy herself some
Kayne
and some Shaggy
Yes, that's Rap and Reggae, respectively. Plus, I love Shaggy, I just do. He's just all that and more. I would marry him if it was possible to do it and not hurt my current husband's feelings, not to mention illegal. (Jeff, if you're reading this....Honey, you my #1).


4. I can curse like a sailor (some say better) and often do. (I can just hear the collective gasping that you all are doing right now). Well, it's just the truth and
I've always said, every curse word I know I learned from my mother. This doesn't mean we're not visions of lady-like loveliness, don't get me wrong. But under the right circumstances, a few choice curse words really get the job done!

5. I'm an ex-smoker. (is that more gasping I hear?)Most people I tell this to absolutely do not believe me because I don't "look like a smoker". Well, it's so true, I started smoking part time when I was thirteen (yep, thanks again Mom), full time at 16 and by the time I quit at age 23, was smoking two packs a day. I never do anything half-heartedly! But hey, it's been 20 years since I quit...the smoking and the cursing was just too much, lol!

6. I got married when I was 17 1/2 after knowing the man for a total of a month and a half prior to our wedding. And the first two weeks of that I wouldn't have anything to do with him. We celebrated 25 years of wedded bliss last February.

7. I like Pugs. A. Lot. The reason I'm telling you this, again, is because HELLO. We are cat people (without a cat)!!

Oh my gosh, I feel certain all of this is just TMI, but I'm going to hit the publish button anyway and will try and post again soon so this post will move down the page some.

Stay tuned for stitching progress pics and what was in the fryin' pan this week!

cold snap

Aww, finally having a cold spell here, feels so good! Bet it doesn't last, Texas weather doesn't stay one way or the other for very long. I enjoyed putting on my Pug socks someone had given me and my long pants to go to work, lol! Even though that is the best thing about summer (to me), just slipping on sandals and going!

Stitching wise, I haven't gotten much done, just all over the place because of problems with my shoulder and hands and not being able to stitch for very long. Working on a couple of different things, will show some progress pics later in the week when I have time to get out the camera.

Here's something for you to look at though ;)




It's an old Twisted Threads design, appropriately named Strawberries, if I recall correctly. Stitched over one on 32 ct. I just recently put it in this hanging tuck pillow that I'd bought from Tobie and it's now hanging off of a knob on my china cabinet in the dining room.

All of the prizes from my drawing went out last week, so hopefully everyone has gotten them by now, or will very soon. I have heard from KsMaryLou that hers arrived, which is a good thing! Thanks for letting me know ML!

We have new living room furniture arriving on Wednesday, I'm so excited! The tables have display space in them, if that makes sense. The tops are glass and then you can open up the area below to put things in that you want to display. Guess what's going in most of them? LOL! I told DH he gets ONE of the end tables for his stuff and the other two tables are for me!
That's fair, right? Once I get them loaded up and arranged, I'll post some pics.

a prize, or three

Thank you all so much for the Happy Blogiversary wishes! You are all just too sweet!

The big hairy arm you see below belongs to my DH. I asked him to draw the name for me. He's a good person to draw because he's very fair and impartial! He thought the basket was too small, so he put all of the names into another bowl first, to shake them all up, put them back into the basket to draw.



So the first name he took out of the basket was: Teresa! Congratulations Teresa, you get first pick! (I think that would be the black cat ornament if I read your comment right).

And I saw "first name" because....I'm a big ol' softie and just decided to give away all three of the ornaments because you all are so nice and I hate for anyone to feel left out! I just wish there were more than three to give away!

The second name out of the basket was KsMaryLou, who doesn't have a blog so I can't make a link for her, but she gets to chose between the jack-o-lantern and the witch.

And the third name drawn was Monique!



If you gals will email me (deepfriedcupcake at hotmail dot com), and give me your mailing address, I will get these in the mail right away! I had fun stitching these and hope you will enjoy them too.

Thanks to everyone for playing along! I had fun doing this and enjoyed hearing from you all!

one year (and a prize!)

So now it's been one whole year since starting this version of my blog. It's really not easy sometimes to keep it going because blogging just goes against my nature, generally speaking. I'm not *that* into sharing very much of my personal stuff, I do however, have an only child syndrome of wanting to always say, "look at what I did or made"..kinda like show and tell. And then of course (since I'm this freak), I feel silly, exposed and vulnerable! I know, it's just a silly blog you say. It's true.
So! Thanks for putting up with me, is all I'm sayin'. Thanks for checking me out, looking at my pretties and saying nice things.

To celebrate being here one whole year I'm having giving someone a prize! From now through Sunday, Oct. 14, everyone that leaves a comment on this post will have their name put in a basket for a drawing for one of these:



YOU GET TO PICK!! Whichever one you want :) I will draw the name on Monday morning and post the winner then, and that person can tell me which one they would like to have.

These are from the Birds of a Feather chart pack called Halloween Icons. It was an older chart, but they re-released it not too long ago, as a kit with fabric. I stitched them up this past week and just today, sewed them into ornaments.

Now, keep in mind, I am not an "excellent" sewer. Still getting to know my sewing machine and learning the basics. So these are not "perfect" but like me, they have character, lol! Hopefully whoever ends up with one will not even notice little imperfections and just love it anyway.

Maybe this spooky kitty tickles you:



or this frightful jack-o-lantern:



or maybe you like this green faced wicked witch:



I did my best on all of these and backed them with colorful fabric and used black rick-rack for the hanging cord. The first two I did show the most "imperfections" in the finishing ahem but by the last one, I had it figured out, so it's the best looking one (the jack-o-lantern).

So if you'd like to celebrate with me, please leave a comment and I will enter you into the drawing. It doesn't matter if you've never commented before, or if you're close by in the States or far, far away, across the pond or the continent, you can participate! Let me hear from you now, don't wait until it's too late! I'm drawing on Monday :)

Thanks again everyone, and here's to another year of good friends, great designs to stitch, cupcakes to bake and Pugs to love.

monday monday

Well, I am back. It's Monday...not one of my most favorite of days, although it's always been Tuesday's that are the worst to me personally. Anyway, as is the norm for me, I now have a song stuck in my head....thanks to growing up listening to the Mamas and the Papas...

Monday Monday, can't trust that day,
Monday Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way
Oh Monday morning, you gave me no warning of what was to be
Oh Monday Monday, how could you leave and not take me.


So anyway. I posted this the other day but didn't care for the picture and was going to try and get another one, but the weekend and the weather didn't cooperate so it never happened. And so here's the same picture, which to me, is washed out because the sun was so bright when I took it...




This is the Birds of a Feather Peace Sampler that I finished a few months ago...back from the framer. At the time I took it in to be framed, the funky green frame was just soooo perfect for it, but now I'm not so sure. Oh well, a hundred dollars later, I'm not having it redone.

Oh, I have a "blog-iversary" (is that how you spell that?) coming up on Oct. 11, it will be one year since I started this version of my blog. SO...since that's pretty amazing for me, I'm thinking about having a little give away to celebrate...what do you think? Tune in on the 11th if you're interested.