We Have Winner!

Twelfthzodic, you have won the Red & Aqua Fat Quarter set! Woo-hoo!

The photo function is not working properly, so picture this: four pretty red fat quarters and four gorgeous aqua fat quarters of Kona Cotton. Yummy!

Please contact me privately with your info so I send a nice squishy package your way.

I am also here to announce that we also have a loser. Tumblr has failed miserably this week and has proven itself unreliable, at best. The blog is going back to Typepad, which I have always loved, but my yankee frugality had convinced me to use something that didn’t have a monthly fee. Well, Tumblr did not live up to its expectations and I find that I like the features I pay for on Typepad, so back we go.

From now on, you can find me here: http://www.blueberrybuckle.typepad.com

Hah! The linky function is not working, so you will probably have to cut and paste. Ugh.

Test

The blog has been broken…is it working now???

“…and ma’am, your water pump is cracked.”

Routine maintenance. The Rav was due for an oil change this week, and the oil light came on last night as I drove to Delaware. Now that never happened before. It was rather concerning.

I love Newark (DE) Toyota and that they have drive-in service. You don’t need an appointment for things like oil changes, so I ran over there this afternoon to find out what was bugging the oil light.

Lack of oil. None. Zip. Nada.

The dipstick came up dry.

Seriously.

The good new is that there is not an oil leak. Anywhere.

It appears that the last person (another dealership, another state) who changed the oil may have forgotten to put some in?

I’m so thankful it didn’t cause any harm.

Because the brake work was expensive enough. Yep, we knew that was coming, but…today? Thank goodness the battery, while only putting out 60% of the normal juice, can hang on for a while.

Oh, they found a crack in the water pump, too.

I almost had to laugh. This happened after a day of driving around in sleety slushy stuff (in the rain) to find a post office with a supply of Flat Rate Envelopes so I can ship fabric orders. The two facilities nearest the apartment are rationing their envelopes and no one will part with more than a few (8, really, if I beg) at a time. It seems the shortage is widespread, so I’ve ordered 200 online. Maybe I should order extra for the post office.

I’m glad I have nice waterproof boots.

Oh, yeah, I also spent a couple of fruitless hours this morning trying to get my USPS online account to work so I could buy postage and print shipping labels for the precious FR envelopes. A call to customer service resulted only in a recording of “We are experiencing higher than average call volume. Please go to our website, xxxxx.com.” Great.

So, new brakes, fresh oil, enough shipping envelopes to get me through the night, and a nice DFH 60 Minute. NCIS is on and I’m ready to take on the USPS website.

A craptastic start to the week. It can only get better. Right?

Australia Flood Victims Benefit Quilt Auction

I’ve been very concerned for everyone living in areas of the horrible floods in Australia, and I can’t help but wonder if any of my customers are affected. I ship a lot of fabric to Australia, and I’ve been praying for everyone’s safety.

I want to do something to help…from halfway around the world…and today I learned that Toni over at make it perfect has organized some awesome online auctions to raise money for the flood victims.

If you’d like to help, you can set up a quilt auction on your blog, and let Toni know so she can post a linky to it this weekend.

What started all this for me is that I found this pic on flickr (the best place in the internet to look at quilt pics, seriously).

It’s just beautiful! And perfect if you need a baby girl gift.  =)

Jody is taking bids for it on her blog.

jaclynbartlett asked: I tried to comment on your giveaway post but there is no comment option :(

I just realized that, so I changed the rules…”liking” the post constitutes an entry, so you’re all set.  =)

Announcing…a Giveaway!

It’s so good to see that you’ve found my new blog! I’m very excited about the tumblr platform. It’s so easy to use and I like that it’s free without any ads. I’ll be blogging about quilting, including some tutorials, some cooking and baking, including recipes, other sewing and crafting, and some other things in which I think you’ll be interested. There’s a lot going on in the studio these days, and I’m happy to have a venue to show you what I’m making. Please become a follower so you don’t miss anything; there should be a button in the upper right corner. 

So, about that giveaway.

How about some…fabric?

This pretty bundle of Kona Cotton solid fabric fat quarters from my shop, Simply Solid Fabric, could be yours! I love reds and aquas together, inspired by many of these photos. If you don’t care for red and aqua, I’ll happily substitute another color collection that’s more in your palette.

To enter, please become a follower and like this post. (Edited because I just realized comments aren’t enabled…yikes!)

To enter a second time, click on over to become a follower on the Simply Solid Fabric fb page and comment under the Red & Aqua Giveaway post.

The comments will close on Sunday, January 16, 2010 and a winner will be chosen by random number generator.

We’re expecting a good amount of snow here, so I’ve got to get to the post office before the roads get crazy. Happy sewing!

Snow

I love how pretty and quiet the world seems just after a snow. Clean and calm.

Drew and I drove out to our house in Maryland last night. Eric and Josh are here, and it makes me happy to have family around, and hungry men for whom to cook. I’ve got to run out to the store for provisions…there’s not much food in the house when Eric is alone here during the week!

We’ve got a lot of work to do here, primarily painting and putting things into storage, to prepare the house for sale. I want it to look like a model home…that should help sell in a tough market…we hope.

I’m very thankful for the pretty morning, and a day at home with the guys.

=) Sue

Hello World, Welcome to my Blog

I think this new year calls for a new blog. A fresh start.

How about a pretty quilt top?

Plain Spoken in Kona Cotton Denim Blue

I love this new (to me) blog platform. Tumblr is very easy to use (so far), has a lot of great features, and, best of all, it’s free!

You’ll be hearing a lot more from me.

=) Sue