Website of the Day!

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

This website is hysterical.....check it out!

Celtic Festival

http://www.celticfest.org/

According to their website, the mission of the Celtic Cultural Alliance is to preserve and promote the Celtic culture, through education, musical presentations, and traditional competitions in athletics, piping and dance. The Celtic Classic (now in it's 28th year) historically attracts over 260,000 visitors to downtown Historic Bethlehem, Northeastern Pennsylvania. Residents of the Lehigh Valley comprise approximately forty percent (40%) of the patrons, while the remaining sixty percent (60%) are visitors from areas throughout the United States and abroad. The Ol' Man and I attended last night for the first time...What fun! We had haggis (which isn't nearly as awful as it's purported to be), bridies and chips, and Irish Stout (of course!). They had tons of vendors selling everything from pint glasses to stained glass, clothes (t-shirts to beautiful Irish sweaters), jewelry, kilts, shortbread and more. I bought the Ol' Man a Guiness rugby shirt for this birthday, and we found these wonderful, hand made wooden swords for the kids for a great Christmas present. They should have a blast whacking the crap out of each other. There might be a hospital trip in our future. The weather was perfect (nice and cool) and we got to see some Highland games (World Invitational Caber Championships - that's where they throw the telephone pole sized log!). Lots of guys in kilts. One of the kilt vendors was trying to talk a guy into buying a kilt...asking him why he would wear pants that "bind" when he could be wearing a comfortable kilt! When you think about it, it really makes sense....men should wear skirts and women are more suited to pants. We had a blast and will go again.

WTF #2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdPSqL9_mfM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv8Rl3QBwMc

The first video is from about 11 months ago (before the election), the 2nd one from just a few days ago.
This totally freeks me out - again. First, it was stupid celebrities pledging to be subservient to Obama - but, at least they are adults and can take responsibility for their own idiocy. But, teaching the KIDS?

SINCE WHEN did we start teaching our children to sing the praises about a president?? What happened to singing about our COUNTRY? Yeesh! This should scare the crap out of any red blooded American. This really, really has to stop. What's the matter with these people? How creepy is this? What is the mind set of the parents? Has Obama got these folks so completely bamboozled that they're, essentially, walking, talking robots/zombies/drones? Hello?

Just drink the Kool-Aid, America. Obama will take care of everything.....

Cut Out Cookies

My Mother-In-Law makes the BEST cut-out cookies ever. She bemoans the fact that they are a pain in the a$$ to make, but she makes them with love - every holiday! Christmas (of course), Valentine's Day, Easter, St. Patrick's day, birthdays, etc. When I was shopping the other day at Michael's, the Ol' Man found some cut-out cookie shapes for Halloween (along with the coordinated sprinkles!). I bought them for my M-I-L. Hoping, of course, that she'll make some cookies for Halloween and send them to me. I have to admit...I'm addicted to them. When she sends them for the holidays, there are usually several zip-lock bags full, and I usually squirrel away a bag just for me. If I didn't, the boys and the Ol' Man would eat them all! Maybe I should buy her the ingredients too...

I sneeked...

There's this quilting website (http://www.bonniebluequilts.com/) that I found out about when I went to the quilt show (I picked up a flyer). I visited the site and found out that they had a quilt kit on sale. According to their website, they specialize in, "reproduction quilt designs and fabrics from the early 1800's and Civil War era. Original quilt patterns, unique reproduction fabric bundles and quilt kits"...exactly the kind of quilts the Ol' Man loves! Now, I'm the kind of quilter with no imagination - I can't design my own quilts, and it's a struggle just to figure out the material/colors to use! So, for me, the quilt kits are a perfect solution. They provide the directions AND the fabric, already figured out. All you have to do it put it together...which I can do joyfully! So, they had this quilt kit on sale ($75 down from $125 - saving $50!) and the Ol' Man liked it. I said I was going to buy it, and he said, "You've already got 5 projects going - you don't need another one"...and he right, but, since when has wants versus needs every come into play??! I WANT the quilt kit, it's on sale, so I bought it. I haven't told him yet. Somehow, I don't think he'll be too angry...and he'll be even happier when the quilt is done. I was stationed in Korea while I was in the military. I had a girlfriend who was stationed there before me, and she said people "go broke saving money" because everything is so cheap, you end up buying a lot of stuff. Not a bad way to go broke, as far as I'm concerned. Besides, quilting is a USEFUL hobby! That's how I justify it, anyway...

Quilt Show

I dragged the Ol' Man to the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza XVI. We didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked because we got lost a couple of times along the way, and then we had to leave in order to pick up the boys from school. But, what we did see was absolutely amazing! My jaw just drops when I see the intricacy of some of the quilts, (best of show above) the volumes of fabric, notions, etc...what a paradise! I'll make sure to schedule my time better for next year's Extravaganza! I picked up a few flyer's for other quilt shows and shops, and I'm pretty excited, looking forward to checking them out. I think I've made some kind of cardinal sin with the quilt I'm making now. I started machine quilting it, but, that turned out to be a ginormous pain, so I switched to hand quilting...is that breaking some kind of rule...switching in the middle of a project? It's not like I'm going to enter it into any contest...it's just a quilt for one of the boys. The PNQE XVI did have this guy there that had this set up to turn your regular machine into a mini-long arm quilt machine...it was pretty slick (and, MUCH cheaper than a "real" long arm machine). I never really understood the long arm concept, but I got to see it in action at the show, and I was pretty impressed. I like hand quilting, but....if you wanted to kick out a quilt quick, that'd be the way to go.

Where's the News?

I wish I could have been there....