Misc

Time to do my September block! sigh

John wanted a neighborhood quilt… I decided that some, ahem, interesting new neighbors needed to move in. (I ran out of grey… oops!!)

Ahhh!  I’m scared…

And since all the cool neighborhoods have fake lakes (most with the obligatory water fountain in the middle) I decided his ‘hood needed a lake.

Complete with neon orange goldfish! (Can you tell I have a 2 year old who begs for goldfish 24/7?)

I was going to do a stereotypical Mc Mansion too but as you can see I ran out of grey.

Ready or not, it’s almost time to leave!  I’ll be at Sample Spree and Market.  Please come visit me if you’re going!

I decided to enter 2009 and set up a Twitter account.  In theory I’ll post on it during Market… that is if I can actually figure it out before then.  Perhaps I can get Maeve to give me lessons on it.

Now if I could stop being sick so I can finish getting everything ready…

Because stale quilts are yucky.

The joys of fitting an entire Quilt Market booth into a compact hybrid.  But at least I can get to Houston for only $60 in gas!

I did a test on how the quilts would turn out after being vacuum packed in Space Bags and they fared suprisingly well.  I’ll probably still be spending some quality time with an iron once we get there though.  But at least they (might) fit into the car.  Maybe… Hopefully…

Because it came in quite handy today.

Because we went on a pilgrimage to Ikea.

See Liam’s expression?  That pretty much sums up the kids’ opinion on our day.  And no, there isn’t an Ikea in Raleigh.  We dragged two unhappy kids 2-1/2 hours to Charlotte for this. At least I got stuff for Market and the kids got choo-choos and plush soccer balls.  All Sean got was a huge charge on the Amex.

But the plus side (for me at least) was that while we were in Charlotte we had to swing by Concord (’burb of Charlotte) to visit a neighborhood built by the Cabarrus County Habitat for Humanity.  During a very cold New Hampshire college spring break over 10 years ago (gah, I’m getting old) a bunch of us drove to Charlotte and worked on one of the houses.  I did a lot of the electrical wiring and am happy to report that the house did not burn down.  I haven’t been back to Charlotte until this weekend so I was excited to see how the neighborhood turned out.

Then:

And now:

Then:

And now:

Then:

And now:

We will NOT be seeing the pictures of me from 10 years ago thankyouverymuch.

Sorry for the random trip down memory lane…

So Google tells me that the best way to get from here to Houston (besides just going to RDU) is through Montgomery and Mobile.  The best place to stop overnight would be in between the two but there really isn’t much of anything in between the two.  For just 20 miles more we can take a different road and end up in the perfect overnight spot of Meridian, MS.  Honestly, I’ve never heard of Meridian.  Is it nice enough?  I just want safe and not scary.

What is scary?  My first apartment in (a really bad part of) Arlington, VA.  There was this scary man who used to pace back and forth all day long that I could see out the back windows.  He’d walk up and down the sidewalk making all these scary gestures and facial expressions. The rest of the neighborhood wasn’t much better.  Ten years (2 more apartments and 2 houses) later and this guy still freaks me out.

So does anyone live anywhere near here?  Sean thinks I’m insane for posting this.