Winter Break Rewind

So today is the last day of my Winter Break. Ugh! Back to the grind tomorrow at 8! Double UGH! Anyway, here is a brief re-cap of the events of Winter Break.

*Movies - Precious (good, but kind of a downer), Up In The Air (good until the ending), Blind Side (great movie overall), Avatar (amazing effects, want to see it in 3-D now), Sherlock Holmes (suprisingly good), Princess & The Frog (I hated every minute of it!)

*Crafted a TON! Finished the Bejewled quilt top, finished quilting the Tilted Sun (Baby Edition) with the help of Patti (thank you Patti!), finished a preemie quilt for Jessica to donate the hospital, made baby invites for Jackie's baby shower, started sketching out my next quilt already!

*Worked the dogs almost everyday down at Dog Sports at Kim's. What you can accomplish in 2 weeks is amazing! Kim really helped me get Tally working on obedience and agility. She'll be ready for competition soon! Gabby is getting ready to move up to Open A obedience! Roxie is learning to drive ahead and she is getting more confident each day. I even did a little obedience work with her! Someday I'll get her in the ring to show! I'll miss going there in the mornings to work the dogs, instead I'll be working :(

*Saw a lot of old friends from out of town, and ones that are in town that I just don't get to see often enough. Drinks, food, fun, Guitar Hero - enough said.

*Rang in 2010 having a good time with good friends.

Here is to a New Year & New Adventures - CHEERS!

Bejeweled Quilt

People ask, why name it Bejeweled? I'll tell you why - the colors remind me of the jewel tones used in the game Bejeweled.

Over 1000 triangles were pieced together for this quilt. By far this has been the most time consuming quilt I've made. I love how the top turned out, so all of my effort went to good use!

Announcement & Pup Fashion

By now, most of you know, but for the few of you who don't - I have a new pup! Tally (Polesitter's Talladega) is the newest addition to the furfamily. She is now 11 months old and is an English Springer Spaniel, (she is Gabby's niece). Here are a few shots of the little one!

The dogs got new collars and leashes for Christmas. I found them at this place called the Canine Center in St. Louis. They are from a company called Yellow Dog Design and I just love their designs!

Heel, Sit, Stay!

Gabby & Roxie went on their first road trip with me and my mom over the weekend!!! This was the first time I've ever traveled with them and had them in a hotel and they did GREAT!! Actually, they put on the charm at the front desk and got us a suite upgrade! The Evansville Obedience Club was hosting a Rally and Obedience show and we participated in both. I was a bit nervous about Rally, since we've never taken a class in it, but Gabby got 2 1st places, each with a score of 99! We also finished our CD (Companion Dog) obedience title with a 3rd place! Roxie was a good girl and loved seeing all the people and dogs (some day I'll get her in the ring!!!) The dog show kept us pretty busy, but we did get a chance to scope out the Eastland Mall, and New Harmony, Indiana on the way home.

Here are some videos and pictures of the trip! ENJOY!

Gabby - Rally Novice

(Click on the video - then click again in Picasa to view the video)

Marching Madness

An unexpected call on Friday night from Joyce and Julie was the beginning of another fun-filled weekend! My mom and I met up with them at a local bar/restaurant downtown Belleville called Castletown Goeghegan. My mom had never been there, and loved their homemade fish and chips! As we were eating we were entertained with some great Irish music. After we left Goeghegan's my mom and had some last minute prep to do for a trip the next day to EIU to watch the marching band competition.

Our trip to EIU for the marching band competition was a lot of fun! We packed up the car around 10 a.m. and off we went! We decided to stop in Effingham on the way up to go to Walmart to see if we could find some stadium fold up seats (they were out of them in Belleville). They had a ton of them in Effingham, so we bought 2 of them and some other snacks and we were on our way to EIU. As we were approching the Charleston exit, we saw the sign for the Tuscola outlet mall and I remembered the awesome Amishland bakery, furniture store, etc that was next to the outlet mall. So we decided to drive a little more north so we could get the awesome cinnamon rolls that are as big as your head from the Amish place. We get to the Amishland shop and to our dismay the bakery has closed down!!! It was a fun trip up to the shops even though there were no cinnamon rolls.

On our way back down to Charleston it starts to pour down! My mom and I decided to just park on the street and use this time to eat lunch, while the band competition was on a "rain break." They decided to move the competition indoors to the field house, then it stopped raining and decided to move it back over to the stadium outside! After an 1 1/2 hour rain delay, the competition was back on! We saw over 20 bands perform including Granite City and Belleville West. Both did an outstanding job!

After the competition was over around 10:30 p.m., we went to a restaurant called Boxa on the recommendation of Tracie, my student teacher. She was right, their grinders are awesome! My mom and I both had the Southwestern Chicken grinders on the recommendation of the manager, who said it was their #1 seller for 10 years!! The hot sandwich was great, since we had been sitting out in the cold and damp air all afternoon and night! After the hot meal, we were back on the road to go home!! We arrived home around 2:00 a.m. and it was time for bed! Also, a big thank you to Cassie who watched Gabby and Roxie for the evening.

After sleeping in this morning, Cassie dropped over to give back the keys and told me the dogs were well behaved for her. After Cassie left, I went to JoAnn's and got some fabric for the back of my Neptune quilt and eyed up some more Christmas fabric, but I refrained! I also was inspired for some more quilt patterns from some of the flag designs from the color guard teams. Those might be my next quilts! After JoAnn's it was time for dinner and The Amazing Race and Brothers & Sisters!!! Hope the week is as much fun as the weekend was!