Paper Quilt

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I made this 8" x 8" piece for Pam for her birthday. She's a quilter so she loved it. I also made her a matching gift tag and magnet but I didn't scan those and for now, they are one of a kind. This looks better in person - the stitched squares show up better. Now I'm working on a lime green & navy quilt.

I worked on my new hand stitched quilt series all weekend and I'm so excited about it, I literally can't sleep. I couldn't turn my brain off to fall asleep last night when I wanted to. Then I woke up 20 minutes too early this morning so I reset the alarm to sleep a bit later. Again, I couldn't stop seeing paper quilts in my head so I didn't think I ever fell back asleep. But the alarm woke me up so clearly I did.

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My stupid pinky toe still hurts and the swelling has not gone down so I called the doctor's office on Friday. When the nice woman who called me back told me everything I already knew, I told her I just wanted to hear it from a professional. And then she told me something that made me slap my forehead, "Duh!" Take ibuprofen for the pain. I swear, I never considered that once in the 2 weeks since I banged it up. My defense is that it just hurts a little, but it does hurt almost all the time. Anyway, I started taking ibuprofen this weekend and it feels better. And I'm told it will take weeks to heal and feel better.

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Bruce Jenner does look better after his plastic surgery touch-up. Hard to tell since this isn't as close up as the first one but altogether, it's definitely a more flattering photo. Maybe he needs a different hairstyle. Heck, what do I know?

To save you some clicking (and artificially inflate my stats - ha!), here's the before.

And here's the way before. Wonder what he would have looked like had he aged naturally and gracefully like the rest of us?

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Friday, June 5, 5:00-8:00

Saturday, June 6, 10:00-8:00

Sunday, June 7, 10:00-5:00

Genesee Valley Quilt Club's Garden of Quilts

RIT Gordon Field House

One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603

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Monday Evening You Looked So Fine

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Fleetwood Mac was excellent last night! We had great seats.

We were almost under the Jumbotron.

We could see them walking into the arena which was cool - there was a ton of people walking with them - like 30 or something. I would have thought it would be the 4 of them, plus flashlight holders - shows what I know. They hit the stage, lights up and Monday Morning was their first song. It was perfection. I knew all but about 3-4 songs, I think. They really seemed like they were having fun. They played for almost 2-1/2 hours which is about 30 minutes longer than I expected. They did 2 encores.

They had 2 additional musicians and 3 back-up singers. They really need to upgrade their background singers, in my humble opinion. They stood almost motionless the entire time. I've been to concerts where the back-up singers are as much fun to watch as the main performers - like when I saw John Mellencamp, Stevie Wonder, to name a couple. (Steve pointed out, unobtrusive back-up singers may have been by design.)

Not from our concert, but definitely taken on this tour. Or recently anyway. She had bangs last night. Cute as a button. She only changed outfits 3 times, I think, all in her dark flowy gypsy style, with boots. (I say only 3 times because one of the (young) guys on the radio this morning said she changed 7 times, which he obviously said for comedic effect but I found myself feeling a little defensive, oddly.)

And may I say, Stevie Nicks looked really good! Her very straight hair is down to her waist! (She could use a quick trim to tidy up the ends.) I single her out because I expected her to look a little rough around the edges but she - they all - have aged gracefully. I told Steve, I've never been a big Stevie Nicks fan, I don't think her voice is very good and all that twirly gypsy stuff doesn't do much for me but I must say, I came away a fan.

I had seen Lindsey Buckingham interviewed on Private Sessions last year. To be honest, I expected him to have a huge ego but he was very humble and likable. So based on that, I really liked him last night. Had I not seen that interview, I would have thought he did a lot of fake rock star posturing last night but I think he truly feels the music that way. He was cool.

Our only complaints were I really, really wanted to tell the girl in the couple to my left to shut the eff up. She yammered the entire concert, even when the band was talking. It seemed to mostly be about the band, so I thought, "If you know so much about them and apparently like them, shut up and listen, you flaming moron!" Steve's only complaint was the screaming from the girls behind him was more piercing to his eardrums than Lindsey's guitar solos.

I really wanted to Twitter live during the concert but I'm way too much of an In the Moment person to do that - didn't want to miss a moment of the concert. I did send my first public Tweet from my iTouch before the concert though. Gosh, I love technology.

This must be an out-take because Stevie is smiling. Try finding a photo of the band smiling, I dare ya. Before they loosened up last night I thought they were going to perhaps not let their (stage) personalities show. I remember thinking, "Well, if they showed up just for the paycheck, I'm okay with that because I get to hear the music so they've done their job."

Much was said about the stormy interpersonal relationships within the band, back in the day. I bet never in their wildest dreams could they have fast-forwarded in their minds to see themselves back together, touring 30 years later.

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Clean Table

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My table is so rarely clean, I decided to take a picture of it for posterity. That's my Cadillac of paper trimmers on the right. (It's really a Dahle, not a Cadillac.) My old Fiskars trimmer is on the left. I keep a scoring blade in that one. My wall of paper is cool! My stacks of clutter on the other flat surface in the background to the left - not so cool. Note the fan in the upper left - to keep me cool during those middle aged power surges.

The floor is clean and the table is clean but the other surfaces are still too cluttery. Still, I find myself coming into the room again and again, just for the joy of seeing a couple of clean surfaces.

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Remember my dissatisfaction with Applebee's and the 4 small onion rings that were in my to-go dinner? After giving it more thought, I filled out a form online letting them know of the situation. Friday night I received a phone call from the manager of the restaurant, with an apology. She seemed very sincere and gracious. Get this, she said the dinner should come with . . . 5 onion rings. Wow - 5! In fairness she did say they should be 5 large onion rings so I guess there is a big difference between 4 small and 5 large.

She offered me a do-over (my words, not hers). She said we could come in when she was working or she'd be happy to mail me a gift certificate so we could go anytime, which is the option I chose. That was pretty nice - it's what they should do. I sincerely just wanted them to know about the quality of the dinner I received so they could fix it - - but I'll take the gift certificate too.

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I went to Geva Saturday with Lynn & Linda to see Sweeney Todd. It was really, really good. I had to laugh a bit at myself and my short attention span, as so many of us have now, "The plot sure moves slowly in a musical!" It tempts me to rent the Johnny Depp version but I'm not sure I can sit through a Tim Burton movie. I know people love him but his movies are just not my thing. (I did enjoy Edward Scissorhands though.) However, I just watched the trailer and maybe I'd like it.

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All Music All the Time

Lucia Micarelli's performance gives me chills!
(I can't imbed the one I want - but this is the link to it, if you have time. It has better quality video.)

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I thought Jennifer Hudson was fantastic. (Except why wear high heels if you can't stand normally in them? I was afraid she was going to fall over.) What a surreal life she's having, filled with such highs and lows. I told Steve when she was voted off American Idol, I vowed to stop watching. (That vow lasted about 6 days.)

And my friends totally rocked the half-time. I was not the least bit disappointed. And Steve was impressed that I called what the last song would be.

Btw, I bought their new CD Friday night so we listened to it once through on our Saturday trip to Buffalo. Loved it - can't wait to "study it" more thoroughly.

I was bored by the commercials. I guess the always-good Budweiser commercials would get my vote - always up for a good heart-tug. It seemed like nothing was clever, only over-the-top silly.

Admittedly, football is not my thing - but I fell asleep during the 2nd half. I attribute that to the passing of the adrenaline rush of my anticipating and enjoying the half-time show. I realized this morning that I woke up not even knowing who won. Yet my life goes on, just the same. :-)

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And I take Steve for his colonoscopy in about an hour. He's already picked out where he wants to go for lunch afterwards! A day off, out for lunch - I sure got the good end of this deal.

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Bead Trio

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Are these not scrumptious??

Gretchen gave me these beads with a gift certificate to Let's Bead! The name of the store has that exclamation point - but I would have used it anyway to note my enthusiasm for this gift. :-) I haven't even been over to the store since they expanded. I hope to rectify that shortly. I'm very happy that the store is doing so well that they needed to expand.

If you are a local reader, take a look at their long list of classes. If I had the time, I'd be inclined to take a class on chain maille. Isn't it cool?

Byzantine Chain Maille Bracelet , by Deb Sardina

I use these tiny seed beads for embellishing my Sticky Notes (and other projects). I notice though, that the bigger time crunch I get into, the less I take the time to bead. So my spring Sticky Notes are beaded. Fall? Not so much.

Paper, thread, beads - just another addiction. Beats heroin.

Oh! Speaking of addiction - I watched my first season of Celebrity Rehab this year. I Tivoed it out of curiosity, just for a giggle and was instantly hooked. It was very moving. I was really taken with Dr. Drew Pinsky, who I'd heard of but had no exposure too. I came away with a lot of respect for him.

I still don't understand why anyone would air their problems on TV - ala Dr. Phil and Dr. Drew. But being a lover of the biographical genre, I find myself hooked whenever I watch one of these.

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Going Our Own Way

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Fortunately, I'm a bit happier to see Fleetwood Mac in concert than they appear to be touring. They look like a fun bunch, don't they??

I jumped online right at 10:00 and scored two tickets in section 125 - pretty great, huh? The tickets are ridiculously expensive and I wanted to cheap out but Steve said if we're going to go, let's get good seats. Other than my friend Bruce Springsteen, there aren't that many bands we want to see so if we only go to a concert every couple of years, I guess I can justify it. Steve says even with the Jumbotrons, with his crappy eye site, closer is much better. So yeah, we have a medical excuse, that's the ticket!

In fact, I was so quick on the draw, the first two tickets I had access to were section 51 - the floor. The floor?? Ewww. I threw them back and got the section 125 seats. The concert isn't until March 16 - a Monday unfortunately. But like I said, every couple of years, I guess I can stay up late like a big girl.

I think these are the only two albums I had. They are the ones that look most familiar in searching for photos for this entry. I also remembered that Sheryl Crow joined Fleetwood Mac a few years ago but I'm not sure what happened there. I'd love to see her with them. This is their greatest hits tour so if I was going to see them at all, this is how I want to see them.

Actually I did see Fleetwood Mac in concert in the mid-70s. I went with a guy that I "just wasn't into" but I really wanted to see the concert and he knew it. I felt a bit guilty about using him, but apparently not guilty enough to not go. But it was kind of a win-win for each of us, I guess. I do actually still feel a bit bad about it, he was a nice enough guy - but really, Stef, get over it! It was over 30 years ago and he's probably long forgotten your name. (I just Googled him - he has a fairly unusual name - and there's a LinkedIn page that might be his and no, I'm not going to contact him to make amends.)

And this concludes the confession portion of our blog entry.

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I took Reggi to the vet last night because the one cyst filled up with fluid again and there was a new lump I wanted to have looked at. The vet found two more tiny lumps - all 3 were fatty masses - lipo-somethings. He drained everything and she's good as new. He says that cyst will continue to fill up but it's harmless and not bothering her so keep an eye on it and if we have her at the vet's for something else, they can drain it again. All of the above is exactly what I thought he'd say but I'm still relieved everything is okay with my girl.

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Mr. Subtle

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Most people wear a disguise to avoid drawing attention to themselves. Michael Jackson is not most people. (But I'm kind of digging that turquoise tunic.)

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The show at Valentown this weekend was pretty slow. I went at 10:00 and they sprang me loose around noon so I actually got lots more Stefani Time in on Sunday than I expected. I did really fascinating stuff like vacuuming the house and somehow talked Simon into going grocery shopping with me. I only had a few things to pick up but he's always complaining "There's no food in the house", when clearly there is. We actually, dare I say it, had a good time?

Overall, I definitely made money at the show, more than I expected. First-time shows are always hard. It was set up very nicely and the other crafters had quality stuff (mostly my friends). I was just thinking. I've been calling this a last minute show but I now remember her telling me at the Junior League show in October that she was planning on doing this. I'd forgotten about it until I read her email a couple of weeks ago.

Now I'm off to the post office to ship a couple of orders, drop off Christmas cards at Mom & Dad's house and then to work. I'd hoped to be at my desk at 6:00 but I can see that's not happening today.
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John has a nice noggin!

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John Travolta, from the set of his new (2009) movie, From Paris with Love. This says he shaved his head, that's not a skull cap or whatever it's called. Kinda hot, right?

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I spoke with a woman on the phone yesterday who is definitely out of the running for Employee of the Month. I called her about some past due invoices and asked for her email address so I could email her a statement. She refused, saying, "I get so much email that if I start doing that, I'll never get my real work done, so please call me instead."

Alrighty then.

So then I got to cool my heels while she first finished an email she was in the middle of when I called, followed by the dance I hate: I read her numbers over the phone while she shuffled through papers, looked things up, repeated numbers back to me, blah, blah, blah. It's so inefficient.

Did I mention she's a government employee? (No offense to efficient government employees. That can't be an oxymoron, can it?)

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2008 HOLIDAY BAZAAR ARTS & CRAFTS SALE
Sponsored by the RMSC Women's Council

Friday, November 21: 5:00pm–9:00pm
Saturday, November 22: 9:30am–5:00pm
Sunday, November 23: 11:00am–4:00pm

Admission:
$4 one day; $7 two days; children 12 and under FREE.
Friday Night Special for RMSC Members: admission $2 this night only!

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New Turquoise Pin

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I'm so happy with this pin - I'm going to wear it to work tomorrow. It was kind of a happy accident. There were several of these elements on my work surface, in different colors, from previous projects. As I was cleaning up the surface tonight, I started fiddling about with the shapes and colors. I've made pins before with this stitched design but nothing really "special" enough. I like the double scalloped border.

Soon I'll make more and post them in my Etsy shop. My poor semi-neglected Etsy shop. Must get moving on this!

I accomplished lots this weekend. Thank goodness for weekends, is all I can say. In no particular order:

I shipped samples to the store in Florida that had inquired about wholesale prices a few weeks ago.

The new-to-me store in Corning, placed another order so I shipped that too. These shipments entailed making some cards to send along to see if the owners think they might be good fits along with the Sticky Notes.

I finished my application to the Rochester Museum and Science Center show.

I placed orders with several vendors.

Balanced my bank accounts.

Finished my filing.

Filled out the paperwork for my annual physical on Wednesday. And by annual I mean every five years.

Baked brownies for my friend Jen's birthday.

Watched a movie with Steve. Last Dance with that hunkaburnin' love, Rob Morrow.

Soaked in the hot tub last night.

Went to my friend Nancy's for lunch on Saturday with Kim & Kathy. (Homemade pizza was delish!)

Took Reggi on another long walk in our new favorite park, Ellison Park. We even let her off-leash in a field and along a path and she did great. This park is very popular with dog owners even if it's not officially a "dog park". In fact, if you are reading this and you are an animal control officer, we never let Reggi off her leash once, nosiree. Lots of owners let their dogs swim in the creek too - tossing sticks and balls. (I think it's Irondequoit Creek if I'm not mistaken.) Reggi seemed keenly interested in these swimming dogs today so we took her to a shallow "beachy" area. She walked up to the water, stuck her nose in and decided that was enough for one day.

Now I'm off to bed, ready to start my week. Hope your weekend was enjoyable as well.



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Wicked

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I saw Wicked last night with my friend Pam. It was perfect in every way!

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More Danny Federici

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I think I've posted this before but it's what I'm working on now, so there it is. It's a 3" square gift tag to enclose with a gift - or a small notecard if you don't have much to say. (It can be mailed inside another envelope.)

Inside a vellum envelope. I love these things - must buy more.

For my fellow Bruce fans, I highly recommend you read the eulogy Bruce gave at Danny Federici's funeral last month. It's outstanding. Also, two videos - the tribute to Danny and Danny's last performance with the band. Take hankies.

Saturday, May 10, 10:00-4:00

3rd Annual Art Show & Craft Sale
Our Lady of Mercy High School
1437 Blossom Road
Rochester, NY 14610

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Danny Federici, RIP

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Danny Federici, January 23, 1950 – April 17, 2008

Anyone who is a fan already knows this news and has probably read this article. I still feel compelled to post it anyway. I was kind of shocked to read of Danny's death actually. So many people survive cancer these days, I guess I figured he would. At the March concert, Bruce said they hoped he would be back with them soon. Of course he said that, what else would he say? But I was wanting to believe it. So I've been feeling a little sad for the band, grieving for their loved one.

Confession: I am able to think of almost all celebrities as regular people with regular lives outside their celebrity-dom. Except Bruce. I can't get him out of Rock Star status in my head. I'm trying. He's a man, a husband, a father of teenagers who just happens to have this big visible job. This is something I realized about myself the other day and thought it a little weird on my part. But there you have it.

NEW YORK (AP) — Danny Federici, the longtime keyboard player for Bruce Springsteen whose stylish work helped define the E Street Band's sound on hits from "Hungry Heart" through "The Rising," died Thursday. He was 58.

Federici, who had battled melanoma for three years, died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. News of his death was posted late Thursday on Springsteen's official Web site.

He last performed with Springsteen and the band last month, appearing during portions of a March 20 show in Indianapolis.

"Danny and I worked together for 40 years — he was the most wonderfully fluid keyboard player and a pure natural musician. I loved him very much ... we grew up together," Springsteen said in a statement posted on his Web site.

Springsteen concerts scheduled for Friday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Saturday in Orlando were postponed.

Federici was born in Flemington, N.J., a long car ride from the Jersey shore haunts where he first met kindred musical spirit Springsteen in the late 1960s. The pair often jammed at the Upstage Club in Asbury Park, N.J., a now-defunct after-hours club that hosted the best musicians in the state.

It was Federici, along with original E Street Band drummer Vini Lopez, who first invited Springsteen to join their band.

By 1969, the self-effacing Federici — often introduced in concert by Springsteen as "Phantom Dan" — was playing with the Boss in a band called Child. Over the years, Federici joined his friend in acclaimed shore bands Steel Mill, Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom and the Bruce Springsteen Band.

Federici became a stalwart in the E Street Band as Springsteen rocketed from the boardwalk to international stardom. Springsteen split from the E Streeters in the late '80s, but they reunited for a hugely successful tour in 1999.

"Bruce has been supportive throughout my life," Federici said in a recent interview with Backstreets magazine. "I've had my ups and downs, and I've certainly given him a run for his money, and he's always been there for me."

Federici played accordion on the wistful "4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" from Springsteen's second album, and his organ solo was a highlight of Springsteen's first top 10 hit, "Hungry Heart." His organ coda on the 9/11-inspired Springsteen song "You're Missing" provided one of the more heart-wrenching moments on "The Rising" in 2002.

In a band with larger-than-life characters such as saxophonist Clarence Clemons and bandana-wrapped guitarist "Little" Steven Van Zandt, Federici was content to play in his familiar position to the side of the stage. But his playing was as vital to Springsteen's live show as any instrument in the band.

Federici released a pair of solo albums that veered from the E Street sound and into soft jazz. Bandmates Nils Lofgren on guitar and Garry Tallent on bass joined Federici on his 1997 debut, "Flemington." In 2005, Federici released its follow-up, "Out of a Dream."

Federici had taken a leave of absence during the band's tour in November 2007 to pursue treatment for melanoma, and was temporarily replaced by veteran musician Charles Giordano.

At the time, Springsteen described Federici as "one of the pillars of our sound and has played beside me as a great friend for more than 40 years. We all eagerly await his healthy and speedy return."

Besides his work with Springsteen, Federici played on albums by an impressive roster of other artists: Van Zandt, Joan Armatrading, Graham Parker, Gary U.S. Bonds and Garland Jeffreys.

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