. . . feeling the love . . .

. . . the doorbell rang 

yesterday afternoon . . .

. . . when i answered the front door,

two of the best friends 

a girl could ever hope for were there 

with this gorgeous arrangement . . .

. . . which was created 

by my favorite floral designer 

of all time . . .

{she was the genius behind the flowers for this wedding, 

and for my dad's funeral}

. . . aren't they so pretty? . . .

. . . oh, wait ~ this is the back . . .

. . . wanna see the front? . . .

. . . and how about a closeup? . . .

. . . aren't those dahlias luscious? . . . 

{and the roses, and tulips, and snapdragons, and stocks, 

and mums, and berries, and everything else!}

. . . she made this section 

to resemble a quilt block . . .

. . . a diagonally strip pieced 

quilt block . . .

{i wonder if she knows that?}

. . . anyway, i love and appreciate 

the awesome friends 

i'm lucky enough 

to have in my life . . . 

. . . remembering . . .

. . . we've {of course} been 

sorting through old photos . . .

. . . doing our fair share 

of reminiscing . . .

. . . and i was so happy 

to find these gems . . .

. . . my little girls 

loved their 

fancy gramma romney . . .

. . . especially when she let them 

model her mink stole . . .

. . . about twenty-five years ago . . .

gramma joan & amber - age 7

 gramma joan & amanda joan - age 4

gramma joan & amelia - age 2

{special thanks to shellene for her photoshop skillz}

. . . the best mother-in-law . . .

. . . joan estelle ledosquet romney udall . . .

. . . this lovely, lovely lady 

celebrated her eighty-eighth birthday

just four days ago . . .

. . . this morning, 

bless her heart, 

she left this earth life behind . . .

. . . i feel certain she's having 

a wonderful reunion 

with my father-in-law . . . 

. . . they've been apart 

for over twenty-six years . . .

. . . we will miss her greatly . . . 

. . . happy number twenty-three . . .

. . . today is my favorite 

daughter-in-law's birthday . . .

. . . she is the perfect wife 

for my only son . . .

. . . and a darling mommy 

to baby hayden . . .

{special thanks to you, drew, for putting together this swell photo collage

so i could steal it from your facebook timeline}

. . . i'm just sorry that she has to be 

so far from home 

and so so so cold . . .

. . . but i'm thankful she's 

such a good sport about it . . .

. . . love you lots, jessalyn . . .

. . . happy happy birthday! . . .

. . . row row row seven . . .

. . . i am seriously on a roll . . .

. . . here's the next installment of 

the bee in my bonnet

row along . . .

. . . fall leaves . . .

. . . "swirling or twirling 

or blowing around 

in the 

chilly autumn wind leaves" . . . 

{lori's words}

. . . she posted this row 

the day before thanksgiving . . .

. . . you know ~ 

when there was 

actually supposed to be 

chilly autumn wind . . .

. . . well ~ autumn/winter 

happened here in arizona 

just last week . . .

. . . that's when 

all the leaves finally finished 

falling from my trees . . .

. . . so i guess now's 

as appropriate a time as any for me 

to get this row put together . . .

{today is super cloudy and grey 

and our grass is suffering the effects 

of last week's below-freezing temperatures}

. . . now let me tell you 

all the things i don't like 

about my row . . .

. . . my ocd-ness would 

not let me make 

any pink or blue or grey leaves . . .

. . . only "real" leaf colors . . .

. . . then ~ since i only used 

four color families 

and there are only four directions 

in which to turn the blocks ~ 

i wound up 

with all the same color leaves 

facing the same direction . . .

. . . dumb ocd-ness . . .

. . . i wish i could make myself 

be purposefully random . . .

. . . here's a little more ocd-ness 

for you . . .

{total number of pieces in row 7: 177}

{total number of pieces in rows 1-7: 853}

. . . row row row six . . .

 . . . i actually sewed 

this cute row of mugs together 

at the beginning of the month 

when our quilt group met . . .

. . . then the whirlwind of renovation hit

 and i got overwhelmed 

and never posted about it . . .

. . . but this project 
finally surfaced yesterday 

and so here you go . . .

. . . row six of 

the bee in my bonnet 

row along . . .

. . . lori calls them 

cute cups of cocoa . . .

. . . which went together 

nice and easy . . .

. . . hooray!!! . . .

. . . here's a taste . . .

. . . of the rows i've finished so far . . .

{shh! i'm still three rows behind} 

{total number of pieces in row 6: 104}

{total number of pieces in rows 1-6: 676}

. . . where are you? . . .

. . . that was maxine's question 

in my previous post's comments . . .

. . . she's not the only one 

who's asked . . .

. . . i've gotten emails 

and my own children

 want answers, too . . .

. . . well . . .

. . . thanks for asking . . .

. . . here's the deal . . .

. . . in 2012, i challenged myself 

to post something 

every single day . . .

. . . mission accomplished . . .

. . . a total of 367 posts last year . . .

{it was leap year, and one day, for some reason, i posted twice}

. . . i'm pretty sure 

i said everything 

i had to say . . .

. . . i'm feeling a little bit 

of blog burn out . . .

. . . also . . .

. . . i really have been busy . . .

. . . i've gone through 

so many cupboards . . .

. . . i've pondered every 

scrap of paper and fabric . . .

. . . every fancy papercrafting tool . . .

. . . every single punch, stamp, 

and ribbon . . .

. . . and i've come to this conclusion . . .

. . . given a choice 

between paper and fabric . . .

. . . i will choose fabric 

every stinkin' time . . .

. . . my reorganization efforts 

reflect this realization . . .

. . . i have a garage full 

of scrapbooking stuff . . . 

. . . and a sewing room full 

of sewing stuff . . .

. . . and i feel happy about that . . .

. . . i'm also ready to get back 

to actually sewing . . .

. . . things always look cuter 

without cords 

and outlets 

and plugs? . . .

. . . don't they? . . .

. . . i agree . . .

. . . and yet i really wouldn't wish 

to return to the days 

of treadle sewing machines! . . .

. . . thank you very much . . .

. . . my vintage doilies 

used to grace the walls 

of my formerly striped hallway . . .

. . . they've relocated . . . 

. . . some parts of this room 

are cuter than others . . .

. . . oops! central is now situated 

behind cabinet doors . . .

. . . an upgrade from its previous home

 on and under the counters . . .

. . . this view 

always makes me smile . . .

. . . as do pretty stacks of fabric . . .

. . . and gorgeous daniel grayson . . .

. . . how'd he get in here? . . .

. . . i did save a few 

paper type products . . .

. . . but the most beautiful sight of all

 might just be this empty shelf . . .

. . . ahhhhhhhh . . .

. . . hello, kitty . . .

. . . what is the exact opposite 

of a cat lover? . . .

. . . if you said stephanie romney, 

you would be 

one hundred per cent 

correctamoondo . . .

{for some reason, spell check doesn't believe 

that correctamoondo is spelled correctamoondo-ly. 

go figure.}

. . . anyway . . .

. . . back to cats . . .

. . . and not liking them . . .

. . . an extreme allergy 

probably doesn't help matters 

at all . . .

. . . except, of course, 

cheetah . . .

. . . ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ . . .

. . . however . . .

. . . though i have 

a deep and abiding hatred 

for the feline species . . .

. . . i have that same amount of love 

for my customers . . .

. . . you want hello kitty oops!?. . .

. . . you got it . . .

. . . you say you need two? . . .

. . . no problem . . .

. . . for twins? . . .

. . . even better . . .

. . . twins/cats/girls . . .

. . . this isn't the first time . . .

. . . distractions . . .

. . . my fresh new sewing room 

won't always look so fresh 

and/or so new . . .

. . . that's because 

there are two tables 

worth of stuff 

that i cleaned off the counters 

before the extreme makeover 

happened . . .

. . . and i am determined 

to avoid such pileups

in the future . . .

. . . but that means 

i've got to clean out 

all those cupboards 

to make room for the stuff 

i really want to keep . . .

. . . and cleaning out cupboards 

can be a sentimental journey . . .

. . . especially when 

i rediscover the pleating machine 

i used to put to really good use . . .

. . . back in the day . . .

. . . this handy gadget 

is used to mark tiny even pleats 

across a width of fabric 

in preparation 

for the art of english smocking . . .

{this one isn't mine, but mine does look just like this}

. . . something of which i used to do 

quite a bit . . .

. . . when i was dressing 

three little girls . . .

. . . it seems, though, 

that not all projects started

ever got finished . . .

. . . maybe because 

what in the world was i thinking? . ..

. . . turtles in baseball caps 

with roses in their teeth? . . .

{in fairness, i'm sure i was attracted to the pink and green color scheme. 

it was my favorite. i mean look at that cute fabric.}

. . . but this one is so pretty . . . 

. . . i remember it was supposed

 to be for amber . . .

. . . it's a little girl's size six . . . 

. . . amber is turning thirty-three 

this year . . .

. . . that window of opportunity

may have closed by now . . .

. . . it's still hard to let it go . . .

. . . take cover . . .

. . . excuse me . . .

. . . but this is not the kind of weather 

i signed up for 

as a {nearly} lifelong resident 

of mesa, arizona . . .

. . . four nights in a row 

of below freezing temps? . . .

. . . un.ac.cept.able . . .

{utah friends are hysterically laughing at me} 

. . . annual bedding plants 

{aka geraniums and alyssum} 

don't really do too well 

in below freezing temperature 

situations . . .

. . . desperate times 

call for desperate measures . . .

. . . my dad always said

 to "make sure 

plants are well hydrated" . . .

. . . so i watered thoroughly . . .
. . . then "cover them  
during the late afternoon 
in an attempt to trap
 some of the heat of the day" . . .

. . . so ~ i busted out my classiest 

{read: raggedy and very colorful}

 blankets and beach towels . . .

. . . you might've seen this ↓ 

souvenir from mexico before . . .

. . . this ↓ would constitute 

a slightly less glamorous 

application . . .

. . . i also dug out these 

old personalized fleece throws . . .

. . . those shown here 

belong to "dad" 

and the mesa high jackrabbits . . .

. . . thanks to @tkroit . . .

{is it okay to mix blogging with instagram names?}

{i could not for the life of me corral that one rogue bloomhead}

. . . i'm seriously hoping 

this spot on the back porch 

will provide a little more shelter 

for these coral beauties 

than their usual spot 

by the pool . . .

. . . i did reserve 

one special blanket . . .

. . . it's the one i'll be cozy under 

{possibly drinking hot chocolate and i don't even like hot chocolate}

while watching last night's episode 

of elementary . . .

. . . have you watched 

that show yet? . . .

. . . we love it . . .

{which may or may not have something to do 

with the smart aleck banter between holmes and watson}

. . . stay warm! . . .