Living Like Nancy Drew

Well, it's here! My day to post my Nancy Drew project.
The good news is all of my ridiculously small flying geese are done and the top is put together. 

The bad news, when I went to started to quilt it I had a machine / tension issue which I tried to resolve myself. I got the machine back together, with only one extra screw! I hope it's not an important one. The issue came back within a short time, so my project is sadly not complete.

I loved Nancy Drew as a young girl. My friends and I read and re-read every book a billion times. My all time favorite were the originals with the blue and orange covers. Nancy was smart, independent, and fearless, which are all things I strive to be in my life. These are also qualities that we should teach all girls to be, in my opinion!



Nancy maze quilt top.



Nancy's following the clues.



Flying geese lead the path to the center.



All pinned a little quilted.

I picked some of my favorite sayings from Nancy's Guide to Life for the white areas. It will say things like:
Boys like girls who doggedly pursue their goals (or prey, as the case may be) - The Secret of the Wooden Lady
Clumsy, fat men who are looking at middle age through a rear-view mirror should not attempt to keep pace with lithe young women. - The Whispering Statue
A young lady with some judo skills can take care of unwanted advances in short order. - The Whispering Statue

I keep my Guide to Life on my desk at work, next to my Congolese "Speak no Evil" gorillas and my mold spore.

 I hope to get my machine fixed asap, so I hope you all can check back and see the final product!

In the meantime, please visit my fellow Nancy Drew bloggers and see what they've been inspired to make with Get a Clue with Nancy Drew!

  

 Marjories Busy Corner

Kris Loves Fabric

The Slow Quilter

Sew Many Yarns

Lixie Makes It

 Betty at That Other Blog

Marcy at That Other Blog

Pig Tales and Quilts

Things that make me smile Sunday

Ok, this is going to be a super short, sweet and picture filled post because I'm in the final time crunch to finish my Nancy Drew quilt and I've already lost an hour thanks to the time change last night.
These are all things that made me smile today:

Cute sleeping dogs.

Freaking adorable tea things.



Fun butter dishes
(I know, it's weird.
What can I say,  I like cute butter dishes,
especially if they have wee sheep on the them.)



Gorgeous pink and white tulips.

Finally finding Nessie!



Having my quilt hanger (aka: curtain rod) hung up.



Finishing the cutting down of 150+ flying geese from 2x4 to 1x2.
(A serious miscalculation on my part for the Nancy Drew quilt)



My Ness pink and blue tartan purses and cow.
How can you not smile at a plaid cow?

Chocolate mouse eclairs from Ambrosia in Barrington.
(Thanks June!)

Dogs who shouldn't be on couches but are anyway.



And last, but certainly  not least;
 Ness pink and navy tartan wellies under my chalk board.
( I made the chalk board out of an old cabinet door and vintage chalkboard slate from an 1800's schoolhouse in Rockford which was renovated into lofts.)



Reality

We interrupt this fabulous vacation for an important quilting announcement and a dose of reality.

I'm unfortunately back from my vacation, which means I'm back to real life. I have to say, vacation is so much better than real life. I will get back to the vacation photos and travel log soon,but for the moment I have to scramble to get my Nancy Drew quilt done in time for the blog hop! I'm scheduled for March 12th, and have many flying geese to go before I sleep.

While the things that made me want to run away from home are still there, I have a different attitude about them now. As an added bonus, I'm also no longer intimidated/self conscious about going into that male bastion, the free weight room, in the health club. It's funny how spending so much time on your own, dealing with everything yourself and meeting new people teaches you about yourself and your fortitude. I found these two quotes that kind of sum it all up for me:

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

I had a fun reminder of my trip this week. One of my bosses happened to be in London for meetings while I was staying with Anne and Matt and he kindly consented to hauling my London purchases home for me in the suitcase I bought at an OxFam charity shop for 5 GBP. (Little did he know how much the fabric and books weighed when he agreed to this!) This is also the boss that keeps me in Belgium chocolates from his travels there, and also hauled my loot home from the New Orleans estate sale in March, so he's a really fabulous guy in my book regardless of all the whining about how heavy my suitcase was (consider please that I had three 75lb checked bags and two 40-50lb carry-ons that I hauled all over Scotland for 3 weeks and through 2 airports all by myself). I brought him a lovely bottle of Scottish whiskey for his pains.

Cath Kidston happiness!

It was like Christmas again this week as I unpacked my English goodies, which consisted mostly of Cath Kidston and Liberty of London products. I was really glad to be there during sale time, because I could get some things at Liberty that I wouldn't have been able to afford if not on sale.


Ah Liberty of London, how do I love thee, let me count the ways....

We got a proper snow this week. I love snow, and I love the snow in my new house. It's so pretty with all of the trees and deer that I will now bore you with photos of trees in the snow.

View from the Reading Room

Birdbath in the snow.

View from the deck.

Garden fence

House from the street.

The contrast of the branches in the snow at dawn was really striking.



My glorious pine tree.



I love how the needles look furry on this pine when it snows.