Unnerving facts...

I took a minute and looked up info about my date of birth...and here's what I found:

Things I already knew...

     * You were born on a Monday (I knew that - it was Easter Monday, in fact...Mama rarely let me forget that she was in labor all of Easter Sunday....)

* Your star sign is Aries 

    

* Your birthstone is Diamond

 * The season was Spring 

     * You were born in the Chinese year of the Dragon

     * Truman was president







Things I didn't know...

     * In dog years you are 406 years old
     * You are approximately 508,649 hours old
     * You are approximately 1,831,137,312 seconds old

406 years?  by now, over 2 billion seconds???

Ugh.  no wonder it's hard to get up in the morning!

Asian Fusion Celebration

In the on-going celebration of my birthday, friends took me out to The Mint, a very trendy Asian Fusion restaurant and now, one of my favorite places...we got there just after they opened for lunch; by the time we left, the place was packed.

We started out with The Mint Platter: A sample plate of chicken satay, fresh summer rolls, and crispy vegetable dumplings with 3 sauces (peanut, soy, and cucumber).

and then I had the Ginger Chicken with Jasmine Rice

followed by the House Signature dessert - Green Tea Ice Cream Cake..

Yum!

And they all made me an ATC for presents!  I LOVE having friends to exchange art with!!!
And ATCs are such wonderful pieces of small art...

(ATCs clockwise from upper left: Dot Clarke, Michelle Knoezer, Deborah Boschert, and Karen Chaussabel)

Too cool.

(Karen, Deborah, me, Dot, and Michelle)

And then I went back to work - but it was a great time!

 

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Wednesday the 14th was my birthday - woo hoo!  I always say that birthdays are great, because they sure beat the alternative!!  I went to lunch with friends on the day, but Dave and I waited until this Saturday to celebrate.

We went to a couple of our favorite antique malls and out to lunch.

We chose Sangria for lunch - it was on our list of places to try and we had a gift card; a combination I find compelling. 

I gave it a 3-star rating and Dave says I have to explain my rating system...

first of all, anything to be rated (movies, restuarants, books, etc.) always gets 1 star for not being the movie, "Robin Hood Men in Tights".  I long ago decided that was one of the worst movies ever made and easily serves as a lowest-star bench mark (it has a rating of 0 stars)...the 3 dip trio was fabulous, so it got another star, the shrimp weren't all cooked evenly and the couscous was soggy from the sauce, so it lost a star, but then the baklava totally redeemed it, so it gained back a star and the waitstaff and ambiance were pleasant, so it got the third star.

Unlike some of my foodie friends, I'm still not in the habit of taking pictures before I start to eat the dish, but at least I remembered before I finished them off!

(it should read labneh with sumac, pencil asparagus...) and baklava for dessert!

There is always fun stuff to see in the antique malls...

I spent today making Artist Trading Cards with a Dia de los Muertos theme...I love sewing quilt blocks together - it feels very productive - but it doesn't always feel creative, so I spent some time just playing: making a base fabric with stiff pellon in the middle instead of regular batting (skulls on one side, scraps on the other; then adding some stitches, and then cutting it up into 2.5"x3.5" pieces.

It made for a lot of card bases!  I then added themed images and some more decorative stitches and the only thing left is to add my name on the back and sew on a few embellishments!

So now it's off to watch a movie!      What a great weekend.

Blocks

I managed to get those those two piles of quilt block pieces assembled into blocks:

and even though I don't plan to combine these sets, it was fun to assemble them together and play with the shapes they produce!


These are from some of Sara's templates and it's so cool that they fit together.

the curved piecing is made ever so much easier with some Wonder Tape (unpaid unsolicited product endorsement)...

Since you are probably reading this on Monday....a little participation in Macro Monday...

This past week...

...has seen the completion of a small needlework case (to hold my embroidery scissors and thread);

Irises in the yard;

Roxie at her most comfortable...

(she rearranges the bedcovers every day while we are at work to maximize her comfort...this is why we don't leave the real pillows on the bed!)

Pieces cut out for two quilt tops...

and brunch at Stephen Pyles (where Chef Pyles himself actually stopped at our table to see if everything was satisfactory...(these pictures are from the internet because I did not take my camera...I know, you're shocked...)

The food, of course, was delicious...I had the Scottish Salmon and Dave had the roasted chicken.  We look forward to our next foodie outing in a couple of weeks to celebrate my birthday.  I think we are going to one of the Lombardi's restuarants.

Since both quilt tops are for one of those deadlines next year, I guess I'm right on schedule for a change!