Tuesday's Orts--Jan 11, 2011

1/11/11, another fun calendar date!  Today's orts are accompanied by windy, wintry weather...

• The national weather extremes listed in my local paper had Mammoth Lakes, California at minus 22 degrees as the lowest low one morning last week.  The next morning the national low was in Minnesota at minus 23 degrees, back where it belongs, as I told my husband!
• I bought some blueberry bagels at the grocery store last Friday and put them in the pantry with the loaves of sourdough and wheat I also purchased.  I could smell them every time I opened up the pantry door and even when I didn't.  On Sunday when Grant was making a sandwich with the wheat bread, he said it tasted like blueberry, which didn't go very well with his tuna.  Looking at the package, it read "naturally and ARTIFICIALLY flavored".  Ahh, mystery solved.  The bagels were pulled out of the pantry and relegated to the top of the fridge.  Much better.
• Son Nick calls his dad the Grant Mouse.  Being very polite and thinking only of his family, the Grant Mouse never polishes off the last of anything.  So when you want a sweet and the package is very light, you can always find a half a cookie.  Same with crackers, chips, ice cream, tortillas, and the sliced cheese.  There is always a gift from the Grant Mouse of the last morsel, half slice, or spoonful.
• Erica is making the rounds of her friends' houses and getting her car checked over.  It sure is great to have an Uncle as your mechanic as he always has loaner cars at his shop.
• Working in a doctor's office, we of course have policies.  As the office manager, it is my job to update these.  Once a year we ask patients to fill out a basic info sheet for name, address, insurance company, etc (1 page) and give them the updated policies (1 page).  People want to just put "same" in all the sections but frequently forget to tell us that their "same" is a new address they moved to six months ago or a new insurance card that we don't have.  Many people don't even look at the policies before they ask "if there is anything they should know about".   YES, people, a document which gives clear instructions and requires your signature should be READ, completely filled out, and signed!  Really, not kidding. 
• Traffic rant:  Again with the bicycles!  Stop at stop signs and red lights, just like a car must.  Ride WITH traffic, not against it.  Don't ride on the sidewalk.  Ride tandem not side by side.  Pedestrians have the right of way, especially on the sidewalk.  And please, don't talk on your cell phone while riding on a busy street. 
• Making throw pillows is not cheap. Erica wants piping around the pillows but the packaged stuff is not 100% cotton and does not match the Indigo Kona cotton.  So I bought more fabric to make my own.  However, I neglected to buy cording.  So back to the store I will go again.  Zippers have stayed relatively cheap but thread is getting very expensive.  An economy sized spool of Guterman thread cost me $5.39 at the local fabric store.  It is really a tossup to me to shop local and pay more rather than drive 10-15 extra miles round trip to use a coupon at JoAnn's in the next city over...Time is money! 
• About 4-5 years ago DMC came out with a bunch of embroidery products using stencils and pearl cotton.  Remember Linea?  For some reason it wasn't very popular and Michael's and JoAnn's had them on clearance.  I bought them up and started one project on linen which I never finished.  But I thought some embroidery would be great for Erica's pillows.  Plus I get to try out the Precensia perle cotton I paid dearly for at a quilt show earlier this year:

This design is called Lotus Leaf.  I centered it on the pillow front.

This design is symmetrical all around no matter which way the pillow will land.  Hand work  like this I really enjoy but of course it is time-consuming!  The Presencia is size 8 and has a beautiful feel and sheen but shorter lengths of the thread work best on this woven cotton.  I'm off to stitch for a bit before work.