Three things

A shameless plug, a new project, and a bit of clarification.

Shameless plug...My friend Erin is going to work on some quilts for those affected by Sandy.  And, I'm going to help and I'm going to plug her blog because I'm betting that I have some followers that don't know Erin and would like to help, too.  Erin is the first person I've seen plan a quilting response to Sandy, though I am sure there are others, so if you haven't already committed yourself to the relief effort, I want to encourage you to participate in Erin's effort.  Even if it's just a few blocks.  Here's a link to Erin's post about the blocks she wants to collect and assemble and quilt.  Who knows, if you guys overwhelm her, I may be called on to help assemble and quilt.  And, if you don't know Erin, take a few minutes to read her blog.  She's a fantastic person and my goal is to be as generous a person and parent as she is.  And, to learn to speak Spanish.

A new project...Bonnie Hunter's mystery is gearing up.  It's called Easy Street.  And, Bonnie is promising easy.  I did Bonnie's RRCB mystery two years ago (pattern is in String Fling now).  I skipped Orca Bay last year.  I just didn't have the fabrics for that one.  But, this one is apple green, purple, aqua, and gray, with black on white as the background.  I love apple green, purple and aqua and can't wait to see what Bonnie does with them.  My goal is to use fabric, not to buy fabric, so I will likely expand the shades across the color spectrum to end up with enough "scrappy happiness" from my stash, but I'm going to do my best to stick with her suggestions.  And, because we don't need more full sized quilts, I will likely make all the pieces she suggests and assemble them into multiple quilts, like I did RRCB.  If it works for me like RRCB did, I'll have one to share, one to keep and one to donate.  If you're worried about keeping up with her during the holidays, I can offer this one suggestion; the holidays are such a stressful time that it is nice to have a project that you can just lock yourself into the sewing room and follow the instructions on, without having to think about it too much.  You can't make mistakes because you don't know what it's going to look like until the end.  And, you don't HAVE to keep up with her, but if you don't, you have to remember to print the instructions because they're only available for a limited time, and then they are pulled and published in a book.  Clever quilter.  The fabric I'm most worried about not having enough of is the black on white, sooooooo, there might be a bit of fabric acquisition in it for me.... 

Clarification...Yesterdays post drew lots of response.  But, I think I got bogged down in the grades in my post and that really wasn't what I wanted the post to be about...see how easy that slippery slope is to slide down?  What I wanted to say was that practically EVERYBODY YELLS.  Okay?  I know lots of people that are like me and don't want to, but as far as I can tell, we all do it, at least occasionally.  And, it would be really easy to feel so bad about it that I just cover my head and hide.  But, the really important thing about everything in life is that what you do is not nearly as important as what you do after that.  After that, I apologized and after that, I got on with life. 

I think that we sometimes lose track of what we "do after that" because what we do after a remarkable event is generally unremarkable.  I want people to know that I am a "yeller in recovery" who is doing his dead level best not to yell because I think there is a better way to parent.  And, I want other parents to know that life goes on and everything is okay.  And, IF YOU NEED HELP, GO GET IT.  Because life gets a lot better if you can get past the remarkable event and learn to dwell in the unremarkable "after that". 

Okay, that's it for this yelling event because it is behind me.  Because of what I did after that, Sydney is taking school more seriously and working to bring up her grades and our relationship was not damaged by anything I said. 

So, those are my three things for today.  Yeah, Erin.  Yeah, Bonnie.  Yeah, Me.  Yeah, Sydney.  Yeah, Rob who held my hand while I was feeling bad...before I moved to "after that". 

Be well and have a great Thursday.  We were going to help my friend move this weekend (she has not even started packing yet and is not planning to start until the move day...why can't everyone be as organized as I am???) but the move date has been moved back, so I have the weekend to play.  Quilting and painting and enjoying the autumn weather. 

Lane