Ugly Quilt

I had the brilliant idea to make quilts for my brother and his family. The quilt for my brother looks like pop culture vomited. Of course my brother loves it. 

His kids have described it as “manly” and “beer” and “warm”.   I think they are being kind. 

In case you were wondering this master piece of madness has fabric containing the following:

• Jaws
• Star Wars
• Beer
• Tacos
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Skeletons 
• Walking Dead
• E.T.
• Fighting Robots
• Tattoos
• Blood Splatters
• Silver Screen Monsters

My least favorite fabric is still E.T. He looks like a deformed potato and incredibly hard to match fabric to.  The longer you look at the fabric with his face on it, the weirder and uglier he looks.  By far my favorite fabric is Silver Screen Monsters.  I love old movies and so does my brother, so when I saw the fabric I immediately thought of him.  Despite the fact that some of the fabric used was just plain ugly, I had a lot of fun hunting for fabric and coming up with a pattern.

The To-Do List

It isn’t a surprise to most people that I like to travel.  The  reason I like to travel is that I am normally spending time with people that are important to me.  With the current climate of unease, it is not healthy to travel and it is recommended to avoid people to slow the spread of infection. Physical distancing does not mean social isolation, even though it can feel like it.  Just like when I was a kid and we would tell stories around the camp fire to make the darkness of the woods less scary, I think that sharing stories might make this time of darkness a little lighter. 

The To-Do List

Several years back I was cat watching for my grandparents while they were on vacation.  When I watch the cat (Stella- who hates me), I try to spend a couple hours in the house, so that Stella doesn’t feel abandoned.  Normally I putz around the house or sit and read so that she can have some company for a bit. 

The one time I was there I noticed a to do list on the fridge. It was clearly written by my grandmother.  I had to laugh, because it looked like my grandfather may have added something to the top of the list in black.

It looks like to me that on the top of my Grandfathers to-do list was eat the tomatoes. This made me laugh, because I could picture in my head my grandmother getting on my grandfathers case about not doing the gardening and he is sitting there eating tomatoes, telling her that he is following the list. It is one of those things that after 50 years of being married, they still find creative ways to annoy each other.  My grandparents are an inspiration. I can only hope to annoy my husband for as long as they have annoyed each other. 

Be a Calm Iggins

These are interesting times that we live in. I was listening the public radio on the way to work before I became part of the work from home force, and the radio host talked about the importance of being calm. The abbreviated version was that keeping a calm head will keep you safer. Then my brain leapt immediately to “Fear is the mind killer” and then jumped to the time that Iggins was startled and ran directly into a wall.  I do not want to be an Iggins running into walls.  However, I know that it is not easy to keeps a calm out look.  Some people go for distractions, such as binge watching movies until it is over and others are using this time to learn new skills.  I am a list person, so my distraction tends to come in lists and completing them.  Good things come in multiples of threes.

Things that I have learned:

1. I still hate grape juice
2. Trying something on Pinterest does not equate automatic success
3. Date Bread does not taste the way you think it would.  

Things that I am grateful for:

1. Postage Stamps
2. Fabric Hoarding
3. Fluffy Socks

Things that distract me:

    1.  Things We Do in the Shadows (television show)

    2.  My husband and his need for new records

    3.  Family 

What are some things that you have learned, you are grateful for and distract you?  

March Movie List

In the crazy world that we live in that feels more like the beginning to several sci-fi movies, it is a good thing that my husband has various sources for visual entertainment.  The March Movie list feels like I should have earned a badge.  If I had a creative talented I would make a badge for some that has seen at least half of these movies, that isn’t married to me.  It is an eclectic mix.

How many of these movies have you seen?

March movies

• Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla
• Godzilla Tokyo SOS
• Godzilla 2000
• The Mad Mission
• Guns Akimbo 
• Alien Trespass
• Christine
• Rifftrax: The Girl from Rio
• Rifftrax: The Last Shark
• Lethal weapon 
• Lethal weapon 2
• MST3k Zombie Nightmare 
• Red Son
• The Monster Club
• Dr.  Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine 
• Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs
• American Movie
• Jodorowsky’s Dune

Thoughts on some of these movies:

• I think that Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine might have the catchiest song ever. I still find myself humming and singing it days later.  It is one of those Vincent Price movies that doesn’t seem like it was a hardship for him to film.  
• Guns Akimbo is one of those movies that is a fun action movie that made me laugh more then I expected and will mostly likely get a copy for my brother for the next holiday/birthday/just because gifting.
•  Jodorowsky’s Dune made me realize that you don’t always have to read the book to find inspiration.