After wasted hours and frustration trying to make this "Quick Blogcast" site work for me, I have decided to cut my losses and switch to the mor user friendly "Blogger".

If you would be so kind to update your links for me to the following  http://creativejuicestudios.blogspot.com/
it would be greatly appreciated.

You can also be taken directly to my new blog by clicking on the following:

Creative Juice Studios New Blog!

Hope to see you on my new site!

Well, in addition to lounging at the lake all summer, I did find time to complete a major project...

I finished my daughters pink and black quilt - to match her pink and black room! 



She was very patient while other projects kept being moved ahead of hers, but I think she was worth the wait!


She's been in her "new room" since the beginning of the year, and I started this quilt about 6 months before the "move in", so it was long overdue. 

Once I returned from Panama, I hit the ground running.  We hosted Dave's entire family at our lake cottage over the long 4th of July weekend.  We had 26 people staying in our little cottage (that includes the tents in the yard, and those sleeping in the screen porch)!!  We get together annually in the summer to celebrate all the neices and nephews birthdays.  I call it Christmas in July!!  The location rotates between Dave's siblings, and it was our years!  It is always lots of fun, but very exhausting.

                



In additon we host various other friends and family at the lake over the summer.  We love sharing it with those we love.  Watching a kid who has never tubed or skied befrore give it a try is so much fun.  Dave is a very kind, and patient boat captain/water sport instructor.

Cookouts, boating, swimming, reading, relaxing, fishing and just enjoying the company of those around us is what the lake is all about for me.  It is so relaxed, unhurried, and unstructured, that you feel that you can leave all the stress of normal life in the car when you arrive!  Don't get me wrong, there is still work to be done - I will fill you in on the big work project we tackled this summer up there - but everything seems to be done on "lake time"!


 

 

 

 

   

 

 


 



 

 

 

Thanks for all the memories!

If you have checked my blog this summer and saw no activity since my last entry before leaving for Panama, you might think that we have been being held in a Panamanian Prison.  Well, thankfully, that is not the case, but the summer flew by so fast that blogging was not a major priority.  But the kids have started back to school, so my life has slowed down a little.  I thought I would steal a moment to give you  brief update on our trip, and then in the next few blogs, I will update you on the rest of the summer.





Our trip to Panama was great.  It is so nice to spend unhurried time with my spouse.  It made me remember when we were first dating. 





The weather was VERY HUMID and HOT, and periodic rain.  That is because Panama is a Rainforest.  The upside to that is the many beautiful plants and flowers... 





 







The old section of town was one of my favorite areas. 

 




The resort we stayed at was awesome. 







To see the Panama Canal in action was really amazing. 







We did some deep sea fishing.  That was the activity that Dave was most excited about.  We didn't get the best boat.  But Dave did catch this 14 pound Mahi Mahi...

               



My favorite day of all was when we were taken via yacht



to an island in the Gulf of Panama.



There were suppose to be 20 people on the excursion, and they booked workers to handle that amount.  But only 8 showed up, so we had 9 people to cater to our every whim.  One of the guys even brought Dave a refill of his rum punch 20 feet out into the water! 





It was a great day!

And all in all it was a wonderful trip.  Thank you Dave for working so hard to earn it, and thank you GSK for providing us with a time we will never forget!

My husband and I are leaving on Saturday morning for a all expenses paid trip to the country of Panama. 



My loving husband is an awesome salesperson who was ranked in the top 4% of his companies sales force last year and won this trip as a reward for his hard work. 

See you in 10 days!!!

I am still flying about having one of my pillows included in the ETSY front page treasury. 

I have to give a big THANK YOU, to beadznthingz's for including me in her Treasury.  If you get a second, check out her etsy store - she makes the most beautiful polymer clay beads.  I'm not sure how she does it, but alot of them look like glass.  They are very cool!  She sent me a screenshot of the treasury actually on the front page, here it is...



Well, as "high" as I am about this, I'd better get back to work...

   

Only in my wildest dreams did I think that one of my items would be included in a Treasury on Etsy.  A Treasury is a group of favorite items that is selected by members or administrators.  They are usually grouped together by color, style, medium, etc.  The front page Treasury changes several times a day, and is selected by the Etsy administrators from their favorite Treauries.  And for that Treasury to make it to the FRONT PAGE of the Etsy website was not something my mind could even imagine.     I guess dreams can come true...

As you can see, "My Cottage Charm Quilted Pillow was on the FRONT PAGE of the Etsy website this afternoon...

                                

I was not on-line to see it actually on the front page, but my cousin captured a screen shot of the treasury for me before it expired. 

If you want to see the full treasury of Colorful Circles and Squares, before it expires on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 10:46 am... , click here.

As I promised, here is week 2 of my summer at the lake. 

Memorial Day Weekend is typically opening day at the cottage, so there is usually lots of work involved, but in addition, we always make time for fun...

 

We got the boats in the water, and Hubby, C and P even went fishing, and caught this huge walleye...

 

Grandma and Grandpa M came for the day on Sunday.  Grandpa enjoys the screen porch and his suduko.
 
            

I made time to get my plants potted...

                

All in all, it was a great weekend...

                 

Thursday afternoon I was working on a pillow top, and decided to try my hand a free motion quilting.  I found out my sewing machine is not designed for this.  It is an older "computerized" machine, and it won't let you sew a straight stitch with the feed dogs lowered.  For those who are confused by this, the feed dogs pull the fabric in to the needle as you sew.  To properly do free motion quilting, the feed dogs should be lowered so that the material is not pulled, and you can move the fabric freely this way and that  - i.e. the term "free motion". 

Well, being the stubborn Irish girl that I am, I decided that this would not stop me, so I did some experimenting and found that if I used an open foot and set my stitch speed to a medium speed, that I could move the fabric freely enough to take a "stab" at it.  I don't use the foot control, I just use the botton on the front to stop and start the machine and set the speed.

Well, to make a long story longer, I was in a hurry, as I was trying to finish in order to get to my daughters school to see her end of the year pep session (she is a middle school cheerleader).  I was rushing, and not paying as close attention to where my fingers were in relation to the needle in the open toe foot, the fabric was being pull by the machine in one direction, and I was trying to move it in another, and low and behold, I did something I did not think was possible...

I sewed right through my finger - nail and all...

                 

It would not stop bleeding, and I was afraid I may have hit the bone, so I wrapped it tightly, and drove myself to the emergency room. 

                

2 hours, and a $50 co-pay later, I walked out with a heavily bandaged finger, but without any stitches and having not hit the bone.  They did notice in the x-ray, 2 very small pieces of metal in my finger - remnants of the needle (which broke into 3 pieces - one still in the machine, and 2 imbedded in the fabric), which they said would "work themselves out". 

                

Needless to say, I missed the pep session, but under the circumstances, my daughter was very understanding. 

Once again, being the stubborn Irish girl that I am, I went down later that afternoon, bandaged left index finger and all, and finished the quilting on the pillow top.  All things considered, I think it turned out pretty good, and not one drop of blood was shed on the fabric.

                

                

I hit my first garage/yard sales of the season this past Saturday.  I love finding a deal and I love turning someone else's trash into my treasure!  I feel it is my way of helping the environment!

Here are a few of my recent finds...



Griffith's vintage milk glass with red top spice jars.  Even with the original holder.  I have actually been looking for one of these in a price I could afford (or more aptly willing to pay) for our lake cottage for 5 years!  I scored this one for only $10!



This great small Fiesta ware black pitcher.  It too will go to my lake cottage.  I scored this in the original box for only $5! 



All these "yummy" home decor and garden books.  I got all of them for $10!  The list prices total up to $200 if I bought them in the store at retail price!!




I also scored this brand new Vera Bradley bag and card holder.  In addition I got 3 new Vera Bradley shirts (not pictured) - I didn't even know Very made shirts.  I got the whole lot of Vera stuff for $30!  The list price on the bag alone was $72 and each of the t-shirts were $28 - they all still had the tags.  Not sure how much the card wallet was - that was the only one without a tag, but I can tell it is brand new too!

I also got an overhead projector for $5 - not sure what I will do with that one, but just couldn't pass it up.  If nothing else the kids can use it to play "school". 

It was a good day!!!