In a Nutshell...

Welcome to all! I am thinking that we have some newcomers to my blog since I am having this first-day-of-spring giveaway and I am lucky to be featured guest blogger on Michele's blog/website this weekend!

I am known as 'Upstatelisa' around these here parts. Where did the crazy name come from you ask?

WhenI began my internet connection here in our present home, I signed up for a yahoo account and had to come up with a user name. Well, just in case you don't know, my parents (and millions of others who became parents of girls in the 1960's) chose "Lisa" as their daughter's name, so plain ol' Lisa just wouldn't work for a user name... it was all ready taken (surprise!). So... living in what is known loosely as upstate NY (though I have to say that we really do live in upstate NY, northeastern NY), I chose "Upstatelisa" and the name stuck!

I am wife to Mr. U (we will celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary next week) and Mom to Teenager with lots of stuff, Nature Boy, and Sugarbaby (a.k.a. Sloppy).

Most mornings, Mr. U's alarm goes off just after 4 AM (I know... this is crazy, you say!). But this allows Mr. U and I to have a cup of coffee and go our separate ways for an hour or two. He goes off to climb a nearby mountain or run about 2 hours outside...

while I go to the gym to run on a treadmill-- I prefer to have control over my environment, kind of like a laboratory, eh? ( HA! I stuck that in for the Canadians, but really, I have lost all my Canadianisms, except the occasional s-oh-rry which my kids laugh at and honestly, most people think I sound more american than my US born hubby). I don't have 2 hours to spare so I am happy if I get in a 4 mile run (which I did in 36.04 minutes this morning) or I take a one hour strength training class a couple of times per week.

I can come home, shower, dress, eat breakfast, and then start the day which includes seeing the girls off to school on their respective school buses, schooling Nature Boy whom we began homeschooling last month, fulfilling landlord duties for our 6 unit apartment building, completing household chores or my fave....

Escaping to my sewing room!!!!!! I have had to take a bunch of photos of me in my sewing room lately to get ready to send off to the publisher of a book project spearheaded by Vickie Howell (I made the final cut).... this is one photo that I am considering sending. Can you see the giveaway quilt in my hands?!

If you don't all ready know, I am a huuuuge lover of log cabins in quilts


This is my latest bunch of scrappy log cabins...

making a total of 79 blocks...

which I started when I saw this challenge (I am using freezer paper paper piecing to make my blocks) and I am aiming to make about 100. Almost there!

This is another of my recent log cabin projects...
The 25 blocks are sewn together but now I have to figure out which way to quilt it!

I could go the wonky line route....

or the more wonky grid pattern route...
Which do you prefer?

Once that project is done, it is back to my other love...


My houses!!!!! Wonky houses, to be exact! (Can you tell that I like the word 'wonky'?!) I want to put these together to enter in our guild's quilt show in June!

So, that, in a nutshell, is me....

Have a good weekend! I will be transporting Teenager to/from work, going to a lecture/trunk show at our guild given by 4th and 6th Designs, and helping out at two figure skating exhibitions (Saturday and Sunday) in which Sugarbaby will skate. Which leaves me no time for blogging this weekend!!!!