birthday retail therapy

i was on my home from work by 2pm (i love half days) and decided to head to tomato (fabric store in nippori) after i stopping home and changing.

it was heavenly. i sense the beginning of a very dangerous habit of fabric hording. but more importantly, i finally made a decision about my charm quilt! i spent at least 2 hours in the store, and probably more than HALF of that was laying my charm quilt top against dozens of different fabrics. here's what i eventually came to:


it's a little rough, but you get the idea. for as much time as i spent, the combination is nothing spectacular, but i like it. i had yellow in mind because of this quilt by jennifer. the white fabric has even brighter white stars and the yellow has tiny white polka dots.


and, for the back?! again, after seeing these quilted stars over at The Family McG, i decided that's how i wanted to quilt mine too. and so when i saw this fabric, i fell in love.


i also picked up some clearanced fleece for the inside. (though i guess i should ask if there's anything wrong with using fleece instead of batting?)

i also picked up a handful of other fun fabrics. the dinosaurs, giraffes, japanese writing one and the zoo animals were in a "two for 100yen" bin and i couldn't resist.









i haven't worked on my quilt for almost two weeks, because 1) i didn't have fabric picked out for the border (solved!) and 2) i ordered a walking foot for my sewing machine and was waiting for it to come in. i picked it up yesterday. it was discovered that i can't lower the feet on my machine, which i'm pretty sure means that free motion quilting is out, but i'm happy for now doing straight lines (STARS!) and can't wait to get going again!

it's too bad that i'm going on a school ski trip tomorrow and can't. but not really THAT bad because who would complain about 3days/2nights of skiing and onsen-ing?? of course it's with 198 rowdy 8th and 9th graders, but that's a minor detail, right? :P

in other news, i had a shit day yesterday (and the eyes to prove it this morning *sigh*) but today i only had one class, i got happy birthday texts all morning, i ordered my hakama for graduation, the weather turned nice, i treated myself to lots of new fabric (even though my wallet says i shouldn't), Chelsea called me from Oz to say happy birthday (thank you!!), i cooked chicken/corn/rice stir fry for dinner and i'm going skiing tomorrow! not the best birthday to date, but definitely better than most i've had and am most definitely thankful.





11:46pm

following this post, i continued to get happy birthday messages, from the boys (Bee and Style and a promise of a free dinner from Newbie), and a dozen other friends and acquaintances. i got 3 mixi messages and the time difference means facebook wall posts are still trickling in. and i got a gchat message from my brother. i missed a phone call while in the shower from a guy also who worked on mt fuji last summer. i hadn't talked to him or his girlfriend (now wife!) since their last day on fuji. he left a voicemail, which made me laugh out loud. it was just so "them". i called them back and chatted for about 5 minutes, but as for the voicemail, i saved it. for a rainy day when i need a smile.

and yet with all that, it feels a bit...lonely? i didn't go out to dinner or talk to my parents, or see my friends, or eat cake OR ice cream! but, i AM feeling fairly well loved so i can't complain too loudly. ;)