Sunday, October 14, 2012

Spoon Trick

A couple of months ago I received one of those emails that shares a list of tips.  The one that amused me the most stated. "A wooden spoon laid across the top of a pot will keep it from boiling over."  Now, I have been a homemaker for over 40 years (I cooked real food for at least 30 of those years) and I had never heard this one.  So I tried it and it worked!  This pot had pasta in it and I often end up with a mess on the stovetop from the boiling pot overflowing.  But this one did not overflow no matter how long it boiled and how little I babysat it.

I know... kinda stupid to entertain yourelf with a spoon.  What can I say other than simple minds are simply amused.  :o)

Thursday, September 20, 2012

The Wedding Gift

The husband and I will be attending a wedding this weekend.  The young couple is mid to late 20’s.  We’ve known the groom since his first year of college.  They both have their professional careers well under way and are now ready to build the personal part of their lives.

The event is to be held at the Biltmore in Phoenix.  I’ve personally never been there but I envision it as being pretty fluffy.  They’ve built a website to keep family and friends up to date of all the wedding goings on.  I’m pretty old school but am computer literate and depend on it for a lot of stuff, so this seemed pretty cool to me.  Invitees were to RSVP through the website.  If you were traveling from out of town it informed you that a block of Biltmore rooms were set aside at a discount rate.  The photo album contained hundreds of engagement pictures.  There is a Wedding Party page… that’s blank.  Seems to me that page would be used to introduce or thank the wedding party for being part of their BIG day.  And then there’s the Gift Registry page.  The concept of a gift registry has been around for a long time and I kept checking that page so I could go SHOPPING.  Finally a month or so before the wedding they posted something on the Gift Registry page.  It made me gasp!  They didn’t do a Gift Registry anywhere!  They were requesting GIFT CARDS!  There was a list of 6 places, some physical building others online shopping websites.  I have already admitted that I’m old school, BUT… GIFT CARDS… REALLY?  Being old school I NEVER buy gift cards for anyone, for any occasion.  I know it’s work for them but it takes some of the FUN out it for the rest of us.  I was disappointed.

So, I decided to do what old school people like me do… I made them a quilt!  I was looking for an excuse to try my hand at making a MODERN style quilt AND use up some of my stash so I was able to talk myself into it rather easily.



The pattern I used came from the Fall 2011 magazine “scrap quilts” by Fon’s and Porter but used less modern colors.  The pattern resulted in a much larger rectangle quilt and was suppose to have circles fused on the blocks with the larger size centers.  The finished size of this quilt is 72” square, I thought square was more appropriate for the overall modern feel I was going for.  And I really didn’t want to mess with the fusing stuff so I left off the circles.  Of course, the project took longer than I had anticipated.  I really like the finished result but if I had it to do over I would probably just give them a GIFT CARD.

As I walk away from this project I’m taking with me the consideration to join the new millennium and give more gift cards. 

Monday, September 17, 2012

I'm Just Talkin' About... NATURE



Yesterday my day was spent with NATURE, in the form of ANTS.  There were hundreds, if not thousands of the little tenacious crawlers invading my house!  This wild adventure actually started the night before as I crawled into bed I noticed an innocent little ant between the sheets.  Silly me… I thought it got there as a stow away on the cord of my heating pad (is that too much info?)  A nearby window had been open during the day and I rationalized its presence by thinking it had wandered through the window and found its way onto the cord that I then put on the bed.  I mean really, how else could it have gotten there?

The next morning I wandered down the hall towards the coffee and almost reached my destination before I realized my walk, almost the entire length of the house, had been in a trail of ants!  The trail started in the dining room at the cat’s food bowl and it led the colony down the hall to an area rug.  I get the invasion of the food bowl but don’t get the area rug.  ???

So in an attempt to GET RID of them I started with some wet paper towels.  Paper towels… not much of a weapon.  But my thought was, “I’ll just wipe them up.”  Yeah, not so much, there were WAY too many for that tactic.  My next logical thought was, “I need to do a MASS killing!”  Under the kitchen sink there was a bottle of Lysol Disinfectant Spray (now that’s a WOMANS tool).  It worked wonders as I sprayed it on the trail of invaders.   Then those wet paper towels came in handy for the removal of all those little DEAD ants.

It sounds like everything is under control, RIGHT?  But the more I got rid of the more I found!  They were not only in the dining room and down the hall; they were also in the KITCHEN and TWO bedrooms and BOTH bathrooms.  I did switch my paper towels in for Lysol Disinfecting Wipes (I use these things for EVERYTHING).  My thought was the disinfectant (what ever that STUFF is) would kill the pheromones they were leaving behind and they would think the trail was NOT in my house making them go back to where ever they came from.  I learned that without a trail they just run around EVERYWHERE looking for it!  So now most of these guys (or gals) were not as organized as the first invaders cuz they didn’t have the TRAIL thing going on.  Which meant the remainder of my day was spent killing them ONE ant at a time.  ALL DAY long I was KILLING ANTS!  Every time I entered a room I saw little ants running around aimlessly!  At 10:30 last night I was still killing ANTS (in the bathroom)!

This morning… I woke up to the cat (no I’m not changing the subject) on my bed playing with something.  Yep!  It was an ant, running around in my bed!  Once on my feet I saw all her little friends running around in my bedroom and bathroom AND more making their way across the hall into another bedroom!  So, here I go again… Killing ants… ONE little ant at a time…

Friday, September 7, 2012

Another FUN Day of Charity Sewing


Sew… Yesterday was the Peace by Piece Quilters monthly bee and it was a FUN and BUSY day. 


There were 29 of us filling Mission Hall of the church. 


At the end of the day we had 39 finished quilts ready to go out into the community for children needing a HUG.


Mission Hall is a large enough space that we can spread out to nurture the creative process.


Making a quilt includes a little pressing and to get the job done we have two ironing stations with two irons on each station.  Those stations rarely spend a minute without use.


Making so many quilts requires a LOT of batting.  This is our batting station which is usually busy all day.  It takes two volunteers to cut all that batting for the quilts ready to be quilted.


We had a surprise visitor to the bee this month, Pat.  All of our scrap fabrics are passed along to Pat and she uses them to make beds for dogs and cats that are currently living in shelter.  Pat did a little BED Show ‘n Tell for us and shared her bed-making process.


Every Year Mission del Sol church starts the New Year out holding fundraisers to raise money for their missions.  As a Thank You for allowing us to use their space for our bees we provide them with a quilt they can use as a fundraiser by selling raffle tickets.  This year we had three vintage quilt tops (aren't they AWESOME!) donated to us that are too large for children.  So we are going to finish one of them and give it to the church for their mission fundraising effort.


So we took time away from our sewing machines to inspect each one and make a decision on which one we would complete to donate to the church.


This is the one the ladies decided on.  I’ll be purchasing backing fabric in the near future so we can move forward with completing the quilt.

If you would like to learn more information about this group go to www.peacebypiecequilters.org.  Our next bee will be on October 4th.  We would love to have you join us.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

A Day Of Charity



Today I’m getting all the last minute STUFF ready for tomorrow’s charity sewing bee.  This bee happens once a month at a nearby church with ALL of the quilts going to seriously ill and traumatized children in the Phoenix area.  All of our quilts are distributed by AZ Blankets 4 Kids www.azblankets4kids.com 

We do it all at the bees… sort fabric, cut it into kits, sew tops together, quilt, and bind.  The finishing touch is to sew the labels on.  Near the end of the day there is always a SHOW ‘N TELL of all the cute quilts we’ve completed that day, usually around 40. 

If you would like to learn more about our charity bees go to www.peacebypiecequilters.org.  Better yet, go to the website for directions on how to get to the bee and COME JOIN IN THE FUN!  We have a VERY LARGE room to sew in so there is always room for one more.  It really is a FUN way to spend the day and you go home with a WARM HEART.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Christmas Bedrunner DONE!



Another project has made it to the DONE pile!  This one wasn’t a UFO very long but I was determined to have it done by the Holidays.  The July 26 post ‘This Problem I Got…’  shared with you a less than desirable piecing result.  The whole thing had a slight “S” curve to it that was made very evident by those yellow squares that ran down the center.  I spent a considerable amount of time trying to get rid of that “S” and although it is less noticeable than it was, it’s STILL THERE.  This piece ALMOST ended up in the trash!  I convinced myself to spend a few hours quilting it to get a true visual on how BAD it was.  The only thing that saved it from going in the trash was that it wasn’t being made for someone else.  It was only going to live on my bed for maybe a month outta the year.  So here it is, DONE! 

That “S” will probably SCREAM at me every time I walk in the room and see it.  If it drives me too crazy it may end up in the trash after all.

Pattern by: cheri good quilt design  You can find them and their whole line of patterns at www.cherigoodquiltdesigh.com


Tuesday, August 28, 2012

I’m Just Talkin’ About… PETS

Jazzy & Rosy hanging out with me in the sewing room

I AM A CRAZY CAT LADY!  At least that’s what some people think of me, I can see it on their face!   OMG!   She’s a weird one, a CRAZY CAT LADY.

We Americans have our PETS.  The first animal that pops into our head when we hear the word PET we think dog or cat.  But some people have a PET in the form of a bird or fishes.  Some even call a horse or a reptile a pet.  And some get into the whole gerbil, hamster, guinea pig and even RATS (my brother had those!)  But I just want to talk CATS (and a little DOG) today cuz those are the most common according to the Humane Society of the United States.  So here’s a sampling of their stats…  
CATS
~86.4 million owned
~33% of US households own a cat/s
~$219 spent annually per cat on vet visits
DOGS
~78.2 million owned
~39% of US households own a dog/s
~$248 spent annually per dog on vet visits

For more stats visit www.humanesociety.org  

Now I did a little surfing on just how much money we PET owners spend annually on TOYS for our PETS, CATS = $21 and DOGS = $43.  And those numbers kinda prove what I really wanna talk about….  The difference between and CAT owners and DOG owners and the way those people are perceived by others.  I think, CAT owners spend half as much on toys because they don't want society to think they are a CRAZY CAT LADY! 

So here’s my story….

I’m a CAT owner.  Two of them currently live with me.  I have been the owner (or caregiver if my kids were the OWNER) of many different PETS.  CATS, DOGS, fishes, hamsters, guinea pigs and birds (that’s the list as best I can remember).  However, in my lifetime I cannot remember a time when I was not living with a CAT.

When a person enters my home I can tell pretty quick if they don’t like CATS by the way they react to my CATS.  Last week a quilty friend came over to raid my fabric stash.  When I opened the closet that contains shelves of fabric the gal gasp, “There’s a CAT up there!”  Which there was… My sweet little Rosy was on the top shelf taking her nap on a box.  I got the impression the gal did NOT like CATS cuz she didn’t make any other comments (like how cute she was or what a perfect napping spot).  Then there’s the gal (a DOG owner) that shared with me her surprise that there are a LOT of CAT toys in my house (I’ve been to her house, seen the dog toys AND petted her dog).  Some people totally ignore my CATS and others acknowledge their presence with talk or pet.

Anyway. It seems like a LOT of people (even CAT owners) think CATS are just a fixture or treat them as an on demand pet but DOGS aren’t often treated that way.  It is acceptable to most people for a DOG to greet company at the door and act as though it should be acknowledged (spoken to or petted).  Dogs’ toys are often strewn throughout the house and yard.  It’s acceptable for a DOG owner to play with their dog when company is present (or the DOG expects visitors to play with it).  Owners take their DOGS on outings to parks and get togethers.  Dogs usually have their own beds or they sleep on the couch or in a favorite chair.  DOG stories are shared and compared… like that of our children and grandchildren. 

But, as a CAT owner…  I get labeled a CRAZY CAT LADY when people see my cats have lots of toys (like a dog) and I actually play with them (like a dog).  I’m always talking to my CATS (like a dog).  AND they often answer me (like a dog)!  They greet me at the door when I come home (like a dog).  They will beg for treats (like a dog) and let me know when they are ready for breakfast and dinner (like a dog).  They get excited when I bring a new toy home for them (like a dog).  They follow me all over the house (like a dog).  They run to the door when someone comes to visit (like a dog).  AND I share stories about them with other people (like a DOG OWNER).

So anyway… I guess my point is… please don’t label me as a CRAZY CAT LADY.  I’m not weird just because I find pleasure is living with a couple of CATS and try my darnest to make their life living with me pleasurable. Like a DOG owner.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Another UFO Done!


Finished size:  98" x 98"

This quilt top was completed in 2006… THAT WAS 6 YEARS AGO !   Geez, that’s a long time.  Anyway… It’s done now. 

So this one started as a Block of the Month with my AQG quilt group www.azquiltersguild.com, the Cactus Patchers (I’ve mentioned them before) www.cactuspatchers.com.  

That year I was on the Cactus Patchers Board as the Friendship Group Coordinator.  It was my job to find ongoing projects for members to participant in.  What’s better and easier than a BOM?  Every month I handed out a 12” block pattern that was kinda starry in design (cuz I like star blocks).  Using the pattern each participant made a block (or two in my case) using their own fabrics.  At the end of twelve months we each had our own set of twelve (or more) blocks.  Right there was an UFO for a lot of people!  Pushing forward I began the design phase of creating a quilt large enough for a queen bed.  I soon found that even though I had been the over-achiever and made TWO blocks from each pattern there was just NO WAY they were going to make a queen size top without a little something extra.  Sashing wouldn’t get the job done and I couldn’t bring myself to make twelve more blocks to use as alternates between all those BOM blocks.  So… I made a BIG Feathered Star.  It kinda fits the theme of all those other blocks and I had always wanted to try making a Feathered Star.  Perfect!  Well, at least I thought it was.  I found a Feathered Star pattern in a magazine and got to work.  The snag came once the Feathered Star components were completed and the final assemble of the star began…  They didn’t fit together, the pattern was WRONG.  Grrrr…..  Somehow I got my brain to work through the problem and the star was completed!  From there the top went together pretty quickly.  And… then… it got folded up and placed in the closet where it sat for 6 YEARS.



Quilt back with label sewn in.

Fast forward to 2012 and the time had come to GET IT DONE.  That meant getting a back and a label together.  I shared that adventure with you in a the blog post on July 10 titled “I Seam To Be On A Roll!”.

Pillow Shams

Since there were fabrics left over from the top construction I was able to put a couple of pillow shams together.  Nothing fancy here!  I know myself well enough to know if I planned to make something really cool (like a small Feathered Star in the center of each sham) I would REALLY just be creating ANOTHER UFO instead of pillow shams.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Everyone Loves A Bed Turning

A few days ago a friend, Cathy Witske, had a few of us quilty gals over for a Bed Turning.  Cathy has been making quilts for a long time and has a pretty impressive pile of quilts to show for her years of work.  Since I’ve known Cathy her mission has been to make a dent in her SCRAP collection.  She does such a GREAT job of using scraps I thought I’d share with you a few of the quilts in her finished pile.  I also snapped a picture of one special quilt that helped create that scrap collection.

Most of Cathy’s quilts are hand quilted but this one was quilted by one of Cathy’s helpers, a professional longarm quilter named Monica Croom.


Doesn’t that yellow just set all those scraps off perfectly?  The squares in the border
are one inch finished and pretty much perfectly pieced.


This one hasn’t yet been quilted but still inspired me.  These stars were 12 - 16 inches (I don’t know exactly) and there was six of them.


This quilt is entirely done with appliqué.  It was not quilted which allowed us a peek at Cathy’s absolutely perfect hand stitches.  What a TREAT!


What a simple quilt to piece with Nine Patch and Quarter Square blocks.  And if that’s not enough to make you say Ohhh then the appliqué border sure will.


Don’t you think Cathy has the scrap thing down?


That’s a WHOLE LOTTA bow ties!


This is a BUNCH of little pieces.  I don’t even keep pieces this small cuz I know I don’t have the patience to work with them.


This one was layered but not yet quilted.  Again… a GREAT use of that easy Nine Patch block.


Cathy is in the process of hand quilting this one.  I don’t know how anybody has the patience to do that!


This little piece was about the size of a place mat.  All those black strips were created by a narrow strip of fabric folded in half lengthwise and sewn in the seam.  They are three dimensional!


And here’s the CROWN JEWEL of the BED TURNING! 
It’s not yet quilted but ya know she’ll hand quilt it.

These are a small sample of the quilts Cathy had piled on her bed.  Are you inspired?


Sunday, July 29, 2012

Ironing Pad for a Banquet Table



This project has been sitting untouched for about 3 months.  I made one of these 4 months ago for a charity group www.peacebypiecequilters.org  that I sew with every month.  This is like a Big Board only a whole lot easier to make a store.  A couple dozen ladies come to every bee so two ironing surfaces are needed AND the facility we sew at does not give us storage for ironing boards.  So we needed something that was easy to transport back and forth the bees.

It wasn’t in the UFO pile very long.  Which makes me wonder… How long do you go without working on a particular project before it is considered an UFO?  I’ve never heard of a time rule being in the Quilt Police Rule Book!

If you have stumbled on this blog post and think your charity group (or yourself!) would Like to make one drop me a note and I'll share with you how I did it.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

This Problen I Got...


This is the next project I am hoping to get outta the UFO pile.  It just needs quilted and bound.  As soon as it was unfolded I realized WHY it was in that UFO pile.  That slight “S” curve that is very evident down the center is NOT part of the design.  The whole piece is CURVED like an “S”!  I gave it a good dose of Fresh Press and laid a hot iron on it while stretching the edge that curves to the inside and it didn’t HELP A BIT!  Short of taking it apart and giving it another round on the sewing machine, I’m at a loss on how to FIX THIS. 


Any suggestions on how I can fix this (preferably WITHOUT taking it apart) AND how to avoid this effect in the future?

Friday, July 20, 2012

Cleaning Out the Closet

Everyday when I enter my closet the same thought crosses my mind, “Man, there’s a LOT of STUFF in here.”  Yesterday was no exception.  Sometimes I’ll pick one (maybe two) things and throw it in the box for Goodwill.  I figure if I remove something (permanently) once in awhile then MAYBE it will gradually come down to a more acceptable level of STUFF.  I’ve tried the traditional, cleaning the closet method where ya just go in there with some boxes and remove everything that I no longer wear and it doesn’t work for me.  Brain takes over and tells me “You might need that for something.”  So yesterday I removed a pair of Capri pants that I haven’t worn in a couple of years.  As I’m walking across the hall with them I’m thinking, “These were really comfortable pants.”  You see, Brain does this to me every time; it tries to talk me out of getting rid of something.  Sometimes Brain wins and sometimes I win.  The conversation continued something like this…  “The only reason I stopped wearing these is because of the cuff.”  And then Brain said, “Well maybe you should just get rid of the cuff instead of the WHOLE pair of pants.”  “Hmmm” I said. “You’re right!  I could turn them into a pair of shorts which I would probably wear often cuz I don’t have a pair of grey shorts!”  So a new project was born!  So much for my mission to work UFO’s.

Here’s the carpi’s, 26 inches long.  As you can see Brain got them from the closet to the sewing room pretty quick!  To figure out how to take these from capri’s to shorts I measured the length of a pair of shorts I like and wear often to give me a  short length I'm comfortable with.




The capri’s were long enough that I could just cut off the cuff and have enough fabric left to give me the length I wanted with a nice size hem.  Much easier than having to remove the original stitching!












So I just laid a tape measure down the front of the capri's and marked the desired finished length, which was 22 inches.







I folded the fabric under (wrong sides together) at the 22 inch mark.












And simply pressed the fold to give me a visual line to start with.


















Then I folded the entire bottom edge to the inside, making sure it was straight and level across and pressed across the whole bottom edge.  This not only helps hold the fabric in place but the crease also gives you a visual mark to fold and pin.









Then I folded the top raw edge down (wrong sides together) about a quarter inch making sure the top edge of the fold was 1 ¼ inches from the bottom fold.  Pins were used to hold it in place.  I then stitched along the top edge of the fold with a matching thread.












And here they are finished!  This whole job took less than an hour.  I could have done the sewing by hand which would have given a more tailored look, but I’m a casual kinda gal so the machine stitched hem works for me. 


Cleaning my closet out one piece at a time didn’t work for me this time, but I did get a new pair of shorts as a result of my attempt.  :o)









 

Sunday, July 15, 2012

UFO Now in the DONE Pile!



HERE IT IS!  DONE!!  I titled this one, “The Nine Patch Project”.  And here’s its story cuz every quilt has a story and we all love stories… 

It started as a friendship project between members of the Cactus Patchers, www.cactuspatchers.com.  The project began prior to 2003.   I know it began prior to 2003 because that’s when I joined the group and the project was part of history and the person who owned these blocks, Jean Lackey, was no longer a member of the group. 

This is how the friendship project worked.  Each participant would make six inch scrappy nine patch blocks using their own stash.  She would then trade her blocks with the other participants.  Each person would go home with the same number of blocks they made. 

In 2006 Jean came to the Cactus Patchers with news that she was having a sale to GET RID OF all her quilting STUFF.  (I really don’t understand how a person walks away from this craft, but anyway.)  At that sale I acquired her collection of nine patch blocks.


Now, I’m really NOT a nine patch kinda gal.  I do admire them but am not interested in making them.  So I gave these blocks my own TWIST by using them to create a wonky twelve inch block.  I don’t recall how many of these blocks were in Jean’s collection but there were not enough to make a quilt as BIG as I wanted so I made a few extra blocks (the finished quilt has a total of 72 blocks).  A border was also added to finish it off.  By the time I got done ADDING the top was 105 x 114”.  Plenty BIG enough to nicely cover my king size plush pillow top bed.  BUT since the quilt top was completed I have changed beds and no longer have that plush pillow top.  So the FINISHED quilt almost touches the floor on ALL three sides!


Cuz I’m a Quilt Police abiding quilter (sometimes) I did make a label.  I didn’t get fancy cuz my REAL goal was to be done with the project!  It was created in a word doc with a picture of three nine patch blocks imported and verbiage that shares the quilts story, then printed on fabric.  And it’s DONE!


Friday, July 13, 2012

Friday the 13th



Today I spent some time searching the web for information about the superstitious day, Friday the 13th.  There wasn’t any clear cut information on when, how or why the superstition was born.  But I did read some opinions and a few facts on the myth:

~ Some say the myth began to surface at least 1780 B.C.

~ The phrase Friday the 13th was not mentioned in American literature until 1907 but is frequently seen thereafter.

~ This date falls one to three times per year.  There will be three occurrences in 2012, exactly 13 weeks apart.

~ Paraskevidekatriaphobic is the Psychiatric title given to people who suffer from the disorder of a 'morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th'.

~ Some sources say it is the most widespread superstition in the United States.  The number of Americans suffering from this condition may be as high as 21 million, that’s eight percent.

~ Some people refuse to go to work on Friday the 13th; some won’t eat in restaurants; many wouldn’t think of setting a wedding on the date.

~ On Friday the 13th many people around the world avoid travel and surgery.

~ Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue.

~ Many buildings do not have a 13th floor.

~ If thirteen people are seated at a table one of the thirteen will die within a year.

~ Never change your bed on Friday; it will bring bad dreams.

~ According to biblical sources, Friday was the day on which Eve offered Adam the forbidden fruit and Jesus was crucified.

~ The Turks so dislike the number 13 that it almost doesn’t exist in their vocabulary.

~ On the streets in Florence, Italy, the houses between number 12 and 14 is addressed as 12 and a half.


Attempts have been made to debunk the myth that Friday the 13th in unlucky:

~ A 2008 Dutch study found there were fewer automobile accidents, fires and crimes occurring on Friday the 13th, adding the caveat that superstitious would-be victim may simply have stayed out of harm's way.

~ A study in the United Kingdom found that while consistently fewer people chose to drive their cars on Friday the 13th, the number of hospital admissions due to vehicular accidents was significantly higher than "normal" Fridays.
~ One hundred years ago, the British government sought to quell the longstanding superstition among seamen that setting sail on Fridays was unlucky. A special ship was commissioned and given the name "H.M.S. Friday." They laid her keel on a Friday, launched her on a Friday, selected her crew on a Friday, and hired a man named Jim Friday to be her captain. To top it off, H.M.S. Friday embarked on her maiden voyage on a Friday — and was never seen or heard from again.


Some cultures don't consider Friday the 13th unlucky at all:

~ Ancient Chinese regarded the number 13 as lucky, as did Egyptians in the time of pharaohs.

~ To the ancient Egyptians life was a quest for spiritual ascension which unfolded in stages - twelve in this life and a thirteenth beyond, thought to be eternal life.

~ In many Spanish-speaking countries, instead Friday, Tuesday the 13th is considered a day of bad luck.

~ In Italian popular culture, Friday the 17th (and not the 13th) is considered a day of bad luck.



One Good thing I found mentioned on several sites is that a baker’s dozen is a good thing!


Information and quotes found in this post came from: