Gator Belts & Patty Melts

Sorry, that's an Outkast lyric. I couldn't get it out of my head while I was sewing these. When you see the second block, you'll understand why. These were for Christine's month in Bee (A Little Bit) Japanese. She's making a quilt for her nephew's birthday, and requested a Cheaters 8 Point Star block...

As well as a second block that represented any mode of transportation we chose...

Since I rarely get to make anything New Orleans-related, I thought this would be a fun opportunity! I decided to make a fan boat, an extremely common mode of transportation down in the bayou, and name it the "nola" (New Orleans, LA). And of course, what would a bayou fan boat block be without an alligator and sweltering hot sun? Also, her nephew lives in Australia where crocs abound, so I thought he'd enjoy having one of it's cousins appliqued on a block ;)

I had to sneak and make these Friday night after the hubby went to bed, because he enacted a sewing moratorium last week. I mentioned this before, but I have a pinched nerve in my shoulder that I'd successfully ignored for weeks...well...actually 2 months. I finally did myself in when I had a marathon rotary cutting and sewing session last weekend, because I ended up in excruciating pain Sunday night, and could barely move my arm the next day because I'd get sharp stabbing pains, and then my whole arm would go numb for minutes at a time.

I had to break the rules though, because these blocks were for May, and I was already way behind on them. They didn't arrive until the last week of May, and then it took me 3 weeks to find the time. Christine desperately needed them by the end of June so she could assemble the top, send it off to be quilted, and then mail the finished present to Australia to arrive in time for August. So you see, I had to break the rules a little bit in order to meet the deadline...

But the events of last week got me thinking. My hubby is the sweetest man alive, and truthfully my best friend. He takes such good care of me, and all last week he massaged my shoulder, brought me bags of ice, and fetched ibuprofen and glasses of water for me when I was hurting. He's so proud of my sewing and knows how much it means to me, so he did his best to help me get back on my feet again because he knew I was going stir-crazy. All of this culminated in a crazy idea...

RAY! STOP READING HERE!

Our spouses, boyfriends/girlfriends, partners, etc. put up with so much of our quilting crap. They might grumble occasionally, but for the most part they let us get away with crazed fabric sprees, giant stashes & sewing spaces that take up entire rooms, and marathon sewing sessions that take us away from our families for hours at a time. Why? Because they love us, and know that we love quilting. And while I thank my husband for his support of my crazy hobby all the time, I rarely use my skills to make anything for him. I think a lot of us are like that - we're so busy making things for everyone else, that we forget to make things for ourselves or our families.

SO. Here's my idea. Let's have an official Quilting Widow(er) Appreciation Day! I'm calling it that, because it's kinda true...lol! Our significant others are sometimes quilting widows/widowers because we guy & gal quilters spend a lot of time away from them for the "sake of our art"...hehe! Seriously! I'll be leaving poor Ray in the dust for 4 days while I jet off to Salt Lake City for the Sewing Summit in October. And God love his little heart, he's outside mowing the yard right now to kill time, because he knows I'll be holed up in my sewing room blogging for a while longer! :(

Here's what we're gonna do. I picked a random date a few months off so that we all have time to prepare and create, and we're going to make presents for our Quilting Widows/Widowers as a big fat thank you for their loving support! (Plus it's kind of a win-win, because not only do we get to do something special for them, but it will help perpetuate our hobby because they'll be less inclined to grumble if we make them uber cool things with the thousands of dollars we've sunken into supplies, LOL!) I kid. 99% of the reason we're doing this is to say thank you, and only 1% is for our selfish ulterior motives ;)

The Quilting Widow(er) Appreciation Day will officially take place on Saturday, September 24th! I picked a random, insignificant day so your loved one will be surprised! And I even made a button and added it to the sidebar for those of you that want to join me :)

SO WHO'S WITH ME?!

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More Retreat Fun

The project I worked on for the majority of the retreat were these two bee blocks for Kristy in Bee (A Little Bit) Japanese. She sent each person two different adorable Japanese fairy tale prints and some quilter's linen, and asked that we make two blocks roughly 12.5" in size using Oh Fransson's Mod Mosaic pattern. Mine came out around 13" so she'd have some room to play with when she trims. I really like the final look of the pattern because it's got a cool stained-glass window effect, but I'm not sure if I'd enjoy using it again. Cutting, sewing, and ironing all those little pieces was really time consuming...it took me about 4-5 hours to finish both blocks...yikes! It made me feel a little bit better about being 2 weeks late with my blocks, because even if I'd desperately tried to squeeze them in during the move last month, I never would've finished in time.

Block #1

(sorry about the blurriness in the bottom corner...dang humidity on my lens!)

Block #2

And here's a little something extra from the retreat for you! I made tacos with guacamole & chips for lunch on Saturday, and Kelly & Angela asked me to share the recipes on here. Hope you like avocados, because they run rampant in this meal :)

Kaelin's Taco Spice Blend

(I make this in bulk and keep it in an airtight container in my pantry.)

2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp cayenne

1 tsp basil

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ginger

Combine in a small bowl and blend with a fork. Store in a small container or shaker jar.

Tacos & Salsa

I use ground chuck for my tacos because it's a 'splurge' dish for us, and we like the extra flavor and moisture the fat gives. But feel free to use ground round or ground sirloin for a leaner, healthier dish. The salsa is spooned over the beef inside your taco - yum!

for Tacos

1 lb ground beef

1-2 tbsp Spice Blend (see recipe above)

Fresh or store-bought tortillas

Olive oil

Place ground beef in a skillet (I always use cast iron) and sprinkle seasoning evenly over beef. Cook on medium-high until no longer pink. Drain excess fat and set aside.

Drizzle olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan and heat to medium-high. Once pan is heated and the oil easily runs around the pan, place 1 tortilla in the oil. Fry for 20-30 seconds on each side. Fold in half and place on paper-towl lined plate. (Note: if you dont' fold it immediately after frying, it will harden and crack when you try to bend it later).

for Salsa

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 avocado, diced

2 plum tomatos, diced

1/2 red onion, diced

1 Lime

1/2 tsp cayenne

Combine black beans, avocado, plum tomatos, and red onion in a bowl. Grab your lime and before cutting, firmly roll it back and forth against your counter a few times (this makes it easier to juice). Slice in half and juice the lime over the bowl. Gently toss. Sprinkle cayenne pepper over ingredients and gently toss again. (Note: if you get too violent with your stirring, the avocado will start to get mushy...and no one wants that!)

Guacamole

I eat the guacamole with chips as a side, but my husband likes to slather it on his taco along with the salsa. To each their own :)

from "Bride & Groom: First & Forever" cookbook

6 large avocados, roughly chopped (save 1 of your pits!)

4 plum tomatos (or 1 large heirloom), diced

2-3 garlic cloves, minced (depends on size)

1/4 of a jalapeno pepper, minced (I usually cut two 1/4" slices from below the stem)

1/4 cup cilantro, tightly packed

Juice of 1 lime

1-2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp cumin

Place your avocados in a large bowl and mash with a potato masher or fork. Once the consistency is fairly smooth, stir in remaining ingredients. Place the pit you saved from one of the avocados in the guacamole, because it will help keep it from browning so quickly. Serve with tortilla chips.

Happy Eating!

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March Bee Blocks

Not only did I finish my Bee (A Little Bit) Japanese blocks by the deadline this month, but I'm a week early! Woot woot! Crystal meticulously cut up teeny little 1 1/2" squares for us to make these darling scrapbuster blocks (instructions here)

Block #1

Block #2

Both Blocks

Crystal also had a really cute idea for personalizing her Bee quilt. She asked us to cut a 3.5" x 4.5" block from our leftover white fabric and applique a 1" piece of fabric from our own stash on it. Then we were to write our name, location, and our favorite quote/saying on the label with a fabric marker. Pretty cool, huh? I'm a bookworm and Ernest Hemingway is one of my favorite authors, so I used a quote of his that I love.

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Bee Blocks for verykerryberry

Kerry sent us some ADORABLE sewing & kitchen themed fabric for February. I loved every single piece of fabric she sent and I really, really, really want to keep these blocks for myself! If I hadn't already been late with my previous two month's blocks, I might have been tempted to hold them hostage for a little while before I mailed them :)  But sadly, they will be going in the mail tomorrow...*sigh*

We used a tutorial she'd written herself called Floating Bricks. I loved using this pattern because organic quilting really gets my creative juices flowing....cutting and sewing however you want without having to worry about straight lines and seams matching up...ahh...it's a beautiful thing!

And I hope she doesn't mind, but I threw in a piece of unsanctioned strawberry fabric from my stash. She has the word "berry" in her Flickr name....plus it matched the rest of the fabric perfectly...so I couldn't resist!

Block Numero Uno

Block Numero Dos

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January blocks for Bee (A Little Bit) Japanese

One machine malfunction and two weeks later, I'm finally finished with my January blocks for Bee (A Little Bit) Japanese! I'm gonna start on February's blocks for Kerry tomorrow night so that I'm actually early this month instead of late :)

Tong asked for blocks inspired by Denyse Schmidt's Drunk Love pattern. Here's what I came up with:

Block 1

Block 2

And here are a few fun things I picked up recently! I swapped my friend Karen a couple yards of fabric for the It's a Hoot layer cake, and I found the 2 yards of the Park Slope Leaf Dots in green at an online shop the other day. I just couldn't pass it up. I didn't have any yardage of it, and it's probably one of the hardest prints to find from that line.

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Finally, a quilt!

Maybe it's just me, but it feels like I haven't posted anything about actual quilting in a long time. Whether you've been feeling that way or not, I have a healthy dose of quilt action for you today! I've been covertly hand-quilting my Scrappy Spidey at work during my lunch break every day for the past week. I'm terrible at keeping secrets and my poker face is non-existent, plus my husband is super nosey and good at guessing surprises, so this was the only solution I could think of!

Every day I duck into an old, unused office, close the door, and listen to the Glee Christmas soundtrack while I quilt for an hour. It's actually kind of nice. I'm considering doing more things that require hand-quilting in order to keep this tradition alive once I finish this project :)

There wasn't enough room to spread the quilt out on the floor of the office I've been using, so I had to wait until the work day was over yesterday and spread this out over by the copiers, haha! I used Kona in Indigo (a rich navy) for the sashing and the backing. The sashing is about 4 inches wide.

I'm using a kelly green embroidery thread for all the quilting because 1) I've always loved the navy/green color combo, and 2) I think it gives the quilt a distinct, "manly" look.

And I apologize readers, but the pictures of the back came out awful! It's hard to get good photographs under fluorescent lighting! Everything either looks too light or too dark. Sadly, the photo below was the best of the bunch.

I'm really excited about how the back is going to look with all the circles! I'm quilting 4 circles within each spiderweb, and I'm not measuring diameters or anything while I quilt because I want it to have a really cozy, wonky look to it. Once I finish all the circles, I'm gonna stitch several straight rows down each side of the sashing. The dear hubby loves imperfect, scrappy quilts, and I'm SO EXCITED about how the finished product is gonna look!!! He's also a sucker for a nice cozy quilt, and I find hand-quilted quilts are a little softer & snugglier and drape better than machine quilted ones.

I'd really like to give him this when it's just the two of us, so hopefully our Christmas date night works out! We're waking up early to drive to my parents' house on Christmas Eve, so we're talking about staying downtown at The Roosevelt on the 23rd. There's nothing quite like dinner in the Quarter and strolling along at night amid all the decorations and music :)

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MQG Retreat: Project #1 - Scrappy Spidey Top

Our retreat was awesome! I'm a little tired (from staying up til 3 am every night) and a little stiff (from 3 days of marathon sewing), but I would do it all again in a heartbeat! I had so much fun and can't believe how blessed I am to know such an amazing and talented group of women. They're 100% awesome. When I'm at local quilt shops, I sometimes overhear women talking about little tiffs and feuds between people they're in guilds with, and I'm so incredibly happy we don't have any of that in our guild. Seriously. We're all a part of the MQG to have fun, enjoy each other's company, and be inspired by the work and advice of our fellow members. We stayed up each day until the wee hours of the morning sewing, chatting, watching Glee, laughing, being serenaded by Angela (who has an amazing voice, by the way), and eating Jambalaya and Groom's Cake ice cream *rubs tummy* A good time was had by all, and there's been talk of a Spring retreat because I don't think any of us want to wait a year!

Oh! And I almost forgot to tell you all that the gals had a secret pow-wow and got me the most awesome "thank you" present for organizing the retreat!! I forgot to take pictures, but I'll have some for you tomorrow. I know this will sound like a beauty pageant answer, but I really do all this stuff with the MQG because I love it. It doesn't even feel like work because I love it so much...and I'm happy to do it in order to spend time with my fellow MQG ladies ;) So their gift was a completely unexpected surprise..thank you so much ladies!

So that's that! On to the pictures of my 1st project! I finally collected all 24 of my Bee (A Little Bit) Japanese blocks and put together what I dub the "Scrappy Spidey" quilt top. The top is 95% completed because I still have to add some navy Kona sashing. After that I'll slap the same color Kona on the back and quilt with a Kelly Green embroidery thread. This will be my husband's Christmas present, so I thought the navy and green would be nice and manly for his official "sofa napping" quilt :)

I can't get over how uniform most of the blocks were. They were made by 10 different people and yet I had almost no trouble lining up my seams! Well done hive members!

And here's my favorite block in the bottom right corner. I'm gonna put my tag on the other side of this block once I add the backing. Thanks for the precious birdie Paula!

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Miscellaneous & Sundries

I know, I know. I've made like 500 box pouches and posted them on here, but believe it or not, I've actually censored myself several times and many of them haven't made an appearance. Aren't you proud of me?

Alas, the siren call of wee bitty owls was too much for me to resist, so I just had to share this one with you guys! You see, I'm trying to rope my friend Katie into picking up sewing, so I took her to a local quilt shop to pick out fabric for some curtains in her new house. I knew the designer fabrics at Mes Amis would plant the fabric bug in her, and I was totally right. She went crazy when she saw this print, so I bought a FQ and secretly made this pouch for her! I call it the "Mr. Owl Pouch"....because even though they're baby owls, they wanna feel grown up and all demanded that I call them "Mr. Owl" like their dad.

I'm insane, I know...but I like creating backstories for some of my creations. The scary thing is that what you guys read on here is actually me filtering my thoughts. Terrifying, I know. If I seem this crazy when I'm consciously censoring myself, what must my internal monologue sound like? Probably something like Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka + Kristin Chenoweth + Martha Stewart. There are a lot of show tunes in my head...and I talk a lot...but I'm surprisingly organized and versatile despite my madness.

Right. So. More pictures of my projects, less crazy talk.

Both the interior and exterior fabrics are from Michael Miller. The exterior is Who's Hoot in Olive from the Hedgehog Group, and the interior is Chocolate Dumb Dots. And again, I used linen tape for the zipper pulls on the side.

I've finally collected all my bee blocks from my month as Queen Bee in the Bee (A Little Bit) Japanese! I plan on putting the top together during the New Orleans MQG's fall retreat next weekend. I am so RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED about it!!! This is my first quilting retreat, I absolutely love the people in our guild, and I have a ton of surprises planned that none of my little "guildies" know about. BWAHAHA! By the way, "guildies" is the pet name I've now come up with for our members....I considered "guildlings" for a second...but that sounded way too much like "geldings" and it weirded me out.

And THIS is a project I've been working on for our home. Mail and other miscellanous papers in our house have a tendency to collect into "crap piles" on any flat surface...our dining table, kitchen counters, coffee table, desk...so this will hopefully put an end to that. NO MORE CRAP PILES! I'm using a pattern from One Yard Wonders to make a wall organizer for incoming mail and important papers.

These are my cut fabric pieces and I need to run out and get some grommets before I can finish. Fun fact: this was one of the first pieces of fabric I ever bought (and it was purchased from the first online fabric store I found...purlsoho!), and I've been hoarding it for going on 4 years. I loved it too much to use for a project I'd be giving away, and now that I've found a suitable use for it in our house, I'm happy to finally cut into it! :) Can't wait to show you guys the finished project (and the death of crap piles!)

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Meet the Matryoshkas (and why husbands should never be left unattended while cooking...)

Because I started the Bee (A Little Bit) Japanese and am one of the Co-Moderators, I hated the thought of ever being late with any of my blocks. But this month it was almost unavoidable. The first part of the month was sheer madness, then I went on vacation for 10 days, and when I got back (exhausted & with a giant pile of work waiting for me at home and at the office), I only had four days to get them done. I wanted to be as considerate as possible, so I emailed Paula before I left on vacation and told her I'd probably be a week or two late completing her blocks for September. Well praise the Lord and pass the ammunition (sorry...I'm not a fan of country, but can't help but love the Dixie Chicks)...I FINISHED! YESTERDAY! I had a MQG meeting from 7-9 pm, so when I hit the door at 5:00, I frantically started working on my second (and final) block. I needed to leave for the meeting by 6:20 or so, and that meant I only had 1 hour & 20 minutes to finish. It also meant that I wouldn't be able to fix the hubs dinner, and he's always a bit of a lost puppy in the kitchen. He starts scrounging around in the cabinets eating weird combinations of food if there's nothing readily available for him to eat....like pouring honey on saltine crackers or microwaving shredded cheese on top of pecans...*shudders*

Good News: I finished my last block before the meeting and will be able to mail them out on time today!

Bad News: My husband had started to fry tortillas as I was leaving, and upon coming home 3 hours later, he was sitting in the living room playing Lego Harry Potter and the kitchen had cooking oil splattered EVERYWHERE. Greasy footprints on the floor (which the dog was licking), splatters on the wall, all over the stove, my countertop canisters, my friend's cupcake carrier...EVERYWHERE. Now my husband is the sweetest man alive and my best friend, and unlike most men, he's usually very considerate. But when I came home to this disaster at 10pm and found him playing XBox instead of cleaning, I nearly lost my mind. Thirty minutes later, after I'd cleaned up the mess and the anger monkeys had done their work, I snatched my blocks for Paula off the dining table to snap some quick photos. Even worse news...upon picking them up, I noticed there was a grease spot right in the center of the Matryoshka's house....GAH!!! The grease had made it all the way over to my big Olfa cutting mat on the dining table. Thank God for the internet, because I learned that if you apply straight dish detergent to a fresh grease stain with a Q-Tip, rub it in, and then rinse with water, it usually comes out. My husband breathed a sigh of relief because it did work, and he was saved from another releasing of the anger monkeys.

So without further ado...

Meet the Matryoshkas!

This is mama Ana Matryoshka and her daughter Sasha.

This is their house.

This is their produce stand.

...where they sell fresh fruit ("fruit frais") and veggies!

Paula gave us free reign and said pretty much anything goes in "Wonkytown", and I really liked the idea of not just doing wonky houses, but adding a "business" to the town. When I saw the Japanese matryoshka print at the bottom of my fabric pile, I thought it would be cute to turn them into a family and make a mini-narrative for the town :)
And on a completely unrelated note, look what I mailed today!


Remember my finished Mug Rug from way back when? Today was the start of the official mailing period (Oct. 1-8), and I've had it for so long that I thought I'd stop torturing my secret partner and end the suspense :) I included two fat quarters and most of the swap participants thought it would be fun to include a recipe, so I threw my go-to cookie recipe in there.

I'll post the recipe later today because it's my favorite cookie EVER. It's like a chocolate chip cookie on steriods...imagine a chocolate chip cookie with a hint of cinnamon & ginger, and then rolled in powdered sugar. It tastes like Christmas. And I love the hint of ginger because it gives them a little pizazz. I think I might go home tonight and make some now...mmmm cookies...*rubs tummy*

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New Fabric Smell

Does anyone else love New Fabric Smell (henceforth to be known as NFS)? It's kind of like New Car Smell, except much, much better...because I don't have to spend 3 years paying it off or dump $40/week into it with nothing to show for it.

Even more mysterious is that all fabric has the exact same NFS, no matter where it comes from. I'm probably breathing in a delicious array of manufacturing chemicals whenever I take a big whiff of a fresh new fabric bundle. Ahhhh...those sweet, sweet carcinogens.

It's a shame they haven't come up with a scratch'n'sniff computer monitor yet, because I'd love to share the aroma.

From T to B: Dogwood Bloom in Lake, Honeycomb in Pink, Herringbone in Grass, Herringbone in Timber, Herringbone in Maple, Herringbone in Lake, Acorn Chain in Lake, Pie Basket in Fiesta

I also got some of the Farmdale prints (yay!) and here's a sneak peak at one of them + the other fabrics I'll be using for a new project - and this one's actually going to be for me! My husband and I are leaving for Disney World on Saturday, but when I get back I have a small mountain of half-finished projects to complete (this being one of them). First up are my September "wonky town" blocks for Bee (A Little Bit) Japanese, my Farmdale item, Meghan's Modern Meadow quilt, a Savvy Seasons swap item, and a smattering of other things. I think it's good I'm going on vacation before I finish working on them, because to be honest, I need a little break from sewing right now. Sacrilegious, I know....BUT...I will say that I'm gonna be really excited to start working on one project in particular when I get back. My Savvy Seasons secret partner mentioned bunting as one of her "wants", so I'm going to make interchangable bunting. It's going to be a long piece of linen tape with snaps on it, so my partner will be able to snap on and off the two holiday sets I'm going to make for it. One set will be fabric gingerbread cookies and glasses of milk, and the other will be triangle shaped santas and trees. The items will alternate with letters to spell out HO HO (i.e. cookie - H - milk - O - cookie - H...you get the picture). I thought this would be fun because if she wanted, she could make a fabric set of letter flags + icons for every holiday!

Avert your eyes from these last few pictures if you're feeling a weak, compulsive need to order more fabric right now...because what I'm about to show you is practically fabric porn! Look at these precious fabrics Natalie sent for her October blocks! She wants us to make one giant 11"x36" mini-forest block full of wee lil trees and critters. Can I tell you how much I love our Japanese fabric bee? I love being able to work with all these different fabrics without having to buy them ;)


This one is by far my favorite..."petit cochon" aka "little pigs"...how adorable is that?!?!


I'm having a Glee marathon with my hubby right now and I'm missing the Olivia Newton John episode, so I gotta run. Lemme part by saying how much I love Sue Sylvester. What other character on TV could get away with saying lines like:

"You take weird little strides when you walk as if you grew up in Imperial Japan and someone bound your feet."

and

"Now get out of my office, if you can manage to squeeze through the door without your water breaking all over my new carpet."

No one.

P.S. THANK YOU for all your sweet comments about my B&W quilt top! You guys are the best, and if I had a chart with all your names written on it, each and every one of you would get a gold star ;)

Finishing it and writing about the whole ordeal was very cathartic, so thanks for reading through all my psychobabble. Hugs and kisses ~Kaelin

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August Bee Blocks

Yesterday I felt like I had a million deadlines looming over me. I needed to make six blocks for the 3x6 Bee, my August blocks for wooly mama for Bee (A Little Bit) Japanese, and finish my doll quilt for the DQS9. I've got a lot of work left on my doll quilt, so I really wanted to get the bee blocks off my plate so I could focus on my doll quilt for the rest of August. wooly mama is in both the 3x6 Bee and Bee (A Little Bit) Japanese with me, so I thought I'd finish her August queen bee blocks + make her 3x6 block so I could mail them off into the sunset together. I didn't have time to get to the 3x6 block, but I finished the two August bee blocks.

I was really excited to work on these blocks because 1) she picked really adorable fabrics (have I ever mentioned how much I love polka dots?), and 2) the design is one of the most original quilt ideas I've ever seen. It's a squares-within-squares/rectangles-within-rectangles design. The idea is that no two blocks are exactly alike. You make 12.5 x 12.5 inch blocks made up of log cabin style squares and rectangles of all different sizes...so when you're finished, the entire quilt looks like an improvised mashup of all these different little squares and rectangles. But it doesn't look chaotic at all because the shapes are made with the same fabrics, so that pulls the entire thing together. It's oddly random-yet-cohesive looking. I love it!!! (and will have to eventually make one for myself) You can see a finished example here.

It was fun designing the blocks because I had a lot of freedom. I simply drew an outline of a 12.5" block on graph paper and started filling it in with random squares...kinda like a fun "block puzzle"...just make the pieces all fit within the outside area!

Anywho, here are my blocks. Please excuse the crappy pictures because I took them on my dining room table at 10 pm.

Block 1

Block 2
I wanted take this block one step further by embedding squares within the squares...note the tiny log cabin blocks at each corner of the giant log cabin square. I thought it might have a cool effect once all the blocks are put together.

Both blocks together
P.S. I really need a new pencil. I've worn the eraser down to the metal, but I don't have the heart to throw the whole pencil away because of it...I should go buy some of those old school cap-on erasers. Do they even make those anymore? Am I the only person left on this Earth that doesn't use mechanical pencils? (I hate them...I prefer the feel & smell of a nice wooden pencil)

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