Afternoon Edition….Questions, Answers and a Very Pink Tree!

My afternoon of miscellaneous appointments is flying by.

What a LOVELY day! I was talking to my friend Randy on the phone while driving --- and I stopped her mid sentence and said “Gotta go! I need to stop the car! I need a picture of this tree—I’ll call you right back!”

Can you see why this tree stopped me dead in my tracks? Oh I love pink trees even more than white ones! They just don’t last very long, so I’m happy to be out and about in the sunshine where I can ooooh and ahhh and get giddy over each one I see.

I’ve had a couple emails with questions and I think the answers might be helpful to others out there.

The first one is from Paul, he writes:

Bonnie,

I have read on your blog that you are a tea drinker. Do you drink hot tea while you are on the road? And if so, how do you heat your water in your hotel room? No matter how clean they are, the coffee makers always leave a taste of coffee... Just wondering if you have a secret...

I am an avid tea drinker. I definitely have my favorite kinds, and I travel with it – or risk being faced with the ghastly lipton in hotel rooms, if that! I use a immersion water heater, in my aluminum travel mug. It looks like this:

You can find it on Amazon HERE.

This little coil will boil water right in the cup. You have to be careful though, I’m on my second one of these because I killed the first one by not paying attention, getting distracted, and letting the water boil away leaving the coil exposed --- at which time it decided that it was “HOT” and killed itself never to be hot again. In other words, as a safety feature they are programmed to self destruct if you ignore it.

You just have to read the directions, don’t leave it unattended, and use it carefully. I’ve had the one that has been traveling with me for about a year now, and if and when it dies, as all electronic gizmos tend to do—I’ll get another one. I love my tea time!

Several have asked about the Easy Angle and the Companion Angle Rulers:

Depending on where you live, these could be found in quilt shops near you, at larger chain stores like Hancocks Fabrics or Joanns, but if you need a place to get them from the internet, I suggest Soft Expressions. Anything that I’ve ever ordered from them has always been in stock, and they are listed at 10% below retail, which helps cover your shipping costs. These tools are worth every penny --- I wouldn’t be caught dead without these rulers.

The Easy Angle comes in 3 different sizes. I find the 6.5” one to be the most versatile for me ---- the 10.5” one is too big, unweildy, and the markings stop at 2.5” so you can’t use it for really small stuff.

The Companion Angle comes in one size, and I use it for all my quarter square triangle units – Flying Geese, Hour Glass Blocks, etc.

Tonight I’ll be drawing the winner of the Leap Day Give-Away with Pat Sloan, so be watching for that! Tomorrow is also the drawing for the “On Track” magazine issue.

Saturday is Yard Sale Saturday! Get those items cleaned up, tagged, and ready to be listed and linked up on Saturday’s post!

And I think that catches us up for now…I’m off to the dentist!