FABULOUS!!!!

My girlfriends Wendy and Sherri met us at San Luis Obispo airport and this is what the back of the van looked like after we got our stuff loaded. There was only about a 10" clearance to the ground!
We rented a fabulous 4 bedroom house right at the edge of the ocean. This is the view from the front of the house when we arrived. It was just gorgeous no matter whether it was sunny, foggy or raining!

Another view from the deck of the house.

And this is the 180 degree view where we sat to eat and to laugh and chat most of the time when we weren't sewing. You can only see two sides of it, but there are windows all around!

More of the view from the inside seating.

The other side of the same room looking out.

Can you believe it? An entire separate area for sewing! There were windows there, too, where we could see and hear the ocean!

BUDDIES R US!

Sherri, Wendy, Carolyn and Quiltgranny

Next entry will be pictures of our round robins, quilt shop reports (and there were many!) and pictures of all the things we got accomplished!

Off and away!

Sorry, Readers, that I have been away from the blog since before Easter! I've been running hither, thither and yon getting ready for the big Cambria, CA trip. I leave bright and early tomorrow (Sunday) morning and won't return for an entire week!

I got this charity quilt done (from a wallhanging donated to use) and it is now packed and ready for me to quilt it in CA.


I've gotten the wedding commission quilt back from the quilter and the binding stitched on it and to the owner just in time before their first wedding anniversary. I've gotten the May baby quilt to the quilter along with having the diaper bag and changing pad completed, too.

I have three kits cut and packaged, ready to sew when I get there. I've also gotten the windows all cleared so the window cleaners can come on Monday morning and Hubby can take care of them.

Today was a birthday stitch day with my sewing group The Amazing Quilt Babes, and last night I finished up four 6.5" blocks for our monthly exchange. No pictures this time around as we were in a rented room at a Marriott and we worked on multiple things for the birthday girl!

5 loads of laundry all done means I can now pack my bags.

I also got a blogsite, complete with PayPal buttons created for some friends of mine who will be offering deeply discounted fabrics, notions and yarns. Check it out - you might find something you just gotta have! (I hope it all works right). They are the Fiberfanatics and they sure are a lot of fun to work with!

During all of this, I had to stop going to the gym - as a matter of fact, my trainer sent me home from a training session and said not to come back until a doctor said I could. Sooooo, off I went to a massage therapist, and a couple of hours later, I was seeing a chiropractor (for the first time). The long and the short of it is that I have osteo-arthritis in my L5 (the vertebrae right above the tailbone), and it has degenerated quite a bit AND a bone spur has developed too. After 5 treatments with electrical stimulus, ultrasound and some adjustments AND some ice packs. I can move around a bit easier. When I get back, I'll start traction therapy.

And last, but not least. Hubby and I bought a house!! Our taxes in this county and state have gotten ridiculous. PLUS, our house is quite large and not necessary. We close on the new house May 2, and hope to have this one on the market by June 1, but we'll see. We'll be moving into the state of Missouri, but in actuality it is only 8 miles further east than where we live.

You can see it here on live maps (and rotate the picture). We'll own the property all the way to the tree line, and through the cul de sac. 3.3 acres should give some nice vegetable gardens!

I think I have a lot of work to do when I get back, eh?

BONSAI?

What a surprising end to a busy week!

I've been puttering around, trying to get all the fabrics I need and the parts department collected for my upcoming trip to Cambria. 3 of my friends and I will be having our own personal retreat the first week of April in Cambria, California, right by the ocean! I'm am getting pretty excited now!

I've decided I am going to work on my Michigan fruit baskets, and Hubby has decided that the quilt now needs to be king sized. That means I have 52 more baskets to make. And THAT means I have a lot of parts to get ready. Remember these? I have about 20% of the half square triangles readied, but that's still about 400 more to go.

So, in the middle of this, one of my neighbors who follows what my art projects are, stopped by to see if I would be willing to make a lap quilt for her husband. I was showing her my ideas, and then I showed her this one for the size.
She gasped and asked if it was available; it was JUST what she wanted! So last night, I sewed down the binding, and sold it to her today. She thinks she got a bargain, and I am pleased with my profit - so we both win. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it after it was completely quilted, but you get the idea, right?

While she was here she asked if she could talk to me seriously about contracting for a commissioned art piece. It was my turn to gasp (inwardly), and we talked a bit about what she wanted. Her husband is an avid Bonsai horticulturist. I guess that's what you call them:) He is difficult to buy for, and what man isn't?, so she thought he would enjoy an art piece of a bonsai. She is planning it for her bedroom, and has given me complete liberty with color, size and materials. Of course, I couldn't let the idea go after she left, so here's my first sketches of where I want to go. Now, it will just have to gel in my head for a while until I get there.

The Kanji script is BONSAI-two words that mean tree in a pot. Nothing special there, eh? I did learn, however, that there are and sharis and jins in bonsai, which are bark stripped areas either on the trunk or a branch, so I can have a higher contrast in the trunk areas for texture. I also learned that all bonsai pots should have feet for proper drainage, and the shape of the pot is artistically matched with the shape of the tree. The kind of bonsai I seemed to be most attracted to in many different types of pictures was always the Moyogi, which is an informal upright. The windswept ones are just too severe, and the cascading ones, while beautiful, just don't inspire me to work on it in fiber.

Now, I have something to look for when I am out shopping on the left coast. I think I'd like to find something light and airy for behind the tree - maybe even an old piece of kimono silk? Who knows where this story will take me?

Eye Candy for the Sewl

Here's a bit of what I've been up to lately. A LOT!

The first one is the completed 30" Broken Bento Box sample for Fabric Quilt's booth at Spring Market. The new line of fabric is called Crystals. It's quilted in silver metallic threads.


Next up is another Amazing Quilt Babes birthday stitch day quilt. The birthday girl, (Shirlee-back row, second from left) chose a Kaffe Fasset pattern, but modified it to pretty pastels and brights, and used Dale Fleming's circle method. This meant the background for the center medallion was whole cloth with circles added. The group pieced pinwheels and a couple of us pieced more circles for the outside blocks.

And last is the commissioned baby quilt set that is now ready for quilting. The pattern is "Charmed" by Black Cat Creations and finishes at 48" X 64". Ahhhh, relief at last!
The bag is from an Amy Butler pattern, and uses a TON of fabric for all the inside pockets. The roll that is peeking out is a rolled-up changing pad, made from terry cloth (inside), over 2 layers of polyester fleece, quilted to the teddy bear fabric.

Catching Up

I have been SO busy! This will be a four-letter-word post, so divert your ears now...I've been at W-O-R-K for the last 6 days! The LQS ladies all went to Florida for the week with their hubbies, so I got to be boss for the week. Not too bad, but all in all, I much prefer to be at home in my stewdio. So, I have a lot of catching up to do, don't I?

First of all, I am going to post my Bulls Eye quilt made from hubby's shirts for a new friend, Lois, who needs to see what this looks like completed.


For those of you who don't know the story, here it is:

My hubby got sick in 1998 and lost about 100 lbs. over several years of illness and recovery. He's a natty dresser and wouldn't admit that he couldn't/shouldn't be wearing his button down shirts that were too big. So, slowly, I removed them one at a time from his closet, never returning them. Of course, they ended up in my stewdio to be made into a quilt for him. Every week or so, he would call to me, "Honey, have you seen my blue plaid shirt?". When I gifted his quilt to him for Christmas, he was so excited! He said, "How wonderful! A quilt just for me?!! And it's plaid! It looks just li-k-e m..y p-la-id shirts???" If you look closely, you'll see that I added some other fabrics for interest - he really didn't wear musical notes or chickens on his plaid shirts!

Next catch up thing to attend to:
My friend, Karrin, tagged me a while ago to post 7 weird or random facts about myself. Here are the rules, but I will just let anyone else play along if they want.

THE RULES:

1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post THE RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

About me:
1. I used to be a police sergeant a long time ago.
2. My favorite sandwich is peanut butter, mayonnaise and sugar on Wonder bread.
3. I can write with my feet.
4. When I was a child, I had a blind, one-legged rooster as a pet.
5. I have an extreme aversion to heights.
6. I still use Mentholatum to cure anything connected to a cold.
7. I can't carry a tune, but I love to sing (if no one can hear me.)

Next thing I've been tagged for by Carol E.

You're supposed to reach for the nearest book, turn to page 123, and type sentences 5, 6, and 7 into your blog. Once again, play along if this interests you.

The nearest book at hand near my computer is House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday. A very difficult book to read, even if it was a Pulitzer prize winner. I am still contemplating why it won the prize. But, the exercise is interesting so here is my contribution.

"Transported so in the dim and dancing light among the shadows of her room, she seemed beyond the reach of time, as if age could not lay hold of her. But that was an illusion....."


And last, I've completed this year's sample for the new Crystals line for Fabri Quilt that will be used at spring market this year. As soon as the binding is on, I'll post it. I rather like the fabrics this year, so it was a snap to get it completed. Besides they only wanted one this year instead of two, and it couldn't be bigger than 30" - so what was hard about that, eh?

A Boy and his Chair

Grandson Stephen is saved by his big sister Audrey!

Where has the time gone?

Gosh, has it really been that long since I posted on the blog? I had a couple of emails from folks a little worried about me, but never fear! I am OK! Not sleeping in the sun like my buddies! I've just been pretty busy doing a lot of nothing and more of everything else....

Let's see: I've gone to my first ever caucus (and we were the last polling place to get home that night and it snowed!) because there were over 1300 people who showed up; I've gotten a king size quilt top done and sent to it's rightful owner in exchange for some long arm quilting; I've gotten a couple of exchange blocks completed; I've gotten 3 bindings sewn on and needing to be handstitched down; I've gotten my practice piece done for my Sumptuous Surfaces class. Oh! Sumptuous Surfaces? What's that you say?

Well, after a lot of consideration, I decided to take a Joggles.com class with Sharon Boggin. I do NOT do embroidery, but her class covers design and design elements, as well as texture. What's not to like? Even though I am not really enjoying the embroidery stitching, I am enjoying the process as well as the finished results of the different textures. I have to admit I am at the point of having to force myself to sit down and do the stitching. I'll post pictures when it is further along. My design, however, is the Smithson Jetty in the Great Salt Lake.

I really can't post many pictures of what I am working on in the quilt stewdio right now. Lots of round robins and secrets! I AM sewing a lot, though. I have no idea how many of these petals need to be made since I haven't decided how many flowers will be added. Right now, though, each flower take about 22 petals or so.

These petals are inside out since I can't show you any of the fabrics I am using, either.

It's been pretty durned cold here, and gloomy to boot. Today was the first REAL sunny day in a long time. My buddies in the above pictures snoozed most of the day and followed the sun around. When I took their picture this morning, Clyde, was on the floor directly under Bonnie on the ironing board. And Papa was in the other corner wrapped up in his rag quilt snoozing away while I was planting flowers!

OK! I PROMISE! I won't wait two weeks or so before another post. And SOON, maybe I'll be able to post more pictures of what I'm working on.

Sunny Quilting Days Ahead!

First, I keep forgetting to mention that my buddy Karrin nominated me for a You Make My Day award, which is really sweet. I know I have many readers from all over the world who don't leave comments ( and I wish you would at least say hi!), so this makes MY day, Karrin! In keeping with the "rules of the game", I am supposed to nominate 10 other blogs and let them know. This is so very difficult to do. I think, instead I will just refer you to my blogroll to the right, and especially point out Fragments from Floyd, Crazy Aunt Purl and a new one that I haven't added yet: sharonb's A Minute Ago (More on this in a later entry this week).

This blog entry is going to be like a steady stream of consciousness. A little of this, a little of that, and who knows what else?

We've been home almost a week now, and I think I am finally back into the "you're not on vacation anymore" mode. The first clue was the change in the weather - from 80 degrees to one degree catches your attention, for sure! I've gotten most of the un-Christmasing done, but now I have to wait on Hubby to re-arrange the shelving in the storage room before I can say it is completely done! I ran into Jo-Ann's last night to pick up some needles and I found some really good Christmas deals at 70% off so they came home with me and now they are in the pile to be put away too.

Yesterday was supposed to be a birthday stitch day with my Amazing Quilt Babes group, but the birthday girl ended up in the ER. So, instead we were all called at 7AM, and told to bring whatever we wanted to work on. I got three bindings put on: Cherry Limeade, Marston Baskets, and Bound to the Prairies. I also managed to get the inner border put on the black/bright houses and stars. This is Shirlee's completed flimsie - she's worked on it for at least a year, I think, and we all just love it!


I started in earnest back to the gym with my trainer. My goal to be healthier this year is to lose 20 lbs by May 1. What that actually translates to is 1400 calories a day, 12,000 steps a day, and one and a half hours of "activity". Since last Thursday, I've been right at or over target on the steps, and under target on the calories. Fridays will be weigh in days, and I am looking for at least a pound and a half each week. In addition to the gym, today I went to our local Jazzercise center and joined up - wore myself out with a class! I still have 6,000 steps to go, so it will be on the treadmill here at home.

I'm working on a couple of round robins (one for my Cambria retreat) and the on-line small Mae Britt style. I sure wish I could show you! I am truly enjoying the experience.

And last! I also signed up for a joggles.com class. More on that and Sharonb's information in the next post!

Winding down

And yes, ALL the 33 beaches are just like this one!

We're into the last few days of vacation here. Today (Saturday) and tomorrow will be the end of it and then we have to fly home all day Monday. It's been great, and as always as we fly over the island on our way north, I'll yearn for just one more day of sun and surf. But that's for the next time....sigh.

We've booked a wonderful place called Serenity for December of this year to come back. Usually we arrive either just after Christmas or around the New Year, but the prices have continued to climb higher and higher. Shoulder season, as they call it, will be just fine for two weeks, and then back in time to do Christmas and New Year's at home. This is what it looks like from the beach. The little red hut is a beach bar not yet opened for the day.

There's a little place on the beach where it turns abruptly and heads off on a 90 degree turn. Every year there is more added to the Flotsam stack. Each year I take a picture of it,and now it has become art. I especially like the "no visitor" "no open" sign that has been added this year.

You also never know what you are going to see on the island. We were coming back from grocery shopping yesterday and I had Hubby turn the car around so I could get this picture. Now, mind you, goats and chickens are the only animals you ever see here (with the exceptional of ONE old ox), so I have no idea what they were thinking when they did this to their car!

Enough sightseeing and now onto more books! Don't bother to read Stephen Fry's Fourth Order. It stinks - really bad! I haven't read this bad of a book since I don't know when! After that, I read another stinker - Blinding Light by Paul Thoroux. It was disappointing because he is such a great writer (Mosquito Coast) and the book started out delightfully funny. About 25% into it, I felt as if he got mixed up with what story he was telling and completely switched themes. I barely muddled through it and was happy to put it on the bookshelf to leave behind! Then I read Elizabeth Berg's sweet Never Change, a soft character romance, and then Swimming Naked by Stacy Sims. If you are looking for a bit of brain candy, go for Berg's book. If you want to wonder how in the world do children survive weird parents, read Sims. I didn't care for Swimming Naked but it passed another day on the beach with me. Last night I started an advance reading copy that my brother-in-law left behind: Midnight Rambler by James Swain. If you like Michael Connelly, you'll like this mystery. More character descriptions than murders, with the serial killer just out of reach and enough pizazz to keep you guessing about it. The main character is also like Harry Bosch, but just a bit earlier in his "retirement".

So, that takes me through all the hardbacks available. Hubby brought the new Follett book, World without End, and loved it! I am going to go home and re-read Pillars of the Earth before I start it though, so it will have to wait. I DO have a book on my Ipod that I downloaded just before leaving - Tandia by Bruce Courtenay (the sequel to the Power of One). I am not a big audio book listener so I've saved it for last. Today is a bit cloudy and looks like a rain day, so we are planning to stay at the villa and read some more. The pool is a nice little dip if I get too hot, and we will have BLTs for lunch. Dinner? Probably some fish! LOL!

This will be my last blog entry until after we get home. I hope you've enjoyed coming along with us, and I'll be back at the stewdio on Tuesday!

More time spent in Anguilla

The vacation time apparently is working. I have no idea what day it is or what time of the day it is. Is the sun shining? Is it time to eat? Is it time to sleep? These are the only concerns I have on my mind. Ahhhhhhh, the sheer bliss of it all!


We've spent time walking on the beach/es, and eating lunch at a couple of our favorite places in the last few days. Wonderful dinners, too, and time spent together laughing.

I finished A Place Called Wiregrass (Morris), and Sea Glass (Shreve) since the last posting. Sea Glass sat forgotten on the back end of my bookshelf at home so I brought it as a long overdue pleasure read. Anita Shreve always seems to weave her stories slowly and nicely bringing it all to a crescendo near the end, then smoothing out your brow for the final paragraph or two. She did this here, too. Not necessarily a literary prize winner, but a nice story to read nevertheless. I' m going to start one of my brother-in-laws books today so I can save my other books for after he leaves. I usually don't read Stephen Frey (my hubby does), so let's hope the Fourth Order holds my attention like some of the other books I've read this past week.


As promised, here's a quilt story for you. For the last several years of coming to the island, we've sought out local art galleries and we always try to support them in some small way or another. Our "souvenirs" if you will, are paintings by local artists and handmade note cards, and Christmas ornaments. Imagine my surprise when we found this artist selling quilts for $350 and more on the island. They are all wall hanging size, and come with a description of materials used and where the pattern is found. Last year, a couple in a restaurant was bubbling over with a "find" of theirs, showing a ripply Ricky Tims convergence style quilt. This particular quilt is hanging in our bedroom with the full sun shining on it all day long. I would imagine it's longevity will be somewhat limited, eh?

Brother-in-law went shopping yesterday for T-shirts (what else do Americans take home?)and this was his find of the day. Too funny not to share with you! The yellow warning is a sticker added to the T-shirt...we are wondering if it is an intended joke or an actual warning! LOL!

What I did on my Winter Vacation

So, here we are on the deck of our little piece of paradise and it's almost been a week since we left home. Hard to believe that I haven't sewn a stitch, looked at a quilting magazine or planned another project! The weather here is always moderate - usually in the high 70's, low 80's and no humidity to speak of. When it rains, it usually rains only in passing, and it's quite refreshing.

The private villa where we are is not close enough to the beach for my liking, and the swimming pool is quite a bit smaller than I thought. BUT, I am not complaining - it's not 21 degrees like at home! We HAVE been to the beach everyday, but since I can't just get up and walk there, I must wait patiently while Hubby does his "thang". He's not the beach lover that I am. His brother his here for a few days, too, so that's yet another male that has to do his "thang" before we go. Driving is on the left side of the road, so I don't even bother getting an Anguillian driver's license. We usually aren't even to the beach until close to lunch - in the hottest part of the day - so I am adjusting my expectations as we go. This is a view of the side of the villa open to the ocean side of the island.

I've already read quite a few books in the short time - some I recommend, and others I don't. The one I WON'T recommend is The Emperor's Children (Messud). It was a true waste of time, and quite disappointing. I thoroughly enjoyed In the Heart of The Sea (Philbrick) about the true story of the whaling ship Essex that inspired the story of Moby Dick. I usually leave my books here, but I am thinking that my friend Nancy might enjoy this one, so I am taking it home and will send it to her later (yes, Nancy np!). My brother-in-law brought a few with him, so I thought I would read some of his before he left (and took them with him). I enjoyed A Nail Through the Heart (Hallinan), a nice mystery set in Thailand. Last night I finished A River Town (Keneally) about a good man who seems to always be on the wrong side in Australia at the turn of the century. The author also wrote Schindler's List so he does know how to turn a phrase! Today I am on to A Place Called Wiregrass (Morris) which is just a nice read with some laughs and some tears in it. As you can tell, I have a very eclectic reading list!

This is my brother-in-law, Brett and I enjoying Caribbean crayfish at Zarah's. Brett's first crayfish couldn't have been at a better place to eat than here!
This is one of the funniest things I've ever found on the island - and it's in a new "mall". You must remember that this a 16 mile long island, 3-4 miles wide. When we first starting coming here over 20 years ago, there was one stop light that didn't work - now there are 6 of them. There were less than 2000 residents - now there are over 8000. They are both Anguilla citizens and British citizens (if they want), and everything from food to clothes is shipped here from another place.


I'll have a quilting story for you next post. Here's where we'll be tomorrow around noontime - hope to see you there!

January Aweigh!

I've been keeping pretty busy these last few days sewing up a storm. As a stretch for exercise, each time I get up, I take something down
from Christmas. So far I have all the snowmen put away from the hearth room, all the angels out of the living room, and all of the snow village packed yup and put away for next year. The Santas and poinsettias have been carried to the the top of the stairs, but the tree and the garland may have to wait.

I took on another barter...sewing together a king quilt top in exchange for machine quilting a king top of mine from this past fall. When I said yes, I don't think I realized how many half square triangles would be involved! At last count, there are 720 of them - and I couldn't just make a gagillion at a time, either. Since the shading varied from the top of the block to the bottom of the block, and keeping the central friendship star the same required a little thinking on my part. Hurt my brain, I gotta tell you! LOL!

Here's the friendship star on my design that just needs to be sewn together and I'll call it good. 81" x 90"

Speaking of barters, I am loving my last barter of socks for a sweatshirt jacket. Here they are in all their glory! Thank you Linda!


I've also been reading up a storm, too. A book that really made an impression on me (which was a surprise) was Rising Tide, The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed the World. It was extremely enlightening about everything from the Corps of Engineers, the Mississippi River, politics in the Delta, the rise of Herbert Hoover and Huey Long, as well as the levy system for the river. I highly recommend it!

Another book that was great was March, by Geraldine Brooks, the 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner. It is written from the point of view of Mr. March, the father of the Little Women from Louisa May Alcott. The author modeled him after Bronson Alcott, Louisa's father - a fascinating man in his own right. It seemed as if I had just put down Little Women for a moment, and the next chapter was March. Mrs. March (Marmee) is also portrayed as a real person underneath all the humility and quiet goodness she shows in Alcott's story. It's a pleasant story, with some well written action stories based on diaries of the time during the Civil War. I can see why it won the prize.

Movies have been a big thing on our list, too, lately. We've had the grandchildren for a couple of days/nights, so we saw Water Horse today. A delightful movie that might have been a little bit over the top for the three year old, but he enjoyed it nevertheless. The kids also like Alvin and the Chipmunks, and so did Opa (Hubby) even though the ratings have been less than stellar. I didn't get to see that one, but wish I had. Hubby and I also saw Kite Runner (my choice) which was great, and No Country for Old Men which was also done very well. Both were unsettling, but followed the books fairly closely and filmed wonderfully.

This will be my last post from home until we return on the 22nd. I am still trying to figure out how to load pictures onto the PC from our digital. If I'm successful, I can share photos from our island trip as we go rather than waiting until we return. You can see where we are going (and have gone for the last 20+ years) here. This year we are renting a private villa with it's own pool, so I will probably feel less intimidated to swim each morning without people watching me.

Have a happy sewing time while I'm gone. Me? No sewing, no hand work. Just walks on the beach, reading and eating a lot of fresh fish! So, I'll leave with pictures from last year, just to whet your appetite while I'm gone:

This is the air view of the West End of Anguilla where we stay:


One of my favorite meals at Oliver's is crayfish (Caribbean lobster)

You can tell that the beaches are really crowded, right? We love it here!

Happy 2008!

The last few days have found me putting the bigger items away from Christmas, and while I am anxious to have it all in it's proper place, I am still enjoying the tree and many of the snowmen that are still out. I'd like to have everything away by the 7th, since that when Hubby and I go to Anguilla, a small island in the Caribbean.

Today I had all kinds of plans to sew and to clean, but a phone call changed all that. My "tween" grand-daughters needed party dresses for a family New Year's Eve party at the Radison Hotel. Their mom, my daughter, has had the flu and just couldn't get out. So, Oma got the special treat of shopping with these delightful girls! They each knew exactly what they wanted, and even though we tried on every single thing, they still walked out of Macy's with the original ones they had chosen.


The shrug was the hardest thing to find, but find it we did! It's hard to believe that this young lady is the little girl I used to hold in my arms 12 years ago!

This is the first dress she tried that she liked, and I liked the price, too! It was 50% off the original price, then an additional 30% off on the special sale today, and THEN another 15% off by using my Macy's card. It has little silver sparklies on it, and the satin trim at the neck and hem make it a special dress that's not too prissy for this conservative 10 year old.

It must be true that the older you get, the shorter you get. It can't be that these little girls are growing up so fast! Since the 10 year old's first dress was so inexpensive, we also got the second choice, too. Now, she just has to decide which one to wear tonight!

Ballet slipper type shoes finished off the outfits, and we did all this from about 11:00 am to 3:30 pm - which also included a quick burger at the mall. Then we went back to my house for a little bit of alteration on the straps of the champagne colored "gown", some pictures and some hugs. Opa whisked them off back to their home so they could get started on their manicures. Hopefully their mom will be able to go to the party tonight. They've taken a hotel room, so I don't have to worry about them being out with all the crazy drivers, and she can rest if she needs to, when she needs to.

This old lady? She's staying home, snug and cozy with Hubby, a pizza and a glass of bubbly at Midnight.

May there be light and peace for all of in this coming special New Year!

Happy Holidays

Our Holiday Open House has come and gone. Because it was also our 27th wedding anniversary, Hubby ordered these flowers for the table centerpiece as a surprise. They are STILL beautiful today!

We had about 100 people here (give or take 2o or so) in the course of 5 hours Sunday. I had planned on taking pictures, but then got too busy to get them done! We had a chocolate fountain that was a big hit, and we went through a flat of fresh strawberries, four fresh pineapples, 2 bags of marshmallows and a lot of pretzel logs! Besides the fun stuff, here's what else was offered:

8 lbs brisket (none left)
5 lbs sliced turkey (1 lb left)
8 lbs meatballs in spaghetti sauce (8 balls left)
8 lbs cocktail weiners in BBQ sauce (none left)
Paula Deen's Nutty cheese ball (none left)
White Chocolate Raspberry Cheese ball (1/2 left)
hot artichoke dip (1/2 left)
Apple chips and dip (all gone)
Sweet pepper dip (all gone)
4 large jars Olives with Garlic (none left)
4 cans black olives (1 can left)
7 dozen Christmas cookies (none left)
6 gallons of cranberry juice and 3 gallons of apple cider all gone
9 bottles of wine

My dining room is all nativity scenes and angels. This is the Hallmark nativity I received last year and it's on the sideboard. The top of the china hutch is filled with angels nestled in the green garland that has ribbons and lights.


This is my favorite nativity scene which is about 30 years old. It sits upon my Granny's Martha Washington Sewing Cabinet.


This nativity was purchased in Dresden Germany in 1971. I added the angel this year for balance. It's remarkable that the pieces are still in perfect condition, considering how fragile they are and how many times they've been moved! The glass trees are from Murano, Italy and are about the same age as the Dresden nativity. I ran out of room in the dining room, so this scene is set up in the living room along with all my other angels.
The hearth room is all snowmen. There's about 50 more snowmen sitting in the bookcases on either side of the fireplace, and on top of the TV armoire.Even the Christmas quilt on the wall (about 80" square) has snowmen in the center of Terry Atkinson's Lucky Star pattern. I love this pattern, and I especially love how happy this quilt makes the room!I miss my mother a lot. She was always yakking away, full of ideas and hints. The last picture I have for today is one of her best hints of all times. This silver punch bowl was purchased in Germany in 1970. It's very large, and the edges of it and the tray are very intricate - translated to very hard to clean. After the second time I asked my mom to help me polish it, she suggested this trick. Wrap every inch of the silver in Saran wrap very tightly. Leave nothing exposed. Then put the item in a dark plastic bag - I just used a navy blue laundry bag. It actually does work. Absolutely NO tarnish to clean!!!!! Now, it's all packed and ready to go the next time with no cleaning!!


I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday, safe, with family near, and many pieceful blessings for the New Year!