I'm here, I'm here....and Happy New Year! :o)

I hope you're all doing wonderfully and had a nice Christmas. I enjoyed all of the festivities and my hubby and kids spoiled me rotten with gifts. I've been searching on my two memory cards from my camera trying to find the picture I took of the Christmas tree all purdy with all the presents underneath, but I can't find it anywhere. Hmmm, do Santa's Elves do tricky things? :o)

Well, moving on without a photo....the holidays..... They are a blessed holiday for sure, but I always take on too much, how 'bout you? I keep telling myself that I am just one person but I take my 24 hours a day and try to pack as much as possible into it without getting sick because I'm not getting much sleep. I just keep singing with Gloria Gaynor in my head (I think that's who sings it), "I Will Survive!" and this year, again, I got through it all. :o) There was that quick trip to the ER Christmas morning with a bladder infection, but hey, that's not too bad for running on empty!

I had 5 days off work, which was wonderful!!! There were some days I was a slug and watched too much tv and even one day I stayed in my jammies!! I love days like that the most. They just don't happen often enough. :o) I did go into my sewing room once or twice but just to tidy things up a bit. There was no sewing.

The last few nights after work, I've been working on swaps for the Backporch Friends Yahoo group. I went to Moda Fabrics website and my sister walked me through how to download fabric lines to EQ6. It is so cool to play with fabrics that aren't even out yet!!! So, one of the swaps I will host will be using cherry fabrics and a pattern from Quilters Cache called Swapper's Star.
I made the block and plugged in the pretty cherry fabrics. I know people are trying to finish up projects but I'm hoping we get to make this one. If not, oh well, it'll be on the to-do list for some other day.



I get another few days off to ring in the New Year. I hope you spend yours warm and toasty and safe. Happy New Year!

Doing the baking...

I did a bunch of baking on Friday for the family gathering at my house on Saturday. Today I did more baking for the goodie plates I give neighbors and friends. But I'm fading fast from a busy weekend so I turned off the oven and I'm going to find the recliner. Tonight I baked Peanut Butter Blossoms....

...and Santa's Whiskers.
Tomorrow I'll do the sugar cookies and maybe gingerbread if I have it in me. :o) I think I might need to get a few more gifts too. Ohhh, it looks like I need the guy in the red suit to help me out!!!

Finally!!!

I FINALLY DID IT!!! I finished the ornaments that I started last year for my friends and family. They were much more time consuming then I thought and when Christmas was just hours away, I knew I wasn't going to make the deadline. I decided to accept defeat and put them up until 2008. :o( I "thought" I started them early enough but I thought wrong.
But here is the finished product.....

The pattern was free from the internet. The designer is Renee Mullins and I love the way she creates her adorable characters. I might've been able to get these done last year if I had a smaller family!!!! These are the ornaments ready to be signed.

We'll have my family over on Saturday for our exchange and I will give my sister's their ornaments then. We usually do a little something for each other and then do what my OK friend, Linda calls Dirty Santa. You know, the game where everyone brings a gift, you put it in the center of the room and you get a number to pick a gift. You can either open one or steal someone elses. It's fun and with no little ones around, us old folks have to do something for entertainment. :o) I have to do my baking but will just do a few things for the family gathering and then do the rest for neighbors Sunday and next week. Man, I'm excited just thinking of all this frivolity. hehe

Raise your hand if you love Christmas!!

I do, I do! I got some lights on the Christmas tree last night but didn't get finished. After running errands last night and having dinner, I got a late start. I had to use a couple of the strands of lights that are for the tree for some that burned out in garlands in other areas of the house. I have to make a Target run after work and can probably finish with one strand of lights. Maybe I better buy three! My daughter Ashley and her boyfriend were at the house last night and he watched me while I was wrapping the lights around each branch and seperating the layers. Dave said something to Ashley, as for just her to hear. "Man, your mom really puts on the lights yeah?" I kept saying that I wasn't going to have enough lights and I had 4 baggies left to put on. But this mama knows her trees cuz sure enough, I ran out with about a fourth of the tree still to go. Right now it looks like this....

I know the picture is dark but if I put my flash on, you couldn't see the lights. And it's ALL ABOUT THE LIGHTS! lol

My sister asked me yesterday where I get all my mini ornaments. Mostly it's from Gooseberry Patch and craft shows. Then last year, I bought a new set at Hallmark. They are stinkin' adorable and red mini kitchen gadgets so how could I resist? Well, I did resist at first. They were $14.00 (I think). I thought I would wait for after Christmas but was afraid they wouldn't be around after so I paid full price. When I opened the box this year, I was so glad I did. Here are some pictures of them on my little 3' kitchen tree. This is the rolling pin and red handled cookie cutters. (The green handled cutter is from Gooseberry Patch. Another purchase!)

Look at how itty-bitty the cookie cutters are!

There were also red handled untensils, a clear measuring cup, a container that looks like the old sugar container like at soda fountains and coffee shops.

I know the picture is blurry but look at these teeny measuring spoons. Can you see why I couldn't resist????

Have you had enough? Oh, maybe just a few more....... I also bought a cute set from Gooseberry Patch. It was jam jars....

...little canisters....

...and a little cocoa mix!

Oh, that was so fun. I can't wait to get home and see my little toys all over again. :o)

Hustle Bustle

Man, I don't know about you but I am definitely feeling the holiday pressure. I think I've got it figured out though. I put in 8 hours a day at work, stay up til about 11:30 on most nights. That gives me about 6 1/2 hours to do the things I normally do - eat dinner, catch up with my hubby, check e-mail, sew or craft something, sometimes throw in some laundry and housework but I usually save that for Saturday. Sounds like the good life to me. But in December, it all goes out the window. We add shopping (which usually means 'wrapping' too), decorating, making gifts for others, not just buying Christmas cards but the addressing, writing a little note, etc., baking, buying a tree, decorating the tree.....ACK!!!! It's no wonder the primary person who does these things gets a little stressed, cranky and sometimes gets sick.
I'm 51. It took me that long to figure this out. LOL

I've not touched my sewing machine in a couple of weeks. I think I miss it more than it misses me but I'll be back in the sewing room pretty soon. Last night I did some wrapping of the gifts I've gotten so far. If I don't, my kids will go through the bags when they come to visit so it HAD to get done. :o)


My boss was going to Crate & Barrel and I had seen these cute bowls in the catalog. I had her get me a set and she came back with a few extra goodies - a cute snowman dishtowel and chocolate covered marshmallows. Yum!!!
And because I refuse to show yet another stage of those blasted ornaments that I'm still working on (and you can't tell my progress anyway), here are pictures of some of my favorite decorations.
I got this Santa last year at Joann's. I think it's fun to have quilty decorations around the house.
I have a 4' tree in my dining room. I have cookie cutter-type ornaments on it. I got these little aprons at Gooseberry Patch last year. I think they are so cute and usually leave a couple hanging up all year!

I went to a craft show a couple of years ago and got these little mason jars filled with seeds. You insert a mini light in the top and they hang from your tree. They look so cute on this little tree.

Did I say "cute" in each of those descriptions? LOL I love to decorate for Christmas. My kids give me such hard time about it. But that's okay. I do it for me and I really hate taking my decorations down in January. But I guess if we had these things up all year, they wouldn't be so special. I hope you are enjoying the holiday season so far.

What the heck have I been doing?

Yeah, I know my last post was November 18th. My sister even commented that she keeps looking but there's nothing new! So this is it......



This is from Thanksgiving. Our pre-meal snacks to hold us over before the 'real' meal.

Hard to believe anyone would have room for turkey after all those yummy goodies but we did. I couldn't find any big turkeys at the market so got two fifteen pounders. I have the new double ovens so that worked out just fine. Here they are "unstuffed" and ready to be sliced. the look kind of pitiful but they were delicious!

I hit Michaels Crafts with my mom on Black Friday. Got a few gifts and some great deals. They weren't too busy so we didn't have to wear any body armor, thank goodness!! lol You never know with these people on a mission. They can get kind of scary! Later that day we went out to visit my SIL. Her son and his family were here for the holiday from Missouri.

THEN...on Saturday, I got my mom busy unpacking decorations and I put them up all over the house. I still have boxes stacked by the back door to go back out to the garage but I feel good this is done!

My middle daughter needed to finish a quilt for a co-worker's baby shower so she came over on Monday. I helped her piece the back and sewed up the binding for her while she quilted it on my Juki. She did a simple snowball/nine patch block design in pink and black. It came out very cute.

Now, I've got projects all over for Christmas. I'm knitting a scarf for my boss, the woman who has everything and if she doesn't have it, she can buy it for herself. She's the worst to buy for!!

I've got ornaments to finish, crayon bags cut out and waiting for assembly, shopping to do, etc., etc. But it feels good to have the things done that have happened already, like the decorating. SEE!!! I've been so busy, blogging was the last thing on my mind! Hope you are finding time to "play" this season.