Happy New Year

I doubt I will go out and celebrate tonight but you never know what kind of invitations the day will bring.  lol  Me and my friend Debbie usually spend New Year's Eve with our hubbies playing games and going to Downtown Fullerton where they close off the streets and have a fireworks display at midnight.  This year with Richard in Turkey, I think I'll just stay home and sew. 

Here is my big fireworks display....

I will say goodbye to 2013 with a thankful heart.  Even though my hubby left to go to another country to work, we have traveled to beautiful places I never even "thought" I would want to see much less have a chance to get there.  I have had a beautiful granddaughter and the bonus is she lives right here in my house so I can get my kisses and hug-fix any time I want. 

2014 will be exciting.  I will get to quit my job.  If I can stand to be away from little Emily for very long, I will go see Richard a few times this year and we will do have more traveling, mostly on the company's dime.  (Such a perk)

God Bless each and every one of you.  May you have a safe and Happy New Year and "prosperous" 2014....so we can buy more fabric and craft stuff.  lol

Celtic Solstice, Clue #1

Finally got started with the Bonnie Hunter mystery.  Feels so good to get behind the machine again. My "little distraction" is in San Diego this weekend so I can focus on sewing.  :-) 

Back to the sewing machine.  So many pieces!!!  I'll have to take another break in the sewing to take down Christmas so I've got to enjoy the break while I can.

Poor neglected bloggy...

Maybe I should start a holiday blog.  Just stopping in to say Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!!!  I loaded these pictures about a week and a half ago but never got on to edit and write up a post.  So sorry friends.  Things should be looking up though with Christmas behind us now, I hope to be a little more blog-post-friendly.  :o)  Even though Christmas was yesterday, I'll still finish this post and then move on. 

Here's a picture of my Christmas tree with my many strings of lights.  It takes me a long time to put the lights on because I wrap them around each branch like the artificial trees are done.  I just love the way it looks so much better than just looping them around the outer branches of the tree.

 

Here is the outside of my little house.  I always joke about it looking like a 'runway'.  I got those big Christmas bulbs/lights from Michael's and I line the walkway with them.  I think it would be so cute to string them from the roof but I can't afford to buy that many.  

 

There was an itty-bitty bit of crafting done before Christmas.  I made this tulle Monster wreath for my friend's sons birthday party.  It's a Monsters Inc. theme and my oldest daughter saw this on Pinterest so I copied it.  It came out pretty good even though my glue gun melted the bottom of the eyeballs.  lol  I had to use tacky glue instead.

My son-in-law's sister bought our little Emily her first Christmas ornament.  Kind of funny because they are Jewish but she knows I celebrate Christmas and that we would have a tree.  Speaking of which, it is SO dry, I need to take it down already.  I want to be sewing but that has to take priority.  I think I'll sew a little, take down the tree, sew a little, take off the lights, sew a little....you get the idea.  hehe

 

Speaking of little Emily, here she is at about 5 weeks old.  She started to smile on cue.  My goodness, this girl has us all wrapped around her little finger.  This is the reason there were no handmade ornaments this year and a lot less baking for the neighbors.  lol

 

 

I "finally" started the Celtic Solstice Mystery by Bonnie Hunter.  I'll share some of that tomorrow.  I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you! I didn't have to host Thanksgiving this year so I got a little extra time to play instead of cleaning.  :o)

 

I found a picture of these little turkeys on Pinterest.  There were no instructions but I could tell they were made with the Stampin' Up! owl punch and scallop punch.  I have both (of course!).  hehe  I made little candy bags.  We didn't need anything more to eat during but they were too cute to pass up.

 

 

I also bought some cake pops to take to our 'feast'.  I bought these from my friend, Becca.  She does an amazing job.  I only took a picture of two of them because the little cellophane reflection was too much for a good photo.  Love the turkeys eyes.

 

Like many, I baked today.  I made two pumpkin pies and a pumpkin streusel bundt cake.  Yum!!

 

Tomorrow I hope to get my Christmas bins out and get started decorating.  I pulled stash fabric for Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice and the clue is being released tomorrow.  I have so many UFO's so I was kind of on the fence on whether or not to do it.  I think I'm going to but I won't be able to start it until the week so I can get the house decorated. 

 

Have a great weekend!

 

A Little Pumpkin and A Big Pumpkin Have Arrived

This little bundle of love, Emily, arrived a little bit early.  She was due on November 10th but decided to show up on November 6th at 11:30 a.m.  She was 10 lbs. 2 oz. and 20.25" long.  We are so excited and have lost our hearts to this little wonder....just like people told me it would happen.  This is her first day in the hospital...

 

...and this was just a few days later.  Sigh.  Melts my heart.

Not a great photo but Richard surprised Ashley by a trip home from Turkey.  This had a few of us in tears!!!

I haven't stitched one little piece of anything because all I do is stare at this!  Her little onesie says "the best thing since sliced bread".  :) 

 

I'll try to get some sewing done soon to share something other than baby pics but I'm not making any promises!  lol

 

A Little Sister Time!

Only a few more weeks until my little granddaughter will be born.  With that pending (major) event, my sister Isabel asked me to come and visit her this past weekend.  She wanted me to bring supplies to make Christmas cards.  She thought if I didn't come now, there would be grandbaby oogling, Richard would be home for his visit and then the holidays and all the activities that go with them.  So, she was right.  It was now or never.  Big sisters are so smart.  :o)

 

Isabel lives in beautiful Ojai.  When I go there, I drive the back way through windy roads because it's so beautiful and picturesque.

 

 

There is this nice spot at the top of the mountains where it overlooks the valley.  I've seen just about every time I go visit.  I think it's just beautiful.  It was a beautiful weekend with warm weather and blue skies.  

This is the Christmas card I will send out this year.  I CASED it from a card on splitcoaststampers.  I changed it just an itty bitty bit because I didn't have the same greeting stamp or the little slider for the ribbon.  I like it though and added little rhinestones to add a little somethin'.  If you want to see the original, you can see the original here.  

 

 

Isabel had a lot more cutting to do than me so I had some time to work on a little Halloween goodie that I had also found on the internet.  It was on a blog here.  She references the original post so you can see a few different samples if you want.  I was going to give these to my sewing buddies but with Halloween falling on Thursday, our sewing night, I won't see them so I gave them to the neighbor kids.  Lucky kids!!!  lol

 

 

And last night I finished up the little table runner I started from fabric I got up in Lake Arrowhead a few weeks ago.  I made this one smaller than the sample in the store because the borders were so big.  I think I have enough fabric to make another one.  Woohoo!  Tonight I got it sandwiched and ready to quilt since we had very few Trick-or-Treaters.  Ashley took care of the kids at the door so I could get it layered together.  Hopefully, I'll get it quilted this weekend.



Off to bed.  Where does the time go???

Are you going to do Bonnie Hunter's Mystery quilt?



I know I have NO BUSINESS doing another project when I have sooooo many UFO's but with having just gone to Ireland this summer, I have to go for Bonnie Hunter's new mystery project, Celtic Solstice.  And unlike her other mysteries, I actually have quite a few of the colored fabrics needed for this one!!

 

I pulled them tonight while my laundry was going.  I'm hoping these blues will work because some of them I've had for a long time.

So, there are my colored prints.  I just have to pull the neutrals!  Looking at these photos...I think I need to pull out a few of these.  Funny how the photos look so different on the computer!

Lake Arrowhead Sew-In

Went to Lake Arrowhead this past weekend.  I had a really good weekend finishing some projects that have been sitting. 

 

The first one was my Fat Man's Squeeze top.  This is from the class I took this summer with Kathy Brown.  I took these blocks with me when I went to see Richard in Turkey in September but I forgot the ruler so I couldn't finish the blocks.  I couldn't finish the top this weekend either!!  I felt as if I needed a cream colored border before putting the bigger outer border on.  And so it sits....

 

 
All of these little lovely sherbet colored squares were for my cornerstones for the other summer class project, Lollipops by Joanna Figueroa.  While at the condo, I blind hemmed the blocks to their background blocks, cut, sewed and attached the circles to the Dresden (or lollipops) and put the sashing and borders on.  Whew, that was quite a finish! 

 

This ended up being a pretty good size quilt.  I think it will fit a twin bed nicely.  Now to hit a sale and find a backing.

 



This is my friend Susan.  I've known her since elementary school.  She made several of these little table runners with her Thangles.  She loves those things. :o)

 

It was a gorgeous weekend for the mountains in October.  It was around 70 during the day and in the 40's at night.  The lake was just beautiful.  In the photo are Sherrie, Neena, Susan and me standing.  I had to run after putting the camera on the timer.  lol

 

This is a photo of the front of the condo units.  We didn't stay in one that faced the water but that's okay with us.  We barely come out of the condo to see the light of day cuz we're so busy sewing.  hehe

 

 

This is Judy.  She decided to stay inside and sew instead of going out to the lake.  She was making adorable Christmas trees for a craft show.  She got quite a few of them done.  I guess that's what happens when you don't mess around.

 

Neena and Susan were busy sewing.  Neena hadn't worked on her blocks for a long time.  She needs to make one more block and she can stitch them together.

 

 

We don't get much of the fall colors at home but up here, there were a few trees and shrubs that were quite colorful.  Very pretty and with the cool air, it felt like fall was here. 

 

Here is Neena with her quilt blocks.  You can see she only has one more to do! 

 

I unpacked but have to 'repack' for a visit to go see my sister.  We're going to work on our Christmas cards.  So from one activity to another....off I go.  :o) 

Little Red Riding Hood Shower

I don't have a big beautiful house or a very big backyard but we do the best with what we have.  Saturday was my daughter's baby shower.  The two sisters and many former college roommates pitched in to do this happy day for Ashley, David and their new baby.

 

The theme was Little Red Riding Hood (LRRH)/Woodland in red and aqua.  The Santa Ana winds started on Friday night at 50 mph.  The shower was at 2:00 p.m. Saturday and I swear at 1:50 p.m. the winds subsided.  We hadn't hung up the pom-poms or little banners so we scrambled to get them up as guests arrived.  It was a little iffy there but we did it.

 

We used the EZ-up we use at the craft shows, three umbrellas and two canopies on the patio that are permanent fixtures.  I think we did pretty good provided shade in the 93 degree weather!

My daughter Kelley designed all the printouts.  We cut the pennants and ovals out with my Cricut and glued various LRRH designs inside.  I just love the color combination!

This is where we had Ashley sit to open her presents.  This is the glider rocker she got at Goodwill for $25.00 and I made the cushions for it.  The baby quilt is done and just needs a baby name so I can put the label on.  They want to wait to see the baby before deciding on a name.  Kelley drew the LRRH in the frame (Ikea frame painted Aqua) and leftover mushroom fabric from the quilt and bumper pads is in the background.

Ashley made the mushrooms out of Styrofoam.  We could not find any for decorations anywhere.  We cut the balls in half, Ashley painted them and put them together with skewers.  Kelley painted the dots on.

 

We had a few little candies like red vines, red hots and caramel apple suckers.  Ashley doesn't like cake so I made pumpkin pies and my co-MIL helped me make apple and peach hand pies.  

 

 

Kelley had some little brown paper bags from her craft shows so I used my zig zag rotary cutter to cut them down to a good size to hold the pies.  They were pretty tasty if I do say so myself.  :)



I found this little chalkboard at a floral supply warehouse.  Kelley wrote in the kind of pies we were serving.  She has the best penmanship for a Lefty!

 

You can see the adorable mushroom cake pops made by our friend Becca Gonzalez of Becca's Cupboard in Fullerton, CA.  She does such an amazing job.  Any cake pop she has tried, they are always spot on!  You can find her on facebook under Becca's Cupboard.  And if cute wasn't enough, they are Deeelicious!!  She made some for Ashley's wedding too!

 

It was so windy, we couldn't hang the quilt I wanted behind the table.  :(  I picked up two white chairs at the Long Beach Antique swap meet.  My son-in-law and soon-to-be daddy, Dave, painted them red for me.  All we need now is a little girl to warm them up with her bottom.  hehe  I found the ceramic mushrooms on ebay and we used the same jars from my hubby's going away party but tucked in some moss to make it 'woodland-ish'.  Now that the shower is over, I'm going to pop them in the garden.  

 

Before putting everything away, I took some pictures of the items Kelley printed up because I thought they were so cute.  Stephanie and Ashley glued the little wolf pictures to tongue depressors for fans for the heat, the other artwork was for describing the menu for the day.  The aqua frames came from the dollar store.



 

Because we expected a big group, the girls played simple games that wouldn't keep people waiting.  They played Bingo where you wrote in what you thought her gifts would be.  I love the little "free" space mushroom.  :) Stephanie wrapped the cards and added the little berries.  When I saw that, I thought these are the little touches that make things look so cute.

 

Here is my daughter Ashley in front of her gifties.  She's got one of those little basketball bellies.  She's 33 weeks now.  Yay!

 

 

This is daughter #2, Stephanie.  She hates having her picture on the internet so don't tell.  lol  I thought this was a cute picture of her (on L) and her school friend Cristalle.  Stephanie did all the mason jar favors, helped with the little details and helped me with shopping.  She also did a MOUNTAIN of dishes with the help of my friend Susan!!  

 

Other than the horrible winds and scorching heat, it was a great day.

Playing in Turkey

I wish I could read Turkish.  Saw these great magazines at the little corner market when we were picking up some produce.  They had some of the cutest projects inside.  Probably a good thing they weren't in English  because the last thing I need are a few more projects to do!

Monday was my hubbies birthday so he took one more day of vacation and we went to the mall where Ikea is and walked around.  We saw these cabinets  They are perfectly vintage looking and he thinks he's going to get one for his car collectibles.  It's too bad they don't have it in the new turquoise color they're using on so much right now.  Richard said he'd go back and get one for the game room.  Lord knows, he needs something in this big empty apartment.  lol  I told him it will give him a place for all the souvenirs he's getting and I told him to paint it before he puts it together.  :o)

 

We passed by the rug department and Richard spotted the button rug we saw in the catalog back in May last time I was here but they didn't have them yet.  He said, "There's your button rug.  You better get it." :o)  I told him I didn't think I wanted one since they have a white background and it would be too hard to keep clean.  You can see I put up a fight and gave in.  LOL  It makes me happy to look at it and it is comfy on my feet when I'm cutting.  Guess I'll keep the vacuum handy.

 

 

I put that room and rug to good use the last few days.  Before we took our trip to Ireland for Richard's "mandatory R&R", I made these red and light blue blocks.  These were from the class at quilt camp I went to in July.  I had to pack that away though because I didn't bring the ruler with me to make the other two navy ones.  It'll have to wait til I get home.  It's looking good though and I'm loving them.

 

I did those, a breast cover for my daughter Ashley and this little iron caddy/pressing mat.  Thank you for the pattern, Carolyn!

This will be great for retreats and sew-ins.  :)



Yesterday, I took this kit out and got it cut out.  It was a perfect, easy project for sewing while doing laundry.

 

 

I think it's a perfect little boy quilt.  It measures 38x48 so it'll be nice and easy to quilt when I get home.  :o)