Christmas Day…

Well, thanks to steroids, morphine and all of your prayers, my Dad has been released from the hospital to have Christmas with his family.  He can only have liquids right now and has to have surgery in the next few days, but we are so happy.  We, by unanimous decision, have decided to hold off on opening presents until my parents can arrive.  We did have the children open the presents that Santa left when we all got up this morning though. 

Thank you to everyone for your well wishes and prayers.  It has meant so much to me. I hope that everyone has a joy filled day, I know we will!

Merry Christmas…

On the 23rd Day of Advent…

…I am asking for your prayers, well wishes, positive energy, good thoughts for my Dad.  He has been in the hospital with complications due to Crohn’s Disease since the 21st and we could use all the help we can get.

Thank you.

On the 21st Day of Advent…

To celebrate the first day of winter I thought I would share this funny picture:

It has been floating around the internet lately and I thought it was pretty cute. I would love to credit whoever took it, I just haven’t been able to find that information. Still, too cute not to share!

On the 20th Day of Advent…

On the 19th Day of Advent…

An Irish giveaway contest for you!  I have been a fan of Micki from Irish Muses for quite a while now.  It is time for her annual Christmas giveaway!  Drop by and leave her a note!

On the 16th Day of Advent…

Boy Genius had his Christmas concert tonight.  Unfortunately my sound quality wasn’t the best tonight, the Symphony band was incredibly awesome!  They really sound more like a college symphony band than a high school one.

For your viewing and listening pleasure…Baby It’s Cold Outside.

On the 15th Day of Advent…

A movie to look forward to.

They will be releasing “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” on December 25th in limited areas here in the US.  I’m really hoping that it will come to a theater near me… after all, it has Johnny Depp in it and who could ask for a better Christmas present!

On the 14th Day of Advent

Have you ever seen the comedy of Jeff Dunham?  He’s politically incorrect, makes sexual innuendo's, and is an equal opportunity offender.  He’s hysterical!  Here’s an excerpt from his Christmas special.

On the 12th Day of Advent…

Here’s an idea for you.  To help the environment, why not make some bags that you can use at the grocery store.  Even better, why not make some and give them away to other people so they can use them too!  I plan on doing this just as soon as I finish my Christmas projects.  Won’t you join me?

clickable

On the 11th Day of Advent…

Apparently, I slept through yesterday, so lucky you, you’ll get two posts today!

On the 10th Day of Advent…

First a picture of my Daughter in her re-vamped t-shirt. It’s hard to tell, but her t-shirt says I ♥ Santa. She really wanted to have her picture taken with the dogs and I just can’t resist her sweet smile! The top was too short on her so I added a ruffle from holiday fabric at the bottom and at the cuffs. Doesn’t she look sweet?

I finally finished my table topper! It doesn’t show very well in my picture, but I am very pleased as I think it turned out gorgeous! Seriously it’s the prettiest thing I have ever made! You can see some of the colors marginally better in this shot. I really wish that the vibrancy of the burgundies and greens and golds would translate better, they really are outstanding.

On the 9th Day of Advent…

Pictures of my mantle!  I was so excited this year when I found a box of Christmas decorations I had misplaced last year.  I love the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer characters and that is the box of decorations that was missing.  (Don’t get me started about the story, though, it drives me crazy with it’s prejudice and intolerance.) So, without further ado…

     Remember my star/snowflake from yesterday?  Well it turned out really cute!

You should try one!

On the 8th Day of Advent…

Snowflakes!  Snowflakes are so lovely.  It’s amazing how each one is different, like our fingerprints.  Here are some absolutely gorgeous pictures of some:

So…I wanted to make a snowflake.  I didn’t want to do the usual cut out ones though.  So I looked around online and found a tutorial to this:

(clickable)

I’ll let you know how it turns out!

On the 7th Day of Advent…

I went fabric shopping!

From left to right:  I had to get more gold flecked cream to finish my fancy table topper; found the candy/modern snowflake for my kitchen table topper; and this darling music material to make into a pillowcase from this tutorial for Boy Genius.  He’s so into music with jazz, marching and symphony band, as well as his drumming, I thought this would be perfect and I know he’ll love it!

So what are you making for Christmas?

On The 6th Day of Advent…

Have you been to the Gum Tree Designer’s site yet?  Check it out!  Loads of free stitching projects and a link or idea every day of Advent! Just click the picture above to go there!

On The Fifth Day of Advent...

some music...Straight No Chaser. Love these guys!

On the 4th Day of Advent…a review…

In case you haven’t noticed, I am trying to write something every day until Christmas.  This may be a stretch for me.  Those of you who frequent my blog know that I go for days, sometimes a week or more without making a post.  This is the challenge I set for myself.

So, on to my book review.

I recently finished reading “The Time Traveler’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger. 

 

Let me start by saying that if you like your endings to be wrapped up in a box with a pretty bow, this is not the book for you. 

Rather appropriately, this was my “car” book.  The book I read while waiting for my children at their various activities.  As such, it made the reading somewhat disjointed.  This book was perfect for that.  By it’s very nature, it is disjointed.  You get snippets of time, mostly present and past where the two main characters lives converge. 

The main male character, Henry DeTamble, first meets the main female character, Clare Abshire , when he is 36 and she is just 6.  Henry is actually only 8 years older than Clare in “real” time. What ensues is a somewhat chaotic relationship, but Niffenegger manages to coalesce all the experiences into a cohesive, interesting story.

I found the story to be well written, prosaic at times.  For someone in their 40’s there are some wonderful references to the bands that were popular in the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s that will bring back memories.

This is a messy, thought provoking, fascinating story that I thoroughly enjoyed.  It is like real life, though, there is joy and sadness, passion and grief. Don’t expect a rainbow at the end!

My Favorite Cookie on the 3rd Day of Advent…

I thought today I would share with you my FAVORITE cookie!  I use the recipe on the back of these Nestle morsels:

Although I don’t think Nestle is making this chip any more (I have some left from stocking up last year) they are exactly the same as their premium white chips.  The only difference is the coloring.

Swirled Holiday Snowball Cookies

1 1/2 c butter, softened

3/4 c powdered sugar

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. salt

3 c flour

1 2/3 c (1 package) Nestle swirled premium white chips

1/2 c finely chopped nuts

powdered sugar

mix butter, sugar, vanilla and salt in mixer until creamy.  Gradually beat in flour.  Stir in morsels and nuts.  Shape level tablespoons of dough into 1 1/4 inch balls.  Bake at 375 degrees on ungreased cookie sheets 10 – 12 minutes until set and lightly browned.  Sprinkle powdered sugar on hot cookies, cool on cookie sheet for about 10 minutes.

Just a tip, don’t let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheet or they will stick.  Put them on a cooling rack.  You can add more powdered sugar (I always do) after they have cooled a bit.  These are absolutely wonderful cookies…give them a try!

On The Second Day Of Advent…

I thought I’d share some crafty things to make for Christmas presents. Some I have made, some not. Just click on the pictures to go to the sites!

Over at Roots & Wings Co. they have a recipe to make your own vanilla extract.

Happy Zombie gives a tutorial on how to make these fabric gift bags.

Sew 4 Home tells us how to make Citrus Holiday: Bits & Pieces Felt Ornaments. I think this would be fun to do with the medium sized kidlets!

At Home With The Farmer’s Wife gives a great tutorial on using up hotel, or leftover, soaps and remaking them into a new bar nice enough for gift giving!

Jump on over to Pink Penguin to make the cutest fabric basket. I made this last year and it turned out wonderful! Easy to make and it is a great gift…fill it with goodies!

Last, but certainly not least, for today are some recycled cd coasters from Scrapdash. I made these last year as well using the same Christmas fabric as the basket above and gave them, along with the basket, as a gift to my Mom. She said the only problem with them is that she wants more!!

Have a great evening!

And The Countdown Begins…

Can you believe it is December 1st already!  Where has the year gone?  It has literally flown by on gossamer wings.  So much has stayed the same for us, yet so much has changed. 

My #1 Son went away to start his junior year in college (though he’s home every weekend to do laundry!)– unbelievable that I have a child that old…I am certainly not old enough!

My #2 Son graduated from high school and started college. A new journey for him, though it is a somewhat familiar path as he is living at home and commuting.

My #3 Son started his sophomore year in high school, joined jazz band playing his saxophone and started drumming lessons – something that from all accounts he is quite talented with.

My baby, my little girl, managed to find a way over the summer break to grow up just a little too much for my tastes!  She is now very fashion conscious and a little diva in her own right.  Still as sweet as can be, but not quite the “little girl” she was a year ago.

We added a puppy to our gaggle of people and animals living here.  He’s half Shiz-Tzu and half Dashund. He’s so ugly he’s cute!  I love him, he’s such a little cuddle bug!

We got our tree all decorated this past Sunday night.  It went fairly smoothly…as smoothly as can be expected with six people working on it! You can see in the picture that Hubby took, it gets a bit congested around the tree!

I put the tree in a different spot this year, I have been hungry for change.  It didn’t happen without a little grumbling from the kidlets, they don’t like it when I change things.  But I am pleased with how it turned out…a little the same…a little different.

Now comes the frenzy of figuring out all the Christmas presents.  Who gets what?  Do I have time to make the things I planned for myself as well as other?  Is it possible to make zero calorie Christmas cookies?  (the last one is really the most important one of all!!!)

From my family to yours Happy December…Happy First Day of Advent!

Thankful…

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!

I am thankful for so many things.  First and foremost, I am thankful for my children.  Before I had them, I didn’t know what I was missing.  They have brought me a plethora of emotions. From sadness to happiness, anger to pure joy.  They have so been worth including in my life and I don’t know what I would do without them.

I am thankful for my Husband.  We have been journeying through this life together for over 29 years, more than half my life!  It has never been dull for us and I love him very much!

I am thankful to have my Parents near to me and have them be healthy.  Over the last couple of years they have had a few health hiccups which has made me cherish them even more.

I am thankful for my best friend.  I went for many years with no friends, just my family and so she is very dear to me.  She is the little sister I always wanted and I am glad she came into my life.

All the things I am grateful for aren’t things at all.  They are the people in my life.  Things aren’t so important…they are just THINGS!  It’s the people in your life, the love you share that is so important.  Now, go love on someone!

Hullabaloo…

Okay, so I’m totally procrastinating here! I’m supposed to be arranging my dining room and chopping veggies in preparation for Thanksgiving tomorrow! Instead, I decided I want to make a blog post, something I haven’t really had the inclination to do for over a week!

Here’s what I have been up to:

First I am in the process of making a Gnome home for a corner shelf in my downstairs bathroom. The little rug is actually two sided with oak leaves on one side and holly leaves and berries on the other. I blanket stitched around it, then crocheted with embroidery floss to finish. I’ll show a better picture of it when I take pictures for the Christmas layout.

I also make a turkey for the “wall” that as soon as I put the eye on, I will hang in their area.

You too can make your own Gnomes and turkey! I got the patterns from Wee Folk Art. I did make the Gnome’s hats just a tad shorter and for the turkey, I printed him out at 1/4 the size of their pattern.

Back in August when Spartan and I went on our anniversary trip, one of the places we went was Shipshewana. There is a quilt store there called Lolly’s. It is an awesome quilt shop! While there I got my first jelly roll. It is all Moda material that Lolly’s custom rolled!

I have been trying to figure out what I was going to do with it…after all…I didn’t want to waste it, or worse yet hate the project when I got it done. When I saw that Kellie from Don’t Look Now was doing a quilt along with this lovely pattern, I knew just what I wanted to do! Instead of making a quilt, however, I am making a table topper for my dinning room. It is all hand appliqued at this point, so I’m not quite done with it. I have about 1/2 done. I had to take a break yesterday because my fingers just couldn’t take being poked anymore. I haven’t done “real” hand work in a few weeks, so my callus’s have gone away. There will be a pretty patchwork border on it when I get done with the hand work. It’s hard to get a good picture since there is so much gold in the material. Even the cream background is flecked with gold.

Last, but not least, for your visual enjoyment may I present my kitchen table topper. It’s made with a Mary Englebrite charm pack. The colorful star material in the bottom of the picture will be a scalloped border a la Vicki from Tozz’s Corner.

So now you know what I have been up to. Since I have posted the pictures and made it official (of sorts), I will have to finish everything so I can show more pictures!

Okay, I know, I know…enough procrastinating…back to work!

Contract...

I don't have any crafty finishes to share right now, so I thought I would share the conversation I had with Boy Genius at 6:00 this morning in the car on the way to drop him off for jazz band.

*cough* *cough*

"You okay?" I ask him
"Yeah." he says
"Left over from when you were sick last week?"
"Yeah."

*couple minute pause*

"I just worry." I say.

*couple minute pause*

"It was in the contract." I say matter of factly.

*couple minute pause*

"Huh?" he says with confusion in his voice.
"It was in the contract." I repeat.
"What contract?"
"The one I signed when I decided to have children." I respond as if it should be obvious what I am talking about.
"Ohh-kayyy..." he replies.
"Seriously. It was the #1 rule on the contract. #1 says I must worry about my kids." I respond as if he should know exactly what said contract says. "#2 says that I should embarrass my children in front of their friends or while they are on the phone." This is said conversationally, as if I am repeating the weather report. "#3 was that I should hug and kiss my kids all the time. The best part is if you do it in front of their friends, I am fulfilling both #2 and #3 at the same time."
"Wouldn't you always be fulfilling #2 if you are doing #3?" he asks me.
"No." I respond. "Unless you do it in front of their friends it doesn't fulfill the requirement for #2. I can hug and kiss on you in private and it won't embarrass you at all." With this, I take my eyes off the road and smile sweetly at Boy Genius.
"Ahh." He says, nodding his head as if this explains a lot.
"The sad thing is," I say "when I am fulfilling #3 with Gamer, I am not fulfilling #2 with him. He doesn't care." I say with pride in my voice, "I can always count on hugs from Gamer in front of his friends!"
"You'd definitely be embarrassing Runner." BG replies.
"True," I say "but I think I am also fulfilling #2 when I hug him in private. You are somewhere in between."

*couple minute pause*

"There, now you know about the secret contract I signed." I throw out
"Yup." He replies

He smiles.

I smile.

*more silence as I drive the rest of the way to the school*

I hug him as he gets out of the car, in full view of the other zero hour jazz band members at the school. "Have a good day!" I tell him as he swings the car door shut.

He smiles.

God I love that kid!

Happy Veteran's Day...

I want to extend my best wishes to all the veteran's out there. Since I have my very own live veteran living in my house, I thought I'd share some past pictures with you.

Before he was Spartan, my Husband was Military Man. Special Forces Military Man. 82nd Airborne, Red Beret Military Man. You may have seen my picture earlier this week of the uniform and beret I wore for Halloween this year. Now you can see it when it was active duty:

As with so many of our troops, they look like babies when they are active duty:
But not so much like this (Hubby is on the left):
Or like this:

I never wanted to know when he was jumping, it scared the hell out of me. I was always ready to greet him with a kiss, though when he came home.

Happy Veteran's Day to my favorite veteran. You are loved and cherished and we are thankful for all you did for us. Thank your favorite veteran...or any veteran today. Without them, we would not be able to enjoy the freedoms we have today!