Creative Time

During this month of December with all the snow that has kept me home....plus seeing all the neat things others have been making....I've found myself being more productive than usual. As you have read before, I'm not exactly the speedy kind of gal when it comes to creative pursuits.

Thought I'd show you a few of the things I've been up to this month.


I made two aprons from Cindy Taylor Oates book "More Retro Aprons" for my daughter and future daughter-in-law. They were so fun to make and turned out adorable. I also made matching rubber gloves. Sewed a cuff on the gloves....aren't those cute too? I think the girls liked them. I bought fabric to make myself one too but will do that with the Yaya's on our winter retreat.




This is an applique block from a block of the month I started.....uhhhhh......2 years ago this June. I'm not giving up my secret on how much of the quilt I've accomplished but you can read my post about how long a quilt takes me and get a general idea. Ha, ha, ha. This is my cat Finnian being silly. Cute, huh?


I have been collecting western/cowboy themed fabric for 3 years knowing that one day I'd be making a quilt for my grandson. When we decided he was getting a cowboy themed Christmas, I knew it was time to get the fabric out and start cutting. The quilt pattern is called Fresh Linens, and is from Heather Mulder Peterson's book "Let the Good Times Roll". It will be a quick project...which is good seeing as I'm making it for Mr. Cowboy's 4th birthday in 2 months.


At a Christmas Tea I watched a friend crocheting this strange looking "boat" thing. She said it was a double thickness potholder...no way I thought. But she explained how it was gonna work and I had to try it myself. It's such a fun project to do cuz no one gets what you are doing and its super fast...oh and it only takes a single ball of cotton, like Sugar'n Cream. I'm not good at explaining but this blog does a decent job. I did some things different - like I used an F hook, I chained 40 to start (36 on a different one I made) and I just single crocheted normally (not in the back loop) once I did that first go around.


Only needed to whip stitch this opening closed and voila, it was done.

I also started knitting my first hat....got about half way done and ran out of yarn. I haven't been able to find any more so not sure if I will add a different color or just take it apart. Decisions, decisions.

I still can't believe how productive I was this month. Huh...I wonder if I can manage the same thing in January? :)

Christmas Delight

Christmas 2008 was delightful. From the snow, to family, to fun presents and good food....what more could a gal want? :)

Here's the whole crew....you can even see all three dogs (even if Bonnie's head is barely in the shot!):

Hubby was Mr. Santa himself! Passing out gifts and enjoy a sip along the way.

David is eating his piggy bank.....all gifts went straight to the mouth....as did everything else at Nana's house.


Mr. Liam enjoyed his cowboy themed gifts. Here he is all outfitted and ready to go shoot the bad guys.

David and Grandpa having a happy moment together! So dang cute. David was sick this visit....poor guy....but he did have his happy moments.

Fondue is our traditional Christmas dinner. I love the ease of it (hardly anything to prepare) and how it makes us all slow down after the hecticness of the day.

Mr. Liam had to have the most important cowboy gear -- boots, hat & gun -- with him even when we went outside to play in the snow.

I look forward to many more family Christmas'. You can see more pictures (and usually better ones at Faith's blog. Jenn hasn't posted yet at her blog, but will soon and she'll have more pics too.

Feet Friday

Christmas Cowboy!

Our gift to Liam was cowboy themed...hat, boots, spurs, socks, vest, chaps, bandanna, gun, lunchbox and books. So much fun for a little guy who is almost 4. I'll post more pics later of our Christmas fun.

Christmas Past

Tomorrow's the big day! I'm so excited to have the family here and especially excited for the grand kids. Kids and Christmas just go hand in hand. Since tomorrow's pictures will most likely be all Liam and David (duh!), I thought I'd share some pics of Christmas past.

This is me at 7 years old. Such a haul of gifts! Notice the easy bake oven...I soooo loved that toy!

Here is hubby at 10 years old....opening his beloved bow that he still has...it hangs proudly on our bedroom wall!

And here we both are at 17 years old in southern California. We are in our senior year of high school and traveled with my folks to Disneyland for Christmas. Notice our matching sweatshirts. Aren't we cute....and oh so skinny! :)

That was our first Christmas together. And tomorrow will be our 30th. My best present.

Still a Winter Wonderland

It started snowing again yesterday at 2:30pm and did so through the night. We woke to 6 inches of new snow! And its been snowing off and on again all day.....probably an additional 2 inches. Definitely doesn't look like the Pacific Northwest out there. For those of you who live with winter, you'll have to forgive me for my joy and continual posts on snow. I just can't get enough of it.

Dennis and I went outside today to make snow people.....it's perfect snowman making snow.

Here are our creations:


This shot shows you the lazy dude on the lounge chair:


We also decided to make a fort. Hoping it's still here on Christmas so Liam can play in it.

And of course, Miss Bonnie loved her time outside.

Loving it still.

Feet Friday

Peek-a-boo!

Snowy Pleasure

It was a beautiful snowy day here in the Northwest. Made even better by not having to go anywhere and by having hubby able to stay home from work. We could enjoy the day together and we did! :)

The birds were especially fun to watch today. Robins, Varied Thrushes, Rufus sided Towhees and Stellar Jays were busy looking for food among all the snow. These holly berries provided much.

And the left over, unpicked apples were also enjoyed:

The snow will be sticking around for a while. Coolio! Maybe some new birds will show up tomorrow to finish off the berries and apples.

Merry Christmas!

Pet Peeve

My newest “pet” peeve.
Last time hubby and I were at dancing one of our dancers was telling the story of seeing two ladies in the park walking with what she thought were babies in baby front packs...only to find out when they got closer that they were carrying dogs! Yes, dogs! I was shocked. Really? Thanks to some Google image searching I got to see for myself. See for yourself:

Really people.....dogs have 4 good legs for walking and running. Its no wonder obesity is getting to be more of a problem with our pets. We indulge and indulge. That’s not love, folks. For their sake, let them walk! Let. Them. Walk.

Creative Architecture

I was reading one of my favorite quilting blogs and they had a post linking to the Village of Joy web site that has pics of unusual -- and I think very creative -- buildings from around the world. They are amazing! I didn't want you to miss these so decided to post about it also.
Enjoy.

Seeing Red

My cat Finnian has a thing for red stuff. With many beanie babies around the house he only attacks one…a red dog. And now with the Christmas tree up he only has eyes for the red bows.

This is his second Christmas with us and he did the exact same thing last year as a kitten. There are plenty of ornaments down low that he could take off….but noooooo….its just the red bows.

Just try to get it away from him! I dare you!

He even diligently brought a “kill” to me in bed the other morning. Silly boy. Makes me wonder if Finn would attack the bows if they were a different color? Maybe next year we’ll experiment and see.

Merry Christmas, Finnian!

Feet Friday

Just cuz it reminds me of my moods and the "going's" of this month! LOL!

My Friend - Mr. Caffeine

When one wakes up in a bad mood....and one's hormones are wrecking havoc with ones mind & body......and it is all topped off with added-December stress......then it's nice to have a friend like Mr. Caffeine. He doesn't ask anything of me. He just listens, warms my inner being and gives me just the right amount of 'umphf" to be a polite human being to those I had to come in contact with today. Thank you, Mr. Caffeine...I'll see you tomorrow.

Winter Quilts

Yesterday we got our Christmas tree decorated, which completes the little bit of seasonal decorating that I do. We’ve had a fake tree for the past 5 or 6 years but this year I wanted a fresh one. It smells so good…love it….and so does the cat, but that’s a blog for another day. LOL.

I have two quilts that I take out this time of year. One is my Warm Wishes quilt made of flannel. It stays out all winter since it’s the best for keeping me warm on the couch during the cold months.

It’s an easy quilt to make and one of the patterns I actually get done fast. What I love about this pattern is that it looks more complicated than it really is. It only has one pieced block in it…a rail fence (3 rectangles sewn together) which is alternated with a plain square. By turning the rail fence blocks around the plain squares creates the pattern.
Can you see the blocks and how they are turned?

Easy peasy. Not much to cut out and not much sewing.

The other quilt I take out is my Yaya Christmas quilt.

Several years ago when all us Yaya’s were quilting we made birthday blocks for each other based on a fabric theme. I had picked a red/green fabric for them to use…it wasn’t really Christmassy…just red & green. I had the 4 blocks for many years before I decided what I wanted to do with them. When I saw this pattern (can’t remember what it’s called or what book I got it from….sorry) I noticed the plain middle of the blocks could be replaced with pieced blocks…and that’s where my Yaya blocks went.
Here are a couple of them:

Sally Howard machine quilted it and thus completed the friendship spirit of this quilt.

I love having it out as a reminder of the people in my life that I am blessed to know.