Post Christmas Confession

I had intended to blog this week but something happened on Christmas day that prevented me .. it is called Kindle Fire.

I didn't ask for it, but my wonderful children gave me one and since then, that's all I've been doing in my spare time.  No blogging, no knitting, no quilting, no cooking, no cleaning, no laundry.  (okay, I did have to go to work, but that was about it.)  I've been playing this horribly addictive game called Angry Birds and I read a book.

Other than me becoming obsessed with the Kindle and the game, we had a wonderful day.  All of my children were here.  My DIL even made dinner so that I could play.  Here is what I looked like after spending a little time with my new love.

Here are some less ridiculous pictures of Christmas morning.

The boys with the requisite holiday guns.

Missing from these pictures are my children (ages 22 to 31) playing with their dart guns.  Dart fights kept them entertained all day and made it dangerous for those of us without shield or our own guns to even walk in the house.

Anyway, I have been slowly working on my list for 2012.  I wanted to have it done before today, but as long as I upload it tomorrow or in the next week or so, I'll be fine.  Shay had suggested that I make this a linky thing.  If anyone would like to join me, there will be a link available.  I'll try and check in weekly to update on what I've done.  and hopefully others will join in and update as well. 

So what is the "list" about?  The list is a bunch of things that I would like to do in the coming year -- rather than making resolutions that I probably won't keep, I make a list of goals, fun things to do, etc. , one for each week.  Not that one has to be done each week, but it's a nice number -- I suppose I could do 12 or 24 or something like that, but 52 sounds very ambitious.  Anyway, it wasn't my idea.  My niece, Katie, has been doing this for a while and she got me doing it two years ago.

I'm hoping that having others join me will give me the encouragement (push) I need to get more done than last year.  If you can't come up with 52 things feel free to come up with a number that will work for you and link up.

The stockings ..

were hung by the chimney with care ...

15 Minute Challenge - 3rd Week in December

So I finished a few things this week and as always, when I finish something I feel like I need to reward myself by being lazy ..

Tuesday - knitting
Wednesday - knitting
Thursday - finished knitting project
Friday - nada
Saturday - worked on rocketman
Sunday - made fudge; finished rocketman
Monday - made toffee

not much time to finish Christmas projects and I have two more things I want to start knitting and finish.  Let's see how that goes.

To see how others are doing on the 15 minute challenge or to link up yourself, click here to go to Life in Pieces.

Wordless Wednesday

15 Minute Challenge - 2nd Week In December

Tuesday - knitting
Wednesday - knitting
Thursday - nada
Friday - knitting
Saturday - worked on quilting rocketman; knitted; made bread

Sunday - knitting

Monday - knitting

Haven't gotten much quilting done, but I've been working on Christmas presents.  I'm hoping they are well received.

Check out how others are doing with the challenge at Kate's Life in Pieces.

Favorite Things Friday

I'm linking up with Shay at QIMP. Please click on the link and see what other favorites are being posted about today ...

My favorite this week is baking bread.  Every Christmas, I bake cinnamon bread for co-workers and friends.  I start tomorrow and will be done in two weeks.  I will probably make at least 12 loaves of bread .. depending on how much I decide to eat -- and if I can make some other stuff for co-workers.

We have three parties to go to tomorrow night (I think these are the only three parties we have this year -- and all on the same day!).  The first includes a white elephant gift exchange, the second is a dessert party, and the third is an ugly sweater party.  I am going to bring loaves of bread as gifts for the hosts.   Looking forward to it -- all the way around.

Bright?

Just wanted to let you all know that I became a follower of my own blog today.  I was trying to figure out who one of my followers was and I inadvertently started following myself.  Honestly, I think I've done it about 10 times.  Am I the only one?

15 minute challenge - 1st week in December

So this week was a bit of a challenge.  I have a few knitting projects that I realize I can work on during my commute and at work so I did some of that this week.  I also started quilting rocket man, but have become overwhelmed by it and am letting myself be too busy to work on it.  Probably do some tonight.  On Friday, I had a holiday party with my office so that left no crafty time and on Saturday we helped #3 son clean his house, which took all day .. but here's what I did.

Tuesday - put rocket man together
Wednesday - started quilting RM
Thursday - knitting
Friday - NADA
Saturday - knitting
Sunday - knitting
Monday - knitting - finished the first cowl (except for weaving in the ends)

Also, on Sunday, I made fudge (and ate about 1 pound of the five I made) and some homemade laundry soap.  I'll let you know what i think of it after I've used it .. those two things, along with church, watching a small grandchild, laundry, grocery shopping, making dinner, and doing the dishes kept me busy.

Check out Life in Pieces to see how others have done on the 15-minute challenge this week.

Favorite Things Friday

My favorite this week is actually sewing related.  My sewing machine is in the dining room.  When I'm not home, I unplug it, but leave it on the table with the cover on, with the hope that the boys will not mess with it.  Usually they don't.  I generally try to wait to sew after they have gone to bed or when they aren't home.  But on some occasions, I sew when they are here.  And when I do, the boys want to sit on my lap and "help" me.

I try to be patient and let them "help."  Mikey will sit and help guide the fabric.  Andrew doesn't really do anything.  But they both want to sit there.  It's very sweet and special.  I wish I had a picture or two to post.  Next time it happens, I'll need to get someone to take a picture for me.

So that's it.  that's my favorite this week.  Just in under the limit.

To see more favorites, check out Quilting in My Pyjamas.

Wordless Wednesday

15 Minute Challenge - 11/29

With Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving preparations, I didn't get in 15 minutes a day of sewing or crafting, but when I did get time in it was more than just 15 minutes.

Tuesday - worked on stacked coins

Wednesday - made pies (we had a pie making party and made pumpkin cheesecake, apple pie, cherry pie, and pumpkin pie)

Thursday - ate lots of turkey

Friday - ate leftovers

Saturday - cut out stockings

Sunday - started on knitted cowl

Monday - worked on knitted cowl; sewed sashing on stacked coin quilt

No pictures of my projects yet.  I'll get to those this week.  To join in the challenge or to see what everyone has been doing be sure to check out the 15 minute challenge at Life in Pieces.

Favorite Things Friday

My favorite this week is getting a Christmas tree!  We went today and cut one down.

We haven't done that in about 20 years.  So today, we went to a Christmas tree farm about 30 miles from our house.   We looked at about 100 trees before we settled on one.  We cut it down and carried it out and put it up in our house.  I'll post pictures when it's decorated.

To see other favorites this week, check out Quilting In My Pyjamas.

As a side note, this is my 402nd post.  I meant to post this on the 400th post, but missed.

Wordless Wednesday

15 minute challenge - Nov. 22

This was a much better week. for me.  I finished the top for Rocket Man, made two pillow covers, and started on the girl baby quilt.

Tuesday - worked on Rocket Man quilt (still needs borders)

Wednesday - added a border to rocketman

Thursday - cut strips for stacked coin quilt

Friday - made two pillow covers; sorted fabric for coin quilt

Saturday - Nothing

Sunday - made two rows (columns?) for stacked coin quilt

Monday - Nothing, again

Not a bad week.  

To check out how others made out this week, check out Life In Pieces.

My goals for next week:

   Finish stacked coin quilt

   Cut out stockings

   Start working on other Christmas gifts

Pillow talk

I covered two throw pillows on Friday.  I used the leftover fabric from my pinwheel sampler quilt.  I'm pleased with them.  I'm also pleased to know that I could make other covers for the holidays if I wanted to.  I probably won't do it this year; but it's an option.

The following is another picture taken by my budding photographer.   (I don't mean for him to get the camera, but sometimes I forget to put it away.

Note Dad's feet ...

Favorite Things Friday

Just to stay in tune with Shay's theme .. I'm going mushy .. my favorite thing this week is my husband, well actually one of his attributes.

He loves, loves, loves sappy movies, or he would say romantic comedies, perhaps chick flicks is more like it.  His favorite channels on TV are Lifetime and Hallmark.  He saves all the Christmas movies -- the sappy ones, not the classics (though he might save those too).

I enjoy the movies, but not as much or as often as he does.  On some Saturday afternoons, you can catch him watching movie, after movie, after movie from Lifetime.

His favorite movies (not Lifetime movies) are: Pride and Prejudice (with Colin Firth), While You Were Sleeping, Love Actually, Braveheart (what?!?), Where the Heart Is, Return to Me, Definitely Maybe.  You get the picture.   (I had to throw Braveheart in because he said it was one of his favorites -- doesn't fit the genre though.)

I mean, how many of you have a husband who wants to watch the second DVD of Pride and Prejudice for the 10,000th time? or who would want to sit through Gone With The Wind?!

He is amazing. and funny. I love him. and all his quirks.

Make sure you check out Quilting in My Pyjamas to see what other people consider their favorites.

Yesterday and Today

A year ago today, my Uncle Dick died (he was my mom's only brother).  Here is a picture of him, the way I remember him.

I am a little sad and a little mad at myself for not making a greater effort to see him when I lived on the east coast.  But you can't go back and things are what they are.

Wordless Wednesday

15 Minute Challenge - Nov 15

I feel like I did pretty well this week, thought you can't tell by the days.  Looks like only three out of seven, but I didn't keep records.  I'll go back to keeping track this week.

Tuesday - ??
Wednesday - ??
Thursday - ??
Friday - nada
Saturday - finished out of time quilt top
Sunday - made six nine patches for rocket man
Monday - finished rocket man blocks; sewed two rows together

To see how everyone else did this week, check out Life in Pieces.

The end

I was trying to participate in NaBloPoMo (unofficially), but I decided tonight that I'm not that interesting and I don't have that much to say.  So I'm not going to try to post every day this month (I already missed last Thursday).  

That being said, I've been sewing some more and my new baby quilt is coming together.

In case you were wondering, I'm making this quilt and the next one which is a baby girl quilt for a co-worker who decided not to find out the sex of the baby.  Rather than going neutral, I decided to make two quilts and to wait for the baby to come before giving it to her.  I'm not sure I have backing for it, but I do have the borders and maybe binding too.

Early Thanksgiving

The turkeys are so inexpensive at the grocery store that I decided they were too good to pass up.  We got our turkey for Thanksgiving, but our freezer is too small for more than one so we had turkey today.  I made sweet potatoes with Lipton onion soup mix, Stove Top stuffing, broccoli and cauliflower, and gravy .. now I'm cooking the bones in a pot to have soup later this week.  I'm feeling very domestic.

I finally decided what to do for the boy baby quilt I'm making.  Here's the first block.  I'm using the same fabric for another boy quilt I made a year ago.

I'm excited to have a plan.  This is the first nine patch I've made.

I'm also going to make a girl baby quilt and for that I'm making a stacked coin quilt.

Out of Time

I wasn't sure what I was going to post about today.  I had thought about various things, like my earliest memory, my favorite cousin, etc., but hadn't decided upon anything.  Then after cleaning up after dinner, I read for an hour, and then sewed for what was supposed to be an hour (ended up being 1.5 hours).

And in that 1.5 hours, I finished Out of Time.  Here it is!

Those are my husband's fingers and legs in the picture. :).

Now I need to get fabric for the borders, binding, and backing (also need some more batting ..).  I want to get started on another quilt tomorrow and maybe a couple of Christmas things I've been thinking about.  or perhaps some pillows.  It's times like this I wish I had a sewing room so I could pull things out and plan, instead of having to plan in my head ..

Favorite Things Friday

Today is Veteran's Day in the US and so veteran's are my favorite thing today.  We have a few in the family: my three uncles (WWII), my grandfather (WWI), my brother-in-law (career army with several tours in Vietnam), my cousin (reserves), my husband (army), my son (army with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan), and my several of my nephews, not to mention some grandnephews and probably others that I've forgotten.

Oliff, Schallert & Wagner

I almost forgot to link up to Shay at Quilting in My Pyjamas .. please click here to see what other favorites other people have.

Wordless Wednesday

Spam

I got my first spam on my blog today.  I know I'm weird, but it was kind of exciting.  However, that being said, I am going to put my captcha back on.

15 Minute Challenge - 11/8/11

I finally did some sewing this week, hooray!!

Tuesday - nothing
Wednesday - nothing
Thursday - nothing
Friday - sewed triangles together
Saturday - nothing
Sunday - finished making blocks for double hourglass quilt (out of time); sewed two rows of blocks together
Monday - nothing

Although I didn't spend 15 minutes a day, I did spend more than 15 minutes on the days I did sew.  I'm hoping to finish the main part of the quilt top this week and get started on some other projects, maybe some Christmas gifts.

And pop on over to Kate's 15 minute challenge to see what other bloggers are doing this week, craftiness-wise.

Eagle Harbor Web

I used to stop by and visit the Eagle Harbor Web, http://www.eagleharborweb.net/, daily to read what George had to say and what was new in Eagle Harbor.  I loved the pictures he would post during his walkabouts.  And honestly, when he would sail for the summer, I was always a little sad because I knew I wouldn't see anything new for a while.  Boy, that sounds stupid now, doesn't it.

The chairs in front of George's house in Eagle Harbor.

I don't remember George at all from when I was young -- I remember his two daughters -- and that they were the cutest little girls.  At one point, I "dated" one of his nephews, Alan.  I thought it was true love, but he stopped writing to me, I think it was after I was hanging out with another boy at the bonfire.  I guess it wasn't meant to be.

When I started going back to the Harbor (I think it was 2004), you would know that George was out sailing if the "gone sailing" sign was posted in front of his house.  Of course, you could always tell he was home if his van was out front.  

When I was very young, there was a doctor who owned George's house.  I can remember seeing him sitting in the window. Then Mrs. Hite bought the house.  I stole some logs from her for a bonfire on the beach when I was 13 .. she probably would have given them to me if I had asked.  And then sometime between when I was 13 and when I was an adult, the house became George's.  I wonder who will be sitting in front of the window now ..

I will miss George.

Progress

I finally did some sewing this weekend.  I finished all my double hourglass blocks.  On Thursday night, I sewed the triangles together.

I've sewn the first two rows together now and will probably finish the top this week.  It's pretty small.  Will either be a baby quilt or a lap quilt.  I still need to get the border, backing, and binding.