Secret Santa - Day 5

Today was the big reveal.  We had a firm lunch and then went around the room and everyone tried to guess who their secret Santa was.  I didn't guess, though I should have. 

So here was my final gift ...

Two bottles of wine to go with the two glasses!!  

It's a great time for bringing the office together and I think it's great fun!

Favorite Things Friday - Last Christmas

So, back in the day, a blogger friend of mine used to have a Friday linky post called Favorite Things Friday and people around the world would post some of their favorite things. 


As you know, one of my favorite things is Doctors Who.  I have watched, and re-watched, all the episodes (the episode from "modern" Who which started back up in 2005).  One of the traditions Doctor Who has had in the "modern" era is to have a Christmas episode which is loosely related to Christmas.  One of my favorite episodes is "Last Christmas".  

Anyway, one of the quotes from this episode is: 

"Do you know why people get together at Christmas? Because every time they do it might be the last time. Every Christmas is last Christmas. And this is ours. This is a bonus. This is extra."

I try to remember that every Christmas is Last Christmas.  Depressing, or just realistic? or both?

Secret Santa - Days 3 & 4

I forgot to post yesterday but my Secret Santa gift was the second wine glass. 

The gift today was a Starbucks gift card .. so I have a coffee cup and now coffee.  Two wine glasses and tomorrow .. some wine?  Such fun. I'll let you know tomorrow.

Secret Santa - Day 2

So, I was wrong about the gifts .. which is fine.  It's even more fun this way.  Here's today's gift.

A super cute mug.  Can't wait to see what's coming next ...

Oh, what I gave on Monday was this ..

I had help with the decorating .. if it had been up to me, it would have been a complete failure.  I'm not sure how they went over, but that's not my worry.  Today's give was just some Lindor chocolates.

Secret Santa - Day 1

At the office, we have a secret santa gift exchange.  It's a little different than most because we are required to give a gift to the person whose name we drew, for five days.  The gifts are supposed to be $5 and under.  Then on the last day, the gift can be a little more elaboartet.

I participated last year because I wanted to be a part of the office.  I'm doing it this year because I really enjoyed it last year.

Here is what I got last year:  a tree (with little lights on the ends of each branch).  Each day I came in there was a new ornament on the tree.  It was really cute, and a cute idea.

Today is the first day, and this is what I got ..

Can't wait to see what comes next.

Unfortunately, I am not quite so clever.  The gifts I got are not related.  I was struggling just to think of what I could get for this person.  I need to try harder.  :(

Under the Sea - Finished!

So I finished my most recent project (with two weeks to spare) ...

I was going to wait until I had more pictures to post about this, but I've given it to my daughter (to take to her friend) so I can't take any more pictures.  I've asked her to take some ...

Anyway, I used a high-loft batting to give it a plush, comforter type look.  I think that part was successful.  Actually, I'm very happy with the quilt. To get the high-loft comforter look, there was quilting on just about every seam.  This meant that I had a lot of loose ends that needed to be tucked in -- quite time consuming but worth it.

I'm calling this "under the sea" because it's supposed to be made out of mermaid colors.  There are turtles and sea horses, and purples, pinks and aquas.  I'm game for another name if anyone has any suggestions.

We're giving it to her this weekend at her baby shower.  I'm excited!

We also made a diaper cake...

Gifts?

Earlier this week, I came home to find that an Amazon package I had order had arrived! There was also another package addressed to me -- it was the following.

Since I hadn't ordered it, I checked with my daughters to see if either of them had ordered it, they hadn't.  I asked a couple of friends, it wasn't from them.  There are a couple of others I will ask, but if any of you know anything ....

Deer Quilt

 In July, I finished the quilt top for a boy quilt for a girl ...  I finally finished it this weekend.

 It'll be a gift for the friend of my son's. 

Finally .. another finish

 Finally another finish.  The picture doesn't do the colors justice. 

I machine sewed the binding - my second time.  I'm not super happy with it, but it turned out okay.  I hope she's happy with it.

The quilt is a gift for a young friend (well her baby).  We have a baby shower tomorrow night.

and another picture of the diaper cake ...

Whatever you do, don't BLINK ..

I received a wonderful surprise from a friend yesterday ...

Sewing Kits

I previously posted pictures of the sewing kits*  in progress and then earlier this week I showed you one finished kit.  Here's the progression...

The fabric.  So very pretty.  

I have some leftovers; not sure what I'll do with those.

 The forms cut with the labels ironed and sewn on.

hard to tell where this was in the process.  I can't see if the pockets were added yet, but definitely not the binding or the strap.

This was my first time making a bias binding and I was terrified so I put off finishing these until December 23rd.  It turned out to be much easier than I thought and I was so mad at myself doing that.

A finished and filled kit! 

Here's what I put inside -- the Altoids tin holds safety and straight pins.

 

and here's what my YD had to say about it.  I think she liked it.

 

This one is for my OD.  I am taking it with me to England to give to her there.

 

This one I gave to one of my DILs.  I don't have a good picture of the fourth one :(.

*pattern, fabric, and labels from Sweetwater.  I just love their stuff / projects / patterns and fabrics.

Quilt Ideas

A friend of mine gave me this for Christmas:

It has a few quilts that I really like -- the front cover for one.  Here are the pictures of the other ones I like (and may make this year).

This looks to be a Christmas quilt -- could be a fun one to make.

 

This reminds me of my YD's duvet cover.

This is another one -- could be in various colors.  Actually there's one more I really liked but didn't snap a picture.

Lots of good ideas for this year.  Kind of inspiring me to get started. 

The Kite Quilt or Go Fly a Kite

So, another finish!  yay!

The quilt I started last week, was for a baby shower today, so I finished it up last night .. here are a few pictures.

I decided to call it the kite quilt/go fly a kite because it reminds me of a kite.

My YD and I also made a diaper motorcycle for the shower which turned out great.

Please Accept My Apologies ...

So, I've been really bad about posting and even worse about commenting on the blogs I follow.  I think about a month and a half ago, the bottom row on my keyboard (on my laptop) started acting up. It would work sometimes and not others.  It was super annoying, but I was able to get by, albeit a little frustrated.  I would get half way through a post or a comment and it would stop working.  So I would just give up.  Then a few weeks ago or so, my home row stopped working as well.  As you can imagine, it was next to impossible to type.

So, I went to the Apple store to see if I could get a wireless keyboard and just keep using my computer.  It was a fairly inexpensive way to work around the problem. My computer could see the keyboard but it didn't want to work with it.  I planned to make an appointment and go back to the store and have the Apple people help me figure it out.  I also figured that if that didn't work, I could try using a keyboard plugged into the USB port.  Again, a fairly inexpensive way around my problem.

However, neither of those things happened .. my YD and my OD started asking me questions about which computer I would want to buy, so I decided to hold off on making any purchases.  I wasn't sure where they were going with their questions, but I had a pretty good idea. 

To make a long story short, my wonderful family (my father, my husband, my sons and my daughters) got me a computer for my birthday.  So, instead of fumbling around with a makeshift solution, I have a brand spanking new MacBook Air!! 

I am so excited to be able to type all the words I want .. and it's light and easy and great!!

Thank you..

Now, I have no excuses for not commenting on your blogs.  I promise I'll be much better about it.

Bags and Dresses

So, my older daughter has been in town since right before the wedding.  She just left tonight, an hour ago.

I wanted to make her a dress from a pattern and fabric that she had bought (and cut out) several years ago.  I sewed the first couple of pieces together and remembered how difficult I find sewing clothing and decided that I couldn't get it done before she left.

She had also asked me to hem some pants and repair her bathing suit.  We decided that I wasn't the best person to hem the pants so she took them to the cleaners.  However, I did make the bathing suit repairs.

We went out today to pick the pants up from the cleaners and then went to a fabric store to try and find some fabric for a quilt I'm going to make for her best friend.  We didn't find any fabric that we liked, but I got some fabric to make her a make up bag similar to the ones I made for my niece's wedding in April.

 

The fabrics.

This is the pattern I used.  I think she is happy with it.  I think it looks nice.

I also got some rocket ship fabric.  I need to see if I can find the coordinating fabric on line.

p.s. I forgot to mention that I also sewed my finger.  crazy .. I thought I would slice it before I sewed it.

15 Minute Challenge

I'm a little late this week; I've just been working and haven't felt much like doing anything like blogging.  

Tuesday - work on stacked monkeys
Wednesday - work on stacked monkeys
Thursday - work on stacked monkeys
Friday - nada
Saturday - make ring bearer pillow(s)
Sunday - finish quilting stacked monkeys, attach binding to back, start hand sewing
Monday - nada

Decent week.   I think I finished stacked monkeys on Tuesday, but I didn't write it down so I don't remember, but here it is.  I'll take a few more pictures later to get the whole effect..

I need to work on my picture taking.  Love this quilt, especially the scrappy binding. I'll try to get a better picture before I ship it off to it's new owner, plus I need to add it to my finished quilt list.

Here's the link to the 15 minute challenge -- check it out or better yet, link up1

March goals

Things I want to get done in March.

1 - finish KP
2 - finish Blue Elephants
3 - make pillow cases for boys
4 - work on duvet cover (this is dependent on my dear friend Jane ...)
5 - work with scraps left over from the time quilt (need to finish the quilt top)
6 - make a sock monkey
7 - get one yard of fabric for Grinch quilt
8 - buy one stocking stuffer for the girls
9 - take craftsy class (probably paper piecing)



I think that's it for now.

Two more days ..

and two more sleeps.  and how am I doing?  I feel like I'm doing okay, though I am a total grinch around the house.  I think I've got realistic goals for the next few days.  I not only finished my shopping yesterday, but I also wrapped all the gifts.  I can now focus on the sewing projects I have.  I'm really hoping to knock them out today.  If I do, then I can relax tomorrow.

This is a picture of a gift from one of my co-workers.

well here's how my last week's list looks.

1 - bake 6 more loaves of cinnamon bread
2 - make breakfast casseroles
3 - get someone else to make fruit salad
4 - get bacon (4 lbs), cook bacon
5 - get chafing dishes
6 - orange juice
7 - get white elephant gift (+ one extra in case someone forgets)
binding on Cooper's quilt - more than half way done!
work on twisted quilt (after Christmas)
Christmas shopping - done
make stocking for Cooper
make other stockings (didn't I have four I needed to make from last year?)
make crayon holders
bake more bread (for other friends, Caro's family)
plan Christmas Eve and Christmas day foods - done

Wishing and Hoping (and thinking and praying)

Spent the weekend in NY (hence, the picture from the temporary office -- the view from my hotel room was pretty nice too).  I may (or may not) post some pics and blog later.  For now, I need to figure out what I need to get done in the next 7 days.  starting with tomorrow.

1 - bake 6 more loaves of cinnamon bread
2 - make breakfast casseroles
3 - get someone else to make fruit salad
4 - get bacon (4 lbs), cook bacon
5 - get chafing dishes
6 - orange juice
7 - get white elephant gift (+ one extra in case someone forgets)

Then I have to figure out what I can accomplish sewing-wise, crafting-wise over the rest of the week.  Here's what I want to get done.

binding on Cooper's quilt
work on twisted quilt (after Christmas)
Christmas shopping
make stocking for Cooper
make other stockings (didn't I have four I needed to make from last year?)
make crayon holders
bake more bread (for other friends, Caro's family)
plan Christmas Eve and Christmas day foods

I still have the sewing kits I wanted to make last year and the cowls/scarves also from last year.  Such a crunch.  I swear next year I'll do better.

And I also have  a couple of packages I'd like to send out and Christmas cards .. those too!

So little time.

the jar .. goals .. etc.

I briefly read through someone's blog, here, where they mentioned that they wrote down all their goals/ideas and then drew one a day to decide what to work on.  At least that's what I understood -- maybe not one at day.  Anyway, that sounds like a really good idea that I'm going to do tonight soon, maybe this weekend.  I've got Christmas presents, last year's and this, quilts, pjs, pencil cases, sewing kits, and other things that I really want to get to.  So this might be a way to motivate me.  Takes the decision making out of my hands.

I'll let you now how it goes.  Plus it's a good way to put my new canning jar to use.  ooh, maybe I'll use colored paper.