A Quiet House

My husband reached out for my hand from the couch yesterday and said sadly, "It's all over."  Our house is quiet again, everyone is either back home or on their way and we are back to just ourselves and the kitty again.  We had a wonderful Christmas Celebration, which was actual multiple celebrations in various households.

I joked that our car was Santa's Magnum Sleigh - we took presents here and there for all of the families to enjoy!  The Christmas PJ's were all a huge hit - I did well this year picking the right fabrics!  My grand sons loved their fleece PJ pants - they said that they were the coziest pajamas ever - the oldest got Seahawks in blue and the youngest, Seahawks in green.  I was thrilled that they were so happy with them!  The little grand daughters were happy with the nightgowns I made, and all the big girls liked their PJ pants.  My middle daughter got kitty cat faces in pink and she was so happy - that was my favorite gift I gave for sure!  (She works in a veterinarian's office and loves cats.)

We had a small crisis when some soda got spilled on the watercolor paintings that my youngest daughter made, but she was able to fix them up again good as new the next day, so it wasn't the end of the world.  I'll show you mine when I get my sewing room cleaned up and re-organized - right now it's a disaster area!

 I didn't remember to take as many pictures as I should have, but I left my laptop at home and didn't spend much time on my phone as I enjoyed my family wholeheartedly.  It was definitely a good choice as there were many heartfelt conversations, laughter and just all around good times.

Here's the view from my spot on the loveseat!  The quilt above the archway is up all year long because I love it so much.  It's cross-stitch combined with quilting.  Here is a bad picture zoomed in:

Peace.  My wish for all of you for the coming year.  May you have peace in your heart no matter what is going on around you.  I hope that I can be a person who spreads peace, as well as knowing peace.

This year I am going to try to slow down a bit.  To be in the moment and fully aware of the days as they pass.  To recognize all the small blessings in my life and to smile more. I like to choose a word for each year, I haven't chosen for 2017 yet, but plan to spend some time thinking on what I would like to focus on.  I think this last week of the year is always a good one to spend time thinking and reflecting on the year past as well as the year ahead.

Another thing that is good to do this time of year is tie up loose ends.  I have a few of those that need my attention, so I suppose it's time to end my reflection and go do some work!  I'll be spending the next few days on some quilting projects, so I'll post some teasers during the week.  You still have time to sign up for my e-mail newsletter.  That will include my Quilter's Recipe Box quilt block of the month!

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Let's start the New Year off with a party!  I will be doing a big giveaway this weekend - my Etsy shop is closing in on 1500 sales!  Woohoo!  I want to celebrate, so am cooking up something special - I am not sure what right now, but stay tuned.  Then, the Island Batik Hop for the Fall and Winter 2016 fabrics is starts off on January 4.

You won't want to miss it.  Lots of awesome fabrics to check out, prizes, projects, and just the fun of hanging out with all of the Island Batik Ambassadors!  I love this group of awesome creative quilters, and you will, too!

Ha - I just sat down to write a quick post to let you know I haven't vanished off the face of the earth and I wrote a Novella.  Now it's off the sewing room/disaster area/happy place to make all this great stuff happen.  Quilt on!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We had a fabulous Christmas.  It was such a joy to gather all of our children around us and celebrate the birth of Christ!  It was hectic and crazy, but there were no huge breakdowns and a good time was had by all!

We had our large meal of turkey, ham and assorted side dishes buffet style for lunch on Christmas ever, followed by the fun of opening gifts!

It was totally crazy with 14 people in my living room opening presents, talking, laughing and having such a good time!  I think the gifts may have equaled the height of the tree if they were all stacked together!

We all were excited to see Tracy open her gift, which was a teaser for the barbell set we had all chipped in for!  It definitely made her Christmas!  Now, she will have to wait for it to arrive at her house :)

I had a great surprise gift as well!  My husband asked my friend Candy to make a family picture quilt for me! I will take some nice pictures and post more about that later.  Sorry, Candy for the picture - your smile is beautiful even if your eyes are closed :)  This was such a special gift.  You could have knocked me over with a feather when he brought it out for me!  

After that we went out to the church for the Christmas Eve Service.  My husband was asked to sing, so it was very special to all of us to see him on the worship team that night!  It was a lovely time to sit there with all of my girls and see my husband use his gift of song to bless us all.

On Christmas day we drove to the vacation home that the kids rented.  Such an awesome idea, we were able to all be together without the stress of all being crowded into one home!  This house was great for the group, with a large living room looking out onto the beach, a small dining room for the crossword puzzle fans, a small reading room for those that needed to get away from the hustle and bustle for a bit, and did I mention the view?  

We ate a delicious soup for lunch made by Joellen, spent the afternoon playing, then drove out to see the lights at Shore Acres.  Thankfully it was a good night for it, no rain!  It was quite cold out and afterwards I felt a little head-achy, but I figured it was just the cold and the busy day.  I took a couple of ibuprofen and continued on with helping prepare the evening meal of leftovers from the day before.  We all ate, and visited and played a bit more before my husband and I decided to head home as it was getting late and the temperature was nearly freezing.

I didn't sleep well all night, my throat was bothering me. I still thought it was just from being out in the cold and wasn't too concerned about it.  We went out to breakfast with Joellen, Catie, Mark A and the kids.  Naomi had to leave earlier because she needed to return her rental car, and Tracy, Mark C and Emelia also left before breakfast because they had a longer drive home.  We went to Cozy Kitchen and had a good time with the kids and ate a delicious breakfast.  We then said our good-byes and headed back home.  Our house seemed so quiet and empty!  We put on our PJ's and settled in for an afternoon of TV and I started catching up on my blog reading.  Around 3:00 I decided I needed to take a nap, so laid down.  When I got up, I felt achy all over and discovered I had a temperature of 101.5!   

So, I guess I get to spend a few days relaxing.  I might get out a jigsaw puzzle to work on, but I don't think I'll do any quilting until my head feels a little better!  Hopefully I didn't give any of my crud to the kids or grandkids.  Hopefully you are well, and stay well!  

Oh, Christmas Tree...Take 2

I know, what does a Christmas tree have to do with quilting? Nothing actually, other than the fact that it kept me from doing much yesterday! Why would that be, you ask. Well, it has a lot to do with the fact that I own two cats and a dog. And they have been inside for several days because of bad weather. And when my daughter set up the Christmas tree the first time we heard a crack down at the stand.

I was puttering around in the sewing room yesterday morning, then walked into the living room only to find to my total disgust and horror that my beautiful Christmas tree was laying on the floor, ornaments scattered all around and the angel topper laying in disarray above the mess.

So I got to spend the next few hours disassembling our tree, repairing the stand, reassembling the tree and then decorating it....again. We attached the tree to two walls with fishing line, hoping to discourage a third incident. (Been there, done that before!) Despite it all, the tree looks lovely, my angel still works, and all is well. Plus I have strategically placed a basket to prevent the dog from going behind the tree. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll survive for another couple of weeks!