Getting ready . . .

I am getting mentally ready for 2011. I love this last day of the year. I fix an extra pot of coffee so I can really enjoy basking in good memories and thinking of the new year with the promise of good things coming.

I am not one to make New Year's Resolutions. Last year I chose "guiding words" and I liked that. I think I did a pretty good job of being more loving toward myself so I could then love others better. It has been easy to be proud of those I love. (I still think the vitamin D also helped. LOL)

This year I want one resolution - one thing to do each day no matter what. I will sew each day. It may be only sewing on a button or it may be hours in my studio. And I will keep record of it. Some of those records I will share here, but the sewing I do each day may not be "sharing material". The process of creating, repairing, completing with fiber is like warm oil for my soul. I must do it!

I am borrowing my version this from a wonderful quilter's blog I read and enjoy. Go to her blog here: Sister's Choice Quilts. Today she is sharing a summary of her work from the year and her New Year's Resolution for 2011. I admire her commitment to her art and craft.

So for the coming year:
1. I will continue embracing my guiding words of loving and proud.
2. I will sew something each day.

And . . . time to exhale!

We had little visitors today - and it is a good thing they were so much fun because we are both beat! Walker still takes a good afternoon nap and today was no exception. Weston even snoozed a bit while I did. This old rocking chair is my favorite and they both love to sit in it - sometimes even when I am in it. But, here they are together. It is a chair full of giggly, little boys! Such fun!

Tomorrow I am in my studio - in fact, I am there some of every day through Sunday. Ahh - it feels good to exhale . . .

There is a bad storm heading this way with lots of snow tomorrow and major cold on Thursday and Friday. We will have a good reason to "stay close to the fire" - which we plan on doing anyway. We will be remembering great memories from our wonderful month of December.

We are home . . .

We are safely home tonight. It was a spectacular holiday time with Roy and Meagan. We stopped and visited my mom in Missoula. We then stopped for a quick visit with Bob's sister and her family and a little gift exchange. We then came home, worked hard for 30 minutes and got the car unloaded and everything put away.

We turned on the Christmas lights that we enjoyed before we left and settled in our comfy clothes in our comfy chairs.

Tomorrow we see the little guys here.

Life is now back to normal with lots of warm memories that will stay with us forever. It was a very special Christmas.

Good Memories . . .Healing . . . Friendship

It is Christmas morning here - Merry Christmas to all.

We are making magnificent memories here. Lots of laughter, hugs, good food, and just the right gifts for everyone. Last night was a very special dinner and evening with Roy's dad and step mom. There was lots of family there of all ages. Sometimes healing takes 35 years, but it was a healing time for all. We opened our gifts last evening after we returned to Roy's. We had more fun this morning enjoying what Santa left after his visit.

In addition to special memories and gifts, I received a very blessed gift of understanding. I woke in the middle of the night thinking of my friends and feeling so blessed. I realized that some friends stay with you through your life from the time you first meet them and some friends stay as long as the friendship is needed and then you each move on. All friendships are a gift and I so appreciate each and every one. Each friendship lasts only as long as it is supposed to last. It was such a peaceful remembering and I know I have been so blessed with good friends - some lifelong and some brief. It is a Christmas I will long remember . . . a beautiful gift of peace. Thank you!

Wonderful days . . .

The time is flying by . . . so many good hours and minutes . . . so much love and so many blessings.

Here are a couple pictures of our Meagan. She is almost 7 and went on a Cinnamon Bear Cruise with her other Grandma today. The first picture is of her right before she left. This evening she entertained us with a fun magic show and we decorated our sugar cookies. I am not sure I will ever want to see a sugar cookie again - not ever!

Bob and I did a bit of shopping today while Meagan was on the cruise. Roy worked yesterday and today, but he is off tomorrow and Friday of course. We have a few things we want to check on tomorrow to finish up our last minute shopping. We have watched the movie, "Sorcerer's Apprentice" at least three times as it is Meagan's new "favorite" movie. And there will be more viewings to follow for sure.

We have eaten at our favorite "Pastini's" and enjoyed Roy's excellent homemade chicken enchiladas. He makes everything from scratch including the white corn tortillas and pork verde sauce. He also gave me a lesson on how to make really great pizza dough and his homemade pizza is the best. I am anxious to get home to give it a try. He is an excellent cook. And, he makes the best beer I have tasted in a long while. He and Meagan really enjoy their time together and he is a great dad. I am so proud of them both.

It is a marvelous Christmas. It is one that we will remember always.

Portland for the week . . .

We are here. We got in yesterday afternoon after some really yukky roads between Spokane and Portland. There is no snow here and I hope it stays that way for the week, but there was snow all the way through the Columbia River Gorge. The roadways were clear and wet in the Gorge once we were down at water level, but if the road went up in elevation at all, there was lots of slush. The roads from just west of Spokane to the east end of the Gorge were snow covered and slow going. I was surprised there were not more snow plows out in eastern Washington. We saw only one in the 200+ miles. The pictures are of the Columbia River while we were driving. I have never seen the Columbia so still - it was just like a mirror. You can click on the pictures for a better view. What do you think?

We are off to do some shopping this morning. Roy had a great idea for something I could get for Meagan and she is still at her mom's until this evening so it is a good day to get that stuff done. She will be here with her dad and us all week and that will be such a wonderful blessing. We are going to make cookies, bracelets, shop, eat at Pastini Pasteria (her favorite), laugh, walk the neighborhood, just have a glorious week. I will take lots of pictures.

So many good things . . .

My blogging seems to have become a "once a week" event. The good thing about that is I am busy and loving it. The not so good thing about that is "why in the world do I even blog?" Well, I enjoy it and I like it even better when folks who drop in leave a word or two in the comments. So, if you are reading this, please say "hello" in the comments area.

One of the fun things we did this week was make cookies - all kinds of cookies. Here is a picture of Weston shaking sprinkles on a sugar cookie. We made ginger bread men, sugar cookies, frosted maple cookies, and some gooey cookies that I had not made before that start with a cake mix. They were all good. I found out if I roll out the ginger bread dough and the sugar cookie dough between two pieces of parchment paper it is very easy. I then placed the rolled out dough in the freezer and I could use it within 30 minutes or I can wrap the rolled out dough, freeze it, and use it later.

But, the most fun part was using my new Christmas present. Bob got me a new KitchenAid Professional 600 mixer. It is just like this one. I have never had anything more than a small, fragile portable mixer. I guess I never felt I had the skills to be a "cook" of any kind so I just never acquired the right tools. I am not sure where that idea came from. My mom didn't really "love" cooking and her mom passed away when she was a young girl. So, baking and cooking didn't seem to be one of my gifts. But now, I may find I am "gifted" - or I may find I am making way too many cookies. LOL.

We are in Spokane tonight. We came this far on our way to Portland tomorrow where we will spend Christmas with Roy and Meagan - and other family. Guess what? I brought the mixer so Meagan and I can make some ginger bread cookies and some sugar cookies. Of course, I also brought my sewing machine and some jewelry making tools. I always bring way more stuff than we have time to do, but it will be a really special week and we are thrilled to be making the trip.

Just so I didn't feel too badly about leaving Walker and Weston over Christmas, I found 12 little gifts for each of them and wrapped them individually so they can open one each day. They started last Monday morning. Some days have been more of a hit than others. It was more fun for me I am sure to find the "just right" little gift for each.

I will get more words and pictures on this blog this week!

Busy week . . .

Where do the days go? I turn around and a week has past. Here is a quick summary of some of the highlights from last week and some pictures of the table topper that I finished - except for the binding and that is coming.

Monday - most of the day in the studio
Tuesday - went to Missoula for Christmas lunch with Mom. She is heading Phoenix to spend Christmas with my sister.
Wednesday - serious house cleaning to get us back on our "house duty" schedule which we have ignored for too long.
Thursday - recycled mitten making workshop - several friends came and we made the recycled wool mittens from sweaters.
Friday - getting Christmas shopping done and then to the basketball game - great day!
Saturday - sewing with a friend . . . she finished more mittens and I finished the table topper finally
Sunday - breakfast out with friends and then to an art group Christmas gathering.

The pictures are of the table topper I started using Ronda Beyer's digital design, Behemian Tulip. You can see the beginning here in this post. I then had a great time doing lots of freehand fill.

Enjoying this . . .

I continue to work on this little quilt. I am just doing freehand whatever I want around the motifs and liking it.

I hope to finish it tomorrow, but I want to get a few Christmas decorations up. We are heading to Portland, OR for Christmas so we are not putting up the "whole shebang" this year - just enough to make it warm and loving with a couple little trees that I keep decorated and cover in the attic as well as a few decorations. Tuesday, I am heading off to Missoula to take my mom her Christmas gifts as she is flying down to Mesa, AZ to spend Christmas with my sister there.

More later. . .

Today

I have been away from my quilting doing lots of "Granny Nanny"-ing on Monday and Tuesday and lots of gabbing and eating yesterday.

I needed a certain color of Kona cotton to finish a special quilt. I just couldn't find what I was looking for and I bought the fabricI have about 3 years ago. I bought plenty then, washed it and prepared it for the quilt. Somewhere, part of the fabric has disappeared. I couldn't remember the color name and then I found that Robert Kaufman makes a color chart of actual fabric pieces of every color of Kona cotton. I was so excited and ordered the chart. It came today and I just called a couple local shops and found the right color at one of our shops. It is so easy once I know what I need. LOL It takes so little to make me so happy, huh?

I did do a little more quilting - piecing and machine quilting - and I am in the process of getting a little more done on this little table topper. It is a learning piece so the errors aren't going to bother me one bit! Don't look too closely.

Tomorrow is a quick trip to town in the morning - one of my favorite clothing shops has a sale - 50% off the entire store. And then I am heading to the quilt shop to get my Kona fabric. I will sleep much better now knowing my problem has been solved.

Fun gathering . . . good food . . . good cheer.

The Middle Creek Women's Club started out here in this area about 90 years ago. Women had to live near Middle Creek in order to belong. Now the club includes many of us who have moved into the area as well as several descendents of those who originally started the club.

Today was our Christmas meeting which is a buffet and a white elephant silent auction. We use the money for a charity. The club is more social than anything else. I got some really nice hand embroidered dish towels that one of the members does. You can't see it, but they have rickrack all around. I really like them and the price was phenomenal.

We met at our neighbors and I was her "helper". She provided a wonderful ham and everyone brought something to go with it. I took twice baked potatoes and kind of made up my own recipe. I include some sour cream, cream cheese, chives, crumbled bacon, shredded cheddar and seasoning - everyone raved about them so I felt good as I had not ever made them before. Janna from Tin Teepee/Log Cabin talks about making them once in a while on her blog and they always sound so good. So today, I got brave and I even impressed myself. I will make them again and often.

Here is another dish that was a great hit - "Pineapple Casserole". It was just scrumptious and the woman who brought it said she only uses half a cup of sugar and it was perfect.

We never have real meetings - but always have fun and gather a little money here and there that we give to a designated charity. Today our roll call was to name our favorite Christmas song and two of the members sing as a local group called "The Saddle Bags". When each song was named, they would lead us in singing it. It is a fun day and a fun group.

I continue to be amazed at how really wonderful my life is - it is the same life, but it just seems perfect. It probably always has been, but I was just "out of it". I think it could be the vitamin D.