In between time

I took over 50 pic's of my cat last night.

Can you tell I really like Princess Mutant Cat.....other wise known as Snowball. I thought it was interesting that the good eye(blue) glows red in the flash but the bad eye(brown) is black in the flash.

Thought I would share my decorated bathroom with ya all too. I made the curtains and trimmed the shower curtain with fabric that was from my stash. I had enough left for 3 throw size quilts to make too. The goodies on the shelves are from the girls at quilt group and the decoration on the back of the toilet is from Luanne. I also had a Happy Holidays rug and tan rugs to match and snowman soap dish. I think it was fun to decorate and didn't take much to do since it is the smallest room in the house. I actually bought a box that I'm going to label and put everything in so next year it's just as easy to do as it was this year.

Here's Kristin doing homework with her two helpers. Not sure if the dogs got much out of the Spanish flashcards.........

I also got a pic of her crocheting and watching T.V. tonight. She is finishing the last of the gifts we are taking with us Friday to my Dad's house. I am really tired of those blankies............I am ready for this week to be done, I did spend the day in my studio, only quilted one quilt but I cleaned and sorted a lot of stuff. Oh do I have UFO's and WHIPS and PIGS! Oh well as of tomorrow I will be down one UFO after I bind my Dad's present.

I have to work at the quilt shop tomorrow, then at the bar for New Years. Come back from Co. Bluffs on Saturday to work that night and Sunday too. What can I say, it's cash.

Hey did anyone notice the new thing on the right side of this page? Well anyway I joined the Stringthing Challenge blog. We're going to make string quilts and donate them locally. Ok I know I already do this but it's fun to join others for inspiration and motivation. I got the pic of the button and the site info but I have no idea how to make it a real button that you can click and link to, and my smart computer literate family doesn't blog, just me so they are no help. Oh well I need the online motivation of others right now so this is my new favorite blog. Check them out, (sorry you have to copy and paste the info to get to it)

After Christmas

I know it's after Christmas, wow, where has the year gone? I decided to look back at my blog from last January today. Surprise, surprise, no goals for the new year written down. I guess I was goalless or maybe I thought it was stupid at the time to set something I knew I would never finish. Well anyway I think I will set some for the new year this year.........

1. Family quilts. I have quilts planned for most of my family, maybe writing about them will help me finish them in the next year.
2. Project Pink. Only 3 or 4 to go.
3. One Million Pillowcase Project. The shop is participating so this should be an easy goal.
4. Finish the last of Grandma Wilson's quilts. 4 left to quilt.
5. Keep my crochet hook moving! I have scrubbies, scarves and blanky's to work on.
6. Grandma Allen's yarn, I want to sort and plan a few things, Kristin will help me with this as she is a crochet machine.

And last but not least I want to finish a few projects for myself.

Christmas Morning

Would you call this a winter wonderland? It's beautiful from inside the house.....out there not so much. Behind the tree in the middle of the pic is my driveway, usually you can see fence and field, even the tree line a mile away. Today it's just grey, grey and white. Brian (Kev's brother) is without power in Royal, 5 miles away. So far we have power and so do the folks down the road.

The present opening started with kitchen gadgets, here's Brad with his, just what every 14 yr. old had on his list this year, a potato peeler. Yippy!!! Ok so he wasn't so thrilled, but the cell phone and Ipod docking station made up for it. Santa brought them all handheld video recorders too, home movie time!

Sara loves her cell phone! The boys also got xbox live cards, now they can play online games for 3 months. Kristin got new pillows and a new cell phone also, it's a little red slide phone with a full keyboard. She picked it out herself, her dad is a softy when it comes to electronics and such.

This is my new present, a finished kitchen island. (and a man cooking) He told me it would be done for Christmas and he kept his promise. The only thing left is an outlet cover, there were none in town so next trip to Norfolk I will pick one up and he wants a few shelves in the cabinets. 3 more bar stools and he still needs to shorten them by 4 inches. Kristin finished painting last night also. I'm really enjoying this day home with the kids and Kevin, so I'm off to do the last of the dishes and then take my annual Christmas day nap!

Christmas Eve

Santa finished his duty just before midnight, wow! That's the earliest he's ever finished around here. I put the stockings on the tree this year, just a few bare places to hide due to no decorations. I just didn't have the energy (still fighting tooth ache) for hanging a million little things on it and besides Kristin and Josh are taking it down Saturday. Thanks to my Mom we do have bows all over it, Sara did that for me earlier today. We spent the day cooking and decorating, oh and a lot of cleaning! Not sure who will be here tomorrow for the fun but the prime rib is in the oven, the potato's are ready to stuff and the dips are made. Waffles for breakfast after opening presents. It's just going to be us 6 in the morning, until 10 or so, then family will start showing up. The snow and wind might keep some at home but I would rather they be safe than stuck in the snow! As I sit here writing I can hear the snow hitting the north facing window, it's really unpleasant out there!
Dinner tonight was simple, potato soup, crackers and cheese ball plus spinach dip and roasted red pepper dip. I whipped up a batch of haystacks for dessert. After dinner the kids opened their annual Christmas Eve presents, new jammies! We also watched the 6th Harry Potter movie.

Brad with Sammy, Kristin, Sara with Sadie and Josh in their new jammies. (yes Sara loves Sock Monkeys and Josh loves the "headband" that came wrapped around the set of jammies-gotta love those silly kids!)

I always let them take a 'silly pic' this one is the funniest with all of them in it...I think Sara is trying to eat Sadie, I am really proud of my silly kids, they are the best presents a Mom could ask for. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!

Christmas gifts

The cat quilt is a paid job. Finished it just in time for the snow storm to get in the way of delivery. It will be picked up after Christmas now.

The frog quilt is for Anna, hopefully I will get to see her after Christmas. I made up the pattern as I went, it was really fun to make.

The string quilt is one our quilt group did together for Mom, I put the borders on and quilted it this month. It will be going to a very special little boy soon.

We are in the middle of a snow storm (so's half the country) and I'm planning on being snowed in for the next two days. Just going to do a little cleaning, a little crafting and a little wrapping. Kristin is making Italian food tonight for my B-day dinner.....yummy! My husband bought me a new pink phone also, it's so cute and it matches my new wallet from my Mom. It's been a very good day for a B-day. I do think it's the first snow on my day that I can ever remember....

Popular Christmas

Here's a pre-view of the most popular Christmas panel/project for 2009.(top two pic's) Roseann at work picked these up in Omaha during Thanksgiving weekend shopping. It's amazing what a little magazine exposure can do for a fabric line. (I know the pic's suck but it was dark and to cold to do outside) The last pic is last years line by Art to Heart, ribbon border by the girls at work. (there is one more kit for this wall hanging/throw then it's retired) I like the way the lines of this fabric kind of tie together year to year, makes mixing and matching easier for people like me who buy it but don't get it made for awhile and then need more for binding or something.

Today the guys are working on the kitchen, hooking up the gas lines and electric for the island. Kristin is going to paint for me, I really wanted light pale pink...........but I settled for light pale blue. Kevin was with me and vetoed the pink. I know it's my house and I should decorate the way I want but I try to keep peace and compromise a bit, little does he know I'm going to put bird curtains from my moms on the windows for Christmas.......hehehe! I will show pic's when it's finished.

few thing done

Hey I finally got my brother's gift quilted.(last years) it's big and it's heavy, should keep him warm with the flannel on the back. Now to find the binding.................(yes that is drunk devils with kegs and beer mugs on the fabric)

I quilted this one for Mom to give to her Uncle in Florida, it's going in the mail tomorrow.

This one is for her Aunt, I know my mailing is getting a bit late for Christmas but I know my mom will bind late night if she has too, it will be done for gift giving.

This is what has been going on at my house the last week, well since the 4th anyway, the top is finished as of tonight. Time to set the cooktop and finish the base cabinets.

I had a tooth pulled Monday, uggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh! So needless to say I don't feel to good this week. I did work at the quilt shop yesterday, but today I spent it in bed. I guess I'm not a tough as I'd like to be and it caught up to me today. I did get some quilting done tonight and that was good because I'm running out of time! Tomorrow is a full day with the shop then the bar, and back to the shop on Friday......no more quilting till Saturday.

After Snow

My final snow day was a waste, felt sick most of it and slept al ot. Maybe to much togetherness at my house??? Oh well anyway I did a bit of quilting for customers yesterday, it was hard to keep the studio warm enough to work so I came in the house last night with cold toes. Today I decorated the tree at work, finished a binding on a T-shirt quilt and retired a quilt(OK I sold the last kit and took the quilt off display) worked at the bar tonight.........yeah I'm tired and planning to sleep late, we'll see if Kev wants me to go get the rest of the stuff for my island in the kitchen before his Christmas party for the hospital tomorrow night. Maybe he'll just let me sew tomorrow..........

Snow day

Josh, Sara and I moved Grandma Allen's sewing desk into my quilting room today. Sara loves to sew with me but she didn't like being alone in the sewing room part of the studio. (to many questions for me to answer and help with) I stacked a few boxes and sorted some junk and made room for her. The green machine my mom gave us awhile back, it works great with a little practice. She is working on happy blocks in the pic, she got the first row done before we got tired and came in the house for dinner.

This is #2 of the quilts I'm quilting for my mom, she is giving it away for Christmas.

This is a gift for my friend Anna, she collects frogs. We saw this fabric together and she asked for a quilt. I ignored her in the store so the next time I saw the fabric I bought a sample pack. She will be surprised unless she reads this......

I stared another quilt for my mom BUT I bought the wrong backing for it. It was the same pattern as one on the front but a different colorway...ugh!!!! So I unpinned the back and went searching for something else for the back, ended up with a brown print, don't look to bad so I got it sewed up and sewed up another back before coming into the house for the night. It's a blizzard outside and the walk to the house was tough, wind blowing, dark, cold and snow to mid calf and deeper in some places. I don't mind snow but when it's blowing into my face so hard I can't open my eyes I don't like it.

Tonight the guys are working on my island. Starting the glue process for the counter top. They have been busy all day plaining boards and such, now they are snowed in so two extra bodies here for the night. Just like a slumber party...hehehehe! (I think I will hide in my room later)

Monday

Hard to get back into the groove of things after the weekend. I had a really nice weekend and now it's time to get my act together and get a few things done but I have no motivation. Friday night we went to Co. Bluffs to a surprise B-day party for our friend Tom. It was a total surprise and a lot of fun. His wife is taking him to Datona Beach FL this week, that was the BIG surprise! On the way home we stopped at Lowes and bought stuff to make an island for my kitchen. So yesterday morning we hopped back in the truck and went to Norfolk to pick up a few more things for it. We found a gas cook top on sale (Kev really wanted one) so he tells me by Christmas it should be done. I still have to find bar stools for it, I am also moving my round oak table into the dining area and taking my large kitchen table to my studio. I am looking forward to having that table out there to put a large cutting mat on and still have room to lay things out on.

Last night I worked, Kev came in and tended bar while I went to my FCE party, the food was soooooooooo good! Oh can those ladies cook! It was a very nice party, just hated that I had to run off back to work. (it was a practical gift giving event.....we're all getting old and who needs a lot of nicknack's, blankets, towels and food ruled the night!)

So after my busy weekend it's time to get moving and clean house and sew!