And P.S.S.

A new picture of the twins, enjoying their new wagon on Christmas Day. You can probably tell I am just thrilled to be a Nana! How lucky I am to have these 4 wonderful boys.
Happy New Year Aiden and Brandon XXXOOO Nana

P.S

Belated Christmas pictures of my other 2 little guys, Alexander and William!
Happy New Years Pumpkins!

Happy New Year!

My poor Cleo, here she is entirely traumatised and degraded after this mornings "photo shoot", we were just trying to take a picture of her in her New Years Eve hat! She liked her hat well enough, just not on her head. This was one of about 50 tries to get a picture worthy of posting. Done with pestering Cleo, Jerry and I decided to catch an afternoon movie. We saw "Atonement", a love story with a different twist and an unexpected ending. The cinema-photography in this movie is an absolute feast for the eyes. I would have to say if you only see one movie this season, this is a must. Afterwards we had an early dinner at Bravos beating the New Years Eve crowds. Our mini celebration now out of the way, we are back home for a quiet evening. Thinking of and wishing our family and friends a healthy and Happy New Year. We love and miss you all.

Whats 4 dinner!

That is the question of the day, and every day. They even ask what we are having tomorrow after we just finished dinner! A very cold weekend here, a good time to stay inside and cook I thought. But I really do not love cooking. My older sister will be the 1st to tell you that! How I would tell our Mother I didn't care to learn how to do that stuff and would have plenty of time to do so after I was married. And I was right. My cooking is pretty good actually, I just really would still rather be doing anything else, like sewing perhaps. So I made a pot roast and threw that in the oven. While that was cooking I made a big pot of sauce for tomorrow. Jerry loves pasta every Sunday. So now I figure I should be kitchen free for a few days. Jerry was itching to get out of the house this afternoon and I talked him in to taking me to a new fabric shop. What a good guy he is. While I spend an hour trying to make up my mind on so many fabric choices he is usually pretty content to look at patterns and books. Jerry has been in advertising for over 30 years, he knows his stuff. He notices presentation of displays, cover designs, and many odd things my limited vision would never notice. He is always looking for new ways for me to present my business and keep it fresh. And this is probably good, but after an hour of his thrusting stuff at me to look at...Barb, look at this, Barb, Barb, Barb, look, look, look, well, what can I say. You should see him at Quilt Market!
The pot roast is long gone, the sauce is cooling and Jerry and Cleo are watching a movie. I am going to sneak upstairs to my studioette and do a little sewing. Have a happy weekend!

I did a dumb thing

Wow, Christmas is over, flew by in a flash as it usually does. To tell you the truth I am ready to move on. However, several days before Christmas I did a really dumb thing, I decided to clean my sewing room. What in the world was I thinking:( Well I'll tell you, after looking at pictures of other designers lovely work areas, all organized and color co-ordinated I started to feel quite anxious about mine. First of all, I do not have an actual studio, I have what I call 3 studioettes. The 1st floor den/parlor has been converted into a computer/office room where I do my computer work. The basement has an area set aside for a folding machine, shipping supplies and such. Our largest extra bedroom is my designated sewing/design room. It is a good size room, nice and bright with a few antique pieces such as an old drafting table Jerry found that serves as my cutting station. Yet still this space of mine is bulging at its seams with stuff. This stuff is now in boxes and stacks all over the floor, waiting for the organizer fairy to come and work a little magic. The room was once a nursery for the previous owners baby girl. The walls are cream and sponged on top with a pretty celery green. Half way down the wall there is a double wood molding with an adorable beatrix potter border placed in-between. The room is darling.....if you were a baby. We have lived here 3 years and I am feeling its time to make a few changes.
Still have not figured out how to post pictures with captions underneath. The 2nd pic is gazing out the office window, as you can see we did have a white Christmas. I found this wonderful vintage fabric on Ebay years ago. I have been saving it to sew it into curtains for my room, after I paint and steam off the bunny borders!

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Santa used to bring the tree when I was growing up, an old German tradition, we children never saw it before Christmas morning. As one of 5 children, surely our house was a zoo this time of year with excitement mounting by the minute. I can not even imagine the extra time involved on Christmas Eve to create this magical moment. My parents must of been up all night. But magic it was! To come downstairs on Christmas morning and find this amazing tree twinkling away, covered with glass ornaments and angel hair, Oh it took your breath away! It remains one of my favorite Christmas memories.
We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, one full of magic and wonder, the joy of family and friends gathered together.

Santa Countdown

We are all snuggled in today, each of us working on our own separate projects. It is bitter cold and has been sleeting most of the day with a dusting of snow. Night has fallen and as I type the Christmas lights on our street twinkle through the ice crystals on my window. So very pretty, it looks like a scene from Doctor Zhivago.
My "Countdown to Santa" calendar now shows 2 days. I am calm and ready. As you know, we will be just three this Christmas and that makes for a pretty stress free holiday! I envy all of you who have your family close by though. Tonight we are going to relax and watch a movie, Cleo will cuddle up on her fleece blanket on my lap. Seems like a perfect ending after another busy day.

Cookies for Santa

My baking is complete, as finished as it is going to be. I only made three types of cookies this year. I feel thats not too bad as it will be just 3 of us this Christmas. I made one batch for each of the boys and one for Santa :) Plus, a pan of fudge which is my personal favorite, I have a terrible sweet tooth. Like so many of us, I use all of my Mothers recipes, the ones we know and love best. Mom used to make at least 15 different types while we were growing up. Then out of the blue she gave me her cookie cutters shortly after I was married. I was thrilled to get them, but thought it odd, did she not want to have fun making cookies anymore? Last year I divided up the cookie cutters and gave them to my daughters with a nice note in each pretty box. Now I understand why Mom passed them on to me. I've made those cut-outs for 37 years. It used to be such fun, the girls would excitedly roll and cut them out. Everyone would get a bowl of icing, a jar of sprinkles and we would decorate them all. An old German recipe, they make a ton! Busy teen age years came and went, the girls married and left. Each year I stubbornly continued to crank out the cookies, me, myself and I. Then a bell went off in my head, and as my Mother did to me, I passed them on with love.

Christmas helpers needed

Could use some little helper elves about now.
More last minute shopping today, silly me, BIG mistake! I have never seen traffic so heavy.
Besides the fact Christmas is only 3 days away, snow is in the forcast for tomorrow.
Will we have a white Christmas?

Shopping and lunch

Today was a nice and easy day spent shopping and having lunch with my son Jon, something we do not get to do very often. Jon is on semester break, besides school he is a waiter and spends most of his spare time with his cute girlfriend Karly. Mom is pretty low on his list of needs these days. Maybe it is because I usually wear my vintage Christmas corsage on my coat, tis the season after all! I know this just isnt cool, I am sure he probably hopes we do not run in to anyone he knows. At least I did not wear my cat shoes. Yes cat shoes, I have 3 different pairs, but that is another story.
Still working on my penny rug, my "assistant" Cleo is batting all my floss off the table and chasing it around the kitchen floor. So I have set that aside until she wears herself out and it will be nap time. Instead I tackled that last batch of cookies- candy canes.

Wednesday madness

Nothing starts my day off better than talking to one of my girls. My daughter Erin lives in Oklahoma City and is Mommy to my other 2 cute Pumpkins 3 year old Alexander and 2 year old William. Alexander is now a talker, and I mean he can talk up a storm. I love to hear his cute little voice and stories about his day. I expect he will soon be a blogger too! They are still recovering from last weeks big ice storm and 5 days with no power. I cant wait to see their Christmas pictures.
I awoke to find one of my Christmas displays all over the dining room floor. Greenery, pinecones and balls everywhere. I have not seen Cleo yet this morning, hmmmmmm........
I am leaving you with a picture of one of my favorite decorations, a cute little Christmas headvase from the 50s. Don't you just love her "earrings"!

Two cute Santas

Our daughter Melissa emailed the cutest pics of our twin Grandsons Aiden and Brandon. All dressed up in their Santa suits waiting for the big day. Such a cute age. They live outside of Dallas, 9 long hours away from their Nana!

The Christmas Countdown Is On

Can you believe Christmas is only 7 days away? How does it creep up so fast on us every year.
It snowed here all weekend and I was able to felt bunches of wool for a new penny rug pattern I am trying to find a little spare time to work on.
I thought you might enjoy my front door wreath. The pattern "Seasons Greetings Birdies" was offered in Nancys Notions Holiday catalog along with several other Christmasy patterns of mine. Cleo loves birds, the picture does not show the birdhouse dangling from her paw.

Here we go! Welcome to our new Blog.

Welcome to Cleo's new blog. I am sooooo excited, just bear with me as we are new at this!
When I told my children, one daughter started to laugh hysterically, I won't name names. My son just gave me a really odd look.
We are in the midst of the most exciting and hectic holiday of the year. So much to do. The shopping, wrapping, decorating and cookies to bake to name just a few. While running my errands yesterday I had the local Christmas music radio station on, songs to keep me in the spirit while I plodded to the post office. The 2 gals in front of me were mailing over 100 boxes at the automated terminal in the lobby. The inside line was out the door. So I got back in my car and decided to try that later.
I did groceries instead! Once cheerfully home again, groceries all put away, it was time to start dinner. The potatoes were boiling and I reached for the pork chops. Hmmmmm, no pork chops, or cheese, or green beans. The sacker never put them in my cart. Back in the car, rush our traffic now, more Christmas music. The singer was claiming Christmas was such FUN, would'nt we like to have Christmas all year long!!! Are you kidding me??????
The tree is up, Cleos eyes were like saucers while hubby and son Jon set it up.
This continues to amaze her each year, wow, a tree in the house, how cool is that!
When Cleo was a kitten and full of adventure, she would climb to the very top and peer down like our angel. Next year she got stuck in a string of lights followed by lots of yowling and thrashing for a rescue team. You can only in your wildest dreams imagine what our tree looked like after that episode. Our bottom tree branches are now all droopy from her nesting years. This year a more mature and chunkier Cleo is now content to lay on her tree skirt and occasionally bat at a few ornaments. She also likes to hang out with the presents.