A Merry Christmas To You!

Wishing you and your loved ones a purrrfectly Merry Merry Christmas!

XX000 Barbie Jo and Cleo

Are You Ready?

How can this ever be... 6 more days until Christmas! Are you ready??

I spent the better part of my weekend baking cut outs and icing them. I said I was not going to make cut outs this year as they are so time consuming. Several years ago I gave my Moms vintage cookie cutters to our daughters thinking they would carry on the tradition which so far they are not really in to, so I had to improvise with my 2 sorry little cookie cutters and a glass! But to tell you the truth it does not quite feel like Christmas with out these cookies, besides being my favorite, they are loaded with Christmas memories of my Mom, they make me smile :)

Dinners have been really simple this week, just grabbing a sandwich or pizza. However in keeping with the season I did treat us to lovely desserts from Andres, my favorite Suisse pastry chocolate shop. Pots of creme.. beautiful, decadent and very yummy! 

On my cutting board, adorable Valentine fabric from Pam Kitty Morning! I am itching to sew but don't feel I'll find the time until after Christmas!

To end our weekend, Saturday evening we had dinner with friends at The American Restaurant at Crown Center in Kansas City. Table seating offers spectacular views of the city through floor to ceiling windows. With the city all decked out for Christmas this was an especially beautiful time of the year to have dinner here. The tall tree pictured is the Mayors Christmas tree. Our waitress told us an interesting story about it. She said that the tree comes in from Oregon by flat bed truck with all of the branches cut off so that the tree looks like a long stem of asparagus. It is then reassembled branch by coded branch, isn't that amazing!

Time for me to get back to work here, we have a very very exciting weekend coming up!!

May the rest of your week be merry and bright!

Home again!

Wow, this past week flew by way to fast, seems I just left and now here I am home once more! 

I certainly had a fabulous week babysitting my Grandsons while their parents were on vacation. My Grandsons at 6 and 8 years old are an easy and enjoyable age to watch, yet it is nevertheless still a huge responsibility guiding them safely through their daily rigorous routine, having some fun but getting it done! The boys are both in to sports and this time of year it is basketball. Alex and William both had games on Sunday, two different times and two different places. Their OKC Grandpa was a great help in taking over one of these commitments while I was able to do the other. It was fun watching William play his game at a school gym with hundreds of very energetic little kids LOL and their families cheering them on. I had brought projects for myself and the boys to work on, but all I can say is there was very little time to do those things. We did make the gingerbread house and advent Christmas chains, and that was it. Our days began shortly after 6 am (oh my!), up and ready for school which I drive them too. Then I had a nice window of time to do my own thing, which I did! Monday I met an old neighbor and friend Martha for lunch, pizza at the Upper Crust, yummy! We stopped on our way home to browse at a little gift shop that had antiques as well and I purchased two vintage glass ornaments for my tree. Tuesday my quilting friend Brenda picked me up for lunch, this time a Greek spot names Zorbas, very fresh and tasty. On our way home we stopped at 42nd Street Candy Company, oh boy you know I could get in lots of trouble there and did! Wednesday my baby brother picked me up for lunch... I am getting pretty spoiled now aren't I! We went to the most wonderful place of all in my book, Ingrid's Kitchen & Bakery, family owned and of Diners, Drive-ins And Dives fame, they have a large German menu. And the bakery... thought I'd died and gone to heaven it was so fabulous! Cakes and pies, eclairs and cream puffs, trays full of cookies and right now a large selection of Christmas cutouts :) My brother bought cookies to take home to the boys, so sweet.

The cookies were a nice after school treat, of course they were thrilled! 

After all my exciting lunches I pick the boys up from school. We do homework, make dinner, showers, a little TV time, reading time and its off to bed to repeat the whole process again the next day! I enjoyed being a part of everything, even the homework. Williams drawing made me smile, in his family picture everyone had an OU shirt on LOL! 

With Christmas fast approaching the "Elf On The Shelf" elf is a yearly tradition. If you have read this cute book you will know that the elf is a snitch, keeps watch over the children and reports back to Santa! He appears in various spots all over the house to do so, you never know where he might pop up! I had a lot of fun moving the elf around each night and every morning one of the 1st things the boys did was look to see where he might be. 

Friday was my last day in OKC. My daughter took me to lunch on our way to the airport. They live in an older historic neighborhood near the city. The homes along the way to lunch downtown are all so unique and pretty this time of year all decked and festooned with greenery. I made Erin come to a screeching halt when we drove by this house, this picture surely does not do justice LOL! Reindeers and Santa gallop over the lawn, giant wrapped presents and elves everywhere, even in the trees, Santa's and carolers, believe me they have it all covered... big smile :)

As we continued on our way to lunch at the Iguana Lounge, we parked across the street from this interesting home. Once again the picture can not cover the scope of art work and yes I did say home/studio. It belongs to one of the "Flaming Lips" rock band. Now I can't say that I even know a song that they are famous for, but judging by this house I guess they are an interesting band and most likely not on my Itunes list!

After an enjoyable lunch together, several hours later and I'm back to my quiet little life in Kansas once more. I enjoyed my special time with the boys so much, they were so helpful and thoughtful, lots of sweet and fun memories were made. 

And now it's time to get in to the swing of Christmas.... full blast into decorating.... Fa la la la la... be merry!

The last of the turkey!

Good morning, or afternoon I should say. I am enjoying a leftover turkey sandwich while I type up this post. The end of the turkey... finally! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, ours flew by so fast. Our daughter and her little family were here from OKC which made the day extra special. Like most of you I spent two entire days in the kitchen. While I was cooking the feast the family ran over to check out our sons new bachelor pad. It was a pretty day and the boys ran around his yard working up an appetite. Looks like someone needs some leaf bags! I don't know about you but by the time I get that turkey and all the fixins on the table I am almost to whooped to eat but enjoy watching my families excitement over the meal. My personal favorite part is having leftovers to enjoy for several cook free days!

This week I have a little story and picture I would like to share with you. Several months ago Laurie Lindeken sent me an e mail asking some questions relating to making a penny rug. Laurie had purchased my book "Quick And Easy Penny Rugs", she fell in love with the "Santa Tree Farm" pattern and wanted to make several as gifts for her family. Laurie had never heard of or made a penny rug before and just wasn't sure if this was project she could complete before Christmas. Cleo and I shipped off her kits with blessings, fingers and paws crossed that she would enjoy this cute project. 

This week to my delight Laurie sent another email with a picture attached, her adorable family

with their penny rugs. Don't they just make you smile, beautiful work Laurie and I thank you for sharing! Nothing is more special and lasting than a handmade gift, are you sewing gifts this year?

Today I am packing, getting ready to be held captive, to spend a week baby sitting my Grandsons in Oklahoma City. Oh My! Seriously, I am really looking forward to spending this time with them and sharing their daily routine. I have some craft projects lined up for our spare time together. I am taking a sketchbook to work up some new pattern ideas and some stitching to keep myself occupied while they are in school. I also look forward to meeting old friends for lunch, so excited!!

I'm sure I'll have lots to share when I get back, wish me luck!

Gobble, gobbel!

Wow, Thanksgiving is this week, I don't know how it snuck up so fast but it did! Yesterday I headed to the grocery store armed with our feast list. Most importantly got that big boy thawing out in the frig.

I can't wait, It's been a whole year since I cooked a turkey and I am ready to smell that wonderful turkey aroma  and fix all the fixins'! 

Last week my time got kind of lost in the shuffle while getting ready to host Bunco. My turn to host only happens once a year but never ceases to throw me in to a panic. A house to clean, food to fix, oh my! 

We always have a great time though, love those Bunco ladies! And now my house is clean and Hubby and I have had left over goodies to munch on all week. 

This weekend I made Christmas pillow cases for the Grandsons. I bought all this cute Grinch fabric on my last trip to Oklahoma with Brenda with this project in mind. So easy to make, so fun for the boys. 

And speaking of Grandsons, my Oklahoma family will be here in 2 more days. I have the boys beds made up with their new pillows. I mailed the remaining 2 pillow cases to my Grandsons in Texas who are not able to make it up for Turkey day.

Refrigerator art makes me smile, turkey courtesy of my Texas grandson Aiden :) 

Wishing safe travels to those who are driving to spend time with family, warm thoughts to all as we celebrate friends, family and so much to be thankful for!

BFF's

I guess I left you hanging there right before my friend Patty came to visit. And now she's been gone a whole week but boy we sure did have a great time! The days flew by so fast I didn't take many pictures, but I'll tell you we kept plenty busy. 

We mostly fixed dinners here at home, probably because it seemed we ruined our appetites every afternoon visiting the ice cream store, my favorite Andres Chocolates for tea and pastries or Dean and Delucca for cookies on our daily jaunts. Hubby did however take us to dinner on the Plaza in Kansas City. We had to ditch the pj's and spiff up a little, you can see Patty is ready to party in her sparkly wine glasses top! Anyways, we went to a restaurant I love, and especially this time of year....Cafe Trio. 

My little picture does not do much justice to the spectacular job they do decorating for Halloween! 

The ceilings are covered in cobwebs with giant sparkly spiders tucked inside. Dozens of skeletons wrapped in mummy style wraps hang in-between, the atmosphere surely invites a pre-dinner cocktail, perhaps a Bloody Mary!

A good portion of our time was spent relaxing, chatting and sewing, listening to old music. We yanked out all my wools and Patty stitched up this cute pattern block by Liberty Rose. She is going to finish it as a pillow, won't that look cute in a little antique chair or bench for Thanksgiving! 

I sat and worked on completing 2 projects, both pillows are made from wool felt, the patterns are new to my web site this week. They are fast and fun to make, a great gift or a cheerful addition to your holiday decor. Scottie loves to run in the fresh fallen snow. He wears his new green sweater and sports a festive bow for the holidays.

With a carrot nose and button eyes this snowman sure is jolly. I love snowmen,

don't they just make you smile :)

Tonight is Beggars Night, or so it used to be called when I grew up in Transylvania Pennsylvania, when some kids would beg for treats the night before Halloween. 

Sunday we were invited to friends for dinner, after dinner was over we were each given a pumpkin to carve. It was a lot of fun, I guess we never grow up, here is what our crew looked like.

My favorite part of Halloween is a nice glowing pumpkin... and lots of leftover candy!

Boo!

Happy Fall Ya'll!

Happy Fall! So hard to believe it's October once more, our weather changed in a flash, flip flops to sweaters, AC to turning the heat on. I'm not quite happy to give up my flip flops just yet, but there are a lot of other things I love about this time of year. The changing trees, pumpkins and Mums and apple cider. And Halloween doughnuts!! Would you just look at these, could they get any cuter! Our Grandsons helped Hubby pick these out Sunday morning at Krispy Kreme. 

We had a fabulous Sunday, a very short visit from the Oklahoma Grandsons and daughter. By short I mean they were only in town for about 6 hours but we'll take any time we can get whenever we can get it! During our whirlwind visit we went to the apple cider festival in Louisburg, they have a cider mill where you can see the cider being made and of course you can purchase it nice and fresh. Kettle corn, pumpkin patch, corn maze, fiddlers too, a nice little adventure on a pretty fall day. 

Our son Jon and his girlfriend joined us as well. On our way back we had an early dinner, BBQ at Jack Stacks, and then it was time to drive them to the airport.... the small plane airport. They flew up for the day and back with friends on a charter jet, yep, these kids know how to roll LOL! 

Saturday I got my beloved sewing machine back, it had been in the shop for a tune up. You sure never know how much you miss something until it's gone. I have my Hello Kitty machine as a back up, but it does not have the bells and whistles my Elna has on it. So while it was gone I switched over to some hand sewing with wool. Love my wool too, nothing more relaxing than sitting and stitching by the fire or in front of the TV. And now I have a new design to show you! Who doesn't love a snowman, they never fail to make me smile. A sleigh full of presents, this little guy is fast and fun to make up for the holidays. He's so cute you'll want to leave him out all winter long! 

I have another wool design in the works, but this week I am mostly thinking about doing a little housework. You will notice I said thinking.... but truly I need to take action. My friend Patty is coming to visit on Saturday, all the way from Buffalo NY! I have known Patty for 30 plus years, ever since we lived there so long ago. She is going to spend a week with me and I am very EXCITED! Girlfriend time, some much needed girl time! 

I do!!

This past Thursday Hubby and son Jon and I flew to Massachusetts to attend our nieces wedding. Betsey wanted to celebrate her special day in the lovely and very picturesque town of Marion on Buzzards Bay where her Grandparents live. Her parents rented this wonderful home for close family and friends to stay. This waterfront home was built in the late 1800s and had 10 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms, butler pantries, library, wrap around porches and much much more! We were quite overwhelmed with it's uniqueness and charm and it took me 3 days to not get lost finding our bedroom depending on which set of stairs I went up. 

The dining room; table hutch and chairs painted in the pretty robins egg blue, if you are a lover of shabby chic you would adore this room. 

Many windows, lots of sun light, here is just a tiny corner of the kitchen. 

                                                   
                                          The living room ceiling had something I have never seen before,
      a wind compass that was connected to the weather vane on the roof and actually worked! It was very large, about 6 feet in diameter.

This neat hooked rug caught my eye in the hall way upstairs. Our bedroom faced the front of the house and bay, at night the waves lulled me to sleep and each morning when I opened my eyes I saw the sun rise up over the water. I could go on and on, but I'm going to spare you because really, this home was just overwhelmingly wonderful!

                            On Friday Jerry and I had a little spare time so we decided to go sight seeing.  We drove over to Cape Cod and found a really neat tea shop to have lunch at, I thought he was really sweet to agree to stop here as tea shops are not necessarily on his bucket list, but he wanted to please me.

And it turned out we were both thrilled to have found this treasure in the town of Sandwich. The menu and food were absolutely fabulous... and the sangria, well you can see it was spectacular to look at and tasty as well!

After lunch we headed back taking in all the sights along the way. Here's something we never see in land locked Kansas, buoys and lobster traps. 

 Fast forwarding to Saturday, we are all dressed up for the wedding, everyone is pins and needles excited by now!

And after a lovely ceremony in town here comes the beautiful new bride and her groom.

Their smiles surely tell it all, don't you just love a wedding!

The wedding party arrived to the reception in a boat, how fabulous is that! 

The reception was at the yacht club, they had a huge tent erected by the water. The ceiling was encased in gathered white fabric with chandeliers hung down the center. It was just all so beautiful.

And last but not least, our handsome son Jon and I blowing away out on the dock, the wind was super duper strong but thank goodness the rain held off until night time. 

Cheers Betsy and Bake, we were so happy to be able to witness your special day!

Hello September!

Happy Labor Day weekend! It is incredible to me that September has rolled around once more, Fall will be here before you know it and I believe most of us are ready for the change. August was a pretty busy month for me. When I last left you I was gathering my quilt models in preparation to do a Trunk Show for the Edmond Quilt Guild in Oklahoma. Phew, 2 suitcases full! My friend Brenda drove up from Oklahoma City on a Monday, spent the night and off we headed Tuesday morning for Edmond. We stopped in Stillwater Oklahoma for lunch, home of OSU. Our son attended OSU before finishing here at KU, so I was familiar with and craving some wonderful pizza from "The Hideaway"... and a wonderful pizza it was... such a treat!! As we continued on in to Edmond we stopped and shopped at 3 quilt shops. Running short on time we headed to the church where the Edmond Guild meets and prepared for their meeting. Such a wonderful guild this is, so welcoming and fun, it was an honor to share my work with them!

Wednesday morning Brenda and I drove back to Kansas City. On the way we stopped at 3 quilt shops in Wichita, Brenda made this in to a fun girls trip I'll tell you! We each added lots of fabrics and goodies to our stashes along the way. Back in KC we went to Oklahoma Joe's for some BBQ dinner. Brenda spent the night and drove back to Oklahoma City the next morning. A whirlwind trip that's for sure, thanks Brenda for showing me such a good time! 

The past few weeks have been busy with business as usual. Lots of pattern folding, as you can see here Cleo is tremendously helpful LOL! Many trips to the post office, everyone seems to be in the sewing mood now that summer is just about over. 

Labor Day weekend has been pretty quiet here on the home front... just Jerry, Cleo and I. 

Hubby has been enjoying the golf course and I intend to finish this stitchery I started on our road trips up and down I-35. Next I need to think about finishing, a pillow perhaps? 

The Dog Days Of Summer

Dog days of summer... hmmm... why do they call it that? Perhaps because the weather has been so hot we just become lackadaisical and flop down somewhere more often than not? We have had a taste of fall here, slept with the windows open last night, a first in many months. This morning I am walking around with a sweatshirt on even though it is in the high 70s, how crazy is that! 

This past month has been one of pleasant surprises. My girlfriends son and his family spent 3 weeks camping their way across the US, starting out in Ohio they visited many of the national parks and wonders with their 4 boys. They asked to add us as a pit stop near the end of their awesome journey and we were so delighted to have the chance to see them! I heard the boys liked cookies so Cleo and I made 6 dozen cookies which they scarfed down in less than 2 days. What an eye opener it was feeding 

4 boys, Hubby and I have been alone way to long LOL! 

Here they all are ready to hit the road once again. Such a nice family, and Linda, you are my hero, camping is not my forte! 

The following weekend Hubby and I met our daughter 1/2 way in between Oklahoma City and Kansas City to pick up our oldest Grandson for the week. Alex is 8 and what a busy week we had! We played miniature golf, went to see the movie "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid- Dog Days" and visited our local pool twice as the weather was still in the 100s during most of his visit. We went to Schlitterbahn Water Park with Uncle Jon... let me tell you that was quite an experience! I have not been to a water park in many many years. Uncle Jon took Alex down all of the big slides then we all drifted down the lazy river together, followed by the raging river and the river with rapids... yikes!
We played Monopoly and Racko every night and ate out lots.

We even designed and worked on an applique project for his pet training business... thats Cleos fur in the way. Alex said he felt Cleo was too old and set in her ways for training LOL! It was a lot of fun having him here. Last Saturday we drove him back to our half way meeting spot and it seems way too quiet here once more. 

Last week I introduced a new pattern and added it to my web site. "Yuletide Birdies" is a lovely mantle topper made from wool felt. A pretty addition to your holiday decor, shown here on my mantle, Cleo just loves birdies!

This week I am working on a new table runner pattern, and reading a really good book... I love to read! 

This one has been hard to put down, I think it is my favorite so far this summer- "The Chaperone" by Laura Moriarty. I am also getting ready for another road trip next week... more about that later! 

I hope you are enjoying the end of summer, the kids have already gone back to school here!

Home again!

Hello hello, doing a little catch up here tonight, beginning with the 4th of July! Ours was pretty quiet, with the holiday falling in the middle of the week Jerry and I celebrated alone. However that does not stop Hubby from firing up his big old smoker and cooking way too much meat for the two of us! Beer can chickens, one of his specialties along with my Grandmas amazing potato salad recipe. We feasted well! 

I spent the next few days preparing trunk shows to go out to several quilt shops. July is a big month for many shops to jump start the holiday season with lots of great ideas and fabrics for you to start stitching up those Christmas projects! My adorable Merry Mrs Reindeer wall hanging and several table runner models will be on display at Byrne Sewing Connection during their "12 Days Of Christmas" event: July 21- August 3. If you live in the Doylestown PA area stop on by and view all the goodies they have lined up for you!

The models for my "Christmas Sampler" tea towels will be on display at Pacific Fabrics and Crafts during their fabulous "Christmas In July" celebration: July 13-27. If you live in the Seattle area you won't want to miss this event!

Saturday I took a little break and flew down to Dallas to visit our daughter and her little family. Grandma arrived with a suitcase full of puzzles, paints, paper and goodies to keep the boys entertained. My twin Grandsons Aiden and Brandon are 6 and very very busy LOL! We crammed a lot into our 4 day visit, we spent 2 afternoons swimming, went to see the very cute movie "Brave". We shopped and I let the boys pick out new sneakers for 1st grade next month which was fun. We went to Ikea as I had never been to one, we had Swedish meatballs there for lunch! We colored, we painted and put the puzzles together, the boys read books to me to show off their reading skills. I met the new 4 month old kitty with no name who is very VERY active. It came into my room to sleep with me the 1st night of my visit and proceeded to hop up on the bed and wildly begin jumping around on top of my legs! Well I'll tell you that lasted all of 5 seconds before I picked up kitty and placed him elsewhere and firmly shut my door LOL! Next Growly the dog wanted to sleep in my room, but on the floor beside my bed. That was okay until it wanted out at 2am.... and then back in a few minutes later (through my closed door to keep kitty out) sheesh! Thank goodness Titan (the sheltie) or the hampsters had no desire to share my room. We had a great visit and it really went way to fast. I flew home this afternoon on a plane packed in as tight as sardines, 1 pack of peanuts, a Diet Coke and in a flash here I am again!
And now this Grandma is tired and ready for bed! Night all, enjoy your week!