Two more days!

The big day is really close now, my count down Santa shows 2 days!

I spent this week in the kitchen baking, lots and lots of cookies, cut outs, iced thumbprints and candy cane cookies, just a few of my Moms recipes. I crank up the Christmas music and get after it, pretty soon a dusting of flour blankets the kitchen and bowls of icing colors and sprinkles are everywhere. And each year I say I am not going to go through this mess anymore…. and when I'm done I feel spent yet complete and content, it just would not be Christmas without Moms cookies! 

Last night we had our 1st significant snow fall, only a few inches but it looks like we will enjoy a white Christmas with temperatures hovering near 0 the next few mornings. The house has been decked out for weeks now, with anticipation of Grandpas arrival, Hubbys Dad flew in all the way from Florida. We are so excited to have him here with us, this week we will have pictures to take of 4 generations! These few days before Christmas should be relaxed and pretty stress free. Tonight we visited our son  and his fiancé and had dinner with them. Tomorrow Hubby and Gramps will pal around and I am going to make a big pan of fudge and maybe do a little hand sewing.

Most of my family and friends know all I want for Christmas is a kitty. I know poor Santa has been feeling a lot of pressure over this. And of course I know we do not always get what we want so I am going to try to not think about this…... too much.

And so before closing I do want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, may you experience all the wonders and joys of the season. I'll be back next week, maybe with pictures of my new kitty ha ha!

A Few Of My Favorite Things….

This weekend was spent finishing decorating the house. I think our Christmas tree is one of my favorite things. Lights twinkling around ornaments, some have their own little stories to tell and memories to share. 

Such as a favorite Gingerbread man our son made 25 years ago. Can you believe those raisin eyes are still firmly attached, he makes me smile.

And Hubbies ornament he made when he was in Cub Scouts. Now let me ask you, why oh why did he choose such a festive background color lol?

Both of us really missed Cleo's presence, she was really all about that tree! This picture is from her 1st kitty Christmas, when she could climb the tree, nothing more frightening than looking at your tree and having eyes stare back at you lol! The bottom branches now quite saggy, when she got to big to climb she was content to nest in the bottom. 

The mantle is decked out with sparkly greenery, candles and birds.

My antique sideboard is draped with a string of vintage children's cards.

I finished decorating a gingerbread house, don't you just love that smell!

All good little dolls get a candy cane each.

An elf looks down on it all. I collected elves long before the "Elf On A Shelf " book made elves cool. I have lots of them in all shapes and sizes, musical and glowing lol! My children always thought they were scary, I've always thought they were cute in their own little way. 

Have you been good or bad?

The stockings were hung

The stockings were hung… or not. The number of stockings on my fireplace seem to grow smaller each year. I just finished knitting the stocking for Kelly, our sons fiancee. It's the one on the left, the middle stocking is our sons and I knitted that one when he was a baby. The one on the right is the new Grand dogs stocking, and no I did not knit one for him but made it out of felt. I have them all bagged up with a few ornaments as they are anxious to start their own holiday traditions. Well, actually our son kind of thought we would keep his stocking here and fill it until he was 90 LOL. I had to give him a wee nudge. 

So now 2 stockings are hung by the chimney with care, one for Jerry and one for me hang there. 

But wait, we are having a guest for Christmas! Grandpa is flying in from Florida. I doubt he will remember to bring his stocking! And so I found this cute one already made up. Three stockings for Santa to fill! 

This weekend we will drag the tree up from the basement. I can't wait, my favorite part is a twinkling tree. Are you finished with your decorating yet?

Gobble Gobble, home again!

Home again, gobble gobble, to a refrigerator empty of Thanksgiving leftovers. I can't remember the last time we did not cook a Thanksgiving dinner here, but this year we decided to spend it with our daughter and grandsons in Texas. We drove, or I should say Hubby drove and I worked on knitting a stocking all the way down and back. 17 hours of knitting and still not done but I made good progress. 

And here are our little Texans! Thursday we had a great time cooking our feast, playing games and putting together advent calendars. The weather was beautiful and the boys were able to spend time outdoors running off excess energy. We did a little shopping on Friday. I am not a big fan of black Friday shopping and the crowds, but Old Navy had 50% off just about everything and we got lots of winter clothes for two growing boys. 

Our visit flew on by way to fast and today we headed home. For lunch we were able to stop in Oklahoma City at a favorite spot of mine, Ingrid's Kitchen. Lots of wonderful German and other foods with a European flair, as you can see I had the Reuben and warm German potato salad. YUM! They also have fresh baked breads, cases full of pastries, eclairs, cakes, pies and….

cookies!!!! I brought some home with us :)

One of the 1st things we noticed in our absence is the Christmas cactus grows closer and closer to blooming! 

And now we still have a car to finish unloading, and new lists to make, because as you can see… my countdown Santa says 26 days until Christmas! Better get busy!

Who's got the button?

The days are swirling by just like the leaves from our trees. So many things to do this time of year I can hardly sleep while my to do lists grow longer and longer. This past week I received a nice big package of wool in the mail. Very excited, so many yummy colors to work with. And so my Spring design work has begun, having so much fun with new ideas! 

Looking for 2 matching lavender buttons in my old button stash here, what are the odds. Score! 

So happy!

I store my loose buttons in this old kitty cookie jar, it is full to the tippy top.

My new buttons are now in my Hello Kitty lunch box :) Do you have a button jar?

I thought I would share progress on my "Oz" stocking. It's looking good, but I have burned out on it for now and am sitting it aside until I get my stocking mojo back. 

Our Christmas cactus has teeny buds on it! We are so excited and hoping to see blooms for Christmas. 

We started this cactus from just 2 little segments from Grandpa in Florida's plant. It was so easy to grow and we feel like we have a little bit of Gramps here with us every day! 

Time for me to get back to my sewing. Enjoy your week, every day is a gift!

The dust has settled

The work is done and we are now getting back to normal! We have been doing lots of dusting and putting all the pieces back in order. I suppose thats one way to get started on some holiday cleaning!

                            My cute office buddies, their happy faces greet me every morning:)

And here I am… driving down my street yesterday… my head swiveling in every direction taking in natures beautiful show. Twice as many leaves have come down since yesterday, our lawn is covered. And you know what that means….. time for Jerry to get raking lol!

Monday night our boy stopped by for dinner. Well 1st of all I should not say boy as he will soon be 29!

I made a simple but favorite dinner of his, sour cream enchiladas. And in the Halloween spirit and closet clutter reduction mode I gave him a bag of monsters. My monsters :(… oh what have I done! 

These guys have been around for 10 years, they walk and chatter and come out to shriek and howl each Halloween. I used to try to annoy Cleo with them but they never phased her too much. Oh well, they have now moved on, I suppose I can always go visit them!

During my confinement upstairs my stocking work progressed. I'm not sure which character was more work, they all have so many parts! 

It is a dark, gloomy and rainy day here, and I'm off to my sewing room for a while. Maybe Jerry and I will get out and catch a movie later. We have been wanting to see "Gravity"!

Theres no place like home.....

Day 2... banging and hammering away, the work crew was here bright and early. A light coat of dust covers the whole downstairs and the sanding has not even begun yet! 

And I have been hiding out upstairs in my sewing room. I've started a little project. Have you ever made one of those adorable Bucilla stockings with the zillion beads, sequins and tiny pieces of felt? 

What ever was I thinking, obviously I was not! However, I found this retired kit "The Wizard Of Oz" and decided it was a must have.

Day 1, I finished the cuff and now I am working on the yellow brick road and tin man! 

Between the dust and sequins, I'm not sure if I will be sane by the weekend.

                              Have a happy week and remember... there's no place like home!

Organize it!

I believe I have shown you pictures before of my currant floss storage system (Hello Kitty lunch box),

filled to the brim and a tangled mess. Well not so any more.......

Because just look what I found while cleaning out that sewing room closet... my DMC floss organizer bag! Upon further inspection I could see I last used it in 2004 judging by my Quilt Market name badge which was tucked away in an inside pocket with a few other goodies. 

So I brought it downstairs and sat at the kitchen table, dumped out the Hello Kitty box and began winding floss on all those threaders. Several Food Network shows later my floss was all organized and looking pretty in this bag. And the big question is why did I stop using it in the first place? Well for one thing I noticed that the thread holders do not glide in and out of the plastic sleeves all that easily, and I am an impatient person when working on a design with lots of colors. Also the thread color papers slide off their holders when removing them from their plastic sleeves. And yet I am willing to try this system once more and see how it goes. I know there are several gadgets to help keep your floss organized, I have tried most of them at some time, rings with plastic bags, floss looped through holes on plastic shapes or wound on small plastic spools. Obviously none of these systems have worked long term for me. How do you keep your floss? And better yet, do you use it a lot? Because it's easy to store in a pretty container, but for actual use, not always convenient.

Today is apron drawing day.... Hubby drew a name last night and Sandra come on down! Sandra said she has a sweet niece who would love this... Sandra, please email your address so I can get this in the mail to you!
This week will be kind of excruciating here. We are having a little house renovation done, our 1st floor is having hard wood installed We spent last week emptying rooms as much as possible.  Lots of pounding scraping and noise here today as the demo begins. Hubby and I will be confined to the upstairs much of the week, lucky for me my sewing room is up there! I'll give you an update next week!
Oh and PS: the Hello Kitty lunch box is now filled with buttons!

Happy Fall and a giveaway for you!

With a big cool down overnight it sure feels like Fall here in Kansas! The leaves are not changing quite yet, but mums are in full bloom everywhere and pumpkins are popping up in so many cute yard displays. They all make me smile, I love this time of year! 

The past few days I have been up in my sewing room trying to clear a path to my sewing machine and cutting table. Stacks upon stacks of fabric and stuff, I keep moving them around the room, they really have no place to go:( I have come to the conclusion that I am going to need to buy more storage solutions and weed out. You know it's so hard to let go...

During the process I came across this sweet little apron. I made it several years ago, one of several original designs from my apron phase. I decided not to turn it into a pattern as the market seemed to be so saturated with apron patterns. 

Surely there must be a sweet little girl out there in need of an apron to make cookies with her Mommy or Grandma. This would be purrrfect! Apron measures 15 inches in length, the waistband is 17.5 inches long. Apron ties are long enough to tie in to a cute bow and match the bottom hem fabric.

 

TO WIN THIS SWEET LITTLE APRON ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS: 
#1- be a follower of my blog and
#2- leave a comment.
I'll be back next Saturday to announce a winner! 

Another year older

The birthday week is over, apparently I've milked that enough this month according to Hubby. Actually we celebrated my birthday early, wednesday night by having dinner on the Plaza in Kansas City with our son and his fiancé. It was a beautiful night and we ate out on the patio of Cafe Trio, looking out over the city, great food, great company, birthday wish granted! 

My real birthday on Thursday was spent setting up my booth with Hubby for the Greater Kansas City

quilt guild show. Phew.. you forget how much work that is until you do it once again. By the time we finished setting up, stopped at a nearby spot for a quick dinner and got home I would have been way too tired to blow out a candle!

The show was Friday and Saturday. Lovely show, was able to meet and talk with so many nice quilters. Also had the chance to chat and meet other vendors, and buy some stuff, which is always a problem being around so many goodies for 2 days! I was not however able to talk Hubby in to buying me one of these beautiful Featherweight machines :(  The vendor next to us sold these, all in perfectly restored condition and running beautifully.

So many beautiful quilts displayed, created by guild members, I have shared just a few of these with you in this Smilebox.. enjoy the show!

Customize your own free digital slideshow

Happy Fall!

1st day of Fall and what beautiful weather we are having here in Kansas City! Our chilly nights make for perfect sleeping weather with nice sunny days to enjoy being outdoors. This weekend I found my perfect pumpkin for the porch, he's nice and round and big. Can't wait to carve him! 

I found plenty of other Fall goodies too, who can resist candy corn this time of year! Not I, but I didn't buy the whole basket lol. Actually I bought some for Hubby, he likes it mixed in with peanuts.

Next I found this adorable fabric at Joannes...Hello Kitty Halloween Costumes from Springs Creative Products Group. Just had to have some, maybe I'll make myself a Halloween pillow case. Or... just add it to my stash of cute kitty fabric. 

Most of this pretty week has been spent indoors though. Printing patterns, gathering and stacking up stuff in the dining room.... yikes.. no company allowed this week! Getting ready to vendor at :

Quilters Guild Of Kansas Citys "Tomorrow's Heirloom Quilts" show.

Abdallah Shrine Temple- 5300 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park 66202

Friday- Sept 27th. 10am to 6pm

Saturday- September 28, 9am to 5pm

$3.00 Admission- vendors, raffle baskets and more, proceeds going to the Shriners Hospital.

If you live in the area, stop by, I hope to see you there!

Oh, and it's my birthday weekend :) I'm so excited LOL!

A new Christmas design for you!

Another weekend come and gone! Sunday Hubby decided we should head on down to The Plaza in Kansas City for a little early Birthday girl shopping and linner (Lunch & Dinner). Have not been down there in a while and it is always a pleasant way to spend an afternoon or evening. I have been turning in to such a houseplant anyway, it did not take much persuasion on his part to push me out the door. After our shopping, (I got 2 cute tops for Fall weather), we went to the Cheesecake Factory. So many wonderful restaurants on the Plaza, yet I love to sit outside here near the fountain and watch all the shoppers go by. I always feel like I could be on a plaza in Spain or just about anywhere here! 

We had the Lunch size portions, can you believe it? And boring me, even with a huge item menu I still always get the same thing... the crusted Romano chicken... and a frosty frozen Peach Bellini.. YUM, YUM! By the time we were finished we were ready to head home. It was 96 degrees and although sitting outside was pleasant at 1st, we were ready to crank up some AC.

I have a new pattern finish this week, hot off the press! Adorable Elves doing what they do best,

this runner is fast and fun to make for your Holiday decor. 

You can find it now on my web site by clicking on Cleo's cute little picture on my side bar.

Enjoy your week!

Bring On Fall!

September. The word has a Fallish ring to it but Mother Nature is having none of that just yet here with temps still in the 90's. Summer has been long and I'm ready for a change of pace and color. Outside the leaves may still be firmly attached to their branches. Inside however I am in control of the seasons and I say, let there be Fall!!

So this week I dug out a few of my Fall things from the basement. Just a few.. I always begin changing the seasons in my kitchen cupboard 1st. A pretty garland to drape across the top. I've changed all my dishes inside to my old Fiestaware, the yellow, orange and cream colors work well with antique and the real pumpkins which I'll add in October.. A wool felt leaf hangs from the front knob. 

Oh and I couldn't resist sitting out these little guys. They make me smile :)

Do you ever buy fabric just because it is too cute too resist? You might not have plans for it, but it just calls your name....Barbie Jo...Barbie Jo. This piece by Alexander Henry does just that for me. It is part of their "The Ghastlies" fabric line for this year. Amazing artwork, just look at those expressions :) So whimsical and fun! I had to own a piece of it. 

And that cat, Sebastian I believe is his name, Oh my gosh, that look ha ha...I want to pick him up and pet him but somehow he looks like he would not like that lol! 

Oh well. Busy month here. Still working on writing up the newest pattern. 

Getting ready to vend at the Greater Kansas City Quilt show later this month

which means stacking stuff up all over my dining room and making a big mess.

More info on the show to follow soon. 

And this is my Birthday month and I plan on milking that for as long as I can!

So have yourself a great week and thanks for stopping by!