The Christmas Day that was....

We were able to cook after all. I got lots of suggestions, all good, from my quilting friends on how to handle the dead oven heating element. In the end though, my hubby decided to use the oven with the broiler element. We kept the door shut and adjusted the shelves down one, experimented with time and temperature and used foil when necessary. Thankfully, it was just the two of us and, because of that, we had a limited menu to begin with. Everything turned out well. Which is more than I can say for me.



I'm sick. I don't know if it's an extremely light case of the flu or a sinus infection. It feels like a combination of both, so your guess is as good as mine. I do know that using my neti pot just about killed me last night, but after the initial pain, I felt much better. So, I'm leaning toward a sinus infection.



My hubby has been taking care of me. I've been in bed, being a bum and feeling crummy. Sleeping when the coughing isn't keeping me awake. Today, I'm a little better since it's the first time I've felt up to using the computer at all.



A little update on our snow. You basically saw it in the photo I posted. It did get heavier for a bit, but nothing came of it. We didn't get even a light covering.

Christmas Eve 2009

We were supposed to go to my sister-in-law Charmaine's house today. When I woke up, I could tell that it had indeed gotten colder, as predicted. I felt a migraine coming on. I feel miserable. I did not feel like visiting with anyone even someone I love and enjoy so very much as Charmaine.

I drug myself out of bed, washed the remaining dishes and had breakfast. Then I told my hubby how I was feeling. Seems he wasn't feeling terribly good either. So he called his sister and told her we wouldn't be making it to her house after all. I feel bad about canceling on them, but with 16 other guests expected, hopefully they won't miss us too much.

I came back upstairs and put on my Holly jewelry that I made last night. I turned on the White Christmas marathon that is showing on AMC. I have it muted so that I can listed to Christmas music on the radio, which I'm listening to through the computer. I have KVIL (a Dallas station) on because they play all Christmas music after Thanksgiving (I think). Since it's on the computer, they usually show the song and artist, so I'm making a list of songs to down load later.

I've got the shades up, watching for the snow we might get. It's snowing at Charmaine's now and at several other friend's homes who all live farther north than us. It's very windy here and ice is melting from our roof, but no rain or snow yet today. We got a lot of rain last night, which I guess is where the ice came from. I've seen a little bird land several times on the deck rail. That's been fun to watch. I have an urge to put bird seed on the rail, but I'll have to wait for hubby to wake up. I can hear him softly snoring in the recliner downstairs.

So, this is our Christmas Eve. Quiet and drippy. Nice, but not quite what we had originally planned. Head achy and hoping for that to end. Maybe I need a nap too.

"Holly" Jewelry set

Hubby and I are going to his sister Charmaine's tomorrow for Christmas Eve dinner. I'm not entirely sure what clothing I'll wear, but I did want to make some jewelry to wear to the gathering. So, tonight I pulled out my new green glass beads and started playing. I knew I wanted it to be Christmasy looking, so I pulled out all of my reds, whites, clears and other greens also.

My garnets are beautiful, but too dark for Christmas and rather brown looking, like most of my other red beads, which I hadn't realized before and I find rather disappointing. The garnet beads are what I had originally planned to use, so on to plan B since they just wouldn't do. I had 30 lovely little green, red and white millefiori beads that I almost incorporated into the necklace. I also tried some Swarovski Crystal AB beads, but I really liked this combination of the glass beads and coral best once I came across them together.

It's the shortest necklace I've made for myself since I've been making jewelry. I couldn't make it any longer. I used all of my coral beads in this. The earrings are the first I've ever made. I call this the Holly set. It looks like abstract holly leaves and berries to me.

Merry Christmas!

This time of year...

This time of year is always special to me. I love to see my Christmas tree all decorated and lite up. This year, the tree is so full of ornaments that my hubby has been concerned it would topple over. I knew it wouldn't. My favorite new ornament on the tree this year is a sock monkey wearing boxer shorts with hearts all over them. I bought my hubby similar boxers when we were first married, for Valentine's Day. I found the sock monkey ornament at the Houston Quilt Festival in October and just had to get it for him. I look at that little sock monkey and laugh.

I've been doing chores and running errands when I have to. Craving Christmas movies and music constantly. I can't seem to get enough of either this year. I want to sit and quilt with these wonderful old movies playing in the background for me to stop and gaze at every time I pull the thread through the layers of the quilt. Sometimes I have to rewind the movie if something really good or special to me happens while I'm loading my needle with stitches. I stay up late watching and stitching and sleep later than I should the next day. I'm not getting everything done that really should be done, but I'm getting the things done that have to be done.

You may have noticed that I haven't added any photos to my weekly photo challenge in a while. Well, I think I've run out of room for it in my life at the moment. Other things are just taking over. Not necessarily a bad thing. I'm sure I'll revisit a photography challenge in the future. Right now, I want to concentrate on quilting and stitching.

Making it my own!

My sister, mother, niece and I all went shopping to this wonderful place -- Old Town Spring -- on one of my recent visits to my sister's house. There was a shop there that I totally fell in love with. Thad's had all kinds of unique items and lots and lots of fantastic Christmas things. There was a beautiful, unusual wreath that I wanted so badly! It was large and full of vintage ornaments! You could hardly see the green of the foliage for all the great little do-dads. If money was no concern, I would have left with it that day, but I live in the real world where people get laid off right before the holidays, so I didn't.

The wreath at Thad's had a vintage Santa cup (I put a new one on my wreath, it only cost $1 at Michael's!), a vintage white plastic reindeer (we had some when I was a child, but I'm looking for some now), vintage glass ornaments (I put a few on mine) and several small wrapped packages (momma has some that she's bringing to me).

My wreath isn't quite as wonderful as the one at Thad's, but I do love it. Even though I don't consider it finished yet, it is finished for this year. I used ornaments I had already. Ornaments that looked vintage to me, although most of them aren't that old. In the next year, I will continue to look for vintage Christmas things and ornaments to add to my wreath. I want it to end up being just as spectacular as the wreath at Thad's.

It's beginning to look a little like Christmas!

This is "date" day for my hubby and I. Today, we're planning to go to Braum's and get something to eat (after we've worked up an appetite decorating) and I'll get a peppermint ice cream cone. I love peppermint ice cream during the holidays. I never eat it any other time. I don't know why. I'm just a little weird that way.

To work up that appetite, we've cleaned off the bar and hubby has set up the Christmas tree. I am vacuuming the floor and walls. Yes, you read that correctly. I'm vacuuming my walls. You see, I live in a log house with rounded cedar walls. Pain - in - the - butt! They catch dust like you would not believe! I should do this at least twice a year and I should have done it a month or so ago so that I would not have to do it today, but I didn't. So, I have to do it now. Otherwise, our Christmas decorations would just look crappy against a dusty room. I'll be sure to post photos at some point.

Art Every Day Month -- Day 24

First I want to thank the people who left lovely comments for me on yesterday's post! I love comments and they were all so nice. Thank you. You all gave me the courage to try to draw again today.





Looking back at my little wren from yesterday, I decided that I really like it. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll like my cardinal just as much. I probably should try to paint him and see if that helps any. I didn't show my husband either drawings until tonight. He could at least identify the cardinal. He thought the wren was a chickadee. Oh well, he doesn't know most birds from chickens, but he can at least tell that a bird is a bird.





Earlier today, I went to Happiness is Quilting in McKinney TX. I had to go up to Dallas to get an allergy shot so I figured I might as well have a little fun too. So, I went to the quilt shop to get more size 8 perle cotton embroidery thread. That's what I prefer to use on my quote quilts. I had some DMC thread, but I wanted a particular color of Presencia. It's the lighter blue in the photo of threads. Kind of a turquoise blue or maybe a Robin's egg blue. Whatever color it is, I love it! I had several skeins of the 6 strand embroidery floss, but none of the perle cotton. It was hard to choose which quilt shop to go to. I've been wanting to go to my favorite quilt shop, Quilt Country in Lewisville, but I couldn't remember if they carried Presencia thread. I headed to McKinney because I knew they did. I also got some iron on transfers for dish towels and some plain dish towels to embroider. I've really enjoyed the embroidery lately. Although I'm not letting myself start on these yet.



I have a mini to make for a Christmas exchange in a couple of weeks. I want to make another quote quilt for that, but I can't decide on a funny quote. Have you got any ideas? After the party and mini exchange, I'll be working on a gift that I'm extremely behind on. It's a memory quilt for my daughter-in-law's sister and her husband. They're second child passed away after only a couple of days of life. I've been working on a quilt for them from his clothing for some time. It's been an off and on project because it's been difficult for me to work on. The time has come to finish it though. His parents really need it.

Then I can get back to and finish any of the quilts I've started and not finished during this month. It's all going to be fun and I'm looking forward to almost all of it. Thanks for coming along with me.

Ice Cream

This is my favorite "summer" ice cream. Blue Bell's Banana Pudding is wonderful and it's seasonal so it can only be found in the summer! Tastes exactly like banana pudding. It's good with chocolate sauce on it too. Fortunately, I'm not truly addicted to ice cream. As you've probably noticed from my photos, I'm not exactly thin, so I try to hold the ice cream to a minimum. I purchase only one 1/2 gallon of the Banana Pudding ice cream a year. If I could find it in a smaller container, I'd get that instead.

During the holidays, I like Braums Peppermint ice cream. I can usually get by with a couple of scoops, but it just isn't the holidays without my peppermint ice cream. I don't start wanting it until after Thanksgiving and I have it before Christmas rolls around. That's the only time of year I ever want it. I recently discovered that Braums carries their Peppermint ice cream year round. Didn't do a thing for me. I don't want it until Thanksgiving has left us behind.

The rest of the year, if I happen to need a bite of ice cream, I like chocolate of various degrees and Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey.