Rug hooking, needle punch, and quilting OH MY!

A friend of mine shared her Quilting Sampler magazine with me....  bad friend!  LOL!  There were so many things in this issue that I'd like to try.  There were also 11 shops showcased.  They all showed different quilts or penny rugs or needle punch and also listed the name of the pattern and who designed it...  Well, I just had to check them out and of course going on their web pages and looking at everything they have to offer just snowballed!  Now there are even more things that I'd like to purchase the pattern for or try to do a new technique.  I also found a couple of things that make for Christmas gifts next year.  One was white tea towels with Santa in redwork.  Also on YouTube if you search for quilted ornaments there's this really cute homespun Christmas bulb to hang from your tree.  I also have a pattern to do simple, country Santas...  Oh and did I mention that my job is interfering with everything that I want or need to do!?!?  Working 7:30 - 4:00 every day is keeping me from doing all that I want to do!  LOL!  I'm going tonight after work to buy the storage bins for my craft room.  Then I'm off until January 3.  I have to take the car in for an oil change at 9:00 tomorrow morning and then I can come home and concentrate on my room!  Maybe (Julia) I'll even try to marry some of my wool at some point this weekend.  If I do I'll take pics and get them posted along with some pics of recent crafts.  In the past I just made them, then gave them away without taking a picture - no more!

I'll also be adding other blogs that I follow to my blog page.  I've had a couple add me as friends and I've been meaning to add them to my list and just haven't had the time.  I apologize to them!  So sorry!  The time leading up to the holidays were just crazy for me!

On a different note - what are some of your New Year's traditions?  Do you make resolutions?  Do you plan a special meal?  I don't make resolutions - I just routinely try to make changes in my life that need changed.  I grew up in the south (Memphis, TN) and we always had pork and black-eyed peas and cornbread for New Year's Day meal.  This was for luck and money.  I still have the pork and I make black-eyed peas for myself as my hubby is a Yankee and doesn't like black-eyed peas and cornbread that isn't sweet.

Have a great day!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

I certainly did!  And I even managed to do some rug hooking over the weekend which made me feel good.  I also started trying to re-organize my craft room to accomadate my wool!  I had more than I realized I had!  I got a couple of gift cards to JoAnn Fabrics and I saw in the flyer that they're having a sale on organizational bins/containers.  My plan for this week is to measure my shelves and cupboards to see how deep they are, how much space is between each and go to JoAnn's and purchase some for other crafting products, then I can make space for my wool.  I'm also thinking about going to Target and buying open cubes to stack my wool in so it's in sight and not out of mind!  :)  But I need to think that through a little more before I actually do that!  :)

The countdown begins!

So many of us are asking - "are you ready for Christmas" - I am!  It has been a strange year for me - not quite sure why but it just doesn't feel like it should be Christmas.  I love this time of year, but will be so glad when it's all over.  I'm ready to go back to a "normal" pace.  I'm already looking forward to Spring - yeah, yeah I know - winter just officially started!  I look forward to hearing the birds chirp, the flowers popping up and so on.  It got really cold earlier than usual for us this year so I'm done!  I feel for all of you who have really cold, brutal winters!  I don't know how you stand it!  On the other hand - I wouldn't want to move away from Ohio.  I love the change of seasons.  I like that we usually have nice summers - not extremely hot (except for this past summer).  I love the Spring and Fall. 

We celebrated Christmas with my son and his family this past Saturday.  My grandson, Liam, was quite entertaining (he just turned 2)!  We laughed and laughed at his antics.  We'll celebrate with my stepdaughter the 26th.  My daughter who lives in Kentucky can't come up at all nor can my stepson who lives in Washington state.  My daughter and stepson rarely get to come home for Christmas so it's not their not being here that's making things so tough this year.  Not quite sure what the issue is... Sigh... but luckily this too shall pass.

Have a great day everyone!

Ta Da!

I actually got my Christmas wall hanging out and hung it up this weekend!  It will actually stay up until March, then I'll put my Spring wall hanging up.  I'm happy to have finally put it up!

Merry Christmas!

YAY!

I have finally finished all my Christmas crafts!!!!!  They're wrapped and ready to be given out!  I'm set for Christmas.  This Saturday my son and his family will be coming over to celebrate Christmas.  Christmas Eve we'll be getting together with my husband's family, then the Sunday after Christmas we'll be getting together with his daughter and her family.  So, I'll be cooking Friday night and Saturday morning.  Then after my son and his family leave I'll start baking cookies for our cookie exchange.  Once that's done I'm good to go!  Whew!  My whirlwind will finally settle down!!!

Christmas wall hanging

Every time I come to post a new topic I see the picture of my Christmas Wall Hanging... that I haven't put up yet this year!!!!  I see it and think "oh, shoot, I need to get that out when I get home and hang it up"...  Then I get home and I totally forget I need to do it!

I've been so busy with Christmas stuff that I haven't had time to think about what to post.  I want to get better at posting - not necessarily more frequent - but more pictures, more tidbits of me, and so on.  I'm sure after the first of the year I'll be able to do that - along with finishing my rug and a couple of quilts.

I hope you all are taking the time to stop, take a deep breath, and take a moment for yourself!  Not only is it Christmas season but cold and flu season and if you allow yourself to get too run down you can probably count on getting sick! 

Take care and stop back soon!

A bit of a breather!

While I'm on break here at work I thought I'd blog for a bit. 

I truly enjoyed my Thanksgiving!  Having my daughter and her family up was so nice.  One morning my oldest granddaughter came into our bedroom and sat or laid on our bed and we had a nice chat.  She's so pretty and growing up right before our very eyes.  She'll be 18 in May and graduating in June.  We also woke to the sounds of the baby cooing in his pak-n-play every morning.  He was such a good baby - went to bed when mom put him down, took his naps with no fuss.  The other 4 kids were very entertaining.  The Saturday after Thanksgiving my son and his family came over as did my stepdaughter and her family.  It was nice having everyone together.  But was good and tired after they all left.

This past weekend my friend, Stacy, and I went to Ault's in Shelby Ohio to buy wool.  Such a selection to pick from - didn't know where to start.  But never fear - we quickly found our way and I think I've purchased all the wool I'll need for my sunflower penny rug.  Now all I need to do is cut it and I'll be good to go!  Then we went to a cross stitch shop in Vermilion and of course I had to buy two patterns.  I guess I'm going to need to learn how to do things in my sleep so I can get it all done!  LOL!  However, I am hoping to retire in about 3 years (if all goes well) and I'll have plenty of time to get things done then.  I won't be so limited to when I can craft.  I'll be able to put food in the crock pot and craft to my heart's content!

I finished my staff's Christmas gifts and will be able to give them to them tomorrow when we have our Christmas party.  I also finished some other friends Christmas gifts and will be able to give them on Thursday when we all get together.  I just have a few more to finish for family and I'll finally be done with Christmas crafts!  Yay!  I should be done this week!!!

Yes, Julia, I also wonder where the time goes.  I read your blog and wonder to myself how on earth do you find the time to do everything that you do!!!!  My house is a mess, my craftroom is a disaster, my desk at work looks like I'm extremely overworked, my office at work is used as the dumping ground for things that people don't want so I leave here every day drained from the clutter as well as the job expectations.  Then I go home to more!  My goal for next year is to start in one room at home and clean it, organize it, label it, file it until it's presentable again, then move on to the next.  I will get my craft room better organized next year!

Take care and have a great day!

Whew!

I haven't posted in a while - been extremely busy!  My daughter and her family (her, hubby, and 6 kids made 8) came to visit for the Thanksgiving holiday.  They got in Wednesday night and left Sunday morning.  Then my hubby and I went to see the Transiberian Orchestra in Cleveland!  WOW!!!  What an awesome show!!!!  Then Monday hubby had a dental appointment, then we took the Christmas decorations down from the attic.  Next we took our hold artificial tree to a friend who is a single mom with five kids.  Then we went to Pettiti's in Avon, then to my son's house.  Tuesday we got up and went to Toys R Us and did our Christmas shopping for the little kids - got them all done.  Today my husband went back to work and I double checked my granddaughter's quilt to make sure each block was marked with the design I'm going to hand stitch on it.  And worked on a Christmas gift for my husband - finished that.  Cut some squares to make some cute 10 x 10 cardinal pillows to give as gifts - just need to sew them together and stuff them, wrap them and they'll be good to go.  Tomorrow I go back to work! 

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving (if you live in the states) and if you don't I hope you had a wonderful week! 

How hectic is every one else?!?!

Getting ready for Thanksgiving!

I had a busy, busy weekend.  Had lunch with friends at Frankie's in North Olmsted (Ohio).  Then left there, went to the Farm Market and bought a few things in preparation for my daughter and her family (she has six children - ages 17 - 6 months!!!) to come.  Sunday cleaned house, moved stuff around in the basement to set up the tables for our Thanksgiving dinner (which will actually be on Saturday) and washed clothes.  I also got some work done on my Christmas crafts. 

Then last night went home, worked some more on my Christmas crafts, ate dinner, did the dishes, and then wound down for the night. 

Today I'll go home, go to the grocery store to buy the last minute things I need, grab something to eat while we're out.  Then I'll get home and bake some brownies and add peanut butter frosting to them because my grandson, Andrew, loves, loves, loves peanut butter.  I'll make a double pot of chili for when my daughter and her family arrive tomorrow.

Thursday my daughter and her family will go to her grandma's house for dinner leaving my husband and I to some peace and quiet for a while.

Friday I'll make peanut butter pie, pumpkin cake, and prepare as many of the side dishes as I can before Saturday so that basically all we'll have to do is put the turkey in the roaster and make the mashed potatoes and gravy.

Whew!  I tell you this because I had hoped to post pictures of my painted silk scarves I made in the class last week but just haven't had a spare second to do it!

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Silk Scarf painting

I took a class on silk scarf painting last night.  LOVED IT!  It was probably the easiest, most stress free craft I'ved learned!  I took the class at Columbia Reservation (Lorain County Metroparks).  The class was a 2 hour class but felt like only 5 minutes.  We had such fun and the time passed so quickly.  I'll have to take pictures and post them hopefully this weekend.  The instructor was Clela Stelnicki and she was awesome!  Everyone there was so friendly and encouraging.  It was great!

Addendum to November 16 post

Ok, I figured out how to get a picture under the title of my blog, but not sure yet how to get other pics on my blog.  Patience!  I will get this figured out!  And I'd like to make this a little smaller - it seems so huge!

The first picture is of my first big quilt - queen sized log cabin.  I love that quilt!  It's on my bed.  I've made other quilts since then for the grandchildren and a couple of small wall hangings.

The second picture is a Cardinal wall hanging that I put up after Thanksgiving and leave up until the end of February.

Still not where I want my pictures to go, but back to the drawing board to see what I can do!

Shhh! What is that!?

It's my office with no one except me in it!  It's been that way for 15 minutes!!!!  Maybe today I'll actually get some work done!

Worked until 5:45 last night (usually get off at 4:00).  I called my hubby and asked him what he'd like me to pick up because I was not cookin'!  I picked up some dinner, got home changed into my sweats, ate my dinner, returned some phone calls and then fought to stay awake!  No crafting done last night  :(    This is very frustrating!  And this weekend is going be crazy - probably won't get as much crafting done as I'd like or as I need to do!  Sigh...  I swore last year that I would start my Christmas crafts early so I wouldn't be like a mad woman trying to get them done in time for Christmas.  I would have been fine if I'd quit changing my mind about what I was going to make!!!  Urgh!  I've even brought the afghan that I'm crocheting for my brother to work with the hopes of working on it at lunchtime.  But have I even picked it up yet!?!  Oh, yeah, sure - to move it out of the way!  LOL!

Yep, it's Monday all right!

I had an absolutely great weekend!  Saturday was so nice here in Nothern Ohio!  It was 69 degrees and very sunny!  We drove down towards Amish Country, stopped at Lodi Outlet Mall, then had lunch at The Barn restaurant.  I came home and worked on my snowmen penny ornaments.  Sunday we cleaned the basement really well in preparation for Thanksgiving.  With all the kids and grandkids and friends and relatives we'll have about 20 people over the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  My daughter and her family will be coming in from Kentucky on Wednesday the 24th and will be staying until Sunday the 28th.  There will be 8 additional people at my house while they're here!!!!

Then to work today - had an employee get hurt over the weekend - is still in the hospital for more tests.  Another employee came back to work after being off for about 3 weeks.  It's just been a hopping, crazy morning!  Hard to believe that it's 10:30 already!!!!

I have my cardinal mat sitting in the living room on my frame just calling my name to work on it.  Sigh... I've had to ignore it.  I'm running out of time to get my Christmas craft done.  Once I have those done, then I'll finish up that mat!  Then I will finish one quilt and start another and hopefully have them both completely done by February for my granddaughters birthdays.

Have a great day!

Another Monday...

Hi All!

Still trying to figure out how to add more things to my blog post - such as pictures, blogs that I follow and so on.  I suppose I should try to work on it when I'm at home instead of on my lunch break at work.  I'll get there - just a little slower than most!  LOL!

Great weekend!  I'm almost finished with the handquilting of my granddaughter's quilt.  I only have 6 more blocks to quilt.  Then all I'll have to do is sew the binding on, label it, wash it and it will be good to go!  Not getting so far along with my Christmas Crafts though... :(    So I'm trying desparately to get this quilt done by the end of this week (binding and all) so I can give all my attention to my Christmas craft.

We're supposed to have a nice week weather-wise here in Ohio this week.  But this will be our Indian Summer and then I'm sure the bottom will drop out and we'll have lots of cold weather and snow!  I can't decide if I'm not ready or if I'm more than ready because afterall - we do live in Ohio and know that the weather will turn colder and it will snow.  I'm just thankful I don't live in the snowbelt!!!!

Hope everyone is having a great day!

YAY!

Our levy passed!  It's good to know that the people of Lorain County cared enough about the well being of the children to pass the levy.  It is so appreciated by all of us here at Children Services!

The weather has gotten a tad cooler - okay - cold!  It was 27 degrees when I came into work this morning!  I'm glad I got my flower gardens cleaned up this past weekend cuz I think it would be too cold for me to be out there very long working on them. 

Crafting... not much getting done there since the weekend.  I just need to get motivated - don't know why I'm not... 

I don't usually put up Halloween decorations but when coming home from exercise one night I saw the cutest pumpkins - they were mesh and had lights on them.  I only bought one as they were a little pricey.  I meant to go check them out after Halloween to see if they'd gone down in price because I'd really like to have two.  I don't think I'd decorate for Halloween but more for the fall.  Those pumpkins would do as a fall decoration just as well as for a Halloween decoration.  Then next fall I'd like to buy a rope of fall leaves and drape them around my front door and add some other "country" style decorations for fall.  We'll see how that goes!

Hope everyone has a great day!

First time officially blogging...

This is my first time officially blogging...  It took me about a gazillion tries to finally get to this point and I'm still not too clear on what all I want/need to do.  I want to add some of the blogs I routinely check out.  I need to figure out how to add pictures and all that fun stuff.  But, today is number 1.

I had a great weekend!  Worked in the yard pulling up weeds, preparing the rose bushes for winter, and just cleaning up the yard in general.  It was windy and chilly in Northern Ohio on Saturday morning but we hung in there and finished up.  Then I worked on hand quilting one of my granddaughter's quilts.  I have the other granddaughter's quilt all pinned together and ready to start handquilting when I get done with the first one.  Only 13 more blocks to go and I'll be done with the first one.  Then all I have to do is put the binding on, label it and wash it and I'll be good to go.  I had hoped to have them both done for Christmas but may have to wait until their birthdays in February.  I've also been working on my Christmas crafts - I only need a mere 30!  And in between all of this I'm trying to finish up my cardinal mat turn pillow for my rug hooking.

So, what are you all up to?