Are We Finished With Holidays

Are we back to normal yet?  I still have decorations out, but I'm really getting tired of looking at them.  Right now the house just seems to be cluttered, so today, I really worked on getting the trees down.  I undecorated and packed away 2 trees, and tomorrow I plan to finish the other 2. ( I put the other one away the day after Christmas)  I've ordered the 'light gun' to try to help me figure out what's wrong with my peppermint lights, so I'm not in too big a hurry to put those away yet.  Three days before Christmas, the lights on my traditional tree started acting up, and by the day after, the lights wouldn't work.  And of course, this is my prelit tree that is only 3 years old.  Hopefully, I can resolve the light problems before I put it away for the year.

I went back to the sewing room today for the first time in almost 2 weeks, and I had such a good time!  I hadn't made my block for the monthly swap I'm in, and I hadn't started my Fall mini, and I haven't made my blocks for Aunt Pitty Pat's swap.  So, now my block is done, and the mini top is put together, and I still haven't started my blocks for APP.  Progress has been made, though, and it felt great to be back among the familiar items in my messy room.  I didn't take any pictures.....maybe tomorrow.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Blessings to all.

Christmas Week

I didn't realize how long it has been since I last posted.  I started one on the 15th, but never did finish it.  At that time we were busy trying to get my husband ready to leave on his trip to India.  He left on the 16th and is there now.  Christmas is going to be very strange without him here. 

My son is home from college, and it's so nice to have him here.  We're trying to finish up our shopping and wrapping so it won't all be waiting for us on Christmas Eve.  I always seem to be shopping right up until the last minute.  Traditionally, I forget to put at least one gift under the tree and find it several days later.  Unfortunately, this year, I can't find one of my gifts to even wrap it.  I'm going to get everything else wrapped up and hopefully, it will turn up in one of the shopping bags, although it came from Amazon.

Needless to say, no sewing is getting done this week, but I have made 3 kinds of fudge, cookies, and my all time favorite Christmas goodie, currant cakes.  My mother used to make a couple of batches during the holidays because we all liked them so much. 

So to all my blogging friends, enjoy the time with your familes and all of your holiday traditions, and I'll be back when things get back to normal around here.  Merry Christmas!

Poor Christmas Tree

The Christmas tree in my family room is sick.  Maybe H1N1?  Last night I noticed that there was a 6 inch band around the middle of the tree where there were no lights.  I didn't like it, but I figured I could put up with it.  Then today, the infection had spread to a band about a foot wide.  This afternoon, the very top of the tree had lost its lights.  By early evening, the band around the middle had become about 18 inches wide.  It's so sad looking.  I guess I'll have to do some light replacement therapy.  (Sorry the picture's so bad; photography isn't one of my strengths.)

I knew when I decorated this tree that this would probably be the last year for these lights.  They're really unusual.  The tip of the light is red and the bottom is white, not clear, white.  It's the softest light, and different from any I've ever seen.  Two of the sets wouldn't light this year, and when I tried to test the lights in a set that was working, none of the lights I checked would work.  Is it possible that all the lights just burned out at once? 
But that brings us to the next problem.  By this time in December, there are hardly any light sets available.  We finally found some clear with white wires, and I figured that I could switch some out with red ones that I have that are on green wires.  Unfortunately, the lights from all my red sets don't fit the new ones.  I can't seem to win with this.  So, tomorrow, I'll check just one more place, then do some redecorating.  Just one more small item on my lengthy to do list.

Closer and Closer to Christmas

The last few days have been so productive.  I've finished the Christmas decorations, shopped, sewed, cleaned, etc. etc... Tomorrow I have to pack and pack and pack.  My husband is leaving for India on Wednesday, to be gone for 2 weeks.  His nephew and family are going at the same time, so he'll have company for that long, long trip.  We've already exchanged Christmas gifts - I got him a netbook, and he got me a Kindle!  I love it!  I really haven't read much with it because I have to finish up the books I had already bought, but I can really see loading it up for the winter trip we have planned for January.
The last decorations I've put out are the Christmas teasets and assorted minis.  They're so cute, but since they're seasonal, I don't have them out for long. Some are just odds and ends, but aren't they cute?  The little figure in the back is El.  My daughter and I used to do ceramics when she was quite small, and this was one of her projects. Of course, this little one had a partner No, but she got broken a long time ago.  I've tried to find a replacement, but no luck.  The shop where I bought it orignally is long since closed.  I even asked an online seller if she had any idea where I could get it.  She said she would look, but I never did hear from her again.  So, El comes to Christmas every year, but she always looks lonely to me.

I've pretty much finished my daughter's placemats. I found a tutorial for these trivets, but for the life of me, I don't know where.  (I should write them down when I find them so I can give proper credit.)  If anyone knows the site that has the tutorial, will you please let me know.  Anyway, I thought these would make a nice table setting for her, so here's most of the set.  And no, the carpet isn't really purple - I should have taken the picture during the day so I could get some natural light, and not have the colors of the placemats so faded. Maybe tomorrow...

Most of my Christmas projects are finally finished, so next thing is to get my two swap projects done for January.....after Christmas!

Shopping and Sewing

It's been a busy day of shopping in the morning and sewing in the afternoon.  We went out for breakfast and then off to the mall to try and do some shopping.  Mostly I just walked from store to store.  Even with a list I couldn't find anything I wanted to buy.  So not one gift was bought today.  I take that back, I did find a small gift for my grandson, but that's it.

This afternoon I got back to work on my daughter's gift, and got the quilting done on two of them.  However, on the very last row of stitches on the second one, I realized that it was humping up in the middle!  I kept trying to convince myself that it would be okay when it was bound, but in the end, I gave up and started ripping it out.  Unfortunately, it's very dark thread on dark fabric and it's a real pain to take out, so I'm not done yet.  I got very discouraged and decided I needed to something else, and started on a DJ block.  Even with that, I selected a difficult one, and was able to complete only about half of the block.  So, no pictures tonight.....maybe next time.

Just a Short Post

I've been very remiss in posting for the last couple of weeks, but life can get so busy.  I've had so many things to get finished before Christmas that I've had very little extra time.  I'm making progress, but I miss working on my 'regular' projects.  I'm keeping up with my blog reading, so I know what you're doing, but preparing a post is beyond me at the moment. As soon as I get a little caught up, I'll show you what I've been doing. 

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to DS1!!  He was born just about this time 38 years ago.  What a joy he is.

Trees and More Trees

They're done!!  We just finished the last one, and yes, hubby helped!!  So let me show you what I've been doing the last few days.
This tree is the traditional family tree in the living room.  It has all the ornaments I've been collecting since the 60s and all those that were gifts and all those that I made with the kids.  I only add one ornament each year, but I usually get at least two others as gifts.  You can see the tree skirt I finished this fall.  This is the only tree for which I've made a skirt.

When we were planning this house, one of the first things I envisioned was a really tall tree in the entry hall.  So here's what we have.  It's decorated with pink, gold and white - ribbons, glass balls and ticky tacky poinsettias.  I know, it sounds awful, but I think it's the prettiest of the trees, and at night, it's lovely.

But why decorate with pink and gold?  Well, if you look from the stairs over the tree, this is what you see.  My dining room, which is decorated with pink.  I just wanted to carry the colors into the Christmas decorations.

The next tree is especially for my grandson and me.  I absolutely love Star Trek, and have since it was first on in the 60s.  So, I fell in love with Star Wars, as well, and when Hallmark started making ornaments, I started buying.  My kids didn't really like either ST or SW, but I persisted.  Now, my grandson absolutely loves at least Star Wars, and he liked the latest Star Trek movie.  This tree is for us.  It has ornaments that talk, shoot, and make various and sundry space sounds.  The first thing he does when he comes in the house is press each and every button.  I love it!  ( I do it too.)

The last tree for tonight is the tree in the family room.  I just finished it this evening, and try as I might, I can't get a good picture of it. It comes out pink instead of red.  And it's red red.  All the ornaments are the old fashioned kind of blown glass painted ornaments - the kind we had when I was a kid.

The last tree is a small tree in the kitchen, and I decided that I'm going to make a skirt for it.  So as soon as I get that done, I'll show it.  Now I have a few other things to put out, and then everything will be done for this year - at least as far as decorating goes.