Your prayers please

I had so looked forward to the holidays, and getting back on here to tell you all about it.  Everything that I could control was fine - my children were all here, gifts were getting wrapped and we were enjoying each other's companay.  But God has his own plan.  On Christmas Eve we got the news that my sister had passed away.  My heart goes out to her children, and I ask for your prayers for them as they learn to deal with this new reality.

Merry Christmas

From my house to yours, may you have all the joys and blessings of the season.  Merry Christmas!

More Trees

We were under a winter storm advisory yesterday, so we weren't surprised to wake to snow.  We only got about 2 inches, but since it rained all day yesterday, we knew there had to be a lot of ice out there as well.  It's been a good day to stay inside and sew.

I finally have all my trees up, and I've found a place to put a new one.  I even found a tree I liked at Crafts 2000, but it never has gone on sale, so I won't be having that one.  I'll find one sometime.  Anyway, this is my family room tree, all decorated in painted glass ornaments.  I still have about 100 small ornaments to put on it.  They always go inside the branches to kind of fill it up, but I may not do it this year.

This next tree is my grandson's favorite.  I have been a Star Trekkie (not quite that bad) since the original show back in the 60s, and fell in love with Star Wars when the first one came out.  I've been collecting the ornaments for quite a few years.  The first one was a Star Trek shuttle craft with the voice of Mr. Spock giving a Christmas greeting.  My children never did like either ST or SW, and always made fun of my "traditional" tree ornaments.  When my grandson came along though, he fell in love with them and was surprised to find that his Grandma really liked watching the movies with him!

My last tree is a mini for the kitchen counter.  I've had it for about 15 years, and have always used a cheapy little tree skirt.  You know, the red fleecy stuff with a red and white edging.  For all these years, when I put it up I thought that I really should make a skirt for it.  Well, finally, I did! It was a little more work than I thought it would be, but it's done and I love it.

Also, the kitchen table looked so bare without a runner.  I remembered that I had started one last year and hadn't finished it, but it took me awhile to find it.  It was pieced, sandwiched and basted.  When I started working on it, I remembered why I had given up last year.  It just wasn't flat, and I remembered all the time I had spent trying to improved it.  So I tried to quilt it into submission.  It's ok, but not great.  It still isn't very flat, but that's ok as well.  I learned years ago that if I wanted something perfect, it couldn't be something that I made, because my work is far, far from perfect!  But I keep trying, and hopefully improving.

Decorating

I can't believe it's been more than 6 weeks since I last posted, but hopefully, I can get back on track. I've had almost endless computer problems. Thank goodness for my helpful son who fixed all the problems.  It's working beautifully now, and the only thing I lost was my bookmarks.  I guess if they're important enough to me, I'll find them again.

Along with not blogging, I have also not been sewing, so I don't have anything to show you today.  I'm working on two Christmas tablerunners, so maybe I'll have one finished tomorrow.  Oh, maybe not - tomorrow is card day.  Anyway, soon...

What I have been doing this week, though, is decorating Christmas trees.  I love trees and decorate five.   I only have 3 of them done, and hope to do the fourth one tonight.  I found a place to put another tree, but I haven't come up with a theme for it.  I also don't have the tree yet, so I'll plan for it for next year, I guess.  This is my traditional tree with all the ornaments I've bought, been given, or have made with the kids.  I always really like it with all the memories it brings back as I decorate it.  My grandson helped me this year and asked me about each ornament as he pulled it from its wrapping and hung it on the tree.  It made me really think about each one and who exactly had given it to me.

This one decorates my entryway, and it's really pretty.  I stumbled and almost fell down the stairs as I was decorating the top.  Fortunately, I was able to really grab the railing and didn't go all the way down.  My arm sure felt it the next day.

I'll show you the rest as I get them done.