I'm Back

Sort of.

It was a wonderful weekend - and of course, I spent it sick.

Thursday was fantastic with our families. The bird was good (deep fried), everything was scrumptious, and I don't believe anyone ate way to much.

Jessie and our niece, Avery, had a good time with Jessie's makeup. Jessie did Avery, and then Avery did Jessie. I have a really, really cute video of them dancing, but I will have to get to a different computer. Mine doesn't want to upload video.

Of course, I spent all morning and most of the afternoon cleaning like a maniac.

Then I went to Wal-Mart (?!?!?!) Friday morning. Early. Friday. Morning. See, they had a printer on sale, which is what Jessie wants for Christmas. And my grandmother (80 years young) wanted a Wii. So I left the house at 4:20. To get both of those things, run across the street to Home Depot and get a tool set for Tyler. And be back home by 6:30 and back in bed.

Then Todd left for PA at 10:00, I crawled to the recliner and slept until about 3:00. Did chores and crashed again. Dizzy, headachey, chills, hot, cold, fever....you get the idea.

Then Saturday the kids and I were at JoAnn Fabrics by 7:30, at Burger King for breakfast by 9, and then home for a few hours, to take them to my parents for the rest of the day and overnight by noon. And I headed for Target, finished most all of my Christmas shopping, visited with a friend for an hour, to go home and clean Tyler's room (6 trash bags of junk later) and collapse again.

Today we decorated for Christmas, and this is what my living room looks like:

At least I feel human now and ready to tackle the rest of it tonight so the rest of my vacation can be spent on fun stuff (like putting up the outside decorations, sewing, baking, quilting, ....).

Todd comes back late Wednesday night, and he darn well better be bringing some venison with him. I am sick of beef.....

Kris

Happy Thanksgiving!

This will be short and sweet as I'm madly cleaning and baking in preparation for overstuffing myself later on this afternoon!

Jessie, Tyler and the cousins

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and remembers to count our blessings! We are so grateful for our family, our friends, our health, our way of life, our land and our animals....



HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Love,

Todd, Kris, Jessie and Tyler

Another Finish

A Christmas tree skirt, sort-of using this tutorial:





I used this tutorial for the flying geese - pretty simple. I think all together (piecing, quilting, and binding) it took me about 4 hours tops. And actually, I hand sewed the binding on during our weekend in PA, but I had run out of thread to quilt the top, so I had to go to JoAnn's to get more thread and finish quilting it.





I'm thinking more of these could make the cut next year for Christmas gifts for close family and friends.



It measures 48 inches square. And this was my first attempt at bias binding - which I sewed on completely by hand in the truck on the way home from PA.

Have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Kris

Snow

The snow is pretty...but the rain yesterday sure wasn't. Especially since it is just warm enough to turn everything to mud. Fortunately, we are back to snow here in Wayne County, Ohio today, and while I don't like the cold, I will take snow over rain any day.



We've finally gotten up around 2 doz. eggs - and Tyler so badly wants to sell a dozen, so I think Todd took a dozen to work today - he has people asking every day when "Tyler's eggs" will be ready - I think he figured it out - he could sell 5-7 dozen eggs a week just at his work. They are giving us about 2-3 eggs a day now. I spent some time out there after work yesterday putting a timer on the heat lamp to give them enough "light." And also to keep it warm for them out there. The chicken coop was made out of rough cut lumber, so it's not exactly "wind tight."

And the chickens think it's fun to swing on the hanging feeder:

And I never showed a picture of the new bull. This is David:

He got his head stuck in the headgates the first night we had him when we went to feed the cows. He's got a rather large head. At least he was calm while we took the headgates apart to free him.

And this is what I've been keeping going. We've figured it out - and if we load it up right before going to bed, and I get out of bed when my alarm clock goes off and start it up again....we can keep it running 24/7 and our furnace won't kick on:

Doesn't look like it's doing much, but it was rip-roaring in here last night. In the room where this woodburner is, it was 87 degrees last night. It's taken a couple years, but we've finally figured out how to run the fans in the house, what size wood to put in it, what kind of wood to put in it and all that fun stuff.

See ya,

Kris

Productivity…

Well, we survived the weekend, although I didn't get as much done as I would have liked.

I did get a bunch of Christmas gifts done on Saturday. Still to do….something for my Mom, my grandmother's fabric basket, something for the kids' teachers and a few odds and ends for the kids.

Yesterday was spent at the In-laws. It was fun but…..if you tell us we are eating at 1 – 1:30, don't wait until 5:30 to finally get around to eating. Grrr…. So the day was wasted insofar as getting things done at home but….at least I didn't have to cook! One fun thing we did though was make advent calendars. I don't have a good picture of the finished calendar – but you attach little charms/ornaments to it for each day. I'll try and take one in the next couple of days.

And Midnight is certainly a cat who enjoys his creature comforts. He's been inside since visiting the vet last Monday, although he does NOT use the litter box. He acts just like a dog in that regard – that he goes to the back door and waits to be let out, and then waits to be let back in. So far my allergies aren't too bad – but we are very careful to keep him out of our bedroom. And I try to remember to wash my hands if I've picked him up. I've only had 1 day that my allergies acted up, and that was one of the first days he was in the house.

The great news – I feel like I made some real headway on Christmas gifts. And I am off of work this Thursday and Friday, and all next week so I will be on a roll next week with the cleaning, decorating, crafting and possibly baking. Todd leaves for PA on Friday a.m. to go deer hunting so the kids and I will be rattling around by ourselves.

And what does that top picture have to do with my post? Well, nothing, other than it's one of the first quilts that I made out of flannel. Actually, my Mom, sister and I each have one that we made oh…..must've been 7 or 8 years ago….I think Jessie was just a baby…

Have a good day!
Kris

I'm color blind

Jessie and I went to JoAnn's last night - to get a bunch of little stuff to finish up some Christmas presents (web strapping, snaps, zippers, thread....you know, the boring stuff)

I needed black double fold bias binding - I grab 2 packs. As I'm working on the gift today (can't show a full picture - the person will know what it is) I realize - I grabbed a pack of black, and a pack of grey. DUH! So back to JoAnn's I'll go at some point.

But, I've gotten lots done today in addition to the gift above:

Jessie's Messenger Bag - except for the snaps. I'm not sure where to put them/if this needs snaps....

2 hot/cold therapy bags. I still need to fill the muslin liners with rice - but at the moment, I don't have enough rice in the house. And I need to make a fabric basket to store these in....

Next up is more quilted pillows, and Tyler's Messenger bag out of these fabrics:

Oh, and here's a picture of Jessie and Blair dressed up as little pilgrim girls:

And yes, you are seeing correctly - one of their little friends is making rabbit ears behind their heads.......

Stay warm!
Kris

Revised Christmas List

I've been busy. Between chores, a firefighter appreciation dinner put on by a local church for the fire department, planing the Fire Department Christmas party, church play practice for the kids, and finishing up some pj pants sold on Etsy, I've tried to squeeze in some time for working on Christmas gifts.

I thought I had a list and a pretty good idea of what I was making for everyone. I've got most of the fabric pulled, and except for some odds and ends I won't have to buy too much.

Then I got this book in the mail yesterday, and now I have to totally revise my Christmas gift giving list:

And of course, I thought Great - I'll try making the sun visor organizer before I give it as a gift. Wouldn't want it to look like crap or anything.

Then Jessie's little friend calls. They are doing a Thanksgiving lunch at school and the kids can dress up as Pilgrims or Indians. Could I make her and Jessie 2 dresses, aprons and hats. I say of course, and then think about it - and at 7:00 realized the Thanksgiving lunch is today! So the other Mom went and picked up 2 dresses from a friend and 1 apron, and I quick made each girl a mob cap and Jessie an apron. No pictures - I finished all this up at 10:00 last night. I am going to the school to help out with this lunch, so I'll get some pictures then.

So at 10:00 I started on this:

Love it. I didn't have the bias binding (and wasn't into making some at 10:30 at night), so I just did straight grain binding, I didn't have the grosgrain ribbon, but used some fabric, and it doesn't have the snaps on the large pocket yet but.....it's a lifesaver. My Durango has no where to put sunglasses, pens, etc. so either they fall to the floor or I am forever sitting on them. Todd helped me out by fitting it to the visor in HIS TRUCK (I asked him when he went out late to check on the chickens and the dogs if he could quick see if this was the right size, and eyeball where the elastic should go). DUH. But it fits in my Durango and once I figure out what snaps to get for the pocket, I'll be set.

And now I'm off to revise my Christmas gift giving list.

Kris