Happy New Year!

Just want to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

We are leaving in about 10 minutes to fly to Vegas baby!! We will be spending New Years in Las Vegas with 50 gazillion or our closest friends lol!! Wish me luck as I really don't like people, especially in huge amounts..........................

Be safe!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Well it's finally here, the big night. I really miss having little ones around and all the excitement that comes with it this time of year. Maybe that's what part of my problem is right now, my kiddos are all grown up and adult like now. The dogs, altho they act like 2 year olds, just don't "get" the Santa thang lol.


One thing is for sure, I'm not EVER going to not put up a tree again. I was ok with it until last night. It's just way to blahhhhh around here.


Ok here are a couple of things I made for gifts this year.......



You've seen the gift card holders below and then I did a couple of sets of these trivets.



This one is for my Mom

This one is for our friend Lois

Her's didn't show up nearly as well, not enough contrast in the fabrics.

Then here is a big jar shirt I appliqued for her son

Cute huh? It was a little tricky but turned out great.

ok so now it's time to get supper ready. We ALWAYS have tamales on Christmas Eve. So tonight it's homemade tamales (ROFL NOOOOO not by me), queso dip, spanish rice, chalupas and I'll try to get the coconut cream pie done that I forgot to do this afternoon.

Then tomorrow it's ham, sweet potatos, green bean casserole (yeah DH feels the same way yuckkkkk) and brocolli (or however the heck you spell it). Then for sure the coconut pie and my Mom's famous lemon pie.

Merry Christmas to everyone! And I hope no one gets lumps of coal in their stocking!!

Whew!

I finally got my Christmas packages mailed late yesterday afternoon! Nothing like waiting till the last minute. I had a few handmade things that I was just taking forever to finish up. But they did turn out cute, and you'll just have to take my word on that for right now lol. I'll post a pic of some of it in a while, DH is on the other computer and of course that's where the pictures are. But I do have other pics to share......

I went to my first cookie exchange party last week. Such gooooood cookies! And presentation was a big part, altho I didn't realize it, but you just wait till next year! I'll be more prepared. Here are the cookies I made, they are Chocolate Krinkles. Taste just like little brownies




And here is my presentation at the party.

Notice the wonderfully creative blue/penguin Press-n-Seal????????

Here is another of the tables, isn't the cookie boquet cute?



This won Best of Show, we think she cheated............


First place is the botttom corner, it's not a very good picture, hopefully I've got a better one on the other computer. She hand painted 2 goblets and arranged the cookies in them. It was so pretty irl


more pictures to follow later :)

Jazz up Gift Cards

Omgosh Christmas is heading full blast towards me. Just one little teeny problem, there is no way I'll be ready before Valentines Day………………

Yikes, oh well I'll just plod along and hope for the best. For the past several years DSILs and I have decided to give the kids gift cards since they are to big for toys and since they are all spoiled just a tad and want more expensive things. Then last year we decided good ole cash was the way to go. That way they can combine it all and get the video game or cd or whateva. But I hate just putting a check in an envelope and mailing it. Let's face it, opening an envelope on Christmas morning just doesn't have the same charge as a wrapped box. So at class (Bernina Designer Plus V5) a couple of weeks ago we got a handout for little gift card holders. Looked fairly simple……………………..

And they were

After about the 3^rd one! But then I've got menopause-mush-brain right now. But they are kinda cute so onward I trudged.

Here they are just out of the hoop

And a close up – I made snowflakes with the girls names

The boys are getting cutie-patootie snowmen

Here is the backside while in the hoop – while be the inside after folding

**note the obviously NON Christmas fabric on the middle one????? My MIL and FIL's have this inside. We give them cash each year.

Guess where they go with it???????

Here is the finished holder

The straight pins are in there because I still need to go get some Velcro to hold then closed. I'll put just a tiny little piece, just enough to hold it closed.

Cute eh?

Then here they are as they will be opened up to insert/remove the gift card/cash/check

These were fun, but man did I ever spend way to much time on them. I've spent the last week and a half on them, from the digitizing to the stitch out. But it's way cool to actually have something finished that I did from the very beginning. I might actually figure out this digitizing yet J

The next thing on my list is towel wraps. There is the cutest design on the Bernina 75^th Anniversary collection that I want to use. Hopefully they will go together quickly. Then kitchen towels and potholders for a friend. Ughhhhh Valentines Day may come to soon also! Plus I still don't have my tree up, much less all the other decorations I have in storage. I didn't think I wanted to put up a tree, but the closer it gets and the more I see everyone else's I'm finally getting in the spirit. It will only be a tree this year, no villages or other stuff and the tree will most likely be a 4 ½' but that mainly so I can get it away from the taz puppy. She'll eat anything……..

I hope everyone is safe tonight and that if you are in the path of a storm please be careful.

Go Cowboys!

Well here I sit all by my lonesome wathcing some great football. Nothing better than the Cowboys vs Packers. But I'm all alone because DH went to Las Vegas this afternoon. Darn him and his buddy with a private plane!! Must be nice to whiz off to Vegas for a weekend of golf and black jack huh? eehh well, even if I had a buddy with a little private plane I wouldn't go. nope, no way, uh uh I don't like to fly as it is, and something that little is bound to make me puke don't you think????

So I'll sit here all by myself, well me and the 4, yes count'em there ARE FOUR, dogs....... Sometimes it feels like a kennel here. Except sadly it won't really be that long before there are only 3. Our older dog is like 14 now and some days are good and some not so good, but mostly good for right now.

But I got my design re-digitized. yeah I had to redo the one that I posted about a few weeks ago. Something happened to it and everytime I tried to open it I got an error message and it shut me down. So "delete" and start again...................

Maybe I'll get the darn thing done tomorrow. Then I've got to work on a rag quilt and get it done! I'm running out of time. as usual.....

But I've got 3 whole days to sew. All I "have" to do is go get more dog food and feed the little urchins twice a day and let them out to do their thang. Which is much easier said than done lately. They don't much like the cold and tonight there is snow forecast. They really don't like the snow.

For that matter I'm not a huge fan either. But we need it.

Now I'm going to cruise around blogland for a bit............

Stuffed.......

me, not the turkey! We've eaten, the leftovers are put up but the kitchen is still a disaster area. I've already run the dishwasher twice today and need to unload and reload at least one more time. Jennifer and Tim have left and it's way to quiet.

Don't think I'm going to brave any of the Black Friday sales. Way to many idiots and way to little patience on my part any more. I'd like to get my sewing room put back together (it's been the guest room the last few days) and get some actual sewing done this weekend. This evening I plan on trying to learn how to do cool things on my blog page tho ;) Wish me luck!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to wish everyone a very happy and Blessed Thanksgiving. If you happen to be traveling may you have a safe journey.

We arrived home safe and sound after our last minute trip to Albuquerque. I spent lots of time in the mall on Saturday. Didn't buy much, but it was nice just to wander around. I also have a great picture of the view outside our window.


Pretty eh? Let me tell you, this picture doesn't even come close to doing it justice. Mike overhead some saying that there were hotair balloons Saturday morning. Not surprising since the resort is pretty much across
the hiway from the balloon park. Albuquerque has one of the largest hotair balloon festivals in October every year. We haven't been brave enough to face the traffic and tons of people, but I hear it's amazing. We sit home and watch every morning on tv :)


Then on our way home Sunday morning, this little urchin just happened to end up in our car.......



Now isn't this just he cutest little thang???? And it's SO like we needed another dog. We now have 4, ughhhhhhh. I swore that would never happen! Never say never.............

Here she is with her big sister



She's little, maybe 4 pounds. I'll get her to the vet next week and find out for sure. She's almost 12 weeks old so one thing for sure is that she'll be little. Thank goodness for that lol. Except Mike and Bryan want to name her "Little One". geez what a goofy non-name. So that fight will continue. Hopefully we'll have her named by Christmas.

We're working on Thanksgiving dinner. Mike and the turkey in the brine and he'll get up at 4:30am to put it in the roaster. Usually we eat dinner around 5ish, but this year we have to eat around noon. Jennifer and Tim have to leave by 3pm at the latest, Tim has to be at work at 6am Friday morning and it's a 6 hour drive home for them. Company policy that no one can have Friday or Saturday off. sucks......

But at least they are here for a few days, and for that I'm thankful.

So Mike is doing the turkey and the gravy and then I'll do the cornbread dressing, sweet potatos and green bean casserole. I've already got a chocolate pie and strawberry pretzel salad done along with cranberry compote. Still need to do a coconut creme pie.

Blessings,
Terri