The best laid plans and a swap

Happy Holidays! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with their families and that Santa was good to you. We had a great Christmas with Emma and her mommy and daddy. My mother and brother weren't able to make it here because of the weather but hopefully we can get to California or they can get up here soon.


I had intended to continue my decorating tour long before today, but I'm sure you all understand how plans can go astray. You're all probably sick of looking at Christmas decorations, so I won't go overboard with tons of pictures. Here are a few snippets of what things looked like. Maybe next year I'll be a bit more organized. Hahahaha!

The little quilt is a Jo Morton and I made 2 of them during my "power sewing". The little plate is one I won as a door prize at the party in Calif.

I also won the little snowmen sitting on the red cabinet.

I made this doll quite a few years ago when I was selling crafts in a Christmas boutique.

So, there you have it! Merry Christmas. But wait....that's not the end of the post!

Karen and I did a swap and my package arrived on Christmas Eve, but it was snowing so hard we didn't go to the mailbox that day(we have cluster boxes at the end of the street), so I didn't get it till we took a walk on Christmas Day.

Oh boy...cute wrapping!

Hmmmm, interesting....some greenery.

And a neat black bowl!

Oh my! Look at these darling little pillows.

And this mat is absolutely gorgeous.

And look how wonderful it all looks together.

She also included this adorable snowman plate.

And some Quilter's chocolate! What could be better than all of this? And on Christmas day to boot! Thanks Karen for all the goodies. I love them all! You're an awesome swap partner. Oh and one more thing...

I got alot of comments asking what pattern this is. It's called "Five Cent Fairy Garden" from Kim Diehl's book, Simple Blessings. The pattern is on page 83. I actually made 2 of them during my "power sewing". One for me too! ;-)

Trip to California

What's a trip to Calif. without going to Panera Bread. In fact, we went there for lunch twice! And I had the same thing both times...french onion soup and a baguette. Yummy! I look so forward to that part of the trip.

And Target Greatland. What could be better?

We all made purchases there! From left to right: Patty, Marsha, Cathi, Janet (aka Myrtle). It the small things in life that make one happy! LOL

Can you tell where we are? I'm gonna make you guess.

Now, on with the Christmas party. We always start the evening with strawberry dacquiris. Not too many tho because we have lots to do and no one would want to be too "tired" to miss a minute.

These are my buddies who I have gotten together with once a month for the past 30 years. I had the nerve to move away but I always make it back for the Christmas party and sometimes I'm lucky enough to be able to join them during the year too. Love you guys.

Patty made up these cute and yummy appetizers.

Patty was our host this year. (we rotate houses from year to year) She said she had so much fun putting the table together. Marsha and I were in charge of dinner. We had lasagna, salad and bread from Panera...(where else?) Marsha had it all made before I even arrived in town, so needless to say, I didn't do very much. Thanks Marsha.

We got to take home the pretty pinecones and that cute little tree.

Loved the caged gold ornaments in the background. Such a pretty table this year, Patty.

And then on to the games. Janet (Myrtle) was in charge of games and candy this year. This is our version of Bingo. She made it up a few years ago and we have so much fun playing it that it's become a yearly tradition.

We use Hershey's kisses as our markers and sometimes there aren't enough kisses left for blackout. Hmmm, wonder why. ;-)

This is the pile of presents that we have to choose from when we win a game. So much fun. We each bring a pre-determined amount of door prizes. I didn't get any pictures of what everyone won. So sorry.

After hours and hours of game playing, chatting and grazing it's on to our stockings. Cathi was in charge this year.

I made them wait to open their stockings until I could get a picture. They were ready to hide my little red by the end of the night.

And here's what was in our stockings. Good job, Cathi!

Tomorrow I'll show you what our giftys to each other were.

Christmas decorating, part 3

Moving along... This little corner is in the hallway on the way to the guest bedrooms. The little cabinet and shelves were made by my dad and we recently painted them.

Even the guest bath gets it's share of Christmas. LOOK, Anne....no potty in the picture. Wheee. The cabinet was another project that hubby made. He's very productive in the winter when he can't golf. That's when all the painting gets done too.

The next tour pictures will be next week. I'm leaving for California Friday at 5:15 am, yes, that's in the MORNING! Anyone who knows me knows that I am NOT a morning person. I guess you take what you can get when you're flying on frequent flyer miles. Oh lordy! Have a good weekend everyone.

The tour continues...

I'm not very happy with the pictures I'm taking, so I called Anne to give me some pointers. Disclaimer: The following pictures were taken before I talked to her because I'm too tired to take more but, hopefully, with her guidance, I can take some better ones of the rest of the house. She thinks I'm trying to fit too much into a picture which then makes it not as interesting. I love the ones she takes on her blog, so we'll see if she's a good teacher or not. Hey, Anne, the pressure is on!



This is the other guest bedroom. Anne claims it as hers even though she has a vacation home here in Bend. I think she liked it when she was in her "red phase", because as you can see, there's no pink in here. Hubby made the headboards and the little red benches at the end of the beds. My mom will stay in this room over the holidays.

The quilt stays up all year.

Hubby made the white cabinet. (Anne, sorry about the partial showing of the TV) LOL.

Got this cabinet at a FolkArt show in Pleasanton, CA.

And the bathroom for this room. I see what she means... I should have just taken a shot of the little picture because the toilet isn't really something we need to see. Tee Hee.

Tomorrow, the hallway!

Oh, if you want to see more pictures of Folkart Gatherings Too, go over to Jodi's blog. She took some really great pictures.

Christmas decorating

Well, I finally finished decorating today so here we go.

This is one of the guest rooms. Emma will stay in this room with her Mommy and Daddy, so I thought I better keep the "Emma level" decorations to a minimum. We recently redid this room. It used to be all in denim.

Hmm, I should have straightened that pillow on the right.

Hubby made the quilt rack for me and it used to have a wood finish. When we redid the room, he painted it black.

The shelf used to be blue. He painted it black the same time he painted the quilt rack.

This wall hanging is very special to me. Each cross stitch block was made by my GG friends in Calif. (someday I might tell you what GG means). We have been together for more than 30 years. They get together once a month for dinner, fun, games, etc. We started out as a cross stitch group and quickly just turned it into a "gab fest". We have a Christmas party every year with just the girls. It goes on and on for hours and hours. We eat, play games, exchange gifts , eat, chat, eat, etc. You get the picture. One year the hostess informed each of us (in June or July) that we had to make a 6" x 6" cross stitch block. We weren't allowed to share them with each other and had to turn them in at our November gathering. We had no idea why. Anyway, she themed the Christmas party "Lets make a deal". At the end of the night, one of the gals was chosen the winner and allowed to go for the Big Deal. Well, it ended up to be a quilted wall hanging of all our blocks. The rest of us that didn't win were heartsick. It was such a special prize. So....we decided to continue making blocks every year thereafter until we had all won a wallhanging. I think I was next to last to win mine! I still go back to Calif for the "gabbing" when I can and will go this Friday for this year's Christmas party. I'm really excited!

This is one of the things I bought at the Snowflake Boutique I told you about on an earlier post.

This is the bathroom in that bedroom.

Tomorrow, I'll show you the other guest bedroom.