<
Trying to get going on a more regular posting/journaling schedule...and wanted to show a couple of things...most of the things I made for Christmas gifts are gone and not photographed...:-(...too much hurry...but I've got a couple of pics, anyway...I think I probably made more gifts this year than I have in a while, and it felt pretty good....and the response has been good, too....(I mean, we all know whatever we've done is less than perfect, so it's really nice when someone is really tickled to get it because you made it)

The above were sachets made from cocktail napkins from AllAboutBlanks - I used a Crabapple Hill pattern for the monograms and then filled the sachet (in a separate internal sack) with really good quality dried lavender flowers purchased online. Getting the stupid ribbon through was probably the hardest part of all. For some reason, these oatmeal napkins were easier to deal with - the fabric was tougher and the grosgrain ribbon was easier to use. The first 6 I made were with white linen napkins (sorry - they got wrapped before the camera came home) and I used white satin ribbon - talk about a royal pain!! But, boy, they all smell GREAT!!
This below was for a special friend...got in a real hurry at the end, and, man, is the quilting pitiful, done in a hurry that morning before work...however, I know she won't care. She loves anything I do. (don't know if you can tell I did a bit of coloring with colored pencils...have only used crayons before...this was a bit softer and more subtle)

She's called me Sparky since I've known her...and it just kind of tickles me....she's a great friend and huge encourager just in terms of being a friend and also in my ladies' class and being Beth's running coach - she's a few months older than me and finished her 50th state marathon in October. She's run more than 50 marathons, but she also did the whole "all 50 states" thing, too. Wow! My hat is off to her! She's one cool chick.

On the way back home from East Tennessee the day after Christmas, we stopped in Crossville to revisit a quilt shop I discovered there a couple of years ago making the same homeward trek. It's a really, really neat place just off the interstate. They have a "men's room" - as in, tv, recliners, sports and hunting magazines, etc. to keep the men happy while the wives browse and pet fabric and shop. Kinda cool, huh? Got a special Christmas gift from some of the girls at the office of $$ to spend, so....I couldn't disappoint them, right? Right??? In addition to what's shown, I got several white-on-white pieces and an absolutely beautiful parchment-looking fabric to go with all sorts of things. Those 3 civil war repro blues are to die for! And, the 30's things ALWAYS call my name - these charm packs were just too cute to resist. And the other one has some absolutely beautiful fabrics.
(oh - and sorry for the mess on my cutting table - frantic Christmas leftovers)

Blessings:

• that I AM so blessed
• family and friends
• living where even a recession leaves us richer than most of the world, and the richest part of all is our freedom to worship without restraint of any kind

I hope everyone has enjoyed good times with family and friends. The times of togetherness are so much more important than the gifts, however much fun those may be.

Before the season is completely gone, I thought I'd stick in a few pics of our very first band concert! Our Christian school is in its 8th year and we added band this year! My sweetie, who was a band director/chorus teacher before joining his dad in the utility construction business, has 2 beginning band classes. He's a contractor in the morning and a band director in the afternoon. He is really loving being back with music and kids, and the kids really love him, too.

One of the moms brought hats for everyone...and the band was the hit of the evening, which was the annual RCA Christmas program.

Managed to catch my 2 sweeties just before things got underway....he got Beth to play keyboard for a special little percussion thing the drummers did before they got to the Christmas numbers. And all 3 of us had sung some carols with a few of the older kids before the program actually began....I think that was designed to distract folks from all the pre-program excitement and quieten things a bit so the precious little teeny ones who were first on the program could be heard. Without an auditorium yet, we have to do things in the gym, which makes it a bit more difficult, but it was a great evening all around!!

Merry Christmas

This picture may not look like much (not a very good picture, admittedly), but it has much meaning for me. The little clay orchestra around the tree was hand-made in Honduras by native craftsmen and brought to me by a dear friend who goes there on annual mission trips. Wish I had closer pictures to show the detail - the conductor has a tiny baton (that has miraculously not been broken in the years I've had the orchestra and packed it up and gotten it out and packed it up and gotten it out) I have fun arranging them differently each year, although I always start out with placement as the instruments actually would be in an orchestra, and then space limitations force me to get a bit creative. There was no firing of the clay, so the figures are quite fragile. She has brought me several figures similarly made. The scarf on the stereo top was made by my great-grandmother, who crocheted the edging. There is a tiny mended place on one side where a patch was put under a hole. The figure on the right is Scrooge, a director's gift after we did A Christmas Carol the first time...you can't see the whole thing, but it has a candle holder to the right of the figure. Doing the play was a wonderful thing and the actor who played Scrooge is a very dear friend. I was the Ghost of Christmas Present as well as assistant director. (and Scrooge and I reprised those roles this year and had another wonderful time)

That was way more detail than anyone probably wanted to read, but my point is that this special time of year is about special memories - treasured memories that we revisit and new memories that we are making. This is a very special time in our journey.

More wonderful memories...this sleeping Santa candle is over 50 years old...he sits on a piece of dead cactus from beloved relatives in Texas...the little sack of presents was made by my mother over 50 years ago to go with Santa (corduroy with a bit of glitter) and there are tiny packages that she fashioned with cardboard and wrapping paper in it. The hurricane candle holder in the middle she bought for me the year Beth was born and it's been used every year since then. The dresser scarf was another made by my great-grandmother. There is something special about every item on this table. Each one alone can bring a warm feeling and a smile - put them all together and they're powerful stuff!

Happy Fall to everyone! I just love fall...this picture, which I got from Google, does a really good job of showing how I feel about fall - looking up, whirling, feeling as well as seeing the glorious colors and the sky that is BLUE instead of merely blue. Truly "the heavens declare the glory of God". Fall is brisk and energizing and crisp and exciting. A time of new beginnings.

I've had dead camera batteries and seemingly no time to charge them, but eventually I'll show a picture or two from the big AQS Quilt Expo in Nashville (the last one so close, boohoo) and maybe even a project or two underway.

Didn't realize it had been so long . . . don't know how in the world time sneaks away like it does! Man, it flies whether you're having fun or not, doncha think?

Let's see - we had the RCA (Riverside Christian Academy) retreat for teachers, staff and Board members, which made it extra special for us - Beth's been teaching there, Evan is teaching there this year (band) and I'm on the Board. We had a great time at Joe Wheeler State Park in north Alabama, which is right on a big TVA lake. This week we had orientation and got to see all the returning students and new students - more excitement.

At work we've survived another end-of-month and the leaving of one of the doctors (she's pregnant again and wanted to move closer to grandparents) and various folks being out with surgery or illness on top of the folks out for vacation.

At home we're working out different schedules and enjoying the pool in the evenings as we can, and - drum roll, please - I have a new sewing machine!!! The Janome 6500! Wasn't what I had in mind but what I got - I'm so excited! And hope to get to learn a little about how to use it this weekend. I've never had a good sewing machine before. After I sew on a few scraps, I hope to do the machine part of putting the binding on this quilt of Beth's.

And more excitement coming up! This is the last year for the big AQS Quilt Expo in Nashville, and we're going! Beth's taking a day off from school on the Friday. She and I will go up and drool on the fabulous quilts and the vendors' wares all day, the boys (Evan and Joshua) will come up Friday night after work and we'll all eat together and stay overnight. Then on Saturday morning, she and I are taking a hand quilting class from Joe Cunningham, buddy of Gwen Marston!!

Gratitudes: all the undeserved blessings we enjoy, surviving difficult situations, being part of the exciting venture of our fledgling Christian school

Weather, weather, weather!! Sooo many difficulties brought on by weather! And yet - we're nowhere near the slaves to weather that those who came before us were. We've just become so accustomed to air conditioning both in our houses and vehicles. Running hot and cold water everywhere. Light at the flick of a switch. The ability to cook at a moment's notice.

I managed to come by a bushel of green beans -for which I was very thankful as we have no garden this year. Beth and I planned to spend Saturday in the pool breaking beans on that oh-so-conveniently-placed concrete surround. We were interrupted 3 times by thunder and rain . . . retired to the porch each time till the sun was shining strongly again.....we finally finished on the porch! Our power was out for over an hour at one point. After power returned I decided to work on a couple of powepoint slideshows for church Sunday morning - one with songs so we could stand and sing with the use of the songbook purely optional and one with welcome and announcements and suchlike to just loop around continuously as folks were coming in. Sounded good except for the power outages that managed to come every time just as I'd added something really good and had truly had no chance to SAVE!!! This went on for a while but I got something usable and decided to quit! and then power was once again gone for good. Or at least for a while. I managed to shower and wash my hair and even shave my legs almost completely blind. Since I'm mostly blind in the shower anyway, I actually managed to get through this without doing myself mortal harm with the razor! There was no unending stream of blood going down the drain or anything dreadful like that.

By the time the power came back it was after 8:30 - toooooo late for me to contemplate starting the canning process.

So canning had to wait until after church Sunday. Even with a few rough spots along the way, I managed to get 19 quarts canned using the pressure canning method, not the water bath. (We only do tomatoes with the water bath method.) And green beans are the only motivation for me to do the whole pressure canning thing. I cooked at least 4 quarts to divide with Beth and Joshua before starting the canning. Finished around 8:30-9:00 last night. pooooooped! On the right is Evan's mother's old canning book put out by the Kerr company. The price was $1.00.

It is well-worn, used and loved. Lots of handwritten notes, extra recipes from family friends, etc.

Mrs. Grace Buntley was a neighbor down the road...we knew her and her daughter who was close in age to Evan's parents and her granddaughter (and husband and family) is a good friend of ours (and a contemporary - she's in that magic period after 50)

Didn't get laundry done, didn't get dusting or vacuuming done....didn't get anything done but beans. Oh - and haven't mentioned the additional 4 dozen ears of corn we froze on top of the 3 dozen I froze last week after eating over 2 dozen!!! - but we're taking the lazy route recommended to us by some folks who can be trusted of freezing it in the husk (yes, you heard right - no blanching, etc.) and then just taking out what is wanted and shucking and cooking just before eating.

Next year we WILL have a garden again somehow!!!

While I was timing the cooking of beans and the pressure canner and such I managed to get the most recent round of postcards fused to the stiff backing but did not have time for the quilting because I had to wet them and let them dry to make sure none of the blue marker lines remained. I did get pieces for the back cut out, though.

Inch by inch, as Pete Seeger used to sing.

Have a great week!
<

One of those seasonal pop-up thunderstorms forced me out of the water yesterday, so I finished sewing my Wee Play charm squares to the white squares! (and what possessed me to put them on the table with the white tablecloth for the picture??!!) Then I cut them apart and pressed them open. (still have the bunny ears to get rid of, though) The more I look at these fabrics, the more I like them. Can't remotely decide which to get for border/binding! Seemed like whichever one I was pressing would be the best one . . .

These are postcards-in-the-making. (is it obvious I'm still on my turquoise/red jag?) I finished all I had in my little project sack upstairs, and now it's time to trim them and finish them up and get them in the mail. I have managed to trace some new ones in spite of last week's fiasco, so there are more to take upstairs for my evening handwork.

Beth is progressing nicely on her new quilt, and when she brings it out here next, I'll try to get a picture of it. She took it to Mississippi when she and Joshua went down to visit his folks for a couple of days and in spite of his mother having been a home ec major, Beth had to explain the quilting in the ditch. They thought she was sewing the pieces of fabric together even though it looked like they were already sewn together. tsk tsk task Guess no quilters in their circle of family and friends, huh?

Our 4th was great, as usual. Lots of good food and good fellowship and then great fireworks! We are so blessed to live in this place.

Yesterday I heard the katydids for the first time, and they make me a little bit sad because they always make me realize our summer is running down.

Gratitudes:

• my sweet family
• my ladies' Sunday School class
• the glories of this earth