Twas the Week Before Christmas

And LA Quilter hasn't gotten the first present wrapped -- nor purchased.  Today's the day.  I'm going to make it as simple as possible this year, but I still have to go to a mall in a strange town that I've only been to once before.

If you don't hear from me in a couple of days, send out Search and Rescue!

I did get a tree up this year, the first in probably 12 years.  I wanted a live tree but had no way to get one here.  My cleaning lady was coming last Friday and her boyfriend was also coming to do some yard work, so they picked one up for me.  I had purchased what I thought was a Vicky-proof tree stand and then couldn't figure out how to get it together.  They rescued me and installed it in the stand and in the den, hauled down boxes and boxes of decorations from the "holiday closet" upstairs, and the rest was up to me.

I had gotten four new strings of lights as mine were so old.  Penny and I managed to get those on last weekend, and whatever ornaments were in the first two boxes I opened were what ended up on the tree.  There was a box of little red bows and those filled in the gaps.  Didn't do so great getting those lights on that blasted tree!

Don't laugh!  I am SO not a decorator!

I plugged it in for about an hour or two last weekend, and then didn't plug it in until Wednesday this week.  The lights died on the top half of the tree.  I was so disgusted and was ready to just take the whole thing down.  Then it got funny.  And the more I looked at that ugly tree, the funnier it got!  I didn't take a nighttime picture but even in this daytime shot I think you can see the problem!  Hilarious!

Oh, well, at least it smells good!  I did manage to put a little Christmas cheer on the front porch.  I wanted to get lights up outside but, again, no way I could do that myself.  Maybe next year I should just concentrate on that and forget about a tree!

Work is going great.  One week into it, I'm so glad I made the decision to work again.  It's busy and  interesting - and I'm happy.  I make the five-minute commute home every day to let Penny out and grab a bite.  I've been appliqueing a little on a basket block every day while I'm home for lunch, and am happy to report that 230 blocks are done out of 291.

I probably won't be posting again before the 25th, so I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas.  May the joy of the season fill your hearts!

Changes

I absolutely cannot believe how busy a "retired" person can be.  My calendar has something on it every single day. 

Some quilting has happened but it's mostly finishing up stuff and appliqueing baskets.  I made two Route 66 placemats for a friend's motor home.  There were issues with my Bernina 750 on the quilting.  I was so frustrated.  I actually sat down and removed the cross hatching on the first placemat.  The 750 was in the shop when it was unpacked because of "moving" issues and has been sitting in the Cottage fixed but unused for almost the whole year.  The fabric was bunching up.  I was about to pull out another Bernina when the light bulb came on.  While the machine was in the shop, the repairman lifted the dual feed mechanism.  Once I realized that and dropped it back down into position, the cross hatch quilting worked perfectly.  Those placemats were delivered around Thanksgiving and are checked off the to-do list.

I sewed the bindings on two quilts (with the dual feed working perfectly), did the hand stitching, and those are going out in the mail on Monday for the grandchildren of two friends.  Check.  I have one more binding to get machine stitched on this weekend, and I'll get it finished next week.  It's a Christmas quilt for my quilt rack display this year.  All three of these quilts were back from the quilter this summer but I'm just now getting around to finishing them.

Baskets -- 225 done out of 291.  I'm really getting a little tired of these but am plugging away.  I hadn't worked on them for a week, so I sat down last night and did one.  It's the old "how do you eat an elephant" thing.  My goal now to get these done is two months.  There will be some appliqued setting blocks to do, but not too many, and those will get done in due time.  This long-term project will definitely be a 2016 finish.

Shopping -- There was an estate sale that began on Thanksgiving Day in a little town near me.  I went with my nephew and his wife, and we had a ball going through this gorgeous turn of the century home.  I wanted so many things, but settled on this old secretary.  It hasn't been cleaned here yet, and there are a few scratches that I can handle, but I love it!  I also picked up a beautiful crystal bowl for $25 that will hold a nice flower arrangement on the dining room table, and some beautiful doilies and mantle scarves.  Don't know how much I'll use those but I couldn't pass them up for just a couple of dollars.  I quickly scanned the books in the library and found two books on antique furniture for next to nothing.  What a fun afternoon!

 

Health -- I think Monday will be my last PT visit because of a life change that is happening.  I had an orthopedic appointment today.  I love that guy.  He's a hoot.  He examined my knees, and said I should go next door and talk to the therapist about a good regimen of home exercises to do, and "We'll give it a shot."  Okay, great, we'll give the home exercise program a shot. Uh, no.  The look on my face I'm sure was priceless when the nurse walked in with a small ultrasound machine and a syringe.  I really need to pay closer attention!  Anyway, all is well; the knee is feeling a lot better and I'm off and running.  No, wait, no running.  Sheesh.  No pictures on that one.  Can I hear a "Thank You!"?

The change -- I am going back to work.  It's a governmental administrative support position. I think I'll be much happier getting out of the house every day, meeting people, and having more structure in my life.  Frankly, I missed working.  But the beauty of this position -- it's about a mile from my house!  I left home 15 minutes before my interview this week, and then had to sit in the car and kill 10 minutes so I wouldn't show up too early.  I'll work four and a half days a week.  Win/win.

So back to sewing at nights and on the weekends.  There's the structure.  No more being exhausted after an hour to hour and a half commute.  I can walk Penny, eat, and dive in.  Wait, no diving ...

This weekend is busy.  A facial, a two year-old birthday party, and the Christmas parade and lighting ceremony in the evening.  I'm loving life in my tiny town!

Today's the Day

Yep, today's the day I get back in the cottage and turn on the 750.  I've been putting it off and really don't know why except that I wanted everything finished back there first.  It's going to be a while before that happens, so I might as well just do it.  Of course, I'm already procrastinating this morning, doing laundry in my pajamas instead of showering and making the trek.  Okay, okay, I'm going just as soon as I finish this post.

I have so many UFOs that are near finished, but I need to concentrate on a couple of things before Christmas.  I promised a friend I would make two Route 66 placemats for her sister's motor home.  I have the fabrics but just need to sit down and do the boring cross hatch quilting on those.  I have three quilts that need bindings, so those need to get sewn on.  And I have two quilts for Brenda Riddle's Quilted Comfort project that were lost in the move.  I've found the tops but only one of the backings.  I need to make those a priority.  Once these items are off my plate, I can turn my attention to other things.

I'm having the worst time finding my pictures on Picasa.  It makes no sense because I've been using that program for years.  I downloaded several pictures and this is the only one I could find, so this is it for today.



Zapp's is a Louisiana company founded in 1985.  They started out with kettle cooked potato chips with a bit of Cajun seasoning, and their menu has expanded to include these pretzels in the shapes of footballs and fleur de lis.  For everyone who doesn't know, the fleur de lis is the logo of the New Orleans Saints, and "Who Dat?" is the official saying, I guess.  LOL.  Louisianians certainly take their football seriously.  (But we won't talk about LSU's loss to Bama last week, will we?)

I need to figure out computer things.  I need a new blog site and somewhere else to download and edit pictures.  I just don't have the knowledge or the desire to deal with those things right now. 

I've finished 208 out of 291 of the baskets.  My goal is a minimum of one a day, and that's all I've gotten accomplished for the last eight days.  I'm back at physical therapy when I thought I was done.  Turns out my "good" knee is now my "bad" knee.  I have developed chondromalacia in that knee, probably from overcompensating the past year.  It'll get well but I have to back off on exercising for now and can only do certain things with that knee.  It has certainly messed up my nice little exercise routine.  I was dropping a pound a week exercising, a slow and steady progress, and was feeling good.  I'll try to keep that up but it will be harder now.  I read something someone posted a couple of weeks ago, "My goal is to lose 10 pounds.  Only 15 more to go."  That cracked me up.

It has been so wet here for the past month.  This week has been sunny but the yard is saturated and the mosquitoes are horrendous.  I had totally forgotten about those as we didn't have any where I lived in SoCal.  I took Penny out yesterday afternoon when I got back from therapy, and she was coated by mosquitoes in about two minutes.  She was trying to pee and I was swatting at her back.  The look she gave me ..... "Really, Mom?"  I finally had to just leave her alone for a couple of minutes to take care of business.  She's on heartworm preventative medicine, but it still disturbs me to see them on her.

All of this rambling - yes, procrastination.   So off to the cottage.  Wish me luck!

Happy Halloween

This crazy weather has cancelled the Harvest Festival in my little town for a couple of weeks.  And I'm not sure what's going to happen to the little Trick-or-Treaters with the huge rain storm expected tomorrow.  Truly ghastly ghostly weather!


My yard is loving the rain, though.  The pool overflowed, but all of the plants and shrubberies are a gorgeous green.  The weeds, too!  Seriously, they popped up in three days this week. 


I found a couple of Halloween-ish quilts to hang on the quilt rack.  I have a couple of more around the house but for some reason I can't get those pictures to download.

The top quilt was done at a retreat about ten years ago.  A blackish-gray background with lots of leaves and houses in fall colors.  The bottom quilt was a kit offered at the Fat Quarter Shop five years ago or so.  I'm sorry but I don't remember the names of either of the quilts.  I love the Halloween fabrics in the bottom quilt.

I've had serious computer issues since I switched to U-Verse.  I was totally down three days this week.  My laptop won't connect at all to the internet even though it says I have a connection.  I finally got the desktop back up this morning by rebooting a dozen times.  I may not like this new service very much.  If this continues over the weekend, I'll give them a call on Monday to schedule a visit out here. 

Beware of all the ghosts and goblins who may be visiting you.  FYI:  There's a rumor going around that candy will keep you from getting tricked!

P.S.:  This is my 1300th post.  Sort of fitting for Halloween, don't you think?  ;)

Nervous Waiting

I'm pacing nervously awaiting a call from the vet that Penny's teeth cleaning under anesthesia is over and that she's fine.  This has always been an annual routine procedure, but Penny was having some health issues that I had checked out.  My wonderful local vet and a specialist vet in Lafayette together with consultations with LSU vet school found that she has an enlarged heart, a mitral valve issue, and an enlarged liver.  We're just keeping a close eye on her for now and she'll go on medications when the problems progress.  She was cleared for anesthesia by a vet cardiologist specialist, but I'm still nervous this morning.  My vet promised me that she would call me immediately when Penny was awake. UPDATE:  Penny did fine.  I'm SO relieved!  Of course, she's not going to be talking to me for a couple of days!

It's so beautiful today that I thought I would ride and walk around downtown to get rid of some of this nervous energy.  The town is preparing for the big harvest festival at the end of the month.  Well, "big" is a relative term when you live in a small town.  But it's been fun watching the decorations go up along Main Street, around the historic light poles in the middle, and all of the store fronts that are decorating.  I dodged traffic - don't laugh; there were a couple of cars - to grab a few pics.  The businesses and organizations are still decorating the poles, so it'll be pretty when they're done all the way down the boulevard.  In the meantime ...

Isn't that sky the most gorgeous blue?

Gorgeous Sunday

Yep, fall is here.  The weather is in the low 60s, crispy, clear, a slight breeze, sun shining brightly.  As soon as I'm done here, Penny and I are going outside to play!

I've been working on the Trick or Treat baskets, from the Blackbird Designs book When the Cold Wind Blows.  There were 120 something done when I picked it up last month.  I now have 168 finished out of 291.  Well, the one standing alone below needs the handle redone.  It's a tad wonky!  But that's the beauty of needle turn applique.  Just take out those stitches, reposition and restitch.   I laughed when I pulled out the last eight done and saw this one.  Geez Louise!  Goes to show I can't stitch and watch an LSU game at the same time!

And I've also been working in the Cottage every day.  This week I cleared off my sewing table -- well, mostly cleared it off -- the cutting table, placed the dining table and chairs, and emptied a ton more boxes.  Of course, every corner has things sitting around that need to be put away.  I have a lot more room, really a lot more, than I had before, and more closets, but everything is different and I just have to decide where to put those last piles of things. 

Penny walks around thinking, "What the heck?"  I have a pillow for her to lay on but she's too busy exploring now to settle down in one spot.   As soon as I can get help for a hour or so I'll be able to knock this out.  But in the meantime, I need to turn on the 750.  I have three quilts that need bindings sewn on, and two placemats for a friend that need to be quilted.  Maybe later today I'll get started on those.
  
It's been almost a year since I moved here, and I'm just now getting back into the swing of things.  I'm sure by this time next year I'll have a bunch of UFOs finished up and I'll be putting the finishing touches on my Christmas 2016 projects!  Yeah, I know.  If wishes were fishes ...

Another UFO

I have UFOs all over the place, and the two I've chosen to work on lately are truly long-term projects.  I need to concentrate on the ones that can be finished in shorter order, not these!

Kathie Holland inspired me to start these drunkard's path blocks a couple or three years ago.  I pulled out this project bag at the same time I pulled the Trick or Treat baskets because a lot of the same fabrics are used in both.  I was delighted to find that I had probably 75 strips already cut.  I couldn't find the quarter circle template, though, so I made another one.  Then I apparently dropped that one somewhere on the floor and Penny found it .... so I made another one.  I'm doing these in increments of 50, and I now have 250 done.  It's an easy project to pick up.  I need to find Kathie's inspiration picture so I can at least have a ballpark estimate of how many I need.  I suspect it will be a lot more than 250 since these are only four inch blocks.

It warmed up a tad here this past week but fall is still in the air.  Or maybe football is in the air.  LSU plays today.  The game was supposed to be held in South Carolina but because of the flooding there, the game was moved to Baton Rouge.  LSU's team plane will pick up the USC team and take them back home after the game.  The LSU band will also play the USC fight song.  All proceeds from the game after expenses will go back to USC.  I'm proud to be an LSU Tiger fan!

But back to fall -- the little nursery here had some fall mums that I tried and tried to resist and just couldn't.  So I clumped a few on either side of my front door with a wreath that was unearthed when I moved.  Nothing fancy, but it decorates the joint up a bit.  If I run across some pumpkins, I'll add them to the mix.                                                       

The squirrels were gathered around these on the first morning they were on the porch.  So far I haven't seen any nibbling on them.