Thursday

I think I missed Aiden calling me on Tuesday.  I was outside putting up Christmas lights.  Darn it, I hate it when I miss his calls!  I really miss him.  Rachel should send me school papers so I can keep up with Aiden's life. ")  Hint, hint!
I'm making pillow cases for some of the family members that I have no idea of what to buy for.  I'm hoping they will like them.  I got my Christmas lights up on the fence and the icycles across the porch and that's it, I'm done, it is too close to Christmas to put all the yard stuff out.
Steve filled out his retirement papers yesterday.  It is coming SOON!  He's down to 15 days.
Stephanie has been getting into Christmas and is finally listening to Christmas music.  Steve made us both a phone ring tone from the Looney Toons album.  I have We Wish You a Merry Christmas and she has Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
I'm off for my coffee and to begin today's sewing schedule.

Short Tuesday

I only work 4 hours today.  It is supposed to be a warm 55 degrees so maybe I'll get my Christmas lights put up today.  We have both trees decorated and a couple of nights ago Stephanie got in the decorating mood and finished unpacking the Christmas decorations.  I put all the boxes back in the shed yesterday before I went to work.  All that is left is the yard.
I have 3 days off next and plan on working on a few Christmas presents and need to get this years ornaments done.  They are going to be simple this year.  I'm making peppermints out of can lids.  I have the can opener from Pampered Chef that takes the whole top off the can so it will have no sharp edges.
My mom has been in and out of the hospital in the last 3 weeks.  I'm picking her up from dialysis 3 days this week since I'm either working in the afternoon or off.
I'm excited because I sold two things off my Etsy site, I finally got my home page ready and eleven photos and descriptions up and after about 3 weeks sold something.  It is cheaper than Ebay and for crafters so I thought I would give it a try.
Okay, that's it for today more later.  Oh, Steve's countdown is getting short: Only 16 days to go to retirement!

Wednesday and sitting at 25 degrees

Tonight is the last paint class until after the holidays, we took a vote.  Tonight we should finish up our elves. We are each doing two sets.  I had 4 sets since one of my students just dropped out.  Hopefully she will get her babysitting problems figured out and come back after the new year.  Here is the photo of the four I finished.  The ones I'm working on in class are done in red & purple.

I got a note from one of the girls in Fabricards and she said, your poinsettia card is going to be late.  I'm like?  What poinsettia card?  I forgot I signed up for it so guess who had to make them yesterday.  At least it was only one, but I made 3.  I usually make one for every person plus one for myself.  I made one for my quiltingfriends gift and myself extra this time. 

Today Steve is off and we are bringing in the Christmas stuff.  The tree is waiting patiently down here in it's stand totally naked.  Then tomorrow night after I get off work Stephanie and I can start decorating the tree and house.  Since tonight is paint class it won't be tonight.  Have a good day all!

No Snow Yet!

But we got lots of rain!  Steve put our lovely tree in the tree stand yesterday afternoon after he got off work.  It is beautiful.  Now to haul all the Christmas stuff in so Stephanie and I can decorate it and the house.
Ever type with a cat in front of you?  Yesterday Yoda walked on the keyboard and locked it up.  I had to reboot the computer to get the mouse back.  It rained all day so my cats stayed in and were pains.  I stayed home sick, I kept running to the bathroom til afternoon.  Felt better by the evening so...
I spent the evening painting elves.  One of my students has babysitter problems (which is her dad) and he decided he didn't want to babysit her 10 year old anymore so she can't come and brought her 4 elves back so I painted them so my students will have samples tomorrow night.  We are all doing 2 sets.
I'm still deciding what Christmas ornament to do for family, maybe use up all these can lids and make peppermints out of them?  Hmmm...
Stephanie has a singing thing at church tonight that I have to go to.  Should be fun...  She's also signing up for the talent show at school and she's singing. 
I got my Etsy account up and running yesterday with 11 things for sale.  I just checked this morning and am happy that at least everything has been viewed a lot.  We'll see how that works.
And I haven't even made my Christmas cards yet!

Calling for SNOW!

Hello!  Our Zoo trip was totally worth it.  We drove down, went straight to the zoo and stayed all day.  We left the zoo about 4:30 and checked into the motel and took a short break then went to dinner at Olive Garden.  We got back to the zoo around 8 pm and stayed another two hours walking and seeing the lights.  It was very nice, if anyone ever has a chance to go they should.  It was worth the trip.
It got really cold here the last couple of days and we've had to have a heater going in the greenhouse.  We planned on putting sheets of styrofoam on the north side but it got cold faster than we expected.  I'm off tomorrow so will go and get some and put it in when Steve gets off work.  We have to move the table out a bit to get the stryrofoam behind it and it should help.

Karlee, Hunter, & Kassidi- the wagon is full!

Cold Sunday

My mom is getting better, at least she's eating and holding down food.  Sherie is making her get up and out of bed.  Monday they are supposed to repair her port that they put in last week.  It is not working and they can't do her dialysis until it does.  I actually went up there yesterday to sit for about an hour.  Mom slept the whole time but Sherie and I visited.  We are tossing the idea of hosting a family reunion in 2011.
I still have Aidens message on my message machine.  Steve asked me last night?  Are you going to erase that?  As I walked by and pushed the play button to hear his voice.  Nope, I might leave it there for a while.  I really miss him!
It got colder here yesterday, it is on ly 32 out right now, the forecast said it was only getting down to 36.  It did rain yesterday evening a bit.  Just enough to make the dust show on the cars.

My moon & stars that was a special order.  "We love you to the moon and back"

My bucket special order:

Saturday

I packed up Rachel & Aidens box yesterday and then forgot to run to the PO with it so I'll do it this morning before I go to work.  I had this box and everything fig JUST RIGHT in it.  I missed Aiden's call though, I saved it and I keep walking by the phone and playing his voice.  Man, do I miss him!
I worked from 1pm to 6pm yesterday and I must have sold a dozen Christmas tree's cut or potted.  Today is another day.
I started loading my dresden plate quilt onto the frame when I realized I never put borders on it so I've got the borders cut out and will sew them together and put them on today before I go to work.
My cactus postcard is below it was supposed to be mailed out before Thanksgiving but I was a couple of days late. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

I made cards up for Thanksgiving and put the dinner list inside of who was supposed to bring what.  The other photo is of the apple pie that Stephanie & I made from scratch.  It's kind of homely but we'll do better next time.

I finished my two special orders, got my Cactus postcards done and ready to mail, and finished up the quilt round robin that is due to be exchanged next week.  I still don't have my stuff photographed and put on my Etsy yet, though, I'm working on it. 

My mom is in the hospital again.  When they did her Dialysis they poked through something and she was bleeding really bad and wouldn't quit.  Then she was throwing up for two days.  They did surgery and repaired her port but she still isn't doing well.

Well, time to start cleaning for today, all are coming here.

ME

Old Place Photo

All that is left is the framing here, now the lot is totally empty.

Sunday and working

Haven't been here for a few days.  If my daughter in England reads this please email us, we don't have the new one for the base and the yahoo is bouncing!
I was off Wed. & Thurs. but I had a molar pulled out on Wednesday so spent the day on pain pills and was worthless.  I was afraid it was going to hurt so made sure it didn't.    Then I spent half the day on Thursday running around and putting all the booth stuff away.  I have two special orders from my show that I'm working on.  I told them I'd have them ready by this weekend but I have been working and as said I spent part of one of my days off looking for a pail to paint the one persons order on.  No one has tall cans or pails right now.  I had to buy just a metal bucket from Home Depot and that was a chore, they have been inside on the cleaning aisle for 3 years and now they are outside and trash cans are in their spot.  She wants Please Remove Your Shoes on it with flowers and wants to put sand in it on her porch for cigarette butts.  The other special order is a moon and stars that hang and says "We love you to the moon and back" love grama and poppa.  I have it cut out and primed and I have the bucket primed and a first coat of paint on it finally.
I cooked my Southern Fried Chicken and the works for the kids last night.  I had my chicken already marinating and peeled potatoes before I went to work so just had to do the cooking when I got off at 5 pm, and I had Stephanie helping. 
It's getting cold here again and supposed to freeze in the next 3 days.  Right now it is 35 degrees out.  I work outside today 8-5 so am dressing in layers.  I only worked 11-5 yesterday so it was mostly warm when I went in but the coldest time is around 8 am and starts warming up (if you call it that) around noon.
I also still have two other projects to finish: one is my Cactus Postcard swap and the second is the RR for my quilt group.  I'm getting down to the last minute again but at least I know what I'm doing with this one and just need to get to working on it.   To top things off, my expensive Oliso iron quit getting hot.  I'm using my cheap $7 iron now.
A bunch of us are going to the Phoenix Zoo on Dec. 4th.  Stephanie, me, and Jordan, Sherie and Jeremy, Corey, Dedra, and Hunter, and Amber, Karlee, and Kassidi.  We are driving down on the 4th and going to the zoo, and staying for zoolights, spending the night and Sherie & I are hitting up a couple of thrift stores and the beer store on the way out of town that morning.  Okay, I'm out of here, I need to get ready for work.
I still haven't had time to get photos taken and put my stuff up on the Etsy site.  I need to get all the rest of this finished first!