Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!
Last night, my daughter and I finally put up our tree! This seems to be our tradition of late - putting the tree up on Christmas Eve. All I really wanted was something festive and light in the house so we didn't fuss over ornaments. We rearranged the furniture and carved out a spot for the tree. I celebrated midnight Mass with the Pope while we wrapped gifts in our respective rooms.

Santa was very good to us. We talked to Grandma and Uncle Mike - the very best part of the day. I have a beautiful set of hand painted mugs, an Art and Design in Photoshop book, lingerie, new slippers, aromatherapy spa socks (yum) and a gift certificate to one of my favorite stores. Santa brought Cam clothes, a purse, a laptop and a camera.

We made Chicken Enchilada soup for dinner and had chocolate chip mint ice cream for dessert - yummy! We even had special treats for Indie - chicken bites - Cam made her sing the meow mix song for a treat.

Christmas was a beautiful, peaceful day. I hope it was the same for you.

I have the flu and everything hurts - ugh!!!

Saturday Evening

Saturday evening, I attended Ashley's graduation (with honors). She received her Bachelor's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a Specialization in Elementary Education.

Not sure what was on my mind - ceremony started at 5:00, seemed like a 4:45 arrival time would be perfect - WRONG! OMG! Traffic was backed up onto the highway and just inched along. It took almost as long to travel the last mile as it took to travel the 45 miles from Garland to the school. Complaining aside, I was thrilled for Ashley and her family. We were her fan club, complete with a sign and flashing cameras. Mom and Dad, Monique and Gene, were there of course.

Aunts Toni and Dreama also flew in for the ceremony. It was so nice to see Ashley's family again and the next time I visit Monique in New Jersey, Dreama will drive up and we will have a pajama party.

Christmas Music

I heard this on the radio on the way in to work today. These guys are fantastic - Straight No Chaser - enjoy!


I've always wanted one but been too embarrassed to buy it. No brown paper wrappers and sneaking around in the dark to get it either. Instead, I stole it! That's right, in broad daylight and in front of at least 60 people, I stole it and got away with it - drum roll please...my very own Chia Bugs Bunny Handmade Decorative Planter!

Applause! Applause!

Dinner with the Twisted Stitchers

Tonight I met my friends Deborah, Tonya, Sharon, Judy and Carol aka Twisted Stitchers at LaMadeline in Lewisville. It was so great to see everyone.
Deborah is published in the latest edition of Somerset SEW; Tonya and Sharon showered us with gifts of fused glass jewelry and Christmas socks; Judy showed us an amusing presentation on how to photograph your quilts; Carol showed us some some photos from the 1990's of painted vests (woo hoo!) and all of them gave me suggestions on how to finish a piece I have been working on.

On Blogging...
Tonya has decided to take the blogging plunge, Deborah is celebrating her4 year blog anniversity, Carol has promised to blog more often in 2009, Judy has committed to blogging annually and we are going to work on Sharon. What a group!

Follow me...
I have added a Follow Me widget so go ahead and subscribe - please. It makes me feel good to know you are interested in what is going on in my world and I even promise to update more often.

Is it December already?

A lot has happened since my last update. The event I am happiest about is our new President-elect - Mr. Barack Obama. I truly believe the team who will do the most to help our country won the election. I still have nightmares when Palin's name creeps into my head (shudder). Obama and Biden have a daunting task ahead of them but I believe they can handle it. During this time of instant gratification, I hope we, the American people, understand that it took eight years to get into this mess and it will take time to climb out.

I went to Boston to visit with my daughter. Here she is looking a little rumpled.
She actually lives in Brighton but if you cross a street, you are in Boston. I really like Boston/Brighton, or whatever - all except for the parking. It stinks big time. What is it with 'Resident Only' parking? There is 'Visitors Parking' but that's like 6 spaces (okay, maybe 10)for an entire neighborhood and between the hours of 8:00 am and 6:00 pm you can only park in the same spot for 2 hours. It is worse than New York City because I had to go out in the cold every 2 hours to move the damn car. Sucks big time and yes, I got a ticket (or 2). I suppose it could be worse (how you ask) - she could live in Brookline - they have NO overnight parking for visitors. I have no idea how it works and don't really even care. We found out too late that you can get a temporary 'Resident' sticker - next time...


I took an interesting Nuno Felting class from DAFA member Suzanne Morgan. Here she is showing us a couple of her pieces for inspiration.




I invited my friend Linda, who is waiting for the next instruction
and coworker Lorraine, whose passion is knitting and spinning. She is a member of the Dallas Hand Knitters Guild.
Along with the usual suspects - Deborah
and Lu



and Michelle
we had alot of fun embedding silk into prefelts, rubbing, rolling and beating the hell out of our pieces.

I finished the graduation quilt I was making for Tessa. It's made from feedsack fabrics and it's a great quilt to wrap up in while watching television on those cold Seattle nights.
I cooked an awesome Thanksgiving dinner. Ashley, a friend of my daughter, joined me and we had a great time. She brought me a beautiful bouquet that one day will end up in a quilt.



My brother celebrated a birthday on Dec. 5th so I made him a birthday postcard using Grungeboard. It's a pretty interesting material to work with as you can sew and paint it. I used copper and bronze paints and orange foil to add texture and glimmer. I love this card! Happy birthday Mike.



Guess I will go put up the tree...