Thursday, December 27, 2007

Christmas Recap

Baby K had a wonderful time. She got to cook with Grandma:

Grandma and a friend made this beautiful quilt:


Some of her new toys - the stroller was better than the baby doll! She loves to talk on the telephone. But, she spent ALL DAY walking around with Mommy's new spatulas!

I am using some of my free time to work on a quilt for a friend's graduation in May. He is a soccer player and the school colors are green and yellow. There will be another round of yellow and green on each square, then black sashing.

I put the miters away for a bit and cast on for a pair of Tofutsies-brand socks. I am about halfway down the fold-over cuff. I have heard this yarn is wonderful. It's very thin, but friends say it "blooms" after washing.

With all these projects, I think I need a schedule: Monday = socks, Tuesday = quilt...

B. wants to use our vacation time to get rid of some of the clutter around the house. I have "issues" with this. I appreciate the end result, but the process is rough. I have actually had meltdowns when B. empties the closets for re-organization. My limited self-analysis links this back to all the moving I did as a child and young adult. Now that we have been settled in this house for five years my reaction tends to be "Don't touch my stuff!" But I am going to soldier through and try to simplify in 2008. Wish me luck!

Friday, December 21, 2007

On Vacation

Just had a few duties at school this morning and we are officially done with first semester! Those last few days always seem endless.

I took advantage of a quiet afternoon at home to finish my One Block Wonder:

It's about 50" by 60", which makes a nice bulletin board cover in my classroom! I think my students will enjoy the kaleidoscope aspect. I meant to use some of the original fabric in the border, but I didn't buy extra...oops. And the eternal dilemma of a quilting design. Stitch in the Ditch sounds like the easiest, but it's really a chore. I may just do some large meandering to really let the fabric shine.

As Christmas approaches, I thought I'd dig up one of my favorite kitty pictures.


Merry Christmas everyone!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Time flies!

Baby K loves her green vegetables! First it was your ordinary green beans and peas...but we have now progressed to broccoli, lettuce, cucumber and asparagus. She has started walking, but came down with another ear infection this week...just days before her scheduled surgery to insert tubes in her ears and get them cleared up! I am hoping the antibiotics work fast so we can get this taken care off. And I'd also prefer not to miss any more school this semester...my students start to panic when they see a sub just days before final exams.

I am about 8% done with my mitered blanket - no, I did not forget the zero! I measured my queen size bed, and my original plan of 144 squares will be just right. Here is the "nested corners" layout that I want to use. And I think there is a holiday coming up, right?!? I dusted off my rubber stamps and got some Christmas cards done while baby K was napping today. I was thisclose to going store-bought this year, but I had delusions of crafting time in October and bought all the stamp supplies. I can't let it go to waste... Someone told me once that the Christmas season lasts until Epiphany, Jan 6th, so at least that gives me some time when school's out to get everything in the mail.

We still have a playpen set up where our Christmas tree goes, so rather than fight with a large tree in a small space, I just got out my Santa collection. Several are Jim Shore figurines, and there are lots of cats too.
I inherited a "dancing hamster" from my grandmother...one of those obnoxious drug store toys...and it has become one of baby K's favorites! She dances along and hugs it to her chest...she can even hum Jingle Bells now. I've got to get her performance on tape. DH and I said our present to each other would be a video camera, and I need to go get it BEFORE Christmas! Maybe I'll brave the mall this weekend.