Christmas 2013

Our Christmas season includes celebrating Dear Hubby's birthday, which is December 21st.  We went out for dinner, drove around to look at Christmas lights and then enjoyed birthday cake.

I didn't put out all of our decoration because time for decoration was cut a little short.  We had painters come in to paint the second week f December (more on that in a future post)

This is one of my most favorite quilts, appliqué snow flake in a log cabin.

Three Christmas trees. The one on the left is our big family tree, the one in the middle is in out dining room and the one on the right is Ken's sportsman tree.

My snowman collection looks cute in our pie safe cupboard.

I put out out Christmas village too.

Christmas Eve we enjoyed a meal of beef tenderloin, golden mashed potatoes and garlic broccoli before heading out to 9pm Mass.

College boy's sweet girlfriend joined us which was really fun to share our traditions with her.

Christmas morning we opened gifts and had a brunch of egg casserole and cinnamon rolls.  We spent Christmas Day with Dear Hubby's side.  It was a perfect Christmas and even snowed on Christmas throughout the day.

This weaving, knitting and spinning season temporarily postponed

My knitting, spinning and weaving will be on hold for about 6 weeks (I think) due to a nasty fall on ice and a broken arm/wrist.

Here is where I am on several projects:

My Calligraphy cardigan is in the homestretch.  I have just 7 buttons to sew on then complete! 

Two of the buttons for my cardigan turned up missing while I was in ER yesterday for my arm.  Dear son and his sweet girlfriend were entertaining her nephew yesterday building snowmen in our yard.  Guess where my missing buttons ended up!  This makes me laugh, thankfully I bought extra!

The other knitting in progress is a scrappy hat by Susan B Anderson.  It was looking so nice being knit out of a loop homespun. 

When finished, I soaked and it grew to an elephants size, so I threw it in the dryer.  Bad idea! It felted and is too small now.

I think this will go to Good Will.

On the weaving front, I had a ball in the beginning class! 

I feel like I am comfortable now to warp and weave simple projects.  

The last day of class we went to lady's house in our guild who is a national teacher and she has had patterns published.

She has a cool workshop in her basement.  She lives on an acreage with llamas overlooking the Iowa River.

I enjoyed seeing all of the intermediate student's projects and Vicky' examples,  great inspiration!

I did a little bit of sewing last month.  I am slowly redecoration some rooms in our house and replaced a valance in our great room. Here is the before, a faded, dated plaid valance.

I liked the style so I used it as a pattern for the replacement.

I bought decorator fabric on sale from JoAnn's and I love the classic, clean lines.

That about wraps up where I am on projects.  With luck the doc will OK me to spin some so I don't go crazy without fiber crafts.

Laundry room redecorating

 

I really enjoy reading blogs and one of the blogs I follow is The Yellow Cape Cod.  I really loved the way she decorated her laundry room so I totally copied her.  If you click on the link, it will take you to her post on the topic.    I painted the laundry room with Sherwin Williams paint in the color Storm Cloud.  I bought a few decorating items and lots of baskets.  I found the cute white frame in the top right picture at Pier One, it was on sale.  I am going to look for vintage photos to hang on it, maybe ladies in swimsuits or ladies doing laundry.   

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The giant safety pins and the drying wrack came from Ballard Designs.

I cleaned out Target and bought wicker milk crates.  I labelled each crate with the contents. 

I remember that I had a vintage child's dress in a box from years ago so decided to hang it, I might keep my eye open for a nicer one.  I love the folding rack, it will be perfect for things I hand wash or do not dry.

I bought a really cute rug from Target.

So, are you curious just how bad it was?  Yikes! Look at that mess!  The last picture is the stack going to Good Will.  It is such a stress buster for me when I get rid of clutter!  

We are also redecorating the main floor.  I will post photos when complete.