Holy Cow, What Week Is It?

Holy Cow!  Life is super busy when you don't work and the holidays show up.  I keep thinking I've got so much time now, I should get stuff done that I wouldn't normally expect to do.  Yikes.  But, now that Christmas with my In-Laws is over, I'm hoping to slow down just a bit.

Well, first off.  I finished the cottage by framing it with charcoal grey & red plaid.  I think i made all the difference!  I'm really happy with the final product.

 I think the thin grey frame helps your eyes focus on the details.

 Since the plaid mitered corners didn't match up correctly, I added some daisy vines to distract the eye.

Oh, I can't forget to tell you about my studio, phase 2.  We took the ironing surface out of the loft.  The dressers are there temporarily until one of the kids needs them.  The tree is a decrepit old tree that we used 20 years ago in Iowa.  I put all of the ornaments that my mom brought me from her travels around the world.  I've got ornaments from Norway, Sweden, Russia, Germany, Denmark...all the places I've never been.  I also have some ornaments from her childhood.  They're precious 1950's pink and blue glass that were on my Grandma Bradley's tree.  Then, there are circa 1980's ornaments that I made mom buy when I was a kid.  I only put this tree upstairs where there is carpet because the hardwood down stairs has claimed more ornaments' lives than I care to count.  This is the first year it's been up in the 10 years since mom passed and I bawled like a baby the whole time.  But, it's time to be a big girl and revisit those precious times.  All the places my mom went and she thought of me everytime.  The paper mache Santa is from Rich & my first Christmas together.  Aaannnnnd...now I need to make a tree skirt...

The base for the old ironing surface is now cabinets in the girls' old dressing area.  Ground zero for Brighter Side Fabrics.  I unloaded the bookshelves which will soon come down.  Now that I've lived with them for a few months, the bookshelves are currently in a terrible spot...

I finished the quilting on Grandpa's Cowgirl quilt.  I just did a meandering loop & star in a khaki thread.  I was pretty happy with the result.  I hope he was too.  Yes, most of my corners got cut off, but I don't think he noticed or cared.

 Bethany told her friends, "moving back home came with some stipulations."  I was laughing so hard, I almost peed myself...  I made horse hoods as Grandma's gift and needed a model.  I'm really hoping that her horses are bigger than her grand-daughter, or I've made a serious miscalculation.

These are Sierra's Christmas stockings.  She picked out the fabric and fur and I put them together for her new place.  She was a little disappointed that I wouldn't fill them too,  but you've got to draw a line somewhere... 

Bethany, just because she's so cute and is such a good sport when I ask the ridiculous.  She was attending her boyfriend's Christmas party.  Not to mention the tree took me a whole day to decorate.  The main family tree is full of ornaments that my Mother-In-Law, Ann bought.  She's bought everyone a new ornament for the tree for as long as I've been in the family.  Sierra took hers to her new home but we still had so many, they couldn't all fit.  Grandma didn't disappoint this year, either.  I got a feather weight sewing machine ornament this year!  Score!

Ethan's first violin recital was a smashing success.  He gave a stellar performance.  And, looked so handsome doing it.

This is my offering to the Crazy Quilting International Christmas Card Swap.  With all that was going on, I missed the deadline by a day.  I'm mailing it tomorrow.  The trees are done with a cretan stitch  trunk and herring bone branches.  I tried to do a silk ribbon holly between the poinsettia beads, not  sure if it was as successful as the picture that I saw but I gave it a try.

If I'm honest, this has been my biggest time suck.  I started selling Caron embroidery threads in my store and they're so beautiful, I can't help but to sample them!  This is a pattern from the Catherine Redford class I took a few months ago.  I couldn't wait to get my hands on it.  Mustard yellow and fall colors are a stretch for me but I've got a plan in mind.  I do need a new fall wall hanging...  The leaves are herringbone in Jade.  Damned if I didn't run out of thread before the very last leaf!  Guess I'll be ordering more in the morning! My long and short stitch tulip needs some help.  It's a new stitch for me.  The basket is chain stitch in Fiesta and looks fantastic in real life.

Well, does that look like 2 weeks worth of stuff to you?  It sure does to me.  Now, to get the Christmas cookies done by Wednesday, so I can ship them from work.  Ethan wants to go see Moana, he's learning to drive, too.  Then, maybe, just maybe, I'll get to relax and quilt my Roberta Anne with an "E" quilt.