From where I stand/sit

Another year has come to its closing.  Ready or not!

I'm not sure I'll actually be sitting downstairs but with a lap top maybe I will!  :)

Nor will I be continuing with this old camera.  I've ordered a new DSLR and I know nothing!  :O

As I contemplate changes for the next 365 days,  I realize I must let go what doesn't work and embrace what will.  Hence new camera photos will be uploaded on new 'puter and into hardly used Photo Shop Elements program.  Ready or not and I do mean- not so ready!!!   lol

Prepare for glitches ahead!     If I can figure things out I'd like to tweak the blog.  :O

Happy New Year!!!

Weather Alert

               EXTREME COLD WARNING IN EFFECT 

The weather has turned to 'normal' which means COLD!   That is okay, I like normal.  

Finding 'normal' is the challenge for the coming year.  I wasn't exactly impressed with the 2014 'normal'.

Things got away on me.  Even the welcoming planter hasn't been 'edited' for the winter season.  It kinda gives me reproachful looks every time I go down the walk to attend to the chickens and again on the way up the walk with the bucket of eggs.

I'd look at something else but the whole flower bed could have been better prepared.  I shall consider it winter interest!  I'm sure winter is not anywhere near over so I shall hope for heavy snowfalls to blanket everything and made a lovely blank canvas.

And a blank page awaits after all the whoop-la of the new year welcome.  The Rooster and I shall consider what lies ahead, toast to its success and go to bed early, the better to tackle its first morning.  After all, we have a weather alert!

At the table!

The Holiday Brunch was a great success!  I do enjoy setting a table.

We had an art lesson around my daughter's table as we assembled gingerbread houses for holiday decor.

I'm sure the property values in the neighbourhood will go up as each year brings improvements! 

Some secret presents were made around the art table.  They turned out great and were well received!

Eliana decorated the Christmas Eve table and she dressed me.  No photo! She wasn't quite satisfied as my shoes didn't have high enough 'sticks' at the back.  LOL  Oh, and a few more candles were added as the meal approached.  The ambiance required more! :}

We had one more time around the table at our daughter's and again ate way too much.

But what is a holiday without eating and children???  :)

And presents, of course!

At the end of the day it was agreed it would get a thumbs up!!!  :)

And now to sit down at my work table and begin to plan for the coming year.  One thing I know,  there will not be quite so much eating and a bit less sitting!  ;^)  Happy Holidays!

Dizzyness on the Path

Vicki is still moving the Cross the Drunkard's Path quilt along through the seasonal busyness.

 I am testing a few of my fabrics and I'm thinking this can work.

I am also trying to decide how big to make this project.  These were going to be the small size but they are looking rather big for the layout I am considering.  So instead of sugar plums dancing in my head I'll be dreaming about curves and circles.  In the end it is a plum of an idea!  :)

Red anyone???

Preparations for the holiday are progressing.  We'll host a Sunday Brunch and I've some little goodie bags to make up, some glasses to garnish and some napkins and silverware to bunch up.  I can't believe how fast the month of December has flown by. 

And speaking of December, the days seem to be slipping by without any of my usual blog activity.  I have to admit that I find that worrisome.  The decore8 blog is running a series on blogging thoughts.  Holly Becker's first post resonated.  Her second not so much.  I wonder what the other 18 (?) will have to say!

I seem to be stuck at a blogging red light.  Time to sprinkle some gold dust on the ol' keyboard and get the lights blinking for the new year.  A little ho, ho HO! and a whole lot of fun is what I'm thinking!   Anyone else seeing red???  ;^)

The place to be!

This island in the library's parking lot so reminded me of a scene from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.   Narnia!

 The grand kiddies were skating at the library and Jolina and I snuck through 'Narnia' to get into another magical land- the library.

We had been making our own winter wonderland in art.

 I adapted a bag pattern to form house shapes from cereal boxes.

We then coloured all the buildings for a winter village.

 A chief architect and a village in the making!

 Josh made a skating rink for some of the little figures we have accumulated. God bless those dollar stores!

Joshua and his papa built a snowman.   Does this qualify as art???  Hopefully I'll get back to warmer art before the month is out.

BUT... then I might need to make a return trip to a magical land! 

Where is the path?

I got this topper done for a fall table centre piece.  Ha!  Winter is here but I am hoping to get lots of machine quilting done in the new year so this will be a quick starter project.  Kind of a warm up. :)  I could NOT just piece and lay the blocks out willy nilly.  Those directional fabrics just made me so nervous.  I really do like it though.

I am sew liking Vicki's example for her Along the Drunkard's Path.

 I chose some Kona solids and thought a few Bali's would work but the more I think about it I think I need something subtler which is what appeals to me in the original design.

 All Kona's strikes me as maybe boring so I'm thinking to add some of Vicki's gradation fabrics.  I found two of Vicki's gradients that I thought were subtle but would add some movement.

I tossed out the yellows and thought I'd probably have to toss the pinks.

 I was right and then also was also thinking that grey taupe would prove troublesome.  The light are showing a bluish tinge but that must be the camera.

 hmmm....
One thing about blogging, you can put it out there and think hard before you start cutting.   ;^)

How many days???

 

                                                         Thirty One Days!!!

The holiday season is pretty low key here in the coop.  We take a family day, pass a few presents out to the grand kiddies and generally snack the day away.  So I don't track how many days to Christmas.

But...

A new year is coming!    2015    I don't feel I kept up with 2014 really well.  I am already thinking about how to do better.  I wanna prioritize completed projects, move forward artistically and definitely post the process.   It'll take me the whole thirty-one days to come up with the focus word, the theme for this brand new year.  I do know that it'll be a good one!  :)

Snowflakes

Art day with the Grand Kiddies!  We are doing snowflakes.  I got most of my supplies at the local dollar store.  I chopped up Christmas greenery sprays for accessorizing.

Gesso works fine for whitewashing the clothes pins.  We didn't paint the flat side as they are glued together.

The glue gun works for the spokes but the string glued better with the tacky glue.  My little glue gun doesn't seem to get real hot so it will work for the wee ones although I've enlisted their mum for helping.

I was happy to have helpers.  Josh's sore neck turned out to be a sore throat and he faded rapidly.  Poor guy!  Eliana  LUVED the hot glue gun which doesn't work very well but enough to make her want to glue anything and everything. :)  Jolina was just happy to be in 'school'! 

They each made two.  I neglected to get close ups, I was busy, don't cha know, but they turned out quite well.  As I was leaving I almost stopped to take a photo from outside as they looked so COOL!  ;^)

Happiness is...

figuring out what makes one happy!

I do really like to make my own journals.   Lots of creative play time!

But, I don't seem to have as much fun filling them.  I can't find one, even a bought journal, that is actually finished.  Half way is the most I can do and the fun left about a third of the way through.  hmmmm

The Rooster wanted a chocolate cake.  So Monday I pumped myself up to get creative! 

Then I turned to the cook book (journal?) I'd made for my gluten free recipes and...
VBSigh- Its not finished either.  I Googled and the resulting recipe had to be modified as I had no baking cocoa.  I'm not a very creative cook/baker modifier.  Although the Rooster ate it I'm deciding whether or not to add it to my book.  :(

I attended the local craft show a few weeks ago and I did notice that in the midst of all the multitude of 'Buy Me' items there was definitely a lack of cards, stationary, and  note books!   Aha!   Happiness just  may be making journals rather than filling them.  Now that would make me happy! 

The calm before the storm

HA!  That just means I've been sluffing before the deadlines hit the top of the list.  The fluffy stuff is not too deep for wading easily along the path.  But soon I'll need to start shoveling.

 I got this Drunkard's Path project put together.  I was thinking a table topper but now I'm thinking pillow. It is only 18 inches square.  Amazing how these projects shrink up!

These are cut and being a bit bigger should sew up rather well.  Fall is done but...

And then this plan is gonna be Fun!  All the solids are in the washer as I type so I can get cutting next week.  This will be a lap quilt I'm thinking and I really liked Vicki's layout using graduated fabrics.  She also mentioned using five values rather than three and that makes more sense for transitioning.   I have a die for the small size and will need to draft a pattern for the bigger DP blocks as this uses two sizes.  I also have more Bali's to choose from in my stash.  :O  

I have been focusing on updating the ol' wardrobe and I have a hot tip on a jean skirt so I'm off for a visit with the grand kiddies and hopefully acquire my last wardrobe addition.  Then it'll be back to dealing with the storm that has occurred in the playroom! I've certainly been mixing media!

For more Drunkard's Path ideas check out Field Trips in Fiber's Cross the Drunkard's Path Quilt Along.

Before the path freezes

We are into winter here. The path will be requiring regular shoveling.  :O

Before travel gets 'interesting',  I brought the youngest grand kiddie for her visit to Gram'elle's house. She didn't seem too very interested in the mechanics of blog writing.  :O

She did perk up considerably when we played with the Drunkard's Path blocks I'd unearthed from the wip pile. 

I don't know if I'll make it bigger but I'm sure I can find something for the last two corners. hmm, I can see I need to study this a bit to get everything oriented.  Grand kiddies could (?) be my distraction but then paths do get kinda twisty all on their own.  lol

Jolina and I are off to the city and then I'll be home alone for a while.  I hope to hunker down and get some sewing done so I can show some finished projects for Vicki's Cross the Drunkard's Path Quilt Along.  Hmm, I might need to stop at a quilt shop today because she has an amazing layout on today's post.  :)  Hi ho, hi, ho, its down the path we go......

The fact is...

I am working on my November Journal.  The first pages were hard to fill because this month I'm focusing on the book, The Happiness Project.  What to put???  I so HATE analyzing myself!

I'm in therapy!  Well, not exactly.  But I should be. ;^)

Then I read Vicki's post on Quilting Without Abandon.  Darn it.  That is me.  So I laid myself down on that couch and ... 

 It is a start!  Made my head hurt and my heart race but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out what makes one happy and then 'abandon' one's self to it!  Should it?

Next page!  One question is what did you do that made you happy when you were a kid.  A dip pen makes me happy!!!  :)  Cutting and pasting does, too!

 I  also found some blocks for Vicki's quilt along so that was encouraging.  I do believe arranging quilt blocks makes me very happy!

And of course art class with the grand kiddies who are waiting for me to get there asap!  Whatever they do, they do with abandon!  And that's a fact!