Extra Vacation Day

My flight back to Atlanta was canceled yesterday so I get to spend an extra day in Michigan!  It is COLD here--I mean really COLD!  7F with a windchill of -12F when I got up this AM.  Brrrrr!  There is about 5 to 6 inches of snow here and it's really beautiful (from inside!)  Photos and fun when I get back home!  Can't wait to catch up with all my blog friends (although I may need another vacation to get through all the posts!)

Homemade Holiday

My family is not really exchanging gifts this year.  Well except for buying my nine-month old niece Mackenzie her first Xmas presents :)  We decided that no one really needed anything (except for boring expensive things like I need new tires for the truck...) and I think everyone is just grateful for health, loved ones, jobs, and houses.
I did make a couple little projects from Groovy Girls from stash and clearance fabrics.
A stand & stow bag for mom (left) and my sister-in-law (right). I bet these are used for sewing stuff or Mackenzie stuff.

For my brother who has to travel a lot for his job, some travel totes (a large and 2 medium bags). He is interested in the American Civil War so I used reproduction fabric for his.


I made these for my dad too just because dads are hard to find presents for and I figured he would find a use for them. These were easy to pack in carry-on luggage too--always important to think about gifts & traveling especially nowadays.

Voila!  I even used ultra-green wrapping by folding neatly and re-using ribbon remnants.   

I'll let you know how they liked the gifts (I'm pre-blogging before my trip!!!)

We Interrupt This Blog for a Special Report...

I may have the cutest niece EVER!!!  

Having Christmas with Mackenzie & family so I'll catch up with everyone next week! 

New Neighbor

I have a new resident in the neighborhood--a red tail hawk.
I was immensely surprised to see this hawk perched on the fence by my big oak tree in the back yard one evening when I got home from work.  He/she didn't even fly away when I pulled into the drive. After sitting on my back stoop watching the hawk just sitting there looking around, I went and got my camera to try to get a photo.

It was dusk and overcast so it's a dark photo but at least you get a sense of how close the hawk was to the house. It was there for at least a couple of hours.

Freezing Cold Atlanta

OK who forgot to pay the heating bill for the metro area?  It is f....r...e...e...z...i..n...g!  Yesterday, I don't think it got above 40 F.  Last night I made matzo ball soup and cookies to help warm up the kitchen.

I also discovered a new use for blue painter's tape--taping the edges of drafty windows and taping dish towels to window sills to keep the wind out. A five second fix. Although it would look better if the tape was color-coordinated to my kitchen.  I think I'll ring up Martha and suggest she do a line of painter's tape for Home Depot.    

Busy Time of the Year

Well it's that busy time of the year for everyone.  I can't believe I haven't posted since Friday. Let's see I had Groovy Girls on Saturday, make Hanukkah dinners for S. and E, made homemade holiday gifts all weekend, caught up on watching Martha Stewart, and did fifty-eleven other things too.

Here is the one project I finished that I can show: The 10-minute table runner in cool Hip Holiday fabric.  Melisa showed us how to make these and how to make ruching.  I think I need Remedial Ruching because mine looks pitiful (so don't look close!) Ugh looks like I needed to press this better and check the lighting for the photo too.

Well this is about as good as it's gonna get tonight.  Morpheus and I are settled in on the couch watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas." What is everyone else up to this Tuesday evening?

Is it really December?

 I think I am still in denial about the whole December thing.  It's been a busy week at work which means it's been a slow sewing week.  Nothing new going on right now.

Tomorrow is Groovy Girls at Sweet Home.  I do have my project done from November.  The theme was entertaining and we got a great pattern for making cloth napkins, some recipes, and napkin folding tips.  I decided to make napkins for everyday and not buy anymore paper napkins--"green" and stashbusting.

I used a small bundle of 30s fabrics to make these napkins.


As I dig through my fabric stash, I've been pulling out fat quarters and making a pile to turn into more napkins. As Martha would say "It's a good thing!"