Twas the night before Christmas...

and all through the house, not a creature was stirring,
Not even the Merry Church Mouse,
All the stockings were hung on the doorknobs with care,
with hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there,

The kitties were nestled all snug on their step,
while visions of tuna filled their heads as they slept,

And I in my pj's and Pa with a grin,
had just pulled up the covers with thoughts of sleeping in.
When out in the driveway there arose such a clatter,
we sprang from our bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the basement, Sasha flew like a flash,
Aeris stood up and yawned and thought Sasha quite brash.
The street lamp as it shone on the three week old snow,
cast an odd orange glow on objects below.
When what to our computer tired eyes should appear,
A a red-suited man with a bunch of reindeer.
He snuck in through the side door and went straight to his work,
He filled all the stockings and turned with a jerk.
Then Aeris, she sniffed at the jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw it, in spite of myself.
He scratched at her ears and patted her head,
He gave her a treat and then said, "With you, off to bed"
Then leaving the house as quick as he came,
He jumped in his sled and picked up the reigns.
And I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight,
"Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!"

It couldn't be more perfect...

I got the sweetest card in the mail today. It was a donation for FARA. It came late because the lady's daughter was having surgery and it got lost in the shuffle. You see, her daughter has FA and was going in for her spinal fusion surgery. Her daughter is Allison's age. I felt so bad that she missed the drawing because of the surgery and I was so inspired by her message in the card that I really wanted to send her a quilt. Funds being a bit limited right now, I was trying to decide whether or not to do it and if I had enough fabric on hand, or something on hand that I had already started that I could finish for her. Lo and behold, I walked into my craft room and saw this folded up on the desk. The lady had mentioned in the note that her daughter liked bright colors. I started thinking about it and realized that some of the scraps that I used in this quilt were left over from Alli's quilt that I made when she had her spinal fusion back in July of 2006. All I need to buy is batting and backing, I think I can handle that. I think I have found the perfect recipient for the block swap quilt. It couldn't be more fitting.

The last of the handmade gifts for this year...

I made this for Lexi to go along with her dog. I really want to post a tutorial about how I did it. Maybe in a couple of weeks. It just sort of hit me what I should do and it turned out pretty cute I think. Really simple, too. I just put it on a T-shirt.

It's a little hard to see from a distance.

On another note, are any of you other blogspot users experiencing difficulties when uploading pictures? It is driving me batty! I can now only upload one picture at a time for some reason. I used to do 5 at a time with no problem at all, then it started acting up if I tried to do 3 at a time, but two was ok, now I can't even do two without it acting up. GRR!

Murphy's Law...

Do you ever have projects that are just fraught with problems from the very beginning? Every once in a while this happens to me. That is what has been happening with the project that I am trying to finish for my hubby for Christmas. Maybe I am trying to hurry too much. That could be at least part of it. I can't go into detail about it here, because he reads this, but let's just say, I'll be glad to finally finish this one. :P

Busy week...

I have been busily trying to get ready for Christmas this week. On top of these projects here, I also made cutout cookies, finished my Christmas cards, mailed off 3 packages, wrapped presents and I worked on a surprise project for my husband which I will show pictures of after Christmas. That is IF it gets finished before Christmas...
I finished the reversible jumper for my niece, Mady. I mailed this and the one for her sister, Claire that I made a week or so ago off to Texas on Friday. These are so much fun, quick and easy to make, I may have to do a couple for Etsy.


Once again with the machine applique. It is getting easier to do each time I try it. :)

I also made a new little puppy for my niece Lexi, who loves dogs.



I actually got my tree up last week, but never got any pictures of it until now.


My kitties like it, too and have been really good leaving it alone, although Aeris had to help me put it up.



Finally just a couple of pictures I snapped of my silly booga. She sleeps like this on her back, on her blankie, on the top step, all the time.

You can't tell me that cats can't grin! lol

I hope to try and get caught up on the blocks for the quilt-a-long this weekend. We'll see how that goes.
Hope you all have a good weekend!

FA Quilt Drawing Winner....

The winners of the quilt drawing on Saturday were Marilyn and Terry Downing of New York. I will be sending the quilt out to them soon. Congratulations!

Thanks to those of you who encouraged me through this project. I really appreciate it.

In total the drawing earned $360.00 in donations for FARA. I think this was pretty good for a first try. I may do this again sometime in the future. Maybe a bigger quilt next time.

A special thank you, also goes out to Dawn from Associated Sewing in Waite Park for allowing me to place the quilt at the shop.

I'm sure that the families of the FA patients really appreciate the donations for research.
With your help, they will find a cure!

Why, oh, why?

Do I keep looking at things on line? I discovered a magazine that I might just have to pick up a copy or two. It is a Finnish children's clothing design magazine called Ottobre Design They have soooo many cute things! Really, the price is reasonable when you consider the amount of patterns that are in each issue.

I have lots of ideas boiling around in my brain for spring. I will have to get on the ball and get some of them done after the Holidays are over.

I want to say a quick thank you to those of you who volunteered to try out my new idea for Etsy. I now have enough volunteers for this trial run. I'll proceed with this come January. I appreciate your willingness to play along!

I just wanted to post a little reminder that the FA quilt drawing will be on Saturday. If you were thinking about donating, there is still a little time left if you want to donate on line. So far it has raised $195.00. Not too bad for a first try. I also haven't heard from my sister who was collecting donations from people that she works with. Hopefully that will put us up over the $200 mark. I may do this again sometime in the future. Next time I will be a little better organized, and hopefully that will lead to more donations. The first time trying something like this is always a little interesting.

I am beginning to come down with a cold, so I am going to turn in early tonight.
Hope you all have a good evening!

How I spent my weekend....

Since this is what it looked like out my front window most of the day yesterday..

I decided it was a good day to hole myself up and sew all day.
I made this for my niece Claire for Christmas. One is coming soon for her sister Mady, only in different fabrics.

It's reversible...

With machine applique...

I honestly don't know which side I like better :) I love this black fabric with the bright colors on it.

I also finished this little project this afternoon.
I have no children, so my cats Sasha and Aeris are my "children". Yes, they get Christmas ornaments for the tree. Sad, maybe, pathetic, perhaps, but...hey...whatcha gonna do?
So last year I bought these little plaster ornaments, but with Jason being sick and all I never got them painted, so I finally painted them this afternoon. The other two, the ones for this year, all I had to do to them was take a Sharpie to them and put names and years on them. I bought them like they are. I have yet to put my tree up. I had kind of thought I would do it yesterday, but Claire's jumper took me a little longer than I thought it would to finish. Hopefully I'll get to it one night this week.
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