Christmas images, part 4

These are from Christmas day with the Wooters side of the family.
One of the best family gifts this year was Cyndel Bell Hoisington, born just about 60 hours before this picture was taken. Here she's being held by her cousin Devin, with her mom Morgan and cousin Trystan looking on. The other best family gift was Hannah Naomi Wooters, born September 30th. Our family has been doubly blessed with beautiful baby girls this year!

Cyndel's dad Jarad and her Great Great Aunt Wanda.

Aunt Wanda, Rachel, and Trystan.

Gayle doing the traditional defrosting of the shrimp cocktail with a hairdryer...

...Becky, Paul, and cousin Ken laughing at Gayle defrosting shrimp with a hairdryer...

One happy Grandma Barbara with her #1 granddaughter, Hazel, the new big sister.

My mom and my daughters.

Christmas images, part 3

Zack in a box...he looks uncomfortable, but he put himself in there and was able to get himself out again.


Christmas eve with the Popish side of the family. Could I just take a moment and say that I have been blessed with the most gracious in-laws ever in the history of in-laws? We had quite a lean and mean Christmas this year as far as gift giving, with most of the gifts we gave being things (and I mean small things) that I made. But they were accepted as warmly as if they were expensive treasures. I have been told that there are people out there who don't believe they've been gifted properly unless the gift came from a store, perhaps a certain store only, and cost an "appropriate" amount of money. How lucky am I that I don't know any of those people?

Above (left to right), that's Iris, me, Jaymie, Kirk, and Sarah.

Lori (our excellent hostess for the evening), Desirae, and Rachel.

Kirk and Paul.
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Christmas images, part 2

Trystan gave the boys some goodies from the spy museum, including a proximity alarm, a voice changing recorder, glasses that allow you to see behind you, and disguise mustaches....

....and from then on....

...things went downhill....uh, Paul? I think one of the hallmarks of being a spy is that you DON'T stand out in a crowd....

Christmas images

Rachel gave Trystan an official Scrabble dictionary with her name engraved on it. We gave her an electronic Trivial Pursuit game, and may I just say that I beat her again while she was home, but not by much. I think if we were the same age, she'd kick my rear all over the room, but as it is, I have 26 years more useless trivia in my head than she does.

Our fireplace, with blue flame created by specially treated pine cones, and two of my swap stockings hanging beside. Family is wondering why I get to hang 3 stockings while they each have only one....

A sister pile-up, about to be Corbinized!

My Greetings to You

While I've been enjoying our Christmas tree, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite ornaments with you. Our tree topper varies from year to year, but most often has been a cardinal bird. This one is our second; we wore one out!

This frog ornament is Michaela's, and I love the icicle light set that we inherited from Paul's parents.

Michaela also has quite a few My Little Pony ornaments that I think are really cute. Women are always little girls on the inside. I love the icicle garland, too. It even sounds pretty when we're putting it on the tree; it tinkles.

There's a picture of Michaela at age 4, the Santa Bronco fan ornament that we got last year at the game in Denver, and a clip-on blue bird.

The little elf has been on our tree every year of our marriage. That's 31 years, which adds up to a lot of time for the little guy to sit on a prickly pine bough. The shiny pink Santa/pinecone ornament is just plastic, but it's one of my very favorites. It came from a company Christmas party many years ago.

And finally, a copy of our card for 2009:

...from owl of us!

Snowy day and black and white progress

I posted some detail pics recently of the black and white religious CQ I've been working on, so I thought I'd post one of the whole thing so far. That center image is from some fabric I had printed at Spoonflower, an online business that will take your original artwork and print it on fabric by the fat quarter or by the yard.


Here are some images of our recent snow storm. We got a foot in some places, and it drifted over 18" in others. It's been incredibly, and I mean INCREDIBLY cold since then, so it will be around for awhile. This may seem like "par for the course" for Colorado, but not in this part of Colorado; we're not called "the banana belt" for nothing. Usual weather is much milder here in the valley, with snow accumulating in the higher areas, but not so much here. It does make for some interesting icicles though. Can you see that the wind is blowing the snow and the icicles sideways?

I took this at midday on Tuesday. A bit more fell, but it also started to compress down a bit. That red thing is a ruler standing up. We may have a white Christmas this year, but it will probably be old snow...

Bridge to Terabithia block

This is the block I'm currently working on in the fantasy landscape RR. I'd never read the book nor seen the movie, so I got the movie and watched it, hoping something weird and wonderful would present itself and ask to be stitched. I saw several wonderful things throughout the movie that would have been fun to do, but at the very end, when Jess is introducing his little sister to the land of Terabithia, I found my weird.

She's not an actual character in the book (I don't think) but she made for some interesting challenges in putting her down in fabric and thread. The woman in the movie has an elf-like face, sitting atop a gold wire birdcage that makes up her chest down to her waist. Her skirt flows down from there, and in one hand she has a bird perched on her finger, while in the other she holds a T-shaped staff with two birds on it. Her wings look like tattered cloth, and you can see through the cage to the background.
My version has the birdcage done in thin gold braid, couched down with gold thread. The face is made of polymer clay (Lauri made it for me!). Her hair is mohair, and she has a beaded crown. Her skirt is satin, and partially lifts up off the block. The wings are done in feather stitch, her arms are two rows of chain stitch. The tiny birds are bullion stitches, with French knot heads and straight stitch accents.

I really like the symbolism here: letting your imagination fly freely. Keeping it close, but not caged up inside you.

The hunt for Christmas trees

Paul has a friend at work who owns some acreage on Glade Park that has generously allowed us to cut our own Christmas trees for several years. We went up Saturday afternoon, and it was cold! Not much snow on the ground, but what there was was difficult to walk on. You'd be walking along on the top of it and suddenly hit a less-crusty spot and sink in 6". Zack spent more time on the ground than he did upright, I think.

Paul and I, above. Below is Corbin, having fun making tracks in previously undisturbed snow.

Cindy, Corbin, and Gary (Cindy and Gary are the landowners), me, Zack, Michaela, Jared, and Rachel. Cindy and Gary built a fire and we gathered around the fire pit and they fixed us hot chocolate. It really hit the spot after bagging our trees.

Look at those rosy cheeks.

Taking a breather; cold, altitude, and that crusty snow tired me out!

One of these things is not like the others.....

...come on, sing with me! One of these things just doesn't belong!...........One of these things...... something something something..........by the end of this song! Okay, so I don't remember all the words. You're just lucky you can't hear my singing voice in person. But there's a real live (though not lively) dog in that mess of toys. Can you spot him? He's the one with the spots.

Is this the way to shop at Target or what? If your mom is going to drag you through the mall on a Sunday, you might as well get comfy and take a nap. Rachel sent this from her phone yesterday to my email account. Modern technology!

Baby clothes!

Is there anything cuter than baby clothes? Maybe babies..... but not always; sometimes they smell funny, LOL! I bought these little velour hoodies for a coming baby, and they're just perfect for adding a personal embroidered touch. The ivory colored one is smaller, so I did it with a pink/red variegated cast-on rose vine for Christmas/Valentine's day. The pale green one is a little larger, hopefully it will fit her for Easter and spring, so it got a birdhouse, blue bird, and lavender rose vine. All the embroidery was done using DMC perle in size 8, in some variegated colors and some plain. The bird house is satin stitch, with bullion roof, and French knot "holes". The blue bird is done in bullion (2 for the body), tiny, tiny buttonhole stitch (wings), French knot (head) and straight stitches (tail). The vine is feather stitch, with detached chain leaves and French knot flowers. These are so much fun, and I think they really make a simple little garment look fantastic.

As always, click on the picture for a closeup.

Giveaway!

Cathy, over at "Cathy's Crazy By Design" blog is having a super giveaway. There are 6 different packages she's giving away, and you can sign up for one just by leaving a comment on the posting. A second entry is available if you put a link in your own blog for the giveaway, like I've done here.

You've got to do this by Saturday, December 5th, and she'll do the drawing right after that!

Progress?

Not a lot, but some. While sitting at the craft show, which was sort of a bust (sold $52 worth of items, barely making back my $20 entry fee) I worked some on this black and white wall hanging.

I love doing the corner fans, like the pink one below. They are so much fun, just making it up as you go row by row.

See the black and white trim I bought in Delta? It was pretty by itself, but I really like it with the bright variegated green sprays and hot pink knots on it.

I haven't had a RR block to work on for a month, but just got one in the mail yesterday. The theme of it is Bridge to Terabithia, and I have neither read the book nor seen the movie, so I'll have to do that before I can even start on it.
There will be several RRs starting up after the new year that I've signed up for. One is flower fairies, and Lauri not only offered to give me some silkies she'd printed already, but she pieced the 6 little blocks for me (this is called a Do Your Block RR, where each stitcher chooses one block and completely embellishes it)! The other RR is one traditional block, and the theme is Bees, Butterflies, and Beetles. I'm not sure if I want to do that one as an all cotton, all white and cream prints block, or if it should be black and jewel toned fancies so it could go with my spider blocks. I think the all white/cream idea would be pretty and springy with all pastel embellishments on it, but I'd like to have a 3rd insect/bug block to go with the 2 spider blocks.

Our trip to the big city

Lauri and I made an excursion to the big city of Delta yesterday to do some shopping. I'm being facetious here... for those who don't know, Delta is a small town about 1/2 hour's drive southeast of our small city. They have 2 Clubb stores right on the main "drag" through town; one is a fabric store and the other is a Ben Franklin, which has EVERYTHING. The fabric store is fairly large and well stocked, and they will cut you a fat quarter (18"X22") of fabric at the same price as a quarter yard (9"X44"), which I'm not sure any place here will do. They also had some trims I've never seen here before, including the hot pink flower trim here:

....which was over $8 a yard, so I didn't buy much, but it is so lovely! The black and white braid was on a clearance rack for 30 cents a yard, and I bought it aaalllllll, bwhahahaha!
I also got the two Santa kits (all the wooden pieces and instructions to make the Santa dolls) for $1 each, and the "no evil" monkey applique there. If you're ever in Delta, Colorado, I'd recommend stopping at this store. Heck, make a special trip, like we did!

In the picture above, the tiny gold angel wings were from the Ben Franklin store, as was this lovely lady:

Isn't she just delightful? I plan to make her a cloth body and crazy quilt gown and hat. She'll be the craziest witch at the Monster Mash Ball next year.

Craft show painting

The one and only craft show I'm doing this year is next Tuesday, the 17th, at the county court house. It's a small affair, and sales were down last year from the previous year, but the table fee is very reasonable. I've done less CQing for this year, and more painting, including this set of snowmen and a birdhouse windchime:

These are birdhouse plant "pokes" with the wrap-around forest design:

And some ornaments with little windows for photos:

Flower fairies and a purse

I have signed up for a RR with the flower fairies theme, and then realized that the fabric I have is too big of a print to use in the 6" square blocks.

This is a purse that belongs to Judy S. She and I agreed to trade purse pieces and embellish each others a bit before sending them back. I just finished hers and have sent it back. Aren't the colors great? She did some of the embellishing before she sent it to me, but I did the pansy button cluster, the orange rose seam under it, the black "fan", the yellow flower spray on the rectangular piece, and several seams. The purse I sent to her was a bit bigger, so I don't expect she's done yet.

Painting a door

My niece, Caitie, hostessed a girls' night out at her new-to-her home during hunting season, and allowed us to paint on the walls of one of the extra bedrooms. Rachel and I teamed up to make a door to another world. Here it is in progress:

The fairy who lives there, but apparently flits through the door into our world on occasion:

That's me (my good side) putting some foliage on the pine tree forest:

A close-up of the naked fairy (I think she's about 5" tall, sitting down):

And the finished painting. I think it could use some more detail in the green hills, but this is about 6 hours total work over two evenings.