Christmas is Nipping at my Heels

Now that is a pretty visual but its true, The sand in the hour glass is sailing along at warp speed and I am dancing as fast as I can. We, as in my family, as in my brother and his family and they include me are having Christmas on the 14th. Everyone can be together on that day so that is when we will gather. I have a mile long list of things I would like to do, things I always do and things that I think I can do. Some of it will get done, the always do list which is of course gifts and baking, that is under control and will definitely be done.

The decorating will be drastically toned down this year and it will get done. Inspite of the fact that I managed to put up a smaller tree this year, totally decorate it only to discover I missed putting the lights on it. Sigh, my days as a fruit loop are getting more and more often. Thankfully its the smaller tree I usually have in the dining room so I can redecorate and add lights once I get the essentials taken care of. I am only doing two trees this year not the usual four. The Santa parade will line the stairs but I am not sure if I will put out all the Santa's. I will see how the time goes. The Dicken's village is out and just needs Mom's ceramic tree to complete it. Thanks to the Hostess I have enough houses and stores for my village now, it is complete. I used to always give my Mom grief about her ceramic tree but she loved it. Now she is gone I put it out every year. It has become a cherished decoration in this house. I look at it and think of Mom and it makes me happy. It lives in the center of the village in pride of place and I would have it no other way.

Christmas lights will go up tomorrow night on the veranda, since I finally got them out of the basement, along with the garland, bows and giant Christmas balls. It will take no time at all now I have them up and ready to be hung. I have to say I love how my little house looks, all dressed up for Christmas. Saturday morning will see the last of the Christmas shopping done.

Tonight I mixed up the first two batches of cookie dough and it is chilling in the fridge to be baked up over the weekend. Every year I happily make snackens, lemon crunch, cherry refidge cookies, candied pecans, butter tarts and this year I am adding gingerbread cookies. These treats will be produced and packed for consumption over the Christmas festivities. I love to bake and its a treat for me to have a chance to do lots of it. I have to say again I LOVE my kitchen aid mixer. I zoomed through the cookie dough tonight. Whee!!!!  

Stocking stuffers are present and accounted for. I am almost finished making the last of the Christmas gifts that I had planned. I have mended Miss Mouse's quilt and finished the Blarney night quilt for last year. Just did not have time to get this year's made to take with me. I will quilt it up after Christmas. All in all I am feeling good about what I have done and what I have left to do. I am not going to be able to do all the things that I wanted to but that is ok. I can aim for it next year.

My kitchen is a disaster and the house is a mess but oh my goodness I am going to go nuts this weekend and getter done!! I am going to stay home except for shopping Saturday morning. No more goofing off, just buckling down and getting my home ready for the holidays. I love this time of the year.

I hope your Christmas preparations, if that is what you are celebrating, are going well.

Toodles,
Linda
 

Baking Tarts and Cheesy Christmas Movies

Doing a little happy dance around my house tonight. I managed to make 3 dozen perfect (well almost) butter tarts. I made 2 dozen last week and followed a tip from the internet, Pinterest I think, and they burnt black!! I was furious.

Tonight I went back to following the method my darling Mama used, and that woman could cook. I used her way, the same way I have been doing them for years and look what I got. Not a burned mark in the bunch. They bubbled up but not over, pastry is rich and flaky. I am completely happy. I can give them to the person that paid for them at the office fundraiser and stroke that off my Christmas to do list. I have enough pastry left to make for my own family at Christmas. Win Win I say. Mama was right once again. ( can you hear her hooting YES!! from heaven, I can)

Whilst baking tarts, I was watching Christmas movies on tv. You know the kind, predicable, cheesy, soppy and I love them. Its putting me in the mood for the season. This weekend I am hoping to get the lights up outside, finish the Christmas shopping and in general tackle the to do list. I have decided not to do all the decorating I usually do this year but I can't wait to get some stuff up. This weekend is Dec 1st and in this house that means its time to get the decorations out and up.

Well its late and I am tired. I have lists dancing in my head, things to do, places to go, people to see. I am sure it will all get done. I just have to keep chipping away.

Toodles,

Linda

Busy, Busy Busy and a Baby

Oh my its happy baby arrival's everywhere. First Miss Mouse and the Farmer welcomed the Farmer Boy and now more good news. Mamabug, Daddybug and Ladybug got to welcome Babybug this Monday. Little man made his appearance and it is wonderful. I have yet to meet this little boy but I will. So excited for all of them. They had some sad times but this is a wonderful, joyful, blessed event. I am so happy, cause I am going to get to play being Grandma again.  A little girl and now a precious boy. Good times!!

This past weekend I had a fantastic time. The Banker and I went to a scrap booking retreat with Princess Diva and some other friends.

We were in a church camp building by a lake and we had tons of room to work. A big table to ourselves to spread out and get scrappin'. The last crop weekend I went to was so cramped and crowded it nearly put me off for good. Not the case here. 

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26 scrapping crazy women spent the entire weekend working on projects. Family treasures, special events, fabulous holidays, all being preserved in the most creative albums. How interesting to wander about and see what every one is doing. To share and help and encourage. It was so much fun. Serious laughter took place as did lots of sharing and making of new friends.

One of the nicest bits was that it was not run by a company. It was a group of like minded women, spending time creating without any hidden agenda. You could do whatever you wished. Princess Diva made mosaic stars. I split my time between my scrap book and a crocheting project. You could go for a walk, sit by the fire, read, eat, chat, nap...... just do as you please. 

The lodge had lots of room to work, a separate eating area, plenty of bedrooms upstairs and a row of windows that looked out onto the lake. I mean seriously this view was worth the trip and keep me enchanted while I downed my first coffee of the weekend.

I could happily have a cabin with a view like this. We were fed extremely well. 

The Banker and I worked on our Ireland scrapbooks and it was so much fun. We got to relive the entire holiday. She remembered things I had forgotten and the same thing happened with me. I got half the trip scrapbooked minus the odd picture and some journalling. I was very pleased with what I got done over my time there. It is interesting to see what she did with the same pictures that I have. No two scrapbooks are ever the same. Creating is so individual.

In no time at all it was time to pack up and head home.

This weekend I am headed off with Teddy Bear to visit the Hostess. Its our first chance to check out her new house and new home. Hopefully the weather will be good and we get there and home again with no problems. Winter has finally arrived in my neck of the woods. 

Toodles,

Linda

I Was Going To Do Some Baking Today But.....

Its Remembrance Day and I don't have all the ingredients that I need to do the baking I had wanted to do. I should have gone shopping yesterday or on Saturday but I was busy with other chores. I am not going shopping on this day. Its a day to remember, not to be shopping. I will do that another day. Today I will be quietly at home, puttering and thinking, mostly about my Dad and Uncle Tom. The uncle I never got to know because he died in the war. A teenager really, far to young to be dead and gone. While I do not think war is right, I am eternally grateful to those who serve and protect us, the ones before and those that safe guard us now.

How lucky am I that I am safely content in my home, warm, fed, loved and most important....safe. I can spend my time puttering at the bread an butter details of life with little to no concern for my safety, my rights and my quality of life. People gave their lives for this gift and we need to always be mindful of that.

Saturday was dedicated to reclaiming the kitchen, cleaning, putting things in their proper place and getting it back to where it should be. There was a lot to be done and there is still a few more things to be done. The Halloween decorations need to go back tot he basement but all in all its ready for company. I hauled out tons of recycle, finally put the new vacuum together, and did a mountain of dishes. I can see the table top again and the counter tops. The stained, old, really need to be replaced counter tops. Sigh!!

I also tackled a mountain of laundry. I have not washed clothes in two weeks, I had towels, sheets and floor mats to do. So I whipped up a batch of laundry soap and went to town. I am still working on it. I have two loads of towel to dry and then the mats to wash. My dryer takes its time drying stuff. I prefer to hang things to dry but towels are nicer done in the dryer. In the cold weather, I just do them in the dryer, it the warm weather I choose a windy day and hang them out.

Today, I am going to get going on a quilt. I found a spare loot bag that I made last year and so I am going to make the name tag for the little Farmer Boy. He has to have a bag for Christmas just like the rest of us. I got the last of the Ireland pictures ordered so tomorrow I can pick them up. I will be ready to make my Ireland album this coming weekend when I go on my scrap booking retreat. Ordering the pictures took forever. I took the time to put the pictures in chronological order, so I had to pull all the ones I put in regular photo albums out because I realized I had the stuff mixed up. In total I will have like 1300 pictures, yesterday I placed an order for 230 of them. When the Walmart site recommends loading only 40 at a time, it takes a while to upload them, crop them and then order. Its done!! Whoot.

Now I am off to sew the backing for one of the church quilts. I want to get quilting on it asap. I would like to have it and the other one done by Christmas so I can get them delivered. I will need to get stitching.

Toodles
Linda

This Weekend I Met a Miracle

This little farmer boy, cuddled up on my chest, snoozing away, content, happy, well fed, well loved, adored and oh so wanted, is a living breathing little miracle.

Because the woman who gave birth to him, searched her heart, knew she could not care for him, nor could the biological father. She decided to give him a the best she could in life, she made a selfless, heart breaking decision, she gave him to Miss Mouse and the Farmer. Well lets be serious, they gave him to our whole family. What a gift we got, what a get big, nothing else like it gift. Words are not big enough and grand enough to cover what they did for us, for him. Nothing covers it completely. Miracle is just the start.

He is doted on by his grandparents:

Every move, squeak and facial expression is watched, marveled at and documented:

He is the new core of this family and it does not matter one speck where he came from, he is ours.

precious, miraculous, sweet baby boy. Our best gift ever!!

Toodles,

Great Aunty Linda.

Its Sunday Already

My oh my how quickly these weekends go by. Today was wonderful, I did not wake to the sound of the alarm clock going off. It does not matter if I am getting up to do something I REALLY want to do or if I am getting up for work, I do not like to wake to the sound of the alarm. I did find it seriously amusing when I woke for the first time this morning it was exactly at the time the clock would have gone off. I had a chuckle, rolled over and went back to sleep.

After breakfast, I trotted my self and my Canadian Tire money to the store and finally got another vacuum for the downstairs. I can take the other one back upstairs again and no longer have to step over it in the dining room. Getting the new one for $20.00 made it all the sweeter. I love Canadian Tire money. I heard a rumor they may do away with it. Sigh, I like to collect it and then get stuff for the house for cheap or for free.

Its cold, overcast and just a typical fall day today. It was a perfect day to be in the sewing room, a spicy scented candle burning, (making the house smell like fall), working at the sewing machine. I had the best day. Nothing I like better than creating something and today I spent the entire afternoon and most of the evening, creating. Fun, fun, fun. I cannot post pictures just yet, these creations need to be seen by their owner first before the rest of the world gets to. I am pleased with the outcome and I am hoping the recipient will be equally pleased.

I also made a quick trip to Michael's to get some of the stuff for my Ireland scrap book. I have to get back at ordering pictures so I have the ones I need for my scrap booking retreat in November. I cannot wait to get it done. I just have to get the stuff to make it. Lots of stuff on 50% off at the store today I got some stickers, paper and an album. Its a start. I have done one scrap booking weekend before and it was ok. I have high hopes for this one. Its going to be less formal and more fun. Fewer people and I know most of them. Not that would make a differenc, but I know these ladies are fun!! The Banker is coming with me so it will be a super fun weekend. We will both be working on our Ireland books, it will be like reliving it all again.

Now I am going to start on the church quilts. I have the time to get at them and would love to have them done before Christmas time so I can get them delivered. The tops for these are made so I just need to quilt them. I need to do one for myself as well but I still cannot decide if I should widen the quilt on my bed because I love it but its a double and my bed is now queen, or if I should make an entire new quilt. I have not found a pattern that grabs me and I do like my old one but its 10 years old and really could be replaced. I think I will have to give this decision some more thought. Perhaps the universe will show me the answer.

Well its time to go check the dryer and see if that load of laundry is finished. I was amazed today at something that I never used to give a thought to.  I make my own laundry soap and today doing the last load I ran out of my own stuff. I have some commercial soap on hand for just this situation but it has been a long time since I have used it. Oiy the smell!! It was so perfumed I nearly gagged!! It was so weird to see the tub fill up with suds. It looked so wrong!! I will get another batch of my own made asap, needless to say. Turns out I perfer it to the bought stuff. Who knew????

Toodles,
Linda

Puppets on Parade

So this morning I boxed up all the puppets I had on hand and hauled them out to a neighbouring small town for a trade show. I started out being a little concerned because most of the people there are trades, you know Tupperware, Scentsy, Sun Set Creek etc and my guys are crafty things. The day started slow and then I really got concerned because I was thinking that I had done all this, hauled them out for naught. Not to mention I am was not feeling the greatest. I am thinking a touch of food poisoning but more about that later.
I need not have worried. I did a decent day of sales. Lots of compliments on the cuteness and I can never hear enough of that. I was also invited to partake in a couple of other sales if I was interested. If I had the stock I might think about it but I don't. I have quilts to make, the puppets need to take a back seat for the moment.

 I am inching closer to the long awaited goal of a new oven for me. I have container of puppets left over but I am not concerned, I will get rid of them. It will take time but I will get them sold. I totally forgot to take my camera but I have a pic from another craft sale that sort of gives the impression of what my stall looks like.I had some different puppets and the kids clothes were not there. Just my puppets. Aunty Linda's Critters.

Its work but it was a pleasant way to spend a Saturday. I came home and had a hour nap before I counted out my loot!! The Banker, Kit Kat and the Sailor drove out to the sale and give me some moral support. The Banker bought me lunch, I will say it again, I have lovely friends.

So I am not feeling great. On Friday I had hamburger at two different places, at lunch and at supper and by 9:00 pm I was seriously queasy. I will spare you the details but it was around 5:00 am before I felt I could function. I still am not 100% but I am ok if I don't eat a lot. I had lunch which was fine but it took ages to eat it and tonight supper is not holding any appeal what so ever. I am hoping its food poisoning and not flu, I am due to visit the Little Farmer Boy this weekend and I will be some sad if I cannot go. I do not want to give him anything. 

Well I think an evening of knitting and tv watching is in store for me. Don't feel up to doing much else.

Toodles,

Linda.