Puzzle Time

I love 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles!

 

It took me about two days of mornings and evenings to complete!! I spread out the pieces on the dining room table, get a cup of tea or coffee, my adjustable sewing chair, wool socks for my feet and I'm set! My favorite puzzle styles are still life settings, or a colorful flower garden, or a farmyard scene just not the big panoramic landscapes. Most of my puzzles come from the second hand store but on occasion a family member will gift me with a goodie. This one was from TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart for Christmas over a year ago! I'd been saving it for a snowstorm or rainy day both of which have been pretty scare with the drought conditions we have been experiencing for months now. With the last snowfall on New Year's Eve that was a busy family time and not a puzzle piecing kind of situation. My favorite time to piece a puzzle is on a rainy day, it's also my favorite time to sew. I love to be able to open a window to hear the rain fall and the thunder crash!! I'm pretty driven when it comes to a puzzle about as much as when I get into a good book, I'm always looking for a few minutes here and there to read. Time flies and I get nothing else done, but sometimes that's ok because "me" time matters too and I deserve it !!!! Yeah!! Rrriiight!  Still struggling with that one, but getting better, isn't that why they're called hobbies???!!

 

Frigid cold this morning 12 degrees but slowly climbing, so glad we don't live in North Dakota anymore!! Did my time below zero now I want more balmy temps for winter!

I now know why sunbirds fly south!!!!! ;)

 

 



Sunrise is 7:47

TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart and I are up, with coffee in hand, to watch the sunrise this beautiful Saturday morning!!

Pretty Pretty Pincushions

These are most of the 14 pincushions, some were already gifted when I took the picture,

 I made for Christmas stocking stuffers! In the original pattern they were suppose to be pumpkins with stems and leaves, but I didn't have a good pumpkin orange (I know go figure) in my fabric stash. I don't know how that happened but it's clear to me that I NEED more fabric!!! LOL   I had decided to make a pincushion for DD, daughter-in-law D and our daughter-in-law (to be someday) K. So I just started pulling fabric combos that I liked from my scraps and fat quarters, well the group kept growing and I  couldn't put any of the choices back, so I thought why not sew up all the combos and give them away to my sisters, sister-in-laws and nieces. So that's what I did! (You know while writing this I'm reflecting and seeing a pattern here~~ this is what happens with many of my gifting projects~~ humble beginnings and then I let them blossom and get out of hand)    Note to self - keep control- humph...  like I ever listen to the little voices in my head! Mwuahahahaha     They were fun to sew up and I loved looking through my button collection for the center detail. Most are antique buttons, some were removed from items bought at thrift stores, just for the buttons and others are recent purchases of clearance or sale buttons. The display pins featuring hearts or leaves are from Joann's bought in the notions section in packages of 12 I think, I'm not sure since I open the package shortly after purchase and dump into a decorative tin.  I did end up keeping the first one I made, it's the black one near the upper left side. I placed all the pincushions in a large basket and let the recipient choose! It was fun to see if the person choose the one I sort of made for them with their personality in mind, most did!!

 

Today is also our 36th wedding anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart!

 High school sweethearts, married at 20 between college semesters, so we could start "Loving" on the rest of our lives together!!!

New year, new (Internet) provider!

Oh what a feeling! This speed! It's soo nice. I can feel my blood pressure going back down. Happy happy dance. We switched from Wild Blue to Verizon 4G! I can view tutorials, watch how-to videos, view all the pictures on a blog without refreshing, refreshing, refreshing! I can even waste time like the rest of America on Pinterest!! ;-) Though I will miss taking "Lappy" to coffee shops :-( Now I can just go for the take-out cuppa coffee and continue on with my errands! Look at all the time I'll save!! Or it's more likely I'll use that time to shop JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby, or The Quilting Bee! hehe

We've had snow on the ground since New Year's Eve, 6 inches, the hubbs measured! Slowly it's melting ~ all this week it should keep melting as temps are suppose to be in the 40's! Fine with me :) I don't really like all the mud and wet melted snow puddles (in the house!!) that always follows the snow :-(  I'm a warm weather person, not hot, just warm. It's just so much easier to run outside for whatever reason and not have to put on boots, gloves, a hat and a coat! Bah to winter :-p

TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart and I watched Downton Abby tonight on PBS! The hype is right it was really good and we can see ourselves watching more. We'd like to get the earlier episodes on DVD and catch up. Before tonight's season opener there was a special feature on about the current owners of the castle featured in the program and about how much maintenance and money goes into the upkeep of the estate. It's pretty mind boggling, and the rich history of the home was fascinating.

I wanted to post a picture of the pin cushions I made as gifts for Christmas, but for some reason the site is not opening for photo transfer. I'll have to try again tomorrow.

Gone Gone Gone been gone so long!

Many happenings, events and bad ju-ju have kept me from posting on my blog. The first and for most being our Internet provider, they are the bad ju-ju. We hope to remedy this situation by the beginning of the new year. We are switching to a different service entirely!! I am using the Internet at the library where I use to work for this update, it is sooooo fast! Oh how I long for this kind of connection!! While country living is good most of the time; for Internet, pizza delivery and house calls for repairmen it SUCKS! So soon I will be back with news, views and opinions! LOL Nah Just the same old same old! But with pictures!!!
So to all Merry Christmas and a VERY Happy New Year!

No more worries :-)

I've decided that enough is enough! I want to enjoy the holidays!!!! So while I have some gifts in the making I'm not going to frazzle apart with angst of not getting it all done. Ours will be a smaller family celebration this year as #1Son and his wife D are in the middle of another career change so will be unable to make the trip home and TheOther#1Son's girl K is deep in her studies and hospital nursing work that she will also not be making the trip to Kansas. We will be five (I guess really it's six, since DD is pregnant) for the Christmas celebration in our home! DD and her husband R, plus baby "Chiquita"(DD has an app on her phone that keeps her informed with a weekly comparison chart on the  babies growth, this week was baby banana, so her husband nick named the baby "Chiquita"), and TheOther#1Son will be here for a longer stay as he will be in a semester break.
I have been relaxing my holiday decorating and baking agendas in the past few years, with age comes wisdom, not much wisdom, but some!! I still do lots of decorating just not non stop day after day, I spread it out a bit more and decorate just in the mornings for a few hours. With baking I've cut back on the number of cookies and goodies and concentrate more on the actual Christmas meal, making it more gourmet and a real elegant affair!
TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart does most of the Christmas shopping ON LINE! That really makes the holidays more enjoyable for us, as we both hate crowds and the limited number of places to shop. Anna, our German Shepard loves all the UPS deliveries as she usually gets a doggie biscuit from the delivery driver!
I want to wish all a Happy Thanksgiving! TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart and I will be feasting at my brother and sister-in-law's table! I'm bringing the mashed potatoes and a squash bake!

TWO WEEKS till Thanksgiving!

TIME TO GO INTO PANIC MODE!!!!!

 

I have so many ideas for christmas gift giving and so little time to complete them all!!

How does this always happen? We even got an extra hour this past weekend, what did I do with that hour????? While I have been leisurely working on one of the gift ideas I wasn't feeling rushed..... until I seriously looked at the calendar today to see when I would need to do some grocery shopping for my part of the turkey day feast and said "OMG two weeks ~~~~ding, ding, ding, it's only two weeks till Thanksgiving!!!"
While I do love a little late night sewing I don't like to have to stay up to complete a project. I make one mistake after another and come to hate whatever it is that I'm making. So I guess it's time to get in there (my sewing room) and not come out till I've got some gifts completed!!
Later gator!!