On the 12th Day of Christmas...I put all the crap away

There it is...all packed up for another 300 days.  The kids had a great time putting all the stuff out, assembling the tree, hanging the stuff on the "branches" and wrapping garland around the stair rails...and I got to stuff it all back in the buckets.  There were a few things that failed to make it into the buckets last year that ended up floating around the house for a year.  I think I got MOST of it put back this time.  I'm still waiting on a couple of stockings to be put into the top bucket, then it'll all go back out to the garage.

I've been giving it some thought, after stuffing it all in the buckets, that I might need to get another bucket.  There is one more that isn't pictured here that we didn't even pull down this year.  Clearly I already have too much stuff, but a couple of the buckets are so full, you have to put a heavier bucket on top of it to keep it sealed.  I either need to thin out the collection or spread it out a bit more.  I think I'll ruminate on it for a year.

Yesterday I was dragging my fanny all day after getting only four hours of sleep.  I knew if I took a nap, I'd feel better, but then I might have trouble getting up to fetch kids or more trouble getting to sleep the next night.  SO...I just dragged all day.  I got some work done on my Costumer's Guild Scholar challenge (which I won't actually be able to challenge until there's a Costumer's Guild...but you know...baby steps).  I've decided to do early to mid 1500s Tudor Working Class woman's costume.  I also want to do a full costume for Kelly, which I actually *started* and *planned* some things...so maybe I'll do that first...or at the same time.  Why not?  I'm an expert at multi-tasking.

12 Days of Christmas (or at least the first 7 days)

On the first day of Christmas, my little loves did with me...
OK, we already did that on the last post.  Kids.  Gifts.  Apple crisp.


On the second day of Christmas (26th)...we headed over to visit my in-laws and let the kids open gifts.  We stopped giving gifts to adults (mostly), although Kelly and I did give gift cards to each family to go to the theater.  We also have the cousins get together for the annual photo in front of the tree.  My three kids (seated on chair), Nate (standing), Aurora & Aaron (seated).  Nate & Cam are in the same grade (different schools, of course) and have been bosom buddies since they were toddlers.  Ben and Aurora are about the same age (I think Miss A is a year or 18 months younger).  Aaron is now in his young 20s and will be getting married to his high school sweetheart soon!  (She's not pictured here...I didn't get any photos of her...bad auntie.)

On the third day of Christmas (the 27th), we had dinner at the local Asian buffet place with the in-laws.  Cam decided that she wanted to try a whole cooked mackerel.  She ate quite a bit of it, which was surprising since it's such a strong-flavored fish.  She's brave, that one.  Crystal wondered if they shared any genetic material at all (she's a self-proclaimed picky eater).  Cammie may not like everything, but she's certainly willing to try lots of things at least once.  She's turned into quite the chef, too...I got her a copy of the 1930 (reproduction) of the Joy of Cooking.  I hope she finds lots of inspiration in it!

We hit the ferry to head back home.  We had some time at the ferry docks, so we wandered around the park to look at the lights for a few minutes.  I found a Geocache there, which I had tried to find once before.  The trick--bring a flashlight to those night-hunts and trust the Geosenses.  It was right where I thought it was but couldn't see it without the flashlight.

When we got home, I found this in the mail!  What is it?  Most of you will recognize the metal piece in the plastic envelope--it's a sewing machine foot for the Brother XL 2600 that I got for Emma several years ago.  She lost the original foot a few years ago, but I found a web site that sold replacement parts.  I also needed to get a bobbin cover, which also disappeared while it was in storage.  I was really excited to be able to replace this as well!


On the 3rd day of Christmas (28th)...we had a great dinner with Mom & Dad, Tara & Hollie, Andy & Courtney, and my family.  We had dinner at a nearby restaurant, which was fabulous.  They had a few issues in the kitchen, which Andy called them on (he works in a high-end restaurant up North, which has very strict standards on food quality and presentation), but they fixed it right away and everyone walked away with full bellies.

On the 4th day of Christmas (29th)...I stayed home rather than go out for breakfast with the family.  I had probably five glasses of wine over many hours (with food and I was drinking water, too), and something didn't agree with me.  I don't know if it's a sulfite thing, or what...in any case, I won't be drinking any wine for a while.


After the rest of the fam had breakfast, they came over to open presents for Malcolm.  I got a couple of pictures of Mr. M. with his new quilt, but this one where the boys were all together was just precious.  I gave Mike & Laura the poem that goes with it, and everyone passed it around and got a giggle out of it.  I think Ben wants a copy of the poem, and I'm thinking maybe I need to take the leftover charm squares and make him a quilt, too.

Emma got a very special gift from Gramma--a bracelet that has been handed down for generations.  This was originally given to Sophia Burgwardt from Charles Krakow, possibly as a wedding gift.  It is inscribed, "C.K. to S.B Oct. 26, 1876".  According to a census, they married in about 1877 (which is an estimate based on "years married" in one of the columns in the 1900 census), so that's about right.  Mom wore it all the time as a teenager, and it barely fits Emma's tiny wrist, but it needs to have the latch and safety chain fixed to make it wearable.

On the 5th day of Christmas (30th)...Cammie decided to make Chinese food.  We made meat dumplings and were planning on making more things, but the dumplings took so much time, we cut the list back.  Cammie made a sort of beef egg drop soup with mushrooms and I chopped up a bunch of veggies and chicken for a stir fry.  We were going to make some fried rice, but that didn't happen.  Ah, well.

On the 6th day of Christmas (31st)...we had a New Year's...gathering.  I'm not sure how many people you need to have over to make it a "party", but it seems like we just didn't have enough to really make it a raucous event.  We had four--Jeanie, Bekah, Neil, and Carol.  Jean had to leave early, so it was just three guests and us.  We played a few hands of Fluxx, then watched a movie, ate my gumbo (made with Kelly's recipe) and chocolate fondue with fruit and cookies to dunk, and ended by watching a vampire show until midnight.

Before

We watched the fireworks go off on TV around a very foggy Space Needle, which started off looking very cool, but quickly turned into a light show in the clouds.

After

On the 7th day of Christmas...I went Geocaching.  I wanted to see if I could find 17 to make up for the number of finds I was short for 2013...kinda sneaking in the last few I needed for the One-a-Day Geocaching challenge (find an average of one a day for the year), but alas, I fell short again.  I did find 10, but DNF (did not find) 4 that were either missing or too challenging, and by the time I came across a dead seagull by the last one I tried to find, I ran out of steam.  It was after 3 pm, and the light was starting to fade.  So, I will have to concede a failure to meet that goal, although I was very close.

I decided to try the One-a-Day challenge again for 2014, which will be a bigger challenge since I will have to go even further afield to collect them; I've gotten most of the ones that are located near my house.  Last year (2013), we did a cross-country trip with the family, which would have given me ample caching opportunities, but I got so few Geocaches...which was a huge shame.  I did get to 10 different states on our summer trip, which was an unexpected goal, but cool.  I could have spent just a couple hours more and gotten all I needed to meet this (rather silly, but still fun) goal.  Maybe we were in just too big a rush to do that properly...another four or five days to take our time...and an RV...and a scooter.  Yeah.  I'll have to make plans to do some in-state exploration or something.  I know lots of the state parks have several caches in each one, and we should try to get out and see what kinds of great things are out there in our state!  Ben has a book on National Parks, so it would be cool to do a road trip to one of those parks each year and do some Geocaching on the way.

What else?  Today I finished reading the Hunger Games series.  The first two books were pretty good, but that last book was a lot of war scenarios that I couldn't picture in my head.  Lots of running and crawling, supernatural creatures sproinging out and attacking people, streets turning into oceans of tar or turning into giant trap doors.  Lots of death and blood.  Overall, I liked the way it ended and she settled down with the guy that I figured she might, but I gotta admit, I skimmed quite a bit of the third book.  I haven't seen the movies yet, so that'll be interesting how that compares to the books.

The rest of the 5 days of Christmas will probably be filled with sewing--I need to make a couple new garments for 12th Night.  I gotta get crackin!

Christmas Sugaring & Feasting

Christmas dinner went really well, although I didn't get any photos of the feast.  I made a 15 lb. turkey, which came out perfect and juicy--I was just as surprised as the rest of you!  I also made red mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberries, sourdough rolls, and stuffing.  And gravy!  Amazingly, the timing was just about perfect!  The beans and rolls could have been a bit warmer...probably needed to set the oven a little hotter.

In the middle of the day, after getting the turkey in the oven, I also started making an apple crisp in the crock pot.  I just took a portion (or two) out of the crock and gave it a try.  I slightly modified a recipe on Allrecipes, and would make a couple more, which include:

6 large Fuji apples, peeled and cored, cut small
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp flour
1 tsp (or more) cinnamon (I think I put in a tablespoon or two)
1/4 to 1/2 cup water
Mix in crock pot - turn on low.

Make crumble:
1 c. oats
1 c. flour
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 c. butter
Melt butter, mix in brown sugar, then oats and flour.  Sprinkle over top.  Let cook for a few hours.

The original recipe called for a cup of sugar and a cup of brown sugar...and it's just TOOOO sweet.  I'd try it again with the recipe above and see how that comes out.  I think I'm going to be on a sugar high all night now.

Cammie got a cotton candy machine for Christmas and we discovered that we can use normal sugar or crushed (powdered) candy.  So of course, Cammie wanted to immediately start experimenting with candy canes.  We got out the mortar & pestle and ground up some candy canes and, sure enough, after it warmed up, it worked!  Peppermint flavored cotton candy!

  
One thing that seems inevitable is that I always end up getting either medicine bottles, the butter plate or the salt shaker in a photo.  Not sure what's up with that.  But there you go.  Salt shaker.

Kids at Christmas!  Are the kids getting bigger or is that tree getting smaller?  It's amazing how fast they've grown!  Amazingly, I got this photo on the first try.  Ben's got his new shirt on--he now has a rather impressive collection of Minecraft t-shirts.  It makes him happy... :)

Tomorrow we'll be visiting with Kelly's family; the traditional Boxing Day/Second Christmas.  We got gift cards for each family--not individual gifts.  Each card is put into these cute little baggies...it just looks so tiny.  It doesn't look like we didn't get enough, but it's not the size of the gift, it's the value...right?  Maybe I'll drop some Hershey Kisses in the bag with the gift cards.  Sometimes I think that Christmas gift exchanges are so silly.

Kelly got me something fabulous!  In Tara's words:  "What is it?"  Well, in short, these are bead-making tools.  On the left, the channels can shape beads into tubes or balls of certain sizes.  The triangular thing is a tool rest--keeps things off the table and avoids burning the table.  I often use the rusty cookie sheet edge, but this is taller.  The middle packet is a bunch of new mandrils and a bead rake, which can pull the glass into cool shapes.  The metal thing in the upper right can make the beads kinda bumpy.  On the far right is a graphite paddle, which you can roll the hot glass on to change its shape.  There's another graphite shaper at the bottom (with the orange handle) but it's thicker and heavier than the one on the far right.  I'll get a chance to play with these more after Boxing day.  One thing I still need is a lampworking bracket--something to attach directly to the hot head torch instead of having to tape the canister to the L bracket.

Now the quilt is finally *officially* done!  Binding, label and all.  I also made a poem to go with it.  It's funny, so I'll share it for the three readers that aren't going to be at dinner with us on Saturday:

I-Spy a Quilt

I spy some crayons, some colorful clown fish,

I spy some green peas to put in my dish.

Some bathtubbing duckies, some bugs that can fly,

A bunch of small beetles, some apples for pie!

I spy some flames, and some cars on the road,

I spy a whale and a colorful toad.

I spy some chicks and a rainbow of cats,

I spy some lemons and some balls needing bats.

I spy running horses and a tooth that is blue,

A sky full of stars, and some strawberries, too!

Your Auntie does love you, though the poetry’s lame,

I hope you enjoy this quilted I-Spy game.

Much love, Auntie Karen

Aside from that, we've been watching movies and stuff.  I got to see the 6th episode of Tudor Monastery Farm on YouTube.  I love free internet entertainment!  You can watch the first episode here.  The other links are available from the same poster, Nina O.  There's another episode coming out on New Year's Eve, which is the Christmas special.  That might be the last in the series, which makes me sad.  The same group of anthropologists have also done series on the Victorian Farm, the Edwardian Farm, the Wartime Farm (WWII), Tales from the Green Valley (post-Elizabethan farm), and there are a few other specials, like the Tudor Christmas Feast, and a show called Time Team.  Archaeology is COOOL!

Merry Christmas!

This evening, we enjoyed our traditional beef tenderloin Christmas Eve dinner.  In years past, my parents would get out the fondue pots and skewer the meat and fry it in oil, and we would then dunk the meat into either chili sauce or a mustard horseradish sauce.  Meanwhile another pot contained unhealthy quantities of cheese and wine which we dipped bread into and virtually inhaled.  We do not have fondue pots anymore...we had some, but we pitched them in the last move from lack of use...so we opted instead to make sesame beef. Given that it didn't have sesame seeds in it, so I suppose it was Asian-style beef tenderloin.  It had soy sauce, ginger powder, mustard powder, garlic, and honey.  And the beef, of course.  Cooked for about an hour at 325, then I realized I should have had the oven at 350 for 45 minutes instead.  It was delicious (although I would have liked it cooked just a little more...I'll fry up a couple pieces for lunch tomorrow)!  As you can see, we also had salad, red potatoes, and just out of camera shot, sourdough bread.

Tomorrow night we'll do the full-on turkey thing, although probably not with as many side dishes as the usual Thanksgiving fare, but at least with green beans, cranberries, and rolls...and probably more potatoes.

In the past few days I have been trying to organize corners of the house that have needed attention for some time, and trying to get the kids involved, hoping to instill in them the urge to stop messing the house up in the first place.  The younger two, in particular, have a habit of picking something up--be it a toy or a tool or something they find remotely interesting--and carry it around for a few minutes and drop it unceremoniously somewhere else.  A belt will be dropped at the top of the stairs; a candy wrapper on the TV cabinet; a die or a game piece left on the countertop....there's no rhyme or reason for the placement of these things.  Tomorrow we'll be going through some more areas that have been long ignored--those flat surfaces that tend to collect things, like papers or scraps of fabric.  We've pitched so many things in recent days.  I'm already anxiously awaiting Saturday for the garbage & recycling pick up as they are both already overflowing.

Saturday we'll have rellies coming to visit, including my bro & his wife and offspring!  I finished putting the binding on Mal's quilt this morning--I just need to wrap it up for him.

Christmas Festivities Parte the Firste

Kelly found this at some store.  I had long been advised by my wise father never to eat the yellow snow...so I may just put that back on the shelf.

Last night was the school's annual Christmas program.  It seems to get shorter every year.  The music teacher has been with the school for about four or five years.  The first year, the Christmas program ran REAAAAAALLLLLLY long--getting out to the car by about 10:30 pm, so those little elementary kids got to bed REAAAAAAALLLLLLY late, which made it all the more fun for the teachers and parents the next day.  This year, we were out by 9 pm.  There wasn't much of a nativity program, although the 8th graders did a short play about doing unto others.  Then they all changed into nativity costumes and just posed around the little wooden manger, kneeling on the hard stage for quite some time.  Bekah, who came with us, wondered if any of them brought knee pads.

Cammie played in advanced band (we didn't get a chance to get her some nice black shoes).

She also sang with her class.

Ben performed with his class--unfortunately, the mic stand was right in his face.

And with the whole school as they lined up for the opening number.

This morning was supposed to be a late-start & early-release day at school, but we were greeting by this dusting of new snow today.  While it wasn't much, it was enough to cause some dangers on the road, so they did the wise thing and cancelled school.  Not worth it for a half-day anyway.  So we are now on our holiday!  

Yesterday, Camille decided that she wanted to make fried rice by herself, so she dug around in the fridge, found some leftover rice, bok choy and celery and fried it up with an egg and soy sauce.  It was really good!  A budding chef!

I saw this online as I was shopping, and although this isn't the time to do shopping for yourself, I couldn't resist.  Go USMNT!  I also ordered a couple of bumper stickers for Kelly and myself.  Let's hope that the US performance in Brazil goes well!  Wish I could be there for it, but...kids...cost...the usual.

I wish I had something more for Kelly for Christmas.  I can never think of anything for him--techno guys are so hard to shop for.  I didn't have much trouble coming up with something for my nephew, but it was a whirlwind 24 hours getting it done.

I still feel like I have to get something organized (besides the house for visitors) or wrapped or...something is missing.  Can't quite put my finger on it.  Hopefully it'll make itself known soon.

Christmas Aftermath

Christmas eve we had dinner of beef tenderloin...I wanted to do the old family beef fondue with mustard and chili sauces, but I decided to cook the tenderloin whole in an Asian-inspired sauce with soy sauce, honey, ginger powder, garlic, and pepper.  In fact, it turned into a rather international dinner...French bread, Swiss cheese fondue, and Asian beef.  It was delicious!

Afterwards, we cleaned up the dishes, and went to open presents.  Each of the kids had five or six presents consisting of games, videos, and assorted entertainments.  Kelly had two presents--a cozy sweater and a wonderful Sounders rain jacket.  I had one gift...an iPod gizmo for my car.  Not that I'm complaining, mind you...I love my iPod gizmo.  I hope it will significantly improve the sound in the car--the thingy I have only works in the right speakers, which doesn't work well with some songs where they play with the balance between speakers.  [I asked for a GPS gizmo for geocaching, but I also complained about the sound quality of the iPod.]

Christmas eve, Santa came and left gifts for the kids and stuffing the socks.  Ben got two DS games that are for the 3DS, which sucks because he doesn't have a 3DS.  Maybe one of the girls will be nice enough to allow Ben to borrow their 3DS thing from time to time, but I'm thinking that we may have to trade in the DS for a 3DS, which will cost $150.  Ben has a savings account with some money in it, and we can pull the money out for that.  I just didn't want to buy another DS machine--we've already purchased five of them.  Stupid machines.

The other thing we did was get Emma a phone.  I've never seen her so happy!  It'll be so much nicer to be able to text her and say, "I'm running late" or "Math teacher needs to see you after school" (they email these notices to the parents...like it does any good if you're not anywhere near your computer during the day and don't know that you're supposed to pick them up late).

We goofed around for a few hours, then went visit Kelly's uncle who lives in town, but we never see him.  They have an open house every year and people come by and nibble, chat, and view Marjan's little village of lighted ceramic houses, train tracks, and characters.  She has a pop-up shelter on her deck with walls on it, a mini heater, and filled with tables covered with these little homes and winter scenes.  I love the look of these things, and someday I'd have my own collection.  When I do, I'd like to get this Christmas Story house, which comes complete with the Fragile leg lamp in the window.  It has a whole series of buildings, so you can create the entire town.

Christmas dinner was turkey, red potatoes, green beans and bread...I was going to go all-out and make cranberry sauce (I'm the only one who likes it), and home made bread, but I really didn't have enough time or energy.  Kelly picked the carcass clean and is making soup with the leftovers.

Now that the holiday is over, I'm hoping to have some time to put a new outfit together.  This is the one that I have in mind--something from the Ottoman empire...Persian...or Turkish...I have some blue linen and some yellow, too.  I have the undertunic made already, as well as the salwar (pants), and I'm betting I could make two layers over the Christmas break--one in dark blue and one in the medium blue...but I need some muslin to make the pattern first.  I want to have them done by 12th Night, which is the second weekend on January.  I'd love to have something to show to the Costumer's Guild, even if it doesn't count towards my Journeyman level...but I can get the documentation done for the other pieces and bring them to show.  I had entered them a couple years ago and they LOST the records!  So while they had the information and sent me the beads for my achievements in the Junior and Senior levels, they somehow didn't get the records put where it could be found again.  Mysterious.  Luckily, I have most of the documentation in the computer and I can throw together a group of items to show...hopefully I can get this train back on track and I can get a few steps closer to finishing my Journeyman level costumer challenge!

Christmas Gifts

I finally decided to make some American Girl dresses as gifts for some little girlies I know.  I pulled out the dress pattern that I bought about three years ago and made copies of the pattern.  I didn't want to cut the original pieces, in case it gets lost.  Of course, I cut too many pieces for the first dress, not quite clear on what pieces are for which garment--there are three garments in this pattern for a shirt, a dress and bloomers.



I first made a dress from yellow and blue Civil War calicoes, and then made a pair of red bloomers to go with them ("That ain't nothing but my red silk petticoat you done give me.").  I then made a dress and bloomers from some 1930s repros in lavendar, green and white.  Both still need snaps on the shoulder straps and either elastic or ties in the bloomers, but they are otherwise finished.  I want to make a couple more outfits tomorrow for some other girlies I know.

We're now just a couple days from Christmas and I'm still stumped on what to get Kelly.  He doesn't want Cabela's gift certificates--he has nothing he needs there.  He wants a band saw.  That's a bit out of our budget.  Everything I get for him is the wrong color, the wrong size, the wrong brand...so I often end up feeling like I wasted time and money buying anything since he doesn't like it.  However, last year I got a gift certificate for a loom from "Kelly Wood Products"...he was going to make something for me, but in the last 363 days, it has not yet materialized.  I'm thinking I'll give him a gift certificate for something...maybe I'll fulfill it before Dec. 22, 2013.

As of this morning, I still needed to get a few more small gifts for Christmas morning.  Ben still believes in Santa, and I have a few small things set aside for him, but I still needed to get a couple more things for the girls.  I was thinking about making a doll dress for Emma (even though she doesn't play with them anymore, she expressed an interest in having a couple more outfits), and I thought I'd make a little doll quilt for Cammie...something I could make really quickly in a day.

So this morning, I set off to the stores before most people had finished their first cup of coffee...on a Sunday.  I also think a bunch of people were still in church, so I found a decent parking spot at the various stores and was able to get a few more little things for the girls and I did find something for Kelly.  He better like it...or else.

I also sewed a few strips of fabric together to make a doll quilt for Cammie.  I've kept this carefully hidden from her, so this should be a surprise tomorrow when she unwraps it.

This afternoon, Cammie and I sat down and made a couple of dresses for the American Girl dolls while watching Christmas movies.  She picked the fabric for a dress to make and I walked her through the process.  In the meantime, I made two dresses for Christmas gifts.  This first one is shown with its pantaloons, and on a doll.  After fitting it on her, I realize that the straps are *really* long.  Almost twice as long as they need to be.  Not sure why that is...I'll have to make some alterations and figure out how I want to attach the straps to the dress in the front.  I could use velcro or snaps.  I don't really want to do buttons, but that's also an option.

Here she is in her pretty little sundress!  This is such a cool pattern and there are so many options to alterations, design elements, added aprons, trims, etc.  I'm so glad that Cammie made one for herself so that she can do more in the future.  Hers is made from three different blue fabrics...I didn't get a picture of it yet.  She's still got to add the bottom trim as well.

This second one isn't actually done yet.  It still needs the bottom trim fabric. I may make it in yellow and make it ruffle instead of lay flat, just to mix it up a little.

But the kids are currently distracted with a movie so I am going to go wrap Santa's gifts...

Christmas Concert

Not surprisingly, the end of the world failed to come.  I guess that means I get to try to finish more of my UFOs, and hopefully get the Harry Potter quilt done!  Someday...after I get my long arm machine fixed.

Last night, the school hosted its annual Christmas musical spectacular!  It started with a couple of numbers from the Kindergarteners, who then sat in a line on the stage to watch the beginning band.  Cammie is sitting on the left in the plaid dress (a second-hand purchase for a grand total of $7!  And it still had the NEW tags on it.)  This is the best photo I got of her all night--she was sitting still with the band and in the front row.

When the band started to play, she was hidden behind the music sheets and I could only see the skirt.  The band was awesome!  Considering this beginning band just started playing three months ago, they played "Joy of a Man's Desiring" and "Jingle Bells" and they did a great job!

This is the rest of Cammie's class (once again, we were so far back that I couldn't see if the photo was blurry until I got home).  She wasn't in this group because while Cammie and a few others are in band, the rest are in choir.  

At the end of the show, they have the big all-school number.  This year they mixed it up by singing "Silent Night" in four different languages--English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and sign.

Ben was in the front row, of course, bowing deeply at the end...no one else was.  A mom near me says, "That's not my kid..."  I leaned over and said, "No, it's mine."  We had a good laugh--she's a sweet lady.

I have to get a new headlight for the car--I swear I just did this a year ago...but maybe it was the other side.  Luckily they're easy to replace, but you'd think they'd last longer than 7 or 8 years.  I bet the headlights in the cars from the 50s and 60s lasted decades.  Now I have to figure out what kind of headlights I have now--yellow, white, blue?  No idea.

The other day, I was looking at a recipe that called for "full cream milk".  I thought, 'What the heck is full cream milk?  Is it whole milk?  Or heavy cream?'  So I went and opened the Google machine and I came across this article on healthy food written by the Daily Mail in the UK, and it's a bit of an eye-opener, but affirms some of my thoughts on "diet" foods.  Substitute foods are bad for you (no kidding!) and you should eat natural whole foods in moderation.  Butter, eggs and milk!  Shocker.  The biggest surprise was realizing that 2% milk is still low fat when you think that 20% is the limit for everything else.  2% fat is 98% FAT FREE!  Whole milk is still less than 5% fat, or 95% fat free.  Nothing unhealthy about it.  Drink whole milk and ENJOY!  And I get to enjoy some high-fat egg nog with a steak and veggies...but I need to cut back on the sugar and go for more walks.

The little kids are out of school now--finally...a few of the schools finished up last week--and Emma gets out of school today in a couple hours, and she is going directly to the theatre with her buddy, Miss E to go see the Hobbit.  Kelly went and saw it with his Dad last week.  I'll probably see it when it comes out on DVD.

This afternoon, I hope to get some sewing done on the Harry Potter blocks.  I also still need to take the broken part in to the sewing store.  I better get dressed and get on with my day.

In the Wake

I went to the Thursday night guild meeting and picked up a couple of packets for the raffle quilt they are assembling.  I got kits #11 and 12, which are part of the pointy border areas that go around the edge of this spectacular batik quilt.  It's all paper pieced, which I have gotten into a little recently...see posts on Harry Potter Quilt of Insanity.  Here I am sewing the fabric onto the paper.  OK, the paper is just used as a sewing guide, since the fabrics have to be sewn to each other with at least 1/4" seam.  You first sew pieces 1 and 2 together, lining them up behind the paper (holding it up to the light...).  Stitch and flip, finger-pressing open, then add piece 3.  Repeat to end.  The paper will later get torn away and the pieces will look like this!



OK, not exactly like this.  The extra bits have to be trimmed up around the edge, but the instructions said to leave that to the assembly team to complete.  They don't want to risk anyone accidentally cutting into the main part of the design...they probably don't have extras of this paper pattern.

But before I started these, I made one more HP block from the kit.  It took a LOOOOONG time to make this one with all the little bitty pieces.  I turned on a movie when I started and finished about the same time as the movie.  Seriously.  I think I like using this box as a photo box for the blocks...although I think I should probably press the blocks with an iron before photographing.  The books look a little lumpy.  I haven't decided if this is just an hourglass or if this is the Time Turner.  It's a bit big to hang around the neck, so I'm going to say hourglass.  I can't imagine Hermione tucking this down her robes without looking...suspicious...or in need of the hospital wing for an engorgement charm gone wrong.

Since then, I started another block of books, but only have 1/3 of it done.

After the Friday shooting, it was difficult to focus on much, so I spent a great deal of the weekend just puttering around.  I finished the baby quilt on Saturday, despite having a broken stitch regulator.  I need to take the thing in to get fixed...hubby suggested that I just take the broken part in rather than hauling in the 70 lb. behemoth...a much less physically-taxing endeavor which I am in favor of.  Maybe I'll do that in the morning.

I also mailed out a bunch of Christmas cards, which I haven't done in three years.  In the process, I discovered that I was missing a great many addresses in my book, or had ridiculously outdated information.  A high school friend was still recorded under her ex-husband's name; cousins still listed at university addresses, even though they graduated years ago; spouses and children were missing completely...luckily I have most of them on Facebook, so was able to get new physical addresses for many--others haven't written back yet.  I sent out about 40 cards--one of them still went to the wrong address (I got the corrected version after it was already in the locked outgoing mail slot).  I could have sent more but I ran out of momentum and stamps, even after a store run to get more stamps.  I'll catch 'em next year.  Or in three years.

Santa, I am not.  As per usual, I'm making a mental note to make a list, and hoping I have the forethought to check that list twice, once I find it again after losing it...  I hope that we have a fairly balanced number of gifts for each of the kiddos and a good selection of toys and games, and I will have likely failed miserably at making sure that no one feels that someone was favored over someone else.

I hope at least that they'll think well of me when I'm old enough to go to the retirement home.