Dreamy December Goings On Here – 2019 Edition

As Christmas nears across the world … we are preparing here too!

 With Stockings hung by the fireplace with care…

 Notice Raggedy Ann has moved to the fireplace… well the shelf in the kitchen corridor has been reorganized while dusting occurred as well 🙂

 All our Christmas faves ended up on this shelf… the Angel is from Connie as it is the Mountain Christmas sign from last year 🙂  The little Hallmark treadle sewing machine is from Jannessa… and the little boat vehicle is an ornament we didn’t want lost in the tree… it is named the Jolly Roger and has much significance in memories to my honey.

Then below… is baby Jesus in the manger scene… I love this simple nativity better than our big one.

 So you can see now that it has a place of honor too…

Here is our tree this year.  It is new to us and it needed LOTS of additions to fill it in … but I think the fabric looped garland… silver sparkly garland and some extra lights and ornaments we love to open each year… was quite fun to decorate this 4 1/2 foot little tree. 

Then there is our 20 foot tree outside!

 And you can see our snowman looking at the tree…

 The view from the post office is quite awesome too!

 And looking from farther away… you can see our up on the hill neighbors lights around their home too!!!

So Monday we had snow here in North Carolina… we got about 1″ all together and I took a short video for ya…

It was quite enchanting to have an early snow though!

Our bathroom was a easter egg green color – quite startling and not relaxing at all!  Now a nice creamy color!

Jannessa and her hubby Alan came over last Sunday afternoon… and it was Monday morning early when I happily finished this table runner … aka placemat for our bar…

 Here it is ready for me and my honey to enjoy too!

 Also Jannessa not only free motion quilted the table runner but this table topper for Connie too!!!

 She did such a nice job!!! Connie received it Friday and LOVES IT ❤

Also received in the mail this week was Holli Jo’s wall hangings I made.  She posted this on facebook to share what I had made her and she is giddy to finish her quilting schedule she is on to hang them…

her sewing room is rearranged atm… hanging both are out of the question for now 😀

I love the collage she made and the friendship sentiment… made all the work that happened on these wall hangings worth it!!!

Yesterday Jannessa came over and we made snow flake ornaments that are of Scandinavian descent from THIS tutorial.

Here is Jannessa’s on her tree…

 And here is mine ❤ …

 Finally… I can share that I am at the end of the row on the Swoon Quilt 🙂

 I am working on outline of the third swoon then on to the border so I can roll once again!!!

 Here is a look from afar too…

Today I plan to work on that third Swoon bottom… and also to work on my daughter’s bag I am making her for Christmas… so no pics here of that!!!  Linking my hand quilting and making stuff by hand progress to Kathy’s Quilts – Slow Sunday Stitching linky… come see what everyone is up to this holiday season … RIGHT HERE!

I also have a wall hanging for the kitchen that will be a mix of hand and machine quilting to finish it post haste but nicely… Jannessa has given me some GREAT ideas on straight line and organic line stitching I can manage I think!

While I have been writing this I have been chatting too with my 2 best friends… and listening to THIS SONG 😀  How about you … are you drinking something yummy or listening to some seasonal tunes??? 

Leave me a comment and…

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What happened to August Y’all?? Happy Labor Day Weekend! Hello September!!!

Wow!  I have been so busy… I didn’t blog a bit in August!!!

So I wish you a Happy Labor Day weekend for those in the USA and Canada and a WELCOME to you ALL!!!!

August went by so quickly… but we were also sooo busy!

Above right is our new door hanger for this month!  I have one for Christmas time too that is a holiday wreath of seashells 😀

Quilting was one area that had ups and downs…

My piecing on the wall hanging came to an abrupt stop and it has been put in time out… I even reached out to the pattern writer for assistance … but she couldn’t help me 😦

So this is where I am stuck… with uneven joins… before recutting and resewing I just put it up… I have other projects to focus on anyway! lol

First I took this out of hiding…

And added a flange to it… it will end up like a 3d pillow/cushion and eventually will be gifted to my friend Brandy who got the quilt these leftover bits came from 🙂

And I can’t forget about this quilt….

Here I am working on row #3 of the center rows … 15 total so a ways still to go! lol

Row #3 is almost done… this is all hand quilting and all my designs 🙂

But most recently my honey showed me his sleeping snuggle pillow!  It is getting holey.. not holy!!! lol

 If you look closely you can see that the fabric is breaking down even though my stitching is all still in place…

So what is a good quilter wife to do???

Like I did above… find a pattern… blow it up to the right size… print it off in 1/4 size pieces.. tape that back together to make a 16″ pattern all together… make a light table on a glass top table … trace it onto NEW fabric that is nice and thick… then layer it up and start stitching! lol

As of last night when I went to bed I was about 1/3 complete with the stitching on this pillow top… I am using YLI 40/3 in a blue grey color to stitch with on this fun batik fabric… it was a backing fabric and if you look close you will see my wholecloth pillow actually has a seam down the middle! lol

Here is a close up of my pencil marked pattern that I have stitched from the front…

 and easier to see on the back side…

I wanted to use cotton/wool blend on this to show the stitching better but my honey requested cotton only!  so that is what he is getting 🙂

I will soak it in Palmolive and warm water to remove the pencil marks I made when I am done … then wash it properly and dry it well once it is a pillow 🙂  I will be making an envelope backing on it and that is all prepared … maybe I will finish the pillow top today?  Maybe tomorrow! lol  But I am enjoying the slow stitching… this will be the 3rd pillow in 6 1/2 years he has had!!!

Linking all this quilty progress to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching linky HERE !!!

We have also been doing decorating throughout the house…. from a puzzle framed and put in the guest bathroom…

To some pictures and artwork framed …

All in a focus to Relax….

We also have been buying things for a little and rehabbing them and selling them for more… like this sewing machine we found at a local thrift store last month…

 Then we put it on eBay like this with a starting bid of $49.99 to pass on the good fortune of what we found… well it went for more that we thought!!!!

Wowee!!! Did it ever!!!  

So we did some more redecorating…

 In the laundry room we found this cool hanger to coordinate with new shelves my honey fashioned for me 🙂

 In the kitchen we added a clock and bulletin board for pics and notes and keeping us on time 🙂

 Here is some fabric I found at a different local thrift store… someone had turned in their stash and I was lucky enough to buy some including this cool 1980’s fabric that will be a baby wholecloth or 2 for a future grand baby 🙂

 We gave our bedroom a life with this new headboard / footboard/ and pillow shams….

 Then we found these cool 2 cube shelves to use as bedside tables with our new bed…

But first my honey is prepping them for use with our CPAP machines… first his is getting fit and when I get mine later this month he will get mine all ready too!  He added the shelf his hand is on with rollers like a drawer to roll out the machine to fill with water chamber and do anything else… the back side is open for the plug to come out of 🙂

Another fun find for us this past month was some holiday solar pets…  we had the flamingo already! 

  The little lizard sitting in front was a gift from one of my nieces years ago and stays with us 🙂

Then there was a little upgrade for the business side of things too…

So my honey got a new iPad… the older one was giving him troubles!  And this one isn’t all it was supposed to be but it is better!  I think 🙂

So we have been working really hard the last month and a half to lose weight and make true lifestyle changes… so we did!  We met our first goal of losing 22 pounds each… and enjoyed a meal fit for royalty at one of our favorite seafood restaurants!

We had lobster tail… salad bar… and shrimp n chips too!   Totally yummy but I don’t mind how we eat these days either so back in the saddle we go!!!

As we continue to pray for all those left homeless and feeling helpless from Harvey’s wrath… we hope you all have a blessed weekend and can Make Today Great somehow and some way!!!

This month my grandmother I call Nanny will turn 99 years young y’all!  Here she is just last month too!!!!

I am so happy to still have her and her sage advice still in my life today!  

Let’s make time to show appreciation and caring to each other today and EVERY day please…  

So until next time…

Guest Bath REVEAL!!!

I can’t believe our guest bath is renovated and now looks completely delicious!!! Come on in for a visit and look around 🙂

I got 2 hand towels in this motif.. that way one is always ready to receive guests and serve their neeeds!

As we were painting and fixing and finishing the much deserved renovation to this bathroom for updating…  I found these cute hand towels custom embroidered in my color choices by Jeanelle (an eBay seller who also sells on Etsy… here is a LINK to her eBay store where I found her beautifully embroidered hand towels.. she also does bar towels, and kitchen towels, and wash cloths 🙂  

THEN yesterday we went to Hobby Lobby and I got this gorgeous mermaid I had been ogling online!!

 The starfish was part of a grouping of starfish from elsewhere in our home… wouldn’t be missed there and now will be a highlight of the room they have taken over I think… check out the pics and tell me what YOU think!!!!

Above you can see the mermaid and starfish in the reflection of the mirror…

We added a different light to the vanity area… it had gold “beauty lights” from 1980’s that were hideous and gold with round bulbs! lol

My honey designed a board to mount the light to… dress it up and mix it with the space and hide some wires from the previous owners… all electrical in that room is now safe!

This light fixture is one we picked up a couple years ago meant for this renovation!  It has waited a long time but isn’t it pretty there now??!!!  We found it thrift shopping somewhere we think… neither of us can remember exactly though…  it is silver and gold mottled colors of metal with pretty milky white frosted shades and the board they are mounted on is white with routed edges for a bit of fanciness!

And here is the vanity/sink area…

I love the cool white starfish… we found all the starfish in this room from many trips previous before actually moving to the beach… I am happy to see them displayed!  The ring dish is a find from a thrift shop… and there is the second towel of the 2 I got from Jeanelle 🙂

More grey and dark red around the toilet area…

 And check out the window decor too!

The valance I made and enjoyed it… took all of 1 hour to construct… the Relax was found at Hobby Lobby and the starfish also from our collection…

And above is a cute collage I made on a new program on my computer I am trying to learn for photo editing.. thought you may enjoy it!!!

And here is a great quote I found earlier this week when perusing facebook…

I am making steady progress on Starlight… Starbright quilt… I will update that in a new post soon!!!

So for now… until I am ready to show off my quilting efforts I pray you each have a blessed weekend and…

Still in the middle but making progress!

Yep, we are still in the middle of our projects… but we are making progress!!! Yay 🙂

First up is the mini album…

I have officially finished with 3rd video in this series and am gonna work on the pockets next in video 4 here.  Ginger does an excellent tutorial… take 5 minutes watch part of one and you will be hooked!  It is fun and uses your stash up!  Love that!

So far I have used this paper pad that is 12 x 12 that I got at Walmart.com and picked up in the store for free shipping 🙂

And this is my workdesk in the middle of the process…

You can see I have started working on pages.. the punch is what I punched the corners out of the paper with as Ginger instructed where I had used the decorative punch prior on the corners of each top page… the white triangle thing is powder I used on the adhesive that was exposed after I put the pages on the bags… and I have used lots of paper and ATG glue in this process.  But it is sooo much fun!!!

But most of all I have enjoyed this new cutter!  It is a Fiskar’s rotary trimmer!  Yay me 🙂

About Brandi’s quilt progress…

The layout was finally decided and the rows that were sewn together were marked so as not to lose their place 🙂 Connie is a master quilter!!!

Then all the “bricks” were sewn together…

until the background started coming to life…

and then the background was complete!

Next up … Connie and her daughter Keely will design dolphins to applique on top of this base.

In the loo…

Progress is slow but sure.  The work has been very labor AND skill intensive so it has been wearing my honey out… so far he has the room painted in it’s final coat….

and do you notice the trim??? it is whitewashed pine… it is sooo gorgeous… and he isn’t done with it yet! lol

look at the beadboard on the bottom half of the wall and how it meets and flows with the existing tile… and over on the other side of the room is what he wouldn’t want you to see…

all his tools that make this possible! lol

Next up is removing the 2 layers of old original flooring and replacing it with tile… then baseboards and sealing the whitewashed pine.

Oh, for next time I will show you a pic of the toilet seat we bought… it is seashells in clear acrylic and it is HEAVY DUTY! lol

Also next time will be more about the quilt as it should be appliqued or getting appliqued… and more on the book… so come on back and thanks for visiting!

a puzzle I got for Connie and I to work while we quilt this summer!

Have a blessed day!

Kathi