Christmas 2015

Christmas feels a bit different this year;  I'm not quite able to put my finger on it though.

Each of the girls requested a book or a series of books.  Caitlyn asked for this series, which is a cyborg-style sci-fi twist on the classic fairytales that we all grew up with. 

We also gifted her a large package of floss, accompanied by a "Friendship Bracelet" making book.  She and I sat in the back of the van on the trip down to the grandparent's house making up a few simple bracelets.

Cassie was gifted a set of bluetooth speakers 

and Candace spent lots of time enjoying her simple little gyroscope wand-thingy before some of her 'big' gifts were opened...

... her biggest being an early birthday present from Grandpa and Grandma!
The girl in in love, I tell ya!

... and if she isn't, then *I* am!!!!

Hoping all of your Christmas wishes have come true this year.  

Christmas week

The other night, the girls were all in the bathroom, brushing teeth before bed.  When they came out, they had to show me what they also were doing in the bathroom in front of the mirror....

We love our lil' monkeys, certainly.

And exciting news hit on Wednesday:  we're ending up with a white Christmas after all up here in northern Wisconsin!

 The 2015 Christmas concert had been rescheduled to Monday afternoon due to icy conditions the Monday prior.  Thankfully, I have wonderful coworkers who volunteered to cover my afternoon classes so I could relax with some Christmas music :)

Caitlyn's class

Candace's class

I was also immensely happy while watching this year's piano recital!  Ms. Tam has given Candace so much encouragement and inspiration;  Candace has been in lessons for almost a year now, and is still loving it!

A homemade Christmas

I'm the youngest of my siblings, and I found it fitting to get a sibling picture with them in front of the tree this year with their Christmas present quilts.

Go Packers!  (73 x 96)

Do you work better (more productive) with deadlines?  The final binding stitches for the Green Bay Packer quilt were sewn the night before heading out to my parents for our Christmas celebration.  The pace for completion of this quilt increased after my brother mentioned at our Thanksgiving holiday that he was wanting a new quilt. "No rush," he had said... 

Ask and ye shall receive...

When giving quilts, I don't have any expectations of reactions, regardless of who is the recipient.   It appears that Gma was a bit saddened that the quilt she claimed "dibbs" on as I was posting its progress on Facebook was given to her son instead of her.  

My sister and BIL knew this quilt was a project with their names on it, literally.  "Berquist Beauty" took its time being made throughout the year, and it appears to have been graciously accepted as a quilt for their king-sized bed.

Berquist Beauty (103 x 103)

  

Gma received her own (smaller) homemade items.  

After volunteering to take care of the dishes during the Thanksgiving visit, I was determined to gift her some new towels that actually absorbed water when used to dry dishes :)  LOL

And a couple of crocheted dish cloths to complete out her present.  I used the Dishie yarn from KnitPics;  I'm pretty pleased with this yarn for dish cloths.

Most of Wisconsin was pretty brown on Christmas Day, but Saturday morning (12/27) changed that picture!  A wet, heavy snow started falling Friday night into Saturday morning, dropping about 4 inches.   My parents have a beautiful cozy place nestled back into some woods.  Cliche-sounding, but true!

I'm in the midst of Christmas Break from school right now;  I figured it was time to give my blog another post update.   I've been sewing most of today away, but.... maybe I'll save that post for tomorrow :D   It could happen!  LOL

The best of all my online worlds! [RSC '14]

Angela (Soscrappy) has been hosting an annual "Rainbow Scrap Challenge" for the past three years.  I participated in 2011 and 2012, but took a vacation from the monthly challenge in 2013.

Her post for the new year can be found here: 2014 Scrap Challenge.  And it's great what this time away from work will do....no stress...relaxing days.... and finding my inspiration for quilting again!  Her post motivated me to think about what to attempt this next year.  I searched, and came up empty.  Oh, there are MANY MANY amazing ideas out there with chromatic quilts and rainbowy quilts, but... nothing called to me.

THEN... in comes Bonnie!!!!

She was trying out a new method for posting blogs... at least that's what she THOUGHT her "Pieceful Afternoon" blog post was about.  However... the lightbulb shined brightly when I saw her Wonky Stars block.  I have seen it before... never with much thought.  But this morning, in bed, looking at the phone's screen... it hit me!  

My 2014 Rainbow Scrap Challenge block

My 2014 RSC inspiration was found!  Partly it was also inspired by the loads and loads of white little clippy-triangles I've trimmed off of Bonnie's Celtic Solstice part 2 chevrons.  I'm not a crumb-quilter, but...these little tidbits work perfectly for this project.  And hence, I have elected to use 2" squares.  Result:  a 4.5" adorable finished block!!! 

Now...how many will I complete each month??  Dunno.  Haven't thought that far yet.  

But...Angela---I'm IN!! :D

With a full day behind us of the new gifts, the girls have played with just about everything.

Cassie has started a scarf using some Simply Soft sparkly yarn that she received:  Red and White.

Caitlyn and Candace have enjoyed making some yummy looking Play-Doh goodies...

Thank goodness that these goodies don't have any calories!!!!  That looks yummy enough to eat!

Alrighty!  As badly as I want to stay hunkered down at home and sew the day away with Bonnie's CS part 5... we're heading out the door shortly to enjoy the HEAT WAVE up here in Wisconsin.  Seriously...this is the first day in days! (weeks even??)  that we have temps in the forecast to hit above freezing;  we SHOULD hit 34!  LOL.  Therefore... it's off to the snow-tubing hill!

And then...it'll be back to hunkering down in the house, cuz for the next 5 days, the extended forecast has us hitting HIGHS of only 2 degrees (F), and lows of -15 to -20 (F) --- and that's without windchill.  It's all good though. 

Happy Friday!

Poor judge of size

It did NOT look that big on the lot.  REALLY!  I swear it grew from the time we cut it down to the time we brought it in the house. 

:}

"Stretch" had to help me out when it came time to put the lights on the upper part of the tree, and for placing the star on the top.  But, it ended up being too much for Go-Go-Gadget-Girl as well....

... so "Super Stretch" came to the rescue!

And then the camera got into the hands of Candace as Dad helped me hang other decorations...

In the end, we made it all work.  We pushed the tree as far as we could towards the wall, and did a little rearranging of TV, couches, and shelves....

The TV is usually only background noise for me anyway :)

AND, while sifting through boxes of what I THOUGHT were extra ornaments, I hit the jackpot! :)  My mother had given me this box at one time or another, and it simply was set aside.   

Once everything settled down for the night, I grabbed one of the yarns and started a new scarf.  I added a single strand of DMC gold thread as well to add some sparkle.  The pattern says it's a "quick" project, but I beg to differ.  It's a 4-row repeat, so I need to keep referring back to the pattern, slowing me down :(

Of course, I also spent some time with a new quilting project as well!  The "real" tree is need of a tree skirt.  After searching for about an hour, I settled on this one:  Christmas Tree Skirt pattern.  

I don't have the 9-degree wedge ruler as used in the pattern, NOR am I using 5" charms;  many of my fabrics had already been cut into 4.5" squares, so that's the size I'm using.  I'm sure that my math knowledge won't fail me once I get to the point of needing to cut wedges :)  {{But wish me luck all the same}}  ;)

Despite having to drive to school LITERALLLLLY on ice-rink roads this morning, our school was in-session rather than have another snow day issued.   I didn't hear about any accidents, so thankfully the students (and staff) took their time.  There WERE a decent amount of absentees, however, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were due to the weather.

Happy Thursday!

Christmas Programs: Christmas Joys

Yet another week has come and gone, and the end of the 2012 year is nearing an end.  WOW!  Where does the time go???

My lil' Candace had her Christmas program last Tuesday, and she lost her tooth the night before:  JUST in time to sing "All I want for Christmas (is my two front teeth)."

And this little girl is getting so big!  While packing up on Saturday to head off to Grandma's house, she got distracted and side-tracked with her books.  

But we eventually made it on the road, and had our Christmas celebration with my family yesterday.  I think the gift opening can be summed up as "Hats & Green Bay Packers, with a few other fillers."  

We are going to relax today (Monday), and then celebrate with Paul's family tomorrow on Christmas Day.  Tomorrow night, we will be back at our own house with MAYBE a late present-opening ceremony.  Santa is making a stop at the house to deliver presents, even if we're not there :)

And now, the picture show...

Matthews!  YES!  Hunka-hunka!

{{That bottle is empty!!!  LOL.  I guess I enjoyed the process of emptying it the night before;  so much that it needed to show up in my stocking as a little reminder joke.}}

We love the Packers, can you tell?

And check out that HAT!  These hats really were the best presents of the day!

My sister, recipient of a lap quilt she requested.

LOL.  And the SuperMan undies are passed along to Paul this year;  who will get them next year??? :D

My brother and wife who also requested a new quilt.

I love tender, family shots.  My brother and wife.