reflections

our visit to family yesterday was delightful-long enough to open presents, play with toys, and enjoy a wonderful meal. Short enough that we were back home and able to deal with a slight stuck in the snow issue easily. A relaxed evening watching the movie Juno, enjoying the fire, and a little hand quilting. One of the treats in my sock was a small book by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Things I learned from Knitting..whether I wanted to or not. I enjoy her style of writing with humor delivering much of what I have discovered during my life thus far-with a different slant which jogs the oh yes...that is so true thinking.
I have returned to reading every day-we have a stack of books which has helped inspire me to pick the top book from one of the stacks and plunge in. Actually the top book was one M was planning on reading next (yes, she is reading it now) so I took the top book from a stack over. It's The Fifth Book of Peace by Maxine Hong Kingston. [only 79 pages in ...a bit disjointed style of writing but I am continuing on]
The joy of living with another reader is the variety of books to be found in our home. M is a book buying fiend, rather as I was about fabric. We have called a halt on buying until the stacks are reduced.

Today I have called a halt to flitting from one thing to another-and feeling like I am just making myself dizzy and going "nowhere". M is off walking Zoe - who adores the snow and a chance to run around and feel free. I declared a day of writing to sort out the teeming stuff in my head.
I just feel out of step, out of sorts, spaced out. So many things I could or should do...I am feeling overwhelmed in general as a result. Has this happened to you? You realize you have misplaced things that usually you always put in such and such place? You have not remembered being told important things, or that "everything" has just stacked up around you? Well-I have come to the tipping point of feeling that way and decided: clearly I need to step back....do some reflecting...and then dive in and take action. I have been ignoring that inner voice-but-today is the day to stop and listen.

This morning I was checking in on Christine Kane's blog - my word of the year post was going to be there at some point in December and I forgot to keep checking in this month!
There it was...a while back...and here is the link if you care to go read. I am not going to repeat it here-instead, I will be posting my word for 2009 in a few days. You may want to read more about the whole idea at Christine's blog..it's been a great experience for me this year-and I am excited about doing it again. I have already chosen my word and given a lot of thought about what I need to do to allow my inner light to shine more brightly.

I hope each of you that read this post or have checked in over the years continue to share your inner light as well. It's all about living this moment. let's make the most of right now!

merry christmas alice quilt

Merry Christmas Eve. I only need to wrap the quilt in the photo and I am totally done. If the weather allows, we will drive over tomorrow afternoon and enjoy watching Little Miss Alice Wonderful open her presents and in general celebrate being together. We have a new camera and I am looking forward to playing with it. This quilt was made from a kit I bought at a shop in Cannon Beach. A few fabric strips leftover -it worked out perfect. I used wool batting and left space in my free motion quilting so it is fluffy and cuddly. She has been enjoying the book this fabric was inspired by -which came from the box of books her daddy and uncle had as young children. I am not showing any more snow photos-it got worse and then we had some rain today-though only a bit of the snow melted away. It will be quite the white Christmas tomorrow morning. I made two pumpkin pies this afternoon -love that baking smell ! I worked from home and it was very relaxing. I had a lovely phone conversation with my sister and welcome news from my son in Texas. I had used the wrong address to mail his gift to, plus given it to the mail order company for his wife's gift, and also to his brother. Oh, I thought he would be missing out tomorrow! He stopped by the old address and there was my box- oh joy! They will keep an eye out for the other packages and I contacted the mail order company as well. The post office still has his forwarding address active-it's possible that somewhere in their system the other packages are being held to be delivered to his current address. So we both feel so much more positive about those missing packages ending up getting to them -hopefully soon.

I wish everyone a happy holiday season no matter how you celebrate or not.

a great day to be inside

Here in Portland, OR we think this is the most snow we have ever seen in our neighborhood.
Lots of wind blew snow in against our front door as fast as we could shovel it away yesterday.
I did a final shovel out last night before heading to bed. This morning you can see little new snow out front, what is hard to see is the one inch layer of ice over the snow. Zoe in the backyard demos walking on top of snow...you can see the dents where she "fell" through. M had to stomp down enough of an area in the back so Zoe could do her business. No driving without chains today-period. As I don't have chains that means another day of not driving anywhere for me. I am not inclined to drive anywhere so no big deal. I stopped Friday night after work and stocked up at the market on various items I thought we could run low on and would miss. We are snug and happy inside - I am going to start quilting a top for Alice, part of her Christmas celebration. I had bought a kit and stitched it up yesterday. I have Christmas music going and have wrapped a few gifts, still need to write cards up, and in general we are enjoying the weekend.
We are grateful for our cars dry in the garage
a snow shovel that does the job!
warm snow clothes to wear
our power is on
hot coffee

first word house

I finally finished this block today-my kick off to the house and hearth class by Tonya-
I will be making more blocks as I find time - I have been Christmas decorating around the house and deep cleaning as well. A snow storm hit our area today and here is a view out our front door- such gusting wind it blew snow all over the patio furniture under cover against the house. Foul weather outside certainly makes me appreciate being warm and cozy inside! It is supposed to be dry but 24 degrees tomorrow- I probably will drive in to work unless the news says it is icy. I can drive in snow fine- ice, no thanks. We are getting the brunt of an Arctic wind effect here. I have been busy with plenty of non quilting stuff going on around here-I know it will start to slack off soon and I am looking forward to being home more.

first house built

Here is my house block for a guild challenge which I will turn in tomorrow night. The block is nine and a half inches square. Now that I have broken ground on house building, next up will be class houses-which will include letters.
I have to admit, it was hard to use only solid fabrics! I may or may not add prints to additional houses. So much fun to be working on ideas I have been considering for quite a while now.

house inspiration

Last Friday we had lunch at a favorite place and walked up to check out the bead shop and the quilt shop. Flyers for an art show and sale were posted, happening that day, so we walked down to check it out. Here is what followed me home. She had all sorts of these and at ten dollars I thought they were priced right for my budget! (artist is Robin Olsen)The fabric is going into the build a house block basket-which I am finally going to play in tomorrow. Bonus day off, time to dive into the new project I have been thinking about for ages. Here is also a photo of the finished quilt(for the Christmas mom and dad) on our bed - king size in the end.
I kept calling it queen size...but as you can see...it fits a king size bed well. I took the pillows off so as much of the quilt as possible is showing. It was picked up and will be delivered to the family at the appointed Christmas time. Photos should be clickable for enlarging.
I have all my Christmas gifts accounted for and just need to poke away at the wrapping part. Last year I made many Christmas themed gift bags and I plan on making several more. They were a big hit! I quilted two more charity quilts on Sunday and that leaves two remaining. I cut binding for all four of the builder bob quilts. Once these are all finished I will be happy to mail them off to headquarters and take a break. It's crazy busy at work right now- as far as I am concerned a good thing! who wants to sit around twiddling their thumbs, good to have plenty to do I say and should stay humming right along for a few weeks.








Life is Good:
I continue to have a job I love
I have lots of fabric to play with
I have wonderful kind friends
I have joy in my heart!