Christmas is in the Air

This will be the third Christmas without my parents. For some reason, this year is bothering me more than the previous ones.  My Mom loved holidays... especially Christmas. She was like an excited little kid opening her presents.  My Dad was the grumpy sort on holidays... even though he didn't show it, he liked opening gifts and having family there.

I managed to get my Christmas decorations up early this year.  It's nice to come home and turn on the lights to the tree and mantle.

 

STITCHY STUFF
In my last post, I mentioned I participated in two ornament exchanges this year.  I received the second one shortly after my post.  Here's the one I received from Sharon S in NJ.

FREEBIE

Reindeer Card
by Lesley Teare
HERE





GIVEAWAY
I was hoping that my giveaway question would elicit creative responses, but alas ::sigh:: no one took the bait.  As my readers may recall, I asked what does an Ott light, screwdriver, needle nose pliers, wire, and a lighter have in common.

They all assisted me with this problem:

The starter cord on the snowblower broke on my first pull during the first snowfall.  Luckily, "Little Blow" caught and stayed running until I got the driveway and sidewalk clean.

According to Google, the starter assembly above isn't made to be repaired. The manufacturer would rather you buy a new assembly for $45.  What's a girl to do?  YouTube it, of course!  The video wasn't quite as easy as the guy made it look.  An hour later and a bit of frustration, I finally got it fixed.  Saved $45 and I was so proud of myself!  I'm my Dad's girl, for sure.

There was one winning guess to my giveaway question.  Drum roll please.....

Pam in IL

"As for the screwdriver, pliers, lighter, wire and Ott light -- I think they were used for a snowblower repair project."

 

Pam -- I'll be getting something out in the mail to you soon!

 

Until next time...

 

 

 

Marvelous Monday Update 2/16/15

VALENTINE'S DAY
Hello friends and fellow stitchers. Happy Belated Valetine's Day! I hope yours was a good one. The BF surprised me with a dozen red roses. It was the first time he's ever gotten me roses... it was so special :)

For him, I made this card and bought tickets to a play for next weekend. Although he likes plays, he said he liked the card much more. And can you believe he said his roses "pale in comparison" to my card?!

Design: Little Heart Swirl

Designer: Northern Expressions Needlework

Fabric: 28ct Waterlily Linen

Fibers: DMC 107 (discontinued)

Embellishments: Repurposed paper lace, Cardstock,

Handmade cording with JP Coates 143

STITCHY STUFF

My goal for last week was to finish the floral vine to the left of the house.  As you can see, I exceeded my goal and am over halfway done with the alphabet.  It won't be long before I'm announcing my third finish for 2015.  Yay!

WORK

Some of you may recall that I participate in my employer's healthy lifestyle program.  Participants have to earn 5,000 points in order to earn a discount on the cost of our health insurance.  Last year, I earned 10,000 points through healthy lifestyle choices.  Ten percent of the points from a previous year carryforward to the current year, which means participants don't have to work as hard to earn points (if they don't want to).  Since I had earned 10K points (the highest level "Platinum"), my name was put into a jackpot drawing with all other platinum earners in the entire program (not just the ones at my employment).  Guess what?  I won a jackpot prize!!  I'll soon be the new owner of an iPad mini.  Woo Hoo!

That's all I have for this week!

Until next time,

Christmas 2014

It's been a tough month for me since my Mom's birthday was this month and it's the first Christmas without my parents. Mom always made holidays special for us kids. Her joy in it offset Dad's grumpiness, lol.  What's warmed my heart: Receiving Christmas cards from people I didn't expect, and their thoughtful expressions regarding this first season without my parents.

I managed to get one of my little trees up and decorated on Christmas Eve.  Unfortunately, that's the only decorating I was able to get done this year. This year it was only decorated stitched ornaments -- ones that I've done and some that others have stitched for me.

I can't remember the last time we did not have a white Christmas. Here's the front of The Homestead on Christmas Day.

My brother hosted Christmas... everyone brought a dish to pass and there was so much food: Smoked turkey, smoked beef brisket, baked ham, hot and cold appetizers, mac and cheese, fried rice, shrimp, and the list goes on.  Everything was so good!

Giving the thumbs up on cheesecake

 

We hadn't done a family photo for at least 4 years.

The little ones weren't having any part of it!

Hanging out in the garage - Can you tell he's a gearhead?

Opening his gift

My sister-in-law presented my brothers, sister, and I with a frame she made after seeing one in a floral shop. She put a photo I had taken of my parents back in 2008. Even though they're no longer with us, their spirits and values live through us.

 

Time to say Bye-Bye

This is my great nephew and my niece.

I hope my readers and their families had a wonderful Christmas filled with laughter, good food, and love.

 

Santa Sack Exchange 2014

This was the first year I participated in the Santa Sack Exchange. I signed up for it in June... little did I know that I would soon be losing both parents... and thus I scrambled to get my exchange gifts made.  You can read about the specifics HERE.

I truly feel spoiled by Anne. She made such beautiful gifts.

Thank you, Anne!

Secret Santa at Work

Last year was my first time and I was not too pleased with receiving gifts that were clearly "re-gifted" or "second-handed" (maybe "third-handed"?).  Don't get me wrong.... I don't mind re-gifted or second-hand gifts if they are something on my wishlist or things that are clearly "me".  Last year's gifts were clearly not tailored towards me.

How it works: Participants fill out a generic survey of things they like -- hot/cold drinks, Christmas type items, scents, things we collect.  Then for four days, we give our Secret Santa recipient a small gift worth $1-2.  On Day 5, we all get together to give a $10 gift and try to guess who our Secret Santa is.

So this year, even though I was a bit iffy... I decided to bite the bullet and I once again participated in the Secret Santa Exchange at work.

DAY ONE

 

 DAY TWO

 

DAY THREE

 

DAY FOUR

DAY FIVE 

 

My partner paid attention to my questionaire

and gave me things along those themes.

I liked everything :)

I will probably do this again next year!

It's Time! 12 Days of Christmas

This year I participated in a private 12 Days of Christmas exchange.  Shelley drew my name and she put my wrapping abilities to shame. ;-)  I don't have my tree up yet, the sofa doubled as a display shelf.

Aren't they beautiful?!

The participants decided that today would be the starting date for opening gifts.  So here goes:

DAY ONE

Almost too pretty to open...

A cute little Santa snowglobe!  I love snowglobes!!  This one is going to work with me to put at my desk.  Also included in the adorable snowman box was Lindor chocolates.  Mmmm...  Yummo!

DAY TWO

Wonder what it could be?

I use highlighters when working on BAPs so these will definitely come in handy!

DAY THREE

More candy!!  Oh, and adorable holiday socks  :)
I think I'll save these to wear on Christmas.
 

 DAY FOUR

Ohhh, it's the BIG box!  Should I shake it?

All right!  Velveeta Shells & Cheese!!  Waaiiit a minute....

It's an adorable snoman mug!  It's huge, too.  I'm going to use it to hold all the candy I've been getting.

DAY FIVE

Yummo!!  Hot cocoa :)


DAY SIX

Woo Hoo!  A chart from my wishlist.

 DAY SEVEN

 I tried to be good and not feel it up.  It was heavy.

I thought it was a chocolate bar, LOL!

Not chocolate, but I do love the saying!

It fits right in with my theory of life.

"Make Happy Happen!"

Yeppers.

DAY EIGHT

A jungle bell place card holder.

Very cute!

DAY NINE

 Oooh! Love Burt's Bees stuff!  :)

DAY TEN

 Cute candy ornament to go with all the candy!

 Shelley actually made the ornament.

It looks so professional, I thought it was store bought!

DAY ELEVEN

I was in such a hurry to open my present this morning,

I forgot to take a photo of the package. As you can

see it's a pair of Christmas towels. :) 

There was candy, too.  I forgot to include it.

 

DAY 12

Shelly really spoiled me on Day 12!

Not only did she get me a chart from my wishlist,

she also gave me the fabric and threads to go with it!

I so want to start this!

Must. Hold. Off.

(or maybe not...)

 

This concludes the 2014 Twelve Days of Christmas exchange. A big thank you goes out to Shelley for all the wonderful gifts she's given me... and more importantly, the online friendship and support she's shared with me over the many years we've "known" each other.