More holiday freebies

These are all linked up for you :)

Val Laird

Jenny of Elefantz

So this Sunday was spent resting and relaxing. I spent part of my day cooking . . .

Cabbage Roll Casserole

Resting, napping and watching movies.

My evening has been spent keeping in touch with swap partners. This is a lovely, warm group of new friends. I'm thrilled to be part of them.

Monday finds Newton back to school after 5 days off !!! Honey Do and I are back to our "normal" routines. I'm adding Christmas decorating and gift planning to my to-do list this week, along with a couple of appointments for good measure and preparing another ornament craft for my Sunday School class. It feels as though the week will be moving along quickly.

2014 is in the home-stretch !! Can you believe this year is almost over? I'm amazed at how quickly time is flying by us.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a creative day.

(found on Facebook - Mod Podge Rocks)

Saturday thus-ness

(RoseHill Designs)

As usual, my day started early with pooch patrol. We go out walk and run the yard and the day begins.

Breakfast and dishes out of the way, laundry caught up and I can get some crafting done.

Sunday is First Advent, and the Sunday School class will be making ornaments. First are some small/miniature wreaths I found at church. But I'm getting ready for another and another helper is working on a third :)

So in the next week or two, we'll be making these.

 

Cutting the felt, though, is tedious. And I've decided they should be multi-colored because that's the felt we have available and we are all about using what we have.

As I was digging for felt, I found some scraps of fleece from another project, so more doggie toys.

I'm spending the rest of my day working on Bethlehem. It's still a goal for this month although I don't think it will be finished, but I'm not giving up yet.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a creative day.

Black Friday??

So how many of us are crazy enough still to get up before the chickens and go shopping??

I used to love to go . . . with my sister, but once the shopping rush was done, what I really enjoyed was going out to breakfast with her and talking. So it really wasn't all the shopping, it was the fellowship. We had made it a tradition for us for several years, but then job changes happened and she moved and things change. We get together now as often as we can, but there are still life changes that don't allow it to happen as frequently as we would like.

The shopping and madness of the day have also waned and I just look forward to being in my house and comfortable and usually sewing these days. Most likely on whatever I'm working on and thinking I should be sewing for Christmas because, of course, that's nowhere near done :) I don't stress about it as much as I once did. Our goal each year is to make it smaller and less commercial. Extended families are getting bigger, finances are getting less, the meaning is getting more important and seems to get lost in all the shuffle. Honestly, I'm looking forward to a day when going to church and celebrating Christ's birth is the most important part of the season and our personal celebrations.

Doesn't that sound like a perfect way to spend Christmas - going to church, a nice evening meal ?

I think it sounds perfect !!

So for my "Black Friday" is shopped my favorite blogs and I'm so excited.  Look at the goodies my "Black Friday" is netting me:

First, Jenny of Elefantz

Jenny is offering seven days of gifts to make at no cost to us. I will tell you that she has tons of GORGEOUS patterns that I never get tired of and lots of finishing suggestions, which is extremely helpful for somoneone like me who gets stuck in her ruts and finishes everything the same way :)

Look at this adorable bag. Won't it just make the best wrapping for a gift and so useful after it's unwrapped :) Do it up in the recipient's favorite color(s) and you can't go wrong.

Next up, Michelle May of Rasberry Rabbits.

Michelle's been gifting us with these adorable tags. This one is number three and there will be five in all. Visit her for the others. You have until mid-December.

Michelle also has lots of offerings. Here's one of my favorites.

I debated about Friendship of the Flowers all year, so of course, I'm behind. She's had a whole year of ideas on stitching and embellishing and sweetened the pot with these extra projects thrown in for good measure. Time is running out on this subscription, too.

Another favorite is Amy at Nana Company.

Another favorite, Kristyne of Pretty by Hand.

All of these things are just suggestions and some are from previous years. Keep checking the sites, there will probably be new ones shortly.

I off to choose fabric for Jenny's "gift" bag.

Thank you for stopping by

Wishing you a creative day.

Wishing you all a blessed, relaxing, loving day.

Happy Thanksgiving.

It's the day before Thanksgiving . . .

And all through the house . . .

There's all kinds of busyness going on . . .

15 quart bags of chicken stock ready for the freezer . . .

Cherry Brownie Cobbler . . . 

Pumpkin Pie . . .

Onions and celery are chopped for the stuffing, the turkey is defrosting, potatoes are peeled.

I even managed to get a few 9-patches made :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a creative day.

'Tis the Season

Have you started listening to Christmas music yet?

I have :) 

The radio station that I have on during the days to keep the birds company as I go about my chores started playing them a week ago last Friday.

How about Christmas movies?

I have watched several on Netflix. We don't have cable, so I have a collection of DVDs and watch whatever new ones I can find on Netflix.

I love the music and the movies. I love singing in church and hearing the kids sing.

I'm not big on the commercialisation of Christmas, but there are still gifts to give.

So to that end . . . .

Get this one here.

This one here.

Lots of ideas can be found on Pinterest.

Many of our fellow bloggers are offering suggestions, ideas and patterns.

This adorable tag was found on Rasberry Rabbits.

As we go along, there will be more offers and suggestions. There are always those projects we didn't get done last year :) Or am I the only one?

Today was spent helping Sister do the binding on her king-sized quilt.

Everything is pinned in place, she just has to do the sewing.

When I got home and had a few minutes, I went back to work on the second baby quilt.

Binding is on - I have another finish for November !!! :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a creative day.

What do you do during a power outage?e

I had to think about that again Monday afternoon/evening. Our power outages always seem to occur around the dinner hour. So dinner plans get scrapped for the nearest take out. Then it's drop back and punt trying to find things to do to while away the hours.

In the northern hemispher, we are in our last month of autumn. Clocks have changed and it gets dark between 5 and 5:30 p.m. That means there's not much daylight with which to play. It also means no phones, no internet, no television. The compuyter battery might make it through a movie, but I've never tried.

My sweet husband presented me with this light that he made and it's allowed me to work on baby quilt #2.

I set it in the tin can that I'm using for thread snippets on my ironing board. I managed to get about half the binding hand stitched by the time the power came back on. Feeling very productive. I should be able to finish it by mid-week.

I received another very pleasant surprise in my mailbox today.

This gorgeous sweater is a gift from BFF. She knows me too well. 

I absolutely love it.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a creative day.

And the results are in . . .

Here's what I got accomplished:

 

My sweet Nina got a new bed :)

Also a new toy made out of the scraps :)

Crafts for our Sunday School class are ready. This little guy is what we're making. He's adorable :)

The mailman made me VERY happy today. I got my new Tilda book. Can't wait to make all of it :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a creative day.