A Good Shopping Experience

I don't like to shop.

I used to, but I haven't cared for it for years now,

except in the case of quilt stores,

I'll go there in a heartbeat!

But normal shopping, no thanks.

So, when I HAVE to shop, I choose places 

where I can park my car right outside their doors

and walk in.  No parking garages, no giant lots.

No going to malls by myself, especially after 

work when it gets dark early.

Today I had to shop.

I've gone years without buying anything for winter

and my work clothes are starting to show it. 

I headed off to Washington, MO where there

is a nice strip mall with Kohl's, JoAnne's, etc.

Being early and on Monday, it was almost deserted.

I had not been to Marshall's in decades but since it was there,

I decided to see what they had. I had been looking for a 

coffee cup, something pretty, but won't pay $10, or even $ 6.

I found this pretty duo there for $1.50 !

They also had plates and bowls but I don't need those.

I looked the cups up and found regular price was around $12

and even more on some e-bay posts.

I think they are really cute, and the right price!

ebay price

I did find some nice bargains at Kohl's.

I got three casual cardigan type jackets for 

for 50% off. They will last years and 

with blue, black and grey, there is a lot I can pair with them.

I have really nice short sleeved shirts from Macy's 

that are great and require no ironing.

If I pair them with a jacket or cardigan they work

well all winter long too.

Also, Dress Barn had sales from 30%-70% so I found 

three tops on the clearance rack.

I love their sales force. I was greeted, 

they asked my name, they assigned a dressing room for me

so I could keep my purchases there, they asked if I needed

any assistance and when I made a decision they took the 

garments to the checkout for me.

They THANKED me for shopping with them!

The JoAnne's had a red polka-dot fabric for $ 2.79/yard,

just perfect for the backing of my red and white quilt.

I can't beat the price either.

I have my backing and binding plus the batting

so I'm set to quilt another.

That concluded my shopping for the day.

No jangled nerves, no crowds and some good deals.

I still have a couple more things to get but

I'll take it slow and watch the sales.

What stores do you all like for good bargains?

Do you shop at malls?

Really Cool Gifts

 There were some pretty cool gifts this year,

too many to show you all of them

but I thought I'd show some of the 

more unusual!

This is a fat quarter bundle from a quilt

shop near my Mom's house

  The Rocking Chair in Hot Springs, AR.

Mom's not a quilter so they gave her some ideas

of what I might like.  I hate to take it apart!

It's packaged  so prettily.

There are 12 different quarter yards,

cut into a fat quarter which is

more or less 18 X 22.

Glasses from Hot Springs.

Pops is an avid pizza maker, thin crust style,

a St Louis favorite.  He can rival Imos any day.

We normally bake it in an extremely hot oven

on parchment paper, being so thin you can't 

lift up the crust.  Taylor gave him a 

pizza peel that can also hang up when

he's not baking pizzas. 

It's engraved

to remember the date!

Santa knew Taylor needed some help 

getting up for school so he and the chickens

sent a Rooster alarm clock!

I also received a chicken gift which 

is currently on the mantle but will find

a better ledge for the legs.

Santa also gave Taylor a fan, 

now she can pretend to be coy!

Or just cool off on a hot day.

This was the year for Pops.

A BBQ light will come in handy. 

And an umbrella light that changes color,

shines up and down and has a brightness control.

Mom has always loved Bissinger's molassas lollipops

but they have become difficult to find near us

until I ran into Wines of Wildwood the other day

after seeing a Bissingers sign in the window.

They have a large selections of wines, cigars and gifts.

There are wine related recipes if you are interested.

I  got a Super Dooper gift - 

a certificate for Hancock's of Paducah which I have already redeemed!

Mom also gave me a check which is also partially spent when we 

ran into Phil's Sewing to get needles, threads and bobbins.

There was way too much to mention everything 

but I think we all had a great Christmas.

Mom has returned home, everyone is back to their

routine but I still have a few days off work,

 not returning until Jan 2 except for logging in

to make sure there are no critical e-mails to pass on.

I hope you all had a great Christmas.

I'll be catching up on your blogs over the next few days.

Finally the Quilts!

I can finally show you what I've had to 

hide for months now that family 

 wanted to be friends on Facebook!

Since the blog feeds to FB, I couldn't show anything

that I have been making!

7

 This is Becky's (my daughter) quilt, 

all owls to match her decor.

Taylor (my granddaughter) was on my advisory

team as to which owls to select.

She did a great job, didn't breath a word.

I was rushing to bind it but Becky kept showing up

so I had to quickly hide it and make sure she 

didn't walk into her old room!

This was my first attempt at Free Motion quilting.

It is  more difficult than it looks

and I have now learned some tips and tricks that 

should make it easier next time.

This is my mom's quilt, 

the colors match the table runner I made for her earlier.

I had this done way before she arrived for the week

so it was safely tucked away until Christmas morning.

This is the back of Becky's

again, all owls.

This is my mom's.

The green is perfect for her house.

I've been unusually cold this week so 

I broke out my Winter quilt, 

even without the binding

which is what I'll be doing this week!

This is the back of it.

I did not quilt this, only pieced it.

I had the long arm quilter do it as I was running out of time.

 It may be difficult to see but there is a 

Christmas Tree and Star motif.

I've been busy with company this week so far

behind in posting.  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.

I Did Not Catch the Oven on Fire

I did Not set the oven on fire.

Entirely.

 The potatoes did not burst into flame.

Only one.

A spark really, with very little smoke.

You see, the potato was baking 

and rolled off the oven rack

(as they tend to do)

and one sort of ended up resting on the heating element

which, of course, was hot.

It could happen to anyone.

Really.

Dinner did go on, even with the threat of flaming potatoes.

Nana Ann brought crackers for us all,

Dan and Gina on Skype thought we'd lost our minds!

But when you pop them, out comes a paper crown

a joke and a little gift, in our case stickers.

 Aside from flaming potatoes,

and a bad mannered pumpkin pie,

the evening ended with a viewing of

The Music Man. Then off to bed!

I never heard a sound, but Santa arrived!

The stockings are filled with a little overflow for Taylor.  

She must have been a pretty special girl this year.

We'll attend early Mass and then return to 

open presents and have a little breakfast.

I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

And beware of the potatoes.

Countdown to Christmas

We're counting down the days to Christmas.

We decorated the tree last night. I put on the upper 

ornaments and Taylor took care of the lower branches.

Bird is no longer with us so I found a little white

bird at the dollar store and placed her on the tree.

(I made some slight modifications so she would look right)

I tie the tree to the spindles of the stairs

just in case, I've had a tree fall before

and don't want to repeat that!

Taylor has been working on her Advent calendar.

We have the traditional Christmas Candy.

Bob's peppermint sticks are the best

although you can't hang them on the tree. 

 Between work and some projects I didn't have time

to bake so I picked up some pretty cookies at Aldi. 

Taylor won't mind, I'm sure.

We heard the pitter patter of little feet

coming down the steps and then Taylor

walked into the kitchen to see what's for

breakfast.  Pop's was cooking up

some  potatoes with onion and celery

plus a cheese topping.

The amaryllis is poking up so I hope it blooms.

This is a table runner that my co-worker made 

us this year.  It uses only 2 pieces of fabric made into 

a tube, sew and iron to allow the back fabric 

to become a border, flip over the edges and 

attach buttons to the ends.  There's no batting

so it's fast and easy.

Here is a link to the pattern.

Ten Minute Table Runner 

 I folded it over so you can see the front is striped and the

back is a coordinated piece.

I still have to finish a major project and pick up a couple of 

minor things but after that I think we are ready!

It looks like we will miss the bad weather, we'll

get rain but probably miss the ice and sleet.

 I hope your plans are also going well!

What a Difference- 24 hours

Yesterday, dawn was gorgeous!

 The morning glow was a rainbow of yellows,

oranges, blues, pink and purples.

Here is the view this morning?

We still have Blue but also grey and a lot of white!

Yesterday 

A view from the second floor front porch.

The cats are not happy.

Neither are the birds.

This is the driveway up to the subdivision road.

The guys were out plowing this morning and

plan on rebuilding the salt spreader this afternoon

so it actually works.

I had planned to go to the fabric sale at the quilt shop

which is about 20-30 miles from the house 

but I think I'll just stick around here.

I've got lots to keep me busy.

 The snow ranged up to 9 inches in parts of 

Franklin county (our county) but we were not nearly

that deep.  There were lots of highway

accidents, many in town (St. Louis City/County) 

where I would have thought street crews would have had 

it cleared earlier but since it started with rain,

they may have had to wait until it stopped

and the snow began.

I do have some scraps to throw out to 

the woodland critters since everything is covered.

I'll wait until later, once the raccoon and opossum come out.

The cats are warm and dry between the porch shelters

and the area beneath our porch that they have dug out.

The covered porch is 9 ft deep so they bed down way  

back where no water or snow ever gets.

There's always the tractor tent too, 

easy enough to crawl beneath the tent flaps.

Well, I've frustrated myself enough with

some quilting issues so now it's time to take

a break and have some lunch.

Stay safe and warm!

Pretty and Bright to a Snowy Night

 It sure started out to be a pretty morning,

the colors were amazing and I was lucky 

to catch the shot when I did. In a matter of minutes

the colors fade away as the sun makes it over the hills.

Regardless, it would be short lived.

Yet another winter storm advisory 

Rain to Sleet to Snow by nightfall,

expected accumulation 3-5 inches by morning.

 So much for finishing up my shopping.

I worked from home in the morning and

 took 1/2 day vacation in the afternoon for just that.

So, what did I do instead?

I changed out the dining table

from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

My thrift store Funky Santa made his 2013 debut

along with new friends

Mr. Snowman Tea pot and cup

and Ms Penguin coffee mug.

They make a nice trio on my 

S'Noel table runner.

After baking some brownies I grabbed

my apple peeler/corer and two bags of apples.

I had an entire bowl of peels and cores left for

the critters this evening. They'll make a nice

treat when everything is covered in snow.

I gave the slices a lemon juice/water bath and

laid them out on the dehydrator sheets. 

 Then shaking my head, I realized that when

this is all said and done I would have prepped  apples

for about an hour, with several more hours in dehydrator time, 

only to have my husband gobble them down in no time flat!

  A friend stopped by a bit ago and reported

that the roads are starting to get pretty 

slushy.  Until it stops raining there's no use in 

putting down the salt and having it run off the hillside.

  I guess nature made sure I had plenty of quilting time

tomorrow- I need it!  Deadlines approach.

Stay safe,

Stay warm! 

A Visit with Santa(s)

We made our annual visit to Santa today.

He always stops at Bourbeuse Valley Harley Davidson

about this time of year, checking up on all the good

little girls and boys, and probably taking a 

spin or two while the reindeer wait out back.

We met our daughter, Becky, a little after 10 AM

for the ritual handing off of the granddaughter, Taylor.

Surprisingly we were the 2nd in line!

Normally we arrive much later and the place is packed

with children and lots of Santa's elves. 

Taylor is registered for a chance to win this bear,

her grandpa, Pops, wants the bike

which happens to be around $40k so

I wouldn't be holding my breath if I were Pops.

There's always the orange Harley tree

with all sorts of ornaments.

Toys and games are scattered around for 

the kids to play with while they wait.

We'll pick up our photos in a week or so

but I also snapped some of my own.

As it happened, we ran into one of Santa's helpers

when we stopped in at the local Ace Hardware

so Taylor was able to have a second visit 

in just a few minutes!

We had promised her a pair of really warm

gloves, waterproof and warm, which we found here.

This is a great Ace Hardware.

All Hardware is on the basement floor,

ground level from the rear of the building.

The home goods, toys, gifts and fabric shop is

on the first floor, ground level from the front

of the building.

Does it get any better?

Two visits to Santa,

and a stop at the quilt shop!