Totally useless

My fingers are dry and cracked. My thumbs are raw and totally useless. I can't stitch with bandaids on them and can't touch anything without them on. Just using my phone is a challenge (typing this isn't exactly fun either)

I look like I have been holding hands with Edward Scissorhands.

 I stitched this little ornament for a gift exchange before Christmas. It is from the 2017 JCS ornament issue. I can't put my hands on it right now, (none of my Christmas stuff has been put away yet) but it was made into a little purse ornament in the magazine. I left off the top part and just mad this ornament out of it.

Here are a few pictures from Christmas at our house. 

 Ashley - baby boy's bride

 Timothy - the middle kidlet

 Brian - the oldest and his girlfriend, Brittany

 Jason - my baby boy

 and the hubby. There were only 6 Christmas crackers so I sacrificed and let the others have them. Cute aren't they /

I have only had one day that I could stitch since Christmas. Once the weather turned cold out my hands got super dry and I started getting cracks on my fingers. I used to always have this problem but it went away when we moved to Houston. They would get dry and rough but not the cracks and bleeding. Last winter we had a mild winter here and I didn't have a problem but it is making up for it this year. 

The one day I did stitch I made a boo-boo. Had to take out that over one stitching.

I'm keeping ointment and bandaids on the worst places and hand cream on the rest so hopefully I can be back to stitching soon.

I have a few more Christmas pictures I can show if I don't get any stitching in soon.

Hope your 2018 is starting out great!

Merry Christmas

From my house to yours,

Merry Christmas!

Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday!

Here and There

 Little touches of Christmas around the house. Not all inclusive - still kind of picture overload and I deleted some photos.

 A little Santa and tree in the laundry room

 Another tree and another Santa. This is the little back entry (from the garage) we turned into an office space.

 Just a few small touches in the guest room

 I always hang these balls on the quilt hanger in the guest room. All of the dolls were made by my grandmother for my boys. (except  for Dapper Dan - I think that is his name) they stay out all year. Not sure if you can tell, but that is a little r/w/b Christmas tree propped up there. It was a gift from a friend and also stays out all year.

 Just a few touches in the master bedroom - on the list to be painted soon!

 Chest in the living room - usually completely covered with family photos.

 Little touches tucked in the shelving around the tv. 

 I think my bow needs a little more attention.

 I haven't bought much as far as decorations this year - I have plenty - but I couldn't resist this little upside down snowman.

 All the stockings waiting for Santa.

 The little angel tree topper belonged to my grandmother.

 How could I resist this little pink house - it lights up but I forgot to turn it on before I took the pic.

 I've fallen in love with bottle brush trees the past couple of years.

 Brittany left artwork on the chalk board when she was here at Thanksgiving. I think Santa approves.

 I made this little candy cane house a long time ago - it still sheds glitter every year. 

The Fireman Santas are at the top of the stairs. There are little dew drop lights that are kind of hard to see with the overhead lights on but if I turn them off you can't see the Santas.

Okay - that's it for this trip. I have one or two pictures of the outside lights. I don't know if I will get anymore or not - it is raining and I think it is supposed to be on and off all the way through Christmas.

I know, kind of picture heavy. If you made it this far, thanks for stopping by. Hope you are enjoying the holiday season so far.

A Forest of Trees

We have a few trees around the house. Every year I say I am going to go smaller and every year the guys bring the totes down and off I go.

 This is our main tree where all the family ornaments go. No theme, just a lot of memories. Each of my kids has a box of ornaments that was started for them with their first Christmas. The oldest took some of his ornaments this year (he actually put up a tree in his apartment for the first time this year) but as you can see, we aren't short any ornaments. 

 A shot from the other side. We have to turn the table around to make a space for the tree so our furniture placement looks a little off during the holidays. Looks like it is leaning a little in this picture and no, there aren't any gifts under the tree. I haven't wrapped any yet!

 I started this little sweet tree a few years ago.  Looks like that bow needs a little fluffing. Some of the ornaments I purchased and some were gifts. It sits on the bar in the kitchen. I have a string of  lights on it but you can't really see them in the picture) You can see another tree in the background - for some reason I didn't take a picture of that one but it will show up again when I show other pictures from around the house. It has a twin and I do have a picture of the twin in this post.

 This little feather tree is in my sewing room. It didn't get out last year because I couldn't find it. I still have boxes that haven't been unpacked - who knows what I will find when I finally get around to unpacking them.

 In the guest room I have another little small tree.

 In the master bedroom I have a little wire tree that I picked up about 10 years ago. 

 This is the fireman tree. Hubby was a firefighter for 21 years (longer if you count volunteer years before getting a full time paid position) and I collected ornaments for him (and still do if I find a cute one) Our main tree became a little overloaded (before we bought a bigger tree several years ago) so I pulled these and gave them their own tree. I had it in the game room at the last house but no game room here so it is in the main room, just inside the front door.

 This is the twin to the tree in the kitchen. In our last house we only had two windows (downstairs) on the front of the house and they were both in the dining room so I had twin trees in there. Here I have one in the kitchen and one in the living room. (yes, that makes 3 trees in the living/main room)

That's it for the decorated trees. I have pictures of some of the rest of the 'fluff' and I will try to get another post up before the boys start arriving next week. Right now my battery says it needs a charge and I need to get busy.

A Big Thank You!

A package arrived on my front porch yesterday.

 My sweet friend Terry (no blog) knows me well - these days I'm all about anything caramel - add chocolate and/or salt and it's even better!

 Look at this cute needle minder she made for me! Texas all the way!

And when I got to this I started dancing a little jig (something you really don't want to see!) I can't believe she sent me the new DMC - and in the tin! I had to just stare at it, I might have hugged it a little. I did finally open it but got so excited at the pretty colors I forgot to take a picture. (I did not take the floss out - so I will take a picture later)

From the bottom of my heart, thank you, Terry.

I'm working on getting a Christmas tour - I've finished all my 'fluff' just need to go through the pictures and decide which ones to post. The next few weeks are going to be pretty busy. While my 'fluff' is finished, my shopping is not and of what I have bought the only things that have been wrapped are what I needed to get in the mail.

I hope you are all ready for the holiday and have time to kick back and enjoy the season. I'm hoping I reach that point before the boys start arriving!

Happy Thanksgiving

Not a lot of Thanksgiving decor - just switched out a little Halloween for Thanksgiving pieces.

Middle kidlet arrived Tuesday night

  Oldest and his 'plus one' will arrive around noon.

Desserts are made and it's time to head to the kitchen to get the rest of the meal started.

Hope you all have a wonderful day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Girls weekend

A couple of weeks ago the girlfriends and I traveled to Houston for the quilt show. We have been going for years and it is always a fun weekend. If your have never been to the Houston Quilt Festival, it is something to see! 

 We drove down on Friday afternoon and made a stop at 3 Stitches. I picked up a few things but this is all I can show you since everything else will be gifts. (the needle minder says floss boss)

 Saturday we headed to the quilt show - looks like it was a doggie day! I also purchased the fabric kit for the quilt. I already have several of the weinerland charts - haven't stitched one yet.

This is the only other thing I bought for myself over the weekend. I haven't bought a new pair of scissors for myself in a long time but I couldn't resist this pair - now to make a new fob.

Just like the previous day, everything else I bought was for gifts.

Headed home on Sunday. Our next girls weekend will be in March. Already looking forward to it!