Merry Christmas

I will take this time to wish you all many blessing this Christmas and in the coming year.  

Katie 

I’ll consider it DONE!

My Christmas shopping and projects are DONE!!!  Well, for now   As the next couple days go by, I may have to putter a little in the sewing room……  But if I don’t, nothing lost.  I will spend the next few days doing some baking and taking goodies to share with friends.  Getting as much pre-Christmas dinner cooking done as I can and of course get the house Christmas ready so that within minutes there will be chaos…. but at least the bathrooms will be clean!

Here is a sampling of my projects:

These are little mug rugs I made to go with the glass mugs I etched and filled with candies.

I was hoping the etching would be a bit more ‘frosty’ but I think the kids will like them.  I wanted to do Christmas theme for these as it’s my hope that it’s a gift that brings them joy for many Christmases to come.

A sampling of some of the doll clothes.  I had to make a Snow White dress as she’s my granddaughter’s favorite Disney Princess.  Come to find out, my son went to the Disney store and got her a Snow White dress too.  So…. my granddaughter will have at least two matching outfits:

It’s going to be a pink camo Christmas as I also got each of my grandkids their own sleeping bags and, you guessed it, Tiffani’s is pink camo

I didn’t do much Christmas decorating this year – just wasn’t in the mood.  But here’s what it looks like:

Yes, complete with my own reindeer!  Okay, actually it’s an elk!  My hubby is a hunter and this elk made the record books.  I would much prefer it was displayed in his shop but….. 

So there you have it…. Christmas at Katie’s.  I hope you all enjoy a very Merry Christmas.

Katie

Oh, Dear!

No, it isn’t Christmas yet…. but I think I’m getting closer to it.

My very messy sewing space!  I had to actually take a little time to straighten it out some.  When it got to the point I couldn’t find pieces of what I was working on, I knew I had to do something!  As soon as I finish with my Christmas projects, I will take the time to put things away as I should (or close to it)

This is some of the dump bags that were donated to the Elk’s VA Christmas party.  With some help from the QFC ladies, I believe we donated 20 of these bags along with 7 quilts.  We were also able to donate 107 Christmas stockings a  variety of stocking stuffers for the Children’s Christmas party.  I still have cupcakes to make for that before Sunday……

I made these fabric Christmas cards for my G-kids.  They are done the same way as a fabric post card –but a bit larger.  The designs are from Pixies Rule.  Not sure, but I do hope their mom saves their cards each year.  I’d like to think that sometime in the future, the cards will mean something to my G-kids……

I could not believe the size of this box for this one little doll!  I guess they ran out of smaller boxes – look at all that packing material!  Just glad I didn’t have to pay for shipping by the size of the box!  I am currently in the process of making the doll clothes for the pictured doll.  It is a Dollie & Me doll – sort of like the American Girl dolls that are so popular.  Outfits can be bought for the child that also has the same to match her doll.  My granddaughter will be 3 the end of January, and I had thought about a baby doll with a wardrobe to go with.  Then I talked to her mom about one of these ‘girl’ dolls instead and mom agreed.  They don’t have babies in their family or any of their friends so my GD simply doesn’t see interaction with babies.  I think she will relate more to a doll more like her – but what do I know…. it’s been a long time since I played with dolls – and my girls weren’t really ‘into’ dolls….. 

So there is my update for now.  DH is off deer hunting so this gives me plenty of time to finish up the sewing I want to do, get the house cleaned and grocery shopping done in time for Christmas. 

Hope all is taking time to enjoy the Holiday season.  I attended a play last evening at one of the local churches titled “Bethlehem Night”  it was so very well done and I really enjoyed it.  I hope you all have time to take in listening to a choir at maybe a local mall, attending a church production or simply enjoying the sounds of the season – Now, I think I’ll put on some music and go to my sewing room.

Katie

Christmas Memories

As I have sat and read some blogs, I notice many of them are showing pictures of items they put out each Christmas.  Things that have been crafted in years past as well as new items.  Seeing and reading about these got me to thinking about my own Christmases.  I , naturally, have many fond memories of Christmases with my children and/or grandchildren.  But my fondest memory has to be of my dad.  He loved Christmas!!!   He was the one who would do all the gift wrapping.  He would set up the card table in his and mom’s bedroom, turn on his Christmas music and got to town wrapping gifts.  He would always make a big to do with decorating the tree.  But one year….. we had one of those silver trees that had seen better days and I guess maybe my mom had decided it was time to go back to green …. But dad had to do something with that silver tree.  So while he was getting all the lights up outside, setting up his lighted Nativity and other characters, he was struck with inspiration.  I don’t remember what he set that tree on as dad was not the ‘handyman’ type, but somehow he elevated that tree up on something and set up the color wheel on it.  He could still see his silver tree from the kitchen window and I think it made him very happy.  That was the last time the silver tree was ever used.  Every time I think of Christmas, I think of my dad and how much the season meant to him (he was very much a man of strong faith!)  It is my hope that many years from now, my kids can remember to Christmases past and have some happy, fond memories.

How was your week?

My week has felt fractured… I try to live a relatively routined life.  Start the day here, then get this or that done.  Once I have all my necessary stuff done, I feel comfortable moving on to what I want to do….  I had some dump bags I needed to finish up. (when I find my camera, I will post picutes!)  The dump bags will be donated to my local Elk’s lodge for distribution at the Tucson VA hospital Christmas party.  I figured it would take me,. maybe, a day to get them all (14) completed.  3 days later finally done!!!

I make my G-kids and certain family members fabric Christmas cards.  Here’s pics from previous years:

		Christmas cards VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

While I was working on the dump bags, I did some machine embroidery to start assembling my cards for this year.  I think I need to start labeling my photos so I remember who got what design so as not to repeat that design in future years

Christmas shopping… No I did not go to any stores.  By getting some shopping done on-line, I was able to save on shipping charges and in some cases, taxes.  I live in a rural community and it’s a minimum of a 25 mile drive to any major shopping.  And then I’m paying state, county & city tax on my purchases.  In most cases, unless there is a brick & mortar store in your state, you won’t pay taxes on on-line purchases.  If there is a store in your state, you will pay only the state tax – sometimes those savings really add up!  I made a couple orders that I received free shipping on AND I didn’t pay any tax – that more than made up for fuel costs had I traveled for in-store shopping!!!  AND, I’ve retained my sanity!

So, I’m getting side tracked (again!) my week was ‘fractured’ because it seemed like every time I thought I would be able to work on a project, I was interrupted.  The phone ringing, the door bell ringing, company stopping by – it was just one of those weeks…  Overall, it was a good week and I did get some things accomplished, so not really complaining (well not much anyway)  but I do find that the older I get, the more routine I am and I get out of sync when it doesn’t go according to plan…

Okay, enough for now…  I will try to find my camera and get some pictures of my finishes – maybe even some starts.  My poor house is in serious need of cleaning, but because I do some major cleaning when I decorate for Christmas, I’m just giving it a touch here and there…  Maybe Kari will come help next week 

Wishing you all a peaceful week,

Katie