Christmas Week

SURPRISE!

I guess I do have one last post to get out before Christmas!  I finished all my "business" sewing last week and have been twiddling my thumbs lately, with nothing productive to do.  I really don't appreciate down-time when I'm in it like I should!  The first two weeks of December were crazy busy as I was inundated with quillow orders and even had to employ my husband to help tie them.  We had a great time together in my little sewing room watching TV and movies (he actually watched "27 Dresses" and liked it!)

Doncha just love his spidey pants?  He wears them year-round!

He also did a wonderful job as a packaging specialist, getting all my orders boxed up, taped up, and out to the mailbox promptly.  Now that my necessary sewing is done, I'm playing with a little patchwork quillow project.

My patchwork quillows sell wonderfully, and I really enjoy making them because they satisfy my desire to make quilts and yet they sell better than quilts because they're smaller, less expensive and have that wonderful pillow pocket feature of a quillow!

This is an A.E. Nathan pattern and I'm only going to make 8 of the diamond patterns for the quillow body and one for the pillow.

It's a lot more difficult than I thought it would be as I've never put together a quilt made completely with 2" squares.  I have new respect for quilters who tackle the "Dear Jane" quilts!!

Six down and 3 to go!  I miss having something to hand quilt while watching TV so I'd like to get this done quickly, but I'm still trying to take my time as hurrying does nothing but mess it up.

Monday I spent the entire day baking cookies, and they are quickly disappearing!

My back suffered from standing all day so on Tuesday it was a bit of a "down" day for me.  I drove my mother to the airport as she was catching a plane to spend Christmas in Montana with my brother and his family.   I am babysitting her cat, Frankie, while she is away.

I was so bored on Wednesday that I decided to return the favors of my helpful husband and go up to our "Stumptown" house project and help him work on the electrical.  My duties consisted of taking this

adding these

and turning it into this

Believe me, anyone who thinks electrical work is for pansies, just because there's not a whole lot of lifting and hammering, is totally wrong!  My hands were so sore and dried up and just plain old yukky after a day of that!

I desperately need a manicure!  Even my husband complained that his hands hurt, too, and he does this stuff all the time!  Our backs were stiff from bending over or sitting on the floor to do the outlets.  It helped that I had my mp3 player and listened to my Jane Eyre audiobook while I worked.  It was fun to be with my husband, though, as we are getting along wonderfully these days.  Needless to say, I'm glad that task was over!  As we were heading home we both got the urge for chips and dip and stopped at the grocery store and picked up the fixings for sausage cheese dip!!  YUM!  Funny how at Christmastime you can get away with doing fun spontaneous things that you typically don't do on a regular basis!

So, today, the hubby headed back up to the house to do just a few more things, but he promised to be back by lunchtime.  I did a bit more sewing on my patchwork quillow this morning and I'm headed to the kitchen to make chocolate dipped pretzels and rosette cookies.

My mom used to make these when we were kids so I borrowed her iron and will "attempt" to make them myself!  I've never done them without her help so I'm not expecting easy results.

All my children will be home tonight and I'm truly looking forward to it.  My son has to close (he works at Ruby Tuesday) and the girls will be going to their grandmother's house for their traditional family get-together.   My husband and I have taken to going out to eat together on Christmas Eve and we're excitedly looking forward to a shared dinner at Chili's tonight, in addition to stopping at Wal-mart for a few last minute items and also delivering some cookies to friends.  Then, we'll snuggle up and watch "Elf" tonight! Fun, fun, fun!

Merry Christmas from me and Frankie!