It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It's snowing!!!!  :)

Every year, the boys forget about snow and are curious about it.  

 Until they realize they are getting wet.  Then they want to come back in...

No Place Like Home for the Holidays...

"Until you feel the spirit of Christmas, there is no Christmas"  

                                                                                   ---unknown

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Weekend!  I know a lot of people call this time of year a lot of things but I'm sticking with the "Home for the Holidays" weekend because that is where I prefer to put my focus.    We had a wonderful visit and dinner with Peter and Jess.  They used a brine on the turkey, made everything from scratch (including our dinner rolls which were still rising when we got there) and it was all delicious.  I'm so proud of them, they did an amazing job and it is so much fun to relax and laugh with them!  
On Friday, we turned the Christmas lights on, baked cookies, and worked on the Christmas scrapbook.  I had all the decorations up and ready but I prefer to wait until the day after Thanksgiving to put the wreath on the door and switch on the twinkly lights.  On Sunday, Helena came over for a sewing lesson.  We sang Christmas carols, made some Christmas tree ornaments from a blog tutorial at bugs and fishes and also made a cat she found in one of my sewing books.  It was wonderful, relaxing and warm and the perfect way to share gratitude and begin the holiday season!

What's on display in the sewing room...

Wild Turkey, we have a lot of them here in PA

Boy says:  "Bark when you see Turkey!"

"Off and running!"

Have a safe and happy holiday--full of fun and family!

Tea Wreath

I've been doing some crafting this fall and found this great tutorial at Kojo-Designs for a tea wreath.  It's a perfect way to let guests prepare their tea during our holiday open houses.  This is how mine turned out (in keeping with my red and white kitchen):

It was a fun and easy project and I recommend it to anyone who is entertaining for a lot of tea drinkers.  It was much easier than I expected and I'm glad to be able to hang something up instead of another thing on our limited kitchen counters.
Have a great day!

A finish

I'm grateful to say that the snow was kept at bay yesterday because of a dry front over us.  My friends say that Dr. Doom (my husband who has a reputation of disastrous repairs) is responsible.  All the really bad weather happens when he isn't home and I have to deal with the whole thing alone :)  Anyway, we had power last night so I finished this one:

Seamus seems to like this wallhanging that I just finished last night.  It will be hung somewhere else for a Christmas Gathering party for some special little girls.   Here are some other photos:

Unbelievable

We're getting ready for another Nor'Easter!!!  This one is expected to bring 3-6 inches of snow to our valley.  As bad as this is for us, I'm just praying and praying for those folks in NJ and NY who are enduring way too much these days.

So I'm turning up the heat, getting a carafe of coffee ready for tomorrow (should we lose power again), and getting the flashlights out again. 

Stay warm and stay safe!

Cot quilt

I was actually able to sew while the power was off, thanks to my handy Beam and Read light (best 4 or 5 dollars invested and the batteries are easily found--round here, you couldn't get a D battery before the hurricane!).  I had put the binding on this quilt before the storm and just worked on it at night while I was listening to the radio (for whatever reason, I was reminded of Mrs. Miniver at the time).   Anyway, this simple quilt is done:

It's just charm squares that I had won at a quilt show and a few other pieces that I threw in.  It's really hard to see the sashing fabric although I tried to get a photo of it:

The sashing fabric is ribbed and so there is a neat texture to it.  The only challenge is that the ribbed fabric has some poly in it and it had to be fussed a bit to keep the whole thing from getting wonky.  Anyway, I like simple quilt patterns, and this one is perfect for the ottoman/cot upstairs.