Christmas Greetings!

Finally! It's the last day of school before the Christmas break and it's starting to feel like Christmas! My kids are pumped. They have been doing tons of homework every night and they're excited about Christmas and about getting a break from homework!

I took DD2 to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rockettes last night and it was...Spectacular! It was a wonderful show and we had a lovely time!




The costumes, the sets, the dancing were all amazing.

I didn't know what to expect from the show--a lot of high kicks of course, but how many kicks can make up a show? It definitely wasn't overdone.

One of my favorite numbers was the 24 (25?) dancing Santas. Imagine a large, group of Santas, all dressed alike in bright red and white costumes. Now imageine them dancing in perfect precision on a mat black background. So striking! And the choreography was just fun, fun, fun!
I would definitely recommend this show as a fun, family outing.

Here's a lovely vintage graphic from Cyndy's site -- Bon Secours Orphange. You can see the other lovely e-cards she has posted and check out information for Bon Secours. Take a moment and drop by!

Dear Santa...

Dear Santa,
I hope you have time to look at my list. I know you are very busy this time of year. I hope you and the Mrs. are feeling well and that you are not under too much stress.

I am trying to be good without complaint. Having two teenagers and one pre-teen is very trying at times, especially when trying to keep the homework in check right before Christmas break.

Hmm, what would I like for Christmas? I have given my husband a long list of fabric that I would love to have for Christmas this year. But you know how that goes. He only buys things that he likes and well, he's just not that into fabric. I'm not complaining, he's a great husband, and he makes some lovely choices, but to me, fabric is the perfect gift!

And Santa, I really like Holly's Lakehouse fabric from the Fat Quarter Shop. All the teatime florals in pink, the frosted dots, the pretty teacups--they make me smile when I see them. They look so lovely and our local quilt shop does not carry them. I would love an assortment of fat quarters to admire and sew!

Do you remember when I was a young girl, I asked many times for a hula hoop, but it did not appear? I often reasoned it was because maybe it was just too big to carry in your sleigh. I wish I could say I had forgotten and it wasn't a sad time in my youth, but it was. I didn't understand why. But fabric, fabric would make it all better!

So Santa, if you're able, please send me some Lakehouse fabric.

Sincerely,
Mrs. E

P.S. check out the Jolly Jabber for more Chrismtas wishes. But please put mine at the top of your list!

More dog pictures

Here's a pic of Brady, Buttercup, and Delilah. They are all getting along very well and look at how well they pose! Better than the kids.

Buttercup loves to play, play, and play. And Delilah and Brady do play with her--just not all the time.

The New Puppy

And here she is DD2 and Buttercup...

What I'd like to make today

These are really cute~




And they are on Spoonful of Sugar.

Hmmm, but I really should do a little more house cleaning first. Maybe, maybe this afternoon...

Is your Christmas tree up? My sewing machine is where my Christmas tree should be. And the tree is still in the attic. Maybe the tree will come out later today!

PW in PC

Pioneer Woman in Ponca City


When did you start reading the Pioneer Woman blog?

I started reading her blog in April of 2009. My dear friend, Mrs. C, had moved to Singapore and it was she that sent me a link to a PW recipe. How ironic! I'm state-side in Texas--I had no idea that the Pioneer Woman blog existed! So I became a faithful reader and started reading recipes and looking at photos and enjoying the tales of life in Oklahoma.

I could relate to life in the country in Oklahoma. I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma (population less than 200) and I enjoy the photos and info on country-living. The wide-open spaces. Cattle. Gardening. Canning.
Cooking with ingredients from Walmarts. Calf fries (I love calf fries). Photography. I enjoy my daily visits and reading her posts.

My current life is the oppostite of PW's. I'm a transplanted country girl in the suburbs of Dallas. (I can see my husband roll his eyes with that--he's 6'4" but when we had the possum in the yard, guess who removed it? I'm just saying....)

I love PW's new cookbook and was making plans to get it signed here in Dallas. Hmmm, book signing. There was a book signing in Ponca City, OK.

Look at the stats: Ponca City population - 26,000
DFW metroplex population - 6 million.
I thought Ponca City might have the shorter line. I made plans to go while I was in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving.

Bright and early (well, not that early) my mom and I hit the highway to Ponca City. Thanks to mom's deft driving skills (read: lead foot) we got to the book store before 10:00 a.m. Brace Books & More, anticipating a large crowd,decided to hand out numbers at 10:00. The parking lot was not filled to capacity. So far, so good!





We parked, went in, and stood in line. There were a few locals waiting for numbers and new friends from San Antonio and Wichita, KS. It was a pretty demure group!

I received number 22! Yes! I was pumped. Population stats of Ponca City (and surrounding areas) versus the Dallas numbers were working in my favor. Oh yeah!

So with number 22 in hand I did a little shopping at Brace Books, a very lovely place to shop. Local history books are an interest of mine. I like to read local history books covering the oil industry, cattle ranches, architecture, cowboys and cowgirls. Brace Books also carries fun gift items, decor, kitchen and a few toys. I just love book stores, so I had fun shopping. I now have a little Christmas reading with the purchase of The Filthy Thirteen.

But after shopping, mom and I had time to kill until the 1:00 book signing.

What to do in the city of Ponca City? Let's go visit the source of the Pioneer Woman's moniker The Pioneer Woman statue and museum!

Here's the entrance to the Pioneer Woman museum which is operated by the Oklahoma Historical Society. I worked for them in the 90's. That's a different blog entry.



The entrance was locked. There were no holiday hours posted but they were apparently closed for the Thanksgiving break. Bummer. But the statue was there for the photo-taking.





The Pioneer Woman was unveiled on April 22, 1930 and Will Rogers was there for the event. My mom told me that her mom had been to the unveiling. How interesting! I never knew that. It would have been interesting to hear Grandma's story of the event.

After the very short visit to the closed Pioneer Woman museum we drove the the Cann Memorial Garden. The flowers were on the way out but the garden was still very lovely.






We then drove thru the neigborhoods looking at the lovely, larger old homes. We then had lunch and shopped at The Walmarts. One o'clock was approaching. It was time for the book signing!

I had taken great care in preparing for this meeting.

Vintage silver jewelry, (purchased at the Rock show)



Cowboy (cowgirl) boots,



(Can you guess what kind of boots these are and what they are made of?)

And three cookbooks, one for me, one for Mrs. C and one for Mrs. D (check out their blogs -- links in the right column).



I was so excited! I've met authors before. I enjoy a good book signing. But I was really pumped!

PW made her entrance. The crowd was so polite. The lovely, elder Drummond daughter accompanied her mom. No MM or other family members.



(Please excuse blurry phone pic.)


"Hi, I'm from Oklahoma...."
"I live in the big city now..."
"Doh!"



I blabbed, I prattled, I gabbled. I got my books signed! PW was very gracious and charming (and very photogenic) Your hair is lovely.

Mom jumped in the photo.


And my book was signed after standing in line for 25 minutes. Thanks Pioneer Woman. Thanks Ponca City and Brace Books!



So now, books #2 and #3 will be making their way to Mrs. D (next door) and Mrs. C (now residing in Nanjing, China) as Christmas gifts.

Well-traveled books after their eventful trip to Ponca City, Oklahoma.

Later, as we driving home, discussing our adventure and meeting The Pioneer Woman (I still don't think mom knows exactly what a blog is), my mom turns to me and says, referring to PW, "She sure is a pretty girl..."

Rain and rain today

I walked out into the yard this evening and the ground is absolutely soggy. A crepe myrtle we transplanted a couple weekends ago has fallen over on the ground. That should be fun to try and stake back up. The poor thing is dry and crunchy already and looks the worse for wear. I was just hoping it would go dormant and then Spring! to life in the spring. Only time will tell.



So are you getting ready for Thanksgiving? I talked to my older brother today and suggested to him that he fry a turkey this year! He has agreed to do it! I haven't had a fried turkey in several years. I bought a huge container of peanut oil at Costco and mom said she has a turkey in the freezer. We're set!




Here's a picture of both of the puppies. Delilah is the small fluffy dog (we're not really sure what kind of mix she is, but she's very soft and has an underbite) and Brady, introduced earlier, is on the right, a terrier, corgi mix. They're both good dogs and we enjoy their company immensely. We've had Brady one year now and Delilah for 10 months. We adopted each one from a pet-rescue group (two different ones). They are very sweet dogs and a fun addition to the family.

Tomorrow is the Rock Show! My husband loves rocks and minerals and the Dallas Gem and Mineral Society will have their show at the Resistol Arena in Mesquite. It's very kid-friendly and there are several games where the kids can win...what else?...rocks! The kids have been going since they were itty bitty and they enjoy it.

One of the attractions at the show is the Rock Table. Check out their website!



This isn't a picture of the whole exhibit. All the food items are actually stone, rocks or minerals. It's fun to see and the exhibitors are very nice and will answer any questions you may have. We've even donated rocks in the past (though we always forget to look for them).

It's fun to shop and meet the vendors. They are so friendly and offer lots of information on rocks and minerals.

I've received my swap partners (receivers?) for the two Christmas swaps I posted about earlier. I'll be working on projects this week. Some old stand-by crafts and perhaps a new one. I'll let you know how they turn out.

I Signed Up

I've signed up for Christmas Gift exchange #2! If you recognize this little guy you've been reading Death By Quilting. I've blog-hopped to there from Pat Sloan's website.

I've been following the Cross Country Quilters circle where 12 designers are posting all sorts of fun writings on Christmas topics: fav food, best memory, best gift, etc.... It has been absolutely charming reading how everyone remembers the Christmas from their childhoods.

My only regret is that it's rather hard to navigate.

Here's the list from Pam Kitty Morning:
Gudren
Sandy
Pat
Terry
Heather
Kari
Terri
Sherri
Carrie
Roseann
Linda

So take a tour, see delightful vintage photos and read about some lovely women and their wonderfully fond (and quite humorous) memories.

Trying to focus...

I pulled out these fabrics today and drafted a pattern.




I'm interested in putting this quilt together so I can take it to Whitesboro and have someone quilt it for me.

What's in Whitesboro?
1. Quilt Shop
2. Lovejoys
3. Franky, a beagle puppy.

But I emailed today and Franky has already been adopted. Hmm, will this derail the quilt project? No ulterior motive to get it finished! No puppy to visit, so no need to finish the quilt to take to quilter in Whitesboro. Nahhh, I'll work on it.

I went shopping for fabric today with Christy. She is looking for fabric to finish out some pre-made curtains. She'd like to add a contrasting band to the bottom to lengthen the ready-made curtains and I've offered to walk her thru it. I think we found a winner! And we saw some lovely curtain samples made with contrasting bands on the bottom. The visual was good because I can picture the end product now. I think Christy will be very pleased with the results!

So, there I was, in a fabric store and, yes, I didn't need more fabric. But... I purchased a yard of lovely, poison-green silk for $12. Yes, another project! The plan, make a long scarf to spruce up an outfit for the upcoming holidays. I love silk. It's so shimmery and has a lovely luminescence to it. And it was green.

Wait! There's more-- I've signed up for an ornament exchange. Make lovely items! Send them to people you don't know! Get a lovely ornament in return! Sounds like fun!


Click on the ad on the side and you can join! Add another project to your list!

Fall in Progress

This tree is quite lovely in the fall.





It turns bright yellow and then immediately turns to this:



Same tree, three days later. Look at all the leaves on the ground!

And the best thing is...it's not my tree, it's the neighbor's.



But these are in my yard...



I've never had a clematis in November. October was very cool and mild. And you can see the little blue morning glory behind. They are such a lovely shade of blue this year. They kinda cross-pollinate and I end up with purple, light blue, purpley blue, and bluey purple.

These seem really BLUE. With purple-pink centers.

But no wide-angle shot of the garden. The morning glories, though pretty, are very aggressive and have TAKEN OVER the garden. But they're growing, they're pretty, and the color makes me really happy.

And another note of happy--DS finally let me cut his hair. No more busy mop-top. Now it's a choppy, stylish, head of hair. He is a wild man no more!

And Happy Birthday Brady! It's not really his birthday but we adopted him a year ago. And he celebrated by making a huge mess in his crate--at 4:00 this morning. Ugh! So today I got to give him a celebratory cold shower out in the back yard. I got to scrub the floor, scrub the kitchen walls (he did a doggie shake on the way to the backyard), scrub his crate, scrub the crate's plastic insert, and scrub the doggie bed. Eeeeew! And we'll celebrate again tomorrow when he gets to visit the vet for a yearly checkup! Happy adoption Brady!

Getting Started

Getting started--that's a really difficult thing for me to do. I have fabric, I have some free time, and the two just don't seem to meet with any results.

Occasionally I get results. My friend, Mrs. D, and I recently went to the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX and purchased copious amounts of fabric and projects. I have completed one project since then, a wool-felt, pumpkin applique. Very cute! Just 10 more projects to do! Well, I don't know how many, I didn't necessarily keep track! But I do daydream about the 2-3 quilt projects I have lined up, the 2 felt projects, 2 redwork projects, 3+ shibori ribbon projects, and 2 cross-stitch projects. Okay, that's more than 10l But I do THINK of them often (and fondly).

I am currently prepping one of the felt projects from Plum Creek Collectibles. You have to preshrink all the wool/rayon felt for the applique. Bummer. Not hard but not fun. But soon they will look like this:


Super cute! Mrs. D has a kit too--we're shrinking together!


Today, Mrs. D and I delivered some COMPLETED sewn hats to the Pediatric Hospital at Medical City Dallas. The Girl Scout troop that I'm leader of made hats for kids with cancer. We used polar fleece and sewed some darling caps. The girls originally wanted to crochet the caps, but our skills didn't advance quite that far. I crocheted some hats during the learning process and donated those along with the polar fleece hats. Good job, girls! It's great to help others and to be "considerate and caring" and "friendly and helpful"!

While we were in the Medical City area, I pointed out to Mrs. D that we were close to North Haven Gardens--one of my favorite nurseries! I wanted to show Mrs. D their vegetable gardens and see what they had growing for fall. We saw some Malabar Spinach, which resembled a Hyacinth Bean vine. It was lovely, with purple vines and glossy, edible green leaves. We got to try a sample (with assistance from an employee, of course) and it was spinachy, lemony, and had a bit more "tooth" than baby spinach--more of a succulent plant. But very tasty. The veggie beds were inspiring--maybe, maybe next spring, we'll get those raised beds installed.

The roses were on sale! The roses in the fiber, biodegradable pots were half off. Ten bucks for roses. So I purchase a Pink Promise, a Hot Cocoa, and a Kimberlina. They are not in the best of shape, but I have planted worse! I also purchased some pansies for the fall/winter season. I found some lovely orange ones and I also purchase some Johnny-Jump-Ups for some containers.

Do you know that Johnny-Jump-Ups are native to Spain and the Pyrenees Mountains? I wonder how you say or pronounce their original name?

And to celebrate my first blog posting, I now leave you with one of my favorite photos. It just absolutely makes me laugh every time I see it. And after 14 years, they both still exhibit this same relationship! Boy, it starts early doesn't it?