The Last Day of the Year!!!

And now it is time to make resolutions...I love making resolutions..or maybe just making lists of things I want to accomplish.  The best part of making lists of things "to do" is crossing them off as they are finished.  I have a few I carry over into each list...for one, my mom loved to embroider and she made the most lovely set of blocks of every state bird!  They are true works of art...and one of my goals each year is to take them and put them into a quilt!  I am very determined that this is the year!!!

My family is mostly in Illinois, and some of them get down here every once in awhile.  Just last month, my brother and sister-in-law were here.  We took them  to the newly opened Fort Worth Museum of Science and History...a wonderful addition to the Cultural District of Fort Worth.  Here they are checking out one of the displays.

We also went to the Pate Museum not too far from our house.  We had never been there and read that is closing down as of, well, right now!!  I had no idea how many vintage cars they have there!  We really enjoyed seeing them.  The car on the left is the taxi cab that Lee Harvey Oswald jumped into after he shot JFK.  And there were many more with varied historys!

And our big third snow storm of the year...on the 28th, was all melted by the next morning!  That is what we like about Texas snows!  Very pretty, but they don't last long....usually!

It Has Been Awhile!

With the month (and the year) about to end, I thought I would do a little catching up on my blog.

This picture was taken 46 years ago!!  Today is our anniversary...we are going to spend a very quiet day at home..the weather outside is awful...we are in the midst of our third snow storm this year...and although it is beautiful, we think we can enjoy the day staying home just fine, thank you very much!!

Christmas activities galore...first, a Christmas party with my Guild.  Each year the board decorates tables for everyone at our meeting place; everyone brings goodies...a real feast!  And we don't have a guest speaker; we just have a massive show of all the quilts, etc that everyone has been working on all year!

This is my table...we also have "favors" for the ones who sit at our table...usually a fat quarter and whatever else.  I found these cute Christmas mugs and added a hot chocolate packet and candy with my fat quarter.

This is the quilt I had ready for show and tell.  I made it for a friend of mine who is Hispnanic so I named it "Salsa Snail".  She had admired another quilt of mine which I didn't want to make again so this is a somewhat lookalike to that one.  I gave it to her yesterday and she seemed really pleased.

And we had EIGHT deer on our side lawn this morning...to help us celebrate our anniversary...I think they are from Santa, on vacation...resting up from their journey last week!

Winter Time...and Christmas

With company coming tomorrow (the poker bunch!) and my brother and sister-in-law coming Sunday, I decided we had better get started on the decorations!  Dick has put up the wreaths outside...this picture is really from a couple of years ago, but the wreaths and house look the same, just no snow now.  And I am working on my wall hangings, Santas, tree inside, etc.  Today started out cold and wet but ended up sunny and warmer...perfect for outdoor decorating....unlike our usual choice of days...really wintery!

I have a lot of Christmas shopping to do for everyone, but did get my gifts for my Illinois people (where my family is from) so my brother can take it all back with him when he goes home.  My sister-in-law is originally from Texas, so they are spending time with lots of family while in the state.

Fall Swap

This is my Fall Swap that I am mailing out.  My trade person lives in Italy.  I am hoping to get a swap from an overseas country.   The cost of mailing is a little more, but fun to get things from "far away places"!

This mini quilt is about 20" square.  The center was an extra Oak Leaf from a table runner I had made, then I just added the darker borders and set it on point.

We are supposed to maybe get more snow tomorrow.  Dick and I are going to the Kimbell, out to lunch, to the eye doc for a checkup, and then to the Y on our way home, so I am hoping the weather isn't too bad.

Looking Kind of Wintery!

 This is what we woke up to this morning!  What a surprise!  Very pretty, big flakes of snow fell for about three hours, then the sun came out briefly and it all went away...that is the kind of snowstorm we like!  It is forcast to snow more later on in the week; this is kind of early for Texas!

And I shot a deer from my kitchen window yesterday!  (with my camera). This is probably the culprit who has been eating my flowers!  and she was having such a good time, she forgot that day time had come!!  Usually we don't see deer much after dawn..this was about 9:00 AM.

Thanksgiving week is over and all the company and  most of the food is gone...we had such a great time with all.  My daughter Andrea is also a quilter so she went with me to my StudioQ meeting Monday.  Our "recipe" ingredient this time was "Time".  I made an hour glass out of fabric and clear plastic, filling it with rice,  to go with my blocks on games...I may even complete a quilt of that nature with all of them sometime!

Another fun thing we did this past weekend was to go to Blue Mesa with all the family for their brunch.  I still had not used my birthday coupon from them so it was a good time to go.  Surprisingly, they were not just swamped...at least not at 10:00 when we went.  Usually there are long lines...I guess everyone was still full from Thanksgiving.  If you live in the Ft Worth area, you can go to the restaurant website http://www.bluemesa.com/  and sign up for their Chilihead Club.  They will send you a coupon on your birthday for a free brunch, and you will get monthly coupons for various items on their menu.  Blue Mesa is our favorite Mexican restaurant!!!  The cuisine is more New Mexico rather than Tex-mex.