Monday, December 11, 2006

Another Weekend

It's nice to start a new week with clean carpets, another Christmas tree assembled and lit (but sans decorations), and a few big events enjoyed, and off the to do list!

Saturday morning I delivered fifteen loaves of cinnamon bread to church for the Confection Selection fund raiser we have each December for the local pregnancy center. It was a good success raising over $1400! At 11 a.m. I was back to help prepare for the Mothers of Twins club family Christmas party. I'm not as involved as I have been in previous years, but I really enjoy helping with the party, watching the little twins play and be excited to see Santa. In the evening DH, Kirsten, and I went to the local production of The Nutcracker Ballet. We had a really great surprise when good friends of Mystie and Matt, the Eisingers, had the seats right next to us. Every year I hear that so and so will be attending at the same time as me, but I never see them!

Sunday was church as usual. What wasn't usual was spending time at the mall during the Christmas rush in the afternoon. Unfortunately, it was the only time I had available to try and find something to wear to the company Christmas dinner in the evening. I ended up finding some good bargains at Christopher & Banks - I should always just start there! Once I got home I successfully found and wrapped three white elephant gifts for my teen boys attending a party that night, then got myself dressed for the dinner. Dinner was yummy and I got to bring home lots of leftovers so I don't have to cook tonight - yay!

With dinner taken care of, I'm using this working model to assemble my Christmas cards today. When I spoke of my card recipe in a previous post, what I do is write out all the dimensions of all the elements of the card so, hopefully, I won't make too many mistakes at the paper cutter! Some of the colors may change as I go along and use up my cardstock, but this card is my jumping off point.





And here's my almost finished hardanger coaster! It's from a leaflet by Donna Olson called "Small Projects" stitched with NN Watercolours "Pebbles" on a natural-colored lugana from my stash. Can't say that I really enjoy using the Watercolours, perhaps it would be better on hardanger fabric, but I find it to be a little too "wooly", the twist isn't tight enough and I found I had to push the thread over to see the fabric holes for the next stitch. At least that's the problem I had with this fabric. It's fun to experiment, and I dearly love the colors!

Well, gotta get ready for my little grandsons to arrive real soon. Hope to be coming around to visit some blogs this evening, but I'm thinking I won't catch up till after the 26th. That seems to be a familiar chorus for most of us!

13 comments:

Annemarie said...

You're absolutely right: everybody's too busy preparing for Christmas to do any serious blogging. But you seem to be especially busy, Von! I think from now on, whenever I think I'm 'too' busy, I'll just pay your blog a little visit and be quiet...
I LOVE your hardanger project. The colours are stunning!

Anonymous said...

That's a beautiful piece of Hardanger!! Good luck with all the Christmas preparations.

Anonymous said...

Oops, "Anonymous" was me, Isabelle ;) Blogger is not letting me posting to Beta blogs easily today!

Anonymous said...

Wow, you are a busy lady! Your hardanger coaster is gorgeous. I think the trick with Watercolours is the fabric count. If you stitched on anything larger than 25 count, try 25 or 22 count fabric next time and see if your experience isn't a little bit better. :)

Vonna Pfeiffer said...

You have been very BUSY! But all of it sounds wonderful! Your cards are beautiful!
:D

Anonymous said...

What a busy weekend! I can almost smell and taste that cinnamon bread. Yummy!

Your Hardanger looks lovely. I really like Donna Olson's designs.

Have a good week.

Cathy B - With Needle and Thread (blogger is being weird tonight!)

Wendy said...

Your hardanger piece looks fantastic, Von! I love the colours you chose.

Anonymous said...

Your hardanger piece looks wonderful!

Anne S said...

You really are 'super mum' to me - you do so much and seem to do it all with such ease ... you're an inspiration! :D Your Christmas cards are going to be gorgeous, if that was a sneak preview of them - and your hardanger coaster is just gorgeous! I personally love Watercolors for hardanger for their choice of wonderful colours. The first ones I did were on 22ct hardanger fabric though, and I just tried using it for my 'marine elegance' project, and you may have noticed it's still not finished hmmmm - because of the problem you had, stitched on linen I can't see the threads clearly, and every time I stitch from the bottom point with my buttonhole stitch I still end up one thread out ... after unpicking it 4 times, it's sitting in a corner sulking ;P I think the trick is definitely to use a larger count fabric!

Elizabeth Braun said...

Your hardanger piece is lovely! I love Caron threads as well, just they're so pricey here in the UK.=(

Would love to try your cinnamon bread! Post the recipe sometime?? I'm just getting back into bread making and am finding it very satisfying.

Posted a finish myself yesterday, huzzah!

lena-lou said...

Hope this works this time :)
Your coaster looks very pretty in the colour you have chosen, you amaze me how you fit so much into your time but you seem to do it so well!!

Sharon said...

I can't even begin to imagine baking 15 loaves of bread. Von, you amaze me with all you do. Your hardanger coaster is just gorgeous.

Dianne said...

This is gorgeous-especially when I made it bigger-you inspire me!
Good luck with your shopping, I think I am pretty much finished, all I need is some tape to wrap the gifts with!