IT'S A BUSY TIME OF YEAR

I started this post a week ago but I guess I shall post it now.  

It's that time of year for wearing red, Santa hats and in Ashley's case a Darth Vader Christmas sweater.  For some it's the last day of work until January 2 and then for others of us we will work different schedules. Teachers, students and Cassie are out for two weeks. I got to come back to work the Monday and Tuesday before Christmas and then I'm off until January 2nd. Pretty much a skeleton crew around the building. The district is closed and the doors are locked but some will be working away. 

Who knew this little word could could be so much fun. I brought these wooden letters spelling NOEL only to place on my cabinet at work or this year it was placed on the table next to the time clock.  Each morning or evening I would find a new word like Leon or Neon. LOL 

Friday the week before Christmas, while David was at the farm Pamela and I met up Rochelle and her Mom.  Rochelle graduated high school and went to college out in California and stayed. She came back home to visit her parents for the holidays and asked if we could all meet up and we did. 

I can't remember the last time I had seen her or her mom. It was great seeing them.  We met up at Brix Cellars and restaurant for a drink, some food and lots of conversation.  It was great catching up.  Now before going our separate ways we were gonna take a selfie then Rochelle asks a couple of women if one of them would take our picture. One said 'yes' and the other goes she's the queen of taking pictures. mmmm

I have these moments too but the queen failed on these pictures. LOL She rushed the picture and didn't wait for the phone to focus.

Oh well at least we have a picture even if a little blurry and the lights kinda messed up the focus on our faces. 

Then on Saturday Pamela I met up with of fun with another long time friend who just had her 30th birthday. We met up for lunch at our favorite tea room, The Whistle Stop Cafe. Love love the food.

After lunch we walked down to this cute shop called the Turquoise Door.  They have clothing, decor, fun little gifts and jewelry. We might have each found something to spend money.  Later that evening Pamela had to help Laina celebrate this big birthday. Two beauties.

David sent me pictures from the farm. Look how clear the water is. It doesn't have much further to go before it's full. That little red flag is considered FULL line for our redone pond.  









Someone at the book club had asked how big the pond is. Well now I know it's 15' deep and about 1 1/2 acres.While there he was a busy boy. He did some electrical work all by himself. Actually he did a lot. He put lights on the barn to light up the barn and the area around him. 

We have lights. My man is good.

David stayed the night on that Friday but came home on Saturday because it was gonna get down into the twenties. Probably a good idea since the mini mansion has no heat. He took me back by the farm on Sunday after we traveled to Franklin and Groesbeck. We decided to stop and eat before going all the way home so we stopped at a place in Hearne that we wanted to check out. 


It was called Ama's on Hwy 6. The food was pretty good but check out our bill. Tip suggestion was too funny.






Next on the agenda was to take David out early for his birthday that happens to be on Christmas Day. Pamela got home that Thursday so we ran errands and then when David got home We took him to the restaurant of his choice to have his birthday dinner.

He chose Carabba's Italian food. We got there during happy hour and we each a couple of glasses of blackberry sangria. Everything was yummy good. 
We all went home with our tummies full and happy.
Then again David was starting to feel bad with either sinus or a cold. What a way to start his birthday and Christmas.
The wine might have helped a little.

Christmas tales to come shortly.
Until next post... Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So... get on your way..  Dr. Seuss

December is Here

Wow it's almost the middle of December and we all knows that means it's almost Christmas! OH MY! Are you ready? I'm not. I do now have our tree up. YAY! I took my time since I didn't have my usual helper. Pamela and I got the tree but she had to go back home before we could start decorating. It's not as much fun without her.  I got decorations up around the den, kitchen, study and dining room. Not a lot but I got some up. David noticed this new Christmas piece right away. Probably something to do with the motorcycle. LOL Maybe if my pumpkins had been riding a motorcycle he would have noticed the fall decorations sooner.
This year I have several new ornaments to add to the tree. The Star Bucks Cup and the white ball with the boot came from Pamela and I bought the boots. Imagine. The one that holds a wine cork came from Messina Hof winery in Bryan. And the red ball in the middle came from Missouri Star Quilt Company. 

While decorating my Elfie joined the 3 wise men. He almost looks innocent sitting there.

At work everyone is decorating their office doors. It's crazy. Some of these people are not only creative but talented. We have 2 doors and we decided to be funny and I have to say we got creative too.  That's the face of our director on the Elf riding the wrecking Christmas Ball. And knew exactly the video it reflected but this Elf got to keep his clothes on..   

Then the other door we decided to make our Reindeer bouncer a little more beefy.  You had to be on the list to get inside for Santa's dance off between the Elves and Reindeer.

Just across the hall the school district audit department had Mr Grinch and upstairs in another department Santa was coming down the chimney or going up...mmmm

Me and the Grinch had a moment in the hallway. Shh don't tell David... Oops I think he reads my blog.  The secret is out I guess. Oh it's a seasonal thing so he has nothing to worry about.  

As I was digging in the decorations I found reindeer antlers. I'm not sure Lilley was so happy I found them but she wore them long enough for me to snap this picture. She's such a sweet little deer.

And Sophie, that little fur pup got to go visit Santa and she got to pick out a toy from the Santa basket. Wonder what she told Santa she wanted for Christmas?

I guess I better get busy and finish any Christmas shopping and gathering up things if we want anything under the tree. And I have a quilt top I want to finish before Christmas. One more row. Then on to the next couple of projects on my UFO list. 

Well That's it for now.

Until next blog....May all your days be Merry and Bright.

My Last Post for November

This month seems to have flown by. Yet at the same time it took forever. Have you ever felt like that.

So this year I decided to do a small amount of fall decorating. My daughter is always decorating for fall and Christmas in some way so she inspired me. We went to Hobby Lobby and bought a few items and I placed them in plain view for all to see. That is everyone but my husband, the one who is always so observant but not this time. It took him 3 weeks and only after our daughter asked him if he liked the decorations. LOL. This table is right as you walk in the back door from the garage. Shouldn't be hard to miss, Right?
I was going to buy this flower pot that looked like a tractor that had pumpkins in it when it

dawned on me that I have a tractor from my childhood and a wagon that I have on a shelf in my office that I could use to fill with pumpkins. And that's just what I did. I think it looks pretty cute on the mantel with the other pumpkins.

I had a few pumpkins left over and I put them in the dish on my dining room table for color.  Maybe I'll add something else next year. Maybe.
Now I need to find a tub the right size to put these decorations in to store away in the attic until next year.  Now to pull out the Christmas decor.




David found someone to come in and clean up

our pond and reshape it. I mean it had a pretty crazy shape when we bought the place.  The original pond was a small oval but over time the next owner dug out several different canals going different directions. This is a picture of my computer screen from Google earth of how our pond did look until two weeks ago. Crazy huh? It had some big fish in it surprisingly. Of we lost most of them during the re-configuring of the pond darn it. Can't wait for Google Earth to take a new picture of how it looks now.  It kinda looks like a large crater where a meteor hit. Can't wait till it fills completely up with water and we can restock it. At the deepest part it is 15' deep.
And the water that is filling by itself is really clear. Not sure if they hit a spring or if the water
table is really high but the pond was filling itself up slowly. We're hoping for good rains to help it along.
Here's what it kinda looks like now from my ground view. Water when full will be to the top dirt ring and up to the truck.

Maybe I should hop on this caterpillar and dig another hole.  Makes me think of a Thomas Michael Riley song called "Dig a Hole"
The song is about a husband and wife who are each digging a hole to bury the other one in. If you click on the song title you can hear the song. I don't plan on digging one for David trust me. Can't speak for him though.... honey..that hole isn't for me is it?







Did everyone have a nice Thanksgiving? I hope so. We went to my Sister-in-Laws new home
with her new Husband.
They went and did it! They went and got married. Congratulations to the Happy Couple. Welcome to the Family Thomas, now you're stuck with this group.

Everything was so good. Glenda goes "you keep taking pictures of us when we were looking down". Hey you were busy making sure everything was just right for us. I'll try to catch them looking at the camera and smiling at Christmas.

Caught her again looking down. That's her oldest Phillip.

This is my sister-in law Lynn with her youngest Kendall. My brother in law is a fireman and was hard at work while we were relaxing. He actually had to go to a fire that someone started while frying a turkey.  My daughter Pamela also had to work on Thanksgiving day so these two missed all the yummy food. Being a Nurse and a Fireman they don't always get holidays off.  

We had a wonderful day and meal. 

Noooooo!!!

Okay I am so upset, mad, frustrated, mad crazy mad. GRRRRR. I know I did it. Yep me all by myself. I may just cry. I had in my mind what I wanted to write about and share but oh no that can't totally happen because between me and my memory card I've lost all my pictures from the show! All but a couple I had on my phone. And to top it off some of the pictures from this weekends 1st Birthday party are messed up. So it's time to get a new memory card obviously or a new me. I'm sure my husband is shaking his head going skip the memory card and get a new you. Thanks Honey.
This is a selfie I took to post on facebook when I got to the show.  

Photo by Suzanne Gilbride

I was so excited too because as a member of IQA I got in at 8:30am before the crowd and I was able to take pictures of the quilts without any issues. And the award winning Cynthia England was there and showing her quilt and talking to the few of us standing there admiring her quilt. It was so cool. On the back of her quilt she had pieced a school of fish. 
Not every one got to see that.  Her quilt is titled "Reflections of Cape Town" She said it took about a year to make and had about 8400 individual pattern pieces. WOW. It's hand appliqued and machine quilted. It's her original design from a photo she took.
So all the beautiful quilts are in my head and I can't share the quilt with 80,000 tiny pieces or the one with all the 3D fish that I thought interesting, or all the beautiful textures and colors. Whayyyyy. I can't even share my picture of Jenny Doan from Missouri Star that I got to meet and talk to. She was so nice and we had a good laugh over me not realizing she was only 30 miles down the road from my hometown. And it took my brother-in-law to point it out to me when I was home in Missouri visiting. And did y'all realize Jenny is 6 foot tall? She has all her furniture built taller. LOL. So she said when her short friends like Susan Daly (who was sitting next to her doing paper piecing in the Riley Blake Booth) their feet don't touch the floor and they laughed. 
I also got to meet Rob who is on her show often and I took a selfie with him. He's very fun and personable just like on TV. 
I guess I should have taken a selfie with Jenny then I would have still had her picture. At least I still have Rob's.  If you click on his name it will take you to his Holiday napkin tutorial.

photo by Suzanne Gilbride

 Another quick quilt picture I borrowed from my friend Suzanne was this one of all the pillows called "Silk Road Sampler" by Melissa Sobotka out of Richardson, Texas. They look real. I thought I was in Pier 1. This was also her original design using fused applique and machine quilting.

So much to see and do at the quilt show. I saw lots of people and so many beautiful quilts and lots of vendors with spiffy gadgets and do-dads to make a quilters easier and fun. Right? I bought a ruler to make snowball blocks that I think was easier than the accuquilt die cut because I didn't have to deal with the 2 1/2 half inch square triangles. There was all kinds of things just waiting to take my money...but not all if it.. LOL
By the time I got home it was after 7pm and I had to feed my pup, load my car, feed me, gas up my car and head to College Station. The next day was to be the 2nd Round Robin Hand Off. I can't show pictures of that until we're all done and that will be about a year away but I can say that everyone in the group did an awesome job getting that first border on everyone's medallion. 
What I can show you is the quilt that Denise just finished for her
 Mother who retired a few years back. It turned out just awesome. As you can see by the smile her Mother, Delores was thrilled. 

Denise did a great job. She had a few blocks left over and added them to the back which worked out great.

On that Sunday Pamela and I hit Messina Hof Winery which just happens to be literally right around the corner from her house to attend a small craft show and maybe check out some wine. We might have even bought a bottle or two. Then we had lunch and ran errands. We got a call from David saying the sky was looking pretty dark up at the farm and he was wondering what it was doing in Bryan. At that moment it was cloudy, but as we drove back to Pamela's house the sky's opened up. 
And then David sent us these pictures from the farm.  



The rain was just pouring off the Mini Mansion and 



you could hardly see across the property. Awesome now it starts raining. Now when David is going to have to start pumping out the pond to have it dug out and cleaned up. Figures.

This is one of those posts of a Little of this and a Little of That.  The gal that does my 
hair is very talented. Not only does she do hair but she can do awesome Halloween makeup. She loves Halloween. 

My Niece the Tiny Dance was crowned this past Saturday as the new Miss Pony Express Outstanding Teen. Her personal platform is anti-bullying. This girl is something else. She can interview with the best of them, has talent and she's kinda cute but then I could be biased. Couldn't be prouder. Her journey will take her to Mexico next year.


Well that's it for now unless I find a way to recover my quilt show pictures which I haven't yet.
Oh I almost forgot... the winner of my orphan snowball blocks is fellow blogger Karen of KAHolly. I'll be emailing her shortly for an address so I can mail her the blocks. Thanks everyone for participating via blog comments or email.  Keep watching I'll have another one. 
Until next blog...Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.