Wednesday (12/28) was a fabulous craft, golf and square dancing day!  I spent all day in my studio, while Michael spent it on the golf course.  He got home in time for dinner and then we headed up to the Lake House for a 2 hour square dance.

Thursday (12/29) we were up early for a walk in the 24 degree (br-r-r-r) morning air.  We came home and set off for breakfast and a bunch of errands.  We were home by 1 and I spent the rest of the day in the studio, finishing this: 

Jan wanted one of the smaller rope totes and I told her I would make it for her.  She bought the fabric and handles and I finally got it done.  I bought some extra fabric and hope to do up 1 to 2 more for sale next year.

On Friday (12/30) we started cleaning for the New Year’s Eve party, and I also got another tote started.

On Tuesday (12/27) my dear friend Nancy braved the elements (torrential rain) and came over to play in the morning!  We had a wonderful time (as always) and luckily, by the time she left, the sun was shining.  Joanne picked me up for knitting at 1 and although our group was teeny, tiny…we still had lots of fun knitting and talking.  I got in a little sewing before dinner, then Susan came over at 7 to show us a neat trick for cracking and de-shelling a big batch of free pecans.  At one point in the proceedings I was glad to have my camera to snap this shot of ‘sometimes there’s just not enough left to dirty a glass’:

 After the pecans were done and Susan left, Michael modeled one of his Christmas presents…I finished this vest back in February or March, but of course didn’t put it in the blog or her would have seen it:

Monday (12/26) was a lovely continuation of the weekend.  Michael and I took a long walk after breakfast and then it was ‘back to the salt mines’ and sewing on the charity quilt I began on Saturday.  With a lot of perseverance, the top is finally pieced:

Michael was in the studio with most of the time, watching TV and working on his computer.  I also did the finishing on 3 necklaces:

I am so glad that Ginny’s friend Cindy showed me how to make these when I was in Virginia….I’m really getting into the different color combinations….the necklace on the left in the picture (with new 'tiger' beads)is my current favorite!

It’s Christmas night and it was a perfect weekend.  Michael got to play golf  on Saturday (came home with an 87) and when he came home we started celebrating Christmas!  We watched movies and TV shows, worked on the computer, sewed and spent every minute together.  We had Belgium waffles for breakfast on Sunday (with mimosas of course) and continued with the movie watching and knitting and sewing, but also added gift opening.  It has been FABULOUS and lovely!

December 23^rd – it is amazing what one will do for a friend…I still can’t believe I agreed to go with Jan to Joanne’s on Christmas Eve Eve, but that’s exactly what we did.  She is giving her granddaughter a sewing machine for Christmas, and wanted to pick up a few other things….so I agreed to go with her.  We left home early and Joann’s was surprisingly not crowded (although 2 days before Christmas IS a little late to be buying things to make J).  We bopped over to Michael’s (in the same shopping center) but they didn’t have what we wanted, so we decided to go to another one about 25 minutes away.  Traffic, both in the store and on the streets, had certainly built up quite a bit when we finally got ready to come home, so we treated ourselves to a Chick Filet chocolate peppermint milk shake on the way home to calm our nerves (yum!)  I’m not really sure why, but once I was home I was exhausted and took a nap.  The rest of the day was wonderful…I read a bit…worked in the studio with Michael (home after an89 round on the golf course) and knit and watched a bit of TV.  Michael finished arranging another charity quilt:

and I worked on sewing it together as well as continuing to work on my paint can challenge.  I’m looking forward to a wonderful Christmas weekend.

Thursday (12/22) was a fairly good day…Michael and I visited the chiropractor in the morning, then I had a couple of hours to do 4 runs of my body cream for someone who wanted 20 more jars (after already buying 14 of them!!!  I asked her if she was EATING the stuff or what?)  We left at 12:30 to hit a consignment shop that Barrie (former student) told me about.  They loved all of my craft stuff and took it to display (and hopefully sell!!!) in their store.  Then it was on to the dentist for a crown….OUCH!  We were home by 5 and I was in a lot of pain…so I just kind of lounged around while Michael played pool.  Janice called after dinner and we had a wonderful chat…it seems like I haven’t talk to her in forever because she has been flat out with family commitments and getting ready for Christmas.  Jan stopped by to drop off a TON of books from a friend, and to pick up a necklace so that she could look for clasps for me.  I went upstairs after our chat and snuggled with my honey.

Wednesday (12/21) morning I went to yoga, then came home and had a quick breakfast before heading to the studio to work on my challenge.  The good news is: I got all of my 9 patch blocks done by lunchtime….the bad news is, I miscalculated how many I needed, and so. I have many additional strips cut  L.  I’m not sure yet what I’m going to do with them….still thinking about it.  I had a helper while I was sewing:

She seems to be saying “what…you don’t like my Christmas decorating?”  I continued to work on the other blocks in the challenge while Michael was at the movies seeing SHERLOCK HOLMES.  Barrie (former student) stopped by to pick up the shawl she made for her mom for Christmas.  She took my beginning knitting class…and took off like a ROCKET after that….this shawl:

was her FIRST project (and believe you me, it is NOT a beginner project in ANY way!!!  She is a phenomenal and FEARLESS knitter and has made lots and lots of knitted gifts for Christmas this year…and that’s after only taking the beginning class a few months ago.  Needless to say, she picks up things VERY quickly and is a joy to talk with about knitting…and everything else!

Tuesday (12/20) was an awesome day.  Nancy and Floy and I made a quick trip to Mary Jo’s.  I needed background fabric for my quilting challenge and Floy needed one piece of fabric…and Nancy went along to check out stuff!  We dropped Floy off on the way home and still had 1-1/2 hours to enjoy our regular Tuesday mornings together.  Of course….evil Nancy bought a new ruler that totally sucked me in!  I call her evil Nancy because she is the person who introduced me to you tube videos of quilting techniques.  Can you say THREE HOURS LATER…I am still on the internet watching videos of 100 new and shiny things I want to try!?!?!?!  Well, tomorrow (Wednesday) I am supposed to spend all day working on the challenge quilt for my Thursday morning quilt group.  Instead…I may have been sucked into a new quilt with this nifty ruler.  Will I stay the course?  Will I work on my challenge?  Will I succumb to the lure of the newest bright and shiny thing?  You’ll have to stay tuned J.

Before I left for knitting club, I finished a very small wall hanging for a friend:

and then stopped to get my hair done after knitting club, on the way home…..Michael was home, with a disappointing 91 from the golf course…but we had a nice dinner and then he left for the movies.  I spent the evening in my studio…working on my challenge  (so far….)

Sunday (12/18) was a wonderfully relaxing day.  Jan and I had a meeting in Pineville in the morning, and a terrific breakfast at IHOP afterwards.  We hit Michael’s on the way home to pick up several packages of beads for new necklaces!  I spent a lot of time in my studio, and the evening was spent snuggling on the couch.

Monday (12/19) was kind of a busy day.  I had a volunteer meeting in the morning and we got a update on how successful our Angel Tree project was.  In the afternoon, Michael had an appointment with a new ear place, in a town that was about 45 minutes away.  Well….they were running late and about 45 minutes after our appointment, they were finally almost ready to take us.  The problem was, the ear test was going to take about an hour, I wanted to hit one store on the way home…and it is 6 DAYS before Christmas…can you say rush hour traffic!?!??!?!  They are supposedly opening up a new office in a few weeks that will be right by our house, so we bagged that appointment, made a stop in Hobby Lobby and then hit the road, stopping for pizza at the Mellow Mushroom on the way home.  This is a new place and the food was AWESOME!!  I had a cheese calzone and Michael had a spinach/mushroom pizza, and 1/2 of both of our dinners made it home.  I knit a bit on a new necklace in the evening, while watching TV with my honey.

Friday (12/16) was once again a busy day.  I was up early to get some cookies baked and one of my knitting students came over for some help.  I needed cookies for the memorial service in the afternoon.  After courageously battling a reoccurrence of cancer for 11 months, the head of our HOA died last week.  I thought it was going to be a very emotional service; it was standing room only; but it was just perfect.  A group of us had organized cookies and coffee for after the service, and Michael and I drove the leftover cookies over to the local fire & EMS stations.  When we came home, Michael sat out on the deck, reading his book….on the 16^th of December…it was great!  We had a quick dinner, then I took off for band practice.  It was a wonderful night, but I have several songs to learn!

Saturday (12/17) was a very relaxing day…I spent much of it in the studio, while Michael got to get in 9 holes of golf.  In the evening we went out to dinner with Susan and Joe, and then on to the theatre to see CHAPS – A JINGLE JANGLE CRHRISTMAS.

Wednesday (12/14) I had yoga at 6:30 in the morning, then had just enough time to come home and take a quick shower and pack up all of my stuff to get over to the high school for my last bread demo….we made pizza!  The kids had made the dough the day before, and I took pesto (made from my garden basil) and parmesan and mozzarella….the teacher bought grape tomatoes.  I got there early to get the dough spread out and to give it time to rise…when the kids came in, they cut the tomatoes, spread the pesto(although there was a LOT of grumbling ‘cause they had never seen it and were expecting traditional red sauce), and shredded the parm and mozz cheese.  Once we put them in the oven I told that that they wouldn’t hurt my feeling one bit if they decided not to eat the pizza…that Mrs. Langley (the teacher) and I would eat of EVERY bite!!  The bad news was….they LOVED it and THEY ate up every bite  L.  Oh well….I’ll just have to make pizza over the weekend.  Anyway, it was a great class and I think all of the kids enjoyed it.  I hit a yarn shop on the way home…I went in to exchange one skein of yarn for another color…and walked out 80 bucks later!!  They had railroad yarn on sale and I got a bunch of good colors.  Then I bopped up to the Joann’s to pick up a gift certificate and a few other things..and finally got home around 2.  I managed to get a bag of dipped oreos done and plated up for our square dance at 4:30.    We had a wonderful time at the square dance…and there was lots of great food.

Thursday (12/15) morning I was up early to get roll dough made for the Christmas party at Scrap Happy Quilters.  We had a wonderful morning, lots of laughs, lots of gifts, and lots and lots of great food.  When I got home from quilting around 1, I was absolutely wiped out and took a short nap before Michael came home from his golfing ‘santa claus open’ and for the second year in a row….HE WON A HAM!!!!!!  Yumm-O, I can’t wait to get it.  Michael did a costume again this year (that was how he won the ham last year):

but he won this year by being closest to the pin.  We were both tired Thursday night and just lay about like dead things and watched TV  J.

This whole week seems very busy and Tuesday (12/13) was no exception.  I spent a wonderful morning at Nancy’s…and we actually worked on her loom.  She is excited to be starting weaving for next year and she was practicing on a scarf.  I got home from Nancy’s and had time to take a quick shower before heading off to knitting club for just an hour.  I had a good time talking with a lot of people there before I had to come home to be here for Becky to continue working on her rope tote.  She left around 4:30 and Jan and Walt showed up at 5 for dinner (Mexican Chicken soup and corn bread).  We left after dinner to go to Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens.  DSBG puts of thousands upon thousands of lights in their gardens…here’s just a small sample for BG in CT: 

We walked around there for several hours….took Jan and Walt’s picture by the all orchid Christmas tree:

then headed for home (with an ice cream stop along the way).  Michael and read for an hour or so once we got home and then collapsed into bed.

Although I am always excited to finish weaving and take something off of my loom, there are generally several (many?) more hours of work until the item is finished.  I spent a lot of the time on Monday (12/12) doing the finishing work on my 2 new scarves (you probably have to make the picture bigger by clicking on it to see the colors in the left-hand scarf): 

While I was working on them, Becky (quilter from Thursday quilt group) came over for help with a rope tote.  She was here for several hours and we made some good progress.  Michael and I had soup for dinner and watched TV and knit in the evening.

On Sunday (12/11), Jan and I hit Michael’s and Joann’s for a bit of shopping.  I got to work on weaving in the afternoon, and finally cut my 2 scarves  off the loom before we left for tryouts.  Fort Mill Community Theatre was having tryouts for BLYTHE SPIRIT,a Noel Coward comedy.  And the director of the play was the same one who did HARVEY.  She said there were about 18 people trying out…unfortunately, we didn’t make it.  She said the deciding factor was that we would be gone on a cruise during the first week of rehearsals (in January), when they would be doing all of the blocking  L.  In a way, Michael is glad because he is still exhausted from doing THE 39 STEPS.

Friday (12/9) morning I was up early for yoga (who would have thought that I’d still be getting up a 6 am once I retired???) and when I came home Michael was having breakfast before leaving for golfing.  I spent about 1-1/2 hours getting ham/bean/barley soup in the 6 quart crockpot (definitely my go to soup these days….so FEW ingredients and such a great result!)and also turkey/barley/veg soup in the 4 quart crockpot for Michael.  I got to visit a neighbor who has been asking me a lot of questions about weaving and just recently got a loom, and finally got to settle down to weaving in the afternoon.  Around 2 I wandered upstairs to put together scallion/cheese whole wheat rolls for dinner (BG and I have the same cookbook and she found these rolls and we are both making them this weekend).  Susan and Joe (neighbors) and Mary (fellow quilter) and Charles (her main squeeze) arrive at 6 for dinner.  We had the soup and rolls and then played TRIPOLI for a couple of hours before breaking for homemade Bailey’s and peanut butter cookies (the only cookie dough I’ve managed to put together so far this season!)

We spent all day Saturday on a bus, going to Flat Rock Theatre to see a PLAID CHRISTMAS.  I was a wonderful show and we are both very glad we went.

Thursday (12/8) was quilting…and sometimes I feel like I have corrupted those people!!!  Sometimes it is just a drag to drag my sewing machine there…so I take knitting.  Anyway, there were about 12 of us in total today…..about 10 of us were knitting!!!…luckily my friend Nancy and another woman Loree were keeping our group honest by working on quilting things!!  When I got home, Michael told me that his hearing appointment had been cancelled….which was really great news for me since I had yet to unpack from the craft fair….the basement looked like a rummage sale had exploded on the floor, and the kitchen table didn’t look much better.  I had several hours to try to get things into reasonable shape before getting to sit down and weave for the rest of the night.

On Wednesday (12/7) I had one simple goal…to finish one of my small purses for a sale I made in Virginia when I was visiting Ginny.  I finally got started working on it around NOON and by the time Michael and I left for dinner at Gale and Phil’s, it was all done!  Dinner was terrific…we had lasagna and stuffed shells, extra sauce and meatballs, garlic bread and a salad.  For dessert she served apple pie ala mode.  Needless to say, we were stuffed when we got home and just vegged on the couch until bedtime.

Tuesday (12/6) was a busy day from start to finish.  I got up early in the morning to start baking lemon bars and peanut butter cookies.  I had 2 lemons from the store, but also harvested an additional lemon from my Meyer lemon tree: 

I thought you’d like to see a comparison on sizes between my Meyer lemon on the left, and the store lemon (probably a Lisbon) on the right:

Quite a difference!  I was just finishing up baking the peanut butter cookies when Nancy arrived for our regular Tuesday get-together.  We retired to the studio (Michael was out golfing) and Nancy worked on square for a new quilt, while I finished sewing the ends in on a bunch of scarves.  We finished up around NOON and I took a quick shower and packed up a bunch of stuff and headed off to our Christmas luncheon for Stitch & Chat.  It was a wonderful party I got to meet some new people who had recently joined the club.  Jan and I knit for an hour after the party, and then attended an afternoon session of yoga.  When I finally got home, I got to relax for just a bit before Michael and I headed out to see TOWER HEIST.  It was a very cute movie and we both enjoyed it. 

My friend Jan used to go to yoga 3 times a week.  She took a cruise in July and hasn’t been back to yoga since.  In an effort to get her back into it (and also because I could certainly use it myself!) we both bought fitness passes for the month of December.  Yoga is at 6:30 in the morning on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays….so Sunday night I laid out all of my clothes and set the alarm for 6 AM.  I jumped out of bed Monday morning (12/5), washed my face, brushed my hair and teeth, got dressed and headed on up to the Lake House.  There were lots of people there that I knew…but no Jan….6:45….no Jan….7 am….no Jan.  I got through the whole class and it was very nice.  I finally called Jan around 9 and she said she didn’t know what had happened.  She too laid out her clothes, set the alarm for 6 and got to bed early, but when she opened her eyes this morning…the clock read 7 am!!!  Oh well…maybe we’ll both be there on Wednesday.  I came home and just had time for a bite of breakfast before leaving for my dentist appointment.  I have been dreading this appointment because I knew something was wrong with one of my teeth…and yes…I have to have a crown put on it.  That will be happening in a couple of weeks…so I”ll have a long time to dread THAT appointment as well  J.

I spent the afternoon knitting, while Michael worked on his computer, and in the evening we continued to relax in front of the TV and knit.

It’s now Monday 12/5) at 4 PM and I have to try to re-create what has happened???  We picked up Marc and Kate at the airport around 11:30 on Thursday:

 and came home to eat and talk.  Michael and I had square dancing in the afternoon and by the time we got home, it was time to go out to dinner.  The kids took us to an Asian restaurant and we all enjoyed our dinners.  We got home around 8 and everyone was kind of tired, so we all sat in the living room, in front of the fire, reading or sleeping or a little bit of both.

Friday morning (12/2) Marc and Michael had a big fry-up for breakfast and then headed to the golf links.  I continued to work on Christmas candy (and it is all finished...hooray!),

while Kate got in just a bit of work on her laptop (after we borrowed the password from our neighbors so that we could use their wireless connection).  Marc and Kate and I had ham and bean soup and rolls for dinner, while Michael finished up the leftover pizza.  We left around 7 to head towards Charlotte to see A TUNA CHRISTMAS…a hysterical play that everyone loved.  We stopped at Amelie’s (a French bakery) on the way out from the theatre and picked up a variety of treats for Saturday.

Saturday Michael and Marc left for horseshoes while Kate and I held down the fort at home….cooking for our ‘Thanksgiving’ dinner.  Michael made potatoes and carrots when he got home and Harry and Martha arrived at 6 for turkey, stuffing, potatoes/carrots, green beans, salad, homemade cranberry sauce and rolls.  We played PIT after dinner, and a new game called ‘telephone pictionary’.  It was a really fun evening with LOTS of laughs!  It truly was a wonderful visit with Marc and Kate....they are wonderful together and bring lots of fun along with them:

Sunday (12/4) everyone was up at 5 to get the kids to the airport by 6 am.  It was really sad to see them go…but you know what my dad would have said….”keep paying into that social security”!  We wanted to go out to breakfast on the way home, but nothing is open at 6:30 am on a Sunday in North OR South Carolina…so we came home and went to bed!  We certainly felt more like ourselves when we got up at 8.  I had a quick breakfast and tried to pull together stuff for the FINAL (YAY!!!!!) craft fair.  Michael loaded the car and drove me up to the Lake House and carried everything in around 10:30.  I was all set up by the time the fair started at NOON.  He came to pick me up at 4, and I came home and both of us lay around like dead things the rest of the night!

Michael left for golf on Wednesday (11/30) and I buckled down to making more Christmas food….rocky road and minty crisps candy and some new pretzel toffee stuff.  Michael got home in time to help with some of it and to bag up all of it!  I also put together enough manicotti for 10 people, to take to one of our HOA staff  members who is having chemo, but also having company for the weekend.  I went up to the Lake House at 6:30 to check in all of the square dancers, then came home to knit and snuggle on the couch with my honey.  Here’s a pic of our Xmas food now, we’ve already run out of room on the buffet and have had to take space on our counters also…my goal is to be done by Dec 10^th so that I can enjoy the rest of the month working on items I’ve been putting off: