Christmas Promise

I promised my grandkid, Elise a quilt for Christmas--two Christmases back.

It had been years since I'd made a quilt and this pattern was pretty straightforward, I thought. The trouble is, I developed eleven thumbs and had to keep ripping out ugly mistakes.

My new-ish sewing machine and I never got along from the first day and we were both miserable.

Finally, the quilt was done in time for this Christmas, loaded with errors and a heaping of love and I feel empowered to start again, especially since I bought a new sewing machine and we are totally in love and compatible.


This is Ben, big brother to Elise. He was the shortest kid in his class during the primary grades and here he is in second year of hight school wearing size twelve shoes. He's funny and fun to be with.


I wish you all the happiest of New Years.

It's A Cat's Life

Just when I thought Harry had cornered the market on sleeping spaces, he found another.

Winter Wonderland? Not Yet.

Yesterday we were warned to prepare for a humungous dumping of snow and as the first flakes were falling, I prudently rushed to the store for necessities, like gin and bread.

Then I stayed indoors watch the storm and it was pretty nasty at times.

This morning I woke to a pleasant surprise--the bulk of the snow had passed us by and instead is concentrating on cities east of us.

This is the best it could do, a nice drift by the kitchen sliders.


Harry thought it was lovely and as soon as I find some galoshes for him he is welcome to play out in the stuff.


The bunnies had fun.


And inside the Christmas Cactus is holding up its end of the bargain and blooming its little heart out.

My cat the pretzel

Now I ask you--does this look like a comfortable nap position?


Apparently Harry thinks so.

An Excuse To Decorate

I love the pageantry of Christmas; the world looks drab outside but indoors I have license to go over the top with embellishments.

I usually begin in mid November but restrained myself this year and started a week later.

The tree, lovingly called "Toilet Brush" has been pressed into service for something like twenty-eight years and the old girl is hanging in there.


somehow the village survived the slap- dash packing away as well as a house move.


The Santa collection has found a place to hang out and the carousel horse is trying to be a good sport.


The mirror reflects lots of color.


Superficial? You bet. I get the chance to play dress-up-the-house for a whole wonderful month.

And December flies by.