Slow Sunday to start off 2023!

 I have been adding some slow stitches of hand quilting to the Bear Paw quilt this week. This is moving much slower than I imagined, but then again if you don't work on it, progress does not happen!

I'm shooting for some bit of hand work each day in 2023. It could be knitting, crochet, hand piecing, hand quilting, embroidery, counted cross stitch.... Wow - I have lots of options to choose from! There might be multiple options for each of these hand piecing choices. 

Last night I added a few rows of knitting to this dish cloth. This is my 'standard' pattern. I think I need to branch out this year and try a new pattern each month or quarter. I see lots of pretty crochet patterns online that I would love to try. I think this will be the year to try them. Hmmm. Something is a little off with this knitting project! Since it is just to clean my dishes, I'm going to leave it and continue on. I'm wondering if the girl picked it up and did a pearl row? We won't mention how long this has been sitting in a bag with a few rows added here and there every few months!

The house got switched last night from Christmas to snowmen. Yes, I live in Florida and yes, I still decorate January as snowmen! The Christmas tree just needs to get put into it's new bag and put away until the end of November. 

I plan on spending the day in my sewing room! It is the perfect way to start the new year. I have a quilt that needs machine quilting on my domestic sewing machine and another project that needs to get started and finished.

 I should pick up in there as it looks like a tornado went through .... but that will wait for Monday I think. Today is a play day and I plan to enjoy playing with my fabrics. A dog walk over at the trail head might happen as well. Lunch is leftover Chinese food from last night. I'll let one of the kids figure out dinner tonight. Emily does have a new chef knife to play with so she might be on tap to figure out dinner! Breakfast was mushroom, orange pepper and an egg with a slice of 5 grain bread. Maple - one of the 3 chickens finally started laying eggs again after a 5-6 week break to molt. We will see when the other 2 join in. I miss my green Poppy eggs. The price of eggs is crazy! I had not bought eggs in a couple of years and was surprised at the prices when I had to purchase some in December.

Poppy is our Americana and the other 2 are Barred Rock chickens  - the black and white ones.

A photo of our 65+ pound lap dog Bear. After 7 months, he is perfectly at home in his house with his new family. He figured out how to get up on my recliner a couple of weeks ago and it is now his favorite spot - as long as we put a quilt down on us for him to lay on! Such a quilt lover this boy is! He was holding Emily down in this photo!

Wishing you all a creative, happy and healthy 2023. Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Stitchers. I hope to be slow stitching a binding this evening!

Medieval Times Castle

 I took the kids to the Medieval Times Castle dinner and show last night in Kissimmee, Florida. Greg opted out of going as it would have been a long time in the car with his back pain returning to a level 3 pain this month.  It took longer than I was thinking to get there - about 1.5 hours. Well, slightly more with some traffic in the afternoon. We did the early show at 5PM and by the end both kids had fun. Aidan enjoyed it more than Emily for some reason. Seems a bunch of his friends have been in the past and said it was fun. The horses were pretty and did some dancing. There was jousting, skill events on horses and our Blue Knight won the tournament! I had forgotten (I went maybe 25 years ago?) there were no utensils! The meal was yummy. Lots of yelling and cheering might have happened.  Sorry for the order of the photo's. They loaded funny.

This one smiled with me!

The child who does not like photo's anymore!

The kids did some shopping before while we were waiting to be seated. They each have a dagger now and I have been reimbursed by both kids already. Emily's is the 3rd from the top the dark brown, Aidan's is the 6th from the top. They are not sharp =)

2022 Finishes

 I got a very slow start this year as I was dragging my feet on working on the memory quilt for Olivia. I went looking through my quilt album on Facebook and realized I had not been placing everything where it should be! A few moves and some looking through the blog to find those finished quilts that were missing.  Let's take a look and see how I did, shall we?

Hand pieced Hexagon Quilt as you go front. 60x80.

The back of the Hexagon Quilt.

Olivia's memory quilt. Queen size.

Scrappy Crumb quilt.

Sweet Confetti (2021 RSC blocks I think)

Crossed Canoe 2022 RSC blocks... finished the same year and everything!!!

Row House Sew along with Accuquilt.

Endless Diamond. Hand pieced and Hand quilted.

RSC Squares from 2021. This one lives up in Vermont now.

Scrappy Irish Chain was a leader and ender of 2 inch squares years ago. Bear has claimed this quilt. Well, all quilts really!

I dissected an attempted tumbler flag into these two runners.

A baby quilt from a sew along years ago.

Baby Masala that still needs to get shipped off to my great niece. (bad auntie!)

A snowman from the table scrap challenge. 

The Ravelry UFO Challenge has been a big help in getting some old UFO's finished off. I am itching to start some new things in 2023 or grab some kits I have that have been hanging around. 

I liked the idea of doing one Hexagon a day in 2021 and would like to do something one a day in 2023 but have yet to decide on anything. Maybe monthly and change things up a bit? I have been paging through quilt books and magazines and there are plenty of quilts I would love to make. Paring things down is the problem. 

** Edited and linking up with the RSC since quite a few of these finishes are rainbow challenge quilts.

Tuesday musings...

I finally hung up my Endless Diamond quilt in my office so I could get a nice photo! This one makes me smile every time I see it!

 We had a nice Christmas weekend. The chill in the air was a great feeling as I really missed that living in the south. It has been a 4 quilt on the bed nights for sleeping with 2 cats snuggling in for warmth. 

Saturday we headed to Grandma's house in the late afternoon as we were going out to eat at Outback to celebrate Papa Andy's 90th birthday on Christmas. A nice meal and then we headed back to Grandma's house. She loves Christmas. We do some games to win 'prizes' - CLR, Skunk, war and pass the gas were the games this year. No Toilet paper or cans of beans this year for prizes! I got the yard of Twix candy bars.  I also completely forgot to take any photo's! Then it was gift time. My children are very abnormal. They opened their gifts last! Papa Andy went first - since he was the birthday boy. Then Grandma and she had to open the gifts they got her first. Then Greg and I, then the kids! They have always preferred to watch others open their gifts they got people first. We got home around 10PM and then I had to write up the 'clues' for the kids for the morning. Emily filled the stockings (she and I had purchased things for them on Monday). I've never tried to compete with Grandma for Christmas, so the kids usually only got a few presents from Santa. This year they got one or two things and 'experiences'. I'm taking them to the Medieval Times dinner theater on Thursday evening. I think they will have fun!

Sunday, we had a late for us morning start. Emily made us hot Cocoa and then once Aidan got up we opened presents. Yup, I did let them do their stockings and follow their clues. Then they had us open the presents they had gotten for everyone. Both of Greg's parents came over for nibbles around noonish. I did appetizers and there was way too much food. I think I'll go back to a meal next year instead. Greg's Dad, Tom came over and got his gifts and the extra taco salad to go home with him. Grandma and Papa Andy came over as well and we had a birthday cake after nibbles. They all headed home, and Emily and I headed to the school for animal duty. There was an egg in the chicken coop that we got to take home! The next day - our Maple chicken finally started laying good eggs. She started laying eggs without the shell on Thursday but got it figured out Monday for a good egg. I wonder when the other 2 will start laying again? These are the 3 chickens that are left - Poppy who does my green eggs, and Maple and DC (Daisy Chickalotta) who lay large to extra large light brown eggs. I've been having to buy eggs since the end of November! Time for these girls to earn their keep.

Monday was a lazy day but we did a dog walk and I managed to get my star quilt pinned finally. I took Aidan to guitar last night, so it is not quilted yet. Maybe tonight? I did do some dog toy surgery this morning and 3 of his stuffed animals are back in his toy box. 

Time to head back to work.... but I wanted to share the lettuce we got to pick from the school green house on Friday before the frost! We grabbed 3 of them and it was yummy! I think I have enough for another batch of salad tomorrow for the family.

Florida Museum of Natural History.

Thursday was a Mom and son day. We headed up to Gainseville and visited the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus. The museum is free but we did pay the extra in the afternoon for the Butterfly exhibit and the fossil exhibit. We enjoyed both but the butterfly exhibit was our favorite! It was chilly for the butterflies so they were not flying much and it was a search mission to see them hiding on the bushes. We got to see the 2PM release of the ones that had emerged in the lab and I had one that decided to land on me for a while! It was interesting to learn of the different species and the color camouflage and what it means. Here are some sunny photo's to offset the bitter cold that is happening around the country.

Does anyone else remember doing the punch bug when you see a VW beetle car? I might have started that a couple of years ago with the kids. I sent this photo to Emily so I could her when we got home! Someone has a sense of humor at the museum when they were showing the categories of beetles!

While we were gone, the elf decided to do some climbing! 

Our lunch break, Aidan wanted a burger and he was listing all the places to eat. Since he didn't want to decide and he mentioned The Cheesecake Factory.... I decided since we had never been, we would eat there! He got an awesome burger and a side salad while I had the lunchtime chicken alfredo. Yummy. Aidan is already planning to go back for the Art museum next to it... with a stop at the Cheesecake Factory for lunch! 

Seems the power is out a bunch up in Vermont and they are expecting freezing temperatures to hit by 4PM, so my office closed at noon. Once I logged off, Emily and I took Bear to the trailhead for a little walk before our temps take a dive here in Florida. We have a freeze warning, and it will get down into the 20's the next 2 nights with highs in the 40's for the next 2 days. I need to pop out and grab groceries for the appetizer nibbling on Christmas and clean and vaccuum the car this afternoon then finish the wrapping of a few gifts. Floors need mopping, dusting and vacuuming are needed throughout the house. Pretty lite for us this year for gifts. I'm trying to do 'experiences' as we have plenty of 'stuff'! I have something planned for the kids and I (and Greg if he is up to it!) for next week. I might take them bowling on Monday since I have the day off and I know the alley is open for open bowling. We might find something to do in Orlando next Thursday during the day as that is where our evening event is taking place. 

I'm happy to say my wrist is feeling lots better so I will be trying to pin that quilt later tonight or tomorrow morning. We will see how it goes.

Stay warm out there!

Tuesday before Christmas.

 Nope, I'm not ready yet and no sewing has happened, and I doubt any hand work will with whatever I did to my wrist yesterday! Just a strain but it hurts lifting anything. I am able to type, so that is a good thing.

Saturday - I took Emily to horses in the morning and then took Aidan shopping for jeans and we did a few other errands and lunch out. Emily got picked up by a friend who was in town for the weekend and went out to lunch and shopping and then back to where they are staying for most of the rest of the day. Sunday I dropped Emily over to her friends again from 12-3 while I ran some errands. After picking her up, we headed to Grandma's house and then headed over to Homasassa Springs for the evening light show and then the Chinese Buffet near her for a late 8PM dinner. We got to see some nice music to the lights and manatees! I love seeing the Manatees and try to see them each year. Grandma loves to do the light show and this is a yearly tradition for us. Unfortunately, Greg was unable to do any of these things with us.

Monday - Emily had a dentist appointment and needed to grab a gift for an exchange at her girl scout meeting tonight. Greg was ok with the appointment but with the added shopping, he opted out with his back. I logged into work and said I was out for the day. We left around 10 and hit Walmart. Then a stop at UPS to drop a return and then to the dentist. Oops, 2 sealants but a cavity was found. They had an opening at 1PM. We got a quick McD's for lunch and back to the dentist. A pop to the bank to make some deposits and then Kohls. She wanted to pick out the yearly Christmas evening PJ's for everyone! At that point it was after 3PM, they did not have her size in the one she liked. Rather - the one they had had a medium top and a large bottom! I ordered it online and we will see if it arrives in time or not. She had the afternoon feeding of the chapter animals, so we went directly to the school and fed the lamb, pig and heifer and she cleaned their areas and watered them. They each got time to run out of their area as well, except for the cow. She has a nice big area. We picked up Subs at Publix and got home in time for her to wrap her presents while I exercised the dog. Yes, the boys were home all day! We popped back out to go to the girl scout holiday ice cream party and gift exchange. When we got home right before 8PM, Aidan said it was race time. He is rewatching the F1 2021 season with his F1 Subscription. They have the races back to the 1980's. We watched the 4th race and highlights of the 5th one before I headed to bed. Somewhere Monday I strained my right wrist and it hurt all night long! I need to find my hand/wrist compression glove. 

Today - working and meetings. Then Emily is headed to school in the afternoon to get some training on showing the heifer.  

Just another day in the life around here!