Progress and stuff

I am continuing to work on Gramma's Aprons...there is a faint light at the end of the tunnel!! I have set a goal of having this done-done within a short while and will continue to plug along.
There are only 2 sides left to do and but I have run into a bit of a calculation problem. One side and a corner spaced out evenly and I am very happy with the outcome...the spacing on the second side has gotten off and for the life of me, I cannot find where or how...I decided I could "do it my way" and make an adjustment, which is what I have done...the top, one corner and one side are done. I am not sure how the spacing got off, but it did, the quilt measures out right...but the marking didn't!!! I need to mark the bottom and see what I come up with...maybe a need for some more creative marking...hopefully not!!!

Monday you will find me in MCM getting backings ready for 9-10 quilts. I may have already mentioned that a friend and I have reserved 2 quilting machines for January 19-21. The shop owner will let you use her machines FREE if you are quilting for charity, which we are. Reservations are hard to get, we made these reservations back in September!!! I am hoping we can look at her books and get another reservation in sooner than later!

Ed and I have two grandkids with us this weekend. Rex (14) and Kaitlyn (9). We're having a blast, as always! Katie and I cooked dinner last night: Baked Ziti, cheese bread, green beans. Sometimes I forget how much a 14 yr old boy can consume!! Today we went to town (drove on icy roads!) where the guys went to see Pursuit of Happyness and us girls went to see Charlottes Web. I had thought we were all going to Pursuit of Happyness but Katie said she didn't want to see a sad movie...HA!! at the end of Charlotte's Web Katie and I were both using our salty popcorn napkins to mop the tears off our faces and blow our noses when Charlotte died! LOL we are so silly!

I wanted to share a couple more snow pictures. I love snow...(oh, I said that earlier, didn't I?? LOL) This pic was taken at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday as I was headed off to the office. At 11 a.m. I left the office and did not return...it had continued to snow and we had gotten quite a bit more, plus there was a nice layer of ice under it. Before I left the office I rescheduled appts, no reason for anyone to be out in that! We still have plenty of snow on the ground, roof tops are still covered with snow. Temps remain in the 30's so it isn't melting and if it should melt it just freezes into ice. The kids were given a "Yahtzee" weekend...5 days off in a row!

This next pic is of Rex and Katie's snowman, it was waaay too cold to be outside (22!!) so they made a quick snowman and came inside...they made a snowman because they wanted Ryan to see the snow. They raided the jar on the kitchen counter that is full of odds and ends of toys and etc since Mr. Snowman needed a few friends, a pet or two and some wheels...his hat is a cupcake paper, his nose is a toothpick....no eyes because the cheerios wouldn't stick on him, Rex said that was ok because he is sleeping...actually, he is lucky to have a head at all since his head kept falling off!! They had a good time and both came in with RED hands, cheeks and noses!
This pic is of JackFrost on my dogwood tree, isn't it beautiful? I should have played around with the settings on the camera before taking this pic but I didn't...all of the trees and plants in our yard were covered with frost this morning, it was just as beautiful as the snow has been.

Gingerbread Houses and Blue Ribbons...

...what do they have in common? Well for this post the only thing Gingerbread Houses and Blue Ribbons have in common is the fact that they are going to be the two topics for this post...

For years my sister hosted our whole family for the long Thanksgiving wknd...we have a large family so this was a huge gift from her to our family~allowing her home to be over run with kids, the living room over run with men watching football, the kitchen over run with cooks (too many!!!), and just about every inch of her house pretty much full of noise and chaos...bathrooms running out of toilet paper, the sink always full of dishes, dogs and kids everywhere...the mud room full of NOT MUD...but goodies (that is where the yummy stuff was always kept, like momma's pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting)...the barn was where the kids would gravitate as they got a bit older. My parents would take their motorhome over a day or so ahead of time so when it got too loud we knew we could find a couple of minutes of peace out there. My brother would pull his camper in the yard somewhere and my sister always had their camper ready for Ed and I a place to be as well. My sister, a very gracious hostess, really knows how to throw a party! I bet she was never so glad to see tail lights on cars as she was the Sunday after Thanksgiving...the whole fam damily come and gone!!!

During the weekend a few traditions took place.

• At some point, usually on Friday night, we played BUNCO. Hilarious time with lots of "I'm gonna win!" and "You won last year!" and of course "DUCK" as the Bunco Buddy was tossed from table to table. Everyone got to play, no matter what your age! Even the littlest ones played, maybe with a bit of help from an older cousin or grandma, but they got to play too. There was always alot of laughter and ribbing that went on during BUNCO
• Friday morning the ladies would get up VERY EARLY and head off to Bend (an hours drive on a NORMAL day) and be there in time for the after Thanksgiving doorbusters. The last time we were all together we left the farm around 4 a.m., got about 5 miles away and turned back...the roads were a solid sheet of black ice...staying home just seemed to be the better choice!
• NOW...this is where the gingerbread house fits in...each year Ed and I would bake gingerbread walls, roofs, chimney's and people for a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. Ed would mix up his secret (yes, it is a secret...and he still won't even tell me!!) recipe for mortar icing. After dinner on Thanksgiving, after the pumpkin pie had been served...after the dishwasher had been run and emptied for the umpteenth time...the ladies and children would take over my sisters master bedroom...card tables were set up all over the place. The gingerbread workshop was open!!! Everyone would put together their own gingerbread house...the ladies did large houses, the kids did smaller houses. My mother had the BESTEST assortment of candies and sprinkles and colored coconut (NO COCONUT FOR MY SISTER, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!). Necco wafers. Peppermints. Licorice. Jelly Beans. M&M's (holiday colors!!). Smarties. Tubes and tubes of colored icing. I think momma must have started buying candy around Easter! We would continue to work on our houses throughout the weekend and then try to figure out how to get them transported back to our own homes on Sunday!

I have continued the tradition with my momma, albeit on a much smaller scale!! Now we do a prepackaged gingerbread house on or around Thanksgiving. Then, on Christmas Day we decorate gingerbread people to give to the staff who are working that holiday as a thank you. Here is a picture of Christmas 2005 GingerPeople.
My sister spent Thanksgiving with momma this year so earlier that week I took a gingerbread tree kit and all the needed items (hand mixer, measuring spoons, mixing bowls..etc) over and left them in mommas room. My great-niece, MacKenzie (who just had her 8th bday on Saturday!!!) "helped" Grandma Broken Arm decorate the tree...which we are now refering to as "The Leaning Tower of Christmas". On Christmas day momma and I will again make GingerPeople for the staff who will be working that day.


And Blue Ribbons???? Well, Ed told me a little while ago that I should enter Gramma's Aprons in the county fair, he is SURE I will get a blue ribbon...LOL cracking me up...gee, can you say "This man is in need of some serious points and will do or say anything to get them??" LOL OK, so I gave him a couple of points.