Let there be light

What a weekend. Yesterday, B and I spent the day in a haze of post-Christmas party exhaustion, dehydration and general feelings of "what just happened?" Two house parties (grown-up variety), 2 circus performances by daughter D, two open houses and a Dutch pancake lunch. Phew. I have pretty much completed my shopping, so was not at all stressed about spending the weekend away from the crowded stores. It's been years since we had such a social 48 hours. To commemorate our survival, we watched "The Hangover" last night. Don't worry, our weekend was nothing like the night those guys had!!

To help us regroup and recharge, a convenient power outage occurred at 5:30 pm last evening. I happen to enjoy the peace and quiet of a power outage in winter (as long as it only lasts a few hours and I don't have anything half-way cooked in the oven). We live in a neighbourhood with very tall trees so high winds and/or torrential rains can result in power failures for a few hours, or on rare occassions, a couple of days. Our usual reaction is to all camp out in the living room with candles, the gas fireplace on and individual headlamps lighting our books or magazines. Very cozy family time, indeed. Well yesterday we were all so tired and stuffed from the neighbours open house buffet that the four of us (plus doggie) all napped through the 2 hour outage (I got the couch with dog, B got the wing chair and T & D took the fireplace benches). Upon reflection, the group nap was probably not the safest thing to do with candles burning throughout the house.....

Good thing I had recently purchased this handsome silver reindeer candle-abra. It did a great job illuminating the living room. The lights came back on before 9, the kids went up to their beds and we watched the movie.

So, my gifts are all wrapped (this is definitely a new record of advance preparation for me). I would still like to bake some stollen bread and do a last grocery shop before the big day. Other than that, there are two UFO's on my "Joy in the New Year" list that are desperate for some attention over the holidays.

There is a fabulous giveaway for you to check out at my newest blogroll addition, Mrs. Moen. Nina makes beautiful modern quilts in Norway and her Snowy Village Table runner is just the ticket to a fabulous table for next Christmas! Look:

I may be back over the holidays, but can't make any promises. If it cools down and we get some more snow on the local mountains, I hope to ski, ski, ski! So, friends, I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas. xox.

He Knows....

...how to pack a sack...

...jingle ever so softly...

...gather special friends...

...dress immaculately in a warm quilted coat...

...if you've been bad or good...

So be good for goodness sake!

Cheeky Mice!

SewCalGal is hosting a Virtual Christmas Quilt Show online! This is a great way to share your favourite Christmas quilt or other stitchery item with everyone in blogland. I admit - I have never made (or met) a handmade Christmassy item that I didn't like. It must be the sentiment of the season that goes into every stitch, but I absolutely LOVE all of my handmade holiday pillow covers, Santas, quilts, wall-hangings, doorknob pulls and ornaments.

For my entry into the virtual quilt show, I'd like to share my sweet little embroidered and quilted wall hanging that wasn't quite finished in time for the holidays last year, but was completed 11 months in advance for this year!! (I highly recommend continuing those unfinished Christmas projects into January so that when they are finished, you can feel totally rock star and smug about your advanced preparations for the next Christmas!).

This little honey is from a pattern by the uber-talented lover of all things tiny and sweet, Natalie, of Cinderberry Stitches. I mean, just look at these cheeky little mice:

Natalie uses a lot of blanket stitch as outlining in her designs and I often have trouble with it. When it's used around the edge of an applique, I don't have any issues, but when used as an outline (like on the little hanging ornaments), I find the traveling part across the top of the stitch often gets pulled down/in. I've experimented by pulling the stitch tighter, or leaving it loose (seems worse). At any rate, it's a small issue because I adore her designs and have done several. I will order her newest Christmas stitchery quilt 'Raspberry Cream' to make for next year - go have a look, it is adorable beyond words!

I also wanted to share my tree skirt. This project was many years in the making! It is a Bare Roots pattern, but you can really make it your own by embellishing the houses with embroidery: holly, light strings, wreaths and candles in the windows.

If you have a favourite Christmas project to share (and I know you do!), then toggle on over to Sew Cal Gal's blog and enter...there are lots of great prizes to be won!! If you're visiting from the show listings, then welcome to Poppyprint and thanks for stopping by!

**Merry Christmas Everyone**

Give Away Alert:

Green Fairy Quilts is having a really fantastic give away, so head on over there for your chance to win a gorgeous Christmas present for yourself! She has two new flower quilt patterns just published that would both make fantastic lap quilts for a teen girl - plus they are on sale, buy one get one free!!

It's a decorating frenzy here today. We bought our tree from the Boy Scouts yesterday and for the first time in many years B was able to wrestle it into the stand (so it stood straight!) with minimal sawing/hacking/bad words. It is a lovely tree - all decorated and smelling amazing. We are still working on the paper chains for the windows. I will share photos once we're all done and shining. I hope your holiday preps are going along nicely. A dusting of snow today made it all the more magical. I'm off now to my cookie exchange......

Barbados Red

Barbados Blue

Holiday Preps Underway

Busy day. Between blowing my nose and applying Chapstick to my parched lips, I got a fairly good start on house prep and decorating today. Serves me right, going to Barbados. I seem to have picked up an airplane headcold of the icky variety (I guess there's no such thing as a non-icky headcold, but this one is up there in icky factor as it includes sinus headache and blocked ears).

Headcold be damned, I soldiered on and accomplished:

• shrink-wrapped living room and dining room 90 year old, single-glazed-ill-fitting wood windows that function more as screens than windows in winter.


• vacuumed those rooms


• lovingly removed from storage and set out my favourite all time Poppyprint-made Christmas decoration, my beloved Woodland Santa (photos soon)


• did 3 loads of laundry


• wrapped with LED white lights and hung my new gorgeous faux cedar outdoor wreath on the front of our house even climbing ladder to do so - possibly not a very bright idea considering foggy head! (will take nighttime pix for you for full seasonal effect)


• found a satisfactory display spot for my incredible new German Christmas Pyramid (this was my promissory gift from B last year, seen above and ordered online from this place earlier this fall)
• ate a delicious bowl of homemade turkey soup delivered to my door by my fantastic friend Shelley
• made a batch of spectacular spiced nuts. Photo and recipe coming right up.

Now I'm going to sip a cup of hot lemon/honey water and await the kids' school Christmas concert this evening. I plan to snag an aisle seat with B next to me in order to minimize germ transfer.

Elaine's Spiced Nuts

(I have no clue who Elaine is, but her name is on the recipe that Susan sent me, so I'm giving credit where credit is due!)

1 egg white beaten with 1 Tbsp water in large bowl

add 8 cups mixed nuts (I used pecan halves, whole walnuts and almonds)

Toss nuts to coat

Combine 1 tsp salt, 1.5 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ground cloves, 1 tsp nutmeg and 3/4 C sugar.

Sprinkle over nuts, toss to coat. Toast in a 275F oven for 30 minutes on a greased cookie sheet. Remove from oven and let cool before storing in an air-tight container. Makes 8 cups for sharing with friends, neighbours and other holiday dropper-inners.

Tomorrow it's cookie day. I have to produce 12 dozen for my exchange on Sunday. That's a lotta butta! This year I'm ditching my old standby of Mexican chocolate chili drops for chocolate oatmeal shortbread rounds...stay tuned for results. Oh! and the holiday photos are uploaded, just need a little more of that elusive thing we call time to compile some mosaics for you.