Thursday, December 19, 2024

I Like Thursday# 431 Christmas as a child,

 

just a few likes this week but I do like this IKEA star we put on a timer to come on each night.

I caught site of it's shadow one morning... thought it was artsy!

I tried making sugared pecans this week

they came out so good, easy to make and we sneak in and grab some a couple times a day


Watching online: very intriguing puzzle ... don't blow off the elders' knowledge.... 


https://youtube.com/shorts/2JHsowO3o2E?si=0CJxVhl5g26QvdlY 

 

 

I put up just the mantle decoration this weekend, to lift our spirits

Our prompt this week: 

How was Christmas done in your childhood home/family?

example, if you woke earlier than the parents did you have to wait? Did the gifts go under the tree after you went to bed? did your family all exchange gifts? Did you dig in and all open your gifts at the same time or have to go around a circle opening one at a time?

remember silver tinsel  (Ice-sickles) on trees? magical!

Early in my childhood we had a real tree, and I had to go to bed early on Christmas Eve. Not allowed to come out or sneak a peek before the parents got up. My parents had two daughters who were married by the time I was 5 (I'm adopted) so we spent the day with them often. 

My mother ,  as Santa spent a lot of time arranging packages and a couple open things. I remember one year with a tricycle front and center, another year with a big doll, another with a bike. Since it was just me mostly, I was told to just open the gifts and loved, still love, all the little things in a stocking. 

When I was about 12 we got a silver tinsel tree with a light wheel that twirled. 

I remember as a10 year old handling one tubular shaped wrapped present and trying to guess what it was. It was the first thing I opened Christmas morning, it was from granny (who had lots of grand kids and not a lot of money) it was a roll of quarters, I felt RICH. you can buy a lot of penny candy with that after school. 

In Tampa, the wonder bread business held a yearly event of a tour of the factory and free tiny loaf of white bread. I always wanted to go, loving bread so much. The city had a creche and my family took a film of 3 year old me running to kiss the baby Jesus and getting clothes-lined on the ropes. Knocked me flat and the family laughed.

lest you think it was all good times  It was not Hallmark-ville around our house. 

 one parent always fell of the wagon after being given alcohol by his family yearly,  the other parent going thru the motions but openly resentful that she never got lots of toys. From the outside it looked like a good home... 

So when I left to live on my own, Christmas became a decorator's dream with me. I fell in love with tiny ornaments collected on travels, sparkly twinkle lights, a big real tree. I was a social worker and poor generally but kept up the magical sparkling time with foods and decorations. My first dog Chelsea, a big black lab took a bite out of all ornaments she could reach as an older puppy. A chelsea-bite. I cry when I see them surface, remembering that year as one where I wasn't alone. 





Milo's Memories 

Milo loved toys but got overstimulated with more than one at a time. At most I gave him three wrapped so that he could tear the paper off! He would play with it, then go get an old toy and spend time with it. He was a fair and just poodle. 


 The shark sleeps on our bed now. In his toybox is a pea pod stuffie he picked out as a puppy. We went on a Christmas stroll in Frederick MD the three of us. He loved shopping like Cole did, looking at everything eye level and lower, not touching, til he spied that pea pod. He sniffed it, and grabbed it, taking it to the counter to be paid for. He watched the clerk closely, as she took off the price tag. I said no need to wrap it, he'll escort it out and he pranced at the end of the leash holding that toy. He never tore that one up, we still have it. 

Our family is broken hearted without him this year, the first Christmas without him. 


now please visit these folk to read their lists this week


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Saturday, December 14, 2024

My creative week in threads

 

This is the 12th block in this pattern for this year's RSC quilt to be. 

I chose a warm color, a healing color is pink, and this time more intense shades of pink. 

I don't know if it's "raspberry" or just saturated pinks originally I thought maroon or cranberry. 

I do like to play with all variations of a color... here are three warm colors together to compare

intense pink, bright pink, and red. Note I've tried to keep a dotted theme this year for the hexies. I love focusing on a color each month and exploring it with it's neighbors. I have NO idea how to handle these 12 circles. Applique them to a background square, all backgrounds the same? or slightly different? like white/cream/beige/ white on beige/ cream with gold? 
What do you think? 

I finished this little runner too. It's challenging working on that Barbie sized machine, but I persevered and it's all done. Originally I wanted a bright floral around the hexies but none in my stash worked. I hated to cut up this background. It's a mix of piecing and applique to put it onto the background
I machine bound it with a bright colors on red fabric
Beeeeeee

My friend Sue, Duke's mom, sent me a prism with colorful crystals and Milo's name on a heart. I miss my snoopervisor in the studio, huffing in boredom as he collapsed on his bed, getting up frequently to go bark out the bedroom window next door, nudging me to say Dad's out of his lair and ready to walk. 
taking a break from decision making to pet the softest curls ears ever held. 
It's one month today from when we said goodbye. 

Meanwhile the moravian star continues to not be quite right. I called in my local geometry consultant, the engineer I'm married to... he said make two identical 6 star units and they should go together
they go together but are flatter than I wanted. I then called in the consultant Sara https://mysewingroomsara.blogspot.com/
who has actually done a fabric Moravian star. She made one with 10 star units...and much larger and it looks fabulous. 
I do not want to take any of these apart to pare down to 10 so... in an effort to finish it in some way, I might just put them together. 
Another valuable helper (https://stitchingsapphire.blogspot.com/)wrote directions which my brain can't take in right now, but I kept them for the future. 

If I ever try this again. 
no painting this week. I have begun thinking of what center square will start my Stay at home round robin quilt in 2025. No ideas yet. 

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Thursday, December 12, 2024

i like Thursday # 430 cookies, quilts, squirrel, and memories of a poodle

 

Middle of December, we still have some snow left from a couple weeks ago, and this is my list of likes

Starting with a close up of a quilt I made years ago in Maryland. I love looking at it while the tv is on, and I'm in the sit and stare portion of the evening. I actually painted something this week

4 X 6" from a tutorial on youtube



Our prompt :  

If you could eat only one type of cookie this holiday season, which cookie would you be eating a lot of?

easy, sugar cookies! I love the ones cut out but make circles. I like my candy cane cookies sugar with peppermint. I make a variety of cookies (half recipes) in december and freeze some for a cookie platter mix while DH is off work. Recipe below under fine dining.

  What would be the ideal way for you to spend Christmas Eve?

these days of still avoiding risk of illness, taking an evening walk and taking part in the church service in the park with carols. I fondly remember other times when I went to our National Cathedral, spent time wrapping santa's gifts to my sister's kids, playing games with a martini in my hand, wandering the pretty lit streets of Annapolis MD, going to my friend Lane's church service with candles in Tampa, and a really fun time in Baltimore. 

DH, My poodle Cole, and I went to the most lit street in Baltimore with a Meeelion other people and a quirky display. Then on to Little Italy for some treats at Vaccaros to take home. Watching people playing bocci ball, walking around the granite stoops and then finishing down at the Harbor. 

laughing because I love cows and dogs

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/YTw8yLwqYtk?si=U3hIdztRa9krvb_S


Caught a pic of my little squirrel friend this week, enjoying the vege we put under the big tree

speaking of food
Fine Dining 
We made a pear crumble this week, and some baileys irish cream sauce for all the deserts! 

I keep it in a clean jelly jar



they got too big because it hurt to stand long enough to do them right. They taste divine


We made stuffed roasted baby bell peppers too



We love a small two person charcuterie board during the holidays, here's one on a crystal star dish
apples, almond crackers, sweet pepper jelly, gruyere cheese, peppers, celery, cucumber, tomatoes and turkey summer sausage from Hickory farms. 

On audio this week:
On TV, Survivor is great, altho they sent home my favorites already. I admit to watching the housewive shows on Bravo and am loving Beverly Hills and NYC at the moment. We are almost caught up on Emily in Paris, and mid season  of Murdoch mysteries (on Acorn)

I like that my podiatrist appt this week went okay. I have apparently got Reynauds where my toes get cold and circulation stops and they get infected. I had been trying to walk anyway and in compensating for the pain I sprained my foot, but an xray showed no break. That was the good news. Gotta keep my fingers warm too, or they blister. I love cold weather too. 


Milo as a naughty puppy....

Milo's Memories
I am barely coping, his shark toy still sleeps in our bed. We remember so many moments from his life each day, and it's somewhat comforting. 
He was a naughty puppy, willing to throw tantrums if told no. On walks he would pick up rocks, I'd take them out of his mouth, and he'd throw a fit pulling at the leash, growling, pulling us. When we moved to Colorado, land o' rocks, he was in heaven. We stopped taking them away until the end of a walk, and I built a small cairn in the house of them. I still have them. 
If he'd been a little boy, his pockets would have been full at end of every day. 
Our neighbor in the rental was chatting with us, and Milo picked up a rock. I grabbed his snout, shook it out saying dammit Milo! you spit that out! the neighbor said, now THAT's a mama. 

please visit these folks to see what they like this week, and share your favorite cookie recipes
 



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Sunday, December 8, 2024

creativity a bit of sewing, a bit of paint

 

Even when going through grief, one wants to make art. I am slowly working on my Moravian star in fabric

the little star units are lying on my portable design surface. (cardboard / batting/ felt ) with a sand paper bottom. This tutorial said to make 12 star units of 5 petals. See the little diamonds on the bottom right. 
moving anticlockwise up here are the 5 sewn together.  
moving anticlockwise to the left top the five are sewn into a cupped star shape
and the bottom left is two sewn together (wrong sides tog) with a third to be sewn in

I'm not sure of the tutorial, it doesn't show where they are all joined into a big shape so I'm stuck

I painted a wee house, and that's about it this week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UowBhx-IeqY

4X 6" or so, a mix of pencil watercolor-pencils (prismacolor) and water color paint with ink on top

 


Maybe I'll feel like making more next week in between doctor's appts. Not sleeping well at all. 
hope all reading this are finding more creative time than I did, but we know it comes and goes even when the artist shows up in studio to do the work. 

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Thursday, December 5, 2024

I Like Thursday # 429 trees, quilts, yummy food

 

table runner made with cute Christmas scraps


Prompt this week is: Real Christmas tree or artificial

we went to an artificial tree years ago when Cole, Dh and I all had allergy attacks after bringing in a real tree. Now in Colorado we have a tall one that just lives in the family room all year, decorated for the seasons sometimes. I love how real it looks. 

And, after all it's a "real artificial" tree, you can touch it, heehee. 


Milo used to roam around the presents as they were added to the base but too polite to open them til time. He was often overwhelmed by too many choices so we learned to give him one a day. Being a loyal poodle, he tried to divide his time up among the new and old toys, God Bless him. 




One like is in Milo's honor

One of my likes this week is a squirrel. I can't believe it but on our last walk around the back yard, this squirrel came out to say hi to Milo and I. I said shoo! but it came 5 steps closer, stood up and had the most earnest look on it's little face, hands held in front, looking me in the eyes, and then at Milo too ill to chase it. I waved my arms and it reluctantly went back to the one big tree in our yard, 

Well this week miss squirrel came right up on the back porch and looked in. She seemed to think there was a tasty snack for her, and came closer and closer to the back door as I cooed at her. When she bit into the towels we cover mums with at night, I said NO! She stopped and turned to me, moving to the next one waiting to see if that one too was off limits. NO! She stopped, and sort of squirrel shrugged and came back to the door standing up, holding her wee hands in front and looking up at the two of us. 

We do put parings and peels under that big tree for bunnies or squirrels now and then but it's in the back of the yard. maybe they watch us do that and know us as the "givers of good food" 

 Then we looked out and another young squirrel was with her! Two too much! 

I liked the connection we seemed to share, the eye contact and lack of fear. 

art project



I'm trying something new. An english paper pieced (EPP) moravian star in fabric, the tutorial is 

HERE

a bit tedious and small.... perfect for me needing to just see fabric stitched to fabric right now

Fine dining

We roasted a butternut squash, and this time tried roasting the seeds. I coated them in cinnamon sugar.

Well, they got carmalyzed and came out just a little burnt tasting but we ate them of course. 

we love spaghetti meat (turkey) sauce and lots of veggies. We like to make a lasagna with half the sauce to enjoy later in the week
dinner plate with side plate on top, bowl, small bowl and smaller bowl

Tradition

I got out my Christmas dishes again, my favorite ritual. I love them and love using them. I've looked to see if I can find a set like them to use all the time as they are the right size, weight, and I just love the cutlery shape and size/weight too. Nope, nada. 

It feels odd and somehow wrong to decorate as if nothing happened when I'm grieving Milo so much. 

We are not joyful but we're doing what one can do, keep moving, one foot in front of the other, and trying to distract ourselves. We know better than to think it will be a joyful Christmas  this year but time is relentless and demands that we fill it. I think I now understand cancer hits all ages, and is devastating to all creatures. 

if you ever want to make a difference, consider donations to research. Researchers in canine cancer just discovered the floride in drinking water is causing bladder cancer in dogs. We had just a year ago started giving Milo filtered water, too little too late. 

mommy loves you my beautiful boy, forever

a friend wrote this in response to my grief... it's a lovely gift to give me (thank you Helen)
I hear you.
I'm listening.
I'm sad with you.
I can't "do" anything, but I hear you.

please visit these folks to see what they liked this week, and let me know to add you in if you write a post too

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