Happy New Year!

Last post of 2008. Here are some random photos and thoughts from the past 10 days...

We had a wonderful time with my family at my parents' place over Christmas; my older two loved decorating the tree with their Uncle Al.

Played outside in the snow a lot! In addition to the large snowman, there was also a snowbunny. (Heidi loves bunnies!!!)
And using the mound created by the snowplow along with the slight slope of the front yard, some of our crew built a fun little sled run right in front of the house.

Even Lucy enjoyed it! And I loved having huge amounts of floorspace on which to lay out the quilt designs. Here's the "structured" side, missing its border still.
We ended up going with Diamonds2; Al was fine with any of the designs but did mention the zigzags were maybe a little too "Charlie Brown-ish." The light is a little off in this picture -- in reality, the light greens and beiges are not that similar.

And here's the "eclectic" side. Got the idea to just sew squares on top of squares from this lovely "ragged squares" quilt.

I was amazed at just how hard it was to get a pleasing "random" layout. One of my brothers quipped that it's kind of like when we set up our Settlers board "randomly": "no, there's already a mineral there," "we need a better number on brick here," etc.

And I've heard of panting yourself into a corner, but quilting yourself into a corner?... : ) (Thanks to sis-in-law Jen -- and her gorgeous DSLR -- I'm actually in some photos for a change.)

Of course, sewing the pieces together would have worked a lot better if I had brought not only my sewing machine but also the power cord for it!!! Argh. Oh well, will start sewing it in 2009.

Our week at the "cabin" was fantastic... and then I came home to an over-the-top gift from a wonderful friend who made me give her a house key before we left town. What can be better than walking into your house after a vacation and seeing this:
Or this:
Especially considering the state it was in after the craziness of our departure day. She tidied up, she vacuumed, she dusted, she organized, she even cleaned the bathrooms! Aaaaah - deep contented sigh!

Before I even came hom, I knew I'd be in for a treat: my brother had driven to our town to pick up his girlfriend at the airport there and stopped at my house to hang out before her arrival. On the phone with me, he was asking how to turn on the TV. (It's complicated. Truly.) I told him first he needed to find the right remotes.

Al: "You mean the ones in the remote basket?"

Me: "Oh, I didn't know I had a remote basket."

Meet my new remote basket. Suzanne, you are an amazing genius angel.

So, resolutions for 2009:

1) Build on the beautiful gift Suz gave me by maintaining some order in my home.
2) Finish Al's quilt. Preferably well before his July birthday.

P.S. When the previous owner of the hibiscus told me that tree would probably have blooms this winter even, I didn't believe her. Clearly, she knows her stuff. Two blooms are almost done, this one just opened up today, and loads more coming soon. Sweet!



Happy New Year!