Featherstone Quiltworks

Please notice the comma.  Although as the weekend progresses, Savage the town could become savage the adjective.  The Twin Cities metro area hasn’t been hit as hard with snow as the western and northern parts of the state and it appears that will also be true this weekend (although we’re already above the average snowfall for the month of December and there’s a lot of month left).  There’s nothing like a snowstorm when you have the option of staying home, keeping toasty warm, and watching the snow-globe effect from inside the snow globe!

DS2 and DIL are now in China for a visit with DIL’s family.  This is DS2′s first visit to China and first meeting with any of DIL’s family.  I can’t wait to hear all about this wonderful trip when they get back home.  DIL couldn’t wait to enjoy some authentic Chinese food prepared by her mom, as it had been five years since she had been back to China.  Of course I put in a request for a piece of Chinese fabric when they visit the markets in Beijing! 

We have their pup Milo visiting with us while they’re gone.  DH1 and I are new to the world of pets, so this is an experience for us too.   Milo has won our hearts.  He has settled in nicely, not quite so hyper as he was on his trial visit.  He still loves to play — he is a puppy, after all — and loves attention (don’t we all?).

DH takes him outside for “business” as well as pleasure walks.  Milo LOVES to go outdoors.  The snow doesn’t bother him at all.  Here’s a question for you dog owners out there.  Milo can’t stand the sound of my sewing machine.  He whines and whines.  At first I thought it maybe bothered his ears, but when I tried it again, he acted like he was protecting me.  Could he think I’m being hurt?  Should I keep trying it and keep calming and assuring him, or is this really uncomfortable for him?

On the sewing front, I have a couple more aprons done, but everything is still taking me much longer than before I hurt my wrist.  They x-rayed my wrist Thursday as part of a routine follow up and it is healing nicely.  I have the okey-dokey to leave my splint off now, which is nice.  I did notice my wrist/hand is more tired and swollen at the end of the day, but it’s all progress.

I have to keep checking the calendar to see what the date is.  In a normal year, I’m so focused on how many days til Christmas; this year, it doesn’t really seem to matter much.  Since the whole family was together the week before Thanksgiving, we doubled up the holidays and celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We were done with the holidays before Thanksgiving!!!  I didn’t decorate this year, which seemed like a prudent decision with a bum wrist, but this just doesn’t seem right.  No last-minute shopping, no wrapping, no baking, no twinkling Christmas tree.  Weird.  It’s a little hard to get into the spirit of the season.  I’ll try with my signature:

Sue

My side of the family is pretty small, and we are all here in the same metro area (except for DS1 in VA).  DH’s family, however is large and scattered across the country.  DH is the 5th of 7 children, and each of those “children” have children who have children…it’s a BIG family.  Besides Minnesota, we cover the aforementioned Virginia, Missouri, Texas, North Dakota, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Washington, Oregon, and Arizona.  We used to have huge family get-togethers on my in-laws’ farm in western North Dakota, which we all loved.  There was room for the kids to all run and play and get to know their cousins.  There was always good food, good times, and some good mischief.

Since my in-laws have passed away, reunions have been limited to weddings and funerals.  This family is terrific.  When there’s a family wedding, everyone who can travels for the occasion.  Maybe your family is like ours, and maybe you have a smaller family, but it seems like keeping in touch gets harder all the time.

Several years ago we found MyFamily.com.  It’s a free on-line service, but I pay the $20 or $30 upgrade a year and then no one gets pop-up ads, plus we get additional space for pictures. 

What I really like about MyFamily is it’s a secure web site.  Only your invitees can see what’s there.  When you set it up, you plug in the e-mail addresses of whom you’d like to invite, and MyFamily sends out the invitations.  Because it’s private, you can have address lists, phone numbers, family pictures — more information than you would care to share with the universe.  There are even sections for recipes, book and/or movie reviews, family tree, a “file cabinet” where you can share documents.  It also shows when people have visited the site last. 

The person who sets up the site is the Administrator, so you will be the one that helps out if someone forgets their password, etc.  Or you can designate everyone an Administrator.  It’s up to you.

Anyway, I’m a big fan of MyFamily, and it’s part of my morning routine:  I check it to see if anyone has posted anything new since yesterday.  It also shows upcoming birthdays, and probably other features I’m not remembering.  Oh, it also has a Chat feature, where you can arrange a certain date and time for everyone to be online at the same time and you have your own chat room.  We’ve tried it a couple of times, and it didn’t work out the best for our family.  But I love every other feature, and MyFamily works great for us. 

When Ike was bearing down on Texas/Louisiana, SIL Grace (who lives south of Houston) was able to post information about the family who lives in that area.  There was a lot of activity on our MyFamily page during that time, and it was great that there was one central place to check for updates.

Just something useful that’s out there that you might not have known about. 

Sue

This is what happens when you don’t have grandchildren — you post a photo of one of your grandpuppies.  So, this is Tucson.  Tucson lives in Virginia with our oldest son Dave.  Or maybe Dave lives with Tucson.  I’m not sure.  Anyway, isn’t he cute?  He looks like he’s ready to save the world!

Sue