I remember my first decade change, from 1959 to 1960.  All I had known were the ’50s, and it was almost unbelievable to a 10-year-old (almost 11) that the year was changing to 1960.  Wow.  That was 50 years ago.

New Year’s Eve (last day of 1970), my DH proposed to me, and obviously I accepted.  Wow.  That was 39 years ago last night. 

After those two New Years, it’s all kind of a blur.

Yesterday we spent painting DS#3’s double bungalow (I learned it’s really not a duplex, it’s a double bungalow).  I guess we should know what we’re painting!  It’s still going painfully slow.  We came home, and reheated some leftovers and had a nice glass of bubbly…

I should have taken a better photo of my table runner.  It’s from a book by Terry Atkinson, and it’s my favorite.

And I just found out that I “laundered” my cell phone.  What a way to start the new year!  I’m hoping it will dry out and work again, but I’m not too confident.  Well, we’re out to breakfast, and then back to the salt mines double bungalow to continue our paint-a-thon. 

Wishing all of you a wonderful new year. 

–Sue

First of all, I’m not a big resolution maker, because after 60 years on this earth, I find I am still making the same resolutions:  get organized, stay focused on one project, lose weight, be taller…..so my resolutions this year are a little different.

I am going to continue participating in Judy Laquidara’s Design Wall Monday.  I find that helps me take stock of what I’ve accomplished in the past week and think about what I hope to accomplish in the next week.  (If you’re interested in participating, nothing to sign up for — just prepare a post on your site on Monday, go to Judy’s site and add a link.)  PLUS it’s fun to just check in and see what other quilters are working on.

Something new is Vicki Welsh’s involvement in a new site:  3 Creative Studios.  They are starting something new in January, Creative Cue, every Sunday, where they will throw out a word as astarting point for a creative exercise (drawing or sketching), and it’s up to you to interpret it however you would like.  You can participate even if you don’t draw!  Yea!!!  I plan to use this to be more creative in my photography, but I’m sure it will overlap into other areas of my life as well.  Same deal — prepare a post on your site, go to the 3 Creative Studios site and post a link.  Sounds like fun!  Even if you don’t have a blog or photo site or don’t care to participate for whatever reason, check out this site.  Click on all the tabs and buttons and see all the wonderfulness they are offering up!

Work on completing my mountain of UFOs, a project at a time.  (Tab at the top of my page, if you’re interested in tracking my progress.)  By the middle of January, I will be back to having UFO Thursdays.

Work on developing some of my designs into actual patterns.

Keep knitting socks.  I have a lot of sock yarn in the basket waiting for the *magic* to happen and turn them into socks.

AND be better organized, stay focused on one project, lose weight, get taller…wish me luck!

–Sue

We live in Minnesota, so we shouldn’t need to resort to a virtual snowball fight!  DS#1, Dave, came home for Thanksgiving; he is home in Virginia working Christmas Eve day and Christmas day, and of course we are missing him!  He must have missed us too, because here’s what he sent me today — a virtual snowball fight with our faces “pasted” in.  There were only five faces, so DIL Lynn isn’t represented here.  She must be the one taking the movie — or maybe she’s in the kitchen making hot chocolate for all of us.

Click here to see the fun on JibJab.  (If you have a slower computer or connection, like we do, it will stop once in a while to catch up with itself.  I know, that’s not very good tech talk!  It’s actually only about 20 seconds long.)  You can also make a video using your family/friend photos.

Thanks, Dave!  We miss you too…

–Sue (Mom)

Vicki W. suggested in an e-mail that I could maybe blog about how to take better photos of shiny objects.  Never did figure out the shiny objects thing, but one thing seems to lead to another.  That got me started taking some tree photos…and of course, the first picture the flash went off…the second picture I suppressed the flash:

It would have been better with a tripod or if I had steadied the camera on the back of a chair, but I was just playing around.  It also would have been better if I picked up the envelopes lying on tree skirt!

Then I went in for some close-ups of individual ornaments.  Betty, recognize your angel?  She looks a little grainy because of the low light in the room, but I actually really like this picture.

I wish I had been sipping a glass of wine at the time so I could blame this on the alcohol (it must have been the sugar in the cookies I’ve sampled), but I started giving the camera a little twist as I took the picture:

This was fun!  I found the key to keeping your ornament somewhat focused is to keep it in the center, imagine the axis of your twisting movement is going right through the lens, and then give a slight rotation when you’re pressing the shutter.

It’s so much fun because you can see right away what you got…

Have I made you all feel a little dizzy?

This would be an interesting activity for children/grandchildren who are the right age to use a digital camera.  They might even end up taking a picture suitable for next year’s Christmas card!  This would also be fun to try if you’re going to an evening parade, such as the Hollidazzle parade in downtown Minneapolis.

Thanks for the inspiration, Vicki!  I’ll get back to baking and cleaning and laundry now.

–Sue

PS:  Some tips if you decide to try this.  I had no lights on in the room, just ambient light from an adjoining room.  Remember to suppress the flash.  Just a little twist, like from 2:00 to 3:00.  Experiment with more and less of a twist.  You’re not wasting film — you will just delete more pictures (I deleted a lot)!  I took these with my little point-and-shoot camera, no fancy equipment required.

(12/16/09 NOTE:  This is such a good “to do” list for me, I’m going to modify it as I complete these tasks.)

That’s how close Christmas is — I can already hear Santa’s sleigh off in the distance, like the ticking of a clock, reminding me of all the things I need to do in the next week.

BAKING:  I am not a prolific baker like my friend Pam who is making 13 kinds of cookies this year (and she doesn’t do easy cop-out cookies either!).  I’m making my favorites:  Swirled Mint Cookies, a peppermint pressed sugar cookie, Capuccino Flats (coffee/cinnamon/chocolate cookie), and neighbor Marilyn’s Taffy Cookies, a brown-sugar shortbread cookie with Hersey bar piece melted on top.  The sugar cookies are done; two more batches to go.  Mmmmmm. 

SHOPPING:  (almost) done.  Now, in the spirit of truthfulness and full disclosure, our family is small, plus we draw names for each other, (plus I do smaller “mom” gifts for the “kids”).  I have DH left to buy for (Jim, are you reading this?  Reminder to leave a Sears ad out with some things circled).

CHRISTMAS LETTER:  Done & Mailed.  I have done a Christmas letter every year for probably 36 years until last year.  It seemed like it was too depressing, since we were in the middle of some medical testing and didn’t know the outcome yet.  Why make people worry?  Skipped last year.  All the medical stuff came out quite well, so I needed to do a letter for this year.  I spent a couple of hours at the computer trying to do some kind of letter, and I felt like I was writing the same letter I had written 35 or 36 times before.  So stale and boring.  Here are most of our letters since 1996, including one written in verse; it’s a fun way to look back at what’s been happening in our lives since then:

So I searched on line for Christmas letter tips.  Just the spark I needed.  So my Christmas letter is now a newsletter (which I’ve done before), but I added a quiz.  There were several other ideas on this web site for ways to make your Christmas letter more interesting, and I was able to keep to my cardinal rule:  no more than one page.    Once I had some fresh ideas, the letter practically wrote itself.  Now I need to print the labels for the envelopes (yes, I know handwritten is more personal), and get those puppies in the mail!  I like my letters to reach their destinations shortly before Christmas, so I am actually on track.

TREE & DECORATIONS:  Done.  Artificial permanent tree has been up and lit for two weeks, with nary an ornament to be found or my sweet angel on top.  Yesterday I added ornaments, but only about half of them.  I only hung the crystal and glass ornaments, the silk poinsettias, and the icicles.  I’ll see if this tree grows on me this year.  It looks a little sparce without all the kids’ ornaments on it. 

Put up my snowman wall quilt, have to find a home for my little Christmas tree wall quilt, got out the silk poinsettias, put out my very favorite table runner, along with some other miscellaneous trims.

QUILTING:  Have one gift quilt left to finish.  (two days’ work)

FUN & PARTIES & FUN & FUN:  A brunch, an afternoon “dinner”, a tea luncheon, Wednesday quilt group with cookies & snacks – get out my elastic-waisted pants and I’m ready!  And we will try to get a date to work out for our card-playing group as it’s our turn to host (after Christmas).

CLEANING:  Hah! 

MAILING:  Done!  Package to DS in Virginia, and get the cards with letters in the mail (tomorrow).

CHRISTMAS DINNER:  We always have the same thing — shrimp de jongh with rice, bread, and salad.  Easy and special.
Okay, I know I’m forgetting something.  Oh….

WRAPPING:  Not done.

And let me share three wonderful gifts I got from three wonderful friends (we celebrate early — and often), in case there’s a gift idea that works out for you:  an Oregon Scientific atomic alarm clock with the projector for the ceiling, a pressure cooker cookbook – Miss Vickie’s, and a purse (I was able to pick out the purse because I returned a gift that was a duplicate).

So, what are you doing reading my blog???  Don’t you have holiday prep to do?  I know, some people are much more together than I am, but I feel like (finally) things are almost under control at our house.  

How are you doing — can you hear the jingle of the sleigh???

–Sue

Okay, this is going to sound weirdly morbid.

Whenever a group of us quilters are together, we are always picking threads off of each others’ clothing.  Am I right?  (And why am I always wearing black when I’m sewing with light-colored thread?)   Anyway, while at our Wednesday hand-sewing group this week, someone picked a thread off my clothes.  I don’t know why — I cannot explain how my brain works the way it does — but a mental image jumped into my head. 

In my flash-forward vision of the future, I was laid out in my casket, dressed all in black (of course thinner/younger/prettier than I am now, but then this is MY vision).  My quilting friends were lined up to pay their last respects at the visitation, and as each one passed by me, they solemnly stuck a piece of thread ONTO my clothes.  What a last tribute!

And I feel I should add, because this is the 2nd time in two weeks that I have mentioned “my funeral” — I feel good, I am in good health, I don’t walk anywhere close to banana peels, I look both ways before crossing streets.  Maybe it’s turning 60 this year.  Maybe it’s because it’s autumn and the leaves dried up and fell off the trees.  Maybe it’s because I looked in the mirror.  I DON’T KNOW!  But if you are around when I pass on, be sure to tuck a thread into your purse or pants pocket before heading to the church.

–Sue

Today is Minnesota’s own Terry Atkinson’s turn to share a project on the CCC blog hop.  She has an easy gift idea on her blog today.  You’ve probably seen some of Terry’s patterns and books, and she is a wonderful designer.

Be sure to add a comment to her blog.  Add a comment to all 12 CCC blog hop hosts, and you will be entered in a special drawing.

–Sue

It’s that time of year again — Halloween!  And I can share my very favorite picture of me.  Actually it’s the only one of me I even like, and as I mentioned last year, I think when my time comes to pass into the next life, I would like DH to proudly display this photo at my funeral.  Only this photo.  And at the rate I’m aging, this might be a pretty complimentary picture to show! 

I think I was probably in my early 40s in this picture, so be sure and show this to your daughters to emphasize the importance of skin care, using sun block, and thinking pure thoughts…

–Sue

Previously I had shown you two of the dresses on display at the ND Quilt Show that were specially designed and made for the Chanhassen Dinner Theater of 7 Brides for 7 Brothers (summer of 2008).  Here are four more dresses (and turns out I photographed one twice, so I missed one.  7 brides, only can show 6 dresses):

I knew I should have photographed them in order, but I had to jump in when there were no people in front of a dress.

–Sue