THE STRIPED PYJAMAS

Here is the photo of my "little" girl taken about 42 yrs ago. Her brothers that you saw in a recent post had solid reds and she was in stripes . I just love this photo, it's so typical of Kelly when she was so young, always smiling and a talker even then.
Isn't it lovely that we remember these small memories in photos. I see the curtains in the background and remember making them.
Kelly looked like Pebbles when I topped her hair.
Yabadabadoo. So cute!
We have had soooooooooo much snow and have had to make a path for the dog to go out. Unbelievable how fast it came and how fast it cleared last night, giving us a bright sky with stars shining brightly.
Today it's cold, but there isn't a cloud in the sky and the snow is melting at the back door, which makes it hard to believe that we are going to get socked with it again tomorrow.
And I'm having a bunch of the family for brunch. If the weather isn't too bad we will try and get my mother here too. We haven't mentioned it to her as yet because of the weather and even though she has dementia, she would remember some of our plans. Martin and Jerry will be designated to go get her in the morning before 11:00 am. I am keeping my fingers crossed that she does come. If only for a couple of hours, it will be fun for her.
Quilting and blogging will be put on hold for the next week or so I think as Christmas week is going to be really busy. So with that in mind, anyone seeing this blog is wished the Merriest of Christmases as this is a year where we are all looking at what we have in our lives we should be grateful for small miracles.
Merry Christmas.

LITTLE BIRCH HOUSES

I found these little houses on a blog that is called getting stitched on the farm I think.
aren't they cute? I am not too crafty when I'm by myself, but when the grandkids want to do something at the cottage, I usually can come up with something. These are great as they use cardboard, glue and birch bark which we have lots of at the cottage.

They do look christmasy here, but put green under them and they become all year round little houses.
We are expecting a winter storm of storms so it seems. But, here in Whitby as I write this and get started for the day, it's looking just like a normal dark day without the sun. What else is new. Today I am sewing and finishing the baking for my family brunch on Sunday.

So close to Christmas and so much to do...I am off to do it.

SOURDOUGH BREAD

Here is Quincey. He is in the toy basket and loving it. I got my camera back from the repair shop in two weeks! I couldn't believe it. They said it would be about 3-6 weeks and I thought I wouldn't have it for Christmas....

Anyway, I am trying to start sourdough. I looked online for instructions and it has been three days since I started it and I thought it would rise each day but it hasn't. I can't seem to find any place that says what the starter should look like. Well tomorrow I'm going to try to make bread anyway. I hope it turns out.

I took this photo because I was stressed over the dough thing and thought that since we are puppy sitting I'd walk him and Wilson to relieve the, you know....it worked. I'm good and making pizza for tonight as a treat to us...

The bridge luncheon was so yummy, everyone ate almost all afternoon and I didn't even have dinner as I was still full of the goodies. Everyone brought a great dish which included, shepherd's pie, a great potato dish, (ordered from last year), a veggie dish with oodles of cut up veggies. We even had sweet potatoes from one of the local restaurants and for some people it was the first time having them. You know they're good even cold, didn't know that.

The deserts of course all homemade and the most colourful, delicious fruitbowl brought by Kathy who is a potter and it was in one of her lovely bowls. We had fern tarts, butter tarts, date squares, and lots of great Christmas cookies to round it off.

The wine flowed, the tea and coffee, and the mineral water that was our "juices" just finished everything off.

Our hostess who has the most fabulous of kitchens was perfect in her duties of having our social group there for the afternoon. And so special was the day that we had sunshine for at least most of the afternoon. What can I say...thank you all and specially Gudrun.

I am "messing up the kitchen" as Jerry says when I get creative and since my gang is coming Sunday, I have started with the cooking.

My friend Helen who introduced us to Luchious Lemons from Paula Deen would be pleased that they are requested by Kelly who called it Martha Deen's recipe from Helen....Good things...

I don't think I'll be back here until after our snow storm which is expected tonight and Saturday too. Ah well it is winter and we should have a white Christmas.... Right?

LITTLE CHRISTMAS TREES

Aren't these cute? I found them at www.thesmallobjectsstenopad.com It's a free tutorial and they can be made with very little fabric. I just couldn't believe how simple they were to make and if one didn't glue them like these are done but velcroed, or buttonholed to lay them flat after the season, well they just make great gifts.

I have found a few cute things by going to www.tipnut.com where they seem to find all these cute items online and then post them for us to just go and look.

I had a request for the bowls and should have given the link at the time, but since I have a hard time doing all the cutesy things, I didn't.

I also meant to add someone to my list of sites I visit regularly and deleted the whole thing. What a drag that was and the panic that what would happen if I didn't remember all the names.

I am still trying to get that together without stress.

The Bridge Club is having its luncheon today and Dawn and I were to bring the ham, so easy for us this year, but with Dawn's hubby just having had a lung operation for cancer, she didn't think she should attend. Afterall he may be coming home today and it is bridge day so she had to make the choice.....she chose to bring him home by car rather than having him take the Go Train.....Just kidding, it's a no brainer for her. She'll be glad to have him home, and I tell you she had more ways to get to downtown Toronto. Every day for the past week she'd tell me how she travelled...she loved the sites. So funny.

I am off to prepare the ham for the luncheon.

Oh and by the way, I have started sour dough bread starter. I beat it again today-3rd day- and it looks ok, smells yeasty, but I thought it should rise some...oh well tomorrow is dday, when I make a loaf of sour dough bread.

Still no sun and it snowed last night. This has been a depressing couple of weeks weather wise, bring on the sun for Christmas at least...

PAPER BOWLS

I found this bowl on the web. It is also called a Vogue Bowl I think. It's made out of magazines and just folded pages and glued . I thought these were amazing and could certainly be used as a great project to do with kids or teens who are always looking for something different.

I am difinitely going to make one if I ever get done the red quilt which is HUGE. I mean HUGE and I only have half of the strips together.
It's amazing in size as I have only done singles, lap quilts and such to make a queen size quilt.
I am going to work on it again today though and see how much I can finish. This may be one of those works that I go back to once in a while. It's going to be great when done, but the quilting is going to be hard.

Our snow is disappearing as I sit here blogging. My granddaughter and friend have been making a fort in the park and I am sad to say that it's just about kapoot. Going, going gone as they say and great news for those of us that don't like the snow too much. Great for walking on the sidewalks again. We are going to be in the 40s today so I am walking further.

Only a week or so before Christmas...I gotta get moving, still shopping to do.
This week in the Bridge luncheon, which should be so good as we have lots of great chefs in our little social group that plays bridge....
have a great day