My Special Gift

My Second Cousin in England sent me a marvelous Christmas gift.  She sent me an art book full of the art work of another cousin.  He is a cousin once removed, or a grandson of our great grandfather. I was very excited to receive the book.  She was also good enough to send a newspaper article about the release of his book.

This is my cousin Robert with his book! And Here is a link to his home page.

This is the article.

More pictures from the article.

Cover of the book, inside my book I have his autographed.

From the first time I saw his artwork, I could see some of his pictures being made into quilts and this is the one that I can see making into one.  I have an idea how to go about it, but I need to find some fabric. I haven't been drawn to landscape quilts but there is something about Robert's art that wants me to try it. 

Congratulations to Robert for publication of his book! 

And thanks cousin Susie for sending me the book!!

Christmas Day

Slow but sure I am making up for lost time.  

After all the excitement, I had an interesting moment with Little Bit who is age 10.  While opening the gifts, she said the writing on the gifts looks like Mary's writing.  Later she walks into my bedroom closet and saw this years wrapping paper on the floor. So she asked me why did Santa leave the paper on the floor.  So I said because he leaves the left over paper at the house after leaving the gifts.  

Then she said to me, how come the cookies where gone last night but the presents weren't here yet? Probably because we had the cookies and then went next door to get the bike we had hidden in a neighbors garage. She was having a hard time getting to sleep and we were having a hard time playing Santa. 

So do you see where I am going with this.  I am thinking she has pieced together there is no Santa.  I mean she figured out three things.  So she asked me is there really a Santa, so I am thinking, she is ready to know the truth, and I am running out of answers to questions and I am getting tired of all this hiding.  She tells me she is ready then I tell her that Mr. B. and I are Santa.  

Wrong Answer! she didn't have it figured out as well as I thought.  She was devastated and tried to get another gift out of me for ruining Santa for her.  I tried to invite her to the big girl's club of being Santa' helper but that didn't work real well.  

I felt terrible.  Here I have continued the tradition of being told too young that there was no Santa, that their birth family had, that I didn't know about.  The birth mom told the Biggest sister there was no Santa at age 8.  I am not sure when the teen sister found out but she told Bigger Bit when she was 8 there was no Santa.  It seems amazing that Little Bit made it to 10 without knowing.  I was 10 when I figured it out.  I recognized my Mom's hand writing. 

Luckily this took place after all the festivities because both Little Bit and Mr. B. weren't real happy with me. 

Look at my Little Precious Bit looking so longing at the tree and gifts.

Bigger Bit was excited to see her new bike, in her favorite color. 

Ready, Set, Go as Mr. B. Starts passing out the gifts.

I didn't take any pictures of opening gifts because I also had a gift almost the same as the kids.  I had gifted myself some small stuff to go with my big gift from Mr. B. 

Afterwards, what a mess! A Happy Mess!

Playing and visiting with Big sister.

Going for the first bike ride! Notice the matching helmet!

The girl's Biggest sister came over and spent the whole day with us.  Lots of fun.  Aren't these girls just beautiful. That Bigger Bit is getting so darn cute and growing up. 

The three of us, I am not too sure what Little Bit 

is doing here, other than signing or laughing.  

February Report on Christmas Eve

We let the girls open one present on Christmas Eve.  

Last year it was PJs and they thought that is what they were getting. 

But no it was Christmas shirts!! Thrilled can you tell.

Little Bit placed all the stockings out to make it easier for Santa to load them up.

Of course the girls made cookies for Santa and even left a lollipop and some eggnog. 

Our straw collection to make a nice manger for the Baby Jesus by doing good deeds was in good shape.

Little Bit wanted an Elf on a Shelf and she made a special home for him.  This cranky old Santa was having nothing to so with Elf on the Shelf.  She is very creative.  Elf would have had a bed, a pillow to sit on and his picture on the wall. 

And here is her letter she left for Santa.  Bigger Bit told me she doesn't believe in Santa because one of her bigger sisters told her there was no Santa and she hasn't believed all the time she has lived her but she pretended for Little Bit, so she could still believe.  She is such a good Big Sister.  

This is my responds.

I worried about how she would take this, because she didn't get either of these gifts.  The next morning the first thing she said to me was, "Santa left me a note and I cried when he talked about you because you are a good Mom." So she was set for the day. 

What a Relief!!  Playing Santa can get hard. 

Little Bit had a hard time going to sleep and 

still was awake at 1 AM. The little stinker.

PS: Little Bit did get her Samantha like doll, her Nana gave her a gift certificate to Target and she picked out a doll from there that she named Samantha, and has the dark hair.  She was happy. 

Christmas Sewing

Of course, I didn't start my Christmas sewing until the week of Christmas.  So it will be no surprise to you that it didn't get all done.  

Bigger Bit has admired this horse I had on my design wall.  I had forgotten to reverse it for a quilt I made, so I just kept it. She is really into horses.  I sure hope she will have some in her life. 

She cleans at a stable now to ride. So I made this little pillow for her room.  Her favorite color is teal and I found this fun batik in my stash. 

Here is her cat Sugar enjoying some quiet time in my sewing room.

Bigger Bit really liked her pillow!

The other two pillows I am making is for my big daughter Kierra and her husband Will.  They are really into skeletons so when I saw these in my LQS, I got them. 

This one was easy to quilt, I just did meandering. 

This one was a bear only because it took so long to quilt.  All that echoing. But I am pleased with how it turned out. Now just to make them into pillows.  They were both liked by Kierra and Will. They felt they will go nice with their new couch. 

What?? It is February???

How did so much time pass and I haven't done one blog post????

I know how, I got busy!!

All that work up to Christmas and boom nothing?  Let's see if I can catch you up, a little at a time.  So I don't overwhelm you.

One of our other Pre-Christmas activity was to go see the Christmas Lights at the Mesa Temple Gardens.  They are really beautiful.  We went on the 23rd and I have never gone this close to Christmas before and let me tell you it was crowded.  Even with all the people, all was calm and peaceful, just a lot of people and everyone was very patient, which made for a nice experience.

There is that special almost full moon for Christmas.

The Three Wise Men and camels.

The Holy Family

Mr. B and me, it was cold that night.

The Girls.

My Beautiful girls!

We didn't wait in the long line to see the different Nativity scenes from around the world because the line was too long. 

Pre-Christmas: My Christmas Quilts

The Christmas decorations are not complete until Christmas quilts are up. This year there were little late getting up because I wasn't feeling well and we were very busy with the Nutcracker. Most of the quilts were up by the fifth or sixth of December and the last few small ones were up by the 12th.

Here is a link to another blog post called How Many Christmas Quilts Do You Have? This doesn't include all my quilts so I will add those pictures to this post.

I am sure you have seen these quilts one time or another on my blog over the years. I felt like sharing them again.

 Machine appliqued Angel.












My Believe in Santa, I gave this away one year, also machined appliqued. 

 My Christmas Charm, machine appliqued.












My Dear Jane Swap Christmas Quilt. I forget how many blocks I made for the swap.  I made a couple of extra to make the layout I wanted.  This quilt was in the AQG show and the judges liked how I did my corners, that it followed the line layout.  They thought it needed more quilting but I didn't agree.  My first attempt at free motion feathers. They are definitely free motion.



I made two of these also, I gave one to my big daughter and put Halloween fabric on the back.  She loves Halloween.  When we were at her home for Thanksgiving she proudly showed me she has the quilt on the wall with the Halloween side out.  I told her to turn it around for Christmas so she can use it all year long. 



This was a kit I purchased in Colorado one year when I was there with my job.  I loved the fabrics.  He is on the same hanger as the Santa quilt and he is straight I just hold the camera crocked.








 
This is a winter quilt and I leave it up until February, the others come down.  It was also a class sample for 9 Patch Pizzazz. 








And last but not least is my Stick Santa made this year. I finally brought him home from the quilt shop.  He was a class sample but no one took the class, but he did sell patterns. 

I hoped you enjoyed the Christmas Quilt show.  

Have a Merry Christmas and please remember the real reason we celebrate the season. 

I guess I have been because I have been tearing up a lot when I hear Holy Christmas songs and see some of the videos made by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 

My Spanish Doll

Here is my beautiful little Spanish Doll, in the professional photo taken for her role in The Nutcracker Ballet produced by Ballet Etudes.  The photo was professionally taken by Stefani Bullard. 

Doesn't she just looked beautiful in that costume which 

is just perfect for her.

This was a very exciting time for both of us as she participated in the Nutcracker. I was able to chaperone for four different opportunities. I was there twice for dress rehearsal and twice for  shows. It was interesting to see how things work backstage. One of the frustrating things was there is a lot of hurry up and wait as the chaperone. The cast and the chaperones show up two hours before showtime. I am not sure why other than they want to know that everybody's there and was enough time to get ready. The kids seem to deal with this much better than I did. They all brought games or toys to entertain themselves with. I had things to do also but it was hard to concentrate on reading or journal writing while watching the kids. All the kids were really well behaved and very patient backstage. It was fun to watch them especially one night during dress rehearsal. The little kids are divided into two cast groups and the one cast group was watching the other cast group and they were saying they're getting onto late they miss their cue. It was really cute to watch them.

As a chaperone for the little kids I also had the job of 

applying their makeup which was simple and fun. The girls really liked my eyelashes that I made for them. The lips were a little harder to do. One of the fun techniques I learned was how 

to apply glitter on their faces.

Little Bit really enjoyed having me as a chaperone I was glad I could help. But it is very time-consuming. Little Bit is ready to do it again next year and I'm glad there is almost a year until we start again. At the last show I was backstage waiting for the little dolls to come off stage, when one of the professional male dances came off the stage and thanked myself and the other volunteer for being there and for volunteering. He said we couldn't do this without your help. It really made me feel good to have that recognition and I appreciated him taking the time to say that. I felt there was a real spirit of cooperation with everything I saw during rehearsals as well as production.

While we were waiting to leave during intermission of the last show the female Spanish dancer came offstage. Little Bit saw her and told me that one day she wants to dance that part. I hope her dream comes true. I sent an e-mail to Stefani the photographer asking if I could use her picture of the big Spanish dancer to put it her on my blog but until that time you can go to her link above and see the Spanish dancer on her website with a lovely photo.

Right now little bits next goal is to be a baby mouse next year, 

I hope she makes it.

Here is another Christmas video for you to enjoy!

Pre-Christmas: The Little Ones' Decorations

This year the girls asked if they could spend their own money to decorate their rooms.  So we did a run to Hobby Lobby and here are the end results.

Bigger Bit has a double bed and shares her room with our food storage rack with the #10 cans on it.  So her dresser is in the closet.  Luckily she isn't a high maintenance gal and she doesn't have a closet full of cloths. Her drawers are also always in order. 

So she decorated the top of her dresser borrowed some Christmas napkins from me and this is the end result.  

We also made a garland of paper tree lights that I found on Pinterest.  This link will take you to the original site. She made her garland in the traditional Christmas colors. 

This is Little Bit's Tree, she was so excited to find a tiara ornament. She told me one day that I don't call her princess enough.  When my dad called me princess it was not a compliment.  So I have been using it more.  This morning I said, "Time to get up Princess, even a Princess has to get up and go to school."

Here are Little Bit's garland of Paper Bulbs.  She used less traditional colors. 

We are enjoying the season.  One of the things the girls look forward to is the hanging of the mistletoe.  We sure get a lot more hugs and kisses when it is hanging up.  The other is hanging the ornament each day on the Advent Quilt and counting how many days are left until Christmas. 

I have one with a Nativity scene I want to make. 

Maybe it will get done in 2016.

Just so we don't forget the real meaning of Christmas.