Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Kansas City with two of Archie's brothers and their extended families.  Everyone gathered where we happened to be staying and gorged on turkey and all the trimmings.  Twelve adults and eight "cousins" gathered at their respective tables for good food and conversation.  The "cousins" range in age from 13 to 29, from 4 different families and none have married yet.  

Black Friday - We contributed a little bit to sales that day.  I dug through the sale bins at Archiver's and Michaels.  I also stocked up on some cards at Mardel's for my boss.  Archie had my shopping list and came home with a large bag from Archiver's - yea!

We got home about 8:30 last night.  Within a half hour, I was in the attic going through the Christmas stuff, indicating what needed to go down and what could stay up - almost all went down.  That means that today is decorating day as well as laundry day.

The reason we brought the decorations down last night was Scott needed to get back to Stillwater in order to be in line for a seat for today's football game against OU.  The student tickets are first come, first serve on seat location and he wanted to be in line around 5 AM today for tonight's game - they open the gates at 7 PM.  Also, Mark works about 13 hours straight today.  Archie's knee isn't completely healed yet, so he's not up to bringing everything down, either.   

Got to get back to work!  More later.

Monday, Monday...

I've got the song from the "Mama's and the Papa's" stuck in my head - "Monday, Monday, so good to me..." Today was good to me.   Since this is a short week, I'm pretty busy at work, which is good because I hate to sit there with nothing to do.  I started laying out the new church directory today and it turns out to be pretty easy - you just select a layout and drop the pictures into their spots.  

This evening I finished two more Christmas presents - Yea!   Again, I'd post pictures, but the gifts might be for you!

Leaves Everywhere

We finally had a hard freeze this week, then the winds came and now the trees are pretty bare.  Our oldest son raked up 4 bags of leaves in the back yard so he could mow the grass on Wednesday.  The leaves really began to fall on Thursday, after the freeze and now we need to do a lot more raking.

No pecans this year - the squirrels ate every single one of them.  That's okay, since we had bumper crops the last two years and there's still lots of pecans in the freezer.

New house update:  We finally got a bid from a builder.  It's higher that I think it should be, so now we have to do some hard thinking.  The basement contractor called again tonight to see if we were ready, but we're not.  We had a nice conversation - he loves to talk.  He also gave me his opinions on some of the builders in town.

I made my third trip to Hobby Lobby today, to get some sale items for Christmas presents. Making these gifts is sure fun - wish I could post some here, but they might be for you!

Christmas Tree Napkins

CHRISTMAS TREE NAPKINS

At last night's quilt guild I learned how to make the cutest Christmas tree napkins.  Here are the instructions.

Get a piece of 11" x 17" paper, fold in half, short sides together, and using a compass or pencil with string, draw a quarter circle.  Cut out and open out into a half circle.

From the middle fold, measure over to the right 1 1/4" and make a mark.  Make a dot 1/4" in from the edge of the paper at this mark.  (The pencil is at the original fold line, not where I made the dot.)

Draw a line across the circle from the dot.  This line will be 90 degrees from the long straight edge.

Draw another line from the dot across the half-circle at 45 degrees from the long straight edge.

Repeat for the other side.  Now your pattern is ready.

Cut out two half circles of fabric using your pattern as a guide.  These two fabrics must have a lot of contrast.  You may the layer the two fabrics, right sides together and cut them out together.

Pin the half-circles together.  Sew all around, using a 1/4" seam, leaving a small opening on the long straight edge.  Trim the corners, notch the curve and turn right sides out.  Poke out the corners and press.

Now align the pattern on top of your napkin.  Fold back the first "quarter" section and use a pencil to lightly draw a line along the fold.  

Fold back the 1st and 2nd quarter sections and draw another line along the fold.

Repeat for the final section.

Edge stitch all around the napkin, making sure to close up the opening you used to turn the napkin right side out.  Stitch along each pencil line.

Now fold the first quarter section and press.  

Repeat for each section.

Your Christmas tree napkin is finished.

According to the instructions, 20" of each fabric will yield 4 napkins.  A yard of each fabric will yield 10 napkins.

Mundane Monday

Today was just another mundane Monday.  This morning, I played organ for a funeral, then did some filing this afternoon.  Went to the bank to deposit last Friday's paycheck and then to Hobby Lobby to pick up a couple of sale items.

New house update:  Got a call from a builder and he gave us a ballpark figure that was about 20% above what I thought it should be.  He did admit that it was probably high.  He wants to charge us a flat fee to build the house and we can cut back on some of the materials to save costs.  We might actually see the bid on Wednesday - but we've heard that before.

Tonight, I attended quilt guild.  I contributed 2 blocks to the block of the month drawing and didn't win, again.  Tonight was the annual party, which included lots of food and several "booths" where you could buy things and/or make something small, like napkins or coasters.  It was lots of fun.

Tomorrow, the piano tuner comes in the morning.   I have to go to work by 11 AM for a staff meeting and maybe my boss will have something for me to do, since I have to stay until 5 PM.  

Guess that's it for now.

Creative Juice

Today I finished three gifts from my online gift giving class.  I'm posting the acrylic frame I made for my son's 24th birthday on Sunday.  My husband and I will visit both him and our daughter tomorrow (her 20th birthday is on Sunday, also.)  I found the Halloween picture on his Facebook page and used it for this project - sure hope he likes it!!   I'm also posting a circular door hanger that I made for my daughter's dorm room door.  Now she can let her friends know where she's at, or if she doesn't want to be disturbed.

This week, I've been to Hobby Lobby twice and the local scrapbook store twice.  I even used the 40% off coupon twice at Hobby Lobby.  I always seem to need some little thing to finish a project - the right color ribbon or some kind of embellishment.

This evening I found some more gift ideas online, so now I'll have to get to work on them - I'm having fun with these projects and hope the recipients of the gifts enjoy them as much as I've liked working on them.  

Obamanation

The election is finally over and depression has sunk in. Around the church, we call the situation an "Obanamation." At least, Oklahoma voted the right way, and our state senate and house are now ruled by the Republicans. We still have a Democrat for governor, though.

It's hard to get excited when you know your taxes are going to go up. Our stockbroker just called to give me some suggestions. Now I'm learning about municipal bonds. I guess our house in on hold, also, until the stock market goes back up.

This Friday, my husband will have his 5th surgery on his knee. We hope that he has an early surgery time and everything goes well, since I'll be in El Reno, scrapbooking all weekend. Now that's something to get excited about.

Picture Day

All the kids arranged to be here for a family picture, taken at church.  They turned out really well! 

Scott got rear ended yesterday, by the tire of a monster truck.  Fortunately, there was no damage.  Angela ran into a motorcyclist in Shawnee, on her way back to the dorm.  She thought that the man was only bruised, but he went to the hospital anyway.  I don't know how much damage there was to the motorcycle, but Angela's headlight was dangling and her tire was flat.  The police removed her headlight and put her spare on for her.  Now we'll have to deal with the insurance.  She also got a ticket and was pretty shook up.  Fortunately, she wasn't injured.

Archie volunteered to fix the monthly breakfast for the youth tomorrow.  He went to the store for all the things needed to fix breakfast casseroles, along with some muffins.  I actually fixed the casseroles so all he has to do is put them in the oven.  He is cleaning up the kitchen - YEA!

Last night, Archie went with several of the youth for "Reverse Trick-or-Treating."  They handed out small bags with candy, a New Testament and a card about our church to people that had their porch lights on in designated areas.  The people are surprised and give all kinds of different responses.  500 bags were prepared to go out and I guess they were all delivered.

House update:  The basement contractor called today to see how close we were to starting.  Archie told him that it wouldn't be anytime soon, since we have not heard from FEMA about our flood plain issue and we had lost so much money in the stock market.  Continental Resources stock went up quite a bit this week and we hope it continues.

Not much else is going on here.