Happy New Year! Here's to plenty of stitching in 2015!

Hope your Christmas was merry and bright!  We had a ball with our family.  Our 42nd anniversary was also this month.  Talk about time flying!

For our anniversary celebration, we stayed in downtown Portland the Tuesday before Christmas.  Rick got us a room at the Heathman!!  Yep, the famous Hotel in 50 Shades of Grey!  It's very nice!  Rick admitted that 50 Shades is what attracted us to the Hotel and the desk clerk said, "We're mentioned for the first time on page 36 in the first book!"  Oh, yeah - the photo shoot before a date for coffee!!  Tee-hee!  We know it well!

We ate dinner at Ruth Chris Steakhouse - just a block away.  Shopped the Pearl - gotta go to Powell's every time we're in the area.  Drinks at the Deschutes Brewery; and breakfast the next morning at the Heathman restaurant.

My DH kept reminding me not to get used to it!  But I think I got used to it!!  Very posh. A sitting room, king size bed, eye masks and ear plugs!!  On the menu there was a $10 Intimate kit!!  I was too chicken to ask!  Maybe next time!

The famous Heathman elevator! Yes, we kissed in it - but also giggled!!

The vanity area

Sitting room

Bedroom - they laid out the robes for us!

Huge mirror to the side!

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Dinner at Ruth Chris!  Yum!

This was our view - painted on the bldg next to us!

Happy New Year from our corner of the world!  Here's to 2015, filled with bobbins with the right thread on them, fabric that absolutely is perfect ... at your fingertips and time and mojo to quilt to your heart's content!

Message by my DH who hiked down to the beach to write it out!!  So evenly - I'm going to have him do all my messages!!

Happy 2015!!

It's sneaking up on us!!! BAM! Christmas Eve!!!

I must say - wow!  I missed a week of December due to an adorable little germ-bomb sharing what he had with Nana - sigh - so cute, and so lethal!!  But I've been really moving after I finally felt better.  It may be one of the most productive Christmases lately!!  So in order of pictures loading!!  Here's what I've been up to!

A Christmas tradition - PJ pants for all the Grands!  This year, I beat my old record!  10 pair!!  It's all Mr M's fault ... of course, he would love Seattle Seahawks PJ pants ... why didn't I think of that before the jigsaw puzzle pieces fabric was bought??  And if one Grand gets two pair, all get two pair!!  No there are no new Grands this year - I also make a pair for my Hairdresser's daughter and now our Water Aerobics teacher.  Each has a child the same size of one of my Grands - in theory I can cut two at the same time!  Sometimes that works!

Mr D is of course, super hero pants!!  It's all about the super heroes this year!! and Mr K is too little to care .... yet!!  He got jungle animals and numbers!!  Mom is a Math teacher and I can't resist cute number fabric that I find!

Miss P got a special pair of PJ pants, besides the Dorothy's ruby red shoes - Frog pants.  Alright - learn from my mistake!!  I had a yard-ish of fabric left over from a special quilt.  I've been saving it ... wait for it ... since my DD's HS graduation!!!  The cautionary tale comes in here - don't expect any praise for finally using it from the DH!  I saw his eyes glaze over, thinking that he had to move that fabric TWICE! Now, we'll see if she can figure out what quilt it is in!

We were on the committee for the Christmas Pot luck for Quilt Guild again this year.  A is a great head of the committee - more ideas than anyone can implement in 2 years!!  This year was a beach Christmas.  And we made needle cases - 4 different patterns.  Didn't they turn out great???  A lot of quilters were very carefully feeling the packages to determine what shape was inside!!

Every year, since forever, I wrap some presents like salt water taffy.  Are you old enough to remember that 'special' candy??  My Grandmother Grant loved it.  I hated it!!  BUT when the salt water taffy came out, stick around because the good times are starting!!  And that's how I feel when I wrap presents in this way!  Minis traded FQs and the wrapped very easily as salt water taffy!

Woolies Christmas party is Friday and while I can't say what is in these presents, quite yet, they are wrapped in Christmas fabric!  One year I collected Christmas fabric in hopes of making gift bags that we would use over and over again ... well, I made a couple and the year I used them, I never saw them again!!  They got taken home, or lost in the shuffle???? Who knows - but I'm way too addicted to Christmas wrapping paper to change now!  Check out the Dollar Store for some darn cute wrapping paper!  Some are even double sided!

Water Aerobics car pool is getting tea towels this year.  One friend is wild about elk.  On our 35 mile trip to Crescent City CA pool we usually see at least one herd of elk.  There are 2-3 herds in the area along 101.  The other friend has chickens.  The towels are from Craft Warehouse which is way too good of a store to be clear the heck over in Medford!!  That's 2 1/2 hours away!

Isn't Pinterest dangerous??!?!  I've seen these Nutter Butter Santa cookies a few times and was always tempted.  While looking for something else (isn't that always the way??) at Freddies I found the cookies - so this is the year I made them! Pretty cute!  Notes to myself for next year ...

Melt the white almond bark in microwave, in a mug.  Gives you the depth to coat 1/2 a cookie at a time easily. 4 squares does the whole package of cookies.

I couldn't find red colored crystal sugar anywhere!  But I did find a tube of red frosting and it worked well.  I also used it to stick the Red Hot candy nose on.

Mini chocolate chips are the right size, but a pain to work with.  I used white bark to stick them to the cookie, next year I think chocolate bark wouldn't be so "messy" looking.  If I get myself organized, I can make them the same I make the acorn cookies.  But just a touch of chocolate frosting would work too.

I hope your Christmas is merry and bright!  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

One of my little "adorable little germ bombs" aka grandkids, gave me the ick over Thanksgiving!  It's been "Nana down" for a week now.  And doesn't everyone love to lose a week in December - after all what else do we have to do????  SIGH!

I did get the Christmas letter wrote and it's all sitting right there ready to do cards with ... next to the Kleenex box!!

So let me be the first to wish you the best these holidays!!

Happy Holidays from the Boyds

Our family was together at Thanksgiving this year and what fun we had.  20 month old K is walking/running and absolutely fell in love with L's dogs!  His little laugh "har, har!" made us all smile. The Dalmatian was watching someone make a plate of food at the counter, hoping for a spill and I spotted D standing under her chin, letting her breathe on him.  He had a look of total bliss!!

D is 3 1/2 and very busy.  He loved playing superheros with M and P. (It involved racing thru the house to save someone!) But will sit down anytime to listen to someone read to him. He now wears a great superhero cape (Batman on one side, Superman on the other!) every chance he gets!

P is 8 and in 2nd grade and is loving it. Reading and writing stories, making new friends.  But beware if P challenges you to basketball, she's good!  I am well acquainted with how fast H*O*R*S*E adds up playing against her!! She also started playing the drums this year.  Ba dum bump!!!

M is 6 and in kindergarten, learning to read, and aspires to play the trumpet! He's very into Legos (7+ age sets)  It's a 3D puzzle and he loves it.  He and Papa play chess every visit, and Papa confided to me that he has to pay attention to the game now (not the sports on tv) when they play!! Or he finds himself in sticky situations!!

The year sped by with visits to Nebraska, kids coming to the beach to stay with us, NE friends coming to visit us! Add lots of golf and quilting (including a fabulous quilt cruise last January!), some teen-age whales hanging around in our cove and it's been the best kind of year to have!

Wishing you and yours the best in 2015