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My lovely neighbor Jeanie invited me over to see her very sweet Nativity display yesterday. I think it’s very lovely who keeps showing up to see the baby Jesus. Here’s a peak.
Here is a Viking friend, I’m calling him Thor
And King Tut and Corky (the bottle cork Llama)
And, last but not least, Nadia the Russian Doll and a coffee filter Angel from on high
Very ecumenical don’t you think?
Wishing everyone a very blessed and happy Christmas
Christmas came a little early for me this year. I now am the proud possessor of a very fast lens that takes absolutely beautiful pictures in low light situations. The best part is I could actually afford it. I’m pretty new to photography and I have been getting very frustrated with my current lenses now that we are having a few more hours of darkness. I have a Nikon D40 which is a highly recommended entry level DSLR that is very small and light. I bought it because it was affordable and easy to travel with. The big problem with this camera is that it doesn’t have an onboard motor for auto-focusing so, unless you like to manually focus, all your lenses need to have their own motors. I did buy an inexpensive fast lens but realized, well, I don’t see too well, so manual focus was going to be tricky. Luckily it was KenRockwell.com to the rescue. This site is an amazing resource for newbie as well as experienced photographers. He gave this new lens a very high recommendation and he uses it on his Nikon D40 all the time. It’s not a zoom so you have to walk around to get the composition you want but it’s great in low light situations. Yeah, no yucky flash picture this Christmas.
In my tradition of naming quilts after the people I love I christen this one Hannah, after my daughter. I think it’s only fitting since this whole naming scheme was her idea anyway. She has been very much on our hearts this year as she has navigated a tricky year with school and I think it just seems right that my last quilt of the year is named for her. We love you sweetie and NOTHING will ever change that.
(This block is also the center block of my upcoming BOM quilt)
My children are at the age where they take various standardized tests and after that colleges send them LOTS of recruitment letters. My son has recently been receiving mail of this kind but with a funny twist. The letters are all addressed to MUX (his name is Max). Handwriting hasn’t been, shall we say, a strong point. This is just a shout out to all you mothers out there who are in a state of consternation over the state of your child’s penmanship. THERE IS A CONSEQUENCE. Just ask Mux.
This has been a very difficult week and watching this reminded me that life is for living and maybe we need to dance more
Now that we are in full holiday madness I thought I would ponder one of the mysteries of the season. No. not THE mystery of the incarnation…something a little more mundane…like why do people make gingerbread houses.
I have always loved gingerbread houses but I have to admit, every time I’ve made one they…well…did not quite meet my expectation. In other words, they looked nothing like the picture in the cookbook and were…well….disasters. Really, I don’t get it, I do everything EXACTLY as the recipes says and still it looks like the remnants of Godzilla eats the North Pole. Granted, I don’t exactly practice. I only attempt them once every 5 years. I usually spend the next 4 years recovering from the experience. But still, I think I’m jinxed. I can even botch one that comes from the Bakery, where all you have to do is glue it together and decorate. Then of course there are all those people out there who were put on earth to create gingerbread shame. Like the person in the cookbook who made, I’m not making this up, a ginger bread Notre Dame. Or the kindergarten mom who made 20 (seriously 20) gingerbread houses then decorated them with the kids. Just last week I noticed in the paper there was going to be a display of ginger bread houses at a local museum. Well, I just have to say, that this is one holiday activity I can gladly let go of, no matter how pretty they are.
It’s time for another travel story. I’m going through them slowly because I don’t know when I will get back to Europe and want to savor them.
A big part of my last trip to Europe included museums of the more musical nature. One of the most fun was the Vienna Philharmonic museum. In addition to wonderful displays on the various classical music time periods they also have a great interactive exhibit where you can “conduct” the Vienna Philharmonic. They have a small mock up of the concert hall and there is a full wall video of the orchestra. The baton is linked electronically to the speed the video plays. Basically, if you conduct fast, they play fast and visa versa. You are given about five different pieces to choose from, all really great classical pieces. The best part, however, comes when you mess up. If you really botch it the orchestra stops, in some cases starts rattling their bows on their stands and one member will yell at you…in German. Great fun really. Each piece has a different scenario for getting yelled at in German. It sure beat the Mozart Geburtshaus but more on that later. That's Mr. Wallace, the kids conductor, in the picture. He did great. I, on the other hand, learned lots of new words in German.
One of the things I really think is fun in life is to observe the small absurdities of modern life. So, I’m starting a new category called “Absurdities” on my little blog so I can pass these things on to you.
I do a fair amount of photography and digital scrapbooking and my photo processor of choice is Costco, mostly because it’s 5 minutes from my house and I drive by it 4 times a day. For those of you unfamiliar with Costco’s website here’s a look.
Yesterday when I was logging on to upload pictures I noticed this.
Maybe it’s hard to read so here’s an up close.
Yep, that's right it says FUNERAL. Who knew, now not only can you upload your pictures you can order your own funeral online. I don’t know what’s funnier, that they even have this option or that right next to it is GIFTS and TICKETS. When I first saw this I actually thought it was combined, as in Funeral Gifts and Tickets. I thought about what kind of gift do you need for a funeral, or who would need a ticket to go to one.
For those of you who don’t possess my dark and entirely inappropriate sense of humor, sorry. As of yet I haven’t had the courage to click on the FUNERAL tab to see what’s in there. Kind of creeps me out a bit.
Opening my Etsy shop has been one of the many interesting learning experiences I have had this year. I’m a huge fan of Etsy and have gotten some really great handmade things from the sellers there this year. My first attempt at selling was to make a bunch of table runners. I really enjoyed doing this but in the past I have only sewn things for people I knew and I found it unsettling sewing things to be sold. When I opened the shop I found that it was, well, a little stressful. I kept getting all these e-mails about how to increase my sales and how to market myself. The clincher came when I started getting e-mails about being ready for “cyber-Monday”. I realized that what I really want to do is design and sell my quilting patterns not my quilts. What I really love, what really makes me happy, is giving my quilts away to people I love. So, long story short, many of you will be getting a table runner this year. If you get one, please PLEASE don’t feel like you have to give me anything in return. It’s a GIFT! My only regret is that I didn’t make more.
Speaking of Bluebird’s Piece O’Cake, this coming year I will be doing a Block of the Month that will have a similar layout but with all my own patterns. This is the center medallion. In this picture it’s only glue basted together. I have the stitching almost done. First I’m going to just finish this one as a small quilt so look for the patterns soon. My quilt group has been saying how nice it is to have small finish able projects…what a concept?
