Month: December 2016

Post Christmas

It has been a while since I posted. Christmas was, as usual, frenetic! We left our home on 20 Decemeber to pick up my son in Bozeman, MT. The roads got a bit challenging north of Pocatello, ID so we took a round about way that added an hour to what is normally a 6 hour trip. We ate dinner and did a little shopping, waiting for my son to get off work. We left Bozeman a little after 6:00 pm and drove to Gillette, WY for the night. The La Quinta Inn is quite nice, but we were out by 7:00 am. We got into our destination in Iowa by 8:30 pm, so it was a long day even with the time change!  We definitely ran into snow covered highways in Nebraska, and there were dozens of cars in the ditches and medians. Oh the joys of winter travel! We did miss a huge snow storm in Utah. I am very glad I arranged for someone to shovel the sidewalk and driveway so my house sitter didn’t have to.

We have stayed at another son’s house most of the time, but spent one night at my daughter’s house too. The holiday was great fun, and today my daughter and I are going shopping for part of her Christmas present. We leave on Thursday, 29 December, to do the drive back to Bozeman over 2 days. I love my family, but I will be glad to get home too. Probably no more posts until we get home.

Another busy Sunday

As usual, Kevin and I went to choir rehearsal then attended the service. I just love this Advent season – music, candles, and good food. After we got home I finished up the quilt flimsy for my daughter’s forthcoming baby. Isn’t it adorable?

We also attended the local Eccles Theater to see a Broadway touring company production of White Christmas. It was a very professional and enjoyable presentation. We have season tickets to the Broadway at Eccles series. Our tickets are in the first balcony, and we have a great view of the stage.

Tomorrow – keep working on the quilt and start candy making!

 

First world problems

I am not a person who worries a lot about my appearance, but today’s haircut has put me over the edge! Why is it so hard for a hairdresser to actually do what you ask them. “I want only 1/4″ taken off the overall length, just a bit more here where it is not shaped. I want to grow it longer. I don’t want bangs.” Guess what? Over an inch taken off most places, bangs (short ones!), the top shortened even more than an inch. I never thought I would almost cry over a haircut at my age, but I have been on the verge since I looked at it. This one will never get me within range of her scissors again! I can tell the Christmas pictures are going to be dreadful this year.

Pictures finally

I did a reasonable amount of piecing on my daughter’s quilt today. It is lots of little squares, what is called a pixelated quilt. Here are the first 10 rows, all sewn together.

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And here are the remaining piles of pieces.

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There are still another 30 rows or so to go, then I will need to sew the rows together. After that will be borders, followed by sandwiching the front, batting, and backing. Finally I will quilt it and do the binding, so there is still a lot of work to do.

We also went to the Dr. Strange movie today. I love Benjamin Cumberbatch, but the movie was pretty good on its own too. Great special effects as expected in a Marvel movie, but the story was fairly good too.

We put up the Christmas lights a few days back. Here’s a (not so great) picture of those too, or at least part of them. Notice the overgrown roses and silverberry bush in front of the porch. I didn’t get anything pruned last year, and it shows! In January I will prune everything waaaayyy back where they should be.

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Thursday night already?

I have let the week get by me. Monday and Tuesday I did a lot of cutting out the quilt for my daughter’s baby. In fact, I cut so much my hand is sore! I also did a lot of sewing and pressing to prepare the strip sets. I only have a few more sets to finish up, then I get to start putting it together. I promise to get pictures of all my little piles of fabric before I start sewing it all back together. Yesterday I did a lot of shopping plus an eye appointment plus choir practice, so it was a busy day even without any sewing.

Today was was the start of a new volunteer activity. I took the first of many full-days of tax training with AARP for doing taxes for seniors. I take six full days of training this month followed by two more days of classes in January. There is even homework! Assuming I pass the certification test from the IRS, I can then help others fill out their tax forms. I think I will enjoy it. I am analytical, and this will be a good fit for my skill set. I will also be qualified to work with low income folks through the VITA program, though I don’t think I will have the time to do that this year.