My Christmas Joy!!!

Christmas Baking with the grandkids....

 (left) Emma, Hailey,

(center) Addison

(right) Lincoln, Olivia

WISHING ALL OF YOU A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Wool Dying Room

Wool

+ DYE 

+ Garage

= New Wool Dying Room!!!

Slow but sure my wool dying room is coming along!!! For months now we have been planning a seperate room for me to do my wool dying in and although the process has been SLOW....it is getting closer to being a fuctioning room!!

A small garage that is partly detatched from the house is where we decided would be the perfect place!!! Back in the early summer my son Daniel, and Jeff's cousin Bill began work on the garage  by taking out the two garage doors (it was a drive through garage) and closing them in. We added a window in one end. Some plumbing has been added along with extra electricity!! 

 This week we had siding put up on it and are starting to insulate, finish wiring, finish plumbing, and looks like next week sheet rock will start going up!!! We even have heat in it!!! My sewing room is above the garage  (dye room) which has two heat vents in it...... so my son turned one of them downward and it comes through into the dye room!!! I am so excited to get to use my new room!!!

 (back side of house)

My sewing room is the three windows above the old garage (my new dye room)

(front side of house)

Sewing room above the new dye room

 outside door into dye room

 two double sinks and a washer and dryer will go on this wall

two stove tops will go along this wall

Stay tuned.....more to come next week!!!

Congratulations to.....

Cheryl from Scottsdale, AZ is the winner of the drawing for the mistletoe kit!!!

 Congratulations Cheryl!!

I am also waiting to hear from Karen Qualls from the first drawing.....please contact me by email so I can get your address and send you a kit.

Thanks again to EVERYONE for participating!!!

Surprise!!!

My post earlier today was my 100th post!!

So....I think it calls for something special!!!

All you have to do is leave the word MISTLETOE on a comment from THIS POST......before midnight tomorrow (December 14th)

and I will include your name in a drawing for a FREE mistletoe kit from my FREE down loadable pattern I posted on the Home for the Holiday Blog Hop on December 7th!!!!

 Happy Holidays!!!

p.s. please leave an email address so I may contact you if you are chosen!!

December Stitching

As fast as the month of December is passing by........ I am going to try and keep up sharing the month's activities in my stitching world!!!

Recently one of my sisters came to visit for several days and we got to spend some time stitching together!!

 It is a special bond to share the love of stitching with a sister.

 We stitched late into the night and the early morning hours!!

While my sister was here, I was part of Hollyhill Quilt Shoppe's Homespun and Holly Days, a fun filled afternoon and evening spent rotating around the beautifully holiday decorated classroom to four stations which provided different hand stitching techniques and kits to make fun holiday projects!!

A yummy catered dinner was served up during the evening hours.

 

As a teacher at my station we made these cute little snowmen ornament pockets from wool. Lots of fun was had making them with many laughs as we made their noses!!

We filled them with evergreen clippings, Christmas mints, and mini candy canes!!

EVERYONE did a great job and

went home with a finished ornament!!!

Speaking of sisters, there was a group of four sisters and a group of three sisters that attended the event!!

This week includes Wooly Wednesday with such a fun couple of groups of ladies who love to come and work with wool with me, and some time dying wool at home.

Hope you find some time to so a little stitching this week!!

Happy Stitching!!!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Winner is......

 I want to thank EVERYONE for your kind words and encouragement on the Home for the Holiday Blog!!

Your comments and support are truly amazing!!

It was so much  for me to see so many of you enjoying

 the blog hop and excited to do some stitching!!

Congratulations to Karen Qualls!!

 

 I am already thinking of what I can do for another drawing soon!!! So be on the lookout!!

AND

Today is the last day of the Home for the Holidays Blog Hop!!

Stacy West from Buttermilk Basin is the final designer!!

She has such a cute project in store for you!!
You wont want to miss it!!

Let the holiday baking begin!!!

Home for the Holiday Blog Day #11

Welcome to Day #11 of the Home for the Holiday Blog Hop!!! There is much excitement in the air with the Christmas Season upon!! Christmas songs are being played.....decorations are going up....cookies are being baked.....the shopping is coming along......and the wind is blowing!! The wind is a true sign here in Troutdale, Oregon that winter is here!! It is the time we hold onto our hats and make sure that everything outside is put away or buttoned down....otherwise you may never see it again!!

I truly welcome you to my blog and hope that you enjoy your time here!!  It has been so much fun visiting each designers blog, reading about their holiday fun, printing out their recipes, and making plans to start the special projects they have shared!!

Now if I only had more time to get them all done!!

If you have enjoyed this blog hop make sure to give a special THANK YOU to Stacy West of Buttermilk Basin for putting this Home for the Holidays Blog Hop and Cookie Swap together!!

Thank you Stacy!!

Making frosted sugar cookies has always been a favorite of my family's, along with rice crispy treats, fudge, and butterscotch Chinese noodle clusters. My mom used to make the best date log candy. I know that dates just don't sound appealing but this candy was so good!! My dad would help her stir and stir the candy until it was so thick you could pour it onto wet cloths, roll it into a log, chill it and cut it into thin slices!!

As I was choosing a cookie recipe to share with you I wanted to find one that was different, easy, and yummy....so I chose a recipe, submitted it, and low and behold out of all the cookies recipes in the world, and 12 designers, two of us chose the same one!!! So you know it must be good!! Renee Plains from Liberty Star shared the recipe called Gooey Butter Cookies!! They melt in your mouth!!

After going through my recipes again....
I figured that any time is a good time for chocolate!!

  CHOCOLATE CRINKLES
are the recipe of the day!!

I first had these cookies when I was in high school. The high school  band that I was a part of was on a "band trip" visiting and playing out of town and the home that was hosting me served them!

I instantly fell in love with them and have been making them ever since!! I hope you try them and add them to your Christmas goody tray!!!

There are so many fun family traditions that many of us share. Some go on for years....others change as our kids grow and our families change. Over the years, as we celebrate the holidays, we find that there are loved family members who are gone and new little ones that are born.

 I encourage you to treasure the memories of the past, share them with the new little ones, and celebrate the making of new memories today.

I have fond memories of the stocking we hung from wherever we could...not always having a fireplace. They were my dads wool boot socks....gray with red toes and heals!! Stretched so long after being filled with an orange and nuts to crack!!! I really don't remember what else we got in them except those two things....I sure love that memory!! Maybe that's where my love for wool began!!!???

Other favorite memories for me growing up were matching dresses made by my mom, homemade toys made by my dad and shiny tinsel on the tree!!

Christmas 1960....
I'm on the left age 5,  my sister Arlene in the middle, & on the far right is my sister Janice
 (sister Mary Ann was not born yet)

After having a family on my own, one of my favorite things to do is to hang the mistletoe in a doorway, wait to find someone under it, and surprise them with a hug & kiss!!

So my project I created to share with you is:

  

Wooly Mistletoe with Button Berries!!

 CLICK HERE FOR PATTERN

A special treat!!! ....there will be a drawing on

Thursday December 9th at midnight for all of my followers!!!

If your name is drawn I will send you a kit for the Wooly Mistletoe and Button Berries!!

 From my family to yours...

may you have a very merry and memory filled Christmas with lots hugs and kisses from family and friends!!

Olivia, Lincoln, Addison, Hailey, Emma

It is a wonderfully blue sky cold and windy day here in Oregon on this first Friday of December. A perfect day to heat up the dye pots and enjoy the view out the windows!! The colors for the day are red and green.....just can't get enough of them!!

It is also day 10 of the Home for the Holidays Blog Hop!!

 Tara from Sew Unique Creations has a great project that I just might have to dye some blue wool for!!! She has a great cookie recipe she is sharing with us too!!

Words from Addison:

My granddaughter Addison, who will be 4 this month, was at home and her mommy saw her eating something off the FLOOR!!!!

Her mommy said "ADDISON!!!....WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!

WHERE DID YOU LEARN THAT?!!!"

 Addison replies "from Nana's puppies!!!!"

What have you learned today??

Happy Friday!!