event hopping . . .

It was a fun ... but busy ... week-to-the-end!  

Sunday, we celebrated Evey's SEVENTH birthday!  Good gravy, where has time gone??!

She is feeling very grown (she's seven, after all), but still a huge fan of Piglet, so she was very pleased with the Piglet scrunchy, necklace, and earrings we gifted her! 

This little girl has larger than life feels ... you can definitely see it in her sweet face!

Mid-week, I got a call from James ... they'd taken June to the ER.  She'd tripped and fallen, breaking and dislocating her elbow (because one or the other wasn't enough).  

June seemed to handle it all in stride (especially once they gave her something for the pain). Something about that age ... your limbs are a force to be reckoned with as they grow and grow!

She got a lovely green cast for her troubles.  She's got this ... it's hard to keep June down!!

My last event with Essential was on Saturday.  We hosted the Essential Women re-Connect Retreat at the camp (and I was on the planning committee)!

The decorating team did a terrific job of making the pavilion look pretty.

I had a lovely group of ladies at my table.  Smile!

One of our favorite activities was making "jar-cuteries"!  Isn't that just clever?? They were super easy to put together, and were very yummy, too!  We had a lot of fun with these.  I'm happy to share the instructions with anyone that might have interest.  Good way to enjoy a personal charcuterie!

I did a little talk on hospitality and thank yous ... to that end, I whipped up one of my little pineapple mugrugs/candle mats as a door prize (mind you -- I did that Friday night)!  

Saturday was a full day ... but evidently not just for me! I love getting photos from the Panter crew!  Sawyer battled it out on the soccer field . . .

Look at that fierce concentration and focus . . . his typical 100%!

And Olivia ... 

She tried out for her local ballet company's production of The Nutcracker!!  James told me she practiced and practiced her audition dance for weeks.  Now for the patience to hear back!  It might mean a December weekend trip to the west coast!

Tonight I'll head to Huntsville to spend a couple days with the local grandgirls.  And soon I will be sharing BABY EZRA pics!!

:)

christmas ornament swap . . .

Greetings!! It's been so CRAZY!  I love this season so very much, but it is time consuming, ya' know?!?

Stephanie, over at The Enchanting Rose, hosted a sweet ornament exchange this year, and I participated in it!  I was gifted to by Deb, a non-blogger, who took some time to get to know me (via my blog) and really found the perfect little ornament for my tree . . .

Isn't that precious?!  A s'more snowman! Just perfect for me!  In addition, she added some fun little happies to go with the ornament:

What a happy package!

I had the privilege of gifting to Cindy at Creations by Cindy -- who, funnily enough, had gifted me in a prior teacup exchange!  So it was fun to be able to shop and gift her!

I chose a snowflake ornament (funny how the theme of both what I was gifted and what I was given was snow!) and a few little happies to go with it.  

This was a fun exchange and I so appreciate Stephanie for hosting it -- linking up to her blog for the swap exchange!

In other news, I went with Ellie and Evey to see . . .

We did the (home)school field trip performance, and it was a lot of fun! The director came out during the intermission and talked to the children about ballet and introduced some of the performers. The girls enjoyed the bird's eye view of the stage and being able to see the orchestra.

The girls took turns sitting next to me . . . and afterwards we went to lunch at a girlie restaurant. Terrific day!

The next weekend I watched the girls while their mommy and daddy went on a date.  We made ornaments!

Aren't these fun?!  They did such a great job making the dough, cutting them out, and painting their own ornaments (and handprints) Even Edith wanted in (and got in on) the action! "Cook -- I cook!"

These are such sweet sister. It's a joy to have them close.

And then there's these three . . . 

Gosh I wish I could be doing Christmas fun things with them!  Look how grownup and beautiful/handsome they are ... I miss them so.  :)

On the homefront, I did get the RV decorated . . . 

Yay!  I love turning on all the Christmas lights and the fireplace and just sitting quietly.  It's my favorite place to do my quiet time!

And I decided yesterday that I wanted to make something to gift to my co-worker ... tomorrow.  LOL!

So I've been busy working on this, too!!

Enough for now . . . if I don't make it back here before Christmas, have a very merry day!

:)

stash report and *so* much more . . .

This past week has been so busy . . . probably the busiest of the season so far!  And even though today has been busy too, it was good to stop and celebrate my favorite Sunday in Advent . . .

The Sunday of JOY!

My Stitcher, etc. Christmas party was Tuesday evening and that's where the nominal change in my stash report occurred.  (And can you believe we're at week 50?!?)

The bottom line didn't change, because there was an even exchange of fat quarters. We do an ornament exchange and the "wrapping" is a fat quarter of Christmas fabric.  Here's mine ready to go in Christmas plaid (with a bonus yo-yo candy cane ornament):

And here's the pretty fat quarter I received:

I also received a darling little teapot ornament from my darling friend Kari:

Isn't it sweet?!  I opted to 'spruce' up my tea corner with it, instead of putting it on the tree. This sweet little thing may stay out year 'round!

With regard to stash, thanks to all of you who share input on de-stashing.  I've got thirteen days over Christmas, and I have decided for sure to spend at *least* one of those in the Nook, sorting and reorganizing (and de-stashing)!

I had a little time to get in some handwork in spite of the busyness.  For example, the yo-yo candy cane ornie was finished, and I stitched up another wool tree . . . this one in pinks, white and red.

I think I like this one even better!!  The white and blue one I gifted to our hostess on Tuesday.

I also will be working on some more felt poinsettias.

I've always done these in regular craft felt, but I think they'd be pretty in wool felt. I may have to try one out. The hardest part of finishing these is trying to decide which button to use for the center! I'll probably do a little slow stitching on those to carry me through my Sunday evening!

Wednesday we had church and packed Lunches of Love, Thursday we had our MSC missionary Christmas dinner, Friday I finished wrapping anything that had come in late, boxed it all up and got all my out-of-town gifts in the mail!  Whoa!  Is this really me?!?  Ha!  Speaking of gifts for out-of-towners, we also got to do a little FaceTiming with this crew . . .

Their first California Christmas tree!

Sawyer and June were busy 'working' on colorings for us.

Liv was happy to blow kisses to Neesey and Pawpaw!

Saturday was an outing to Miss Mary Bobo's, in Lynchburg, Tennessee.  A group of ladies from Wears Chapel have now made this trip two years in a row!  

The food is always excellent, and it was fun to walk around the square of Lynchburg (home of Jack Daniels), too!

Then today, after church, I met Jocelyn, Ellie and Joc's mother-in-law, Marilyn, at the Von Braun Center for the matinee performance of The Nutcracker!

Ellie was really excited to see it again and told us her favorite part was the Mouse King!  She really was entranced with the ballet and watched through the whole thing quite intently!  I think this year was even more enchanting for her, because she's been taking ballet lessons!

And she was able again this year to wear the pretty little Nutcracker dress that I hand-embroidered the "E" on!  In another year or two, Everley will be able to wear it, too!

I'm linking up to Patchwork Times and Kathy's Quilts.  And I'm off to see what little stitches I can make before bedtime!

Have a fabulous week!

:)