More winter photos I was sitting here this morning and heard a crash. Looked out the front door and this is what I saw. I'm just glad it fell beside the old ford and not ON the windshield. This is our canoe hauling truck and I'd hate to see something happen to it! While I was out there, I snapped the shot of the Christmas lights that David(ds) just got out put up for me yesterday. I hope this doesn't hurt them.

Winter has arrived!! These are some shots I took this morning. They were taken from my back door.The first one is the tops of the trees in my neighbors yard. The 2nd one is my newest little Weeping Cherry tree. I hope he survives. I'm sure he will, he's about 3 or 4 years old now. The bottom one is of a couple of the neighbors bushes. I just thought they were pretty, so snapped a shot.


Both guys(dh and ds) work in opposite directions and each took clothes to stay the night if it is to treacherous to come home. DH has his mom in the same town where he works and ds works in a hotel, surely they can spare him a bed! I have been trying to get some housecleaning done and am going to bring the sewing machine in the living room so I can sew and watch tv. Missed Simply Quilts this morning because the electricity went off at 7:25 and came back on at about 7:56..Just in time for me to see Alex say good bye to her guest........Oh well, life goes on! I'm sure I've probably seen that one before, anyway.(trying to make myself feel better!

It's now almost 2:00 and the sleet is coming down again. I may have to take more pictures this afternoon. They are calling for around a foot of snow after the ice stops. I have my tv, laptop and sewing machine and lots of projects, so I'm not complaining. As long as my guys are safe. I'm just thankful I'm finally over the bug that I've had the last 5 days and feel like doing something.

More Retreat Photos... I'm finally finding time to read blogs and post some more retreat photos. Here are 2 sets of the challenge blocks. I know there is a 3rd set somewhere, I'll find that photo and post it later. The log cabin tumbling block with the tulip in the center was the first place winner. It truly was a gorgeous block. There were some really great ones there. I enjoyed making one and look forward to doing it again next year! There was one(top center in the pic on the right) that some one had actually fussy cut 2 of the paisley type shapes for eyes for the owl. I have to admit, that was my favorite block! The top right in the right picture are the ribbons. Close up of them coming soon, as blogger isn't allowing me to post it right now. I thought the ribbons were absolutely beautiful.
I have to finish a set of "dingo dog" ears and paws for my nephew in OK today, so I can get them in the mail. He's in a play, and if his mom and dad share pictures, I'll be sure to share them here, as well. My week and a half off is already half over and I still haven't touched the sewing machine. But I did get the old computer broke down and the desk out of here to make room for the antique one that used to belong to dh's grandma. His great aunt gave it to us last weekend, and it's a perfect size to "dock" the laptop we got ourselves as an early Christmas gift! Bad thing is, we decided that we will have it there to charge the batteries, but we would not sit at the desk to surf, as we want to treat the desk with kid gloves. As soon as I get the camera to cooperate, I'll show you a picture of the desk and you'll see why. It's beautiful and we'd hate for anything to happen to it.

2 more months!! Who besides me thinks she won't make it? I look for him to arrive a little early, but then, I also thought for sure she was having a girl, so what do I know? She had a wonderful shower yesterday and got all kinds of fun loot. When we got home, Jeff was anxiously waiting to "play" with it all. Several of us told her she should have let him come to the shower, too. He and I put the cradle and stroller together, while Sara put things away. It was a fun evening. Now we just need a baby! We talked about how all of this made us more anxious for the birth. As you can see from the picture below, he's not going to want for much! Sara got a little upset because there was so much "I love Daddy" stuff, but she has to realize, most of the shower guests were Jeff's family.She doesn't have any around. I guess I'll embroider some bibs and stuff for her between now and Christmas. Saw a really cute one this weekend that said, "My mommy rocks"....guess I'll make him one of those!
On the quilty/sewing front, I arrived in St. Louis early yesterday, so ran by Joann's before heading to Babies R Us and the shower. Bought a really nice piece of fabric and a pattern for myself a dressy coat. I need a new winter coat, and thought this fabric was gorgeous...and it was on clearance for $3 per yard, then they were having 50% off Clearance prices on top of that! How could I resist? I told hubby the lining will cost me more than the outer fabric did! I think I'm going to buy some of that prequilted stuff for the lining. Will show pictures when I get it made. Also, while I was there at Joann's, I found the PERFECT thread for my onion quilt. It is variegated oranges-browns. Now I just have to decide on the backing for it. Thinking about just sewing together the leftovers haphazardly and creating a back that way, but not sure I have enough. May have to run to the fabric store I "found" last week and see what they have.I bought a couple of pieces for it there, maybe they'll have a big enough piece of some of it left. Wish me luck!

Well, I think I'll go try to catch up with some of the blogs I've missed reading. Hope you all have a great week!

How cute is This??? This is the most recent picture of my beautiful daughter and her handsome hubby. This was taken on her birthday a couple of weeks ago. Tomorrow is the baby shower, so I'll have more pictures next week. I can't believe there are less than 2 months to go til she has to share the baby with the rest of us! I know this granma is definitely ready to hold that little fellow in her arms!
I'm still working on editing the pictures from the retreat, but will be sharing more later. Will be gone most of this weekend, so not sure I'll find the time or not. But, after only 3 days of work next week, I'll be off for 1 1/2 weeks!! I can't wait! I need the break.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this while I was thinking about it! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

TAADAAA!! The proof is in the pudding.....err.....picture! Here I am showing off my completed top while Mary and Jane are still working on theirs! Well, they WERE working on them til I asked some one to snap a picture so I could show *I* finished first! hehe.....we really weren't competing, but we had a lot of fun pretending we were! Some of the ladies were amazed that the 3 of us got ours done because we three made more blocks than anyone else, therefore had bigger tops.
My local quilt guild had "sew night" tonight, and I've been asked to talk about our trip for our January program. I may have to make some notes because I'm afraid I'll forget some of the details that are so vivid in my mind now! I guess it's a good thing I took so many pictures! I'm hoping to put them on a website soon, so I can just share a link and you all can see as many pictures as you want to see. Still learning this laptop, though, so may be a few days before I get that far. Also, have my daughters baby shower this weekend, so will be gone again! I'm really, REALLY looking forward to that week and a half I have off work coming up soon!!!
Well, guess that's it for tonight. Hope everyone is having a great week so far.

Retreat was a BLAST.... And ForestJane was even more fun in person than she is online! We had such a good time, that Mary and I are planning on going back next year already! We met so many wonderful people. They all welcomed us with open arms and we could not have asked for a warmer welcome.
The only sad note of the weekend was I got a phone call about my father in law while we were there. Sometime Friday night, he wandered outside and into the detached garage and fell and was there for a while. When Mother in law woke and couldn't find him, she called the neighbors and they are the ones who found him and called 911. He suffered some hypothermia and a hurt hand(which seems to be ok now), and is still in the hospital. Seeing as how he didn't suffer anything more serious than that, this could almost be viewed as a blessing in disguise.If he stays in the hospital at least 3 days and nights, their insurance will pay for him to go straight into a nursing home and for the first little bit while he's there. Maybe by then, we'll have all the VA paperwork taken care of and he'll be set. I want to thank everyone for all the warm wishes and prayers.
Well, I'm still overwhelmed. Will post more pics as I get them edited. Working on a new laptop, so learning all over again! Hope you all had half as wonderful a weekend as I had!

Guess who!!! My mom said, "I'd recognize that mug anywhere!" Actually, the pattern is not mine, it belongs to Rita D, from the EQ5 library. I just changed it a little to make it look more like me! This is my challenge block for the Quilt retreat I'm going to this weekend! I don't know what I'm more excited about, meeting ForestJane , or just getting to get away and do what I love best with a bunch of others who enjoy the same thing! Both are pretty exciting prospects! Nice to have something to look forward to!(of course, I'm STILL very ANXIOUS about the arrival of young Caleb in January, but this will be something fun, too!)
Well, it's late and I need to get to bed. I just wanted to show this block, since Jane showed hers! hehe....I'm sure she and I will both have lots of stories to tell come Monday!