Time Keeps On Slip'in, Slip'in, Into The Future

Whew...its been a busy couple of weeks!

Weekend before last, on Saturday, I taught my DS how to make the secret family birthday cake for his birthday - I bought him all the tools and supplies and made a copy of the all important recipe. He thought it was humorous to have to SWEAR, with his right hand in the air, that he would NOT REVEAL the recipe except to direct family members or his children (once they are past the age of 16) who must agree to the same terms! Hey...I had to do it, my Mamma had to do it, Granny had to do it...its really very fun to have a secret family birthday cake!

I also taught him how to make turkey soup - he had frozen a turkey carcass after T-Day and wanted to learn how to make that too. His bride was not feeling well, so she did not participate much that day.

The next day was his birthday party. He wanted to borrow our barbecue, which I had to dig out of the garage (I looked like a very dirty urchin after I retrieved it out of its hiding place - its very dusty in our garage!) and then my DD picked it up and hauled over to his place in her truck. We finished making the cake (the frosting, yummm!) and added the veggies to the soup. He barbecued a bunch of meats and we had a wonderful time - watched Pirates of the Caribbean and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...

So..I was exhausted after that.. and just wanted to go to sleep!

During the last week, I purchased some supplies for making Christmas gifts.

Last weekend, I started in on making gifts...I cannot reveal most of them here, since persons to receive them are known to frequent this blog (Hi!)...will post pix after Christmas...

My best quilting buddy (and sometime office partner - we share an 'official' office but have both been working at different client sites for several years) had a 'project day' at her house for our sewing/quilting/crafting group - we are all computer professionals, by the by! One of these days we are actually going to form a guild! We brought our machines and set up in her living room...One lady was working on trimming quilt blocks, another was making machine embroidered Christmas Ornaments (She made me the lovely white dove in the picture above), another lady was making a machine embroidered Bear (she collects bears...and is thinking of making one for each of her 6 grandkids!), my GF was knitting and fixing a broken beaded bracelet and me...I had an assembly line going making my items! Its really fun getting together and seeing how all our projects are going. Here is a picture of the pincushions I made for my sewing buddies:

I got back home and put my sewing room back together (it's amazing how much I dragged over to my friend's!) In the process, I decided I HAD to sort most of my stash...it does look better now and its way easier to see what I have! It neatly folded and filed horizontally in the two totes...One tote has all the larger than 1/4 yd pieces, the other has the fq's and smaller pieces and a couple of gallon baggies of scraps. Before I folded them, I was having trouble getting the totes closed...now its really easy! (now I should organize by color...but that's for another day!).

Sunday I set up my assembly line again. It's amazing the difference in how your back feels when you are cutting at a table that the right height - I HAD good intentions of getting all the pieces cut before I headed over to my GF's on Saturday...but you know that old saying about the best of intentions! Was cranking right along...SMOKEN'...when I discovered a loose thread somewhere where a loose thread was NOT supposed to be...ARRRRGH - I had sewed one piece with raw edges where a folded edge was supposed to be....sigh...the only recourse was to ENTIRELY FROG STITCH the item...then, making another item that had to be washed, I dropped it in the dirt outside the back door while shaking it out and had to wash it all over again!

Yesterday...I decided to try a different route home and missed a turn in the dark...ended up kinda lost...because the name of the street I was on changed names and I did not realize it, so I missed that street too when I turned around. Luckily in So Cal...freeways are all over the place and once I found a street that I knew was junction with the freeway, I was back in business. But for a while..I was a wee bit panicked!

Came home today and made a batch of coconut fudge for the nibble table at work tomorrow.

Luckily for me...vacation starts in 3 days...I have off until after New Year's - Hurrah!