Christmas 2014

December has been a buzz of activity.  Due to scheduling we started celebrating the first weekend of the month.  We started our holiday season by celebrating with the grandchildren on the 7th.  What a fun day.  They all came over after church that day and we opened presents and had a nice lunch/dinner.  The kids were so excited and pictures can not capture the buzz that occurred in and outside the home.

The 13th was the annual family party in Charlotte.  We spent the day at Mike and Jen's with all the extended family.  Carrie and Sean had some further shopping to complete so they stayed longer in Charlotte and we took the kids home with us and they stayed until Sunday afternoon. 

On Tuesday the 16th, work had an evening activity at the horse barn. Families were allowed to come ride the horses, write a letter to Santa, take a stroll around the barn pulled by a mini horse and then culminate with a hay ride around the center to look at the decorations and lights.  Wyatt had no fear and jumped on the horses instantly.  Bayleigh was more reluctant but after some petting and encouragement she was all in and we had a difficult time getting her off.  We ended the evening with soup at Meme and Papa's as we were all frozen after the hay ride.

We started our quiet celebration on the 20th.  We enjoyed Saturday doing a bit of shopping in downtown Morganton and visiting a few people.  We each got to work in our own shops----Pat in the wood shop and Lisa in the sewing room. We watched a few Christmas movies and just enjoyed the slow pace.  Work called on Monday and Tuesday but then we had/have a slow quiet holiday until the New Year. 

A new cranberry pie I tried for Christmas.  This one came from Smitten Kitchen and has a crumble top instead of a pie crust top.  Delicious.

A wonderful breakfast casserole I made Christmas morning.  Fresh eggs from the girls,  sausage from a local farm and some bread chunks.

We don't go back to work until the 5th of January.  Play time until then.

a Musical Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving day we joined the Tranthams at their home for a celebration.  The kids came along with their mom and Sean and really enjoyed time with cousins.  Of particular interest to the kids was all the musical instruments that live at the Trantham home.  Wyatt particularly had a hard time not touching them. Uncle Doug took time to not only play for them but also let them help play as well. 

undivided attention

 That smile says it all, pure enjoyment.

 Both kids enjoyed their time strumming the strings as well as listening to Doug, Adam and Sara play together.  Wyatt's comment that, " man you sure are good!" summed up the entire experience for everyone.

 Bayleigh gets her turn strumming

 Doug teaching the claw hammer techniques of strumming a banjo

Wyatt particularly enjoyed "sitting in" with the band as they practiced.  His favorite instrument was the fiddle

Of course, the highlight of the evening along with music and fellowship was really good food. Bayleigh certainly knew how to take advantage of all of that as well. It snowed pretty hard on the drive home but we all managed to get home safely.

Circular Quilt

Each year our quilters guild puts out a different quilting challenge at the January meeting.  This year's challenge worked this way: Reach into the bag and pull out a paint chip. The color of that paint chip is to be used in a quilt of your choice (no larger than 36" square). You can NOT swap paint chips if you don't like your color.  You are allowed to incorporate that color however you wish. You get a year to design and work on it. Present it at the December meeting and show off your creativity.  The idea is to "challenge" you to do something different. Maybe try a new technique or work in a color you would never dream of working in.  There are very few rules as the idea is to challenge you to be creative. I drew out a green paint chip and I thought it would go great with my kitchen colors.   I thought about it a lot though the spring but had a difficult time deciding how I wanted to use it.  I finally decided on a circular quilt.  I found a green fabric in my mother's stash and put with it some of the yellow that is in my kitchen. I pieced together long strips of alternating yellows and green and then I used a quilter's ruler I had at home to cut out wedged shaped pieces. To make this 30" circle I needed 40 wedges. I then pieced these wedges together and ended up with this circle top.

I then had to back it and then chose to quilt it by stitching in the ditch. As usual I made my own bias tape for the binding using a complimentary green fabric.  Circular quilts pose their own construction challenge as you end up with a "hole" in the middle in which you need to applique some sort of design. I appliqued a circle of the same green fabric I used for the binding and then sewed in a yellow flower shape.

I then chose to applique another piece of the yellow as a center of the flower. I am really happy with how it turned out. For the label I used my ink jet printer and printed on the fabric the information regarding the origins of the quilt. I turned that square into a circle and then appliqued it to the center back.

It fits just right on the dining room table as a table centerpiece; just what I designed it for. It looks great.

It did not really take me a terribly long time to make this.  It did, as was the intent, make me try several new techniques. For example I have never 1) worked with wedges 2) turned wedges into a circle 3) free-motioned an exact design in a confined space 4) used fabric in my printer to make labels or 5) turned squares into circles.  So I guess this year's challenge achieved its purpose.  I am looking forward to the December meeting where I get to show off my table runner quilt and where I get to see everyone else's creativity.  Then I am looking forward to the January meeting where we will be presented with another challenge.  FUN FUN

Garage cabinet

When we moved here almost 3 years ago (can you believe it has been that long?)  we brought several things from the old house with us. These drawers were some of what we brought.

 They were originally in Carrie's bedroom and made up the base of her platform bed.  These 6 large drawers were built by Uncle Mike and Patrick.  They are over-sized and we knew they were just too good to be bull-dozed so they have been sitting in the corner of the garage since we moved in.  We both envisioned a cabinet for storage but as life goes, we just never found the time to build the cabinet for them to fit in. Being impatient as I can sometimes be, I decided 3 years was long enough.  After Bill finished the ceiling in the garage and we knew his skill level we decided that he could do what we did not have the time for. We bought all the supplies and he came over last weekend and built this wonderful cabinet.

 We ordered the laminate and while we waited for it to come in I painted the cabinet, drawers and shelf as well as the window above it that had only been primered.  I used a nice oil-based paint so that it was sturdy enough to withstand garage abuse.  It is soooooo nice to have the organization and storage for all the garage miscellaneous stuff. He had to move an outlet that was low on that wall so now there is an outlet conveniently located above the bench.  Bill finished the laminate top this weekend and we set to filling the drawers and re-organizing.

 Now we have a place for car wash items, kids toys, extension cords, garden stuff, etc, etc, etc. More importantly, we have room for both of our cars as well. I think Patrick is working on Bill's to do-list as he has seen the benefit of having someone help him. Bill needs the work; we need the help so that makes it a win win all around.

Chicken Pot Pie and Cookies

Life has been a bit too busy lately for Lisa's liking. So she spent it in the kitchen tonight making chicken pot pie and cookies.  She prepped for this last night by making this crust as it needed to chill.   The recipe came from a favorite cooking website, smitten kitchen.   We/she has never made anything from this website that was not absolutely delicious.  

This is the filling. We had a roasted chicken (of course one of those we harvested a while back) last night so the chicken in this dish is the "pickings" from it.  The carrots and green beans came from the garden. She made a roux using the fresh chicken broth from cooking the chicken and added some cream.  Oh my gosh it was good. 

The pastry got brushed with an egg wash. This helped it brown up nicely. 

And here is the finished product.

To top it off we are having company on Friday night and Lisa wanted to try making these "Oreo" cookies.  Of course we had to sample the product before we offered them to guests.  They passed.  I'm glad she doesn't spend time in the kitchen like this every day. 

Walkway to the Trashcans

Getting to the trashcans and keeping your feet dry has been impossible until now. We've had these stepping stones since the kids were smaller......Carrie was 11 and Ryan was 14 when we made these. Patrick blocked off an area that leads to the trashcans and filled it with river pebbles. We then leveled out these stepping stones on top.  It is so nice; and my feet stay dry now.  Win, win all around.  

Halloween

Of course the kids came by here for halloween.  Wyatt was a ninja turtle and Bayleigh was a ladybug.  Sorry the pictures are not very good.  No posing going on at this time of night.

Wyatt had a spider shirt on under his turtle outfit.   Their treat bag hands were really cute. 

Wyatt "shaves"

Wyatt spent the night this past week.  He was soooo excited to get to "shave" like papa.  It is amazing how much fun a little shaving cream and a Q-tip can bring.

Girls make applesauce while guys build

While the guys were building a play set the girls made applesauce.  Carrie and Bayleigh came over on Sunday and we started chopping and cooking down the apples.  I then showed her how to strain the apples with my mixer. In the end we canned 13.75 quarts of sauce.  Some were raspberry flavored and some with cinnamon flavored. She reserved an additional 2 quarts of applesauce to make apple butter. Obviously we can't do that in a day so I gave her 4 of my jars and I will make her apple butter as she doesn't have the capability to do that at her house. When we finished cleaning up we went over to see the progress on the playset.  Everyone was amazed at the progress each other had made.

Bayleigh was delightful all day.  She kept herself busy playing with an assortment of things and just being all around cute. 

After we were all done we went outside to trim up the swiss chard.  If you look very closely you will see a grasshopper in front of Bayleigh. She was amazed with it......until it jumped and fluttered in front of her and flew to the screen. She levitated and screetched.  Her words..."that scared me".  She was still amazed with it though and wanted to see it again. 

The kids have a playset

Patrick and Sean have been building a playset for the kids.  They spent 2 days here in Patrick's shop constructing side walls. Then Sean spent yesterday digging holes and installing the posts while Carrie painted the walls.  Patrick went there Sunday and they installed the walls and built a railing.  They still have some work to do but they have made great progress.

The front will have stairs and a climbing wall. There is a back door which is currently closed off.  The slide will start from this back door and go down the back. Off to the right another post will be added and 2 swings and a trapeze pole/rings will be added.  Notice the cute detail of window boxes. The kids are beyond thrilled.