Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Curt & I spent Christmas in the Outer Banks of North Carolina with his family. We all stayed in a rental for the week in honor of his grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. 

We were right on the beach, which was strange since it was very freezing cold all week.

The beach is littered with these houses and hotels the colors of sherbet, a stark contrast to the wet sand and bleak winter skies. 

Sadly, a lot of these older hotels are literally being washed away into the ocean, held back only by these sandbags. 

But would you look at those colors?! 

Curt's uncle brought along a tree, which we decorated with handmade ornaments and bows, carefully cut snowflakes, and a popcorn and cranberry garland. It was very sweet and really turned the beach house into a special Christmas getaway. 

This little guy woke everyone up nice and early Christmas morning; it was fun to share Christmas with little kids again - they make the day a little more magical. 

These two had the honor of passing out presents to everyone. Among the gifts were a new camera, a Nook ebook reader, a new hat & scarf set, and plenty of toys for the little ones. 

I gifted Curt's family with this quilt I've been working on. Sorry I don't have better pictures, I'm working on obtaining some more. I finished the binding while we were there and never got a chance (aka I forgot) to take pictures of it in it's entirety. 

Curt's mom also got an iPad, so I now I will be making a sleeve for that.

We had a great time with Curt's family, we don't get to see them a lot, so it was nice to have time to catch up. We even got to meet the newest cousin for the first time, even though he was born way back in May. 

Because of impending snow storms, we all packed up and left the house on Christmas day. We headed up to Pennsylvania, which turned out to be a nightmare of a drive due to bad directions. After about 12 hours of driving we made it to our destination and called it a night (although it was really morning!) We spent a couple days with Curt's grandma and great aunt before heading back to Nashville. 

Overall we drove something like 37 hours and I have never been so sick of a car in my life! I was overjoyed to be home again, back to work, and back to my normal schedule. 

Since we were with Curt's family, we missed out on the fun in Michigan with my families, including this little cutie in the pants I made for him - yet another pair of Quick Change Trousers from Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings. 

The pants are made from a burgundy corduroy shirt and a plaid shirt, both thrifted. When I saw the plaid shirt I knew it would be perfect for Christmas pants. The vest was already picked out, so it was a match made in heaven. The booty panel on the pants is the same plaid, and corduroy on the plaid reverse. I had plenty of fabric left over so I made the matching plaid bow-tie. I'm so glad to see it all fit and matched, making the sweetest outfit for his first Christmas! 

Hopefully I'll be getting more pictures of our holiday from other family members and I'll be sure to share those too! 

I hope you had a wonderful holiday and enjoy your New Year's Eve bashes! I have to work but hope to join a friends' party just before the ball drops. At the very least, I'll be able to give my honey a midnight kiss and make a wish for a wonderful 2011! 

A Little Quilting

In the little spare time I have, I've been stitching up a few quilt tops for Anna Maria Horner's Rainbow Around the Block. If you don't know what I'm talking about, take a look at the link. The short story is: Anna Maria also lives in Nashville and after the May floods decided to give back to the community by collecting quilt blocks to be stitched into quilts for those who lost everything.

Hundreds of blocks were sent in, as well as a number of partially completed tops, sets, and finished quilts. A few others who live in Nashville have gathered twice so far to sew the tops together and make sense of everything she'd collected.

This charming woodland quilt was actually made from two different tops that were sent in. One must have been made of a few charm packs to form a small quilt top. The other top was actually about 1/3 of a quilt top made of blocks with the bear applique. I ripped the two tops apart and stitched them back together to make this pretty giant quilt top that will fit perfectly into a Tennessee home.

This quilt is made of the same block sent in from many different people. I think it was one of the block patterns Anna's children designed.

Here we have the infamous flamingo quilt. The interesting thing about asking others to send in blocks is the fact that you never know what you're going to get. There were a few shall we say - "funky" - blocks made with novelty fabrics that took special consideration to work into quilts. Anna Maria offered five bucks to anyone who could make the flamingo blocks work so I took on the challenge. It turned out to be a great success, thanks to all of you who sent in pink and lime blocks. Now that I think of it though, Anna Maria still owes me that $5 :)

This quilt top was such a delight to sew together. It started with a stack of blocks from the same person, deep tones from Kaffe Fassett, that I combined with other gorgeously bold blocks. The result was stunning and to be honest, I wish I could keep this quilt for myself!

I took over backing duties on the second group sewing day along with Kirsty. We had a giant roll of Good Folks to back all the quilts.

Can I just say how much fun it was to swim in that sea of Good Folks fabric all day long?!

Overall it was such an amazing experience. It was so nice to meet local quilters who are closer to my age, and there was even talk of starting regular modern quilt meetings! And it was such a learning experience to see how other people think creatively. Creating quilts from random blocks was also a test in creative thinking. There were some amazing blocks, there were some odd blocks, and there were just some straight up ugly blocks, but we managed to make them all work together to make beautiful quilts for the people of Nashville. 

Anyone recognize any blocks you sent in?

Here's a video of our second sewing day. Be sure to look out for me talking :)

In other news, here's a sneak peak of a Christmas quilt I've been working on:

I'm still working on hand-stitching the binding to the back, but it will definitely be done by Christmas morning and I know the recipient will love it!

Christmas is Coming

Are you ready for Christmas?

To be honest, it snuck up on me this year. Thanksgiving came and went and life took over, and all of the sudden Christmas is days away!

We decorated a little - the tree, stockings (not yet hung in this photo), and a few Christmas knick knacks around the house. We aren't home much to enjoy the decorations, but these are just enough to get us in the spirit. Curt fought hard for a real tree, but after seeing how expensive they were (not so in Anderson, Indiana!) we decided to go without. We were both bummed about it, and I couldn't let Curt go without a tree so I searched high & low on Craigslist and found a fake tree for cheap. Now we have a perfect little tree for years to come!

Wouldn't it be cool if this was our house decorated like this?! 

It's not, but it's in our neighborhood, and to be honest, it's kind of an eyesore. During the day all those blow-up decorations are just dead carcasses in the yard, which is a little freaky. 

The car was zooming too fast to get a good shot in the dark, but you get the idea! The lights really are pretty. 

Nashville got hit with a snow storm last week. It wasn't so much a snow storm as it was a few flurries, but the whole city shut down for a couple days.

This hill next to our house proved to be a big problem for those who live at the top after it all turned to ice. Curt and I spent a substantial amount of time at this window, watching cars try to make it up the hill. 

That Sunday I went into work and shut the store down because of the impending weather. I live about 3 miles from my work, but it took me two hours to get home because of all the idiot drivers on the icy roads. My Michigan training and all-wheel drive served me well, but I watched a few cars come within inches of mine because the drivers didn't know how to handle the situation. I took the above picture while stuck on the road waiting for cars to be pushed out of the intersection. Our neighborhood is that intersection. I sat there, 100 yards away from our neighborhood, for a good 30 minutes. It was such a relief to finally make it home safe before anyone crashed into our car!

In last minute Christmas preparations, packages have been sent. 

Presents for my mom and Christmas pants for baby Nicholas plus a little extra surprise. I didn't take any pictures, so I'll have to wait until his mommy sends me some to share them. 

Here we are on Thanksgiving - he's wearing another pair of pants I made. They looked adorable, and since I knew what he would be wearing, I though a little coordination was in order :) 

Hope your Christmas plans are all falling into place. Are there any last minute things you still need to do? Good luck!

Festival of Cakes

I'm not sure if three cakes count as a "festival of cakes," but it sounded good, right?

I don't get a lot of chances to make creative cakes at work, but the Christmas season seemed like the perfect excuse. Inside these cakes is candy cane and dark chocolate ice creams, yum!

Then my favorite customers ordered a cake for their daughter's birthday party at school and it was, well, the icing on the cake :)

Decorated to match their party paper products. So cute, yeah?!

(This is for the same family who ordered the Paul Frank and rock & roll cakes.) 

this moment

{this moment} - A weekend ritual, inspired by SouleMama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Are your stockings hung? 

this moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual, inspired by SouleMama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Our first snow of the season, just the way we like it! (barely there!)

this moment

{this moment} - A Friday [or Saturday] ritual, inspired by SouleMama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Hope your holiday season is off to a good start! Ours is, courtesy of time with family, friends, and maybe a little wine, sangria, and/or tequila via frozen margarita.