CHRISTMAS TWO



 

Last year I found this angel santo and couldn't resist buying her.  I had the pair of crocheted wings around here for ages.  I glued them over her small ones this year and decided I liked her with them.

 

Two weeks ago we were out to lunch and passed the shop where I had bought her.  I ran in to just take a look and what did I find but this small marionette angel that matches her.  She came home with me also - this after saying I am not buying one more Christmas thing.

 

This is my little light green sparkly tree that is really pretty when lit up at night.  the size is just perfect for us now. Well that is my little Christmas show. 

 

 

 

 

 





LATE CHRISTMAS PART TWO

LATE CHRISTMAS

I purchased this coach light from Marshall Fields downtown store when they had their first ever flea market. They sent buyers to france and they shipped home crates full of stuff for the sale.  I remember it well because it was heavy and a friend of mine and I had to carry everything home with us on the train (remember it was a flea market so no shipping except on furniture).  I loved it then and still do.  I put small plants in there in the winter but at Christmas I do different things. This little manger I was given in a gift exchange one Christmas and it seems to just fit in there. 

I found this beautiful silver tray at the flea market in November and had to have it.  You do not see rectangular ones of thi size very often.  Plus the price of 25.00 for old silver in excellent condition was very good.  You can always tell the quality of silver by the weight.  Good silver has a good heft to it compared to the newer pieces that are very thin.  I put a few of my collection of houses and trees in it on the bar stool counter where I would see it every day.  I was not doing Christmas this year for a crowd - just Harv and I -so decided to go easy on the decorating or should I say easy on me.

I bought the beautiful wings this year from Karla Nathan and just love them.  She placed a beautiful vintage flower on them.  I hung them from the large black conservatory in the sun room.

Blogger will not let me download any more pictures right now for some reason so will end this and will be back to show a few more later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SUZIQUS HEART

I hve been an admirer of the work of Suzy Quaife of www.suziqusthreadworks.blogspot.com for a long time.

Recently she had a piece of her work on her etsy shop and that was reasonable and lovely.  It was one of her hearts and so I ordered it.  well it came in the other day and was as lovely as I expected it to be.
Dear Suzy also enclosed a bag of her mohair from her goats that she had hand dyed for me.  It is so soft and luxurious in the hand.  I will probably save it to work with on my embellisher next summer - in the meantime I can just handle it and hope I don't wear it out.

If any one reading this is not aware of her she lives in the Victoria area of Australia and has the most gorgeous garden you are ever to see.  She also kindly sent me more pictures of her lilies and roses.  Just beautiful.  I envy her her garden.  Drop in and say hello to her at the blog above.  You won't regret it.  She also included the beautiful tag.



THE PINK SCARF PROJECT

Vickie of www.twobagsfull.blogspot.com has a wonderful project going on thru 2013.  It is knitting pink scarves for women who are undergoing treatment for breast cancer. I have knit the two following ones and am getting ready to pop them in the mail.

People all over the world are participating in this project and if you can knit you would certainly be welcome to contribute.  I have done just a garter stitch on these two and added a nice fringe and they are very soft and cuddly.  Hopefully they will feel good to the 2 women who receive them. 

When I get out to buy more yarn I am going to continue knitting more.  I like doing this at night while watching/listening to tv.

I used bernat baby coordinates sweet stripes which is a sport weight yarn.  I used size 8 needles and put on 36 stitches - easy.  Knit any reasonable length - add fringe and you are done. I should have mentioned that the yarn is self striping.

I am a breast cancer survivor myself so know how these will be appreciated.

MERRY CHRSTMAS

 

 

Merry Christmas to all my blogging friends and family.  May all your wishes come true.

 

Hugs FredaB

 



WHERE TO START

I started a post a couple of weeks ago - pictures and all and when finished I must have hit a wrong button and there went my long post down the computer to no man's land.  Thoroughly discouraged I walked away from blogging for a couple of weeks.

Well I am back.  This has not been a great December with the horrible shooting and death of 26 people.  I can't get it out of my mind and it has drastically reduced my pleasure in Christmas this year as I am sure it has done for many of you.  When I heard the IRA  speech the other night with their only suggestion to putting an armed guard in every school I was very upset.  What next?  An armed guard at every dance studio, music lessons, etc.?   Every where a child would be?  Pretty soon every child would need an armed bodyguard.  I am sure you can gather from this that I am very upset.  I am trusting that our President Obama will stand up and do something to try and stop this.  I am sure we all agree something must be done.  As the mother of 3 and grandmother of 6 I say it has to stop.

I had decided not to decorate as extensively as in the past and just put out a few of my favorite things.  This I have done.  Years ago I bought 3 beautiful old Christmas ornaments at an antique show and I have always put them in my living room at home on the sofa table behind the sofa.  I have stayed down here for Christmas for the last 3 years so bought them down with me this year..  I put them in their usual wine glasses with some cellophane and they are on the bakers rack in the sun room.  They remind me of home.

This is my oldest child David and his wife Kim.  They came down from Minneapolis to visit us for Thanksgiving.  the weather was decent - low 709's and mostly sunny.  After they left it turned much warmer and we have been having 80's.  It was good seeing them.  David unfortunately has rotator cuff surgery coming up on Dec. 11.  He is a golfer and is determined to be back on the course when they go visit her parents in Hilton Head in the spring.

We also have 2 almost daily visitors in the beautiful cranes.  They usually travel in pairs and with their young but on a recent day we had 5 adult cranes in our yard.  This is unusual and by the time I grabbed the camera they were gone.  They are lovely to see but not to hear.  they have a very raucus cry.

We also have this guy or possibly gal who comes up out of the pond once in a while and usually goes to the driveway where it sits and suns then meanders back to the pond when done.  This is the fun of having the pond in our backyard.  The 13th. tee is just to the other side of the pond and the advantage to this is we have the privacy from the golfers.  I would hate to look up and see a golfer about 3 ft. away from us like some courses have.  Here they tried to build buffers between the homes and the course.

MY FISHERMAN

Yesterday was a beautiful day here, mid 70's, no wind, and Harv decided to go fishing. He goes to the next town usually that has a wonderful lake walk with guard rails that he can fish from.  He enjoys the fishing and the chatting with other people he meets there.

He caught this beauty of a bass and gave it to a young man who said it would be his supper.  Harv fishes just for the pleasure of it and usually throws them back.  This one was too large just to do that and the young fella was very happy to get it.

 

We also had a big visitor who came out of the pond behind our house this afternoon.  Last year we watched one come up from the pond, start digging in the sand and laid her eggs. She covered them up and then went back in the pond.  We noticed a lot of large birds circling and probably watching for her to finish covering them up and then they would swoop down and eat them.  I fooled them by laying a small piece of plywood over that spot and left it for a day or two and they never came back to bother it.  We did not see the eggs develop but am sure there are some small turtles in the pond from that.  Maybe this is the same large female turtle.

SNAKE SOLUTION

 



My solution to the snake dilemma.  I was at Belks with a friend and spied these boots on sale and
thought they would be good for the garden.  Stomp those suckers down.  Long as they don't rear up and bite me in the butt. 
thought that is what I need for the garden.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING & OTHER BITS

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends & family. We are celebrating here today with my son David and his wife Kim who arrived last Sunday from Minneapolis.  The weather has been high 60's - low 70's even though all last week they called for mid to high 70's all week.  They are leaving tomorrow and the high for Minn. is only 28 Friday so this to them has seemed very good.  they have been taking long walks and went to downtown Mt. Dora yesterday to stroll the stores.

Monday we all went to see the Movie Lincoln.  It was very good even though it was 2 1/2 hours long.
It went by very fast and did not seem to be that long.  My only thought was I wish we had seen more of Sally Field in it.  Daniel Day Lewis was exceptional as usual.  No one else could have played the part as he did.  You felt as if you were actually watching Lincoln.  I highly recommend it.  We very rarely go to the movies but this was a winner.

 

The bit today is my friend I almost stepped on in the front garden bed of the house.  Luckily I happened to look down and saw him before my foot landed on him.  I ran and got the camera as I like to know what kind of snake it is  as there are 3-4 poisonous snakes in Florida.  this Harv looked up and was just a garden snake - but a good size one.  I did find a solution for me in the garden which I will take a picture of and show you next time.

BABY BONNET

 

 

 

This beautiful baby needs one of my bonnets.  I receiv ed an email from one of my Quester Grandmas that I was hoping would get my baby bonnet at the auction.  Well she did get it but had to pay $65.00 for it. Apparently there were a lot of people with little baby girls there as there were quite a few bidding on it.  She did not mention the blanket so will have to email someone and see what price it bought.  People at the auction tend to pay more then normal for items as it goes back to our community in many ways.  I felt good about this.  Maybe I should do another one next year.

 

I am getting ready to unpack my sewing room stuff today and have to put most of it away as my son and DIL from Minneapolis are arriving Sunday for thanksgiving.  This is my guest room also as I have a Murphy queen size bed in the wall in here.  Weather is great right now and hope it stays for all the visitors.  November is one of the prettiest months down here.  Well must go clean this room up.

ARRIVED IN FL.

We arrived safely in Mt. Dora sunday about 6 pm.  Good drive except for about 3-4 hours of rain thru IL & IN.  Cleared up when we got near Kentucky and was a good trip the rest of the way.  One little glitch was we arrived about 7 Sat. night and when I checked into The Country Inn & Suites we had reservations for she handed me the key card and said room 301.  My mind went click and I asked her was it a handicapped room as requested and she said it was.  I thought it was strange on the 3rd. floor but she said we have an elevator so they are on all 3 floors.  Coming back from Toronto in Oct. we had stayed at a CI&S in MI and they had put us on the second floor and it worked out so I thought you will be okay here.  Well it was all well until I went to go to the car Sun. morning while Harv was getting ready and there was a sign on the elevator door - OUT OF ORDER - I ran down 3 flights and asked did they have a freigt elevator and he said no only the one.  Before I hyperventilated before his eyes he informed me the service man had been called and should be there soon.  I had to go up 3 flights and inform Harv we might be there for awhile.  We decided the best thing was I would bring up breakfast and that would kill some time.  Down 3 flights I go again and carry a tray with breakfast up 3.  After breakfast I was down there again and he said the repairman had just pulled in.  Well he did repair it and we were delayed about an hour longer then we would have been otherwise.

The lesson learned here is to ask not only for a handicapped room and is it on the first floor. If not no go.  The reason I even worried about it as years ago we stayed in a Holiday Inn in Barrie, Ontario and the first floor was all restaurant, bar, gym, etc. and rooms were on the 2nd and up.  We were on the 2nd and were in bed about 11 at night and the fire signals go off and a maid is banging on room doors getting everyone up and out.  Well no elevator as they shut down automatically when the fire alarm sounds.  We got dressed and went into the hallway and luckily 2 familys were there and the 2 young men offered to carry Harv in the chair down to the lobby.  We found out after this that our section of the hotel wasn't even involved and we didn't have to come down.  It was in another building.
I still think of those 2 young men and how kind they were.  This is why my mind went click when she said 3rd. floor.  Never again.

I finished the boho bag with the Gypsy and am showing a picture of just her so you can see how pretty she is.  I also brought the black dragonfly bag down.  I was going to put it in the Questers Auction but once I did the bonnet I changed my mind.  If I don't use it I can take it home in May and use it for next year.  I have more purses down here then the old saying "More then Carters got Pills".

We did early voting in IL and hope all the Americans who read this were able to get out and vote for their choice.

I made this bonnet for our Godey Questers annual auction held each year in Nov.  The money made goes toward our programs and field trips over the year.  We also make large contributions to the Arlington Hts. Historical Museum for various projects.

I used to do a lot of heirloom sewing and smocking when my grandaughter was young then gradually got away from doing it when I went into Crazy Quilting.  Two of the ladies in our group are new Grandmas of a baby girl so I thought this would be a good item.  I also found a 100% wool red, white and black plaid blanket to auction.  The last time I found one of these it went for over $100.00 so will be curious as to what this one will go for.  A lot of the gals have cottages in WI or MI so they are a good cottage item.

We are leaving in the morning for Florida for the winter.  The van is packed and only last minute items to do tonight.  Will see you sometime next week.

I used to do a lot of heirloom sewing and smocking when my grandaughter was little and when she wasn't as gifts for others, etc.  I had not made a bonnet in quite a few years and decided to do one as an auction item.  I also found a 100% red, black and white 100% wool plaid blanket.  Quite a few gals have cottages and last time I found one of these it went for over 100.00.  Nice if it happens again.

I belong to Godey Questers in Arlington Hts and we have an anuual auction one evening in Nov. and each member is asked to donate an item worth 25.00 or more to be auctioned.  Husbands are invited as usually they will spend more or encourage their wives to buy something they like (method to our madness).  The money we make goes to pay for our programs and partially for field trips throughout our year (Sept. to May).

Two of our members had a daughter marry the son of another  member and this Spring the couple had a litle baby girl.  I thought this bonnet would be a perfect thing for one of these grandmothers to bid on.  Their may be a bidding war between the two for who will get to give it to her.

I had fun doing some smocking again.

In case you wonder Questers is a National Organization for women interested in history and antiques which is the theme for our field trips or programs.

LACE SCARF

My daughter and I had a play date one day last week.  She came over with a bag of lace pieces and I hauled out some of my stash and we started.  I made 1 for myself and Sue actually made 3.  It is a great way to use up small or even half a piece of lace.  Here are some pics of the lace scarf itself and then some of the lace over one of my tops.

Great idea for Christmas gifts for you gals who have lace.  You can decorate them any way you want, buttons, flowers, etc.

Sorry for the sideway pics.  I do not know how to turn them when this happens.  If anyone does, please let me know.

BOHO BAG #2

I decided to make another Boho bag to take to Florida with me.  I had a great piece of fabric to use for the front and enough of a black jacquard fabric for the bag, gusset and handle.  I had a great picture of a gypsy girl that I wanted to use so the colors went well with the material.  I made a flap and crazy quilted it around the pic and then lined the back of the flap with the same black fabric.  I am trying to use fabrics that I have around the house and deplete the stash.  I found a great trim at JoAnnes yesterday and some cording that matched also.

The 3 pics I will show are the flap once pieced,  then crazy quilted an the 3rd. is the gypsy girl.  She photographed very light but is definitely better when seen.  I have just finished sewing on the trims to the flap and will finish the bag tomorrow then take another picture of the finished bag.

HALLOWEEN HAT AND GIFT

The Halloween hat I was making I said was for a friend.  It was actually for my DIL in Minneapolis but I wanted to surprise her.  She reads my blog and so does my son so they can keep up with what is happening with us down in IL.  It was her birthday Oct. 20 so the hat was finished, packed in a box and ready to ship Tues. afternoon when I went out.  Well Tues. morning I get a call from Kim (my DIL) and she is coming to Chicago on Tues. night to work with Motorola for 2 days.  Well the Motorola head office is about 1/2 mile from our house.  The last time she was there she came for dinner.  This time she just said she couldn't do dinner but had something her Mother had given her and she was giving it to me and would drop by on the Wed. night after she left M.  Well I took the hat out of the carton with her card and birthday check and kept it for her.  When she came in Wed. she saw it and said I saw that on your web and said I wanted one like it.  Well surprise it was for her.  She was happy with it.  She bought me the present which was a beautiful Irish linen tablecloth covered in lace complete with 6 napkins.  I believe it is a luncheon set from the size.  She said I could cut it up and make things with it but now that I look at it it would be very hard for me to cut it. Her Mom was just going to give it to Goodwill if I didn't want it.  I am going to take it to Florida and see if I can use it down there,  Forgive me but I forgot to take a pic of the hat but it was the same almost as the one I made last year for my daughter.  Just small differences.

LAST GIBSON GIRL PICS

Here are the last of the Gibson girls.  I hope you have enjoyed or been able to use them.

EARLY CHRISTMAS

My daughter belongs to a Garden Club and they celebrate Christmas with a wonderful luncheon and auction where they raise funds to finance their endeavours all year. The lunch is always held at the famous Medinah Country Club in the Chicago area. I have never been to the luncheon with her as I am always in Florida early Dec.  She signed up to organize one of the baskets and she decided on a French - Vintage type.  We found a wonderful mid size suitcase that was covered in Paris ephemera and she decided this would make a perfect "basket".  She had been in Paris in April with 2 girlfriends for a 4 day mini trip and hence decided on the Paris theme.

I offered to make her a fewChristmas items to help fill the case.

I made a travel bag, a cone and a Christmas stocking.  I used the same lace on the stocking and the cone that I had been saving to use on something special.  It is old and very pretty.  On the stocking the flower on the toe is from the same piece even though it looks paler.

I have been very busy trying to get this and a few other things done before I leave for florida for the winter on Nov. 3.  After poslting I just noticed the tip of the cone has gone a little wonky.  I had told Sue to sew a pearl on the tip so I am sure she will un-wonky it before giving.  I actually made 6 of the cones as gifts.  3 I took to toronto for SILs and my maid of honor 53 years ago.  Two are destined for gifts down here.

4 MORE PICS

Sorry I have not put more of the Gibson Girls on sooner so here are four more.