Swirlies

Parker made these yesterday by twisting pipe cleaner around a pencil. He took them door to door on our block and actually sold a few! I think he was asking 25 cents each. He calls them swirlies. He wanted to set up a table and sell some of his art work but I convinced him that it was too cold and that there is not enough traffic on our street during breaks to make setting up a table worth his while.

Old Shed

I like dilapidated old buildings. They have a sense of history and mystery. This is an old mining shed along the canyon road outside of Creede. Again, the photo was taken at retreat in early November. The door reminds me of two half-square triangle blocks.

Creede architecture

Some photos taken on a walk in Creede during retreat in early November. I was looking for texture and took the above photo. Below is the structure. I think it is a car port for a house just up the street from where we were having our retreat. It was for sale, so we walked around it a little.

Below is a photo of the front door. Gives you an idea of the interesting architecture of the house. It had round windows and a separate pod like building in the back.

Approach of Years End

Cattails along the Rio Grande

I spent a few minutes this morning browsing through the photos I took shortly after getting my new camera. I should do this more often - just walk around with my camera taking pictures. I am also considering getting some real photo editing software, not just what comes with the camera or the free program I have been using. (I have edited all photos for this blog with Paint.net) I've had my eye on Photo Shop Elements. I hesitate only because I know it will take me quite a bit of time to learn how to use the software to achieve the effects I want. A time investment that is worth while, but do I have the time to invest right now?

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas from Alamosa, CO! Parker started the morning at an early hour, 3:15 am! I'm not sure if he went back to sleep before waking us at 7 am. I guess we'll find out if he crashes this afternoon. He sorted all the presents for us. He also started my coffee pot for me. Unfortunately, by the time I got up, the coffee was cold. Oh well! Nothing the microwave couldn't fix.

Parker is wearing his new Mario pajamas, playing a new Mario game on his new Nintendo DS Lite. The game and DS were gifts from Santa. I'm glad all his old Gameboy games still work on the DS Lite.

Wrapping Day

Today I have been wrapping presents while Parker plays at Jamie's house for the afternoon. Everything is wrapped now so I'm having a cup of tea and relaxing.

I made these gift bags last year in an attempt to make Christmas "greener." Buying the paper then throwing it away seems like a waste. These also make wrapping go much faster! To make one, a bigger one like the first photo, you need 1/2 yard of fabric. Then you basically make a pillow case with a casing at the top for a drawstring using ribbon. They are easy to make, use up lots of Christmas fabric that I didn't plan to do anything else with, make the wrapping job fast and easy, and can be used year after year. I made them in several sizes. The ones below are for the ornaments I make each year for nieces and nephews. They opened their ornaments while I was at their house for Thanksgiving then gave me back the bags to reuse next year.

The Mystery Continues

Above is the old plan, below is the new one. My little squares were getting messed up so I glued them to a piece of cardboard. Can you find the difference between the two plans?

This quilt will be 9 blocks by 8 blocks plus borders. That means I have to make 72 blocks! I've only made 27 thus far. I'm planning to quilt it in sections, 3 blocks by 8 blocks at a time. It's the only way I can quilt such a large quilt on my machine. I'll have to add the borders after I've quilted the center sections. I've never made a quilt this large but I have quilted a couple baby quilts in sections. I'm using a slightly different technique this time though. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.