Craziness and kindness on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - well winter arrived this week in SW Ohio... it was low 60's on Monday and I took advantage of that  got out and put some winter greenery (fake) in my window boxes ...snow came on Thursday... I heard we set a record of 2" but most of it melted when it hit the ground... streets were wet, grass got a covering.... melted by Saturday morning, and a forecast of 60 for this coming Monday... ahhh... I love the weather here ... such variety...LOL...not sure what to do with the flowers in the yard as the dahlias appear to be okay and even the new shoots of cannas are looking good... crazy weather...

And the week had some crazy worked into it.... some drama (perhaps of my own making), but it had me hot and bothered for a couple of days and I did nothing productive on those days... the older I get the more I hate to waste time but there seems to be plenty of occasions where that is exactly what happens... sigh... and I also found out that a long distance internet friend passed away. .. that had me sad... sigh again...

As for kindness I was the recipient of some lovely goodies.... first was this arrangement of flowers from my son and DIL to thank me for watching Elliott during the funeral ...

I love the color of that rose in the middle.

Next was some cute bags from my friend Vicki... she's  retired to Florida but was in town for her grandson's wedding and we met for lunch... I LOVE the cross body bag.  Measure twice, cut once, curse, repeat... yep I've been there... and the little pouch with the diagonal zipper... LOVE that polka dotted chicken fabric... 

Vicki is super creative... and she loves to make little bags... she watches a bunch of YouTube videos and can design her own pattern from there... I envy that talent.

I can't believe Thanksgiving is this Thursday...ok I can believe it but I'm not liking it... November is moving waaay too fast for me... I have so many things I want to do for Christmas and I'm not making a lot of headway... now  I did do a little Santa stitching this week... I went through my stash of Prairie Schooler Christmas charts and decided this one has several images I like...

Here's a close up of the Santas I zoomed in on... I want to stitch the 3 that have toys  and finish each of them as a small pillow.

And here's the  Santa I stitched.

now this is a restart as my first choice of linen was a darker turquoise and I just wasn't liking the coverage of the white and there is a lot of  white beard on all these guys... this lighter blue is better IMHO...

Not only are those Santas cute, go look at the cover again... I think that reindeer in the middle on the right would make a cool pillow with a scattering of snowflakes around it... maybe a red reindeer on a  turquoise background?  And then I got to thinking how nice a small pillow would be if I stitched part of the bottom of the larger piece... just Santa's sleigh and reindeer and some rooftops... and well I just wanted to see how it might look sooooooo... I stitched up a couple of reindeer.. and I like it... I like it a lot!!

Now realistically I should start my Christmas decorating the end of this week... and I may start with the Christmas tree.  I bought a new one this year with colored lights... I LOVE colored lights... so I need to undecorate the tree that has been vacationing in the basement under the stairs and move all the ornaments onto the new tree I bought... and after Christmas I will place the entire decorated tree into a large plastic bag and return it to its resting spot under the stairs... my sainted Grandma was my inspiration for this ... she had a small tree (about 4 ft.) and every year she'd wrap a sheet around it and take it up to the attic to wait for next year. As you can tell I love to decorate, except where Christmas trees are involved... my past experience with strings of lights going out and ornaments falling off always drives me nuts... so having the tree fully decorated at the start of the season puts me in a better mood... I'm not looking forward to the undecorate/redecorate process but I think the end result will make me happy.   whoa... that was a tangent, wasn't it?  LOL

As for the Fall/Thanksgiving decorating... I'm very happy with that... here is the big shelf display...

There are some returning pieces from the Fall I put out in September and some pieces that are exclusive to November.  At the top is the Bent Creek All in a Row... sorry it got cut off... and the Blackbird Designs Harvest of Friendship returns and I love that skinny coppery/rose gold turkey... 

And I tucked in that itty bitty Fall Prairie Schooler among my collection of glass pumpkins...

A wide shot of the middle of the shelf unit...

and here are the details...  I have November from Prairie Schooler ... another piece where I painted the linen and I think it came out soooo good. I did some math (and we all know it ain't my best subject) and tried to position the stitching so it would like like a sunset... In the center is  Ever so Grateful by Threadwork Primitives  and tiny PS turkey in that new to me McCoy piece ...

and to the right side a new for this season purchase from Micheals, that vintage looking turkey mold and my Jim Shore cornucopia and a little Bent Creek leaf pillow...

Below is a Turkey Hill Farm from Ewe & Eye & Friends  with a sampler  pillow from Lizzie Kate...

and Autumn from Barbara Ana Designs.

And I did get the small shelf unit on the sunroom porch freshened up... 

from the top the Autumn Alphabet by Lizzie Kate and an almost vintage turkey tin from Debbie Mumm... gosh I still love all her decor stuff ... and her fabrics!

In the middle a sorta purply/burgundy glass plate..... it looks like the leaves on the Crimson Sunset maple in my front yard and  Give Thanks by Threadwork Primitives along with  the two Pinker N Punkin saltbox houses, Turkey Creek Manor and Thanksgiving House... this is the final 2 I wanted to complete the #pnpsixhouses2024sal... I finished them all as small pillows with chenille trim... and I have plans to add to this collection with some Christmas houses... perhaps not for this Christmas, next Christmas is more probable...

On the bottom I have the Primrose Cottage Autumn Quaker.... and I just got the Christmas Quaker pattern which like the PNP houses may get started this season but finished for Christmas 2025.

Plans for the week has a doctor appointment for Nick and food prep on Wednesday... the Thanksgiving feast is scheduled for 3pm on Thursday... I like that timing ... I don't have to get up early to do the prime rib and finish the deviled eggs... I'm not a morning person... I like to ease into the day ...and sometimes I don't finish easing until lunchtime...LOL

We shall see if the motivation holds out for a start on the Christmas decorating... I think if I can get the tree redone and get the Fall stuff put away that is enough to accomplish before Elliott returns on the  Tuesday after Thanksgiving... I don't like stuff out when he comes over so I can begin again on Wednesday 12/3... I'm still debating as to which Christmas quilt I'm going to hang on the wall... I've done the giant Santa with the HO HO HO the last couple of years... may do the wonky Christmas trees instead... I have one new throw size Christmas quilt to add to my collection... I started it last December, had it quilted in January and it has been waiting for a binding since then... LOL... no rush... oh and Delinda finished quilting my Jolly Good FQ 4 Patch... you can see it here.. I need to go to her house and pick it up.. that's on the agenda for after Thanksgiving... 

So my plans for today are to relax on the porch and stitch some Christmas ... the stuff that drove me crazy this last week has kinda worked it's way out... still some issues to deal with but I'm reluctantly resigned to the fact that the situation won't be settled till sometime in  2025 ... and I'm not a real patient person... but I don't have a choice.  I should have spent more time stitching and less time making myself crazy last week... perhaps I can take my own advice this week.

I hope that you have a lovely Thanksgiving... good food, good company and no drama... a time for kindness and no craziness... a time to reflect and be grateful... and eat pumpkin pie... 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and check out what everyone else was up to last week... 

happy stitching-

carol fun 

OH  OH... I wanted to say thank you for all the lovely comments last week... it appears that Blogger was cooperative  as several people who usually send me email comments were actually able to leave one on the blog... I have no idea what is up with Blogger but I happy it is still here... I don't want to learn any new tricks...