The first Monday of December

 I can hardly believe we are this close to the holidays and the new year.  I went to Michael's for an in-store pickup and couldn't believe the crowd.  I looked around and thought 'don't you people have television?  do you know what news is?'  That made my decision about Christmas shopping.  If it can't come in the mail or curbside, cash will do...not just to protect myself but to protect all those people having to work in the stores.  As a society, are we really so into 'gotta have more stuff' that it's worth risking lives for?  And, then I turn on the news and realize that half the country is easily fooled and doesn't care about anybody but themselves.  All I can do is be a better man.

And, as a better man, I stayed home and worked on the Maple Leaf quilt.  I got it laid out...that took hours and two of us looking at it to try to get all the leaves pointing in different directions and the illusion of leaves falling.  The quilt is assembled from left to right, but not from top to bottom.  I'll need to press the seams in opposite directions before I can start doing that.  And, we still don't have border fabric.  But, all happens as it's supposed to happen, right?  This quilt is made almost completely out of the scrap bin.  I hardly needed to cut into my batik stash to create the leaves.  

Remember that I was holding off until new fabric arrived  in case it was a little different color.  The color was spot on, but the fabric density was different.  I run into this all the time with JoAnn's fabric.  I was able to show it to Rob not long ago when we found two bolts of a fabric, but they were from different runs, so one was a nice heavy quilting cotton.  One wasn't much thicker than gauze.  They do the first print on a nice fabric, then they do additional runs of popular prints on a much lighter weight fabric.  You can't really see it above, but if you look from the side, you can see that some of the plain squares are twice as dense as others.  It won't show when it's all on a lighter colored batting, but while it's on this tan carpet, you can see it.  Such a disappointment, and more reason to buy from a reputable quilt shop that focuses on quilting cottons.  (that and the fact I can never predict how much anything will cost in JoAnn's anymore...such a disappointment at the register.)

I spent most of Saturday getting the greenhouse ready.  We had our first freeze warning last week and I dragged everything I could in here and just piled it in, but I couldn't have gotten in to water anything, so I took it all out, cleaned up a bit and then moved it back in, taking advantage of all the shelving and space that was available.  And, when I was done, I gave it all a good watering to make sure I could get to every pot.  Now they're snug as can be and ready for cold weather.  Next week, I'll set up the portable greenhouse and get the larger plants moved into it.  

Rob finished out outdoor decorations this weekend.  Frosty has been freed from captivity in the garage and has a place in the front flowerbed.  

And, the blue lights are on the outside of the house.  The blue lights go great with the gray paint.  

Speaking of new paint, our contract with the contractor officially ended last week.  The door and window company chose not to honor the warranty on the doors in our bedroom and offered him his money back to go buy doors elsewhere...real reputable company there, right?  They delivered a set of doors that was 3/4 the size of our current doors.  I smiled at the delivery guys and told them not to leave them here.  Since the contractor didn't have to pay for the original set of doors, neither did we.  While we were not willing to add a sweep to the door to fix the small flaw when we were paying for the doors, we found ourselves willing to add a sweep when the doors were free.  We're funny like that.  

I'm starting to think that I'm the last person still baking bread.  Everybody was doing it when lockdown started.  I'm fine being the last person.  That thick warm chunk of bread I cut off the loaf last night and smeared with peach preserves was so worth it.  Two loaves is enough for 2-3 weeks and that seems worth it, especially since the Kitchenaid does all the hard work.  All I have is a little hand kneading at the end to bring it all together.  I also made cornbread and a big pot of vegetable beef soup yesterday.  Tis the soup season.  

Rob's dog hurt her back last week.  She had a very expensive visit to the vet where we found out she has arthritis all along her spine, so we're being very careful with her now.  She's finally starting to get back to her old self.  She laid on a blanket in our bedroom for almost a week.  

I didn't realize when I took this picture that she was licking her nose.  Is that the equivalent of catching someone with their eyes closed?

Everybody have a great week.  Stay home.  Wear a mask when you have to go out.  Find ways to connect that don't include face to face contact.  We can do this.  Be well.  Lane