10 days and counting

 I think Rob is still putting up decorations.  Where does he find the time?  I'm mostly focused on cleaning and keeping us fed.  I spent both weekend mornings in the yard, prepping for freezing temps and yesterday afternoon in the kitchen.  I'm ready for a workday so I can just sit down.  

Last Sunday, we were in the grocery and I saw these amaryllis on sale for $7.50.  I joked that they were probably prepped for Christmas bloom but were going to bloom late, so they were on sale.  The poor plant was so dry the spikes looked dusty.  Brought it home and gave it some water and a week later, we have blooms.  So, maybe they were on sale because they're going to bloom before Christmas.  Doesn't matter.  They're beautiful!  Rob has challenged me to keep the bulb and try to get it to do this again next year.  The flowers are about 7" across and there's a second spike coming up.  .

We have a fireplace, but it's rarely cold enough to use it.  And, if it gets cold enough, it's quick enough to move the quilt and a few things and light a fire.  

But Rob goes all out on the mantle.  We try to buy a Santa every year to add to the collection, tho they seem to get smaller and smaller out of necessity.

Rob sets up two villages every year.  There's the Victorian village and Retroville, which was a limited edition collectable village from JoAnn's many years ago.  He's short one piece and it's so hard to find that we haven't been able to get it for him.  

And, there are Christmas quilts.  This one was a paper pieced block of the month that I found online many years ago.  Thanks to whoever posted it!  I altered the Christmas ornament block to have 6 ornaments instead of 5 so that I could use the colors of the rainbow flag there.  

And, this one.  This is one of the first quilts I made while still working with my mentor.  She had purchased this as a kit and let me use the patterns to create my own version.  

And, this one, from when I was learning to machine quilt.  Look at how much of the quilt's pattern is from the quilting.  So, much quilting.

We went Christmas shopping on Saturday.  We talked about going to large retailers, but decided to go to the small boutique "booth" shops where vendors can rent a booth and you never know what you're going to find.  One of the things I found for myself was a copper bowl.  It was heavy and large and black on the inside.  I'm pretty sure the previous owner used it as wall decor and only polished the outside, which wasn't in great shape either.  But, I know what to do with copper and in just a few minutes yesterday, I'd turned it into this!  It will be so much nicer to unwrap on Christmas morning now that it's all shiny.  It's about 50% larger than the copper bowl I already have and I pulled out my ginormous whisk and gave it a test run and I can't wait to whip egg whites in it.  I barely have to move my wrist at all to get the full effect.  Too bad it will be wrapped in a box when I make my Christmas cake next week.

One more work week to go and then I'm taking a bunch of time off.  I deserve it.  Everybody have a great week.  If you like decorating, do it all over.  And, if you don't, then let your open loving heart be your Christmas decoration for all to see.  

Lane