Tuesday ...

    Christmas was quiet here.  Church in the morning.  Charlie was gifted a new snuggle bed from the neighbor's across the street whose German Shepherd puppy quickly outgrew it.  He loves it, and so does Gracie, so I imagine there will be some disagreeing over whose it is.

   I've been waiting on ordered craft supplies to finish a few things here and there before posting before and after photos.

   In the meantime, I've been fighting insomnia the last few weeks. At one point up I was awake for over 24 hours, and just unable to get any rest.   Some of it, in the beginning, was due to being sick and coughing all night, but that has gone away. Trying to sleep on my back to breathe easier and cough less made me have nightmares of my ex-husbands (sleeping on my back has always given me nightmares).  I've stopped drinking coffee the last few days which seems to have helped a little.  Getting my mind to be fully quiet and relaxed is part of the problem, and I'm looking into healthy herbal options.

   More soon ...

Monday ...

     When my mother was alive, she would always send holiday or birthday cards and gifts with strict instructions on the outside that I was NOT to open them until the appointed date.  

     Of course, since I'm a bit of a smart-donkey at times (okay, full disclosure, most of the time not "at times.") I would respond that since I had no adult supervision, I would do whatever I wanted, which meant ripping them open the day they arrived.

    I still hold to that life principal, however, when I saw this sign, I decided that it would be the one "rule" I needed to adhere to.  It is now mounted on the inside of my kitchen door which leads to my outside porch.

    I love it.

    I sufficiently conquered my cold over the weekend to attend church yesterday morning, and our children's Christmas play last night.  It was wonderful, and the play was held two nights in a row because we had 95 children participating and wanted to give everyone a chance to shine (and audition as future stand-up comedians, of which there were quite a few). 

     I don't think I've been to a children's play since performing in them in elementary school in the early 70's (I was the unfortunate performer one Thanksgiving who had to sit in the audience and stand up at a certain point to shout "Yes!  But what does that have to do with Thanksgiving today?"  It was traumatic, trust me.  One teacher nearly yanked my arm out of the socket trying to get me to sit down and hush!).  

    One of the items my sister recently sent me from Mom's apartment is this village and train set that I remember from my childhood in Germany.  I was thrilled to get it and may find a place to keep it out year-round.

    I found some cute little Christmas baubles at the dollar store, and quickly made some snow globe earrings using Kosher salt, a little bit of silver glitter dust, and snips from my juniper wreath.    

    I'm also working on restoring a box my Aunt Linda made for my parents.  There used to be a verse written on the top of it that has faded with time, and so I want to put it back on.  Photos of that project later since I have botched it and now need to figure out how to fix it.  My handwriting is not as graceful as Aunt Linda's was.

    The week will be another busy one.  I'm picking up a few extra hours from tonight until Wednesday night to make up for the half-day off we are being forced to take on Thursday.  Tomorrow night is the virtual office Christmas party; Wednesday night will be Bible Study; Thursday night will be a movie with the kids at church to see the latest [2018] remake of the Grinch; Friday night Charlie and I will be scanning the skies for Santa's sleigh ~ actually probably sipping gluhwein and watching dysfunctional family Christmas movies (my favorites!!!).  Some domestic goddess tasks thrown in the mix here and there, and maybe some singing of Christmas carols at the top of my lungs until Charlie joins in.

    May you have a beautiful holiday season filled with lots of laughter!

Quilts and pickles ...

Click images to enlarge

   I got some woodcraft boards a few weeks ago and after a delay in getting the fabric I wanted, I went with a Plan B.  More variety, but a little disappointing since I'd had my heart set on a turquoise and brown color scheme.

   I made one board with a 4th of July theme, but wish now I'd painted the back of it white.  I may do it after the fact with a whitewash and sand the whole thing to give it a rustic look.

 

   This one I did at about 4a this morning after coughing and nightmares woke me.  I like that it is a subtle color scheme and pattern.

    A week or two ago I won a contest on Instagram from the German Consulate General in Atlanta.  Today, my prize package arrived.  A gluhwein gift box with two mugs, a bottle of spice mix, sugar, two sugar spoons for flaming rum-soaked cubes (really authentic recipe!), and Lebkuchen cookies.  I also won a yodeling pickle ornament.

   This pickle.  Oh. My. Gosh.  I love it.  Altho after it yodeled at me about five times in a row when I kept getting up and walking past the tree it felt a little pervy and I had to turn it off.  But it will be loads of fun if I ever have company in the house.  I might have to keep it on the tree all year!

Wednesday~ish ...

Click images to enlarge

    Tonight is the Christmas dinner at church, and I'm going to have to miss it.  I've caught another cold, this time with a fever.  Not sure if that makes it the flu or just another virus, but I don't like to share when I'm sluffing off bugs with the fever.  I'm super disappointed, but just trying to do my part to limit the spread.  I think I caught it at last week's music concert at the library since Nancy is also sick now  ~ someone attending was coughing quite a bit and not wearing a mask.

    I will also miss out on another art class tomorrow night, this one for block print gift tags, and again, I'm bummed.  I wanted to learn how to make them because I think I will be making Christmas cards by hand next year instead of buying them.  Perhaps another time, or a tutorial on Pinterest or YouTube.

   I'm not working today, which is sort of a good thing.  By the time I got off the phone yesterday afternoon, I could barely speak without choking and did not get more than 4 hours of sleep last night because of my coughing and choking.  I may have to sleep sitting up tonight.

   Today is mostly being spent on the sofa, sipping hot organic Throat Coat tea, taking elderberry syrup, vitamin C, and catching up on things that don't require me to go outside or be around other people.  Laundry.  Dishes (hot water was out four days last week).  Craft ideas.

    I experimented with some air dry modeling clay to make some Springerle ornaments with anise seed on the back of them.  I'm not sure I like how they came out just yet because the design is hard to see, and while they smell good, they are still soft and a little plain (kinda like the cookies, which was the whole idea, but I could have made them a little thicker to show the design more)

.  I put light brown watercolor paint on them just to make them less white, and thought about coloring the design, but didn't like that because it made them not resemble the cookies.  I will probably get some more clay, the kind that has to bake dry and try again.

     I've also been trying some ideas for turning this year's cards into next year's tree ornaments, and have two possible designs.

     But I think right now I hear a nap calling my name ...