Finishes!

With Dale's help I was able to finish the fobots I had started way back when.  I had parked the pieces parts on a tray in the garage--the man cave, and he had put them up in the rafters.  

 I remembered them, and yesterday afternoon we got them finished.  I also finished our advent calendar.  I decided we'll just keep decorating the little tree until it's done, a little charm or milagro a day and that way we'll get to enjoy it for a while.  Better late than never!

I think I'm done for now.  Time to enjoy some eggnog with a liberal helping of Amaretto!

 

Eve of the Solstice

I haven't been very productive...or maybe everything I've been doing just takes more time than I think it should.

I got caught up in making ornaments.  I used lots of costume jewelry from my mother-in-law and some other recycled items such as (unusable) bobbins, empty wooden spools, wine corks, and leftover yarn.  It's addictive and lots of inspiration to be found online.

I also made candies, trying to recreate Brazilian confections, such as "cajuzinho" and "beijinhos de coco."  (little cashews and little coconut kisses)  Confections that can be had in any corner bakery in Brazil, as shown below.

These are the "salgadinhos" or savory snacks.  I wish I could go shopping for these treats for the boys' birthday party.  Instead I'll be trying to recreate them after Christmas.

The character of the light at this time of year is so wonderful.  Here is the setting sun, lighting up plants in my kitchen window.

This morning I saw the tiniest sliver of moon come up, so very difficult for me to photograph.  One of these days I'll try to use the camera on something besides "Auto."

Tomorrow I'm having a solstice celebration dinner with Pat.  Looking forward to longer daylight again!

Just a couple of monsters, hanging out

I finished the boys' monsters with a minor hiccup.  I sat them on the ironing board for their photo ops and noticed the second one was missing ears!

So I had to do emergency surgery and attach some ears to the second monster.  They don't look identical, but then neither are the twins!

Another beautiful sunrise in NM.  I so love the early morning color displays.

Here are the monsters with their pet badgers (doesn't every monster need a badger companion?) that I picked up Black Friday shopping at IKEA in Denver.  I must say as far as shopping on Black Friday goes, IKEA was certainly more mellow than most of the "regular" stores, which thankfully we stayed away from.  




 

Only two posts in November?

The past month just got away from me, and now it's only 19 days until Christmas??  So many things I had in mind to do/finish.

I finally got a quilt finished for Dr. Kaufman, but have only three in the queue to be delivered.  This one was from Patty E.  I used Mr. Potato Head panto on it.

I started on making the monsters for the grandboys, and am almost finished with the first one.  

Haven't done a thing about getting an advent calendar done for us, but that's okay.  Should really try to do that while I still have all the wool stuff out. 

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Colorado where I did lots and lots of cooking.  I made the pies here before going up.  Tried a new pie, apple cranberry one crust pie with a crumb topping and it turned to be just about everyone's new favorite.  I think it's going to become a regular.  

We still like the "cranberry pudding" (pictured in the center) which is not a pudding at all but more of a rich pie to me, and it's nice to use the rest of the cranberry package with the apple.

Our snowstorm back in November yielded a beautiful flocked landscape, so bright and pretty in the sunshine.  




 

Winter came in overnight...

It was a beautiful day yesterday on many different scores.  First in the morning, I saw the white-headed bird that Dale had seen the other day.  

It was a leucistic house finch, and boy was I surprised to see it feeding yesterday morning.

Around noon time I headed over to Mountainair to meet Grace, a blogger I read that lives down near Socorro.  She was helping a friend move stuff out of a storage unit.   

I stopped in the town of Mountainair to check out a new, to me, bakery which had been open for seven months already.  I asked the woman waiting on me where she was from since she spoke with an accent.  I was surprised to find out that she was from Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.  I started speaking Portuguese with her, and we're going to get together so I can exercise my native language.

Later in the gorgeous afternoon I helped Dale install our weather station.   Little did we know that our beautiful sunset would result in such a different morning.

 

 

 This morning it is snowing, snowing, snowing.  It continues to snow, even though the sun is trying to make an attempt at shining.  We can sure use the moisture!

This and that...

We took off for a little overnight getaway.  Stayed at Riverbend Hot Springs in Truth or Consequences.  It was a great place with really nice soaking pools.  If you're traveling through T or C, it's definitely a place to consider staying.

Monday was a gorgeous day and we stopped at Bosque del Apache Refuge on our way south.  It was calm, and just the perfect temperature for checking out the birds.

 

The area where the hot springs are located is quirky with lots of small homes and many creative people.  We had a good time driving around checking out places and getting ideas for a wall we want to build at our house.  

 

This gate was particularly interesting with its use of tamarisk (salt cedar) branches.  

We also checked out a number of shops and I found the perfect glass that would accept my manual milk frother.  It was a real bargain at 50 cents.  I've gone through a number of replacements, and it's not easy to find one that accepts the frother.

 

Fall and kitties!

It's definitely fall around here.  We've been feeding some strays.  First a Siamese with attitude.  She would follow me around to get food, but hiss.

There have also been three kittens.  They are of varying sizes, so I don't think they are related.  I've only gotten a picture of the tortico.  She's such a beauty.  Slowly, I'm getting to where I can pet them while they're eating.  If they're really hungry they tolerate it!

I finished a couple more quilts.  This one from Tove, with the Tree Bones panto from Meadowlyon.  I like the look, but it doesn't flow, and I get pretty tired doing it. 

I added some borders to this great quilt from Judy H.  

 

She also had some leftovers from the top which I used to make my backing big enough.  I've had this Safari fabric aging in my stash for a while.  I think it was a thrift store find.

 Our apricot tree has flourished this year with the monsoon rains and Dale's judicious pruning, but still didn't get any fruit.  Maybe next year! 

 

 

A day in the mountains...

We've been planning on going up into the mountains to see the fall colors, and finally got it done.  The trees had lost a lot of their leaves, but some were still hanging on lower in the trunk.

This one tree had managed to keep its leaves still.  This is Fourth of July Campground, a rare spot in NM with crimson maples.

 It was a gorgeous day, just perfect for a picnic lunch.

 

Finished quilts!

Judy H. from Canada stopped by on her way to Mesa for the winter  She's been busy quilting, and her family doesn't need or want more quilts...What?  (Unlike daughter Lindsay, who would take every quilt I made!)

 

So lucky me, the beneficiary of all of these finished quilts to take to Dr. Kaufman.

 I was tempted to keep this beauty!  

 She also brought me a some tops for quilting and some fabric!  Thank you, thank you, Judy.  

This hibiscus opened up a day later, such a bright spot of color in the sun room.  The blossom is rather short-lived.

Snake on the path!

It's a good thing I'm always looking down at the ground when I'm walking.  This small rattlesnake was on the path between the garage and house.  

It hung out there for several hours before moving on.  I've been careful working in the yard since then.  I don't want to accidentally step on or otherwise disturb a rattlesnake.

 I was able to load one backing and get three quilts for Dr. Kaufman done on it.

 

This one was from Tove.  I added the candy border to it, and quilted it with a spiderweb panto.  I still have one more quilt of hers for Dr. Kaufman left to quilt.

 

This Jelly Roll Race II I put together myself from a jelly roll that Jonna gave me.  I learned some things if I do another one.  Spiderweb panto on this one as well.

I also tried this pattern.  Since the pattern maker said it was inspired by tube socks with stripes at the top, I used some tennis shoe fabric for a border to liven it up a bit.

 I quilted this one for Tove.  Love those Kaffe Fassett fabrics!





 

Pea soup?

Fog was thick as pea soup this morning looking out the east window.  I took out some frozen soup to have for lunch today with Pat who's coming over for sew day.  Definitely fall weather the last couple of days.  

Just two days ago we had a glorious sunrise--same view as the one above.

I've been a busy beaver, and have finished a couple more quilts for Dr. Kaufman.  Both of these from Tove!  

Dale has been playing with lighting--LED lighting for his truck.  He wired this leftover little light to a transformer (from an old printer) and installed it in the little gazebo I found at a thrift shop some time ago.  They don't use much energy--unlike the neon sign that it's sitting on.