Exhausted!

Four of the grands and their parents came for Christmas. This is what they found in the living room.

We had a little speaker hidden up there with the dolls, playing Christmas music with children's voices. I asked the kids to see if they could find the singers. They followed the sound and found them. It was fun. We took the two older kids to the family Christmas Eve service, which was held in the church hall. 

Daphne enjoyed it. Zachary was cranky, although he controlled himself. The children who wanted to take part each took a figure up to the front to put it in the creche, while the story was explained to them.

My family left me there after the service, because I was singing at the two later services in the original church, which is beautiful but less practical for children.

The Trinity choir has choir robes and process. We didn't do that at St. Luke's. I'm still trying to get the hang of it. I walked into the communion rail on the way down the aisle after the later service and ended up with a big bruise on my leg. I'll get it eventually.

The kids had put out cookies and milk for Santa. This is what we found in the morning. I don't know how Santa has time to eat cookies and drink milk at each house on Christmas Eve.

The kids get up early every morning, and Christmas Day was no exception.

The two younger boys are early risers anyway, and the older two came from Wisconsin to spend Christmas with us, so jet lag was getting them up early, too. DDIL had the early shift on Christmas Day, so she kept the kiddos entertained with games until everyone got up.

The stockings were in the room with the family room, with the fireplace, of course. A big hit from the stockings was whoopee cushions. 

The tree was in the living room.

Johan's wolf costume was a big hit.

Daphne was excited with the ski outfit for her doll Bella.

All three of the ladies received a skein of yarn and the pattern for the Nurmilintu shawl. We're doing it as a KAL.

Later, the kids helped me set up a photo shoot on the front porch, because it snowed overnight. The resulting photo was in Friday's story.

Later DBIL came over for dinner. He brought a friend, who made potato latkes for us as an appetizer.

The next day we went to the Original Pancake House for breakfast to celebrate my birthday.

We went to the playground on Thursday.

Soren, the younger six-year-old, needs a talking device to communicate. His cousin was fascinated with it. The children are pretty matter-of-fact about their cousin's disability.

DBIL ended up needing emergency surgery. He had a twisted colon. We will have to help him after he comes home. It's good we live so close. It was lucky it happened when it did, because he was planning to leave for a trip with his trailer.

Johan cracked his head open when he fell backwards off the bench in the dinning room, so we made another trip to the hospital. He wanted stitches, because he has a friend at school who had stitches, but Johan got three staples instead. He was a trooper. He decided staples were cooler than stitches. We could tell it hurt, but he didn't cry.

We have decided that the hospital should name a wing after the Stuart family.

On Friday, the plumber came and installed our dishwasher. It runs well now. We had the hot water turned off in the kitchen all week and had to haul hot water from the powder room to wash dishes. Everyone helped. 

Dusty was sad after everyone left on Saturday. He had a good time with the kids.

Later that day, I came down with the flu.

Happy New Year, everyone.

What's on my needles: I put down the Kisu Takki Cardigan for Jolena, and am working on the Numilintu shawl.

What's on my Sparrow 15: The quilt sleeves for hanging quilts are done, so now on to costumes for my characters.

What's in my hoop: Still the Spring Flowers quilt, no progress again this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Having Fun with Toys.This week's story was about the dolls' favorite presents. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still The Ladies of Ivy Cottage by Julie Klassen.

What's in my wine glass: My wine glass is empty. I haven't felt much like having wine since I got sick.

What's my tip of the week: Alpaca dryer balls are tennis balls covered with alpaca and felted are great in the dryer instead of using dryer sheets. They can be used over and over.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Christmas Greetings!

If you look carefully, you can see the wreath on my front door.

My house is still in turmoil. However, the broken-down boxes and the packing materials that are no longer needed have gone on to a new home to be used again, thanks to the Redmond Online Yard Sale group on Facebook.

Our trials have continued, though. We managed to get the stove hooked up. The plumber gave us a senior discount, which was nice. We are repeat customers for him, because he put in the gas to our laundry room for our dryer. However, when we took all the tape off the stove, we found this:

Oops! It appeared to be missing three screws, but when the people from Lowe's came out to look, they said there were three rivets missing. They can't order just the drawer, so we are getting another new stove. It will take two to three weeks, as this one did. However, good people, Lowe's.

We couldn't find an electrician to fix our wires, so DH wrapped the two wires with electrical tape, so we wouldn't have a fire.

Our home warranty was able to find us an electrician, and he came on Saturday and fixed it good as new. However, a new problem emerged. The fitting wanted to cross-thread, though, so, after several hours of struggle, DH gave up and decided to call a plumber. I have 10 people in the house, and the hot water is turned off to the kitchen. I'm carrying water from the powder room to wash dishes. And it's Christmas Eve. I have lot's of adult help, though, so that's fine.

This week Billy finally got his professional haircut. Here he is, with my (and now his) stylist, Sylvia Burger at Bella Hair Salon in Bend, Oregon. (She does a great job on me, too.)

Here he is at home, after it had dried.

And the back:

It was a challenge, because the rooted hair gives him cowlicks all over. The back couldn't be cut too short, or it would stick straight out. I think she did a fantastic job. The haircut will enter into the first story in January.

I had to tidy up the fiber studio, so it could be used by family as a bedroom this week. I discovered it was a great place to wrap packages.

There should be plenty of room on the floor for an inflatable mattress, because we haven't set up the work table yet.

The pups went to the groomer on Wednesday, so I was able to get a nice photo of them in front of the tree. (That was before I started wrapping packages.)

My little angels wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Frohe Weihnachten, joyeux Noël, hyvää joulua, vrolijk kerstfeest, buon Natale, feliz Navidad, selamat hari natal, щасливого Різдва, счастливого Рождества, عيد ميلاد سعيد, and the same in Doll Language, which is a very silent language, something like telepathy. If you listen carefully with your mind, you will hear them.

What's on my needles: Still the Kisu Takki Cardigan for Jolena, the same as the Stavanger, but with a different chart.  

What's on my Sparrow 15: Christmas wrap. It's a great surface for holding tape, scissors, ribbons and paper.

What's in my hoop: Still the Spring Flowers quilt, no progress again this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Santa Visits. This week's story is Santa and why he gives children gifts. Next week the dolls will share their presents with you. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still The Ladies of Ivy Cottage by Julie Klassen, no listening this week. I'm listening to Christmas/holiday music.

What's in my wine glass: Lar de Oro Tempranillo Syrah. It's from Spain. Very nice.

What's my tip of the week: When you buy appliances, it's probably cheaper in the long run to pay them to install them.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

The Saga Continues

My "Peggy's Sistine Chapel" is finally on the wall.

It's in a place where it can be admired from afar. We joked that it really should have been hung from the ceiling, but it was hard enough to get it up where it is. Our DDIL2 sent a relative who lives here to our place with a fancy ladder to put it up for us. It makes my heart sing to see it there. It's really upside down, but I planned on the panel with the lighter background to go away from the windows in our old place when I made it, and the windows were on the right, so it hangs this way, and I think it's fine.

I managed to get the other two big quilts up. This was the one I made from about half of the Keepsake Quilting Millennium Quilt Kit given me by a friend. There were 2,000 4" squares. I made half-square triangles with them and just played until I found a design I liked. You can tell I like symmetrical, not being symmetrical myself.

I thought I was very clever, and as soon as it was done, I received a quilting magazine in the mail with the same quilt (different fabrics, of course), made in 1880. I wonder if that quilt maker was playing with my mind from the next world. This one can be seen at the top of the stairs as soon as you walk in the front door.

The orange and white quilt is a Devil's Claw block. I copied it from an antique quilt belonging to a friend who wishes to remain anonymous.


Finally, my Friendship Star quilt went up between the door to my fiber studio and the door to the guest room. The laundry room door is right across from it, so I see it every time I come out of the laundry.

Each quilt is hung the same way as my Pine Burr quilt: I made two sleeves, each slightly shorter than half the width of the quilt and 8" wide after hemming each end. I folded the strips of fabric in half lengthwise and sewed them to the top of the quilt under the binding, which required undoing the top binding, since I hadn't thought to do it as the quilts were being made. We bought 8' battens from the lumber yard and cut each one at least 6" longer than the width of the quilt it would be used to hang. I put a nail about 3" down from the ceiling where I wanted the middle of the quilt to be. I measured exactly how far down from the ceiling the nail ended up, and then put two more nails the same distance from the ceiling where the batten would stick out on each side. So that's done!

I needed pajamas for this week's story, so I had to do some sewing for the latest additions to the vinyl family. I finished the top to Jolena's pajamas first. I had one sleeve on. She has been sleeping in a camisole for a top, but it's getting chilly, and the story will include a scene about Christmas Eve. 

Mariah also had pajama pants and a camisole top, but no real PJ top. I found the rest of the lime green flannel I used for the pants.

The top is based on Little Abbee's Slumber Party PJs, but with alterations for Götz Happy Kidz. The pants are from my pattern. (This is Mariah's first Christmas, and she has never seen a Christmas tree before.

For Billy, I wanted something a little more masculine. I used fabric taken from some girls' leggings in cotton and lycra. I made the pants from the same pattern, but I made the legs 1/2" shorter, so I could add a 1/2" cuff. I had to invent the top. I used some other patterns of mine, adjusted for opening in the back and having cuffs on the sleeves and a band around the neck. It was hard sewing on dark navy fabric, because I don't yet have very good lighting in my fiber studio, but once I got things under the light of my EverSewn Sparrow 15 (which I have come to adore) I was able to see well enough to sew. I needed two more sleep masks. Mariah got the same kind as the other girls, but Billy chose to eschew the lace trim and voted for fold-over elastic in dark navy to sort of go with his PJs.

The cuffs at the ankles and wrists, as well as the neck band, don't really show up very well because the fabric is so dark.

The dark thundercloud that has accompanied us on this move has not left us yet, but it proved to have a silver lining. Our new appliances were delivered on Sunday, so Saturday night, we got everything ready. When we pulled out the stove, we found mouse traps behind it. Not a good sign, but we've had mice before, so other than the "oh, ick!" response, we weren't too perturbed. What we found when we pulled out the dishwasher was much more disturbing.

What you're looking at (besides the dirt and dust) is live electrical wires chewed down to the actual wire by a mouse or mice. I'm surprised there was no mouse body or skeleton right at that spot. Maybe the power was turned off at the time. However, after the initial reaction of disgust, we realized how lucky we had been. This kind of damage could have started a fire, even if we hadn't been using the dishwasher. The wire is going to have to be replaced, which creates a lot of complications for the installation. However, we could very well have had a fire sometime in the near future, which was avoided because we chose to replace the appliances. The way I see it, the appliances just paid for themselves. At least the dishwasher did. What a close call!

Sunday morning we unloaded the freezer section of the old fridge and put all of the frozen food into the big freezer out in the garage. About lunch time, we unloaded the refrigerator section and put all of the cold food in ice chests, which we placed where they would be out of the way. Our friends from Lowe's came right at 2:00 PM. They removed the old appliances, putting the stove and fridge in the garage, because we hope to donate them, and the dishwasher in their truck. Then they brought in the new appliances.

The dishwasher and range are still not hooked up. DH had hoped to do that himself, but the part needed to hook up the gas is no longer available(!) and we need an electrician.  The men from Lowe's hooked up the fridge, though. It has an ice maker but no dispenser, our choice because we wanted to maximize the space in the refrigerator section. So here it is in all its glory:

I would have preferred white, but now white appliances cost more than stainless, and the almost-new microwave is stainless, so the choice was really out of my hands.

Here's a scene from last Friday's story, just to show we're in the Christmas spirit here, in spite of the turmoil.

Santa will be seen in this week's story.

What's on my needles: Still the Kisu Takki Cardigan for Jolena, the same as the Stavanger, but with a different chart. A few more rows finished on the sleeves.

What's on my Sparrow 15: The quilt sleeves for hanging quilts are done, so now on to costumes for my characters. Now that they all have their sleepwear (PJs and sleep masks), I have some other clothes cut out and ready to sew.

What's in my hoop: Still the Spring Flowers quilt, no progress again this week.


What's in The Doll's Storybook: Caroling and Dreaming. This week's story will be about Santa and why he gives children gifts. The dolls have a theory. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still The Ladies of Ivy Cottage by Julie Klassen, but only one more chapter, and Christmas/holiday music.

What's in my wine glass: Terrain Vineyards California Red Blend 2015 again. Very nice, and great value.

What's my tip of the week: If you have a new item that was packed with styrofoam and some of the little bits cling to something you don't want to throw away (floor, windows, shelves, pets, children, etc.) you can get them up quickly with one of those pet-hair rollers. The little bits seem more attracted to the roller than to whatever they've been clinging to.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Fiber Studio and Preparations for Christmas

We're almost done with the fiber studio. Here's a look at the Billy Bookcases and the loom. (Still some work to do on the loom, but I need help unscrewing the nuts on the bolts.) The wicker hamper will go under the work table when it's available.

I picked up the base unit for the light table/cutting surface on Tuesday at Lowe's. All we had to do was bring it up the stairs and plop it into place, although we still need to put a hole in the back or side for the cord for the light table lights. It swallowed a lot of the extra fabrics I had in boxes. The thread rack was an Amazon order.

I am happy with the sewing table. I was able to get a lot of the sewing tools into the cubbyholes in the table.

Here's the closet corner. Inside is still a mess. I need some more shelves. The Coca-Cola crate that holds the little shoes for the dolls still needs to be mounted on the wall.

My "Peggy's Sistine Chapel" is ready to be hung on the wall, but we need a friend with a special ladder, because it has to go over the stairs. DH is going to cut off the excess length of the batten that will hold it up. (You can see the mark where he needs to cut.)

I've made a little progress on the Kisu Takki Cardigan. I'm knitting both sleeves together with steeks between them.

Now I've started cooking for Christmas. Here is the Lohipiirakka (salmon pie), a Finnish family tradition for Christmas Eve. Into the freezer (now up and running) it went.

Then I made the lanttulaatikko (rutabaga casserole), another family tradition.

Saturday, Mariah and Billy accompanied me to see Santa. This will be part of a future story. Santa was a good sport. He pretended that the two dolls were ordinary dolls, and they pretended to be what he pretended they were. They were able to make their wishes known, however, because Santa speaks doll. I have no doubt they will get what they asked Santa for.

What's on my needles: The Kisu Takki Cardigan for Jolena, now knitting the sleeves.

What's on my Sparrow 15: Sleeves for hanging quilts. Two down, two to go.

What's in my hoop: Still the Spring Flowers quilt, no progress again this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Happy Hanukkah, Charlotte!  Charlotte explains Hanukkah to the other dolls. This week's story will be about Caroling and an adventure with real children. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still The Ladies of Ivy Cottage by Julie Klassen and Rachel Maddow's Bag Man podcast. No chance to listen this week.

What's in my wine glass: Tuesday Night Red, 2018. Pretty nice. We're sampling some wines we've had no access to in Utah. We can even have wine shipped to our home here. (We could smoke pot, if we wanted, but I have no interest.)

What's my tip of the week: Fill an almost-empty freezer with loaves of bread, of if you need to, a pillow or two. Air in the freezer falls out when you open the door, requiring more energy to return the temperature inside to what is needed.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.