Wednesday, December 5, 2018

First Wednesday in December! Advent Begins

Today is the first week of Advent.  Our church has two services every Wednesday for the next three weeks.  One is at 11 a.m. followed by a soup luncheon, the other is at 6:30, preceded by a light supper.

I personally cannot believe that Christmas is that close.  Although I am patting myself on the back a bit since I have nearly all my shopping done.  The grands will get so much from all of their various Christmas visits that I hesitate to buy them a lot, especially since they're tweens and teens and I am not exactly 'hip' to what's up with them these days.  Getting to be an old fogey, I guess.  LOL!

I have been knitting and sewing things, knowing that those kinds of things will probably not be coming from elsewhere.  I'm working on the last few items and will finish before the day (or else??).

Today I am waiting for MY Christmas gift to be delivered.  We (should I say I?) ordered a cabinet for my collection of Depression Glass and china.  I've been wanting to have one since we moved in here almost 12 years ago.  Now that we're moving, I'm finally getting one.

We're still cleaning and packing.  I can't pack TOO much, there's still living to be done here.. but I'm packing up books and closet contents that are not being used, and creating big piles of things for the various charity shops in the area.  And DH has the number for Got Junk memorized  :-)

Next task, baking.  I don't need all those goodies myself, but the kids do like their Christmas cookies.


So who can resist a Rudolf cookie?

I'm not sure why we feel the need to do all this extra stuff.  Love for family, I guess.  I don't remember my mom ever baking Christmas cookies.  Maybe she did, but not while I was at home.  I'll have to check with my younger siblings.

We decided not to put up all the holiday decorations, since very shortly after Christmas we'll be packing up to move.  I do want to put some things around, just to remind myself that it's the festive season.  Mr. Grinch says we should have Christmas Eve at one of the kids' houses, since they will both have their places decorated.  But the church service is close to our house, so we'll just wear red and green and be our own 'tree'!
Maybe I should print a photo
extra big and tape it to the wall?

The store has the twelve days of Christmas Gifts going on right now.  Lots of wonderful gift type items are being made available.  That means lots of packaging and wrapping but the owner did most of it.  We just have to take orders and assemble them for distribution.  I ordered a lovely wool pressing mat and a cute refillable spray bottle for my starch alternative product.  there are more things to come too.  Check the Facebook page of Quiltagious if you're interested.

Yesterday my job was to sew a small soft book for a shop sample.  It turned out to be adorable!  We have two, one is Noah's Ark and the other one is a dinosaur panel.  I think the Noah's Ark would be so cute for a quiet toy for church for some small child.



I'm also, little by little, catching up on my Kaffe Mystery Quilt blocks.  I am in possession of nine packets, and I have SIX done!  I have three packets of snowball blocks left to do.  I'm happy to be finished with the group of 20 checkerboard blocks that were sent.


twenty of these are ready for pressing!

Making checkerboard blocks from two inch strips teaches you the value of accurate cutting and seam allowance.  The first batch I did had to be undone and scooted over.  But now that I've done multiple packets I'm pretty sure where to line them up.  I can get within a tiny fraction of the precise final measurement.

I think I hear a delivery truck!  Either that or the garbage is being picked up...  more later!

Sew on...