And She Comes Up for Air

Been a crazy week, but things are finally mellowing out a bit. I've got the next 3 days off work (well, one job, anyway) and then I'm working 2 half days. The plan is to hit the quilt studio running tomorrow morning an not come out -- except to make gingerbread houses with the niece Saturday -- until the gifts for MIL, SIL and friend are finished.

All but 3 trees are complete, so here's a little tour of how things are shaping up at Maison Entwistle...

 My favorite trees are both in the foyer. The red and white, which I think this year, has finally got enough ornaments to fill it out. It's got both red and white lights on it and is a favorite of most of our guests...until they see the tree across from it....

I will always love the Mardi Gras tree. It's a great flocked tree that you can stand in front of for quite a long time checking out the very cool (and un-Christmas-y) ornaments And the top seems to get better every year.

Who doesn't like gingerbread. This one is always fun, and it is crammed full of ornaments with very little space to add any more. It's only hope is to become a bigger tree, but that's unlikely as it is a tidy fit into the corner of the breakfast room behind the table at it's current size.

One of my favorite things about this tree is the 'skirt'. Everything you need to make your very own yummy gingerbread cookies.

Hard to get a full shot of the traditional tree. Added the elves since a half dozen new ones made their way into the decorations this year (those would be the bright ones with the wonky faces. Like this one....)

The ladder was full, so half the elves came off the ladder and invaded the tree with the newcomers. The huge candy canes also mysteriously appeared. I think the original plan was to use them with the red and white tree, but with this tree being so gosh darn HUGE, it just seemed to work hanging them on it. (It was also easy and required no creative thought process or the ever-elusive spare time to work something out for an alternate display.)

Well, that's all for now. Break time is over and I need to get back to work. I was up---well, actually I was down--in the basement--until 3 a.m. this morning trying to knock out some gift wrapping. I've still got a bunch more to go, but really need to wrap the gift for the Bunko 'Dirty Santa' gift exchange tonight. And I've got merchandising to do after work and need to pick up a can of jellied cranberry and a bottle of chili sauce so the hubs can make a casserole dish of meatballs I can take to the party tonight. It's potluck this year--why couldn't they just assign me wine---sigh (actually 'whine').

Leaving you with a photo of a non-tree display....it's got my favorite things on the table, and some wooden Santas I collected 30 years ago on the shelves below. Check back tomorrow for more....after Saturday, we be switching to all things stitching (and probably bitching).

The Decorating Progresses

Quick update with a few photos. I've got  the day off work to play catch-up and I need to get some work done, after spending the last hour planning out my merchandising work for the next two weeks. Plus I need to run out to Kohls, solely for the purpose of spending the $10 Kohls bucks my daughter gave me, a neighbor is coming at 4:30 for a quick 'how to' freemotion quilt demo, and I've got the quilt guild holiday party tonight and need to wrap my secret sister gift and pick up an appetizer or a dessert to bring. Phew!

Here's the mantle decorations. Finally I get to use the black feather boas I've had stashed away for 2 years. Ya-ay! I REALLY NEED a big ornate clock face to go in that space on the right hand side. Or, maybe that porcelain doll angel I made will work. Haven't run across it yet, but I don't think so. Must be a clock--maybe Kohls will have one. (Right! I'm SURE Kohls will have an ornate, antique clock--Dream On!) Yes, I made the wizard Santa on the right, and that's my Herr Drosselmier (sp?) Steinbach nutcracker.

Monster tree (10 ft) in the family room. Still hanging ornaments. Resisting the urge to get the wire out and reposition branches so they aren't drooping. I don't think I can resist much longer. Thankfully, the BIL went to cut down a tree up the street yesterday and was happy to come by and help the hubs bring this (and the other tree) in the house. Otherwise it would probably be laying the driveway right now.

Moved the Beyers gingerbread display into the family room this year. One less table taking up space in the breakfast room.

The other Frasier is in it's stand, drinking like a fish (now this is a tree after my own heart) in the living room. The flocked Mardi Gras tree is lit and is 'throwing up beads' as DD might say, awaiting it's ornaments. This is my favorite tree, so I never rush it.

The red and white is finished, and unfortunately, in the foyer with the Mardi Gras tree. I wanted it elsewhere, but just couldn't figure out where. It wouldn't fit in the office without moving the 400 pound desk, and I was feeling very un-Teamsterlike yesterday, so no furniture was repositioned.

The plan is to finish the monster tree and the Mardi Gras tree today, and if I'm super productive....the vintage tree in the living room. If there's a good Christmas movie on tonight, all the better. After that, it's all a crapshoot this week.

Time's a-wastin'. I must get to work. So much to do, so little time.

Egads! What have I done?!

A few days ago I pulled this photo of a snowstorm we had in 2006 out of one of my folders and used it as my desktop wallpaper. I'm not a big fan of snow, but I couldn't find an appropriately sized holiday photo to use and settled on this one. BIG MISTAKE!!!!!!

Here's the view today. It's 3:00 and it's still coming down solidly, just northwest of our Nation's Capital.

Okay, I'll have to agree that it is pretty, and it's festive, and it's appropriate, since I'm trying to do some holiday decorating today. Last night they predicted a couple of inches starting at around 4:00 and tapering off during the night. Just enough to ruin the First Saturday holiday festivities we may or may not have attended (luminarias, street performers, horsedrawn carriage rides, cookies and hot chocolate served by the local merchants having special holiday sales.)

But look closely, it's only 3 p.m., and darned if the accumulation on that railing doesn't already exceed 3 inches, with no sign of the white stuff slacking off anytime soon. Sigh.....

Well, if we're snowed in for the rest of the weekend, I'm ready. Vodka? Check. Vermouth? Check. Big jar of large olives? Check.

The ingredients to make a big pot of chili and a pan of cornbread are on the kitchen counter, and there's veggies for a salad in the crisper. Perfect.

This morning we were crazy enough to drive to Buckeystown to chop down not one, but two Christmas trees. It started as rain, and turned to snow at 8:15 as we were pulling out of the driveway. At first I thought this would be a good thing, as I'd rather be snowed on than rained on, and come on, how picturesque to drag a freshly cut Frasier fir through a snow-covered field. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

The snow was wet, very, very wet. The field was muddy, very, very muddy. By the time we had found and cut down the first tree, a reasonable 7-footer for the living room, the wet had soaked through my boots and I was standing in what felt like an inch of freezing icewater inside my boots, in my stocking feet. My rain jacket had also soaked through to the sweatshirt I had on underneath, and my gloves...let's just say that every few minutes I pulled them off my hands and wrung them out so they wouldn't be so heavy.

We headed back to the fields to find another Frasier that was at least 9 feet tall. At this point I'm seriously thinking about just getting over the fact that the trees at Home Depot have already been there for a month and packing up the first tree and heading to the Depot, but my inner voice kept reminding me how much I fretted over last year's Home Depot balsam drying out (in fact, I wasn't happy with that tree the minute it went into the stand), and we slogged on. I can't tell you how many  muscles I pulled to  keep myself from falling on my face every time I tripped over a stump of a tree that the smart people cut last weekend (when the weather was sunny, dry, and 60 degrees). Suffice it to say that sitting here typing is painful.

The trees you  have already walked past and rejected look a whole lot better the second time around, when you're soaking wet, freezing, and limping along in the mud. We find a tree, the hubs throws down his soaking wet towel that he had brought along to lay on while sawing, and commences to saw through what must be the fattest, hardest tree trunk man has ever encountered. The tractor back to the parking lot has come and gone and he is still sawing, making noises like he's having a heart attack with every pull of the saw.

Finally he's gotten it far enough through that I'm able to throw myself against the tree and it falls to the ground, where he can now get out of the pool of slush he has been lying in and cut through the rest of the way.

Okay, I'll grab the top and you grab the bottom and we'll drag it up to the tractor ruts and wait for our ride. Except, I can't pick the top of the tree up with my one frozen, sopping hand. It is WAY to heavy for me. He's able to drag it up the hill, with me leading the way to trip over the stumps so that he doesn't have to.

After 20 minutes or so, it becomes evident that there is not going to be a tractor coming to get us. We can hear them all around us in the other field. Each chugging sound brings false hope. The people standing down the path from us give up and drag their tree back, but we can't do that because we've cut down the mother of all firs and it weighs far too much for the hubs to drag the half mile back to the lot.

I set off through the mud to see if I can wrangle him a ride, and leave him at the side of the path, cold, wet, and getting wetter by the minute. Back at the ranch, while I kept telling the tractor drivers and farmhands that he has been waiting there for 30 minutes, no one apparently is going that way, as all of the other crazy people wanting to cut trees want to visit fields in the opposite direction. Finally, I was able to convince one of the tractors taking someone out to another field to swing by and get him (possibly because I looked so crazed, or maybe my use of the words 'heart attack' and 'ambulance' got his attention. It's just too bad I didn't have the saw with me....that might have got their attention sooner).

He went after the hubs and brought him and the tree almost all the way back (don't ask), and I got a couple of the guys shaking and netting trees to bring the monster tree that was unceremoniously dumped, along with the hubs, back to the parking lot.

They're both sleeping in the van (the trees, not the hubs). Maybe we'll get one inside today, maybe we won't. Somehow, it just doesn't seem to matter as much as being able to feel my fingers and my toes again.

Where did the long weekend go?

Egads! It's over, and I still have much to do. Sadly, it's back to work tomorrow and I'll be spending a hectic week squeezing in decorating/quilting/cleaning/working. (Warning....you might want to distance yourself from me come Thursday...I'll likely be pretty testy by then.)

I've still got a couple hours left though, so I may squeeze in one more tree tonight.

But first, some photos of what I did get done over the past 3 days....not as much as I had hoped, but a start.

First tree up was the Tuscan tree in the master bath. All that's missing is a pretty bottle of Chianti to pose next to the wineglass. This is a tradition. I buy a very nice bottle of Italian wine and it sits there all season. This is the last tree that is taken down, and once it's put away, the wine is my reward for another holiday season's Herculean decorating efforts.

Next up was the beautiful, authentic retro aluminum tree. I really wanted blue ornaments on it, but the hubs would not go out to Baja Fresh for dinner last night (my little con to get him to drive past the shopping center where Michaels is...'oh, I need to run into Michaels, I'll just be a sec'). I was on my second glass of wine and decided to just bag it and use the red ornaments I had in the box.

And yes, it does have a color wheel. This is in the guest room. I just hope none of our December guests are lulled to sleep by the changing colors and leave the wheel running all night. (What's that smell? Do you smell burning plastic, hon?) Maybe I should put it on a timer.

Finally......the quilt studio. I spent a great deal of time on this one. While I have a little sewing tree, and I also have a shabby chic tree, whose colors would have been perfect for this room, I decided that this would be the best place for the snowman theme.

One reason being the Dept. 56 bag o'snow blizzard that this tree was unexpectedly caught up in.

I just love hurling snow, don't you?

Check out the 'tree skirt'. Pretty cool, eh? Boots. Not exactly the boots I was looking for, but what I wanted cost $50 (galoshes with buckles). I settled for a utilitarian pair of $14.99 rubber rainboots in my size.

Today we started with the dining room. A change-up from last year. The feather trees on the buffet are gold. I wanted gold ornaments but amazingly, I hardly had any, so I scavenged ivory (featuring my Margaret Furlong collection).

And we've moved the White Victorian and it's puffy lighted cloud mess o'tuille (which looks way cool when the lights are down) to the space formerly occupied by the vintage tree, which will most likely take over the living room this year.

Now, if we cheat and count the 2 trees on the buffet, we've got 7 trees up. Only 9 more or so to go.

Well, now I've only got an hour and a half left of the weekend. I had best get back to work. No rest for the weary....idle hands reap idle minds....blah, blah, blah.  Anyway, I need to check and see if the melted plastic smell is gone. (Seriously) I'm hoping it's from me touching a silk/plastic holly garland to one of the chandelier bulbs while I was trying it on for size and not the White Victorian trying out for the Wicked Witch of the West in the road production of Wizard of Oz. (That tree has some plastic needles mixed in it to give it a more realistic look.....and which ripped the heck out of my arms today when I was putting it up. I look like I tangled with a feral cat....long sleeves tomorrow, for sure.)

Just Checkin' In

Life's been a little crazy. We had family obligations (which included entertaining) for the weekend. I've been hustling to keep up with the merchandising. It was a very busy week for merchandising last week

Sadly, not a lot of sewing time. In fact, not a lot of anything fun time.

The shower got resealed (not regrouted....but strangely, the price to do the lesser job was the same, go figure). Not sure if it's really solved the problem yet as the tile guy doing the sealing removed the faucet and put it on wrong, so after the sealant had dried I went to take a shower and discovered the knob would only turn a quarter turn, which fell into the 'cold' water zone. Sorry, I like my showers hot.

They sent another bonehead out to fix it this morning. In the meantime, we've left the hole open in the kitchen ceiling so we can tell if the sealing process has cured the leak. Fingers crossed. The handyman comes Thursday to take a look at that and a couple other projects that we can throw more money at, so hopefully all will be well for Thanksgiving.

Got the Sew Steady table yesterday, put on the old Sew Slip mat, pulled out the Quilt Halo, connected the BSR and did a little freemotion practice in the fifteen free minutes I had last night between getting home from work and starting dinner. During that time I realized that the presser foot on this new machine is out of whack, it's not centered. The needle is barely a whisper away from the edge on the #37 foot. Guess all those quarter inch seams I've been sewing since I got the machine are off. Hopefully it's a minor adjustment that can be made when I'm at the shop for classes in a couple weeks.

I did have a couple hours to pull together some projects on Saturday. I got the border sewn on this and got it on the pinning table. Decided to forgo the basting spray and just pinned, heck, it's small, what does it matter? Big mistake! Flipped it over and it's got the wrinklies. Now I need to unpin it and start over. This is what happens when you rush.

Today was the day to make the hotel reservations for Houston next year. My sister says she doesn't want to go to Houston, she'd rather go to Paducah (because that's where her friend would rather go). Paducah is the same weekend as our guild show, and it's been getting some unflattering press lately due to the show hotel closing and the Paducahan economy tanking. The people that run the Paducah show will also do a show in Lancaster this year so I can check that out without having to drive 10 hours and pay for a hotel room shared with women who go to bed a good 4 hours before I do :).
Anyway, I digress. I figured I could go to Houston by myself and take classes, however,  I was put off by the nonrefundable deposit I'd have to make, so I decided to not make the reservation. We'll see what happens. It's a year away. And since it's just me and I'm not looking for an elusive hotel 'suite' for 3, I'm sure I can find a single room come Spring, should I decide that I have to go. It's hard to reserve a hotel and plunk down that deposit when you don't know what the classes are that you'd be taking...do I reserve a hotel room for the entire week? What happens if I only need to be there 4 nights? Too much to think about today--definitely not worth the hassle of playing phone redial all morning trying to get through to reserve a room at the Hilton.

And before I allow the whole Christmas decorating scene to fly out of my control (which can easily happen, trust me), once all our guests left on Sunday night I went upstairs and worked on the tree in the master bedroom. Almost done. Needs the top decorated and that should be it. Here's a couple photos of how it's shaping up. Gee, only 15 or 16 more trees to go!

Why can't it be the weekend ?!

Rotary cutting madness day postponed

This evening we digress on something we just cannot avoid...the upcoming holidays.

While I did go to the local quilt shop this evening to take advantage of their 25% off sale--got some triangles for an upcoming workshop, some batik for the back of the next convergence, some wool batting (collective ahhs can be heard), and a pumpkin panel to use with the Moda Pumpkins Gone Wild  fabric I picked up last fall in Lancaster, that is going to be the extent of quiltiness for today. We shall take a double helping of fabric tomorrow in between running an errand in the morning and preparing Hurricane Thanksgiving Dinner.

While out merchandising, I hopped into Michaels to use my 40% off coupon on an accessory for my daughter's Christmas gift (it's something that requires a lot of accessories, so it looks like maybe weekly trips to Michaels are in order from here until mid-December, either that or the hubs is going to have to suck it up and accompany me on a few trips so he can stand behind me and purchase a second item).

This is what I was up to today:

10 of the ornaments and the glittery poke-y things in this box--which I am calling the 'Rock the Copper Tree' box,  just flew into my hands while I was heading to the cash register to pay for the Christmas gift. There is truly a method to the madness.

I'll be decorating about 15 trees this year. The tree in our master bedroom is done in copper. Opulent copper glitter ribbon threaded throughout, all copper glittery ornaments. It's a favorite.

 

Pheasant feathers in the topper. It's definitely a beautiful tree.
But, I'm bored with it.
Big time.
So this year I asked the Hubs to go to my favorite Christmas designer's place when he was in Vegas and pick me up some peacock blue ribbon. Well, peacock blue is what we would call a subjective color. He came home with the lovely flocked turquoise ribbon pictured in the Rock the Tree box above, which I thiink will do the job.

The plan is to intermingle that ribbon with what is already there and add just the tiniest bit--okay, I know, in the box it looks far from the 'tiniest' bit...trust me on this, this is the tiniest bit of an eyepopping color to see if we can lively up this tree.

Check back next month to see the results. (As well as what I do with the other 15 or so trees).

Tomorrow, we slice!!!!! Night for now.

Turning Over A New Leaf

Okay, so I fell way behind in posting once I started scurrying around with the travel and the Christmas decorating and entertaining....I put up 16 trees this year, did most of my wrapping on Christmas Eve, was still quilting a gift on Christmas morning, and served lobster risotto and herb-encrusted beef tenderloin to 23 on Christmas Day. Then I hosted another dinner for 12 on Sunday. Hardly a lot of time to blog....barely time to have a nervous breakdown.

My husband went in for scheduled open-heart surgery on the 30th of December (aortic valve replacement), so the past three weeks have been taken up with hospital visits, working from home to keep an eye on his recovery, more entertaining (his father came to stay for a week), taking down 16 trees and a dozen or so totes of decorations, and trying to get my life back on track.

Happily, it's getting there. Dwight is doing great, went back to work at the end of last week. No more guests, have most of the trees down (though there's still a few upstairs to tend to), and I've even managed to put in a little time in the sewing room starting on a new quilt for my daughter.

I did make a quilted throw for my husband's sister for Christmas. She loves purple, so I picked up a purple jelly roll and just drew out a design I thought would be easy to piece and just ditch-stitch. Here's a photo of that.

I'm in the process of posting all my holiday decorating photos to my webshots page, updating my MySpace page and I'm hoping to start blogging more regularly so I can post photos of the various projects I'm working on. I also need to update my Etsy page, as I've got more items to post for sale there.

Right now I'm in the middle of trying to wrangle the gingerbread tree down to the basement (everything is wired to it (except the topper stuff). That way I can just put a bag over it and not have to hang a hundred things on it every year. When you put up 16 trees, you've gotta improvise otherwise you'll be out of control time-wise and storage-wise).

This is one of my favorite trees...I like the base a lot, it includes all the ingredients and utensils to make gingerbread ...aren't I just so clever (eat your heart out Martha),


We're having dinner tonight at Mon Ami Gabi in honor of Dwight's birthday, so I most likely won't have a lot of creative time today. Hopefully tomorrow night I'll be back in the sewing room and I'll post a photo of the the blocks I'm working on for my next quilt.