December Eve

Bella enjoying the tree

We had a very stormy night last night. A couple of lightening strikes with accompanying thunder sounded like they hit right on top of the house. They didn't, however, as no damage or fire occurred.

When I sat down to write this post, the first thing I saw when I signed onto my computer was that the wonderful Christine McVie has passed away. She was a keyboardist, singer, and songwriter with the band Fleetwood Mac. She was 79 years old. I'm very sad to hear that she's gone.

Rest In Peace, Songbird.

"For you, there'll be no more crying
For you, the sun will be shining"
--From "Songbird, written by Christine McVie

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On 11/30/2022, Barbara Anne said ...

Love the picture of Bella on the quilt under your Christmas tree!

I, too, was saddened to hear that Christine McVie had died. I really loved Fleetwood Mac.

I started decorating today and wore myself out.

Hugs!
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The Happy Holidays Have Begun

On Thanksgiving evening. Sister Ramey and niece India joined me, Jesse, and Andy for a delicious feast and some fun family visiting. Cait and Kathryn couldn't make it, and we missed them.

After cooking for two days, I didn't do much of anything on Friday: read some and watched a little Netflix. Even took a nap, which I rarely do.

On Saturday, Andy came back over. She and Jesse started the decorating by putting up the tree and decorating it. Then we had a late lunch of spaghetti, rolls, and salad and watched the Iron Bowl, the annual football classic between Auburn and Alabama. Alabama won, as we were hoping, but both teams played very well and gave us a good game. We also took our own time out to remember my and Vann's 28th wedding anniversary. I couldn't believe that it had been that long since our wedding or that Vann has been gone from this earth for our last 14 anniversaries.

Today, I did some more decorating: the mantel, dining table, kitchen table, and foyer. Below are a few pictures with more to come in the days ahead.

The star of the mantel this year is the old window frame. Instead of the floral print that normally appears behind it, I've added a Santa fabric panel. I saw the idea on Pinterest and found the panel on Amazon. Jesse put it in the frame for me.

Again this year, I brought out the knitted stockings and two of my favorite Santas to decorate the fire screen.

One of my many Santas and the cross-stitched Noel add some holiday red to the mantel.

Vann's doggie nutcracker got his annual candy cane.

And the tree.

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On 11/27/2022, Barbara Anne said ...

How wonderful to gather together to celebrate with family at Thanksgiving, to relax the day after, and to see Bama beat Auburn!!!

Your decorations are beautiful, love the new Santa in the window and the Christmas quilt tree skirt! Please send your helpers here as I could use their help in decorating. Ta!

Hugs!

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On 11/28/2022, Mary said ...

Your home always looks so festive! Thank you for sharing your creative ideas. Now I must go and look for creative places where I can hide candy canes, like in that doggie nutcracker!
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And the House Needs Tidying

We need to tidy up and get ready for Thanksgiving, but as you can see, Taco doesn't care.

It has been a somewhat busy week so far. Well sort of. Actually I missed Quilt Guild on Monday because I forgot about it until I saw a member had posted some photos from the meeting on Facebook.

The Guild program was given by local quilter Kit Hodge. She talked about appliqué. Looks like I missed a lot of fun.

My house is not actually so dirty as it just needs some straightening up and putting away. I have invited several family members for Thanksgiving dinner, and I feel I have to make things presentable or I'll be embarrassed. Also there is dust that has to be addressed. Lots of dust.

My book club met at The Three Earred Rabbit on Tuesday. (No I didn't misspell "earred." That's actually how they spell it. I guess if a rabbit can have three ears, that word can have two Rs). It's the first meeting that we've held in a public place since the pandemic started. At first we only Zoomed our meetings, and then for a few months we met, just us, at the church fellowship hall. It's was fun, and we had a great lunch. And I saw my cousins Jamie and Allen and their little grandson August, for whom I made the Bear Quilt last year. 

You might recall the Three Bears quilt I made while August was being expected last year.

Well, here that sweet boy is now (he was a year old a few weeks ago) with his grandparents, my dear cousins Allen and Jamie M. August is in his Halloween costume. I think he was an astronaut.

I started rearranging my sewing room yesterday. I'm in a smaller room now that I gave Jesse the big room for his media room. I found that I had to move some stuff around and remove some stuff in order to have room enough to get around. I got it to the stage where everything is in a mess and had to quit. My back said "That's enough." 

So the sewing room project will have to wait while I try to get the downstairs presentable. Later, gators.

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On 11/17/2022, Barbara Anne said ...

Sorry you missed guild as you do such beautiful applique.
You have had busy week with the Book Club meeting, too. Glad you got to go to it and that you met your cousins and a really cute astronaut, too! I well remember that darling bear quilt.
When you finish tidying your home, please come do mine. Thank you!

Hugs!
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Shepherd's Pie and a New Book

Above is the shepherd's pie that I made yesterday. It was delicious, and every bite was consumed.

I've decided today that I'm going to have to lay off the comfort food. I've gained another four pounds. Pretty soon I'm going to be as big as Taco, comparatively speaking. I don't think I eat a lot; I think I'm just eating the wrong things. And I get very little exercise, just some chair yoga and some leg exercises holding to the back of a chair. I wish I could still do my walks like I used to. But I can't.

My book club's chosen read for November

Fortunately,, the book club meeting was postponed from this past Tuesday till Tuesday next. I had not read the book, and I was about to panic when Ramey (our book nazi) announced the postponement. 

My sisters and I, along with various others, have had a book club since shortly after my retirement in 2001. The group has gone through three iterations as time went on. After maybe four or five years, the first one folded because She Who Will Not Be Named got mad and pitched a fit.

So we laid off for a while. Then we started back with some new members and old members including She Who Will Not Be Named. I can't remember exactly what broke up the second group, but I think it involved SWWNBN, a chicken sandwich, and unreadable book about a sea captain or a pirate or some such. I could be wrong about that--well about the chicken sandwich. I know SWWNBN and the book were involved.

After a year or so, one of the previous members suggested to Sister Ramey that we start back. Ramey agreed with stipulations: Ramey was to choose all books to be read and all new members, and there would be no open advertising of the group. Basically it would be a closed group. Thus the title of the group: The Clandestine Book Club. Ramey does sometimes take book suggestions from other members.

We have had some new members, but all of them except one have dropped out due to other commitments. Sadly, five of our original members have passed on (including SWWNBN) and one moved away to be near her daughter when her husband passed away. 

Anyway, I finally started reading the book last night. I wasn't enthusiastic about it for some reason. It sounded like one of those boring chick books with romance and sex, etc., etc. Well it turns out there is romance and and there is sex (very one-sided romance and very brief sex). But there's also murder, mayhem, and intrigue. It's very engrossing. I'm almost halfway through and hope to finish today, depending on how the day goes. So I best get to reading.

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On 11/11/2022, Barbara Anne said ...

It sounds like an interesting book and I envy you the book club. I read a lot because I need to sit often and I love to read, so would likely have to host all of the book club meetings!

I'm using the method AMIL said worked for her: Eat less, move more.

Keep this happy thought: You can still eat beef!

Hugs!

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On 11/15/2022, Bonnie said ...

That is the funniest story about a book club I have ever read! It only takes one, doesn't it? In the first club I was in, many years ago, we read best-selling authors and one woman always said, "I wouldn't have written it like this... I would do x, y, z, etc." Well, she didn't have any best-selling books to her credit, now, did she? Enjoy your book. I think I have to put it on my list.
--Bonnie in Minneapolis
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November Bee and Stuff

My quilting bee met at Cyndi's on Monday (pics below). Afterward I stopped by JoAnn's Fabrics and bought enough fabric to back Karen's quilt (pic below).

Yesterday I voted (no pics). Enough said about that. I could have stayed home, and I knew it. But I just think it's the right thing to do, vote. Even when you know it's a hopeless case.

I think this is the hottest November I can ever remember in my life. The pump for the downstairs air conditioner gave up the ghost yesterday, so I'm having to make do with the ceiling fans until that gets repaired. Not too bad as long as I sit right under the fan.

So below are the pics I promised.

One of Nancy's quilts. She says this is the first "modern" quilt she has made.

Nancy's Dino quilt. I have a copy of the. pattern. It's a free pattern on Nancy's daughter Lynn's quilt shop site (https://alamosaquilter.blogspot.com). I plan to make one for one of the children's charity's we support.

Doris shows us one of her charity quilts. Doris tells us that since she got her long-arm she has quilted 835 quilts. She didn't make all the tops, but that's still quite a fete. She's had her machine just a few years.

Another beautiful charity quilt quilted by Doris.

Backing fabric for Karen's log cabin quilt.

Karen's log cabin quilt (The top is finished now, but I don't have a photo.) I think the binding will be black. What do you think?

Bella in the kitchen waiting for me to give her her midday treats.

Now I'll retire to the kitchen myself to make shepherd's pie for a late lunch.

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On 11/09/2022, Barbara Anne said ...

I love those wonderful quilts and am so glad you got to go to the Bee gathering!!
Great backing fabric for Karen's Log Cabin and methinks I'd use a TOT dark gray for the binding. There is something to consider.
Our weather is oddly warm, too, but perhaps in a week or so - if the forecast doesn't change - we will have seasonal chilly days and colder nights.

Hugs!

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On 11/09/2022, Bridget said ...

Yes, I voted even though I knew the futility. Love the log cabin quilt. Black binding is nice. Any reason you would not bind in red? ;) My Lizbeth has her choice of beds and if I am not quick in the morning there will be one unmade bed...which annoys me no end!! lol
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Why My Bed Isn't Made

This is why.

Sometimes it's almost bedtime before I can make my bed. That's where Taco likes to take his morning naps and midmorning naps, and noontime naps, and all those afternoon and evening naps. I have to be very fast to catch the big boy between naps.

I think the blog is mostly back to working order now. At least I'm able to post, and I can see that views have increased. So maybe my readers are again able to read what I post. 

My back and body are feeling a little better today. I made a big pot of beef stew and now, when I finish this, I'm going upstairs to the sewing room to try and finish up Karen's quilt top. I want to take it for show-and-tell to bee on Monday.

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On 11/05/2022, Barbara Anne said ...

Cheers that your blog is back up and running properly! I still see white text on white background but that's probably my old computer.
Loved reading all of the posts and will say we had Frito pie that looked a lot like your meal. Wish we could eat beef as I'd join you today. Cute photo of you and Taco!
What a wonderful picture of Vann!

Hugs!
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Taco Guarding My Rest

If you've never tried to sleep with a 20-plus-pound cat lying on you, I'll let you borrow Taco. Jesse caught us sleeping in and took a picture of us. Well, he took a picture of Taco and my hair and arm. Most of me is covered by bed linens and cat (thank goodness).

I know some of you (and me) are having troubling signing onto my blog. If you're one of them, you probably aren't reading this. I've been able to get on (sometimes) by first googling "Blackberry Creek Home Arts" and then clicking on one of the links listed. Sometimes I have to try several. I'm going to see if I can contact Typepad and see if I can get the problem fixed.

(NOTE: I have not be able to get into my blog for a few days. I understand some readers have had the same problem. So I wrote this a cay or two ago but couldn't post it.)

 

I Always Buy Too Much Candy

As usual, I'm left with a large supply of Halloween candy. Knowing that I might (probably would), I made sure to get the kind that Jesse and I like. There's another bag of Reese's in the fridge. We had only a trickling to trick-or-treaters last night. We used to have them lined up down the driveway waiting to get up the steps. I think the tradition will be gone entirely in a few years.

Daughter Andy came over after work. We had spaghetti for dinner and cupcakes (which Andy brought) for dessert. Then we watched an awesome movie on Netflix, "Mr. Harrigan's Phone," which is based on a Stephen King short story. Not too awfully scary, but very good. Donald Sutherland plays Mr. Harrigan, a mysterious and quite ancient billionaire. The main character, a young boy, Craig, (I don't remember the actor's name) takes on the task of reading classics to Mr. H. in the afternoons. After years of this, when the boy has become a teenager, he finally talks his dad into letting him get a cellphone. And when a lottery ticket that Mr. H. gives Craig for Christmas garners Craig a prize of $3,000, he decides to buy Mr. H., a cellphone as a gift. Mr. H. is not too impressed with the phone at first. But when Craig shows him that he can get stock quotes in "real time," his interest heats up. 

When Mr. Harrigan passes away, Craig surreptitiously places Mr. H's cell phone in his pocket as he lies in his coffin at the funeral. Mr. H. is subsequently buried, and here's where the fun begins. 

The story is not King's scariest, but it sure made a good movie. The scariest thing about it is the message it conveys about America's (maybe the world"s) obsession with cellphones. And it's not just the thing about Harrigan communicating with Craig from the grave and the bad things that consequently happen. The scenes where school children are gathered around cafeteria tables, not eating their lunches and chatting (in fact, no food in sight), but quietly and with fierce concentration are texting on their cell phones. Another scene shows two students, a boy and a girl, sitting opposite each other at a table, not talking but texting each other. Either one of them could have whispered and been heard by the other, but they preferred to text. Two other students standing at their lockers, probably not in whispering distance, but certainly within speaking distance, were texting each other.

Daughter Andy, when the movie was over, declared that she was going to get rid of her cellphone. I don't think she did, but it sure makes you think.

I hope all of you had a great and wonderful Halloween. Today I wish you a blessed All Saint's Day. I will spend it remembering beloved family members and friends who have graduated to sainthood--especially this one.

One of my favorite photos of my husband Vann.