Where Is My Tumbleweed?

Coming home from the quilt store today, I walked up to the porch and noticed my tumbleweed was gone.  It had been there when I left.  Of course, the Oklahoma wind is howling today!  So Keven and I went in search of it - I mean, it couldn't have gone that far, right?  Well, we finally found it - it had rolled up around the attached garage, down the hill, back around the detached garage, around a storage shed, and out across the yard to our other lot.  It got lodged between and tree and a bush.

We brought it up to the house and lodged it in a corner where we hope it will stay through our windy winters here. 

Who knows - maybe I will set it free in that wind!!!

November and December has been rough for me healthwise.  But tomorrow is a new day, a new year - and while I am not usually big on making resolutions (I usually feel like 5 resolutions are like trying to get on 5 diets all at once - doomed for failure), a friend of mine pointed out that resolutions don't have to be rules or regulations, they can be something you just work toward without being too restrictive.  So tomorrow, I will be posting my New Year's resolutions for 2012 ... changes are a comin' !!!!

Happy New Year !!!
Kat

Christmas Gift-Giving Dilemma

It's the last week before Christmas and I am in the same dilemma I am always in at this time of year - what to give for Christmas to those I care about. 

1.  I never seem to be able to think of things earlier in the month (...year) to get/make for people.  It is like my mind works best under pressure - which I just don't need right before Christmas. 

2.  My family is out to town - (see 1 - overnight postage - expensive !!!)

3.  I don't like crowds, which makes it difficult if I am out at the last minute (see 1 - if I start earlier, no crowds!).

4.  I do not like giving gifts just for the sake of giving...I like giving gifts that have some meaning to the gift-getter - otherwise I would rather wait until I think of something (see 1 and 3 - don't like pressure shopping).

5.  My family is out of town - (see 4 - I don't know what are they "into" these days since I am not around them much - I just don't know!!!)

5.  I would prefer to give handmade gifts - takes time, lots of time.  Well, that just ain't gonna happen (see 1, 2, 4 and consider job and health).  What's worse?  If I do start handmade gifts ahead of time, I usually choose a much more difficult project to make than I need to (read, takes even more time)!

So, here I am, in my dilemma, with only a few days left before Christmas.  I say a quick prayer and head to Hobby Lobby, hoping I can knock out (uh, I mean lovingly and meaningfully select) most of the gifts in one fell-swoop.  The Lord was answering today - got all but a few taken care of (though I am going to do a simple, I hope, homemade gift for a few).   

Oh well, off to the making and wrapping.  Pics of gifts after they are given!!!  Here is our tree this year - I really like it!

Blessings,
Kat

Blog Block Be Gone

I have had a bad case of Blog Block lately (winter blues - cold, dark, wanting only to hibernate) ... sooooooo, instead of blogging myself, I went looking at my favorite blogs and found an online class in something I have been wanting to get more into lately - art lettering (or lettering art - either way)!!!  The artist offering the online class is Joanne Z. Sharpe and the title of her blog is Whimspirations.  I love her lettering art and have been following her blog for a while.  She just announced the online class in the last few days.  It will be the perfect tonic to help me through the blahs that usually get worse in February when the days are not yet long enough, the weather is really cold, the holiday hubbub is long gone, and it is still too early to start gardening.


I have been wanting to add some of my favorite phrases/quotes to my art quilts, but am not real creative when it comes to lettering.  In fact, I have been called the human typewriter - I still print like I learned in 1st grade - very neat, tidy, engineering-like.  Very unimaginative.  But I have been trying to "doodle" artsy letters - getting more used to more swirly, asymmetrical penmanship - but still not comfortable with it.  This online course looks awesome, so come February I will hopefully become an art lettering (and art quilt making) fool !!!

One of my so called "art" lettering attempts

Here's to beating the Winter blues and Blog Block.  Just look for inspirations - or in this case Whimspirations - to give yourself a jump start.


Blessings,
Kat

There Is A Time For Everything...

...and that time is not now for me!  Nor is this a season for every activity under the heavens, for me!  I have been really struggling with migraines (sinus or maybe other), my back being out of alignment, and catching every cold that I come into contact with - I have been exhausted!!!!   Thus blogging had been put on the back burner - didn't even have the strength to say "Be Back Soon".  


And of course with this being the season for every activity under the heavens (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Christmas parties, church pageants, open houses, making Christmas gifts, baking goodies, looking at twinkly lights), I am trying to do what I can to enjoy the activities, but not doing so much of that I am not resting and healing.  This "season crash" usually happens to me every Oct - Nov, but it is definitely dragging out this year.


I am going to put up a few Christmas decorations this weekend to help us get in to the spirit at home.  Trans Siberian Orchestra CDs are in the car, in the CD player, and in the house putting their special spin on this wonderful time on year.  A few simple decorations are going up on the mantle and the walls, including some of my quilts.  Went to a Church Christmas pageant last weekend with our friends in Choctaw - wonderful!!!  Hoping to go to Korn, OK tomorrow for their Barn Home Christmas Tour - Korn is a German Mennonite town west of OKC.  Bet they will be selling some beautiful homemade things.  But it all depends on how I feel. 


Started getting out my Christmas quilts this morning.  Here is one...

I much prefer Father Christmas to Santa Claus!

But, with all the festivities, Christmas frilleries, and lights and food, please do not forget the real Reason for the Season.

Quilt made by me for my Mom in November 1999

Have a very blessed holiday season !!!!
Kat

An Inspiration to Me...

George Washington -

"I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world."

Have a blessed day!

Kat