We have been waiting on a box of books that was shipped December 16. It should have been here on 12/20. Since we were iced in for days I was not surprised that the delivery was delayed, BUT UPS has delivered several boxes that were ordered well after that—some were ordered after Christmas!

The box of books seems to be stuck in a black hole at the UPS facility here in Sherman. Seriously—have you ever seen a delivery notification like this:

As we have tracked it, the box has been 'out for delivery' and then mysteriously it is not out for delivery, but back at the facility. (Where it says 'destination scan' above, it read 'out for delivery' when we were tracking it online.)

Steve and Christopher both have been to 'the facility' to try to get the box. No luck. What a mess. I almost feel sorry for UPS. That said, I would really like to see the box on my porch!

Christmas, while amazing and wonderful, can also be stressful. There is all of the anticipation that you will have loads of fun and togetherness with family you may not see often and then—there everyone is. I hope that all of you were as lucky as we were. We did, in fact, enjoy our time together! That was the very best present of all.

I do not have photos of us enjoying our time together because I consciously did not pick up my camera, except to take a video of Bear on is new scooter. (I hope this link takes you to the right place on instagram.) Jeff gave him this present and, even though he isn’t quite walking, he can make it go! Steering is still a mystery to him, but won’t be for long.

Jeff is here for a couple more days and I am very much enjoying the time with him. We are going to NYC in mid-January so when they leave, I won’t be as sad as I would otherwise be.

I contracted with a photographer (Lauren Pinson, find her here) to take family photos while everyone was in town. She arrived yesterday morning at 9:00 and she managed to fit every grouping that I had requested into a two-hour shoot. There were group shots of all of us (Steve and me, our kids, their spouses and kids, my mom), and of various ones of us in smaller groups, and of Lorna and her parents, her brother and his wife—plus the grandkids. Lauren suggested a shot of the grandkids with both sets of grandparents which was a great idea! I can’t wait to see the photos :-).

I’m sharing this because Lauren is primarily a wedding photographer. If you haven’t worked with a wedding photographer since back in the day, you should know that things have changed. You pay a photography fee and for that you receive digital copies of the photos. It is so much better than having to go through proofs, trying to decide which ones you are really going to want for th long run, and then ordering prints of them. With the digital images you can print what you want to, when you want to. What works for weddings, also works for family photos. 

In other news, Lorna’s parents are moving from their house of many years in Bonham, TX, to Sherman. Steve and Chris and Michael, Lorna’s brother, have moved a lot of stuff already. The final day of moving is tomorrow. I’m on for helping to unpack in the new space. It’s going to be nice to have Judy and Kelly close—especially for the kids. Our communal grandchildren love us all and I can happily say that we are not competitive grandparents. 

I’m going to spend the rest of today sewing. I have been making progress and hope to be able so show little bits soon!

Many of us have had (and will be having) personal experience with winter scenes like this…

(Thanks to George for sharing the link with me!)

I've said it before and I will say it again: Falling down is BAD! Don't do it!

Tomorrow, Saturday 12/21 marks the winter solstice. Steve and I are celebrating the day with friends—food, drink, and a polar bear plunge. Well… some will plunge. I am going to watch and appreciate their bravery. Steve says the water really isn't that bad but I'm pretty sure that I won't be jumping in until June :-). But no matter what, no one is going to bounce off of our water!

I am going to sew, sew, sew today. My hope is to have three quilt tops made by January 1. That may not happen, but at least I have a plan! 

And by that, I mean that at least I can come up with a post that is funny :-).

I've been busy sewing and getting ready for Christmas. Lorna has been really busy shipping orders.

Side note: For any of you who have been waiting on an order, refer back to the ice storm a week or so ago. Our UPS facility is so backed up people are threatening to riot to get their packages. Well, not riot exactly, but there are some unhappy people. We are now waiting on one box of thread and then we'll be caught up. Yay!

I ran across this site with 'The 50 funniest faces in everyday objects' and had to share. It is absolutely true that we find faces everywhere. I see them in the accoustical ceiling tiles at the dentist's office!

These are better than ceiling tile faces :-). [You know, emoticons work because we do see faces in everyday things. What else would explain why we see people in punctuation marks!]

Thank you to Karen Stone for sharing this! I hope you enjoy…

I have been pounding away on my my keyboard for days, weeks, months… sigh. I applique at night but other than that I haven't had time to work with actual fabric. Happily I can say that I'm just about typed out and ready to make some more quilts for the color book. Yay!

With three quilts drawn, I chose colorways and have pulled fabric for them. The colors are separated into stacks and then sorted by value. 

I did something I haven't done before… I took the fabric stacks off of the table and pinned it all to my design wall. Better! When I took a photo, the colors worked together the way I hoped they would. I love it when that happens!

This fabric will be in a quilt that is about complementary colors, in this case blue and orange. Off to the right you can see the edge of the applique quilt that is waiting for a border. Below, you can see part of a black and white quilt that will be in the book. Steve is hand sewing the binding on it for me. I love that man!

The next photo shows the mostly blue fabrics that will be in a quilt that is all about clear colors vs. gray colors. 

The yellows, greens, and that purple print on the right don't exactly fit but I like them with the blues. I may use at least some of them in very small amounts.

I am making progress—oh happy day!