I don’t know about you but I have been way too busy! My house is on the Altrusa Christmas Tour this year. My house is small (under 1800 sq ft) but at this point I am very thankful that I don’t have 4,000 sq ft to decorate. As it is, it’s as if a Christmas-flavored glitter bomb has gone off in my house! Steve is about to declare it done no matter what I think.

I never decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving but I decided that I’d better start early this year because next Tuesday, right after Thanksgiving, they are coming to take photos of the house for the newspaper. So far I’ve spent 4 solid days decorating – my usual time is 1 day.

The tour is December 9 and in between the photos and the tour I’m going to to NYC to visit Jeff. To top it off, this weekend (over Thanksgiving) we are gutting and remodeling Elanor’s half bathroom. I’ll post about that starting tomorrow. Next week I’ll show you pictures of the Christmas decorations.

Today, I’m going to share with you a movie I uploaded a few days ago showing the fundamentals of English paper piecing. You can see it here plus there is a link on the Lessons page at pieceocake.com. EPP is fun, portable, and perfect hand sewing for when you are sitting and visiting with family and friends but still want to sew. Happy Thanksgiving!

I don't think I shared the news of the total amount raised by the AAQI Celebrity Quilt Auction – $15,545 with profits going to research to find a cure for Alzheimers! I am amazed and thrilled to have been a small part of this wonderful event.

I have other news… the ePattern went together much quicker than I thought it would. It's up and ready. Click here for more info.

If you are on the newsletter list, you'll get message about this in your inbox tomorrow morning. 

As busy as it's been around here, I should have more news for this post. There is some, I just don't have time to write about it. I'll try to post earlier tomorrow before events take over my day.

I am not a hot dog eater but there must be millions and millions of people who are. How do I know this? Because I just watched the following video. It is an amazing display of the mechanization of food production. It's like a dance – with latex gloves, hair nets, and smocks. 

Alert: If you really love hot dogs I don't know if you should watch this. There's nothing bad that happens, it's just that the magic of hot dogs might be over for you. Now that I think of it, the 'meat' in a hot dog looks like it does because of how it's made. Just watch, you'll see. 

I found this video in my daily Next Draft post and thought I should share. Brendan Fairclough wore a helmet cam as he took part in a completely insane downhill mountain bike race in the Taxo Urban Downhill in Taxo, Mexico. I really could feel wind in my face as I simultaneously prayed that my sons and grandson would never do anything remotely like this. 

Eileen, #18, is the lucky winner of the remaining hexes! My son the certified numbers guy, chose the random number. I have no idea how he picked the number 18 but he did and I trust that he knows random – because he's a numbers guy. 

And – I've heard from Barbara, the new owner of my quilt in the Celebrity Quilt Auction. I am so happy that this quilt is going to a person who is going to love it! I haven't added it up, but it looks like this auction of 12 quilts raised more than $13,000! I am lucky to have been a part of this endeavor and I look forward to seeing the quilts next year.

And because I like to have some color in every post… Fall in Sherman, TX, is not exactly spectacular but I took this photo of two trees in my front yard last week. For the first time I have a tree that has some reddish leaves! Mostly I get yellow and/or brown leaves from my trees. And that deep blue sky behind the leaves is pretty spectacular.  

We're going to have our first hard freeze of the season tonight and that means that many of the plants in the yard will turn brown and die back. But last week, the hibiscus was blooming:

The bud on the right makes me think of the plant in the Little Shop of Horrors.

I don't know about you, but I find myself making a lot more electronic invitations and flyers these days. Often they need a pretty image. It is nice to have this sort of image, that you've taken yourself, in your computer to use when you need it.

Keeping track of where these images are in your Pictures folder can be an issue. I have a lot of folders and subfolders in my primary Pictures folder. I sort flowers by color. This will go in the Color and Contrast folder, in the Pink subfolder. I name files the way I would if they were in a file cabinet – with names that make sense to me.

On a mac, making folders and subfolders is simple and searching is also simple. Personally, I find that it's worth the time it takes to name and file images so that when I want them, I can find them.

If your digital photos are a mess, sorting and filing them in your computer is a project that you might sort of enjoy. It is at least better than shuffling old photos from one shoe box to another – which is a project I still have to tackle.

Now, back to work!

In yesterday's post I meant to add the link to the AAQI Celebrity Quilt Auction and I forgot. Click here to go to the bidding page. Tomorrow is the last day so if you intend to bid, now is the time!