Thimbleanna

Holidays

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas in a year to beat them all! It’s time for my annual posting of the Christmas Eve breakfast — luckily, some things stay the same. I’m so glad I’ve kept this tradition, as I can look back and see the sort of Christmas we’ve had. This year things are pretty quiet and low key — I only made 3 different types of Christmas cookies. Sugar Cookies, Angel Slices and Grandma Hill’s Browned Butter Cookies always make the cut — it wouldn’t be Christmas without them.  I thought maybe this was the year that I’d made the least number of cookies, but I’d forgotten about the year that it was just MeMum and Me.  That year, the Browned Butter Cookies were replaced with caramels.  I’m definitely missing the caramels this year — maybe I’ll make them for New Year’s.  ;-D

Thimbleanna: Christmas Eve

I didn’t really make any gifts for Christmas this year, so I haven’t had the crazy late nights trying to finish projects, like I have some years.  I was knitting sweaters for FinallyAGirl and FinallyAnotherGirl but I ran out of yarn with 1/2 of a sleeve to go on FinallyAGirl’s sweater, so I lost steam.  I bought the yarn in Iceland and I’m having trouble getting more of it.  I hope she’s not grown by the time more yarn arrives.

Thimbleanna: Christmas Eve

So, that’s the jist this year. Low and Slow. I hope you have a Wonderful Christmas — and that you’ve been able to preserve some of your traditions even if your Christmas looks a little different this year. And if you’re still sewing (or will be after the kids go to bed) I hope Santa brings you time to finish your projects!
XOXO,
Anna

Whoa!

It was Easter.  Then it wasn’t!  What the heck happened?  I seem to have lost the last few days — well, as you know now, they all seem to run together.  I hope you had a nice Easter even though it was so different this year.  Ours was quiet and very uneventful.  The highlight of our day was to facetime with the kids while the girls opened their little Easter gifts we had dropped off the previous day.  They were so cute when we stopped by — they were jumping up and down in the window screaming and laughing — I wish I’d taken a picture!

Anyway, after years of dreaming, I finally knit some of Julie’s Little Cotton Rabbits.  They were such a fun project, but boy oh boy, are they ever time consuming!

Thimbleanna: Bunnies

Or, more likely, I’m just a slow knitter.  In either case, Julie is a genius.  Her instructions and pictures are so thorough — it’s as if she’s sitting next to you while you knit.  I had so much fun deciding on the dress patterns, color combinations, leg styles, etc.  I can’t even imagine how Julie has knit so many — it must be a case of practice make perfect.  I’m hoping that with these first ones under my belt, the next ones will be a little quicker.

Thimbleanna: Bunnies

I can’t wait to make more bunnies – not to mention some of the many other patterns she has developed.  And I know this sounds like some sort of an ad, but it’s not.  I just love these little patterns and I think they’re so cute.  I’m not the only one either — I was goofing off the other day on the internet and came across this post of quintuplets who received some Little Cotton Rabbits in their Easter baskets.  It made me wonder how many other children around the world received some of Julie’s little animals.  We Love You Julie!!!

Thimbleanna: Bunnies

I had to put the little rabbits on the rocking horse before they went to their new home.  Horsey is sooo lonely these days without his girls around.  He’s counting the days until the quarantine comes to an end.

Back to Easter – in addition to the bunnies, I gave the girls each a storybook and the traditional Grammy Surprise Boxes.  I struggled a little coming up with things to put in the boxes, since shopping was limited to what I could find in the grocery store while grocery shopping.  I ordered some little Meri Meri hair clips and decided to make some felt finger puppets.  I forgot to take pictures of all the little puppets ;-8. FinallyAGirl received Little Red Riding Hood with her Grammy, the woodsman, the big bad wolf, and a tree (to represent the woods.)  FinallyAnotherGirl received Peppa Pig, Mama Pig, Daddy Pig, her brother George, and the sheep.

Thimbleanna: Easter Box

So, that was Easter.  The other highlight of the week has been that FinallyAGirl has learned how to call Grammy from her ipad all by herself.  (WooHoo!)  The first time it was such a fun surprise!  I answered the facetime call to see this:

Thimbleanna: Secret Clubhouse

Then I heard this whispering little voice: “Grammy.  We have to be very very quiet.  Daddy doesn’t know I’m calling you.  I’m in our secret clubhouse. Tell Grandpa that he and Ma (that’s what she calls MeMum) have to be very quiet too!”  Ohmygosh.  Be still my little heart.  The secret clubhouse is under her Daddy’s desk – that’s the underside of the middle drawer behind her head in the picture above.  Since that first call, she’s called almost everyday and cheered us up.  We’ve done puzzles, read books, had tea parties — all the usual stuff we’d do if we were actually together.  How lucky are we to live in the age of facetime?  I love our afternoon visits and I know I’ll miss them when life returns to normal and she and SweetiePie are too busy with real life for these calls.  I suppose they’ll be replaced with real life visits though, so all phases have their benefits.

Thimbleanna: Bunnies

Ok, enough chitchat from me. Thank you for all your lovely comments — sorry if I haven’t responded to them — they haven’t been forwarded to my e-mail account. I think the last comment was forwarded though, so I’m hoping the problem has been solved.
Hope you’re having a Good Week!
XOXO,
Anna

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day Lovelies! Have you had an action packed week? It’s been a quiet week here — I’ve been hunkered down, not doing much really. Cleaning a little here and there — really not sure where the week went. I did make two of the Little Cotton Rabbits mini bears for my little human grandbabies. Here’s a shot of the finished bear heads — no bodies yet.

Thimbleanna: Bears

I love making Julie‘s little animals SO much, although, I’m really slow at it. And I struggle a lot with choosing yarns. Julie is a genius though — her patterns are SO thorough and well thought out. I wanted to put little hearts around the bottom of the dresses, but they’re knit top down, which puts the “v” in the stitch upside down for making little hearts. So, I tried to knit the pattern backwards, bottom up, turning increases into decreases. It was ok, but it just didn’t look right, so I ripped it out and followed her pattern.  As it should be. I could have done bigger hearts out of several rows of stitches or done some duplicate stitch magic, but I was running out of time, so I ended up just doing little x’s and o’s. And doh, I did the x’s on one dress and the o’s on the other one. I should have mixed them up! Grammy is slipping in her old age LOL.

Thimbleanna: Bears

These little mini bears are the perfect size for the little boxes I like to make for the girls once in awhile. FinallyAnotherGirl is only 17 mos. old, so it’s still a little hard to find things for her box — I’ll be glad when she’s old enough to not choke on small things and able to eat candy LOL.  FinallyAGirl is 3 1/2 now, and she’s into all things crafty.  Plus, she can eat candy, so her box is a lot easier to fill.

Thimbleanna: Valentine Box

I hope you have a good day and a wonderful weekend. I must run and get ready for my afternoon at the endodontist — ’cause nothing says Love like a root canal!!! ;-D
XOXO,
Anna

Happy New Year 2020!

It’s that time once again — the ThimbleannaLand KittyCats would like to wish you all a Happy New Year!

Thimbleanna: Happy New Year

Holy Cow.  Can You Believe It?  It was just so weird typing that 2020 up there in the post title — I’m still stuck somewhere between 2000 and 2010 — and feeling pretty good that I’ve moved out of the 90’s LOL.  What happened to the last decade?  Not even to mention the last year???  It’s my tradition here to do a little look back of the projects that I completed from the year, so here’s proof positive that the year was WAY too short and sped by:

Thimbleanna: Review

What a sad showing of my makes and travels for the year. Or, probably more acurately, a sad showing of how much I posted about what happened last year. We did have two trips to Utah that were never posted. And only one quilt? That’s p.i.t.i.f.u.l. I did work on a few other quilts, but they’re works in progress and I didn’t really post about the progress, so there’s not much to show. I do have a semi-excuse — TheFirstChild and his cute little family moved here in July and I’ve spent the last six months adjusting to them being here. It’s been super fun to be able to play with the girls — we’ve had sleepovers, playground trips, cupcake making, shopping trips and even a trip to the zoo. Lots of fun never posted. And the end of the year even brought us a new baby who never put in an appearance on the blog (but I put her in the grid anyway ;-D). Naughty Naughty Grammy.

So, now to look forward to a new year. A fresh new slate! I have so much catching up to do around here and I’m hoping to spend the next few days cleaning up from the holidays and making a plan for cleaning and organizing and working on some UFOs. And, of course, a few new projects, because the new projects are what keep things exciting. I’m also hoping I’ll be better about posting here on the blog and on instagram — I love being able to look back and see what was happening.

Who knows what 2020 will bring? Isn’t it exciting (if not a little scary?) We joked with the kids last night — A New Year, A New Baby! We’ve had new babies in 2018 and 2019, so they’ve established a pattern, right? They didn’t think we were funny LOL. It’s funny though — you just never know what will happen — when we were looking forward at this time last year, there was no inkling of our newest little babe, but here we are! (And btw, thank you so much for all the blog baby name suggestions! After much consideration, I think I’ll go with Pam’s fun suggestion of HurrayAThirdGirl — Thanks Pam!)

HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope the new year brings you happiness, peace and contentment!
XOXO,
Anna

Merry Christmas!

Oh so funny — I thought I might have had a banner November and been able to post more than twice. I should have known better! Since that last post on November 8th, we’ve had a busy few weeks — a new baby, Thanksgiving, all the business of the holiday season, and a retirement. Merry Christmas to ME — as of the 19th, the day job is history — YIPPEEEEE! Now on to more quilting/sewing time, a clean house (haha), and most importantly, more time to spend with my adorable THREE little granddaughters. (Speaking of which, baby number three needs a blog name — I’m taking suggestions — just as a reminder, the first two are FinallyAGirl and FinallyAnotherGirl). It’s been crazy busy here and everyone is out running last minute Christmas errands, so I’m sneaking 30 minutes to post my traditional Christmas picture — Christmas Morning breakfast the way we’ve always loved it:

Thimbleanna: Breakfast

We had the annual Gingerbread competition last night too, so I’ll be back soon to post pics and tell you all about it. We had lots of fun — I’m such a lucky girl to have such a fun-loving family!
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas or Holiday season, however you celebrate — and that all your dreams come true!
Merry Christmas!
XOXO,
Anna