Thimbleanna – Page 109 – My little online diary.

A Clean Start

65 Comments / January 7, 2010 February 22, 2011 / Sewing

Ha! Are you thinking this will be a post chock-full of my goals and dreams for 2010? Nosireee. I fell for that old blogging new year’s trick the first January I was posting. Most of those crafty goals for that new year are still undone. I’m perfectly happy to live vicariously through all of YOUR fun posts full of lists and new year’s resolutions. I did, however, do a one-word pick. As I’ve told some of you, my one word for 2010 is … chocolate. (I defy you to find a better word – it’s a healthy new habit!)

So, my clean start refers to a new ironing board cover. I luuuuuv fabric with words on it and this Authentic fabric is right up my alley.

When I saw that this fabric was available in home decorator weight, I knew it was a match made in heaven. The only way it could be better is if the black fabric with white letters would have been available in this weight. This white option will probably show the water stains a little more, but, oh well.

This was one of my quickest-ever projects – 30 minutes, start to finish. 4 easy-peasy steps: 1) smooth out the old cover on the top of the wrong side of the fabric, 2) cut the fabric an inch or so wider than the old cover, 3) fold the edges of the fabric around the edges of the old cover, and 4) sew a simple straight stitch along the edge of the fabric, being careful not to catch the drawstring in the stitching. (My ironing board took 1 1/2 yards of fabric and it’s enough to make two covers.) So much easier than sewing a casing and then threading the string through the casing! Do you like it as much as I do?

And loookieeee! We got more snow!

It snowed most of the day today. Isn’t it pretty? Good thing we don’t live in the gingerbread houses — we’d have to climb out of the second story windows!

Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

A Random New Year’s Start

49 Comments / January 4, 2010 February 22, 2011 / Chat, Knitting

Thank you so much for all the gingerbread love! You are all so kind! After SweetiePie read my post, she noted that I forgot to show you the inside of her house. She and TheFirstChild very carefully created two little workers folding up parachutes and placed them inside of their Jump School. I hadn’t even noticed them! So, here for SweetiePie (and you) is a picture of one of the little workers. Can you see him back there with the big parachute on the ground?

I’m so sad that the holidays are over — even sadder that I have to go back to work tomorrow. BooHoo. I spent most of the weekend cleaning up around here. The house is all nice and clean now — too bad I can’t have a few more days off to enjoy it. By the time I’m off work again, it will be messy again. {Sigh.} When I was cleaning up this weekend, I couldn’t quite bring myself to throw the gingerbread houses away, so I put them out in the snow on the patio table. Maybe one of the seven little squirrels that were chasing each other around the patio a week ago would like a sugar high. Or maybe not. In any case, it made me smile every time I looked out the window while I was cleaning.

Normally, about now, I’d show you all the homemade gifts I made this year. Only I didn’t really make any. On December 22nd, I read this post from Jessica and was inspired by those beanies. I saw them on A Friend to Knit With when they were originally posted, but seeing them on Jessica’s blog too, gave me an idea. I called up my oldest niece and suggested we have a knit night and make some for the girls in the family.

She came over that night, and we had a fun time knitting in front of the warm, cozy fire and watching old episodes of The Office. By the next day we had six hats all knit and packaged up to give to the ladies when we all went bowling. There really are six — four in the picture above, one on me behind the camera and one for MeMum who wasn’t with us. We had lots of fun looking dorky together! (And ahem. I like them much better hugging the head — some of us were a little worried about our bangs!)

I love this pattern and will definitely be making it again. It’s very comfy and knits up just as quickly as Leslie promised. Thanks for a great pattern Leslie!

And one other note: I’ve tried to change my header and background — the holiday look really should go, don’t you think? The new header is drab for winter, but I can’t get it to appear. (Maybe it’s a sign?) I was on the phone with tech support for too long and they’re blaming it on WordPress. (Gee, funny, I was able to change the clock back from red to blue….) I’m not buying it, but don’t really know what to do at this point. So, we may be enjoying peppermint for Easter.

XOXO,
Anna

Gingerbread Houses 2009

61 Comments / December 31, 2009 December 29, 2011 / Gingerbread Houses, Holidays

Finally, I’ve managed to get the gingerbread houses together. I’ve been a lazy bum this week — just hanging out and not doing much at all. It seems like I’ve cleaned a lot, but you’d never know it by looking around here.

This year’s competition was pretty tough. The top players came prepared with a theme in mind, which made it really fun. The good news is that everyone kept it clean this year (no strip bars or frat houses!) The bad news is that everyone kept it clean this year — which translates to: not as funny. Everyone topped the creativity scales and had a really good time though, so it was all worth it!

TheManoftheHouse and I were the defending champions from last year and we came in Dead. Last. Not one vote. It was fixed! We didn’t really have a plan, but when I saw the pretzels, I thought we should do a log cabin in honor of our pioneer ancestors. And every log cabin has a clothesline outside, right?

My nephew brought a guest to the competition (a girl! – she had fun, she’d never made a gingerbread house before) and they made the Tinsel Town Theater. You’ll notice that Up is currently running on the marquis and there is plenty of popcorn and candy for all the people standing in the ticket line.

Between the next two houses, I can’t remember who came in second and who came in third. (I’m sure SweetiePie knows though!) CrazyBIL and my youngest niece teamed together and created Santa’s Sleighwash. Check out the cupcake liner door flaps and the dirty sleigh going into the sleighwash and the clean sleigh coming out of the sleighwash. So Clever!

TheFirstChild and SweetiePie always have a theme and this year was no different (we’ve decided next year that the honeymoon is over and we’re going to split them up.) They made a Jump School to commemorate the fact that they went skydiving in August of this year (and lived to tell about it). Oh So Cute! Look at the little skydivers and the airplane. And doesn’t SweetiePie have pretty icing-writing?

And Tah-Dah! The First Place winners this year were MyDadLovesMeBestSister, BigDaddy, my oldest niece and TheSecondChild. (Ha! I’m thinking they won due to being the biggest team – I’m not bitter or anything LOL!) MyDadLovesMeBestSister achieved her Master Gardener status this year, so to celebrate, they created a Garden Shed. The flower pots and little candy trees on the front are enough to melt any voter. Not to even mention the compost pile, butterflies on the left side of the house and the Koi Pond behind the house. Congratulations Team Garden Shed!

I’m so proud of my little family. When we first started decorating gingerbread houses years ago, they used to slap the frosting on the houses and make a big mess. I love seeing how much thought and creativity they put into the houses now!

So. On to the New Year! I’ve bemoaned the fact that November and December flew by. And 2009 too. But to heck with that. What happened to the last decade?

Wasn’t it just yesterday that we were partying at the turn of the millennium??? As I look forward to 2010, I just have one big wish — I want time to Slow. Down. That one big wish would facilitate all the little ones (more family time, quilting, knitting, reading, yadda, yadda).

And one other big wish for all of you — a Happy and Healthy 2010. Happy New Year!!!

XOXO,
Anna

Teddy Rose

54 Comments / December 28, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Family, Holidays

Whew! Can you believe it’s all over for another year? Did all you Christmas peeps have a good holiday? It went too fast — it’s all a blur. If you’re really sad that it’s over, have no fear! Angel Jem has you covered with a countdown to next Christmas in her sidebar. (That cracked me up when I read it!)

As promised, Santa was very, very good to our family this year. And my young nephew cashed in big with this little beauty (being prepped for his big debut):

Isn’t he adorable? We all had so much fun playing with the new puppy on Christmas Day. After much debate, he’s been named Teddy Rose. It happened after someone suggested Theodore Roosevelt. He’s eight weeks of soft and cuddly and even has puppy breath. Too cute!

There’s just one little kink in the whole happy affair though — his big sisters, The Yappers.

The Yappers are none too happy about this new development. MyDadLovesMeBestSister thinks they’re afraid of him. There was lots of growling, yapping and shaking. Teddy is oblivious to the whole fear thing — he just wants some playmates!

It cracks me up that they’re afraid of him — he’s really not much bigger than they are. Good thing they’re meeting him now though — he’s a Goldendoodle, so he’s going to be big enough to sit on them if they get too yappy!

It briefly looked like there might be some sharing of toys, but it didn’t really last. Yapper 1 was just sniffing them for a minute, then she retreated. Hopefully, they’ll soon be fast friends.

This is my favorite picture of the day. Teddy was so funny — he’d play pretty hard and every hour or two, he’d just drop wherever he was and have a little snooze. This picture was taken by my cute niece – Santa was very, very good to her this year too.

We’re going to have lots of fun playing with cameras. We started by taking pictures of each other, taking pictures of each other (in very poor light!)

I hope you all had a good, happy Christmas like we did. And hopefully I’ll be back soon with gingerbread competition pictures (it was a tough voting year) — there’s new computing power in the house, and once TheManoftheHouse starts changing things over…well, hopefully we won’t be off-line for long! ;-)

XOXO,
Anna

Oh. My!

79 Comments / December 24, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Chat, Quilting

Whew! We’ve had a whirlwind of a day here in ThimbleannaLand! TheFirstChild and SweetiePie were here for a very short 10 hours (it’s their year to spend Christmas with her family, so they stopped by here early.) It was non-stop fun — we went bowling, held the gingerbread competition and had our little gift exchange. They left at 1 a.m. and hopefully they’re home safely by now.

In the middle of it all, there has been some serious — and I mean SERIOUS — hyperventilation going on around here.

OHMYGOSH!!! It’s Here. IT’S HERE!!!

It’sHereIt’sHereIt’sHereIt’sHere!!!!!!! HERE it is!

And Holy Cow — it’s absolutely gorgeous! I mean Really. Words can’t express how beautiful this quilt really is. And the pictures truly don’t do it justice. (I had to take some snow pictures — Just for you Kellie! It’s so amazing to me that in only five days, this quilt went from being in Hot Australia to landing in the cold snowy midwestern United States. Poor shivering little quilt — it probably wishes it could go back home!)

Oh. Just in case you’ve been hiding under a rock you’re new to this blog or Kellie’s, several months ago I won this fabulous quilt from Kellie at Don’t Look Know. Shortly after I ripped open the package today, I took it to our family get-together where there was MUCH oooohing and aaaahing and quilt fondling. And fortunately, I came prepared with paper bags.

Because, there was MORE hyperventilating. I had BIG plans for this quilt. I reasoned that if I could only SEE Kellie’s fabulous machine quilting up close and personal, surely I’d be able to teach myself how to machine quilt the way Kellie does. Silly Me. There is No. Way. On. Earth. I could ever quilt as beautifully as Kellie does. She jokingly mentioned in her note “don’t look too close”. That just made me laugh. Seriously. Those quilted circles are perfect. PERRRRR-FECT! So, So Beautiful! (And look at the adorable bead eyes on those birds!)

I feel so Very Honored to have this quilt. And it means so much more to me than just a quilt. The fact that quilters who live half a planet away from each other can become friends, never ceases to amaze me. And then…to have such a beautiful piece of workmanship to remind me everyday — wouldn’t you hyperventilate too? Look at this adorable quilt label that Kellie put on the quilt. It tells the story of the quilt.

Kellie. I wish I knew how to truly thank you. There just aren’t words — and words aren’t enough. Thank You. Thank You SO Very Much! I’ll treasure this quilt always, and I promise I’ll take very good care of it. Did I tell you thanks? Danke. Dank u. Merci. Grazie. Obrigado. Gracias. Thank You from the bottom of my heart. You. Are. Amazing!

And, (and for the rest of you too) a very heartfelt wish for a very Happy Holiday season. Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate.

Merry, Merry Christmas!
XOXO,
Anna