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I hope you are having a warm and relaxing holiday season. Please enjoy a few pictures of my family on Christmas Eve less my sisters Tammy and Terri and their children and my dear Aunt Frannie. They are MIA in the picture but not in our hearts!
Boy, did we land in the right spot! Our neighborhood, Sheridan Hills, is great. Lots of community activities which you can read about on the neighborhood's blog. Our fearless leader, Linda M. puts my organization and party throwing skills to shame. The latest event was the annual holiday Bunco get together. Can you find me in the pix?
I'm so proud of Lauren. She worked very hard on her fireflies poster and presentation. She not only did a good job creating the poster she completed it well in advance of the due date. Way to go Lauren! She gave her presentation today wearing a shirt she designed and I stitched. 
Notice the bling? A girl has to have some bling!
I love Tuesdays. For the last few weeks and for many more to come I've been spending Tuesdays with the 'L' family. They have five kids aged three and under (not a typo folks). I get to play with the two sets of twins (almost 2 years, almost 6 months) while mom takes big sis to preschool and runs an errand or two. They are absolutely delightful kids.
This is Aidan. Aidan is very outgoing and loves, loves, loves a bath.
This is Hannah, Aidan's twin. Hannah Banana is a very sweet girl and a good mommy to her babies.
They love this song :-)
Check out the post on Lauren's blog about the Teddy Bear tea we attended on Wednesday.
http://laurenmjblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/teddy-bear-tea.html
I've been doing some sewing but not as much as I would like.
Here is Miss Katy's veil (bad pics due to a dead camera :0)
The edge detail
Here is a quilt I made for the hospice program. Most of the fabrics were provided by my quilting guild. I usually don't work with ducks and deer when I quilt unless they are baby ducks and deers.
I have two projects in the queue...
(1) Sewing for Miss Katy and Mr. Joe's wedding. I will be making muffs, wraps and capulets for the bridal party.
(2) Sewing window treatments for the 'Morning Room' (AKA casual dining room). I'm taking on a new color palate and design esthetic. In my research about window treatments I ran across a great website--M'fay--which sells professional curtain patterns.
Aren't the fabrics ooh laa laa!
PJ fell into the bathtub today. He made a mad dash splattering water everywhere. I finally caught him and got him dry. He's a funny little guy. Once he had finished grooming he went to investigate the bathtub again.
No other note worthy news other than the dishwasher and kitchen faucet died today. Ah, the joys of homeownership.
We spent Tuesday at the Boston Children's Museum. We managed to park very far away (last time I'll wing figuring out where to park!). Once we finally got to the museum, we met up with Mer, Anita, Phoebe and Graeme. The kids had lots of fun although Lauren was a bit under the weather.
In an earlier post I talked about sewing a family crest for my nephew Kenny and his wife to be Michelle. They had a Renaissance period wedding in a beautiful outdoor setting. I've enclosed a few pictures here but you can see all of their pictures here (Kenny and Michelle Oct. 11th)
My big sis sent this to me and I wanted to share it with you. Special hugs to all my sisters out there.
Sisters
A young wife sat on a sofa on a hot humid day, drinking iced tea and visiting with her Mother. As they talked about life, about marriage, about the responsibilities of life and the obligations of adulthood, the mother clinked the ice cubes in her glass thoughtfully and turned a clear, sober glance upon her daughter...
'Don't forget your Sisters,' she advised, swirling the tea leaves to the bottom of her glass. 'They'll be more important as you get older. No matter how much you love your husband, no matter how much you love the children you may have, you are still going to need Sisters. Remember to go places with them now and then; do things with them.'
'Remember that 'Sisters' means ALL the women... your girlfriends, your daughters, and all your other women relatives too. 'You'll need other women. Women always do.'
What a funny piece of advice!' the young woman thought. Haven't I just gotten married? Haven't I just joined the couple-world? I'm now a married woman, for goodness sake! A grownup! Surely my husband and the family we may start will be all I need to make my life worthwhile!'
But she listened to her Mother. She kept contact with her Sisters and made more women friends each year. As the years tumbled by, one after another, she gradually came to understand that her Mom really knew what she was talking about. As time and nature work their changes and their mysteries upon a woman, Sisters are the mainstays of her life.
After more than 50 years of living in this world, here is what I've learned:
Hi all,
I've been on blog hiatus while we moved. I have lots to share but not the time tonight to share it. Lots of home improvements and some sewing happening. I promise to post again soon! In the mean time, how cute is this???
From http://icanhascheezburger.com/ 
Just a quick post to introduce Prescott. We've applied to adopt Prescott from a local shelter Black Cat Rescue. He is absolutely adorable and has a great personality--a combination of curious and mellow. We have our fingers crossed!
Hi all,
We are going to be home owners again! We are buying this house located in Wellesley MA. The house was built in 1905 and has old house character. It is 1900 sq ft has 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a formal dining room, parlor and large family room. It will be great to be settled once again. Lauren's new school is located just down the street. It seems to be a very family oriented neighborhood with lots of kids. We're looking forward to the move in November.
Phoebe's Visit to the Barn...
Lauren's cousin Phoebe and grandma came for a visit today. We spent the afternoon at the barn where Phoebe got to see real horses in action. She had a great time as did we. Enjoy the pics!
Crafty Goodness...
I've been working on my Michigan to-dos for the past few weeks. Here is what I have accomplished thus far. I have two more to finish before Friday.
An update from Lauren about her riding...
Lauren had a great riding lesson yesterday and wanted to share the video with family and friends. She completed four 'real' jumps riding Ollie and got to canter. Sorry for the fuzzy video but all I had was my cell phone at the time.
The first jump was a surprise!
Here's another one.
Lauren also got a short ride on Caimen (?spelling) who is Miss Amanda's horse. He is a former racer and polo horse. He's been under the weather but feeling better now. Thanks Miss Amanda!
I haven't had much time for sewing but am working on the squares for my mom's quilt for my sister Diana. Here is the one out of the three due that I have done. This motif is special since my sister learned to sew on our grandmothers treadle sewing machine.
Lauren absolutely loves to 'bling'. Here is her first project which she completed on her own with just a bit of hovering by mom.
Personal Update...
Lots of summer fun going on. Lauren just finished up the week at horse camp. Lots of driving and dirt involved in that activity. She had the end of camp horse show today. She rode in the 'advanced' group and placed a second and forth place ribbon. She rode Pete who is Ollie's best friend.
The biggest news is that our friends the 'T family' from Toronto/Michigan came to Boston for a visit. We had a great time while they were here. We hit the aquarium and Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester. What a great beach! The kids boogie boarded on the waves and built a sand palace. They squeezed in a visit to the mall and played Wii. Here are a few pics.
Take care all!
Gloria
Hi all,
Lauren wanted to show off her long straight locks. We spent some quality time at the salon this afternoon.
I also wanted to test the new blog update email notification process using a Google user group I created called MyEmbroideryOnline. The purpose of this user group is to send an email when this blog is updated. I added family and friends whom I thought would be interested in knowing when the blog has been updated to the distribution list. Please let me know if you'd like to be removed. Others can also sign up by entering their email address in the field provided in the upper left on the blog.
Cheers!
Gloria
This tag is one inch wide. I plan to use these for small zippered bags that I am going to sew and sell on Etsy.
I've sold a few embroidery designs on Etsy and Ebay this past week. Boy, having to produce a physical CD for each design set is far more work than providing the customer with an electronic file (boo Ebay!). I'm working on launching an ecommerce site where customers can purchase designs and immediately download the design after confirmation of payment. The site is 50% of the way there. It has been fun working on the site but it does take time away from digitizing.
Sewing Update...
Progress is being made on the two wedding projects I'm working on (Kenny & Michelle, Miss Katy & Mr. Joe).
Their Selections
Miss Katy & Mr. Joe, December 2008: For their wedding, I'm making eight muffs, five stoles, three capes and Katy's veil. She has selected styles for the stoles and capes and designed her veil. I've collected samples of various faux fur for the muffs. I'm considering options for the capes (bridal taffeta or velvet with faux fur trim). I'm am going to tackle the veil project first since it is the most creative and important. She wants a two layer fingertip veil with delicate silver thread edging and tiny swaroski crystals.
I just received an influx of fabric from my mom and mother-in-law. I finished sorting through all of it today. I am collecting stray fabric to use for the charity pillowcases I make for hospice and for the zippered bags I plan to sell on Etsy.
My sewing room is on the third floor. It is beginning to close in on me due to all of the fabric and 'stuff' I have in there. I've gone so far as to set up a card table with my sewing machine and serger on it in the family room--mainly for the AC and for the company. One benefit to physically moving my active sewing project to the family room is that I can't see all of my UFOs (unfinished fabric objects for you non-sewers out there). I have 25 projects on my UFO list not counting the ones I am going to completely abandon. Oh my.
Personal Update...
Grandpa is here and we're having summer fun. The collective we have been spending time at the pool and at the movies in attempt to stay cool (no central air here!). I think we're going canoeing tomorrow if the weather holds out. We're off to the Cape on Thursday for a day at the beach with cousins Phoebe and Graeme. We are looking forward to our friends the T family's visit in the next week or two.
Over and out....stay cool!
Gloria
