Emskyrooney

Every year I like to do a little holiday sewing for us to enjoy around the house (beyond my usual list of gifts to make for people).   This year I found this adorable vintage looking Santa fabric with lines and pictures from "Twas the Night Before Christmas" that I decided to use to make a throw for the couch.  You can see it in this picture of LP enjoying some iPad time one night...   I wasn't too thrilled with the Christmas pillows I made last year as they were pretty boring so I decided to do some quilted ones this year.  And while I followed some misleading directions on how to make snowball quilt squares, causing some wonkiness, I think they turned out pretty cute:   Last year I mentioned that when I was a baby my mother handmade a Bucilla embroidered Christmas stocking for me.  I decided to stick with the tradition and finished up LP's last year.  And this year, finally, I finished the one for Paul that I started back when we were engaged.  ...

Did I get the song stuck in your head now too? So chez LeBaron we decorate for Christmas the second the Thanksgiving leftovers are loaded into Tupperware and shoved in the fridge.  BP would put stuff up even earlier but I somehow manage to hold him off til Black Friday every year.... We get our tree on "Small Business Saturday" from a local nursery...  Holiday decorating involves boxes and boxes of stuff being lugged up from the basement.  And then BP puts stuff wherever he thinks it was last year and/or and somewhat willy nilly.  So I go around adjusting things, evening out the garlands, de-clumping the lights, etc.  We have a fairly traditional bunch of holiday things- our one "theme" thing is pinecones.  Paul and I have a thing for pinecones ever since our honeymoon in Lake Tahoe where there are GIANT pinecones everywhere....  I also have a ton of Dicken's Village houses (made by Department 56)that we put out every year.  There are always a fe...

We do most of our holiday shopping online these days, searching for the best deals and the best cash back rebates on websites like Ebates and Fatwallet.... So we never succumb to the lure of Walmart at 3 a.m. or whatever ungodly time they were open today...   This morning, however, I couldn't resist the lure of deals on fabric at Joann's and discounted holiday garlands at Michael's and so I headed out at  about 7:30 since we were already up for the day.   Got some great fabric but spent about 45 minutes waiting in line to have my fabric cut (fortunately I snagged a number for the cutting counter when I first arrived and was able to wander around until they called my number.  Unfortunately, the wandering around resulted in several impulse purchases making their way into my basket...).  Most of the other customers were very patient but there were definitely a few who seemed to be missing the holiday spirit.  An older woman had at least 40 bolts of flannel in ...

Our weekend started off with a bang, quite literally, when LP tripped and smashed his noggin on the new patio. Ouch! Fortunately, he recovered quickly after some kisses, cuddles, and ice and was back to his usual goofy self . And of course, a chocolate ice cream cone always helps too! We spent most of our weekend around the house, gardening, washing the cars, etc. We celebrated the holiday over at Grammy and Papa's house where we spent some time enjoying the pool. LP was GREAT in the water. He was very timid about going in the pool last year and we expected the same this year since it was our first time in the pool this summer. He let me put his water wings right on though and although for the first few minutes he wanted to stay nice and dry sitting on the float, after a little while he got in the water and really enjoyed himself. At one point he even put his face under and was kicking and paddling a bit on his own without anyone ho...