getting ready for Holidays

for the first time in many years, we will not be traveling for Thanksgiving

in the past, when we lived in Colorado Springs and our daughter's family lived 2 hours away, we would pack up food and projects and head off to her house for this week because our son-in-law's job needed him to be at work the day before and the day after Thanksgiving

this year could be titled "the year everything changed" -- for one thing, his job changed, so they have had this whole week off together (Yeah!!)

and then there was that whole thing where we moved -- cool!

so I spent some time over the weekend NOT packing us up

instead, we butchered this 25 pound (!!!!!) pumpkin that grew in my daughter's garden this summer

it has been neatly reduced to 8 bags of pumpkin puree that will become pies in the next few months - yummy

and I finished these

when I first started working on them they looked too big, so I took them down a size

now that they are finished, they look too small -- hmmmm, is it an illusion because of the little Ninja face mask?

I'll find out soon -- and it may mean I'm knitting two more pair if they are too small

I've been doing a little stone and bead doodling

the large aqua colored stone is one that I picked up at the gem show, and it was not the piece I originally thought I'd be working with first, but then I found all these other pieces that went so well with it, and well -- it just seemed to be calling me

unlike other pieces I've done, there is no master plan for this one -- usually I glue down all of the stones first and then work the beading

instead, I started by gluing down the big stone, working around it then adding another piece of stone, etc.

it is a whole different approach, and I like it -- at least for this piece which is made up of all these differently shaped and sized pieces of stone

I'm making progress on the background of the next piece of quilt art --

much of my sewing this week has been split between trying to get 3 pair of pants finished for the DH and doing the hand quilting on the queen sized bed quilt I'm working on for my daughter --- not much to see here!

we had out first measurable snow this week

the evergreen tree in the yard behind us made for a pretty picture against the sunset oranges and pinks

and in preparation for the coming Christmas season, we've been setting up trees inside the house

we've not had all the trees up in the house for about 7 years -- it will be interesting to see where things fit in this house

time to get to it!