The Christmas Tour

After the motley Christmas crew left the house on Monday, I got to work catching up.  First on the agenda was make a couple red velvet cakes.  It was a staple at my grandmother's house every Christmas and my brother's favorite so now I make the cake using her recipe.  (I made two this year so my friend Hattie could have one for her Christmas invasion.)  

 

Here's the recipe if you want to give it a try...

Grandma's Red Velvet Cake

Ingredients:      

2 1/3 c self-rising flour

1 ½ c sugar

1 c Wesson oil

1 tsp soda

1 c butter milk

1 tsp vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

2 oz red food coloring

                 

Directions:          Preheat over to 350⁰.  Mix sugar and oil.  Add eggs, liquids and flour.  Mix well.  Bake in 2-3 layer pans, 25-30 minutes.  Test with a toothpick to make sure done.  Let layers cool then frost cake.         

Icing

Ingredients:      

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1 stick butter, softened

1 box powdered sugar (since it doesn't come in a box anymore, I use the one pound bag.)

1 tsp vanilla

1 c chopped pecans

                  

Directions:          Cream margarine and cream cheese together.  Add sifted powdered sugar, vanilla and nuts.

So...after that, Shelby and I had to put our feet up or the night.  We needed to be prepared for the craziness to come.

Christmas Eve begins our little family tradition of bacon and eggs while we watch Christmas Vacation.  Then I'm off to cook the green beans and sweet potato casserole for the Christmas Day gathering at my parent's house.  Somewhere in there we wrapped a few more presents, visited with Hattie for a bit and packed a bag for the tour.  We load the car full of presents and head for the hills to have dinner with David's dad and "step-family".  It's a blessing to be included.

 The first time I met the young woman holding Shelby, she was about the age of the little sweetheart beside her.  When I first started coming up for Christmas Eve, there was just the one little girl.  Now there are a baby brother, three cousins by a new marriage, and two new baby sisters who were so very lucky to be adopted by this wonderful clan.

One who was put under Shelby's spell all night.

I was sort of under hers.

So then...we head to my parent's house for the Christmas Day festivities. 

My mom donning her Christmas tiara (which she has earned many times over)

My three nephews getting on their goofy faces (yes, they receive an obscene number of presents)

My dad buried in a present avalanche and kinda happy about it

Okay, so I ran out of boxes and used whatever was on hand which included an empty box of Super Tab folders...which was what the youngest thought he had received as a gift from me...and was over the moon about it.  I mean hopping up and down yelling "Super Tabs".  Y'all he is the funniest kid ever.

And Shelby after attacking a present, then a sock, then having a running fit...she looks a little punch-drunk, don't you think?

It was a great Christmas.  They usually are but they just seem to keep getting better.  

Christmas Eve Eve and Everything is Stirring...

I really like the barter system especially in the last few years when money is usually not just scarce but non-existent.  Luckily, I've got some skills with which to barter...which is why my house was in a complete upheaval yesterday in a good way.  

Several months ago, my sister-in-law asked if I would put together a memory quilt for her.  She had saved her son's onesies, her favorite baby outfits and preschool tees, crib sheets, the gown she wore when pregnant and various other things.  Sure I said...if my brother would come fix some things around my house.  (side note... my dad and brother can build and fix just about anything since both of them were born into the construction business.  My husband...that's another story...)

So, I finished the quilt and was holding it hostage until the things here at the house were fixed.  Here's all I wanted:  1. a hole in the kitchen wall near the floor filled...old house so this little hole was a free invitation to whatever critters came to visit the basement. (I was ready to sell the house...) 2. The hole in the outside basement door (the one big enough for the cats, raccoons, possums, etc. to come on in the basement and enjoy the great indoors). 3. Replace the rotted door frame on the patio that suffers from rain back splash.  It's been a very rainy year.

That's not much to ask for a 80" x 80" memory quilt...

Here's what happened...

My brother recruited a crew to come help...and they chose Christmas Eve Eve to come over.

The crew from left to right... my brother's long-time friend, Sean, my bother, Jim (the tall one in the back that looks like Paul Bunyan), Sean's son, Patrick, Jim's wife's nephew, Evan (the one that looks like Pony Boy from the Outsiders and yes he means to do that), my nephew Hampton, my husband David (supervisor), my nephew, Asher, the babe in the front, and my Dad, the boss.

Can you say motley crew?  Y'all, I have a small house.  I do not let many people come in that small house because I have enough stuff to fill three houses.   I pushed the freaking out aside and made the biggest crockpot of beef stew EVER and some cornbread and sat back and watched my quarter-acre turn into Never Land with a herd of lost boys.  (Luckily I took Shelby to the groomer first thing so she didn't have to deal with the stress of protecting her territory.)

Remember the list of three things I wanted done?  Here's what these boys got done in about five hours:

1. Replace the toilet in the front bathroom (this is what I asked for for Christmas, seriously...)

2. Replace the lid on the toilet in the back bathroom (because they had an extra)

3. Fix the leaky sink in the front bathroom (we now have cold water for the first time in at least two years)

4. Replace the faucet in the back bedroom (because that leak could be fixed)

5. Replace the shower head in the back bathroom (didn't need this but my brother and my husband got carried away at Lowe's)

6. Hauled off a load of junk out of the basement (I don't even want to know what came out of there)

7. Put the legs on my new Ikea desk and set up my little office space)

8. Replaced the basement door

9. Painted said door

10. Installed a jam to seal the door (outside entrance basement in an old house...there's no such thing as level, plumb and square)

11. Sealed that hole in the kitchen with a steel plate (if something comes through that, I'm moving)

12. Evaluated why my dishwasher doesn't works (and will one day come back and fix it...one day)

13. Decided that the french doors need to just go away and be replaced with windows because the rain back splash ain't going away)

14. Unstuck the light fixture on the patio so we could replace the light bulb (okay...really Sean broke the globe on the light fixture but the light bulb works now..)

15. Cut the ivy off the house.

16. Trimmed the wild bush beside my house than can't be killed with nitroglycerin.

17. Trimmed the giant holly tree and pulled all the vines out of it.

18. Raked and blew the leaves... 

...in the pouring rain which is how Pony Boy ended up looking like this... (soaking wet with chunks of dead leaves all over him...his mother may kill me).

Once most of the work was done, all the boys came in the house and at a whole crockpot of beef stew (really...I have about a cup left over), then did some serious damage to my Christmas cookie collection (thank goodness because that mess needs to get out of my house.)

As they finished up, Asher and I went downtown to pick up Miss Shelby.  He talked the whole time...multiplying up how much money Grandfather was going to give him for working and how much that would be if you worked seven days a week, singing the Loca the Pug song, telling me about Gibby, his blind jack russell/blue healer...I was highly entertained.

Shelby was not.

We got back to the house and the crew was wrapping up.  I gave my brother the quilt and they all went on their merry way.  Sean says this may become a new Christmas tradition - come fix stuff at my house and I feed them.

I'm good with that.  I think I came out pretty nicely on this barter in so many more ways than just having things fixed at the house.  

You Just Never Know

For as long as I can remember, it has been a tradition for us to go to the Candle Tea at Old Salem.  I remember going with the children's choir of the little hippie church we attended (you know...the choir that didn't care if you could carry a tune or not...which I can't).  Then my mom, brother and I would go stand in line every year...in the cold usually and in the rain more than one would expect.  My freshman year at NC State, I stood in line and negotiated the 200 year old stone steps on crutches.

The last few years, my nephews have been in attendance instead of my brother.  This year it was very cold and rainy...which stops no one.  It's tradition you see and it's worth it.  Where else can you hear a brass band playing Christmas carols in the street... or sing along with a 250 year old organ being played by a guy who rings the bells at Wait Chapel at Wake Forest University... or watch beeswax candles being made... or sit on benches in a 200 year old kitchen, drinking coffee and eating the best sugar cake ever... or stand in the cold meat basement of the Single Brother's House seeing a nativity putz while a man tells you the best story ever.

It never really changes every year but every year it gets better.

But just when I thought it couldn't be sweeter...it was... and here's how...

One of the things you do to entertain yourself while you stand in the long, slow line is take turns going in the gift shops on Main Street.  So while Mom and I held the place in line, the nephews checked out the shops.  Their grandfather had given them each $20 to spend so they were boys on a mission.

So after going through the Candle Tea, we headed back to the shop so the boys could spend their money.  

Hampton, the tall one there, is really into history so he bought a reproduction American Flag, circa 1965.  JD, the dude with the glasses got a bugle.  (My brother was not amused.)  But Asher, the little moving target there in the front, got three things for his money... a whistle...a flute...and (oh my gosh I have a lump in my throat even now...) a quilting kit.

A. Quilting. Kit.

I would have never guessed in a million years.

My brother says he really wants me to teach him.

See... told ya it got sweeter.

(and yeah...I'm crying again.)

Room to Breathe

So the last few weeks have been a little tough.  As if the holidays aren't hectic enough, throw in the whole kidney stone saga, the dissolution of Sew Sisters LLC and the resurrection of Bear Hug Quiltworks and it's almost more than I can process.

When I get overwhelmed, I want to hide.  It's the introvert way.  Luckily, I have some great places to hide and I've got friends that understand what it feels like to need to hide.

Like Bonnie...who knew I needed a quiet place to sew a bit, sleep a bit and talk freely or not at all ... so I found a little room to breathe at Quiltvilla where she cooked for me, we visited at the kitchen table and slept in (for us anyway).

Then there's Hattie...a fellow introvert.  We walk our puppies around the neighborhood and solve all the problems and about once a week we have breakfast at Cafe Arthur's, the little cafe around the corner from my house.  We've become regulars to the point that when we walk in the door, the coffee is already on the way to our table...and there's room to breathe...

Then there's the ultimate place where I find room to breathe...

...which is where Shelby and I are now...taking deep breaths and preparing for good things to come.

(ok...Shelby's just snoring which is soul calming in itself.)

Poof!

That's what the time has done...again.

Poof!

I've been known to say in the middle of August that "it'll be Christmas before you know it" and see...I was right!

So here I am again summing up almost four months of life in a nutshell.  Some of it's been good...some not so much.

September was a blur...lots of work in the studio with Sew Sisters and some traveling with before Troy...mostly a blur.

October though was just a little crazy.  There was the NC Quilt Symposium Board retreat and a craft show that was more people watching and drinking coffee than selling...which was still fun and there was Fall Market in Houston which was GREAT FUN (and a lot of work but still great fun) and then my fall retreat at Montreat...which is where I started feeling a little poorly....which didn't stop me from going to Richmond with Janice Pope for and After-Market Wholesale Show.  We had a big time.  When you travel alone most of the time, it's fun to travel with someone for a change.  (But, I was still feeling a little off...)

Long story short (because this is the not so much good part) I had a kidney stone.  A few interesting and uncomfortable weeks later and I had surgery Wednesday before Thanksgiving to have the thing removed.  Then there was the recovery...not as much fun as it sounds because for about six days, it was worse than having the kidney stone.  All better now so enough about that!

So here's a few photos from Fall Market. We were so busy that I only saw one row of the quilts. Very sad but it's a good thing to be busy at market.

A new designer for Troy, Kimberly Rado...yummy fabrics!

Troy designer, Karen Combs' booth...love her!

The other side of the Troy booth.  My spot was waaaay down there on the other end.

Alexander Henry booth...I wanted to take these guys home with me.

Having a beer on the deck with Chris, the Nebraska rep was a great way to end the day.

Another new Troy designer, Janine Burke from Blue Underground.  She made both of these quilts in three days...I'm not sure she's human.

Cool bed and pillow at the Frond booth.  

Those strips are laminate fabric sewn down the middle of the strip.  Cool...

Frond booth rep...could she be cuter?  I don't think so.

Windham Fabrics "Farm to Fork" collection...flying pigs...made out of bacon fabric.  

I could barely stand it.

Same designer..."Ninjas Don't Sweat"  

Seriously...

Seriously...can you stand the cuteness?

A ninja octopus for goodness sake.  I'm in love with him.

This display was cracking me up.

This display was just cool...who made all those balls and I hope they got a bonus.

And the awesome Karen Gray.  It's bad when friends have to travel half way across the country to have time to catch up over a couple beers in a bar...(okay, she had wine.  I had beer.)

And this quilt because I like it and wish I had thought of that because I like skulls.

Finally, the view from my room at the Hilton which was wonderful and convenient 

and I hope I get to go back again next year.

So, I'm going to really try to keep up here.  I know...I'll believe it when I see it...but it could happen.  Things are changing every day.