Thanksgiving tales

Thanksgiving started with a beep. You know the kind....1:15 in the morning......beep.....wait a little......beep........beep. Yes, the dreaded smoke alarm battery decided to go bad at 1:15 a.m. on Thanksgiving. Our smoke alarms are hard-wired with a battery back-up. The latter causes much angst. Why, you ask? Well, two of those smoke alarms are on vaulted ceilings. One is in the master bedroom and the other is at the top of the staircase above the landing. Not good places for people who are afraid of heights.

The smoke alarm that decided to beep at 1:15 was our bedroom. You can see it at the top of the photo above the bathroom door.

 It woke me up. So I woke up Hubby, who went out to the garage to get the Little Giant ladder. If Hubby stands on the next to last rung from the top he can just reach the alarm. He can't hold on to anything when he is reaching. He gets this alarm down, puts in the new battery....beep.....beep. Turns out that I managed to find the oldest battery in the drawer that expired in 2014. Down to the basement I go to find one that expires in 2018. Whew! Hubby puts this battery in and the beeping stops. Now all he needs to do is go back up the ladder and attempt to get the alarm to hook back into its dock. Done, yay!

A small glass of milk to settle down and back into bed for some sleep before I have to get up to start cooking. All this while we were trying to be quiet also, because our daughter was asleep in her bedroom. 

This story isn't over. 5:30 a.m....beep.....beep.....beep. No, not our bedroom, but the extremely dreaded stairway landing. Can you see the right-hand most dot on the ceiling. Yup, that's the smoke alarm.

Hubby goes back outside for the ladder. I go back down to the basement for another battery. Now we have to turn on the recessed lights so Hubby can see what he is doing and move a small bookshelf that is hiding behind the quilt so he can reach the alarm. It is literally at the top of the staircase, so when Hubby is on the ladder he is directly above the two story drop. He gets it down, the battery is replaced and amazingly the alarm hooks back in on the first try. We woke up our sleeping daughter this time though. It is hard to set up a ladder on a hard wood floor quietly.

Hubby and daughter go back to bed, but it is so close to my usual wake-up time that I just stay up. All the rest of the alarms are at normal ceiling height and Hubby replaced the rest of those batteries so that we don't have another interrupted night. 

The rest of Thanksgiving went smoothly. Mom joined us for dinner.

 Here she is with our daughter, who is visiting for a few days from Boston.
We had our smallest gathering in our 30 years of marriage.

Not a very elaborate table this year. It is the company that counts.
I forgot to take a picture of the turkey, but I remembered the pie.

Although we were tired early, we had a really nice celebration.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Santa is Stitched!

I have been busy stitching my Prairie Schooler Santa. 

Ever since I saw this post on Priscillas, I realized I had to stitch Santa quickly so that I could use her ideas for finishing. I love the way she finished her Santas. You can find a great tutorial for a Flat Ornament finishing on The Twisted Stitcher. Now that Santa is stitched I have to go through my stash and find the right fabric to back it and give me the look that I want. I believe I have a red ticking stripe that might be perfect. 

I will be joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching today. I think maybe Baker Beach will get a little attention today or I may find myself spending some time knitting. On Monday, I will link up to Super Mom- No Cape for the Stitchery Link Party. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are up to.

Thanks for stopping by!

Yarn Along

It has been quite a while since I checked in with my knitting. I am making progress on Mom's replacement vest. The left front is complete and now I am working on the back.

I have 52 even rows to work before I shape the shoulders and then move on to the right front. This is a bottom-up vest and works up very quickly when I actually spend some time with it. Mom will hopefully have it when the weather here gets cold. 

I haven't been doing much reading lately as I am still working with the Finite Mathematics book preparing lectures and assignments for my university students. Once this semester is over I hope to get to read at least one novel before delving into this beauty.

Yes, I am teaching Pre-Calculus next semester. At least this subject is one I am very familiar with and should not require quite as much brushing up on my part as the last one. 

I am joining Ginny for Yarn Along today. What are you knitting/crocheting? What are you reading? Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are up to. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Going to Pieces

The many strips I have sewn for my Royal Squares quilt are being cut into little pieces in preparation of being sewn into blocks. Aren't all those little pieces pretty!

I just have those two strips left to cut into 16 pieces each.

 Next comes the process of sorting them all before sewing them into two different types of blocks. These pretty fabrics will be combined with a solid maroon fabric. I know these are supposed to be scrappy blocks, but I have a real problem with control. I will not be happy if I don't like the combinations, so I will have to lay out all the combinations before I begin to sew. I enjoy that process though. 

Thanks for stopping by!

200th post

I can't believe I have written 200 posts! I know that some have been more interesting than others, but that is how life goes. Sometimes there are more events going on than other times. Sometimes there is more crafting going on than other times. Life is hectic right now so blogging is slow. 

Santa got most of my stitching time this week. He needs to be finished soon. 

Last week he had no pants:

Now he has his hat and most of his pants. 

Actually, I finished the pants soon after I took the picture.
I will be working on Santa today. I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. On Monday, I will be linking up to the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape and Design Wall Monday at Bits 'n Bobs.

I hope to share some of my knitting and quilting later this week. At least I have taken the pictures for the posts.

Thanks for stopping by!

Prayers for Paris

Stitching Two

That title means I managed to get some stitching done on two different projects. Santa now has part of his scarf and hat. 

 His face and beard will be completed after his pants and skis because they are lighter colors that I don't want to get dirty. I will finish his hat brim, his scarf and move on to his pants this week. At least that is the plan.

I sat with Baker Beach for at least an hour this week. Here is where I was last week.

I have filled in more sand on the bottom right.

I am hoping to spend some more time in that corner of this project today. I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching and Cath at Bits 'n Bobs. Monday, I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Linking with Frontier Dreams also. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!

November!

Oh my gosh, can you believe that it is November already! I really haven't even thought about Christmas gifts yet. I only have a couple of my standards purchased so far. This is not going to be a home-made holiday this year. 

I also want to start baking and freezing holiday breads and cookies. 

While watching the Mets last night :(, Santa finally got both of his ski poles and his toy sack.

I have to make a trip to ACMoore today to get more red floss. I want to start working on Santa's pants, but I am running low. 

I also stitched some more of the sky on Baker Beach this past week. Last week there was just a little bit of extra blue in the upper right-hand corner.  

Now there is a little more:

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. On Monday, I am linking up with Super Mom - No Cape for the Stitchery Link Party. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!