The penguin is finished!

I did it! I was almost finished with the penguin when my son and his girlfriend were in flight to NY. I worked and worked on it until they arrived at our house at midnight. 

It wasn't done then, but with a couple of early mornings I finished all the stitching. On Saturday, I spent some time in my craft room basement and made it into a small pillow.

What do you think? 

I also finished my Prairie School Santas, but I can't show those until after Christmas. 

I am joining Kathy today for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her sight to see what other bloggers are up to. I don't think I will be doing any stitching today, because all I have is Baker Beach and it is currently sitting in my bedroom as my stitching spot is where all the present wrapping is being done and gifts being stored.   

Thanks for stopping by!

What was I thinking?

My Santas still aren't finished. Thank goodness the weather here is warm and I should be able to use the spray adhesive outside today or tomorrow.

Yet, what did I do? I started another cross-stitch that I hope to finish by Christmas.

My son's girlfriend loves anything that has penguins so, of course, I decided I needed to make a penguin cross-stitch. What was I thinking? They arrive from California on Thursday. I don't know if I can finish it by then. It is adorable though. You can find it  at StitchX. It was free when I downloaded it. Wish me luck in finishing it.

I am joining Kathy for some not so Slow Sunday Stitching today. On Monday, I will join the Stitchery Linky Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are up to.

Thanks for stopping by!

A gift and some Christmas decorating!

I was trolling around my usual blogs when I came across a giveaway Karen at Quilts.....etc was having. Guess what? I was the third winner. I won this great EPP book!

I have always wanted to try my hand at this and now I have a book to help me. This was a wonderful early Christmas gift. I know I will spend many hours perusing this book.
I am finally getting my house decorated for the holidays. Hubby and I got all the lights, roping and wreaths up outside.

 Hubby surprised me by putting up the icicle lights and the red and green spotlights while I was out one day.
I tried out a new spot for my Santas and snowmen this year. 

 I like the way they look on top of the china cabinet in the dining room.
This little vignette is in the cabinet that holds my everyday dishes in my kitchen. 

 I have yet to take out my Christmas dishes. They are usually out on December 1st, but not this year. 

The village is up. I remember it going up easily last year, but that was not the case this year.

 The painting above the village was done by my Aunt Emma.

 Finally, this little guy greeted me this morning. 

He was on the deck railing right outside our living room. That is the cover of our pool that you see behind him that gave the photo a blue tint. He is still adorable.

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Christmas House!

There are several houses in my neighborhood that go all out with the outdoor Christmas decorating. There is one house that does much more than the others. Hubby and I visited it on our way home from dinner on Sunday night.
This family collects donations for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. 

They have donated over $5 thousand in each of the last couple of years. Their donations have grown over the years. 
I thought I would share just a glimpse of the wonder and magic of this home.

This vignette is set up each year in the garage of this home. Mrs. Claus used to have a cup of tea beside her, but this year she has a hot chocolate.

 What a wonderful welcoming entrance.

 These animated carolers are along the driveway. There is a animated dog on the sled.

 The reindeer in the barn are also animated. Do you see the raccoon peeking out of the barrel in the front?

 The ice-skaters on the right and the igloo constructing penguins on the left are all animated.

Can you believe how many decorations there are? Can you see the hot air balloon full of reindeer?

Finally a close-up of Santa.

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Festival of Trees

This past weekend Hubby, daughter and I went to the Festival of Trees that is held at the Cradle of Aviation museum here on Long Island. We had last gone when our children were little and the festival was just getting started. 

I thought I would share some pictures of pretty trees and aviation history.
It started with a fall themed tree.

Here is a more traditional tree.

This is one of the handcrafted trees.

 Isn't that a beautiful ornament?

A mostly plaid tree.

Another handcrafted tree. This one with "A partridge in a pear tree" theme. It is full of knitted and crocheted ornaments.

Here are the Three French Hens ...

and the partridge and pear.

 One more handcrafted tree. Look at that crocheted skirt.

 After looking at those pretty trees. We moved on to the museum. This wonderful plane hung above all those trees that you can see in the lobby below.

 Examples of early designs.

The reason this museum is where it is on Long Island is because it is near what was once a world famous air field - Roosevelt Field.
Long Islanders now know Roosevelt Field as a large shopping mall.

 This is a display of what you may have seen at local air-fields. I love the clothes.

 This is an outfit worn by Charles Lindbergh.

An early passenger airplane.

 A war plane.

Daughter, Katie, playing pilot. I climbed in with her in the co-pilot's seat. It is surprising how small this is inside.

 Finally, the pride of Long Island. The Lunar Module that landed on the moon. This is one that was made for a future mission that never occurred. It has been modified to represent the first lunar module that landed on the moon. Many people, including our daughter, don't know that this was made by Grumman Corporation on Long Island. 

If you ever get a chance to visit Long Island, this museum is a must-see. We spent 3 hours there and couldn't really read all the information or explore all of the planes, because there were holiday vendors set up throughout the museum, sometimes in front of displays. It was still awe-inspiring.

I hope you enjoyed this little overview.

Thanks for stopping by!

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!