Coasting Toward the Weekend

We're on the downhill side of the work week and coasting into the weekend--not quite fast enough for me, but it's coming. Why is it that this "car" picks up such speed between Friday night and Monday morning? I don't want to rush though life waiting for the weekend, but I'd just like to slow the weekends down a little and speed the work weeks up. Is that too much to ask?!

You may well be wondering what that photo is at the top of my blog. Well, darn it, I've been carrying my camera to work with me, trying to get a photo for you of the crazy Christmas yard decoration display that's a few blocks from my home--I think this is the one with SpongeBob. Or maybe SpongeBob is around the corner in the other direction. Both yards are kind of "over the top." Anyway, last night when I came home, they didn't have the lights on yet and the inflatables were still collapsed on the lawn. Tonight, everything was in it's full glory, but I guess there just wasn't enough light for the camera to get a good photo. Blame it on the photographer. At least I tried! There sure SEEMED like enough light!

Tonight I went to a meeting of the Jo's Little Women Club at one of the local quilt shops. The shop is starting a BOM Christmas quilt in January and I'm thinking about taking it. I think the pattern is called Christmas List and I'm told it was designed by a shop owner in SoCal, but I'll be darned if I can remember the shop, and was I smart enough to take a photo to show you? No! Despite having my camera with me. What a dummy! (See later note below.) But I swear it's a darn CUTE quilt, and I really don't have enough "cute" Christmas quilts. I expressed that thought at our meeting, and one of my quilting friends, Liz, chimed in with, "Uh, have you looked at your blog lately?!" I gotta say that really cracked me up because it was totally unexpected. Liz had just mentioned before the meeting that she found my blog recently and had enjoyed reading it a couple times (HEY, LIZ! HOW YA DOIN'?). Anyway, what I had in mind is that most of my quilts are more traditional, I think. Although I dearly LOVE "cute," I try not to go there, but you know what? I think I'm going to be taking a trip to Cute! I've decided that if there's ever a time and a place for "cute," Christmas is it. (Actually NEXT Christmas will be "it," 'cause I won't have time to get cute done before this one!) So, now that I'm on a mission to put a little cute in my life, here are the two patterns I picked up tonight. (And don't worry--I actually paid for them--I didn't just pick them up and run out the door! LOL!)

After the meeting, I popped over to Michael's for a few things for Christmas gifts/crafts and got a candle for my bark. Sounds kind of funny, huh? Anyway, here's what it looks like all dressed up:

I finally got the It's a Wrap quilt up on the wall behind my kitchen tree--I took it with me for show and tell tonight and hung it when I got home. (Pssst! See that canning jar full of white stuff to the right of the tree on top of the toaster oven? VERY IMPORTANT Christmas decorations, I'm telling you! One of the MOST IMPORTANT! Those are marshmallows for my hot chocolate! A VITAL ingredient for the holiday season! LOL!)

I also thought you'd like to see the cool GREEN bird I found to go on the top of the tree. And those sparkly, crystally branches are the things my decorating consultant, Missy, told me I needed to go to JoAnn's and buy last week. (Missy's not "officially" a decorating consultant--or at least that's not what she gets paid to do. But she is my "go to" person when I want to bounce ideas off someone or get some ideas and input.) And see those green ornaments with what look like ridges or lines going across them? (There's one near the bird's "tail feathers" and another a bit below that.) Those are the GREEN BALLS that arrived in the mail last week from my bud Sharon. Thanks, everyone, for your help and suggestions in getting this tree together--I'm pleased with the way it's turned out, and I couldn't have done it without all of you!

Time for me to take care of a couple more little chores and then head to bed. See you tomorrow!

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NOTE about darn cute Christmas List pattern. Heck, I shoulda known it would be somewhere on Sharon's blog! Actually, I guess I had a little inkling, or maybe I just wanted go over there and visit Cute a little bit, and there it was! Nancy No Blog made it! Here's the photo I shamelessly stole from Sharon's blog--she also has a photo of the pattern with some info on it HERE.