Homemade Christmas Gifts- Part 3

I also made my mom a rag quilt for Christmas.  Mom was the recipient of my first rag quilt several years ago when I was just experimenting with them.  I thought she needed a newer version.  Of course she was my guinea pig again because this was my first rag quilt that I did with stripes instead of blocks.  I think it turned out pretty cute.  Plus there were fewer seams to sew and snip, so it went a little faster.

Smooth side

"Rag" side

I love this fabric!

Homemade Christmas Gifts- Part 2

I made Mom an apron for Christmas too.  This one is made from 2 of Dad's old shirts and is reversible.  A couple of years ago, I saw an apron in Macy's that inspired the tie part for this project.  There are just simple loops on the sides that the straps go through before they tie at the waist.  The pictures will make it more clear.

Front 1

Front 2

Backside with normal tie (sorry for the off-center, poorly tied bow)

You can also criss-cross the ties if you want

The fabric flower pins that I made to coordinate

Titus Photo Shoot

While Josh and I were taking pictures for our Christmas cards, I decided to try and get some decent shots of Titus.  He didn't really want to cooperate, but I got a couple of good ones eventually.  I think he's such a handsome pup!

"I don't want to look at the camera!"

"Can you please let me go explore?"

"Ok, let's get this over with."

"Hurry up!  The sun is in my eyes!"

Totally out of focus, but it was our best shot.

Homemade Christmas Gifts- Part 1

I only had time to make a few homemade Christmas gifts this year, but I'll share them here as I give them. 
In Josh's family, all of the siblings and spouses draw names and buy for one person.  This year, I drew Josh's youngest sister, Debby.  She recently did some cooking at our house and loved my grandma's smock-style apron that I have.  So I decided to make her one using one of her dad's old shirts.  I added some lace, a pocket, and some fun buttons, but it was still missing something.  I decided to try making a fabric flower and consulted Pinterest for inspiration.  Here's how it came out:

I'll share some more crafty posts after Christmas. 

Cookies and Snow

This weekend I reminded myself why mixing, rolling, cutting, baking, and decorating sugar cookies is NOT one of my Christmas traditions.  I needed to make 2-3 dozen UNdecorated cookies for a church event.  I found this recipe that said it would make up to 4 dozen small cookies.  I thought, "Perfect!  I'll have enough for church and a few left over for me and Josh."  Well, 70 cookies later I told Josh I was tired of making cookies.  He suggested making the rest into one big cookie so I did.  For the record, these cookies are GREAT!  They are thick and soft and taste wonderful.  So if you're looking for a good sugar cookie recipe, this one's a keeper.  I rolled mine to 1/4" using these gadgets and did not grease my parchment paper.  8 minutes was the perfect amount of time, and I was lazy and used store bought frosting.

The giant cookie.  I'm calling it a tree skirt!

This morning we woke up to snow!  I think it was only about 1 1/2 inches, but it was enough to get Titus all excited.  Plus, it was that perfect snow that sticks to every tree branch and makes everything look really wintery- so pretty!  Titus and I played longer than normal and tried to get some pictures once it got light enough outside. 

Still a little dark

After a good romp in the snow, every dog (and their owners) should enjoy a nice warm up by the fire. 

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving this year.  My brother, Adam, flew into NM on Monday and then drove with Mom to our house Tuesday evening. 
On Wednesday, Josh smoked a Turkey and we had an early Thanksgiving meal with just the 4 of us.  We did this so we would have leftovers for the rest of the week.  Josh and Adam also did a bunch of work around our property while Mom and I started our piefest. 

On Thursday, Mom and I finished our pies- chocolate cream, banana cream, apple-cranberry, coconut cream, pumpkin, pecan, chocolate-pecan, and lemon.  Yes, 8 pies!  Then we joined Josh's family and some in-laws for the big Thanksgiving meal.  

Mom and I did a little midnight shopping, but Abilene does not have much to offer.  

Friday morning brought more visitors!  My cousin, Bryan, brought his wife and 2 of his daughters to our house.  It was great to meet little Reagan for the first time, and most of Friday and Saturday were spent rocking, feeding, and playing with her. 

After church and lunch on Sunday, all of our company was gone and the house felt very empty.  We were so blessed to spend so much time with family and hope you had special times with yours as well.
MANY more pictures are posted on our flickr site (click link on top right corner).

Catching Up- Family Campout

Goodness, I've been neglecting this blog lately.  Usually that would be because nothing exciting had happened, but we've actually had some fun stuff going on lately. 
Let's backtrack 2 weeks to the weekend before Thanksgiving.  This weekend is set aside for fun times with Josh's mom's side of the family.  Her sister and 2 brothers all live here in TX as well as most of their children (Josh's cousins).  Last year was our first year to join the gathering since we had been living so far away before.  This year we met at Inks Lake State Park.  This park has a lake that is maintained at a constant level even in drought years.  That meant that we could take our canoe!  We also camped at the park and used a group picnic area for our gathering. 
I wish I had taken more pictures, but I'll add more when I get them from other family members. 

Fall colors on the lake

Titus relaxing in the canoe.  He swam and swam and swam all weekend- heaven for Titus!

Exploring the lake

Josh's sister, Debby, and our nephew, Ben, checking out the canoes

Josh and his brother, Jon, learning about plants

 Sadly, that's all the pictures I took.  Once everyone else showed up, I got distracted and never picked up my camera again :(
Up next... Thanksgiving weekend!