Tomorrow, I am entertaining the current and next year’s boards of my quilt guild. We will meet at 10 and have a pot luck lunch after we get some work done. Stevie and I have worked like crazy to get the house cleaned up and decorated. I am feeling pretty good so I have been able to accomplish a few days of work in one!!

Here is a shot of the living room and the tree with just lights waiting for me to finish decorating. It is taken from the loft which is my studio.

Here is the tree after I hung the ornaments:

Pretty blurry. I’ll take a better one tomorrow.

Here is the fireplace and mantel:

I collect nativity scenes. Here are a few:

Oh, and while I am taking photos in the living room, I also collect crosses:

Here are some quilty Christmas things that I have made over the years:

I had the best time tonight watching the first two Project Runways. I love this show so much. They have the usual cast of wacky characters. It is going to be a great season. I haven’t decided who I am going to root for just yet. There second challenge was to make outfits from the clothes they were wearing at that moment! It was very fascinating to see what they came up with.

OK! It is way past my bedtime. g’night!

There is nothing so healing as staying up late at night and making postcards!!!!

Here are three I did tonight in my abstract vineyard series. This is for an exciting venture that I will divulge at some future time.

Guess what? I fixed the garbage disposal. I knew Steve was coming home and would get under the sink and open the drain and make a mess and use language unfit for my delicate ears. So I thought why can’t I use a plumbers helper on this? I did. It came unclogged. He was impressed. How logical, says he! Then I did a Fly Lady Shiny Sink activity on all 3 sinks.

Off to bed. I have to go to work at the SDA office tomorrow.

I have to do an errand this afternoon. It is a beautiful day in wine country. Come along for the ride! This is what vineyards look like in the winter:

Here we are at our destination:

This is the Red Barn Store AKA as Oak Hill Farm at the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market in San Francisco. Here are some interior shots. I think they thought I was nuts – well, I am! Can  you guess what I cam here to purchase?

After making my purchase, I went to the video store and rented 3 chick flicks. I am watching Melinda/Melinda right now – an erudite Woody Allen movie. Then I bought a filet mignon and a big Idaho potato to go with the fresh greens I bought at the Red Barn.

Back at home:

Ah! Now it is looking a lot like Christmas!

A final touch:

PS: I am feeling grrrreat, tonight!!

Last night when I went to bed, I knew I was over the hump and on my way to wellness! My temp had dropped to 96.3. Does anyone else besides me wander through their days with a normal temp of 96.3? When I go to the Dr and I say I have a fever and the thermometer is registering 98, they look at me as if I am crazy!! I think that is why it is so hard for me to lose weight as I have the metabolism of a snail.

THANK YOU to everyone for your wonderful posts and e-mails. It meant a lot to me to know you all were out there wishing me better. I wasn’t up to answering the e-mails. I have updated the Aspen post with size and the technique I used as several of you asked.

I put Christmas music on the CD player and I felt well enough to empty the dishwasher and clean up the kitchen, except for the garbage disposal. Steve says to leave it for him and reminded me that we have another one in the dishwashing sink. Maybe I can clog that up too!! I also took Maggie for a 2 mile walk. It is a really gorgeous day. One I will remember and cherish after I have moved to Portland, no doubt!!

OK. Now for some rest and then I have a plan for this afternoon. Whee!

Yesterday was the last meeting of the year for my quilt guild. I have been president for the last year. So even though I was feeling lousy, I pulled myself together and made it to the meeting. I knew that there was some conspiring going on because during the last two or three months, I have been asked to step out for a few minutes during the general meeting. I jokingly said I was happy to have a cigarette break. Well, yesterday I found out what they were up to. What do you give a president who is also an art quilter – embellishments:

I brought these containers home with me, but frankly, I was feeling so miserable that I couldn’t imagine enjoying myself by looking at what was in the boxes. I had a fever and coughing that hurt. I called Kaiser and talked to an advise nurse who called my Dr. who called me and said get in here. I am prone to getting asthma when I get a bronchial infection. So I came home with inhalers and cough syrup with codeine and crawled in to bed.

Steve picked up some food to get me through the week-end because he left at 4:30 am today to go to Kansas City with some other people to interview a candidate for the new bishop of our Episcopal diocese. So I am on my own. The worst part is walking the dog in the cold and then the garbage disposal got a clog and so I have a sink of yucky coffee grounds. Sometimes I can fix this, but this time it won’t budge so I think it will sit there until Monday when Stevie gets home unless I feel a whole lot better.

I digress! This morning I finally unpacked the packages to this array:

There were beads, buttons and old jewelry:

There were embellishments galore, even yellow plastic warning tape!!

And fabric and a LIME GREEN COFFEE CUP:

Notice in the bottom left corner – the lime green crystal necklace – that belonged  to the mother of one of my friends. She said that I can wear it or take it apart and use it on a quilt!

There were also cards with lovely sentiments and 3 gift certificates. Two are for $25 each at local quilt stores and the third is for $50 at Fire Mountain, the on-line bead store.

It almost seems wrong that I get all this stuff when the members do all the work. I just do the herding. I was so happy when our community quilts chair announced that she was delivering enough quilts that day to reach 1000 for the year. She said that in the middle of the year I asked her if we could possibly donate 1000 this year and she thought I was crazy. But we did it. My motto is: Say it out loud, believe it and then do it!!

OK That’s it. I’m going back to bed.