Hello Kitty! and more stuff......

Soooooooo.....is everyone ready for Christmas? :o) I think I'm just about ready. We only have a few small things to get. I only stitched one gift for Christmas this year. Which actually is more than I usually stitch for gifts. :op On Nov. 22nd my niece Jaimie had a baby girl. This is our first great niece (or nephew) on Jerry's side of the family. The baby's name is Eva Rose (isn't that pretty??). I decided to stitch a birth record for her. I didn't have any charts that are really good for girls so I went through some cds that I have a bunch of freebies saved on. I found some Hello Kitty freebies that I have had forever. Until now I haven't stitched any of them. I thought it would be cute since Jaimie is at the age that she probably remembers Hello Kitty from when she was a little girl. She's the same age as Amber so I'm sure she does. It stitched up pretty quick and really came to life when I started adding the black outline. Today I found a frame at Michael's that matches perfectly. I washed the piece and iron dried it to get out the wrinkles. Then I put it in the frame to see how it would look. I didn't put the glass in the frame so I could take a pic without the glare from the flash. It looks pretty good considering I didn't really work to center it or anything. Hopefully tomorrow when I frame it for good it will go in this straight (yeah, right) Now it's hanging up so it can dry completely before I frame it. This is my first time using a metal frame. We'll see how it goes I guess. :op The picture above is how it looks so far. To the family...Don't tell Jaimie about this! I want it to be a surprise. I hope she likes it. :o)

This year we decided to take a break from our huge Christmas tree. We all get grouchy when Jerry and Josh are dragging it up from the basement because it's so heavy. They end up yelling at each other and complaining so I end up yelling too. (but it's worth it when it's all up and decorated) Anyway, last year we found a really pretty white tree at Walmart. It was half price and regular price only $30. I figured for $15 even if we only used it for a few years, it was worth it. We set it up on the day after Thanksgiving and it's so pretty I think it might get more than a few years! We bought some blue ornaments for it. I've been trying to get a good picture of it but with the flash it looks weird and without it looks blurry. If I take it during the day it looks really bad. It really is a pretty tree! Here's one of the better pics:

I don't know if anyone noticed the presents under the tree but they're wearing their new wrappings. I decided to 'go green' with my wrapping this year. For the presents that we will be opening here at home I made fabric bags. That way we can use them every year. The recycling guy is gonna think we didn't have Christmas this year! I bought the fabric at Walmart that is $2.00 or $2.50 a yard. Then I bought cording to match. It probably cost me more than paper would have this year but will pay for itself after a few years. The kids all think it's cute and looks like little Santa sacks. This only works because no one as going to peek at anything. The girls don't live here anymore and anyway, they and Josh all know everything they're getting. Me and Jerry aren't exchanging gifts this year. (We need to save for the property taxes and figure we spend enough during the year). Here's a close up of the gifts:

While I was sitting on the floor trying to cut fabric for the bags I usually had company. Punkin thought I was putting the fabric there just for her. As you can see in this pic, it's probably because she doesn't have enough toys on the living room floor behind her. Poor cat..... She's so spoiled she's starting to stink! Now you know why I thought the picture from Wordless Wednesday was so funny. :o)


I did have another small finish this week. It was my December ornament for the ornament SAL. This is Santa Paws:
I enjoyed this SAL. I actually completed an ornament each month. Too bad none of them are actually made into ornaments yet. :op Next year.....

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We went over to Tracey & Lee's. My contribution each year is pies. This year I also brought creamed corn in the crock pot. I got a late start on the pies on Wednesday because Amy came over to use our oven to make her pumpkin bars. The time you see on the stove clock in the picture is when the pumpkin pies came out of the oven. It was 12:35.......AM. I did have some excitement though! As you can see, the cherry and apple pies urped a bit. Well they urped all over the bottom of the oven. I thought I would try the trick that I read about over and over in magazines, if you spill something in the oven, sprinkle salt on it. After the oven cools you can wipe it right out. Well, it works. BUT.....you have to wipe it out before you use the oven again! I made the cherry and apple pies, sprinkled the oven and turned it off so I could make dinner for me and Josh. After dinner I turned the oven back on to preheat for the pumpkin pies. I was mixing the pumpkin pie filling and smelled something burning. I opened the oven and a giant cloud of white smoke came pouring out!! Seriously it was like when someone burns something on tv and they open the oven and the room fills with smoke. I didn't think it ever actually happened that bad! I opened the kitchen door and breezeway window. Then I opened the front door. I couldn't open any windows because we have plastic covering them all for winter! I called Josh out and the smoke alarm started goting off! (at least we know it works!) We took the battery out (yes we put it back) and I tried scraping the stuff from the oven with a metal spatula. All I accomplished was pushing a blob next to the heating element and starting a tiny fire! Yikes! I turned the oven off, left the door open and waited for it too cool. Then I wiped it out. And I can say the salt thing DOES work! It wiped out really easy. Then I cooked the pumpkin pies. I should have know earlier in the evening that it never goes as easy as it was going. :op So anyway, here are my yummy pies. :o) Anyone hungry?


Well, I think that's all. Hopefully I will get another post in before Christmas! :op

{{{{{Hugs}}}}} to all!