Favorite Christmas gifts

In the foreground are the three sets of measuring cups and spoons from Williams Sonoma. This was a gift I'd asked for, and our son Sean bought these for me. I just needed a new set; Sean picked them out. They're substantial, beautiful, and (I'm sure) accurate. My husband gave me my favorite Chanel No. 5 perfume, packaged in that gorgeous red box. To the left is a bottle of olive oil with garlic. The spatula in front of everything is heat resistant, great for making and turning out omelets. Hmmmm! There seems to be a food theme this year, do you think?To the right is a 48-count box of holiday-flavored Keurig cups from Jay, who knows I love specialty coffees.

Our Christmas was relatively quiet, with just three people, but the gifts were just right--not too many but appropriate and appreciated.

Getting Ready for Christmas

I get lazier each year, it seems. This is the 13th of December, and I’ve accomplished almost nothing: a few presents purchased for parties (thus “required”), a few decorations placed, but no serious work done yet. There seems to be an internal shift to doing just what makes me feel good, and less of doing what other people might think I need to do; that’s not my family expectations – we all enjoy the very simplest things. It’s more the perceived expectations of those “out there.” I suppose I’m thinking of the magazine articles and all the beautiful decorations everywhere that made me feel  in the past that I should be doing MORE!!!! Maybe I’m finally learning some balance between what I think I should be doing and those things we deeply enjoy.

Just who am I, anyway?

Today it's literally been an entire year since I've posted here. As I've just joined Sharon Boggin's TAST for 2012 (that's "Take a Stitch Tuesday), I've renewed interest in this Blog. I first "met" Sharon when I received squishies from her in the USA/Australian squishie exchange conducted by her and Willa. One year, many of the Australian squishies were lost in transit, and Sharon heroically filled in for the missing pieces. I think I got three from her that year, all of them lovely. I subsequently took an online class from her on crazy quilting. I seem to be a perpetual student in that area.

Here's what I've been working most on lately: my daughter's quilt. I see from a previous post that I started this quilt in 2009 (February ), so I'm not what you'd call a speedy quilter. In my defense, this quilt is by far the most intricate I've ever tackled. Here's a picture of its progress:

It's actually gone far beyond that, but the next "layer" is a bunch of 6" star blocks (32 of them), pieced out of 1" pieces, to be laid out on point for the next border. I'm having a lot of fun with it, but am struggling with giving myself permission to work on it. Even though it's now a "have-to" project, it's so much fun that I tend to try to have my day's work done before I allow myself to work on it.

And.... I also struggle with whether I'm a sane quilter, a crazy one, or a knitter. I love all three crafts. One of the reason I joined TAST is to be forced to work more on crazy quilting.