What a crazed week

It's been hard to keep up blogging the past week for all the "life" that's gotten in the way. There's been trips to the dentist and dental work, there's been 400 mile drives to my mom's house and snow, there's been sick husband (cough, cough) and there's been Christmas decorating. In between all that there's been a bit of sewing, but I'm still not caught up on parts 3 and 4 of the Quiltville mystery quilt, and part 5 is already released. This one may have to be shelved until after the holidays, which kills me, but it is what it is.

In the meantime, I've gotten a few Christmas decorations completed. The small lighted trees are on either side of the front door out on the porch and the bigger one is on the sidewalk beside the front steps. My wreath and swag have been hung on the porch and between the garage doors, respectively. I even put a huge red bow on my bench under the oak tree beside the front walk - it looks very festive! This was all done with sustained winds of 22 mph (and gusts of 60) yesterday. I spent more time picking up branches blown out of the oak and maple trees than I did decorating - all the dead stuff gets stuck up in the crown and waits for a good wind to dislodge. Oh, and trying to keep the car cover from blowing off the car parked outside.

Inside, things are not moving as swiftly. All the boxes of decorations are stacked in the dining room but nothing is unpacked except this centerpiece that my brother-in-law and his wife gave us last year. I flanked it with two wooden angels my father-in-law made and left the blue and white candlesticks on the table. The quilt's one I did years ago and just draped on the table to try to make it more Christmass-y.

Yesterday I did transform this:Into this:

That took about four hours. Every year I marvel at how I managed to store all the boxes of porcelain houses and other items in the top of one guest room closet. It's like a Tardis: bigger on the inside than on the outside.

I don't know why I take pictures of the village every year - it never changes!

And, to show you how seriously we take Christmas decoration around here, this is the front of my Subaru: