SMALL CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS, et al

 

Here's my "little" Christmas 

montage right by my recliner

in our tv room...

This gorgeous lavender plant

was gifted to me at 

Thanksgiving by my

DIL, Lindsay,

pictured on the left 

below with my daughter on the right.

[!!ITS SCENT IS WONDERFUL!!]

My beautiful "girls"...;))))

💓💖💕

Every day, I drink my 

Yorkshire Gold Tea

[my favorite of all]

in this lovely Pfaltzgraff 

Christmas cup

during December:

So pretty!!! ;)))))

And

Look what I found at the

grocery store this morning:

↧↧↧↧

Aren't these adorable cookie plates???

[or in my case they will hold

the  fudge I make

each year...😋😍]

{Plus, they were a "Two-fer"}

**************************

:)))L O O K E E -- L O O K E E :)))

My Amaryllis is looking hopeful....

more green showing....

fingers crossed....👏👍

I am not doing much of anything in 

crafting these busy days.

But....

 I feel so much better

today--hoping my cold 

has 

finally

ended.

*********************

Just a bit of news from 

Our House on the Hill..

hugs, Julierose

La Blageuse

("Jingle bells, jingle bells...

da da daaaah da-da!!"-euse)

WINTER HAS ARRIVED, et al

 

My version of a Jan Patek pattern from last year...

this is hanging on my dining room wall to

herald the coming of Christmas

and

with this really cold North wind and

actual (be still my 💓) snow flurries

yesterday!!!:))))

I had a lot of fun making this one--

especially that little flying Angel..

**********************

We lit our little Maple Sugar scented

candle and placed it on my

little Christmas Ojos mat

and watched the sun go down at 

4:20 yesterday with early

darkening skies and wind lashed

trees...

***********************

I spy some little bits of greenery on the base--

just maybe (fingers crossed) my amaryllis

will bloom?????

*************************

I call this "Christmas Strawberries"

I began making these a while back

after seeing Melisa's  quilt

(click)

So....

I drafted my own pattern 

(shamelessly copying hers--

she ok'ed it hahaha).

**Note the skewed strawberry cap on

the topmost one--should I undo it??

Or just let it go its own way???

Her full sized quilt is such a beauty,

I couldn't resist trying a few blocks...

**************************

A sure sign of winter is my 

December Daily Journal [above]

making its debut

that I

work in every year....

Here are a few pages to be 

journaled on....

They are all made from magazine images, my own

stamped images, and various scrappy leftovers

which include any junk mail and scraps--

Only my "Rudebecka" Reindeer is made

from fabric and one of my dies...

I add lots of sparkley stuff for fun....

(you can click on images to enlarge)

********************

Both Tom and I are under the

weather with head colds..

so we are mostly napping and

taking it easy...

Until next time..

hugs, Julierose,

La blageuse

(sniffling-and-sneezing-euse!!)

 

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

 

Here's wishing all of you,

my wonderful blogging friends, 

a 

Very 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

💝💛💝

Hugs, Julierose,

La Blageuse

(celebrating-euse)

CAN I SAVE IT?, et al--{a catch up post}

 

I totally forgot (👽) that I had stored my

last Christmas' Amaryllis in my

dark front hall closet over the Summer....

👀👹💀👀

While scrolling through my photos, which

I transferred onto my new phone. 

(Tom and I got each other new

phones for Christmas this year)

I saw this picture:

Y I K E S ~~

I even forgot to water it.....👹

Will it come back to life for me

this year????

Stay tuned--

And....is this even the same

plant????

Because  I have had various 

amaryllises through the 

years....?????

[this picture is dated 2018]

Had I kept it this long???

S  I  G  H...

*******************

And.....

A few of you asked to see pictures of

where we walk by  the CT River --

Here is the view from the parking lot:

Such a lovely spot....can you make out

the benches provided for seating??

[the bridge on the right is I-95 passing

over the river.....]

(click)

&

Here is the start of our stroll:

Right by the riverside....

Looking ahead we can see the old (1907)

railroad bridge which they are in the 

process of replacing:

Next we walk by the CT DEEP installation

on our right...

That day we saw our Coast guard boat

sailing by....;))))

↓↓↓↓

Tom was very excited to see it this close up...

Here you can see the State's 

informational sign,,,,

detailing all the wildlife in this

protected spot....

[and the ecological barrier the

construction people have 

erected behind it].

And now....

the bridge is opening to let

boats through to the open waters

of Long Island Sound and beyond...

[you can just about make out a couple

of workers standing right there]

(click)

and we say "farewell" to the 

Coastguard as it sails under

the opened bridge....

while those workers watch....

↧↧↧↧

We continue our stroll here on our

way under the bridge....

the boardwalk

continues way out to a bird watching

platform here.....it was way

too windy to venture all the way

out that day...

It is a lovely spot ==

the sunlight on the marsh

grasses is always a lovely site

💚💚💚💚

We don't know

how long this area will remain open while 

they are working on the building of a 

totally new RR bridge and 

walking area...

.But 

they are slated to finish by 2031.

So who knows when this area will become

closed to the public....????

Maybe this January????

sooooo,

We are walking there as much as 

possible --weather permitting...

The area is about 10 minutes 

down the road from us--so very

convenient...

*******************************

Here are my cacti for those of you

who asked to see them 

in situ:

They sit in our north facing window in 

our tv room.....

Above is the latest one I purchased

 that has

already lost a couple of 

bi-color peach/rose

blooms....

My little pot cherub is waiting 

patiently for this one to 

set bud.....

And in the corner sits my

"old faithful"

spider plant ....

***************************

Yesterday I sewed 4 little 

blue & white 9-patch

blocks and set up 

4 more....

Using up some mini charms 

Ready to be sewn.....
*****************************

I hope you are having  wonderful 

pre-holiday weekend...

We are pretty much prepared 

for the T-day crowd except

for a bit of last minute

shopping this coming Monday....

Hugs, Julierose

La Blageuse

(puttering-around-euse)

FINISHES, ET AL

 

My "Flowery Snowballs" is finally bound!

and....

Here is the reverse fabric

I really just love the funny jumping froggies;))))

[click to enlarge]

And below is my 1st trial run on this pattern--

a smaller, square SNOWBALL piece.

The snowballs are plain here.

This will fit my cocktail table 

perfectly!! It sits right

in front of our fireplace ;)))

And the reverse:

I've had this fabric forever...I love paisley

fabrics....

This one has a lovely, muted pattern...

I was able to use up a whole lot of 

scrappy, little

squares in these two pieces.  

*******************************

I have to tell you that----

I really had to push myself to 

finish these up for some 

unknown reason...

Not much "get up and go" lately..

.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

I have been doing some work in my

Junque Journal...

Here are the next couple pages

all prepped for journaling...

I made the  little white ruffle 

for the smaller page

from my white scrappy bag

of leftover fabrics....

The little pink card 

near my little angel 

is a flip out 

for journaling

on the back..

And

Here are the next two pages 

I made a little "flowering chapeau" for the

girl on the right...

and there are a lot of journaling cards

in the pockets on both pages...

these will most likely get a few more

embellishments--some

fun, sparkley stuff;)))

and.....

I have added tabs to all the pages...

I should have enough pages 

until mid-December

when I will switch out to my next 

volume....

**********************

I just thought I would "drop in" 

today as I did have 

those two little

finishes for you...;))

I have been a bit blue lately...

💙💙💙💙💧💧💧💧

I will be back after the

Thanksgiving Holiday

[everyone is coming here this year

lots and lots and lots of prep work

going on ....haven't done this in

a very long time...I even had to

order some more serving

dishes....S I G H ]

Hugs, Julierose

La blageuse

(resting-still-euse)

 

LAYERING-- SCHMAY-ERLING, et al

 

Here is my first panel for

"Home is Where My heart Is"

with the background in place.

I've taken a lot of time to 

have a little "think" about how 

to add anything else to this.....

My first impulse was to just

leave it be...

For years I have been saying

"Why cover up lovely fabrics" when

presented with a collage challenge....

But....

I decided that if I am EVER

to learn anything about layering

I should see what I could add and

still have it remain meaningful to me...

Here is how it stands right now...

with my additions pinned in place:

It has taken me many iterations to get to this result....

So much pinning and unpinning...

😔😕😒

 I added more to the fancy dishes theme

and the mushrooms...

I really love that red teacup fabric and it was

difficult to cover any part of it up

But...

I did...

[layering, right?]

right side

and

left side,

across the bottom areas....

here:

Along the right hand side, more mushrooms

and butterflies...

On the left side another butterfly and 

more fabric across the top...

including my little blue,

fabric ruffle...to pick up

the blues in the main image...

I still have that central pink spot

and I may just kantha stitch it into 

swirling cloud shapes...

Now that all the background is in place

[I cannot believe that this is 

JUST backgound!!]

I will be adding more embroidery and 

beading...

************************

Below is my "heart" panel with the 

addition of a central butterfly and

 the needle and pins embroidered

with  glass beads as pin toppers...

I have also begun outlining the figures...so they

will stand out a bit more...

Here is a little closer look at the butterfly and

pins and needle...

I really wanted to do more stitching

on this today, but my hands 

have told me to S T O P !!

That is my progress on these for now....

I think a few days rest is in order...

hugs, Julierose,

La Blageuse.

(Happy-Halloween-euse)