Saturday, December 19, 2009
Finished Wallhanging!
Last Sunday my wallhanging returned from being quilted, and yesterday I was able to get the binding on. Now I just need to figure out where I should hang it. Any suggestions?
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tree decorating....the old fashioned way
I love the look of this old-fashioned Christmas tree. The chains are made of various nuts and dried apple slices. The flower ornaments are made of almonds and hazel nuts. Other ornaments are made completely of dried apple slices strung together. Cinnamon sticks make the whole tree smell spicy and good.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Once there was a Snowman
Last Sunday we had a big snowstorm. Our neighbors definitely had the Christmas spirit. The next day I saw the results on their front lawn. To the left you see Mary, and to the left is Joseph. Between them is the manger with the Baby Jesus. It is hard to see in the picture, but it is there. By the time I saw them on Monday, it was warm and starting to melt. Mary and Joseph were starting to lean, due to the melting. It really looked like they were bowing down and worshiping.
Near the figures above was this fellow who clearly is meant to represent an angel. (Thank you, Jana!)
Near the figures above was this fellow who clearly is meant to represent an angel. (Thank you, Jana!)
Monday, December 14, 2009
Queue Up!
Today I really needed to go shopping for some ribbon for my newest bonnet, so as long as I was out, I decided to do other shopping. I went into Wally World to get a few things we needed which turned out to be more than the minimum needed for the fast check outs, so I found the shortest line.
Why is it, whichever line I choose, no matter how short, will always take the longest? Do I know how to pick them or what? There was just one person waiting in the line...well three I guess, if you count the 2 children with the customer. I looked over what she had to purchase and it really seemed like not much...10 packages of TP, 4 gallons of milk, 9 two liter bottles of Sprite, etc. It didn't even fill half of the conveyor belt. I figured it was my lucky day.
The two little kids first decided to go through all the candy in the check out aisle, begging their mother to buy some. Then they started playing with the stuff on the other side of the aisle. At that point, she pointed to the front of the store, where all the riding animals and candy machines are located and told them to go play.
Then the checker started checking out the order . It should have taken 2 minutes. As she pushed the first item over the price reader, the customer said, "that is the wrong price. At Fresh Market it is only 88¢!"
"Do you have the ad?" the checker asked.
Of course the woman didn't have the ad, which meant the checker had to pull out her pile of ads to check the price, which involved several minutes of searching for the item in the ad.
Then the checker dragged the next item over the reader. "No! That is the wrong price! At Macey's it is $1.19!"
"Do you have the ad?"
This went on through 5-6 different items. After standing there waiting for 10 minutes I thought the end was in sight. Finally they had found all the relevant ads. My foot was aching, I was in a hurry to get home to go VTing.....and then she pulled out her coupons!
That meant the checker had to make sure the coupons were actually for the items she had. (The woman had already tried to use some sale ads incorrectly) After a mere 15 minutes of waiting behind the one woman in line, it was finally my turn.
During that last 5 minutes of waiting, I toyed with a couple of ideas:
1. Throw all my stuff back in my cart and try to find a different checker
or
2. Just leave the stuff on the conveyor belt and walk away and shop again some other day.
While I am not against saving money, or using coupons, I do have some suggestions that I think would help. If you are using coupons, or price matching ads, have the relevant ads along so they can be quickly dealt with. Perhaps stores need to have a special checkout line for folks who are going to use more than 3-4 coupons, just as a courtesy to other folks.
On my way out of the store, I asked the greeter if there was someplace I could make such a suggestion. She pointed to the customer service area.....where I was free to join a long line....
Why is it, whichever line I choose, no matter how short, will always take the longest? Do I know how to pick them or what? There was just one person waiting in the line...well three I guess, if you count the 2 children with the customer. I looked over what she had to purchase and it really seemed like not much...10 packages of TP, 4 gallons of milk, 9 two liter bottles of Sprite, etc. It didn't even fill half of the conveyor belt. I figured it was my lucky day.
The two little kids first decided to go through all the candy in the check out aisle, begging their mother to buy some. Then they started playing with the stuff on the other side of the aisle. At that point, she pointed to the front of the store, where all the riding animals and candy machines are located and told them to go play.
Then the checker started checking out the order . It should have taken 2 minutes. As she pushed the first item over the price reader, the customer said, "that is the wrong price. At Fresh Market it is only 88¢!"
"Do you have the ad?" the checker asked.
Of course the woman didn't have the ad, which meant the checker had to pull out her pile of ads to check the price, which involved several minutes of searching for the item in the ad.
Then the checker dragged the next item over the reader. "No! That is the wrong price! At Macey's it is $1.19!"
"Do you have the ad?"
This went on through 5-6 different items. After standing there waiting for 10 minutes I thought the end was in sight. Finally they had found all the relevant ads. My foot was aching, I was in a hurry to get home to go VTing.....and then she pulled out her coupons!
That meant the checker had to make sure the coupons were actually for the items she had. (The woman had already tried to use some sale ads incorrectly) After a mere 15 minutes of waiting behind the one woman in line, it was finally my turn.
During that last 5 minutes of waiting, I toyed with a couple of ideas:
1. Throw all my stuff back in my cart and try to find a different checker
or
2. Just leave the stuff on the conveyor belt and walk away and shop again some other day.
While I am not against saving money, or using coupons, I do have some suggestions that I think would help. If you are using coupons, or price matching ads, have the relevant ads along so they can be quickly dealt with. Perhaps stores need to have a special checkout line for folks who are going to use more than 3-4 coupons, just as a courtesy to other folks.
On my way out of the store, I asked the greeter if there was someplace I could make such a suggestion. She pointed to the customer service area.....where I was free to join a long line....
Saturday, December 12, 2009
The Reason for the Season
Many places sponsor huge nativity displays at Christmas. Ours is not nearly so large, but we enjoy the nativity sets we have.
The first one was a gift, brought to us from Israel. One nice part about this one is the pieces are so durable that there was no danger of it getting broken by being constantly rearranged by the children.
This next one also came as a gift from some friends who joined with us to make candy canes one year.
One year Kathleen was busy making a nativity set for a gift. We all fell in love with it and wanted to make our own, so all of us girls got together and made it a group craft project. It is fun to go into their homes and see their versions displayed.
This is the smallest nativity of all, though you can't tell it from the picture. Most of the pieces are no more than 1/2 inch tall! Unlike the other sets, this one doesn't live atop the piano, but rather under the miniature Christmas tree.
The last nativity we have is also the newest one. We found it in Roanoke, Virginia, although its origin is Africa. It is all made from banana palms. It was from a sort of store that supports crafts from poor countries and sells them here to provide a living for less fortunate people.
There is one other nativity, a bell already pictured in the post about the wooden ornaments.
The first one was a gift, brought to us from Israel. One nice part about this one is the pieces are so durable that there was no danger of it getting broken by being constantly rearranged by the children.
This next one also came as a gift from some friends who joined with us to make candy canes one year.
One year Kathleen was busy making a nativity set for a gift. We all fell in love with it and wanted to make our own, so all of us girls got together and made it a group craft project. It is fun to go into their homes and see their versions displayed.
This is the smallest nativity of all, though you can't tell it from the picture. Most of the pieces are no more than 1/2 inch tall! Unlike the other sets, this one doesn't live atop the piano, but rather under the miniature Christmas tree.
The last nativity we have is also the newest one. We found it in Roanoke, Virginia, although its origin is Africa. It is all made from banana palms. It was from a sort of store that supports crafts from poor countries and sells them here to provide a living for less fortunate people.
There is one other nativity, a bell already pictured in the post about the wooden ornaments.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Oddities
The next fine ornament is from the carvers club Christmas gift exchange. They had the idea at one meeting, to bring a bunch of yams which they then carved into Santa faces. Then they hung them in a dark dry place for a month or two. No telling what shape they take as they dry and shrivel up! After the shriveling was done, they painted whatever they got. This is one of the finished products.
The next ornaments are rather battered by time. Some of the paint has chipped off over the years, which makes sense if you consider they are older than I am. When my parents down-sized their Christmas tree a few years ago, they decided to get rid of many of their ornaments. These are 3 of those ornaments. As a child, they had 3 ornaments that were great favorites of mine. One was the red bell on the left. The other 2 went to someone else, but were a Santa figure and a bird with a soft brushy tail.
The last ornament for today is meant as a tree ornament though I don't hang it on the tree. When we lived in Alaska, we got this wooden moose which gets filled with candy and then dispenses the candy into the bucket at the rear. It is called a 'poop moose'. The grandchildren like to see what is in it when they come to visit. We took the moose with us when we went on our mission. He lived on my desk at the mission office. The missionaries loved to see what I had in him. Sometimes it was jelly bellies, but another great favorite was chocolate-covered raisins. When our son-in-law went off to Afghanistan, the moose was patriotically decorated. When it was time for us to return home from our mission, the moose came with us, much to the disappointment of many missionaries. Some of the missionaries thought he needed a name tag, so that he when he acquired the little sign that says, "Elder Moose". Now he is back home on top of our piano, but for Christmas a while back, the little ornament under him came here to live. It is a bit difficult to see in the picture, but there under the poop moose, is a tiny outhouse, with a moose sitting inside! A poop moose and a pooping moose?
The next ornaments are rather battered by time. Some of the paint has chipped off over the years, which makes sense if you consider they are older than I am. When my parents down-sized their Christmas tree a few years ago, they decided to get rid of many of their ornaments. These are 3 of those ornaments. As a child, they had 3 ornaments that were great favorites of mine. One was the red bell on the left. The other 2 went to someone else, but were a Santa figure and a bird with a soft brushy tail.
The last ornament for today is meant as a tree ornament though I don't hang it on the tree. When we lived in Alaska, we got this wooden moose which gets filled with candy and then dispenses the candy into the bucket at the rear. It is called a 'poop moose'. The grandchildren like to see what is in it when they come to visit. We took the moose with us when we went on our mission. He lived on my desk at the mission office. The missionaries loved to see what I had in him. Sometimes it was jelly bellies, but another great favorite was chocolate-covered raisins. When our son-in-law went off to Afghanistan, the moose was patriotically decorated. When it was time for us to return home from our mission, the moose came with us, much to the disappointment of many missionaries. Some of the missionaries thought he needed a name tag, so that he when he acquired the little sign that says, "Elder Moose". Now he is back home on top of our piano, but for Christmas a while back, the little ornament under him came here to live. It is a bit difficult to see in the picture, but there under the poop moose, is a tiny outhouse, with a moose sitting inside! A poop moose and a pooping moose?
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Destinations
Some ornaments remind us of favorite places we've lived or visited with family. The walrus and musk ox remind us of our Alaska home, as well as the ornament from Santa's workshop at North Pole, Alaska, and the hand painted bluebells which recall the real bluebells that grew wild in our yard in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley.
The next two ornaments remind me of my Indiana childhood. I used to love to watch the cardinals flitting around amidst the trees. Indianapolis really did fit its nickname, "Crossroads of America".
The happy flamingo was the result of a family reunion at the beach in Florida. The lighthouse and fishing boat remind us of a trip to Massachusetts.
At some point, we went from the Crossroads of America to the Crossroads of the West, as depicted on the Utah state quarter.
The woodworker decided to put one of those fancy Utah quarters into a piece of black walnut cut into the shape of the state of Utah.
The next two ornaments remind me of my Indiana childhood. I used to love to watch the cardinals flitting around amidst the trees. Indianapolis really did fit its nickname, "Crossroads of America".
The happy flamingo was the result of a family reunion at the beach in Florida. The lighthouse and fishing boat remind us of a trip to Massachusetts.
At some point, we went from the Crossroads of America to the Crossroads of the West, as depicted on the Utah state quarter.
The woodworker decided to put one of those fancy Utah quarters into a piece of black walnut cut into the shape of the state of Utah.
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