Our version of "Simplify"

This is my sister holding a GIANT haystack....well somehow they sort of stuck together and when she picked one up the whole clump came with it. It was kinda funny to look at....we broke it up..they tasted fabo!
This is my other sister Lynn....she's tasting our sauce for the roast beef sandwiches....

And here she is "making" the sauce.....

Notice the Arby's symbol on the packages? All I kept thinking was "this is how we roll here"...it just struck me funny. Anyhow, my mom had purchased 5 pounds of Arby's roast beef and that's why we used their sauce. It took a great deal of burden off my mom to cook a fancy meal this year....I believe it's her version of "Simplify". Lynn also made these great wedding cookies for Christmas. We all made one thing or another...I make Andes Mint cookies. Yes I will post the recipe but I have to get a picture of them first LOL. They are so good, that they didn't last a day at home with all my family.
And my parents Christmas tree. You can see some of the snow outside. Wow it is definitely a white Christmas.

4 stages of life

My mom has this in her kitchen. I think it's cute..... Have you seen something like this?

Snow sign of stopping....

That was the general feeling in Iowa....We traveled there on thursday night for an early Christmas with my family. It was absolutely horrible driving conditions. There was freezing rain and blizzard like conditions for the last 150 miles of our 550 mile trip. I didn't heed the warnings...thinking they always hype up the possible weather. We were wrong this time. Anyhow, there ended up being 9 inches of snow there and we woke to a blanket of snow....

Today when we left...it was -13 degrees F. VERY Chilly...I'm glad to be home....and blogging again. I have SOOO much to blog it's gotten out of control LOL.

Indian prints.....

My DH's early Christmas present arrived...and he gave Elly the box...needless to say she's played for 2 days in this box and my older daughter wants her own box now too... This is my older daughter..."getting into" the presents..and shaking them. She can barely wait until Christmas.

These are the fabrics my Mother in law brought from India. They are hand dyed...batiks....traditional colors and fabrics for Indians. They cost about $1-$2 dollars a meter...and that was a high price compared to 5 years ago. Since most Indians are getting an education, working, buying cars and jewelry and things they've never been able to buy...the prices have gone up considerably.

These bright red -yellow prints are a very very thin cottons printed with designs known in the Jaipur region. Their techniques are centuries old. They are so thin that I don't know that I will be able to make a quilt with them. I do like them very much because they are such a traditional Indian fabrics. I want my children to see and feel some textiles and items from India, and hopefully visit there one day. I'd like them to know about their heritage and where my husband was born, and their grandparents grew up. India is such a rich culture full of multiple languages, diversity of religion, and industry, I hope my kids are as interested, as I am, someday.

The cute book

I got a new Nikon D80 this weekend. I have just started to play with it. All I really wanted to do was this: DD2 had a nap on the couch...just what mommy wanted to do!!! Anyhow, I hope my picture quality will improve with the new camera...we'll see.
I've finished a 5th quilt from the stack of 24 fat quarters that I used with the "Baby Fats" pattern book. I just have scraps left. I want to see how large of a quilt I can make with them....probably just a doll quilt but that's still fun! Now I have to get the 4 baby sized ones off to a machine quilter.

I also made a white bunny this weekend from "the Cute book" by Aranzi Aronzo. My DD1 wants one of each cutie and uglies from this book. I was going to make them for her for Christmas but I haven't had enough alone time to do it without her seeing them. Again, I am still trying my camera...and couldn't get it to zoom onto the bunny...oh well back to the instruction manual.