September Rudy Day.....

Well, I talked Dear Hubby into joining me for Rudy Day! We watched It's a Wonderful Life....one of his favorites.




I addressed our Christmas cards. We discussed how to sign them this year. The Wild One has moved back home but she is 28 years old. So do we include her? Do we include any adult children that aren't married or do we just include the ones living at home or do we just put the two of us? Decisions, decisions...... We finally settled on anyone living in the house. Us, two adult children, the two new dogs and the cat! Then on to the picture dilemma.


I really want a picture of our two new boys (the chocolate labs) with reindeer antlers or Santa hats but could we really get them to sit still for that? What about the dogs and the cat? HA, they don't exactly see eye to eye yet.


I also finished the first row from my new Block of the Month Christmas pattern. This was an easy row. Next month and November are each rows of paper pieced trees and houses with lots of little pieces.




Hope everyone had a productive Rudy Day. It was really nice to include Dear Hubby with me this time.

Blessings, Cathi

Getting ready for Rudy Day.....

I have a plan for tomorrow that I hope works out.

Still haven't 100% convinced Dear Hubby that he needs to join me in the Rudy Day festivities but I'm wearing him down!


Back in August, I won a BOM quilt pattern from Paula the Quilter.


I have it all planned out so that if I start this month, I will have the top finished next July. Just in time to get it quilted and the binding on for next Christmas. So far so good. Only 6 days left in the month and I am almost finished the September block. All the units are made......just have to put them together and set in the center square. I haven't set in a piece in quite a while so that may take a little longer. There are 8 of these blocks but in different colors.

Where did August and September go?.....

Obviously they went somewhere without me! Well, you know that I have been posting more on my other blog. I have been in a little of a Christmas funk lately and I am sure it had something to do with the weather. Just couldn't get in the Christmas spirit.

But now I am back and ready to get going.


Here is the shortened version of what I have planned to do each month. You can go back to a post I wrote last April to find the detailed list. Anyway, I haven't kept up with it too well this year. Since Rudy Day is on a Friday this month, I think I can get caught up with most of it over the weekend. I really only need to do July, August and September.

* May is List Month

* June is Decorating Month

* July is Crafts Month

* August is Christmas Cards Month

* September is Baking Month

* October is Calendar Month

Dear Hubby does NOT have a football game that night. For some reason they moved it to Thursday. He will be home with me but I think I can talk him into watching a Christmas movie. I may even be able to talk him into helping me with the cards and the baking/menu lists if I bribe him with something chocolatey!

I have been working on some crafty things.

I made this Christmas quilt back in July......


The pattern is "Christmas Morning" by Cheri-Saffiote Payne but I changed the muslin block to applique (she had a stitchery) and have renamed the quilt "HoHoHo".







These three quilts have been tops for more years than I want to say outloud! All of them just need a little quilting and binding. I think I will move these guys up the quilting ladder, so to speak, and see if I can't get them quilted before Christmas!

What are you doing this Rudy Day? Only 8 days to decide!

Oops, I forgot.....

I forgot to show what I did during the Christmas in July party. Silly me!

This is a picture of just one section of my notebook.....the decorating section. I had all the pictures printed a few weeks ago and finally put them in my notebook. I have a page in page protectors of all the decorations I put up for two reasons.

First, I put notes next to each picture of what I like and don't like or what needs to be fixed or bought. It helps with shopping BEFORE I even take decorations Thanksgiving weekend. And if I want to make something for a particular spot......

Secondly, if I can get someone....anyone....to help put the decorations up, they have an idea of what goes where. It's better than yelling from another floor or another room, "Hey, Cathi, where does this go?!". And someone could help out if I'm not even home!! There's a concept. I'm not naming names, I'm just saying.......

Christmas in July Party.....

Well, we didn't get as much finished as we wanted but we did make a mess!!

We started much later than the other years. I had a company picnic I had to go to first. When I finally made it to the house at 3:00, we left right away to check out Hobby Lobby. They have most of their Christmas stuff out already. We thought we may need to cruise the aisles for some inspiration first. By the time we finally got started, it was 6:00.

The Wild One decided what she wanted to do but didn't have the supplies she needed so she worked on her Halloween cross-stitch.

The Married One started her Christmas notebook. She definitely has her momma's organizational skills !


Because we felt like we had just started (the Married One finally left at 11:00), we decided to do this next month, too. But next time we will do some pre-planning planning so we can get more work done. But we had a good time anyway. I really enjoyed having time with just us girls. I'm so glad they have some crafty bones in their bodies!

Visions of Christmas Past.....

I am still working hard with Christmas in July, just not ready to post things yet. I am still trying to come up with a project for the CIJ party this Friday. The problem is that both DDs and I have VERY different tastes. That's why the altered clipboards worked so well last year. We could make them our own. I thought about the altered Advent calender on cookie sheets but it is still a countdown like the clipboards last year. I am sure I will come up with something at the last minute. I do my best work under pressure!!


Here is a picture I found this past weekend from Christmas 1963. I'm the cutie with the really bad haircut. This was before sibling 4 and 5 were even born!




And here is just 6 years later. My how we had changed. Remember the fishnet stockings? The Christmas stockings were made by my mom and me. She sewed the red blanks and I cut and glued all the appliques. Sibling 5, sitting on Dad's lap, was born after we made them so he got a store-bought stocking embellished by me. I guess with five kids, Mom didn't have time to sew another blank!




More soon on what I have been doing Christmasy around the house but haven't quite finished it.

Christmas in July Party.....

I've had a Christmas in July party for the last two years. I was hoping this year (since it was on a Saturday) to have it on July 25th. Everyone that I spoke to either can't make it or looked at me like I had grown two heads. What???...thinking of Christmas now? Are you nuts? It's 90 degrees outside.

So I will go back to my tried and true two daughters that think I am perfectly sane. Last year the altered clipboards were all the rage. We had a great time making ours.

This year we will have our traditional breakfast casserole, fresh fruit and coffee (they are both BIG coffee drinkers) after we make a trip to Hobby Lobby. We just need a little inspiration first. Then pop in a good Christmas movie (I think last year we watched 4!)and work on some craft project that I come up with. I just want to make someting that takes about an hour or two. More on the craft project I pick on a later post. After that we will work on whatever we want of our own. DD#2 made Christmas cards two years ago and I think she will make new ones again this year.

Too bad more of my MHH friends don't live closer!