Patching the Roof

Southern California has finally gotten a bit of rain recently, enough to remind us of all the leaks in the roof.  David and Devin went  up on the roof in early December which fixed several of the leaks, but we still had two left and the weather looked like rain, so David, Kyleigh and I went up on the roof to do some more patching today.

This is the first time I've been on the roof since I fell off the ladder back in 1997, but everything went well today and hopefully, we finally found all the leaks.  We also managed to keep all of the yucky black stuff off of everything but our hands.

Here is our little helper:

It was really cold up there!!

Fun in the trash can

We took Devin and Kyleigh out to an all you can eat pizza buffet today and then Kyleigh came home with us so Devin could make some phone calls and Kyleigh could help take down the Christmas tree today since the garbage men come tomorrow. 

She was a very big help, undecorating the tree, sweeping up the needles and helping stuff the garbage can.  She fought going into the garbage can to stomp it down, but grandpa physically picked her up and put her in the can.  Looks like she really hated being in it.

Kyleigh also got to go to her daddy's Christmas party at Medieval Times last night.  She had a great time and enjoyed eating with her hands.  She did say the dragon tasted like chicken.  This was her first visit and it was commemorated with a picture which she brought to lunch today.  She's very proud of that picture.

WIWO - 12/29/2014

This is my last WIWO of 2014 and it's a late Christmas ornament for Kyleigh.  I stitch one for her every year, but time got away from me this year.  This is Giraffe from the September 2012 Cross Stitch Card Shop (#86). 

 

I still need to add the giraffe and snowflakes and back stitching on the package, but I'm hoping that this will be the final finish for 2014.

Happy Dance - Somebunny

 I don't remember when I first started this, but it was sometime in late 2011 or early 2012.  This is what it looked like when I picked it up on Christmas Day.

And this is what it looks like today, December 26th all finished.

It was the free cover kit with the November 2011 Cross Stitch Card Shop Magazine (#81).

It's stitched as charted on 14-count white Aida.  It included a card and envelope, but I cut the card in half, glued on the picture and added a hanger and it's now hanging on my tree.

Happy Dance - The Reindeer

This is The Reindeer, a DMC Mini Kit which included a card and envelope, white iridescent Aida, light effects floss as well as DMC Mouline stranded cotton thread which I enjoyed working with, the light effects not so much.   BTW, this is one of the kits I received from Sue V in our Shared Crosses gift exchange.

There are a couple of unintentional personalizations, but unless you compare the card to the picture, only one of them is noticeable and it's not that obvious.  Besides, I discovered them too late to even think about frogging.  There was also a jingle bell included but I didn't use it. 

I started this on December 18th and finished it on December 25th.  I just need to glue it into the card and it will be ready to be sent out next year.

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to you and yours.  I hope it was a good one. 

Kyleigh called us at 7:20 asking us to hurry up and come over so that she could open presents.  We arrived about 8:30 and David cooked his farmer's omelet which is shredded potatoes, onions, diced ham, scrambled eggs and shredded cheese all cooked together in one pan.

Then it was time to open presents.  Kyleigh received a lot of Frozen items including the castle, dolls, play dough, costumes for her Build-A-Bears, CD, etc.  At one point I looked over at Grandpa and this is what I saw:

I think you need a bigger set of headphones, Grandpa!!

They look better on her, don't they?

Merry Christmas Eve

Since Janice, Devin and Kyleigh are planning to go to Devin's parents for Christmas dinner, we had our Christmas dinner today.

I stuffed a turkey and took it over to Janice's to cook and then came home for a while.  We went back about 2:30, ate turkey around 3:30 and then Janice, Kyleigh and I went to the Children's Christmas Eve Service at the church.  The service was put on almost entirely by the children and Kyleigh had a picture she drew put up on the screen and also got to sing with the other children at the front of the church.

After church we went back to Janice's, divided the leftovers and watched Kyleigh open one present.  Planned to be open on Christmas Eve, it had pajamas, hot chocolate mix, Jiffy Pop popcorn, a couple of sticker projects and a Frozen sing-along DVD. 

Once Kyleigh had opened her package, Devin gave Janice a package with essentially the same items, but more age appropriate.

Here is a picture of Kyleigh in her new pajamas which were handmade by a lady from our church.

The snowman she's holding was a kid's craft at Michael's on  December 13th.  It involved painting the background first white and then blue, then painting the snowman and filling the painted space with white yarn.  Embellishments were added for the hat, nose, eyes and buttons, then more snow and snowflakes were added.  Here's a closeup.

WIWO - 12/22/2014

I haven't had a WIWO for a few weeks, because I've been having happy dances instead! 

After finishing the Holiday Polar Bear, I picked up the reindeer card that Sue V sent me as part of our exchange for Shared Crosses.

Stuffing a Bus

Kyleigh had a half day today and I took the day off so I picked her up and we went to Stuff a Bus.  This is an event put on by KABC, the local fire departments and the Anaheim Ducks to collect unwrapped toys.  They managed to fill at least fifteen buses today.  Kyleigh decided she didn't want to go, but said it was okay if all we did was put our toys on the bus.

Then she spotted Santa Claus so she had to get a picture with him.

Then she spotted the Yogurtland table and needed to get a free yogurt and several coupons.  Finally she spotted the crafts table and wanted to check it out.

 

Wild Wing (the Ducks mascot) even came over to check out what she was working on.

While she was doing her crafts, I got us a couple of hot dogs for lunch and then took her to Janice's work so that she could go bowling with them (the office Christmas party.

While waiting for Janice, I snapped this picture of her and the crafts she made.  BTW, she decided going to stuff a bus was fun after all!

Happy Dance - Holiday Polar Bear

This is Holiday Polar Bear, a kit from the Mill Hill Winter Holiday Collection. 

I stitched with the materials that came with the kit, but used two strands instead of three for the cross stitches.

It will be made into an ornament.

I started it on December 14th and finished it on December 17th.

Gift Exchange

Our cross stitch group, Shared Crosses had a Christmas exchange and the requirements were that it contain at least one stitched gift and be mailed by December 1st.  I missed the deadline by a few days though.

I sent to Becky and this is what I sent her:

 

I received my gifts from Sue V and this is what she sent to me:

Sue V was extremely generous.  Her stitched gift is the sleigh which is now hanging on my tree.  I've also started the Reindeer card in the center of the picture.

Happy Dance - Poinsettia

This is Poinsettia, a Counted Cross Stitch Picture Kit from Design Works. 

It's stitched with the provided materials -- that's white Aida.  I did change one of the colors from 817 to 349 since the 817 stood out way too much.  I also followed the back stitching on the picture instead of on the chart since they were different.

A frame was included, but the picture doesn't quite fit so I plan to make it into an ornament and use the frame for something else.

I started this on December 7th and finished it on December 14th.

Kyleigh's Christmas Program

Tonight was Kyleigh's Christmas Program at church.  All of the Kindergarten and First Grade classes participated.

Kyleigh was a narrator for the final scenes (in the stable).  She did a really good job, standing still and enunciating so that you could hear what she said clearly.

This picture was taken before the program:

And this picture was taken at the program while she's speaking:

 

After the program which took place at 5:00, we went to dinner at Claim Jumper and then to see the Christmas lights in the Eagle Ridge neighborhood in Brea.  We won't be doing that on a Saturday night again, because it was way too crowded, but we did enjoy it.  And we discovered, happily, that all five of us can fit relatively comfortably in our car, even with the car seat.

Singing Jingle Bells

We went to Barnes and Noble today to find a book on hamsters for Kyleigh.  While we were there, there was a group singing Christmas carols in the Children's section.  Kyleigh put some change in their pot so they asked her what song she'd like them to sing.  She chose Jingle Bells and they asked her to join them. 

Girl Scout Event at Irvine Park

Kyleigh is a Daisy Girl Scout this year and her service unit put on an event at Irvine Park which her troop participated in.  The girls and their families got to ride the Irvine Park train to the Santa stop where they got to visit with Santa Claus and then rode the train back to the main stop where they had pizza for dinner.

Janice sent me several pictures of the evening;

First, Kyleigh with friends.

 And finally with Santa:

 

Happy Dance - Cheer Santa

This is Christmas Cheer Santa, a Jim Shore design from Mill Hill. 

It's a kit and is stitched with the provided materials, except that the tree was supposed to have some crystal beads in it (see WIWO - 12/01/2014 post), but I thought they stood out too much so I replaced them with green floss.

I enjoyed stitching this project so much that I went and bought the rest of the series.

WIWO - 12/1/2014

After I finished Give Thanks, I started Christmas Cheer Santa from Mill Hill.. I'm enjoying this one because it's so bright and colorful.

I decided to bead this one as I went along and I don't really like the crystal beads in the middle of the tree, so I will probably remove them and replace them with green cross stitches. 

Happy Dance - Give Thanks

This is a freebie from Jean Farish that someone on the Shared Crosses forum told us about and I knew immediately that I wanted to stitch it.. 

I had hoped to finish it by Thanksgiving and turn it into a flat fold, but that will have to wait until next year.  I did buy the backing fabric though.

It's stitched on Lite Oatmeal Fiddler's Cloth with DMC floss.

I started it on November 22nd and finished it on November 28th.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I spent the day at Janice's and we had a delicious turkey dinner.  I did the turkey and stuffing and Janice did the rest.

Kyleigh decided she wanted to help with the basting so Janice had her transfer water from one cup to the next until she got comfortable with the process.  Then the next time the turkey needed basting, there was no stopping her. 

After dinner and dessert, Kyleigh came home with me so that Janice and Devin could go Black Friday shopping.

Meeting Elsa and Anna at Disneyland

Chad had Kyleigh this past weekend and asked if her could keep her until Monday evening so that he could take her to Disneyland to meet Elsa and Anna.  They had tried to go earlier, but by the time they got there, there weren't any appointments left.

Here is the proof that they made it this time.

Happy Dance - Palace Theatre

This a kit from Mill Hill's Christmas Village Collection.

It was stitched on pewter Aida instead of the brown perforated paper that came with the kit and I only used two strands of floss instead of the three called for.

This is the second of the Christmas Village series that I've stitched and I plan to stitch several more next year.

I started this on October 27th and finished it on November 22nd.

Craft Boutique

Today was the annual craft boutique at St Paul's Lutheran Church in Orange.  This year it was held in the new event center at the school instead of the church, but there was still an overflow of vendors outside.

Janice purchases a table every year and displays a variety of merchandise:

There were candy sleighs

and candy trains

and chocolate covered pretzels

and reindeer noses

and snowman soup.

There were also ornaments, small stockings, kids coloring cards, chocolate covered Oreos and a variety of other items.  Here is the whole table.  And of course, Miss Kyleigh had to get in the picture.

WIWO - 11/17/2014

Here is what I've done on Mill Hill's Palace Theatre.  It's the result of two weeks work, because I didn't take a picture last week, but most of the progress was made this past week.

A Picture for Mommy

David has gone up to his parents house in northern California and on the way he stopped at our favorite Chinese restaurant in Bakersfield, Bill Lee's Bamboo Chopsticks.  I was feeling left out so I decided to go to our favorite local Chinese restaurant, Yang Ming's.  It wasn't difficult to talk Devin, Janice and Kyleigh into going with me.

Afterwards, we went to Target to buy a new hair dryer since my old one was probably nearing 30 years old and had decided to create sparks the last time I used it.  I did find one and the best part is that I paid for it with a gift card from our Be Better Health wellness plan at work.

Janice went ahead to check out the hair dryers while I took Kyleigh to the restroom.  On our way to the hair dryers, she spotted this hat and decided she wanted to wear it to show mommy.  I convinced her to let me take a picture of it instead.

WIWO - 11/10/2014

I've done very little stitching this week, but I did manage to redo the buttons on the American Cowboy Santa.  I'm still not 100% satisfied, but I like them better this way.

Before I fixed the buttons:

After I redid the buttons:

Happy Dance - Santa: American Cowboy

My Cowboy Santa is from Charlette's Collectibles and it's real name is Santa: American Cowboy. 

It's a kit and was stitched with the materials provided, except that I only used two strands of floss instead of the three called for. 

I'm not real happy with the placement of the buttons, so I may rip them out and start over.  I'm also not sure how I'm going to finish it.

I started this on October 18th and finished it on November 4th.

Voting

I hope you all voted tonight.  David picked me up after work and we went out to dinner and then to our polling place.  We were lucky in that there was no waiting, but it didn't look like our precinct had a very good turnout.

Janice sent me this picture showing that she and Devin voted too.  At least I think the big legs are his.  I know the little ones are Kyleigh's.

WIWO - 11/3/2014

I started the next kit from Mill Hill's Christmas Village.on Monday evening.  This is the Palace Theatre. Again, I'm using pewter 14-count Aida instead of the perforated paper in the kit.

We were out of town over the weekend again so I worked on the Cowboy Santa again.  It's hard to see the extra rows of white at the bottom, but they're there.

Happy Halloween

I wasn't home tonight since we're in Bakersfield so I can go to the Taste of Home Cooking Class tomorrow morning.  Tonight we're eating at David's favorite restaurant -- Bill Lee's Bamboo Chopsticks.  We try to eat there whenever we're in the area or just passing through.

This first picture is of a Halloween House made of graham crackers. One of my coworkers brought it in for our potluck today.  It's fully decorated on all four sides.

 Here is the picture Janice sent of Kyleigh's loot.  This is a combination of trick or treating at Treats in the Streets in Old Town Orange on Thursday and trick or treating around their neighborhood tonight.

A few weeks ago, we went to Tanaka Farms Pumpkin Patch and purchased several pumpkins to be decorated for Halloween.  Here is the yard display at Janice's condo:

I know Kyleigh did the bat, but I'm not sure if she also did the cat or not.

Devin did Frankenstein.

 And Janice did Elsa.