Tuesday my sewing machine was acting up and giving me trouble. The stitched on my projects lookj great on one side and really sloppy and loose on the other. We played with the tension and different things and still couldn't get it fixed. When I turn my item right side out the stitching can be seen and that is why I'm not very happy about continuing with my machine. It costs $80 at least to be serviced and if anything has to be replaced it can go up from there, not to mention it takes at least 3 weeks to come back. Thanksfully, I have some great friends nearby that have all volunteered my machines, I just need to get over and pick one up.

I was busy Wednesday with different projects that done need sewing on the sewing machine. Thursday I was busy and met up with Natalie to helpher with the Relief Society Dinner invitations. It was nice to visit with her and Nicole and catch up. All the kids are getting so big, I hardly recognize some of them. i continued to work on and finish the invitations on Friday and Saturday while watching Christmas movies on the ABC Family channel.



Friday morning, I went to the second showing of "Twilight". i just couldn't wait to see it and I knew it wouldn't be very crowded if I saw a morning show, plus it is half the price. I don't want to ruin it for anyone so all I will say is that there were a few changes but not enough to make a big deal about. It followed the book really well and I really enjoyed. It was as good as I thought it would be. I hope that they make the rest of the books into movie form. I plan to see them all.

Friday afternoon, I was at the vet with Gus; I got home from my movie just in time to take him. He gets these inter-digital cysts and lately they have been occuring more often and they are getting bigger and more painful. Well, we went to have that looked at and then other things came up. He has an ointment we have to put on twice each day. It seems to be working, but if they continue to get bigger we may have to have it removed surgically. They they looked at his ears because I told the vet that we have to clean them out a few times a week, so they cleaned and flushed them out put in some ointment to help them from getting to yucky so much. The poor little guy was found to have had a flea on him and we had to give him a flea treatment, Jarom vacuumed the house real well and just to be sure we got them all, we are going to bomb the house this week. They have never had fleas before, so I'm really frustrated by that.



Jarom brought home a quick dinner from McDonald's for us and then our friends Mark and Sydney picked us up to go on a date to see the new Bind movie-"Quantum of Solace". It was okay. There were a lot action sequences as is the norm, but there was a lot of killing in this one. Daniel Craig is bad on the eyes, either. After the movie, they took us to Tops Yogurt for frozen yogurt. It was yummy. I had chocolate frozen yogurt with warm marshmallow, chopped peanuts and a little chopped butterfinger. It got rich but I finished almost all of it. We had a great time. it was so nice to catch up and see them. It had been a few years.

Saturday evening was a nice evening together. Jarom made chicken fettuccini (sp?) and garlic cheese toast and we watched the new Indiana Jones movie. It was good, but different from the other three. I still enjoyed it though. I can't wait to see Wall-E. it is waiting downstairs for me, too.



I've been working on the different parts of our Christmas card or rather postcard. I should be able to start assembling them on Tuesday and they should be ready to go in the mail by the end of the week.

This week, I'll be busy with our Christmas card and making desserts for Thanksgiving. I'm making four desserts so I'm spreading them out and making one each day. Tomorrow, I'm making pumpkin cookies with an icing drizzle. Tuesday, I am going to make a Harvest cake or rather an apple cake. Wednesday I will make a cherry pie and Thursday morning-chocolate luch. We are celebrating Thanksgiving with the Schaefer's and it should be fun. I picked a gingerbread kid and gingerbread house kit to do with the girls to keep them busy while everyone is cooking and getting dinner ready.

Come Friday morning, I will drag out the Christmas decoration and decorate the house, then back to all my Christmas gift making. I have so much to do still and one needs to be mailed out by Saturday.

It should be a fun week. I always get excited for Christmas and by the time Thanksgiving comes around I can hardly wait to decorate and do all my holiday baking. I have so many leftover supplies from last years baking that I didn't have to buy much other than sugar and flour and cinnamon. The Family Channel had the 25 Days of Christmas countdown movie marathons and Lifetime has Christmas movies too. I love it all, decorating, singing, baking, wrapping, giving etc.

Here is a picture of the moose coasters I made. I have one set made and a second one still to make. I've been having problems with my sewing machine. It was just services in June and it took 3 weeks! I don't knwo if I need it serviced again or what, but thanks to Miss Jacque for letting me borrow hers I can complete more projects.

I have 3 quilts, one with bead work, 2 fleece blankets, 3 pillows, 4 neck warmers, 4 sets of coasters, and 8 more cross-stitch projects to do and all Christmas gifts will officially be complete. I've completed 10 bookmarks, 2 sets of coasters, and started the fabric yo-yos so far. I've been trying to sew during the day and cross-stitch at night or make fabric yo-yos at night. With my sewing machine problems, I've been playing with tensions and settings and experimenting to see if I could fixe the problem and when I couldn't--carefully removing stitches with my seam ripper. This has set me back a bit, but I know I can get it all done, I just have to be more strict with myself and stop taking so many breaks. I was quite lazy this past weekend and didn't work on anything. It is just hard to sit for so long.

With no further ado, here is one of the moose coasters:

A fellow Swap-Botter shared this tutorial for making these cute owl coasters and since I'm trying to sew more and use my sewing machine. When I had it serviced in June, they told me that sewing machines need to be used regularly not to just sit around. At least I have a nice upholstered case to keep in dust-free and clean in--it has a nice home. Anyway, here is a picture of the owl coasters I made (pattern by Karyn at http://fatorangecat.wordpress.com); before I sewed up the opening at the top.

Owl Coaster Front


Owl Coaster Back


I'll post pictures of the moose ones I'm making too. They aren't applique though, Jarom found the cute fabric in the discount bin because it was what was left on the roll. There was about a 1/2 yard, but it's really cute and wanted me to use it to make coasters for his Mom and Dad for Christmas, but I have enough to make two sets-the other for Aunt Teresa and Uncle Paylor, too.

So, just when I thought I had it all figured out and complete I decided to add some additional accessories. Now, each gingerbread girl has a beautiful bead necklace and all the gingerbread boys have little green neck bows and the final pictures are below.

I'm finishing 3 sets of coasters Thursday and will post the pictures of those in the evening. The other 3 sets of coasters will take longer as they are made with fabric yo-yos; which I'm making myself. In addition to coasters I'm working quilts which I cannot post until after Christmas and wall hanging quilts which I can post. Next week, I should have the pillows posted and a neck warmer. As I finish them I will post more pictures of all the cross-stitch pictures.

Oh, and all those bookmarks I made will have fringed edges but I have to wait to do that until after I get the fusing fabric. Other than that, I'm really not doing much but working on Christmas gifts day and night; applying for some jobs each day. I've been a bit busy with SwapBot as the co-founder of two groups. One for dogs that is a permanent thing and the other for a sewing group that is currently temporary. The sewing group has been a little demanding, but fun, so it takes up about an hour or two of my time each day taking care of swaps and answering questions. My biggest project right now is a Secret Santa swap where about 8 people never received partners so I'm in the process of finding out who has what partners so I can figure out the other 8. The other founder had a full hysterectomy and is out until December. She assigned all the partners, but I didn't get the final copy in case there were any problems...so it is up to me to figure it out. I am extending the deadline, though to be fair to everyone. It has been a little bit of a headache, but I'm tackling it like any problem I would have in an office; still fun though.

Gingerbread Set 1-Final


Gingerbread Set 2-Final



Gingerbread Set 3-Final

Here are some more Christmas projects I've been working on. The last bookmark is the picture I took before the writing it, because if I showed it with the writing it owuld be easy for the giftee to find out one of their Christmas gifts. In that same light, there are other project pictures I cannot post for the same reasoning, but I will post them after the holidays. (Most bookmark desgins are by Dunmani Designs).
Bookmark #7


Bookmark #8


Bookmark #9


Bookmark #3 with orange added to bring out the desing better


Bookmark #10


The gingerbread ornaments are infused with Spiced Gingerbread oil from Bath & Body Works that we bought a few years ago. I dropped a few drops into the stuffing before finishing up the sewing.

Gingerbread Set #1


Gingerbread Set #2


Gingerbread Set #3

For the most part, Halloween was quiet. Most of the houses on our cul-de-sac were dark. We didn't get many trick-or-treaters this year, so my loot will be saved for next years little ghouls.
This was the decor outside. We have the big blow up pumpkin that a witch flew into and got stuck in. We had my eyeball lights in the window, the pumpkins on the doorstep and some little metal buckets on small tables opposite the door. These little buckets are painted and "carved" to look like a pumpkin, bat, ghost and Frankenstein. I put little tea lights in them and they are just adorable. In the kitchen I have four Halloween hot pads hung here and there (not pictured).



The Halloween loot we passed out instead of candy. There were necklaces, pencils, foam bracelets, airplane flyers, buttons, temporary tattoos, felt crown craft kits, straws, sunglasses, mini coloring books and yo-yos.

We enjoyed apples between trick-or-treaters, which were sparse this year. Jarom enjoys using my corer/peeler/slicer from Pampered Chef. We love fall because we can really enjoy fresh, crisp, juicy apples by the dozens.

I was able to get this picture earlier in the week. Miss will actually sit on her bottom like a person and cuddle with you. Jarom enjoys sitting her up.

I took these two on Halloween. I love it when Miss perks up her ears. Gus was the main focus of the other picture, but I got a good shot of both of them. It looks like they are smiling in that picture.


It was bath day for the dogs and I was able to get a picture of Jarom carrying Miss off for hers and then one of her laying on the edge of the bathtub. Later, both dogs were on the bed and Miss layed her head on the pillow I was using as a desk of sorts while I did some cross stitching. I love to watch her sleep...an there is that tongue again.




Gus get cysts between the his digits on his left paw and he licks it a lot. After cleaning it we decided to bandage it up to protect it from his bateria in his mouth in hopes that it will heal quicker.