Happy New Year!

I can't believe that when I started this post, it was still the New Year!  Now it's halfway through the month.  We finally got a family Christmas photo on Dec. 29th at a wedding reception.  Shanon, the guy I work with at the Martin Center, and Allison were having their reception with a winter woodland theme.  They served chili and had a hot chocolate bar and wonderful decorations.

Here we are in color...........

with real "fake" snow!



Shanon and Allison were gifted with my On Ringo Lake quilt.  They had seen it at our quilt show in Arrow Rock in October and he mentioned how much they liked it. He was thrilled when he opened it and wouldn't let anyone touch it.  So I had to show him this photo.......

Yes, there is Muffin sitting on his quilt waiting to be part of the gift!  Shanon even wanted washing and care instructions for it.  It's so nice when someone truly appreciates a quilt!

I rang in the New Year with some cleaning and organizing in the sewing room.

"Santa" brought me some new plastic tubs and it was nice to put all the different colors together in one tub.  And I sorted all the projects with their notes and instructions into different boxes and baskets.

You can even see the floor in this corner behind the cutting table!  No more cardboard boxes of fabric or baskets of scraps to be sorted and put away!

DD got in on the action by reorganizing her stuffed animals (I requested that she vacuum the dust off them) and she also decided to change the outfits on all the Build-A-Bears.

I also parted with Bunny, the last machine I purchased.  She was a really nice 404 in a cabinet that I was using in the basement, but I really didn't need 6 machines.  She went to a nice guy in our quilt guild.  Then Lizzy got moved to the basement.  

 She is a 201 and very heavy.  I didn't think I would talk the Hubster into moving her to the basement, but he thought that if it would help me let go of Bunny, it was definitely worth it.  Lizzy is a much quieter machine, so it's nice to have her in the basement where I can watch TV and sew without her being too loud.

Some Leader/Ender blocks are coming along!

And speaking of sewing machines, I need to share a visit we made to my high school driver's ed teacher's house when we were in Bethany before Christmas.  Mr. and Mrs. Kelim were my high school teachers.  He taught driver's ed and health and she taught business.  He now collects and works on old machines.  You can't believe the machines!  All types, makes, models, everything.  I couldn't begin to take photos of them all, but here are a couple that intrigued me.

 My photo of this one doesn't do justice to the pretty green color.

And here is another one that I liked.

And he also gets industrial machines..........

This one will sew leather or anything up to 3/4" thick!

I think I know where there are more sewing machines than the Wild Hares have!

The first Friday night of the year, we traveled to Saydel High School on the north edge of Des Moines, IA to see my nephews play basketball.  I was thrilled, DH and DD, not so much.  They went because I made them.

Here is Carter with Sarah.  Carter is a junior and starts varsity.

 And here is Jackson with Sarah.  Jackson is a freshman and starts on the freshman team.

They won both games and both were exciting.  I have some pictures from the freshman game, but not of the varsity game.  It was just too exciting to pause to take pictures.......overtime win!  Both boys played really well, and Carter was high point on varsity with 30 points.

I can't wait to go see them play next year.  I think it will be really fun when they are both on the floor at the same time!

And to show just how diverse we are in our cultural entertainment, on Sunday of the same weekend, we attended the Kansas City Symphony in Helzberg Hall in the Kauffman Center.

We saw this Harry Potter movie with live music!  It was amazing!  And we tried taking some selfies.........

What an awesome weekend!

And then the second weekend of the year..........

Kenzie wasn't too sure about getting off the deck.........until the opportunity to bark at the snow shovel came along.  Magic is staying on the deck as the 16" are just too deep for him to negotiate.  

 And first thing Saturday morning, my 21-year-old was out playing in the snow! 

The Hubs doesn't remember ever getting this much snow all at once before.  And we are slated for another big snow this weekend!  Snow time is Sew time!

Stay warm!
Christi