Month: December 2012

And it’s the end of the year….

by

And we had a really wonderful one.  Full of lots of friends and family.  Travel–Superbowl, three trips to North Dakota, a weekend in NYC.  Terry here most of the time which turned into fun.   A wedding.  An engagement.

A sad note is that I lost a really good friend to cancer this year. Actually just last week. While I knew how ill she was, I was still not prepared.

We remodeled the powder room, master bath, and laundry room.  Created an office for Terry.

Bathroom
The big remodel — Master Bath Before
A year of Maggie
And After

I started this blog, too.  After having a website for about 12 years that I sporadically updated with family news, I decided to dedicate some daily time to a blog.  Started out in HTML and moved to WordPress which was a huge adjustment.

So that’s it for my end of year review.

But wait, we must have pictures of the pooch!  So here’s a year of Maggie:

A Year of Maggie
January, Landscaping the Back Yard
A year of Maggie
What, you don’t like it?
A year of Maggie
Maggie in her Valentines’ outfit
A year of Maggie
Went hiking in March.
A year of Maggie
Maggie, Guard Dog, in April
A year of Maggie
In May, Maggie watched manatees
A Year of Maggie
Maggie in her favorite perch in June
A year of Maggie
Maggie looking adorable in July
A year of Maggie
Maggie waiting for company to arrive in August
a year of Maggie
Maggie staging an intervention in September. “Mommy, you don’t need that glass of wine.”
A year of Maggie
Maggie In October, getting ready for the Al-La-Palooza
A year of Maggie
Captain Maggie in November
A year of Maggie
Christmas Maggie

 

Christmas Wrap Up

by

I had big plans for the Christmas gifts this year.  All made by me! Easy peasy and special.   But I fell victim to the “10 pounds in a 5 pound sack” curse.  I probably should have started all these homemade gifts way before the month of December.

I thought it would be a breeze to make all four granddaughters these huge dolls.  I had made one for Jessica almost 30 years ago.  Gotta be a piece of cake.  But these little monsters had a mind of their own.  I sewed up two, started stuffing their limbs and watched them turn into aliens.  Seriously. They had major cellulite issues and they kept getting bigger!

Christmas Wrap Up

I had set a deadline of the 14th to get Piper’s doll done. The closer that date came, the more those possessed dolls aggravated me.  No cooperation what so ever.  When I finally accepted the fact that there was NO way I’d have Piper’s delivered by Christmas, I turned to Amazon for her gifts.

I did finally figure out the cellulite issue and the third doll looked pretty good. (No saving the first two) I finished her on Christmas Eve and gave her to the oldest granddaughter. I still intend to make the other girls’ dolls.  Maybe Valentines’s? Easter?  April Fools?

2012_12_24doll

My other big gift idea was shopping totes for the women.  Seven totes.  Got three done. Such a failure!

Christmas Wrap Up
First Shopping Tote
Christmas Wrap Up
Shopping Totes 2 and 3.  I was into these coordinated blue fabrics.

And so what did I learn from this experience?  Nothing.  I’ll still try to “stuff 10 pounds in a 5 pound sack” next year.  And stay optimistic that a miracle will occur and all will be right in the world!  After all, it’s Christmas!