Category Archives: Everyday

A Festive Thanksgiving Weekend

Hello to you all, and depending on where you are in the world good morning or good afternoon. It is early morning here in northern Illinois, and it is foggy this morning. We haven’t seen but a fleeting peek of the sun since last Tuesday. We are getting used to these dark and dreary days.

For the Thanksgiving holiday we drove to my brother-in-law’s house which is 4 hours away. However, it took closer to 5 hours to get there as traffic on Wednesday was a bit crazy–no surprise as it was the day before Thanksgiving. We headed south and drove around the city of Chicago. As we left the city the rain started and didn’t stop the whole way. The big story, however, was the wind. I drove for a little bit and it took concentration and effort to keep the car on the road–very tiring.

2019 traffic 4811

We woke on Thanksgiving morning to a light dusting of snow. It was so pretty, but didn’t last the day. My brother-in-law and his family live on a beautiful lake and this is the view from the main floor of their home.

2019 morning snow 4812

The kitchen was a busy place on Thanksgiving; everyone lent a hand getting dinner on the table. Our three girls all sat at the breakfast bar and us ‘old people’ sat at the table.

We had green beans, roasted squash, mashed sweet potatoes and white potatoes, cranberry cilantro relish, stuffing, salad, bread, and of course turkey and gravy.

2019 buffet dinner 4833

2019 table 4835

For desert we had pumpkin pie, berry pie, apple turnover, and pumpkin cheesecake! I couldn’t decide, so I tried them all!

We arrived back home yesterday evening. The traffic wasn’t bad. That’ll happen today! Ugh! I am sorry for all of you that have to travel today–not fun. Tomorrow it is back to school and back to work.

I will be having my Christmas ensembles available for sale starting this week. I am not sure which day that will start, but keep an eye out if you are interested in a new ensemble for your Little Darlings, Pukipuki, or Amelia Thimble.

Enjoy your Sunday friends! ❤

Good Morning!

18 Replies

Good morning and Happy Sunday, friends! I was up to see the first light of the day this morning. Although with these shorter days one doesn’t need to get up very early to see the first light of the day. I took this a little after 6am. I love being up before it is light, do you?

2019 fall early morning 0909_edited-1

Yesterday morning, however, I was up a bit later, and instead of the first light I caught the sun welcoming the day. It was a very frosty morning. The landscape looked as though sugar had been sprinkled upon it.

2019 fall sunrise 0895

2019 fall frosty morning 0907

When we start getting snow I start filling the bird feeder. This is the second fill which is almost gone. Hmm, maybe the squirrels could answer that question.

2019 fall squirrel feeder 0902 I have finally finished up this blue sweater dress ensemble. I would like Gina to model it, but she is wearing another that needs photographing, so that will have to wait a bit.

2019-11-22 0908

Here are my three girls in the other sweater dress ensembles I’ve recently made. Don’t they look festive and warm?

2019 gina lucy alice christmas101

A couple of weeks ago, and while we had snow on the ground, I visited the Chicago Botanic Gardens. They were very busy setting up for Lightscape, so some places were roped off. I walked around the Dwarf Conifer Garden which is the perfect place when there is snow on the ground. It feels so very Christmasy.

dwarf conifer garden 4773

dwarf conifer garden snow 4775

dwarf conifer garden snow 4777

I also visited the greenhouses. I wanted to ‘feel summer’ again, and I did. The warmth and humidity in the tropical greenhouse felt so nice.

greenhouses snow 4783

greenhouse 4786

orchid greenhouse 4788

pink plant greenhouse 4789

Happy Thanksgiving to all my U.S. readers! Wishing you safe travels if you are traveling.

❤

Winter?Autumn? and WIPs

13 Replies

Winter has bullied its way in, and pushed our beautiful autumnal season out! 😦

*sigh*

It doesn’t seem like our 7-inch snowfall on Halloween was a fluke either. The snow did melt (none too quick though–took a few days!), however, we are still colder than normal and the rooftops are dusted white once again this morning.

I took these pics the day after our big Halloween event!

2019 fall 4750

You can see autumn didn’t get to finish its ‘work’ this year.

2019 fall 4744

Even our front porch squirrels got Halloween snow dumped on them!

2019 fall 4746

So, anyway… Hello! On a positive note, with this weather comes more time to spend indoors and create, right? I’ve got lots of things in progress. (Probably too many, as my head is starting to feel a bit jumbled–better get some of these things moved to the ‘completed’ list.)

I showed you this dress as it was being knit. I finished it, blocked it, then tried it on my Little Darling. The sleeves were too long and a little too wide. 😦 I figured out where I wanted to decrease the sleeves, and then ripped back to that row. Two decreases and four rows less on each sleeve did the trick. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be.

2019-11-06 061

I spent the day on Sunday sewing dresses for Gracie and Talyssa, my Kaye Wiggs MSD girls. I quickly realized that I am out of practice sewing for them–the first dress came out too tight around the waist–no room for the added bulk of a pair of snaps. If I add a bead and loop closure it could work, but going to put it aside for now.

2019-11-06 064

After this ‘fail’, and so I wouldn’t ruminate over it, I quickly made another and the second dress worked fine. Yay! It turns out my skirt width for the first dress was too wide and added too much bulk (with the gathers) to the waist.

2019-11-06 072

2019-11-06 4752

While in my studio sewing I snapped a few photos of my dolls and their ensembles that were pretty-ing up my view.

2019 little darling dresses 066

2019 amelia thimble miniature dresses 073

2019 gina lucy 069

2019 gina lucy 067

Today I’ll probably do some knitting on the cardigan that will accompany the red snowflake dress and start weaving in ends on my three sweater dresses that are waiting to be completed.

I might also brave the cold and go out for an invigorating autumn, or I should say wintery, walk in my neighborhood. Also, a pot of homemade soup simmering on the stove would be perfect today.

How about you? What are your plans for the day?

❤

Thank you for stopping by!