And here is what I received!

This is from Gina in http://quiltinginthevalleys.blogspot.com/. She made me the most wonderful quilt. Look at the snowmen - they are in snowglobes. The fabric she used is so beautiful and the embellishments are perfect. And if you look closely you will see there are tiny beads that look like snow. They must have taken so long to do and the quilting is so tiny and just spectacular! She also sent me some other goodies - a calendar from Wales, a magazine - for which there is a perfect pattern in it to use some of my Christmas scraps, and some candy - yum! Thank you so much Gina - it has been so delightful having you as my partner. And also thank you to Chookyblue for hosting.

sscs - what I sent

Here's a picture - of what I sent to Noemia of
www.aartedostrapinhos.blogspot.com
I have enjoyed reading her blog since I received her name for the swap. Take a look at it - she has so many delicious posts. Cooking is obviously a passion for her as well as sewing. So I made her some kitcheny things. Also a picture of an apron I made for her.
I got a new camera for Christmas - so look for a lot of terrific photos - I hope! Plus a post of what I received in the sscs swap and yes I did wait until Christmas to open it!!!

this little guy

I am still here - finishing up some presents. We saw this flying squirrel the other night - and they are unusual to see - but he was more interested in our bird feeder than hiding from us. The flying squirrel actually doesn't fly but glides and uses a bone in his wrist to steer. I didn't take the "flying" picture - but now I'm definitely going to be looking for these guys at night.
Also a picture of a famous flying squirrel!

100th post ... look for a giveaway after the holidays.

I'm trying to finish things up here and they are surprises so no pictures of them. I'm looking forward to school break and having the kids home. DD#1 will be coming home from college for the month! I'm especially happy to have a chance to sleep in a bit. You see I get up at 4:30 (am) to take dd#2 to swim practice.
Now for a commercial announcement: for one of my projects I ran out of some fabric - I looked online and ordered this fabric from Shabby Fabrics http://www.shabbyfabrics.com/. They were sooo nice and it arrived in 3 days! Also on the same day I ordered fabric from Jo-ann fabric - it's this cute little gingerbread man print that I saw and they told me it would be 10 to 15 business days and they sure were right. Now I remember why I never shop there :(
The gingerbread man stuff may need to be for next Christmas if it doesn't get here soon. My sscs package got to Portugal faster than that!
So are there other people out there who haven't finished their Christmas projects and already planning for next year?
This is my 100th post!! I've decided to wait until after Christmas to celebrate it with a giveaway. Something to brighten January up a bit.

I thought I could post a picture of my dqs#5 quilt - the one I made for ????. She should be getting it any day so I won't say who it's for. This is one of my first patternless (a word?) attempts. I had decided to stop using patterns and start thinking for myself some more. It was fun to do and I defintely will do more like this. Hope she likes it!

I've been busy sewing swaps, finishing/starting gifts that won't get finished this year (darn) getting my doll quilt swap mailed to ????? and my chookyblue secret santa swap sent far away to ?????. AND I have not opened my sscs - I pleased with my will power. The only problem is that I can't show anything I've made yet. So for today here is a Thanksgiving picture of Maggie. She's a big furry golden retriever - the sweetest dog ever. She usually likes to spend the day in the garage - it's cooler in there. At night she comes in and since she is an only dog now, I pretend I don't know that she sleeps on my good sofa! But just look at her on Thanksgiving - she was under foot all day - keeping her eye on that turkey.

Oooh - don't look at my smudgy oven - it was a hectic couple days of cooking. Also I didn't see it until after I posted the picture but apparently Maggie had some company waiting for the turkey to be done.