31 days of posts Our little trip into the city

As I mentioned, we went into Denver on Friday, to go to the Christmas market.
I think the sun shining on the building , with reflections is an artsy shot... worthy of inspiration for a painting or quilt!

the day was cold and windy, very dusty, and it was a bustling weekday for most.
Not we three who had just started our plant shutdown for the holidays.

one of the painted cows downtown

We haven't figured this out yet! To me it's a scary trip each time. The roads are not great leading to town, but the views of mountains behind the city are really stunning.

it reminds me a little of Boston, viewing older buildings through new high-rise ones. We walked down the 16 street mall to the Brown Palace, to see one of the first grand buildings here. The developer was brilliant. He bought land early, donated a section right in the center of it for city/then state, capital buildings. That done, he set himself up to develop the areas around it for officials and visitors! Hotels, restaurants, shopping. Smart guy. Not related to unsinkable Molly Brown.

Isn't this pretty? From the walkway between the main hotel and more rooms.

I wish the color came out better in this atrium shot. A lot of original buildings made use of the bright sun here, to light the inside of their homes and offices.

this hotel was featured in a movie (Our Souls at Night on Netflix) we just saw with Redford and Fonda together again, older but still gorgeous. Those layers are beautifully carved balconies, the chandelier twinkled brightly, Debutantes danced under the lights preparing to "come out" the next night...

what are they doing? I want to play too!

while people watched from the gallery seats

how grand! And it must have really been grand in 1891.

going up? Enjoy the wall murals!

or stairs

beautiful carvings and papers, polished wood and marble. Inspiration for art, right?

Loved the way the lights on each alcove created pretty shadows. Sparkling. Detailed. Genteel.

wallpaper flocked with gold, harkening back to a time when details mattered!

Details and beauty still matter to me.
The fact that the employees welcomed Milo was a big plus too.

I am glad we got to see the hotel, but have been reluctant to go back into City center. We drove past the capital, the botanic garden and art gallery buildings, and commented we enjoy the small neighborhoods and parks that make up Denver more, once you're away from the center of town.

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31 days of posts Dreaming of bones

Milo here... if this is my tree, why can't I pee on it?

this post is brought to you by:

Milo here, again, I wanted to speak! today to say Happy Christmas to all my peeps! And their peeps!
I sure enjoyed all my time with you this year!

We went to a big city this week, and I went for a "rideinnacar" too, and when we got out there were a lot of people and cars and noise...
My peeps kept interrupting me when I was shopping...

and I had just found a tasty morsel ground into the dirt outside a sausage booth but they yelled, "Milo quit eating stuff on the ground!"
Did they want it? I didn't see them grabbing it. Fastest dog gets the treat!
Of course everyone wanted to pet me! With my naturally curly hair, and sunny disposition! I met the cutest little spaniel who wanted to put her paws all over me! We might have had a romp if our peeps had dropped the leashes... something about traffic and people or something caused them to keep our leashes on.
You can't keep a good dog down though! The two of us had a smaller romp round and round and people were all laughing and happy to watch us.

Then we walked forever down a long street with a LOT of smells to a building where there were people dancing.

Debutantes practicing waltz in the Brown Palace hotel

How come they get to romp off leash and I have to be quiet??? Lots of people had to pet me again, the cuteness factor, the papparazi you know. It's my world, welcome to it!
A couple hotel employees came up and praised me, I shook their hands! and said this place is dog friendly.
Well! Let's get our extra skins and move in!

It was all nice til Mama wandered off from the pack. OMD(og) she's always doing that! How can I protect her when she's not here???
I kept an eye on where she was last seen...

I realized it could be like at home when she goes in the little room instead of peeing outside.

I love old hotel bathrooms with marble and pretty glass!!!

Anyway, when she came back, I jumped up and hugged her, and asked her NOT to do that again, it worries me, and wagged my tail extra hard to convince her to stay with me!
We wandered around the hotel after that, then went home.

I saw this fellow eating the last of the pumpkin from Thanksgiving...

RIGHT outside the sliding door! I danced around til Mama got the picture, then begged to get outside and chase him. Those pesky squirrels are not afraid of a big bad poodle for some reason, but they are fun to run with.

Hope you are all staying together today, warm and eating good stuff, playing with new toys! I'll see ya later!
Milo

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31 days of posts the week ahead, the year ahead and advice from a poodle

Hey, a squirrel's gotta eat!

It's Monday, so it must be Happy Homemaker day. It may be Christmas Eve but there is still lots to do this week! DH is home too, so it's Happy Homemaker plus one today!

a scene from the Kindlemart Denver

The weather in Aurora CO
Starting the day
I can see all the pretty decorations from my computer perch, and also the back yard with it's dry brown grass and artistically arranged dog toys. A squirrel is enjoying what's left of the pumpkin for his breakfast, but we grab whatever we can for breakfasts around here. Both of us are dressed comfortably and warmly as more snow is on it's way. The weather is variable here in the high desert, yesterday it was chilly but clear skies, and we met friends for a walk around Castle Rock for coffee and chat. 

To-Do
we could have 3-6" of snow around here starting Christmas night, so we better scurry out to collect food. We are keeping our inside to do stuff like cleaning floors, or sorting office stuff, to do if there is lots of snow to keep us in.

One of the things I want to do is shave Milo's feet, as I never did that when we last groomed him, and all that hair will collect ice.
 I want to finalize a word or phrase of the year for 2019. That has been much more productive in past years than a list of goals. I find the word teaches me all year, not just the good things about a word like release or peace, but all the facets of the word.
So choose wisely. "change" from 2018 nearly done me in!

I would like to really clean the dust from furniture this week, while dh can help as my back is so bad. I also want to go through my patterns and re-evaluate what to keep. Set up some more in studio. Walk a lot this week, and please let me drink enough water too.

It would be great to see some friends too... I want to have a couple's night with a new friend and her husband, as it's really hard to find couple friends where all 4 like each other, know what I mean? I envy people who have long time couple friends that regularly have game nights, or go on vacay together.

On the to do list is clean the bathroom mirrors (they are so tall) and the sliding glass patio door, coffee tables, shower... all glass that has become spotted (covered in dog snot) over the last few months. Funny how I don't notice til it reaches critical mass.

I won't be getting this sweater with real gold tinsel

I'd like to go into the masses of people after Christmas shopping for deals. I am one who not only doesn't mind crowds, I enjoy it. I am the only one on earth.

 Eating
I'd like to make a big pot of soup sometime this week, with lots of vege and ginger for health.It's a major undertaking as all the fresh vege take peeling, and chopping. We love it warmed up for lunches. One of my comforts is to have lunch with dh while watching a show on netflix or Acorn.
Currently we are both enjoying Time Team and Lords and Ladle's (chefs reproducing dinners from Medieval times.

reading
I want to read the art quilt book for my group, and look through the two books on writing before they must be returned. I really want to focus on writing more this coming year.
Can you imagine reading all the books you've not read in years, sitting on your book shelf? heehee

I'd like to at least look through half my quilting books this year, and enjoy them. If not now, when?

I am also reading blogs from people I'm becoming friends with through their writing. The 31 days of posts challenge started me reading blogs of friends I'd lost track of, and it's nice to know them better.

watching
sadly we are seeing the last episodes of George Gently (BBC on Acorn) which was a wonderful series with terrific acting and plots. We just finished the last episode of this season of Brokenwood too, out of NZ. We are ready to start the most recent series of Shetland, then will have to find a new series to watch.
I was thrilled the latest series of Mrs Maisel was now available... so I will portion that out.

I also found, on youtube, the BBC series Time Team. I watched them on youtube "the naughty nuns of Northampton" episode and love the mix of anthropology and humor. Now we're both watching on ACORN.

I enjoyed Survivor so much this year, and look forward to the Amazing Race starting soon. Otherwise, regular TV is pretty sparse for me right now.

crafting
I'm finishing up the bargello experiment quilt and I think I might join my friend Mary in doing journal quilts again this year. My goal will be one a month, to try techniques, use my supplies, be creative. I've done this before, and exhibited them at the Houston Quilt Festival. I plan to do them in the 8.5" X 11" format again.

I also bought a felt ornament kit, that I want to stitch, to hang on the mantle for January.
Time to knit some more socks too... ours are wearing out in the soles. Do you repair for a while, then toss them? Don't you hate the idea of throwing away perfectly good cuffs?

Milo shopping for a new hat in Denver

Lessons learned this week
Just because an event is called seasonal, or is once a year, it might not be worth the time. I've been trying to find things around here to do for the holidays, specific to this area. We dragged our three selves to downtown Denver on Friday to go to the Christkindl market and oy vey! First of all, expensive parking ($20 for three hours) horrible traffic, nothing to see there. So many vagrants basically demanding money from people, sidewalks so dirty I worried for my dog's feet. The homeless were not demanding, just so sad.

I'm just saying... I may be too old to deal with that again. We wanted to see the Botanic Gardens light show this week, but sold out. Maybe the art gallery since we used to love going to the Smithsonian each Christmas but parking... traffic... risk... I'm reluctant to go downtown again for a while.

I got some cool pictures of our trip however and will do a post showing those in the next few days. 

Next lesson. Craftsy. When they started they promised the world of crafts to us! We'll hold your patterns forever! Now they sold out to NBC and some people are saying their videos are unavailable already. Gone. I have never been happy with people saying store all your images on the computer! That way they are there forever. Well, who knows? On the other hand, there are photos still around from the beginning of photography, hard copy photos. Note to self, continue to doubt, and question wild promises by companies. Some of my favorite designers have been cut from Craftsy, and alerted us to go download anything of theirs we really wanted before Dec 28th.
Greed is a strong force, NBC.  They don't know the strength of crafters though!

in the lobby of the Brown Palace... dog friendly!

Milo wants to relax this week, be with his peeps, enjoy chewing on his favorite toys, talk us into taking him everywhere we go. That's on his list! Oh and avoid getting his feet shaved.
His advice?
Take it easy, eat what you can get your paws on and enjoy, sleep when you're tired, play when you get a chance, stay warm, enjoy being with the ones you love.

31 days of posts Sunday's Stories

The word prompt for today's story comes from Sunday's Whirligig

THIS WEEK'S WORDS come from "Christmas Trees" by Robert Frost: foliage, coats, city, look, spires, balsams, bare, refuse, cut, boughs, Christmas, letter

Trees

He loved trees!
At Christmas, he wanted a real tree but was conflicted a bit because of chopping down a live thing.

"you'd better find peace with this, as we need a tree in the house to hold all these ornaments we collected over the last 35 years!" his wife told him.

"yep, you're right dear" he replied, having learned something over 35 years of marriage!

"Will we go to the tree farm and cut one ourselves this year, say a nice big Balsam?" Mona asked? "or shall we take a little drive into the city, find a cute decorated stand with ones that can be bundled up for the top of the car? I'd like some garland too, made from boughs. And maybe a Poinsettia, the foliage is so pretty!"

"Hmmmm, well, if they are already cut, there's no hope for them anyway, it will be like adopting a little shelter cat" Sam said, adding " we could do that too! I'd love a cat to climb up our tree wouldn't you? It's been too long!"
"Look here, you... I've got enough on my plate right now, and if we go by the shelter, I'll never be able to resist another cat. I refuse to be overwhelmed any more than I am already!"

They pulled on their coats, he grabbed the old letter jacket from high school found when they rummuged through the attic for ornaments, and she laughed! "Hon, you are much more handsome now than in high school, much MORE of a man now!" she joked. He shrugged, put down the old jacket, pulled on a more sensible down coat, and headed for the car.

Yep, a lot of time had passed since high school, where he met the love of his life. They still had lots of fun together, teased each other, happy to be together still. He liked all the colors and smells of Christmas, loved living trees, but was reluctant to give up the smell and ritual of a real tree in the house. It was worth all the hassle, it was tradition.

He drove along back roads into the little town, seeing church spires that meant they were almost downtown. He loved the town's old decorations on lamp posts, across the main street. He liked seeing colorful lights, and people walking around with store carrier bags in hand. A tiny flurry of snow began, making it even prettier.

Mona peeked at her husband as he drove. She liked that look on his face.
"we'll get the prettiest tree, you'll see. It will fill up that bare corner in the Family room and smell great!" He smiled. They went through this each year. He was content. And very happy.
"yep, you're right dear!" and smiled at her. 

 

31 posts in December another story

They almost went under.
She actually thought they might.

When the pink slip came, her husband came home dejected, almost in tears. They were already barely making it with no room for extras.

She saw Christmas coming with dread, after all how magical could she make it for little kids without presents? In days gone by, people gave less, maybe one heartfelt handmade gift, and they celebrated with friends, church, music, not lots of gifts.

Now, children watch TV and know what other kids have, and what they want, and don't understand how important it is to have a roof over your head and food to eat. She never expected to be in this boat.

Who was she? Was she strong enough to cope? Did she have a choice?
She decided she did have a choice, to keep going. Do her best. Tell her kids they loved them, but this was a difficult year, and that their gifts this year would be action. She was so lucky to be working for the season at the local department store, where she got a discount but her earnings would need to go for necessities.

They would give gifts of time and effort to each other and others this year. They sat down around the table, and discussed how they could show love by doing. A tear fell as she heard her 12 year old say she would sweep the sidewalks and porch of her favorite neighbor next door. Her 10 year old said he would tell everyone he saw for a whole day, that they were special... made more precious because he was so shy.

Her husband said he planned to offer to fix old Mr. Johnson's porch for him. She planned to help deliver gifts her quilting group made to the police station to give out to children involved in stressful situations.

Her daughter, came over to wipe the tear from her face, but she explained it was a happy tear, because they were still together in their home, and she loved them so much. Her husband reached out that night, to hold her hand, showing their kids how much he loved their mother.

It was a beautiful moment for them.

One never knows what will come, loss in some form, or happiness in another.

The morning after their meeting, her husband got a call from his old employer who said they needed to hire him back, that they needed his experience and found a way to pay him again. Would he please consider it?

The husband ended the call, and looked with wonder at his wife, slowly smiling he told her the news.
They both said a prayer of gratitude and felt this would be a truly joyous Christmas after all. One of hope. They had learned the true meaning of the season. 

31 days of posts Sewing... opinions wanted

Here is my little Hexie table runner... done! Yea!
Fairly quick to stitch while watching TV this month. Fun to arrange.

I started with one of the little 2.5" square packets, added in some of my Christmas scraps and love how it came out. The poinsettia girl, the snow scenes the holly, the red bird/star are all mine. The smallest scrap can showcase a design!

I basted behind the papers only (not thru) and could easily remove them. Put the quilt on red felt, quilted with gold metallic thread (YLI) and buttonhole stitched around the whole thing outside. I then cut with scissors, about an eighth inch outside the buttonhole stitching, to make a pretty red edge.
Then sewed through the whole thing on certain hexies, little gold beads.

That's the good news... as to my Bargello quilt from 2.5" strips (Bonnie Hunter design)

 
It was okay to arrange the 12" squares...
and I made 12 of them, 3 X 4

I realize I merged a true bargello look (zig zag) and a trip around the world look, and that caused some issue in construction as the blocks wouldn't nest after being turned.

It was okay to sew the blocks together across in sets of 3's




Then the bloom fell off the rose, it was no longer fun, but aggravating and tedious.




As we all know, when you're in this deep you keep going.

Matching all the squares, that no longer nest since you've turned them in the arrangement.
The seams flip. The edges don't quite meet, the whole thing is an exercise in endurance.

This is a close up of the center

I didn't like the way the white blocks came together after it was all stitched so I put a quick heart shape to see if I liked it more.

I do!

They'll need to be appliqued




So now the center is 36.5 X 48.5"

I wanted a throw size, so borders have to be chosen.






Argh, more good fabric on a quilt I don't love...

could I just be tired of it? I don't think so... into the stash I went, and how about the little rose fabric and the swirls?
Or just the red?

or a really old Hoffman celestial print with gold in it

The auditions continue
this may be the back since I do like it, there's enough and I've been saving it for a while. It's pretty busy as a border choice...

Ribbon candy!

What do you all think? Keep going?

I had an art quilt meeting this week, which was lots of fun, and met at a LQS named Holly's Fabric Cabin...

yes please, one of each would be great!
Look at their notion tree

and this beauty

ah, back when a Singer was the gold standard!

 So I purchased a few items for my own gifts...well if Milo can have early presents so can I!

Some cream colored fabric with gold shot through, two little notebooks like the 50's style, a felt ornament kit to put on the January mantle and a cute little bird needle threader (his beak) with thread cutter.

So, I got to use my Christmas stash, and now there is still no room in the drawer... how can that be?

I didn't get around to the icicle beaded ornaments, but still could this week during some down time.
If you feel like giving feedback on the bargello quilt, please comment.
Thanks!

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