Christmas Came a Little Early at Our House...

Quote for the day:

Nothing's as mean as giving a little child something useful for Christmas.  

~Kin Hubbard

I, on the other hand...LOVE a useful gift!  Especially when it is something that I've wanted for a while now!

For several months I've been waiting for Black Friday so I could get a really good price on a GPS and an MP3 player.  I've also been thinking it's time to replace my digital camera because it has "issues"...namely it eats through batteries like they are candy, and all the pictures come out REALLY dark and so EVERY picture has to be edited.  

I ended up not going out on Black Friday because my darling daughter said she'd get the GPS for us and my beautiful daughter-in-law said that they would get me MP3 player...and the camera was not a "necessity" since I already have one...so I didn't go out and get anything on Black Friday.

Erin ordered our Christmas gifts online and had them sent here and they arrived the beginning of this past week.  I asked if she wanted us to wait till Christmas to open them and she said "no"...instead, yesterday (Saturday) we got on webcam with her and Dale and opened the gifts they was giving us then.  

One gift I knew of...the GPS...the second gift...I didn't know what it was...but it was A NEW DIGITAL CAMERA!!    YAY!

So last night after opening the presents, I started playing with the camera.  Instead of having an instruction booklet with it you have to read it online.  It has a "share" feature where you can upload pictures directly to social networks and certain photo sites.  I'm still trying to get that feature figured out.   That would be handy for adding pictures to Facebook!  :)  If I ever get it figured out...

I have the GPS opened, but my brain was too overloaded with technical information last night that I didn't have the brain power left to give that instruction booklet a go, yet.  LOL

We are taking a trip this weekend and can't wait to use the GPS then!  That means that I'll have to read the book and get it set up by then!  Can't wait to hear what voices they have available!   I have a funny story about a friend's GPS voice that I'll have to tell you sometime...but it has to be told in person...it would lose it's humor if I tried to put it in writing.  

So...I've been working on machine quilting the "bug jar" quilt:

 

I have to work on it in "sessions" with lots of breaks.  Machine quilting is WORK!  You are fighting with the quilt the entire time to get it through that little space between the needle and the sewing machine.  And the quilt weighs a TON!   So I do it in "sessions" so I don't too frustrated with it.  However, just about the time I'm getting into my groove with the machine quilting...nice smooth stitches, nice straight lines, nice rounded curves, etc...it's time to take a break and rest my back and arms.  

I also have my whole-cloth quilt in my hand quilting frame that I'm working on, too.  

After the quilt is finished and washed, the blue lines will wash out and all you will see is the stitching.  As you can see in the last picture, I thought the printed lines were too far apart (2") so I went and added additional lines between them so the lines are only 1" apart!  It will now take me TWICE as long to do it!  LOL

It's snowing here and it is NASTY outside!  :(  Hopefully, it will stop...eventually...sometime...before March.   

While I was outside taking this picture a deer ran across our neighbor's yard, across the street and across the neighbor's yard that lives across the street from us.  (That's a lot of use of the word "across"...but I can't figure out how else to say it!  LOL)

I have an Ebay auction of Pfaltzgraff ending tonight.  So far there are no bids, but with any luck it'll get a bid at the last minute.   

I have gotten rid of most of the Pfaltzgraff pieces that I didn't want and have been using the baking dishes that I saved for myself from the boxlot that I bought.  These dishes clean up so easily!  And they look so pretty!  They are really fun to use because they can make even MY food look good!  LOL  Even Andy has used them in his cooking!  

All pictures are compliments of our new camera!  :)  Love it!  

Thanks for stopping by!  Please leave a comment to let me know you were here and let me know what you have "released into the wild" recently!  

Loretta