Holly-days happenings

...which reminds me, I need to get a photo of my big ol' holly bush all covered in berries. It's a Burford holly, not an English one--we had some of those but they have died off. I'm blaming the drought but the truth is, I'm thinking that even plants and shrubs have a life cycle and maybe they were just elderly.

Speaking of which...

I came home from knitting on Wed. to a porchful of packages, including a red and white box with some rather cryptic instructions:
"Close and lock doors.
Hide behind a large piece of furniture. Quietly open box. Savor and enjoy!"
This is what was in the box:

The box also stated:
Perishable! Once opened, contents may disappear immediately!"
Needless to say the box no longer looks like this.
Can I just say that chocolate-covered strawberries make an excellent breakfast?
Many thanks to D1 and her family!!
Oh, and happy birthday to Granddaughter Lizziebug today! Very special people are born on the solstice!
Another one of the boxes contained this tower of festivity:
Gevalia coffees and teas. From my bro. Who knows of my addictions!

The box of truffles is from son Jeff and his family.
Contributing to the delinquency of my diet, that's for sure, but so deliciously!

My darlings have taken my message to heart: I don't need more stuff! So, delicious consumables are great!

(Some rewards, I suppose, for being another year older. I got to talk to all the offspring, one way or another, as well as my brother.)


But, of course, not everything is going to be consumable.

Some things will just get used for "other things."
Like, for instance, this:

Yarn Pirate merino/tencel in Icicle.

I love the colorway. And the yarn is very soft. And shiny.

Hmmm...

Then there is the Austermann Inka, which just happens to come in a colorway perfect for the Laughing Carrots sweater. And of course, I do happen to know a little-boy-carrot who looks smashing in orange!
Props to Laura for alerting me to this special on Elann. I love me a good enablement!!

And then there was the STR order:
I am just nutso over the Pink Granite colorway. Had to have some Pond Scum.
I promise not to put them in the same garment. Well, maybe not...

On to some quilty goodness. Tuesday night was our last class of the year, which we celebrated with a potluck and some happy sewing.
Louise finished a tree skirt for her niece:

Drs. Harry and Ellin finished a wonderful batik quilt top. Here's Harry doing his Kilroy imitation.

Can I just say that these wonderful people sent off 14 boxes of quilts and clothing to New Orleans? 20 quilts, people! 20!! And some school clothes for the kids, plus they were able to raise some money with an art auction. As well as all the other things they do. Their particular focus in NO is the dialysis community, which has been hard hit and is having even rougher times. Not that many people in the Katrina/Rita disaster zone are having it easy; but when you add the additional problems involved with dialysis patients, well, it just multiplies exponentially. Ellin, a retired pediatric nephrologist, has remained connected to and committed to the network, and is putting a lot of time and energy into doing what she can to alleviate the sufferings.

What's really great to see is how much fun they have with their quilting and sewing and fundraising. Tuesday night, I helped them plot out another fundraising quilt, which will be for their granddaughter's school.

Whew, didn't mean to get so heavy there. Onward!

Anne is making a quilt for her granddaughter. This one is all blocks of the same design--Churn Dash/Monkey Wrench/Hole in the Barn Door, probably has dozens of other names too. The blocks are all different sizes, ranging from 16" down to 2.5". Her granddaughter specified turquoise and pink, so that's where the color combo came from. (Anne is SO not a pink and turquoise person--she had to buy most of the fabrics to make this--but there was a quilter's run on the Central Coast, and those shops did have pink and turquoise.)

In the midst of holiday prepping, the more mundane tasks still need to be done. Today will be devoted to paying bills, doing laundry, and if the stars align properly, I might even get to the cards. One never knows!
In case I don't get back to the blog before next week--I have been tapped for jury duty, starting on Monday--I'll wish you a happy holiday, whichever you celebrate, and a very good new year, too! (More on that. Going to be some resolutions for next year, you betcha!)