Progress . . . .

Things are progressing at my house......I got some of my Christmas Village Houses set up....

Before......

And After.......(typical November at my house, Christmas decorations mixing with the fall decorations (placemats).)

And a few more over here.....22 houses unpacked, plugged in and ready for Christmas, 40 more to go.

I'm also making progress on my Red Snowball Challenge, or as I'm calling my quilt, "He knows when you are sleeping". I've got all the blocks made! If you follow the pressing instructions they really go together easily. I hope the rows go together as easily.

As I mentioned Monday, I'm throwing a few Santas in the mix with my cream snowballs. I've decided on 9, here's the random pattern I'm going with.

The Santa faces are so appealing, this one looks like he's deep in thought.....probably wondering if Thelma's been naughty or nice . . .

Here's one Santa with another Santa sneaking in......

I think this Santa looks tired but he's got a great beard......I love each little rosie cheek.

Nicole, at Sisters Choice, had a blog yesterday about shoes, which made me remember of funny shoe story of my own.

I'm not really a shoe person, it's just not in my blood. The first year after I retired my primary shoes of choice were tennis shoes. Summer, winter, fall, spring, I was in tennis shoes, and loving it!

One day my husband mentioned that maybe I could wear some shoes besides tennis shoes. I'm guessing he had some shoes in mind like the ones above. Which are beautiful shoes, but they have a better shot of being a decoration in my living room than getting on my feet. So being the dutiful wife that I am, I went out and bought new shoes.....

these...they're Rocket Dogs!! My husband laughed when he saw them, but they are all me!!

I do have one favorite pair of shoes that aren't tennis shoes.....

Santa Shoes!!!

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It's Beginning To Look A LITTLE Like Christmas . . . . . .

Hello, how was your weekend, it was a busy one here, the time just flew by.

We started the process of getting ready for Christmas this weekend. My husband helped me get all my Department 56 Christmas Village houses down from the attic. It's definitely a two person job. I get up in the attic and drop the boxes down one by one. My husband does the catching and stacking.

I started collecting these Christmas houses over 20 years ago. I would get a few each year as gifts from family and before I knew it I had a whole town. Every year I say I don't have room for any more, then a new one comes out that "I just need" to complete my collection. I set them up all over the house.

I get them out before Thanksgiving for several reasons. First, my daughter is only home for a few days at Christmas, so I like to get some of the decorations out for her to enjoy at Thanksgiving. I also like to take my time setting them up, I enjoy looking at each one, the details amaze me every time. But mainly, I just like having them out, they are the first decorations up and the last I put away.

From the beginning I've always written the date I got the piece and the name of the person who gave it to me on the box. This one was from my Grandmother in 1992, she sadly passed away a couple of years later. But I think of her often, and always when I get out this house.

Looks like I picked this one up while on vacation in South Carolina in 1991.

I could not pick a favorite if I tried.

Although this pie shop is pretty darn cute.

Even the back of the houses, which folks don't normally get to see, have interesting detail. Here's a coat and broom by the back door with snowy logs stacked on the step.

Stay tuned for pictures as I get these houses all set up for the holidays.

I also squeezed in some sewing this weekend. I worked on snowballs for the Red Snowball Quilt Challenge.

I thought I had all my red snowball blocks done. I thought I counted 40 plus 3 extra.

But when I put them on my design wall for this picture I came up short. Not only did I not have the extra, I didn't have the 40 I needed. I'm not sure where I went wrong. My goal was to have all my red blocks done this weekend, and I had the time, if I would have counted correctly.

That's OK, I have plenty of half square triangles made up ( as I've mentioned before, I'm an over cutter) so I'll make a few more then get started on the cream snowballs.

I've got around 40 different red fabrics in the red blocks.

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