Feeling Festive

Our tree decorating was a bit challenging this year, but we finally got it fully decorated on Saturday and I love it. :)

Our tree is a live fraser fir which is a really pretty tree, but not that easy to put lights on. The first time I tried Chris thought it looked awful. Then I tried again and it still looked awful. Then he took over and he ran out of lights. Then he started over completely and still didn't have enough lights. And then half a string of lights went out. And that was it for tree decorating that night.

Fast forward several days and new strings of LED lights, and we have a fully lit, beautifully decorated tree. I wish I could just sit in my living room by the fire for a few days because it's super cozy.

I love Christmas lights, colored ones in particular, which I know can be a source of great debate for some people. I prefer colored lights, but I think white lights are really pretty too. The lights in the living room weren't enough so I put up more in my dining room.

I love how these snowmen reflect the light and make everything extra sparkly.

Merry Christmas!

A lovely evening...

warm by the fire,

and surrounded by Christmas cheer.

Special Delivery

This package will soon be on its way to North Carolina.

And this package will soon be on its way to Florida.

But I hadn't planned on this package!

Lens Love

I decided to get myself a new lens for my camera with my birthday money. I have a really nice one that Chris got me a few years ago, but it's more of a wide-angle lens than a zoom lens. It's worked great and I still love it, but I've also been wanting a telephoto lens. Telephoto lens can be super expensive, but super expensive wasn't in my budget. Instead, I found a nice one in the $200 range rather than $2000 range. At 55-250 mm it can't zoom in on every crater on the moon, but I still think it will serve me well.

I took this shot with the lens zoomed all the way out. Excuse the mess of crap in my backyard. It's cold here in central Ohio and I don't really care if my backyard is beautiful this time of year. Plus we had to use any warm weather we could get to rake and bag the 8 billion leaves that fell in our yard, not making things pretty.

I took this shot from the exact same spot but zoomed all the way in. Nice, no? Now I don't have to rely on computer when I want to zoom in on something.

We have a bird feeder (that my mom's cousin made, btw) about 8-10' outside of our den window and I was able to get this shot from the warmth of my house! We thought we'd seen the last of the birds by the end of the summer, but the squatters returned as soon as the temperatures dropped. I wasn't able to get a shot of it, but there were 3 birds flitting around this house at one point that day!

I hope everyone had a happy weekend. Less than 3 weeks until Christmas!

Quilted Coasters

I can finally write about one of my recent sewing projects because the recipient got it as a gift last night. Over the course of a month, Chris, our friend Kate and I all have birthdays so we pick one night to celebrate them all. We were a little late this year because all of our birthdays have passed, but is it ever really too late to celebrate your birthday??

I made Kate some coasters which turned out to be something she'd been wanting to get. Yay for me! :) It was hard to part with them because I really love the fabric (Amy Butler), but I decided Kate's worth it ;)

I've made coasters like these several times in the past, but changed them up a little this time by doing a freehand design instead of spiraling squares. It was a completely bastardized way of doing freehand machine quilting, but it worked out fairly well for this little project. I've since purchased the proper sewing foot which should make it easier next time, but my method does work in a pinch.

Happy Belated Birthday Kate!

Giveaway Winner

The random number generator had to work very hard to process those 3 entries (which is ironically the same number of entries I had for my 200th post giveaway) and the winner is #1 Mary! I wanted you all to win but alas there could only be one. Well, I suppose there could be more since it is my giveaway after all, but one it is this time.

Mary, I'll send it out with your Christmas gift since I'm cheap, don't like going to the post office and I'm going to be sending you a package soon anyway :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I love Christmas! Aside from the cold weather, it really is the best time of year. And I can't complain about the cold that much at this time of year since it makes things more festive.

This is a pretty horrible picture, but it's of our first snow of the season. It's kind of hard to photograph falling snow. We had flurries for a few hours the day after Thanksgiving and it looks like we might have a little more later this week.

One thing I was really excited to discover in the past few days is the poinsettia the former homeowners left behind is turning red! We almost threw it out after we moved in back in May because it wasn't looking too hot. We decided to ride it out a little while longer because I really hate throwing away plants and now it's doing great!

We haven't done much decorating yet, but hopefully things will be much more festive around here after the weekend.