More of January

Just a few more things I wanted to share with you about January before it is a distant memory for all of us.

I knew what I wanted for a Christmas ornament in 2010 once the tree was up but I didn't spend any time looking for it until after Christmas. I found dearjes on Etsy and fell in love with her little nests. We had a few conversations via Etsy messages and she was able to personalize an empty nest just for me! It has a great clip on the bottom so it can be attached to the tree.
Isn't it adorable? An empty nest to commemorate that my children are both off to college.

One of the things on my list of goals - learn to decorate sugar cookies. With some of the money that I received for Christmas I have been buying some supplies to help with that goal. Here is my first attempt.

I was pretty pleased with how it went. I shipped the majority of these off to the kids. They were really excited about them. I love that about my kids.

Here was my second attempt. Uhhhhh, not as nice. I had leftover icing and so I made up another batch of cookies to practice. I brought the refrigerated icing to room temperature and boy, oh boy! It was all I could do to keep it on the cookies! So different from the first experience. Hubby has the job of eating all of these. I know they aren't pretty, just keeping it real!


To go along with College Girl's cookies I made this Mug Rug for her. I have seen these all around blog land, wasn't really sure of them then something clicked and I wanted to make one. I played with my design for awhile, on the back of envelopes and on some scratch paper. I got all of the pieces cut out and applied to the background and then I just stalled. I was afraid of messing it up with the free motion quilting to outline the figures. I finally decided to go with the same color thread on each piece rather than a black/charcoal sketchy look. I was pretty sure my stitching would be such a mess and that I would hate the dark thread.


I even surprised myself by 'coloring outside the lines' and making the bird's little top knot.


I actually liked creating the tree bark effect. The little clumps of snow were the hardest since they were so small.


I even liked how the back looked! But I did cover it with a piece of the blue w/snowflakes like the front just to keep those stitches protected.


With a mug to give you an idea of the size. I used a tutorial I found at That girl... That quilt for applying the binding by machine. Thanks, Jennifer! What a time saver that was! I cut the binding at 2" wide so there wouldn't be so much overlap on such a small project.

I'm linking up to the Quiltstory blog for Fabric Tuesday. Their button is on the right at the top if you want to link up too!

I did also do some reading this month. Two non-fiction books. One of them called HOME by Julie Andrews. It didn't thrill me at all. Slow, too many details that didn't interest me at all. Sorry, Julie. You sing pretty though!

The other was a fantastic page turner called In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer by Irene Opdyke. Just incredible what she went through. I can't imagine doing any of the things she did, it takes a certain kind of courage for sure. I highly recommend this book.

For January I also memorized two verses of scripture. Psalm 65:11 to start the year off and then Psalm 46:1.

No scrapbooking, not a lot of exercise, the eating was healthier than December!

Okay, bring on February!

Praise - for the family that God has given me, individuals who love and appreciate one another and the things we do for each other.

Prayers - for Joanne of The Simple Wife, Sandi of my online scrapping friends, and Katy from church, who all need continued prayer for the health struggles they are facing.