Easiest tree to put up. All it requires is a trip to the basement and plug it in.
Snowman decorations surround family photos of my maternal grandmother and my father and his parents taken during WWII.
More smowmen surrounding a photo of my mother from the 1990s. The 3 singers in front represent the singing trio that my mother was in both before and during WWII. They were aptly called "The Brandt Sisters" and sang on WGN Radio, at the Oriental Theater in downtown Chicago and all over the nation.
Sitting Santas in front of my high school graduation photo. A photo of my mother as a child is on the left and and a photo of my older sister is on the right.
A cat band serenading whatever was cooking in the microwave; probably coffee.
The dinner my sister made: sage stuffing, Uncle Sharon's Famous Ham and Pineapple Casserole, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, red jello and cole slaw. Dessert was mint chocolate chip ice cream and peach ice cream.
Rocky eating the ribbons and then sound asleep from all of activity. All 15 minutes of it.
Yours truly, the first year of the post menopausal gut. I had nothing to do with its development. It just appeared one day. Really.
A close up of my angelic face that my sister wants a copy of. Well, gmail would not upload it so here it is.
I have left some room on the border spaces so that after I sew all of the blocks together, I can do some embroidery to cover up the seam lines. I am a beginner at embroidery and had a hard time coming up with stitches. While I have several cq books, they are boxed up in anticipation of a move this year. I know that my block is not in the same league as those posted on the CQJP blog but I think that I will submit it anyway. 
As you can see, I cannot do the feather stitch correctly. However, this is the best I have done to date. The stitch requires too much twisting of the hand and aggravates my carpal tunnel problems. While I had the carpal tunnel surgery 2 years ago, I still get pain if I twist my hand. It is disappointing not to be able to do the most important crazy quilt stitch.
Yes, I am a beginner. All I need to add is some beading and I think I am done with this block. The photos are not great. I am shooting the pics in the evening and because I used all yellow fabrics, they just don't look right.
The fly stitch is the stitch we begin Take a Stitch Tuesday (TAST) 2012 with. The bottom row is the basic fly stitch. In the next row the "fly" has been lengthened and in row 3 I have changed the loop location and then joined 2 stitches into 1. I made a few mistakes as to where the 2nd half of the stitch ends. In row 4 I have changed the direction of the stitch and lined one up next to the other. In row 5 I did a basic fly stitch and added a "t" on top of it.
Easiest tree to put up. All it requires is a trip to the basement and plug it in.
A cat band serenading whatever was cooking in the microwave; probably coffee. 
While shooting these photos, I left the car door open while my sister stayed behind the wheel. 9 houses later the car battery went dead. We called AAA on my phone and 40 minutes later someone arrived to jack up the battery. Since the car would only run until the ignition was turned off, we drove home and left the motor running while I ran into the house for my coat and bag and then my sister drove me to the train station 1 hour early. Love sitting in 20 degree weather outside for an hour waiting for a train. Love it. 
