In Anticipation of Christmas

From our family to yours ..... Merry Christmas!

Advent Banner

Last August I was asked to design a quilted banner for our parish for Advent. Here is the finished project. It involved lots of hours of loving labor from myself, and four other women from our parish. The quilting was done by machine. The finished size is a little less than 24" wide by almost 20' long! My intention in designing it was to bring a sense of the joyful anticipation of Advent. Symbolically, there are the purples and pink with the "light" of the candles. The star is paper pieced with 12 points in order to symbolize the crown of 12 stars associated with Our Lady. The star was also designed to "fall" toward the crucifix, pointing the way to Christ, the same as Mary does for us. Quilted on the banner are the seven "O-Antiphons."

"O Sapientia" or Wisdom is the first one. At the top is "O Emmanuel."

Our next project will be a banner, same dimensions, for Pentecost. Any comments and suggestions are most welcome.

Singing and Dancing

Last weekend Mary was a bit rushed with both a ballet recital, and singing with the Sweet Adelines' "Christmas in Vegas." You can see a bit of the strain on her face. Both shows were enjoyable and a nice way to begin December.

Painting!

Quite a few years ago we resolved to paint before we moving into new digs (when possible.) This new house is no exception. All the bedrooms, except Peter's were various pastels. The other two bedrooms were pastel green, and baby pink. Mary's was lilac, ours was a nursery baby blue with an equally offputting wallpaper border. Those two are now a light tan, and our bedroom is a darker brown.

Peter added dark gray to the slanted ceiling. Mary opted for "Jamaican Sea" instead of purple!

Slowly the boxes are being opened, stuffed, errr ... I mean put away and we are getting used to all our new elbow room! Woke up to a covering of snow on the ground, but it has now become a steady drizzle. Just hope that doesn't freeze on the roads before Mary and I get back from her Young Women in Harmony practice this evening!

Thanksgiving, Painting, Moving

We celebrated our US Thanksgiving, with plenty to be truly thankful for. Here are some shots of our meal, and how our house looked! We closed on our house the Tuesday before, and spent Wednesday and Thursday morning painting. A few more pictures of the house will follow in my next post.