First Sunday of Advent

Here on Canada's west coast, we got our first taste of winter this past week--days of howling winds and record-low temperatures were followed by an early snowfall.

Here's the view out of my kitchen window. I like to keep things simple during this holiday season.

My decorating starts with this creche, which has been part of our
family's Christmas tradition for many years.

I made the crepe paper figures based on a pattern in Better Homes and Gardens magazine. My husband crafted the rustic stable.

Christmas quilts are hung around the house.
This my "Holly and the Ivy" pattern.

And here's my "In the Photo Booth".

Here's another old "Better Homes and Gardens" pattern.
Even though it's getting a bit dated,

I love how it looks against the blue mantel.

My husband made the stained glass wreath which is hung in our living room window.

I'll put a little potpourri in a wooden bowl

and place it on this table mat (pattern by Primitive Gatherings.)

And I love this penny rug pattern by Lakeview Primitives.

Last year my sister surprised me with this wonderful Pineberry Lane stitchery.

She hadn't realized that I loved the pattern so much,

I'd just bought and made one for myself,

so now I have two!

One can never have too much of a good thing!

Giving Thanks

Thank you to Ralph Waldo Emerson for the poem...

And Happy Thanksgiving
to all my American friends!

Website Woes

If you've tried to access my website lately, you'll have seen a message saying that it can't be displayed. A week ago I received a phone call from a customer who told me she was having trouble getting onto my website. (Fortunately she let me know about this, since unless I'm updating my site, I don't often check it so this might have gone unnoticed for awhile.) So I contacted my web host to find out what the problem was. She discovered that my website had disappeared from the server and there was no trace of it anywhere!! Neither she nor I had ever heard of this happening before. She went through the logs and couldn't find what had caused this to happen. Worse yet, there was no backup! Don't you just love technology? So we're now in the process of rebuilding my site, which could take awhile. In addition to this being a lot of work, this totally interferes with my business, since most of my sales are done online. So, if any of you have a website, please make sure your host has saved it somewhere! In the meantime, if you have any questions, please email me at countryquilts@shaw.ca. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Remembering

On our trip to France in September, we stopped at the Normandy beaches, site of the Allied Forces landing on D-Day.

It was a peaceful, quiet day...
... but reminders of that terrible war were still there.

What a different world this might be if those men and women hadn't been willing to give the ultimate sacrifice.

All I can say is, thank you.