Holiday Table Setting

My holiday table setting. Those yellow/gold pears do not photograph well. They are not nearly so bright as they appear here. I have gold stockings with elves hanging on each chair. My husband and I had a romantic breakfast here yesterday morning.

Christmas Elf

Closeup of the elf in the stocking.

Snowman Quilt

Christmas Quilt
I put my Christmas quilt on my bed. It is thick, warm and oh, so snuggly on a cold winter night. The center snowman block is made from Christal Carter's book, Holiday Happenings. It is fun to play with log cabin blocks. I think I may make an Easter Bunny one next.

Close up of the snowman center made from 3-inch log cabin squares.

I have not bought one Christmas gift yet--not a single present. I probably should drag myself out shopping today. Yesterday I baked some cookies--chocolate thumprints filled with caramel. I made 4 dozen, which took about two hours. Last night my husband accidentally knocked them over and spilled every one onto the floor. Now I have no cookies as he threw every one in the garbage. There is no way he would eat anything that touched the floor. I am feeling just a tad discouraged.

I am also discouraged because NOBODY is reading my blog! How do you get readers????

It's beginning to look like Christmas...

I am TOTALLY exhausted. I spent most of the day putting up my Christmas trees. I must have made 20 trips down and up the stairs to the basement hauling box after box. Yesterday I swapped my dining room/living room. Yes, hauled two sofas and a large table - pushing, pulling, huffing, puffing. I have wanted to do this for a long time and on the spur of the moment decided to go for it. We never use the living room and I felt the space could be put to better use by enabling me to keep the dining table extended.

Got Some Throw-A-Way Jeans?

I made 12 of these jean stocking ornaments yesterday. They are so cute and easy to make from old blue jeans. The mouse inside is made from felt and handstitched (I made him many years ago).

Country Sunflower/Jean Tree

Poinsietta Tree

I have been busy at work decorating Christmas trees. I have done 4 so far. Pictures never do Christmas trees justice--have you ever noticed that? I am quite happy with all 4 trees -- I even made some country blue jean stockings. You can see them on the sunfower tree.

I am not cooking Thanksgiving dinner this Thursday--I rarely cook "the big dinner" on any holiday. Why? Because I have to work. I will only work a few hours in the morning, but it is just enough to ruin the holiday. A good percentage of Americans are looking forward to a 4-day holiday weekend. I have NEVER had a 4-day holiday weekend since I began working in a hotel 19 years ago. Don't get me wrong--I have a great job, decent pay, and nice co-workers. But I NEVER get any extra days off to enjoy the celebratory times of life. I want my kitchen scented with cinnamon from the pumpkin pie baking in the oven, I want to hear the "pop" of fresh cranberries as they thicken to a relish, smell the turkey browning to perfection...I want the whole Norman Rockwell scene. I want to go to bed on a holiday evening and NOT have to get up at 4am to go to work the next day. Actually I get up at 4 a.m. every day (even weekends), I love to get up at 4 a.m., I just don't want to have to shower, do my hair, etc. Am I whining? Yes, and I think I deserve to whine a little.

This is how I will be spending many winter hours--quilting my log cabin quilt. It takes me about one hour per block and I have 100 blocks. We keep our home at about 67 degrees, which is a bit chilly, so working with this large blanket over me is great during the cold months. It also gets me off the computer for a while each night.

How beautiful is this? Into the oven for 30 minutes or so and dinner will be served.

Mix filling ingredients

Freezer find - Sundried tomato sauce

Can you smell those carrots, onions, celery? MMMMMMMMMMMMM--just blissful

I had such a wonderful Sunday--got a lot done, but not in a frenzy. I handquilted 2.5 blocks in my log cabin quilt (only 97.5 to go!). I used a smallish round hoop to quilt while sitting on the sofa (leg recliner up) & watching 5 taped episodes of Gardener's Journal and a few FoodTv Country cooking shows. In between I did 3 loads of laundry, scrubbed 2 floors, changed the sheets on the bed, washed 2 inside windows (while DH did the outside)and made chili and tacos for dinner. I purchased a new leather thimble, thinking it would be easier to get that over long fingernails. It is easier, but I don't think I like it as well as the all metal ones. There is a small round metal center, but it seems difficult to hit the needle in exactly that spot to push it through. Later in the evening I spent an hour or so surfing quilting blogs. I am not exactly sure what direction this blog will take, or if I will ever learn how to do all the things I need to do--like linking with other related blogs, etc. I guess, first I need some loyal readers--or at least a reader. If anyone does actually read this, could you please leave a comment so I know you were here. If you have any helpful tidbits for a new blogger, I would love to hear them.

Log Cabin Quilt

I downloaded Hello to post pictures. As you can see, it worked. This blogging is very time consuming, isn't it? So many new things to learn. Today is going to be a heavy-duty cleaning/cooking day for me. Hopefully I will find some time to work on my log cabin quilt also. It is HUGE (103" x 103") and will take all winter to hand quilt.

Full View of the tree


My mother says this is the ugliest tree she has ever seen. Gee, I really liked it!

Autumn theme dining room table

This is my first post. As a novice blogger, I am truly in the dark and can only hope this works. I have titled my blog "Perennial Passion" intending this to be a garden blog. Since November in Michigan is not conducive to gardening, I have decided to blog about my daily passions or creative pursuits. Tablescapes (setting a dining table creatively) is something I really enjoy. I have just completed a fall tablescape complete with a sunflower & scarecrow Christmas tree. Scarecrows on a Christmas tree? I must admit I have never seen a tree with scarecrows. Sometimes I get the strangest ideas!


Well, seems I have some work to do on posting pictures. Try this link instead:
Sunflower/Scarecrow Tree