Let it Snow!

Though it didn't snow on Christmas, I had a white surprise yesterday morning when I woke up. I love fresh snow! Here are some pics from the back porch. I didn't get too many - it was early, cold, I only had slippers on, and icy under the snow. Oh, the joys of brushing off the car. On the plus side, if my dad's first to head out, he's been nice enough to brush off all cars. He must know Santa's still watching.

My Christmas Loot

I thought I'd share a picture of my Christmas loot with everyone. My mom shared her excitement when she found this dresser (antique bird's eye maple which matches my current dresser), but her plans of giving it to me were foiled when I moved to Austin before any gift-giving holiday. A total of three times pre-Christmas Day, my parents mentioned to me that they need to drive to Austin when they visit next time because my gifts won't fit on a plane. With their hints, I pretty much knew I'd finally get the dresser.
The cabinet door sitting in front was made by my brother, which will eventually be placed on a whole cupboard he's building me for my new dart board. I'm excited for it - I'm not the only craft-it-yourself Kasiske! Now, if only I had a garage or game room to put it in...

A panini grill, math items (including 2 of the same Rubik's cube), and a book on redheads were other winning gifts that I got.

I'd like to end this blog with a picture of my mom's favorite gift to the family. My parents are usually the BUTT of our jokes, and we can be real STINKERS sometimes. So for today, I'll let my dad bring in the REAR. Dad, you're a real SHIiiining star. (My grandma reads this blog, what'd you think I was going to say?)

That's a wooden (I can only presume antique) outhouse seat. My mom wants to rebuild an outhouse after finding the outline of an old one behind their garage. I can only hope it's for show and not for use.

Christmas Quilted Runners!

Hours and hours and hours. That's the time I spent finishing the red and tan table runner. I worked hard to get the binding sewed via machine before I left Austin. I snuck a sewing needle and two safety pins into the airport to whip-stitch the binding in place while I traveled home. I finished in time to wrap it and put it under the tree.

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To quilt it, I stitched in the ditch for the center, and hand-drew flowers all around the red border. As suggested by Lane (my quilting coworker), I used a red thread on the top of the quilt and a brown underneath. This way, she can use either side. Per Lauren's usual excitement when opening gifts, she was giddy and giggly about it.

Both my sisters loved their table runners. I completely tricked Alison with her funky runner - she had no clue it was for her. And I'd have to say both runners are extremely different, and fit each sister's personality. Now I can tell you that the bubble gum pink quilted words that I put in her quilt were all inside jokes that we've had throughout the years and in our travels together. Unfortunately, her quilt was too small to include a bit about when we ran out of a bathroom in Ireland and she had toilet paper stuck to her shoe. That's okay though - since we were in a hostel, it probably wasn't QUILTED toilet paper. (Gee, I better get back to Austin soon so I stop making jokes that only my parents will find funny.)

A Very Kasiske Christmas

We all made it back to Churchville safely - those of us who were coming from out of town had a few blips (I had an extra hour in the airport and Brad had to drive back to Baltimore to work until Christmas Eve - we were both home in time to celebrate.)

Traditionally, we get a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. For the past few years, my parents have cut down trees from the yard. Stockings can't be hung by the chimney with care because they're so old they'll fall apart. The chimney & wood burning stove is new though, and I'm enjoying the heat as I type.

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It's not Christmas morning without my mom's cinnamon rolls/sticky buns. They're ooey, gooey, and filled with more sugar than you could imagine. No, Austinites, there is no way I'll ever be able to make them as good as my mom. You'll have to request them when she's in town. That is, unless Alison visits too and eats them all before you can get your hands on one!

Merry Christmas, y'all!

It can be cold in Texas too!

I know, I know. The lake effect snow of Rochester is no comparison to the chilly 50 degree days that popped up in Austin. But, let me assure you, we've had some chilly nights and I've been attempting to wear a scarf daily. My collection is smaller since half is at my parents' house for the cold Christmas days when my Dad will proudly announce that he turned UP the heat to a mere 58 degrees because of guests. (I think it's just because he doesn't want to hear us complain!)

To get to my blog, and the point of this post... Some friends from church (shout out to Babita, Elizabeth, and Leah who love my blog) and I have pooled resources, time, and money to help a family in need. We've shopped (and sewed) for a 25-year-old single mother who's attempting to get her GED, and her two sons ages 7 years and 7 months. I opted to pick up some fleece (hooray for JoAnn's 50% off fleece since Thanksgiving) and get to work. I made a hat and scarf for each. I tried on the mom's hat - it fit pretty well! I'll have to get Emma to try on the baby hat to make sure it's not too big.

And I had plenty of extra fabric to make scarves for the mitten tree at church. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone with young boys - only a few people expecting boys, and that's not for another few months. A baby hat & scarf in Texas in April won't be useful. Yes, I cut fringe for all the flower scarves.

O (Felt) Christmas Tree, O (Felt) Christmas Tree

I wasn't feeling the Christmas spirit this year. I was far too busy to get time to put up my tree & Christmas decorations. Don't fret - I did pull out a few. This Advent Calendar is modeled after one I had growing up. I put up days 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, and 22 (Darn you, three siblings that I had to share the calendar with!) Each day, we put on a new ornament or velcroed a present under the felt tree. The 24th is traditionally a Santa ornament. I was able to tailor the ornaments on my tree: can you see the VT? That was day 3. The weird red ribbon is a pin I got in Scotland to support breast cancer (it's shaped like a heart if you look at it right). And the cube probably used to be a key chain puzzle that I got in a Happy Meal or something. This is the first year that I put on the string of lights. I like the idea, but leaves less room for ornaments. Once all 24 are up there, I'll decide if it's worth having the lights or not. Luckily enough, JoAnn's sells sticker felt letters & numbers. Because so many 1's are used, I think I have to buy 2 or 3 packages for one calendar. I usually try to swap in new ornaments each year, so I get to pick my favorite.

My low-riding Santa is my second favorite Xmas decoration. I'm pretty sure it was $3 and I bought it with my sister (Hi Alison!) after Christmas one year. We just couldn't stop laughing! Yes, it's pimped out with a green light under the car, and there are hydraulics that move the car up & down to the tune of "Low Rider." Can you see the difference in height between the two pictures? Look closely at the front wheel. To top everything off, Santa and the reindeer bobble. Don't be jealous.

The Round Rock

This weekend, I went to the Outlet Mall in Round Rock, TX. It's north of Austin, and if you're a Hofler, I can tell you that cousin Tom lives there. Now I don't know if Tom knows, but the city of Round Rock was named after... A round rock! Amazingly enough, the round rock is still there - in Round Rock. Prior to the name "Round Rock," this town was called "Brushy Creek." If you're sharp and guessed that there's a creek that runs through Round Rock called Brushy Creek, you'd be right! In fact, the round rock sits in the middle of Brushy Creek! The Postmaster really has some love of this round rock (thus the town name change) - he used to sit on the rock and fish.

If you didn't think a controversy would appear, you'd be wrong! With the two plaques that I read, one did not mention "Brushy Creek," but it mentioned "Old Town" - with quotation marks around Old Town. So there's a chance too that Round Rock was only referred to as Old Town and not Brushy Creek.

For the history lovers in my family, the plaques mentioned wagon wheels in the creek beds. (Insert oohing and aahing of friends and family members here.) And for those of you not in Austin (or in Austin and not an attendee of CPC), that other person in the pics is Elizabeth. I usually drag her along when I go to the outlet malls since she hates shopping as much as me. (That's not sarcasm, I really don't like shopping.) If it weren't for Elizabeth, I would not have been graced by the presence of the round rock in Round Rock, and I would have one less sarcastic blog post. Elizabeth, I am so grateful that I have Round Rock trivia to ask Tom about the next time I see him (which will probably be the next time his parents or my parents come into town).

A quilt forgotten

Yesterday, Lane (perhaps I usually talk about him as my quilting coworker) brought in a beautiful country-themed (not country western, country cupboard as in Mom's style) Christmas quilt. After staring at it for 10 minutes, I was inspired to kick myself into gear. I've done a lot of sewing lately, but none of it has been for a quilting project. My goal was to make 3 table runners by the end of the year. I have 1.5 done right now. My new goal is 2 (unless I feel like making one when I'm in Churchville for Christmas.)

So I went home, and sat down at my machine. I would have gotten the whole top pieced, but I lent my cutting board and fabric pizza-cutter to a friend. The last piecing is another few inches of the red fabric with little flowers all around the edge. I think I'm going to make it a thicker border, or lengthen the ends.

I admit, I was hesitant having just 2 colors in the whole quilt. I actually picked out a tan w/ blue stars as the backing. (You can see it to the right of the strip below.) But, now that I see it this far, I like it. I've been talking to Lane to get suggestions on how to quilt it too. I might do more than "stitching in the ditch" because I can't do that for all my quilts for the rest of my life!

Santa, Baby!

Get it? Santa's on the fabric and it's for a baby! I know if you're related to me, you're either rolling your eyes or you're my dad, proud to pass along your "humor."
While shopping last Friday at JoAnn's, there were a lot of Christmas fabrics that were on sale. I had to get some and make something! These are two soft, flannel fabrics perfect for a baby's touch I, as our bi-weekly tradition continues, was shopping with Babita and baby Emma - which caused a suggestion of a bib and burp cloth to be made. Emma is in the stage of spitting up a lot (I hope it's just a stage - possibly it's all a part of the "infant" stage), so I was more than happy to make something stylish to wipe up the drool.

Click on the picture to get an enlarged view - There's a snowflake/flower stitch in my sewing machine that I lined the borders with. Sew fun! Get it? SEW (so) fun!! (Ok, Dad, stop patting yourself on the back. I'm done with the jokes.)

These were easy to make, and fairly cheap. I might go back to JoAnn's sometime this week and stock up on a few flannel fabrics. I might veer away from baby quilt making and take on sewing other baby items.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The best part about Christmas crafts is the fact that no one knows what crafts I am capable of making until after Christmas. Take for instance, the Christmas scarf I crocheted last year. After seeing it, a coworker asked for one. My promise was to make one in time for Christmas this year. A whole 10 months later, I crocheted the majority of the large scarf while in the air on a plane. (A lot of old ladies were a little mad at me that it was easy to bring a PLASTIC crochet HOOK into the airport. They were so shocked that it was possible. Sorry, ladies, I don't think a small piece of plastic is going to be able to break skin. I think your belt could do more damage.) I finished it while house-sitting for my friends that have a baby. Since I had some yarn left, I figured making a baby scarf would be perfect since there wasn't enough for anything else. The baby loved the sparkly skein of yarn - I think I'll just give that to her next year and save the labor.

I'm not going to post my Advent Calendar until later this month. There are 2 reasons for this:

(1) I like it when the tree is filled with ornaments

(2) There are some people in Austin that read my blog that might be interested in one. I don't have time to do anything before Christmas this year, so I'll wait so that they request one for NEXT December - having 10 months to do it is more aligned with my timeline!

A Cheater Quilt

I also came across a cheater quilt when I was home in NY. This is all printed onto the fabric - no sewing involved. I can double check, but I think the price tag that was attached to it said 4 yards for $10. I don't think my mom's going to use her sewing machine any time soon, so I stole it for an easy-to-make, easy-to-practice-on quilt. Don't ask me when I have time to complete a project like this, though. I'm far too busy with other projects that I may or may not get done in time for Christmas!

A Blast from my Parents' Past

While I was looking through fabrics to steal from my mom, I came across some vintage 70's garb. The first is a button down shirt which was (surprisingly) worn by my dad way back when. No wonder my mom fell in love with him - this pattern reminds me of shower or window curtains that she has made in the past. I wouldn't be surprised if my dad wore this with olive green pants to really wow my mom. I tool this to see what I can do with it - tailor it so it fits me? Use it as fabric in my next project?

Oh, don't worry. I'll show you a bit of my mom's 70's style too. The red, white and blue strip below is a thick knit that she used to put around the bottom of her bell bottoms for decoration. "I still have a pair in storage somewhere." No thanks, mom, I think I'll pass on that. Since I have so much, I can picture weaving it into a funky purse, or using it as straps (it's thick and sturdy). Maybe I'll put some on the bottom of my bell bottoms!

The polka dot is another fun fabric I brought back. There isn't much - it's probably the size of a fat quarter. But I absolutely love polka dots, so I'll collect all that I can.

My Next (Ongoing) Quilt Project

When I was home in Rochester last week, my mom gave me a quilt her mother started. (Hi Grandma!) After the use of Google search, I think it's called a Necker Cube pattern. I love the mathematics behind quilting, and I've always had it in my head to eventually incorporate optical illusions into some of my quilts.

I discovered that EVERYTHING has been done by hand - piecing all those diamonds together must have taken a while! (I also brought back a hoop that was used to hand quilt this.) And quilting it - no wonder my mom never attempted to work on it! This is going to be a big project for me - and I will not use my machine on any of it.

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The quilt is in descent shape. There's one brownish fabric that has literally dissolved. And some of the off-white fabric is stained (both are in the picture below). The good part is that most of these diamonds are in areas that aren't quilted yet, so I can go in, cut them out, and hand-sew new diamonds. There are one or two stained ones that I might want to replace that are smack-dab in the center of the quilting. I might have to think about how much time that will take to un-do and re-do. Could I first try hand-washing them out? I did take a few fabrics from my mom that might fit nicely into this quilt, but it might take some time to find the right off-white since it's used in ever trio of diamonds.

A Mathemagical visit

It may shock you to know that I was a giant Math nerd in high school. (gasp!) I memorized 85 digits of Pi, I made it to the A Team for MathCounts in 8th grade (take that, Dan Ketchum!), and as an alternate at the NY state Math League Meet my Senior year. Yes, I still have my Math League shirt, and yes, I made my own for Math League. One of my math teachers pretty much told me that if I was asking for harder work to do for homework, It'd be hard for me NOT to get an A+ in his class. As a self-proclaimed "Math Nerd," there have been times that I thought I'd lost the mathematical spark. Like the time I ended up getting a C in a math class in college (it was only one and my senior year), or when I decided not to go to grad school, or the time I worked for an insurance company and I felt like a drone.

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Well, my friends, my love for Calculus sparked once again. I was visiting my "best high school math friend" when I was home last week. Kevin gave me a tour of his apartment, as I had never before visited. There was a specific closet which is dedicated to math. He had all his college notes in binders, labeled and placed on a bookshelf. On the opposite wall were all his high school math books. No, Kevin didn't steal them from Churchville-Chili, he is now a math teacher.

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I gasped, my jaw dropped - I was stunned. How could I not have a math closet after all these years? I like Sudoku's before they were popular! Why had my interests veered towards sewing and sports. Where did my dedication go? Once I realized that I can still out-math Dan Ketchum, I felt a bit better. And to you, Mr. Laley, I tip my hat. You were voted most likely to succeed in high school, and a closet dedicated to math is about as successful as one can get. Euler would be proud. You've inspired me to re-memorize pi.

Jumping Julianna, Batman!

When I got a phone call Sunday morning asking if I wanted to skip church to watch my twelve-year-old cousin (Hi Jules!) in her horse show, I jumped (but not while on a horse) at the chance. For those of you who don't know, I had a horse growing up, and took riding lessons for a few years. The fact that Julianna loves horses is awesome, but I also need to throw in the fact that she's a Girl Scout too. And you all know how much I'm involved in Girl Scouts.

I was impressed at Julianna's posture (and while thinking about it, I'm trying to sit up even straighter) while riding. What poise, what focus! She must have stolen some of that from her dancing older sister. (Hi Liz!) And if it weren't for her spastic little brother (Hi AJ!), she might not have as much experience ignoring her surroundings and focusing at the task at hand.

What a great start to my Rochester visit! And for the record, there's a horse name Pi at the stables. Who WOULDN'T want to name their horse Pi??

A Weekend Away

Perhaps you have yet to hear about the craziness at work: picking up extra responsibilities because a co-worker got a new job, planning a conference in Cleveland that is next week, and having my deadlines fast approach (remember that 3.5 months I lost on a project? The deadline was supposed to be today, but now I have another 2 weeks because everything is BREAKING. 2 weeks is good, breaking is not good.)

Last weekend marked the first of three consecutive "out-of-Austin" weekends. My church planned a retreat to Mo Ranch, a Presbyterian-owned ranch in Hunt, TX (about 3 hours away from Austin). Just look at the view (and Chantal - she looked so at-peace, I had to take a picture)!

Lauren's voice popped into my head whenever I saw a cactus. She really wanted to see a real, wild cactus (non-landscaped) when she visited. Unfortunately, there weren't too many in the city of Austin, but I'm sure if we took a hike in the park, we would have seen some. Yes, this is a real-live cactus.

Carsickness likes to sneak up on me with long trips. My carpooling car-mates were nice enough to let me take the front seat both ways there. (It was after writing down 2 sets of Mad Libs that I had to stop and focus on the road.) To make up for it, Elizabeth took me off-roading. She went through this hedge, and we were surprised to see a footpath and basketball court. I'd have to say driving around in the dark, not knowing where we were going was one of the best parts of Mo Ranch.

There was a butterfly bush right outside my building. I stood there for about 10 minutes trying to get some good pictures. Then my camera battery died because I hadn't charged it in a LONG time! I love the contrast of the purple & green.

Little Emma seems to be in a lot of my blogs. The 6-month-old has an obsession with pulling hair and touching things. She sat down next to me, and quickly reached over to touch my head. In this picture, I think she was baptizing me.

I was happy to see some trees with changing leaves. We don't have green grass in Texas - it's too dry. But here, at Mo Ranch, I can say "the sky is always bluer." (This is by far my favorite picture.)

An Interactive Fun Pad Costume

I had a parade of costumes this year for Halloween (I know, I'm late on posting this), but none takes the cake (or took more time to make) than my interactive fun pad costume. The second most fun thing to do in any car ride (Mad Libs wins #1), I created a human-size Fun Pad. Sadly, my costume was not filled out at work, but when I told my kickball teammates about it the following Tuesday, they jumped at the chance to color by number. Yes, that's a Rubik's Cube in the color-by-number.

Fearless Fiasco Flag

My soccer team's name is Fearless Fiasco. Someone (Matt - also a Hokie and Presbyterian) had a fun idea to make a giant flag for the team. This is what I came up with (sorry, I didn't clean off the flag before I took the picture.) The tornado logo on the shirt was designed by Matt, and I tried to copy it as much as I could on the flag. The flag measures 42 x56, so it's giant. Matt will buy PVC pipe to carry it, and have some form of metal stake to put into the ground for the pipe to fit around. I did a tight zig-zag stitch around the tornado.

I didn't get to finish the back of the flag - you'll see what it looks like below, but I could cut out the purple inside the tornado to reveal white. It'll look cool, but I didn't want to stay up past 11pm last night working on it. Here's a close-up of the shirt too.

More pictures of Dorothy's dress

I had fun making the bows. It gave me memories of making giant barrettes in the early 90s. How cool we were to decorate our own! The red fabric was tough to use. I ended up doing and redoing a shoe (and still not liking it), and then almost not having enough fabric.

I was so proud that I was able to criss-cross the dress in the back (the distance from shoulders to shoulder blades is very small in a 5-month-old compared to an adult.) Did you notice the edging around the top is at a 45 degree angle? I did that to add a little personality.