December is kicking it!

I am not keeping up with my crazy life. Here's a quick catch-up of the happenings since our return from Disney, starting with a fam photo (above) of the one day that we wore our WDW shirts, which I made using the Silhouette and heat press.

Two days after Disney, we held the Cotton Quilter's Guild Christmas party. As Madam President, I was in charge one last time, but Margaret (our incoming pres) was generous enough to take care of the food and details. Thanks, Maggie!  

Maggie is on the left here. Thanks girl!

We got back on Saturday and on Sunday I drove Richard's mom to Dollar Tree in Alexandria to do a little shopping and picked up table cloths and flowers. I needed centerpieces for Monday. Yeah, down to the wire. 

Dirty Santa (or White Elephant) game

 As soon as we returned, I thought about what to do with the little I'd bought and started digging through "my flower stuff." It turns out that I had some cotton stems salvaged from a BHS prom before retirement. Wow! I'd completely forgotten. And they were perfect! Cotton Quilters' and cotton centerpieces. Yay! 

Boxed up and ready to go.

I'd found these red containers and picked up six to serve as vases. A bit of sand (thanks to the old flowers from the cemetery) and they were heavy enough. So here we are! Just like that. Flower arrangements, and they didn't cost a fortune. Score! I love to find reusables in the studio. Save the earth, save a fortune!

Red poinsettias and green sprigs make up the bulk of the arrangement. A touch of gold adds some elegance and a stem of cotton makes it home. I had a roll of wide burlap ribbon that didn't get used for the cemetery flowers, so voila, it just worked. And just like that we had a party!

Look at Walt Disney World

I told you in this week's PIW post that we spent Thanksgiving week at Disney, right? Right. I thought you might enjoy just a few of the pictures I took while we were there. Most of these are from those moments when I was watching a grandie. The littlest one is there in the first picture. He smiled through every moment.

That's us. The whole crew. Wearing the "Happiest Marcotte Ever" tee-shirts that I printed for the whole crew. Even the little tyke has one.

These pictures are from the ones that I took. I've always loved Main Street but it's especially pretty all dressed up in lights and Christmas decorations.

I think this is the bus terminal and I took the picture from the boat that ferried us from our cabin to Magic Kingdom. 

 Cinderella's castle is beautiful day or night, but the Christmas lights certainly add a different kind of beauty. 

 Gardens and fountains are tucked away in every little corner. One has to really look. Forget the rides and the retail. Just stroll and look. Then look some more.

 Don't forget to look from the Skyliner. These gondolas have shaded glass all around them so that you can do exactly that: look.

 One of the new attractions is Avatar land. Here you can look at strange, over-sized plants and flowers. Everything here is meant to set the scene for the ride, which is awesome, but the plants and scenery are pretty awesome, as well. Don't forget to look for a spot to take your own Disney photos. In this land there are places tucked everywhere you turn.

All you have to do is look. What is your favorite Disney place to look? 

Pin It Weekly #299

Had you thought I'd fallen off the face of the earth? I didn't. I simply got caught acting like a kid  

We suffered through vacationed in Disney. With adult children. And their children. 

So, yeah, children and grandchildren and Disney.

What were we thinking? That insanity fun is a good thing at 59 years of age? Or was it that short, squatty legs (I'm 5'3")could trot behind keep up with long legs? (Rory is 6'1".)

So the truth is that we went to Disney with one of the Marcotte families for the purpose of babysitting, should the need arise. That was back in 2013, when we were young grandparents.

We did it for those kids, so now we did it for these kids. At least these kids hit us at the same time. Adam's family and Rory's family tag-teamed us pooled their resources. 



Let's just say we kicked it into #marcottesurvivalmode and survived. I think. Honestly, the jury's still out. I'll get back to you. In the meantime, enjoy these Disney pictures.

Most are from my "Disney World" board, which I just started two ten minutes ago.

Have you been to WDW with the younger set? If so, how did you fair? I hope it was better than we were able to pull off. Understand, we had a blast (I rode Flight of Passage twice!) but we also wore ourselves out. 

Pin It Weekly #278

Last week's Pin It was so popular that I thought I'd continue it. We met a few followers, so that's what we'll do again this week. 
Melinda Wingard Knox has many boards but her "home projects" board really caught my eye. Here are a few ideas that I had to follow.

Ginger Denise Salinas has a board just for squishes! And here are some pins from her "slime" board. 

Ellie Halliley has a Disney board. If you're a Disney fan, this is the board for you!

Of course, we need one board about quilting. Here's one from Debby Lytton

Do you have a board you'd like to share here? Just let me know in the comments or pm me. I'd love to feature your boards.

LSU Saturday Night

Our house is a true LSU house. Actually, I am quite okay to sew while a game is on, but others here cannot understand that attitude and occasionally I do have to sit in front of the TV. Today is the first game day for LSU, so it's the first game day on every TV in the house. Every. Television.  Every. 

Did I say every TV? Marley has a TV in her room, so she decided that she would watch the game with her Barbies. All the Barbies decided to tailgate the game. That's the fun way to watch a football game. Of course, Barbie felt that the correct protocol would be to include the Disney princesses. 

The princesses couldn't leave out the other dolls. And those dolls invited the rubber ducks. The rubber ducks couldn't come without the Littlest Pets and the princes' horse, which meant the princes had to be there. But the princes sat near the rubber ducks because there are so many princesses they couldn't give any one enough attention. And that's how we watch the game in our house. Who do you invite to your game day party?

Moana costume reveal ~~ finish

In case you haven't heard, Moana is Disney's latest movie. I haven't seen it (although it's played in my house many times in the last week) so my knowledge is limited to this: It's about a Hawaiian girl. She's named Moana. 

Today she had a costume fail malfunction, and I fixed her top so that her upper half is not exposed. 

Here's the backstory: Jenny ran to Walmart for a few things this morning and, as she has only one child, she looked for a surprise for Marley. Lo and behold, there was a Moana costume. Even better: one size fits all! And on sale! It was meant to be. 

It turns out that one size does not fit everyone. The entire costume was too loose. But the top? Wow, the top was loose. Really loose. 

How about matching those fabrics?

 Grandmay to the rescue. I dug around in the oranges to find fabric that might work with the original color. Whip up a strap and done!  Okay, it did take a few several minutes to turn the narrow tube right side out. But I prevailed, stitched the straps on and helped Marley get in. I decided to make a halter-type strap because they remind me of the 70's halter tops we wore to the beach. Perfect, right?

Nothing exposed and no one spoiled...

Tiny finish though it is, linking up with 

Crazy Mom Quilts