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!

Pin It Weekly #298

Pin It Weekly time! Last week we met a couple of new followers. Let's meet a few more....

First a hello to Donna Farquhar. She has over 400 pins on vintage fashion ideas from patterns to photos. I'll have to go back for a visit, she's given me an idea for another board... 'cause, you know, 180 would not suffice.  

Leona Hawker has some beautiful crochet and lace on one of her boards. Here are a few that have been turned into Christmas ornaments.

And lastly, Stitchin' Post, which is a quilting shop. This is their blurb: The Stitchin Post in Sisters, Oregon 20 Miles from Bend, Oregon Quilting Fabrics,Books, Notions, Inspiration, and Charm Owned by Jean Wells and Valori Wells   And these pins are from their "Best of Stitchin' Post" board.

And that's this week's PIW. Hope you enjoyed and were inspired. Would you like your Pinterest to be featured on Pin It Weely? Let me know in the comments or email me at mary.marcotte@gmail.com. I'd love to visit your boards and feature your pins! Now, which of them are you going to visit? 

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: Houston 3

My apologies for missing SQI last weekend. I'm happy to say that I have a few more pictures from quilts at the Houston Quilt Festival. These are from Studio Art Quilt Association (SAQA) and from "In the American Tradition."

SAQA had a special exhibit entitled "Layered and Stitched: 50 Years of Innovative Art." These are some of my favorite works.

The following quilts are all from the "In the American Tradition" exhibit.

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.