surprises

i should start off with this: I HATE SURPRISES!!!  i especially hate when i know a surprise is coming and i can’t know what it is….christmas presents in particular.  i’m also very good at guessing gifts with a few vague hints.  also, this is the first year i haven’t snuck into christmas presents at my mom’s house (hello…i’m 24, that’s lame!)  so a few weeks ago matthew showed me my wrapped gift- i analyzed the boxes sitting on the dresser and told him to put them in the top of the closet where i can’t reach them.  he told me i wasn’t allowed to look at the bank account and i didn’t.  i wasn’t allowed to ask questions either.

so i know these few things, after looking at the boxes i knew one was a rectangular box, one was flat, and one was long and it didn’t look like a box.  i saw the color of the store bag (grayish blue silver).  tereza told me it wasn’t for sewing.  and matt told me you can count the letters of the gift with 2 hands (so less then 10 letters).  i also knew it didn’t use AA batteries (random, yes).

matthew has randomly said “do you want your christmas present now” and i usually say YESSSSSSS PLEASE.  but he says no.  so last night i told him i know what it is.  to this he replies “it’s not an iphone”.  so my initial guess was out.   i thought they were the iphone, a case, and something else.  so i though harder and bugged my poor husband until i KNEW i had the right guess.  i started feeling really bad for trying to guess my gift so i waited for about 20 minutes to tell him my guess (bickering the whole time!).  i finally said my guess: a camera, a memory card and a battery.  matthew screms “HOW DID YOU KNOW!!!” and runs and jumps on the bed, the bed hits and breaks a vase from our wedding that was full of rice and flowers, and he screams.  so i guess i was right 🙂 (partially, there was a camera case instead of a battery- duh, the battery comes with the camera!)  we had to clean up the broken glass and rice that got allllll over the floor before matthew let me open the gift.  it’s a little black kodak point and shoot and i LOVE it.  we’re both terrible picture-takers and this camera, no matter the lighting, takes beautiful pictures (in my opinion, i’m not very photo-educated 🙂

i wish i could share some pictures from last night but the software won’t download onto the computer right.  so you’ll have to wait!  i took a panoramic picture of all our rooms in the house and it’s like the most exciting thing ever, i’m very easily entertained!  so let’s say a big thank you to my hubby for finding a super door-buster from best buy and shopping without a list and picking out the perfect christmas present 🙂  and for not killing me when i guessed the gift and had to open it a week early!  it’s just a special to me today as it would have been next week!

Christmas

maybe this year i’ll write on my blog one more time =)   I’ll share a few pictures of things i’ve sewn/grown this year:

chevron curtains a la MADE that hang in our bathroom.  it matched the shower curtain perfectly.  fabric is from the clearance table at hancock fabrics- $2!

in september my sister and i went to a workshop in nashville hosted by Anna Maria Horner.  we made the proper attire skirt and learned many tricks from AMH and her sewing buddy, Alexia Abegg– they are wonderful ladies!  fabric is AMH’s from the good folks line

in September i also finished this dress from a Butterick pattern.  it was a nightmare to make (started it in april, finished it 5 months later)!  the pattern was difficult to read and something went wrong with the lining.  anyway, it looks OK with a cardigan over it!  fabric from joanns

in february i promised my baby cousin a quilt for her new big girl bed, finally in september i finished it (see a pattern here)!  why am i so slow at sewing quilts?  it’s the reason why i’m not currently making one!  fabric from hobby lobby

cowl by Jane Richmond from ravelry.  a friend i grew up with hosted knit night a few mondays this year and i worked on this project.  it’s unfortunate that the cowl doesn’t look like the actual pattern, surely i did something wrong!  i have on idea what yarn or needle i used- it was the very first knitting project i’ve ever finished and i don’t know all the knitting lingo

ZINNIAS!  we grew some flowers this summer in the side yard- they were so gorgeous.  everytime i cut some down and put in a vase, johnny cat would knock them over and spill water everywhere, that little turd.

garden minus the squash and zucchini, those died early.  the corn was a bust.  the tomatoes were overflowing through october, it was crazy.

 

a felt flower hair clip that i made for amanda for christmas…don’t worry, she has already seen it and i’ve already worn it for her

 

little rings given away at the sojourn women’s gift exchange

 

a december turkey, free from work! 🙂

 

this years christmas tree, yes, it is crooked.but perfect.

2010 has been a good year.  we bought a house, we paid off all our student loans, matthew finished more classes at SBTS, johnny got cuter, the sewing room was used a lot, we made new friends, enjoyed old friend, visited family, vacationed, welcomed lots of sweet babies into the world (friends babies, not our babies!), i took a wonderful new job.  we have been so thankful for it all, but most of all for the love and grace the Lord has shown us all year.  yay for getting to celebrate jesus’ birth!