Random Round-Up

I'm trying to get my mojo working again after Christmas.  You know how it is when you have things you should do, which may not be what you feel like doing? 

Yeah, over here, that's me.  There's a quilt I should be finishing, but did I work on that today?  I did not.  Instead, I decided to start something altogether different. 

I pulled out some of the thrifted men's shirt stash to make this quilt.  So far, I've gotten the pieces from the light shirts cut out.

Somewhere along the way, I got an ear worm of lyric from an old Jethro Tull song, which seemed apropos.  Of course, then I had to go listen to the whole song, because the guitar (and melody) is sweet.

"Skating away...skating away...skating away on the thin ice of a new day..."

As far as the sewing mojo goes, sometimes you've got to slide back into it sideways, I think.

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Last weekend was full-on, pre-holiday housecleaning time.  In the middle of dusting, I decided to pull everything off the shelves in the office and rearrange the Pyrex to display the Snowflake pieces in a grouping.

Being that I only have about five pieces in that pattern, I rounded things out with a totem of gravy boats,

and some vintage tea tins, coffee pots (yep, there's a little motion-activated red light in the percolator), and crochet hooks.

It works, for now.

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Having several days off in a row for the holidays, we managed to watch quite a few movies, including Premium Rush (fair to good), The Avengers (I'm not big on comic book heroes and over-the-top action, so for me it was just okay), Lawless (surprisingly good), and Catfish (wow, what a strange twist; but Nev Schulman is adorable).

But last night we watched the best one of all, Pitch Perfect.  I laughed out loud a lot, and pretty much any time "Fat Amy" (Rebel Wilson) said anything.  Funny, and entertaining with the singing/musical aspect of it.

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My nieces got a kick out of their pillowcases on Christmas. 

Shaina

We had a good time with family, as always.

Nick, Michelle, Norm

Russ, Darrell, Jen

Gerry, Nita, Terry

My daughter gave me a new cutting mat for Christmas, which I really appreciate, since the old one next to my sewing machine was about as rutted as an icy side street around here.  I also treated myself to a couple quilting books.

I'm looking forward to experimenting with some improvisational-type fabric play in the New Year. 

How about you, are you making plans to try something new in 2013?