Secret Santa Surprise!

I participated in the Secret Santa Soiree  again this year.

Colorado Lady was our gracious host for this fun exchange.

As of now I have not yet figured out who my Secret Santa is this year.

This is what I saw when I opened up the box. 

Love the pretty paper and the cute tag.

 Then I spy a teddy bear. I love teddy bears!

And a cute old fashioned style tree.

And some Winter Cranberry hand sanitizer.

Never saw anything like that before!

Next I unwrap a precious snowman.

Isn't he cute?!?

A note pad with its own pen!

Love all the red!

Then I unwrap the bear and I love love love it!

Or rather her. 

Her name is Muffy VanderBear. 

I love her cute outfit and her red shoes.

A photo of all the gifts sitting on my cutting table. 

Then Helmi wanted to pose in a picture too!

She has decided Muffy is a very nice addition to our household!

Look at the cute little hot pad tied to Muffy's wrist.

Isn't that adorable?

Helmi admires Muffy's green bow.

No Helmi, you may not take her bow.

You have your own bow.

This was a fun Secret Santa exchange.

I still have no idea who sent me these lovely gifts.

Thank you so much to whoever who are.

I think I have visited all the blogs and I still have no idea!

Merry Christmas!

~Linnea~

REDnesday and Whatcha Working on Wednesday

It is time for Whatcha Working on Wednesday!

I don't know if I am going to be able to link up with Leslie at My Country Home. When I go to visit her blog I get a malware warning. I have no idea if her blog is safe to visit or not. Leslie if you are

 seeing this post, that is why I am not linked up at the moment.

I am also linking up with Sue at 

It's A Very Cherry World!

I do have bits of RED in this post.

I finally got rid of my big sewing table. Actually it is still on it's side in the family room, but it is out of the sewing room. I decided on these black tables from Target for now. Got two of them to start with for the time being. In the process of getting it set up here. I spy some RED in there. 

 Still in the process of cleaning out the room. 

See the RED bag from The Container Store?

I have been making window coverings for a co-worker.

This fabric he chose is a sheet set. Still trying to get organized too.

 Believe it or not, that chair is RED. Random RED things.

You will notice the second table is set up with the sewing machine on it.

 Working on that window covering.

 My co-worker helped me finish painting the sewing room 

in exchange for making the window coverings.

I am happy to finally have the sewing room all one color now.

Summer Yellow!

 Another view. 

 Moving the stuff back after the paint dried.

I decided to get a third table.

 This is where I hope to work on my scrapbooking.

Helmi hitched a ride when I moved the black case in to the room.

I am hoping this set up will work for me.

It is making the room feel more spacious which was my goal in this project.

See the RED pincushion by the sewing machine. 

 Helmi in her RED dress being lazy while I do all the work.

Silly Helmi!

 Here I have some of my paper storage set up and Helmi 

now has her spot to watch me work.

I am not finished with organizing yet,

 but I am making progress here.

Next is to get the shelves on the wall that I want from 

The Container Store.

In the meantime I am loving the yellow walls.

A dessert I bet Sue at It's A Very Cherry World! would love!

We took my mom out to lunch on Sunday for her 80th birthday.

This was her free dessert. 

Mom took a bite, passed it around for everyone to have a bite.

When it got back to her there was still some left for her to enjoy.

She insisted on sharing!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

~Linnea~

Get R Done Friday! More Sewing with Niece

Whoo Hoo!

It is Friday again!

Time for Get R Done with ClassyChassy

at Expressly Corgi.

Feel free to join us with your Get R Done projects.

~~~~~~~

I have been sewing with my niece again this week.

I am teaching her to sew.

Here she is using my mother's featherweight.

I helped her sew the pockets on.

This one too!

It is a reversible apron.

While she was sewing, I worked on this block.

I finished it too!

Making progress!

Here she is sewing the two sides of the apron together.

Turning it right side out and pressing the edges.

Ta Da!! Side one.

And side two!

And yes that is a loom to the the left there.

And on the windowsill are two Amish

dolls I had painted for my mother one year.

This room was once my bedroom.

Now it is my mother's sewing room.

Finished this anniversary card this morning.

The inside.

Helmi has hopped into my bag again.

She likes traveling with us.

We are packed at ready to head out the door.

Will mail the card on the way.

Have a great week end folks!!

~~~~~~~~

What is your Get R Done?

~Linnea~

Whatcha Working on Wednesday-in Florida

It is time for Whatcha Working on Wednesday.

However, I don't think Leslie is going to do it today.

She has a lot going on at her place.

She writes about it on her post at

My Country Home.

So I hope some of you will find me here anyway.

~~~~~

My Whatcha Working on Wednesday will be

stuff I was doing while in Florida.

The first portion of my trip was in Iowa visiting

my dear daughter.

Then daughter Sara went with us to

Florida to visit our son and his family.

That included hanging out and getting reacquainted with

our dear granddaughter.

We had gone to the pumpkin patch with her.

This is the pumpkin that was picked out.

Helmi has to get in the pictures and show it off.
Now she decided to pose on top of it.
You can see my stitching to the left there.
I had brought that along to work on.
It was decided to have Shaylee paint the pumpkin
rather than carve the pumpkin.
Here she is painting the pumpkin.

Helmi watches her paint.

Helmi is still watching and being careful
not to get in to the paint.
Shaylee is wearing a painting apron.

Then I decide to paint with Shaylee.

Here is the part Shaylee did!

She had fun doing it too.

And here is the part I did.

Whenever we talked about the pumpkin,

Shaylee would say

"Grandma and I did it!"

It was so cool to hear her call me "Grandma".

I must say I am not used to that yet.

This was our first time to see her since she

was 8 months old.

Helmi taking a look at how much stitching I am getting done here.

I finished a NOEL block and started the MAGIC block

while we were gone.

Now that we are back home,

I also have other projects in the works.

And this one too!

There are a bunch of other stuff I need to do to.

Like:

Catch up on ironing.

Get back to finishing painting the closet.

Finish other unfinished sewing projects.

And more decluttering which never seems to end.

But first I have to go work.

Perhaps I will have some energy to tackle a few things

after work.

Yesterday I was just too tired to do much.

Happy Wednesday!

~Linnea~