"OH LALA!",OR WHATEVER THEY SAY IN ZURICH

The beautiful tree above as in a store in Zurich when I was there. They know how to doll up everything including the beautiful women and men there. They are equally as beautiful and I cannot say that about France. I thought the women were fabulous and beautiful and not that many men to equal the women. Maybe I was in the wrong cities. The men in Germany were the most polite, helpful and pleasant! The women were very nice there too and laughed and smiled which I loved.

The cake below was in Switzerland in a window. I have never ever seen such a magnificent cake before! The detail and whimsy were wonderful and I stood and watched the little children come up with their Mothers and talk German (Swiss style which I am lost at) but I could tell what they were saying because the excitment and the wonder was there...just like with me.
This window was really quite something!
My poor kitchen remains sad....and today the water from my sink that was removed dripped constantly and I had to keep emptying the biggest bucket you have ever seen.
I am finding bits of insulation everywhere.
I want to show you how bad the whole thing looks but it is so bad I don't know if you'd want to see it this time of year. :-)
I braved Costco today and it was packed though people seemed quite nice. I bought alot of frozen food so that Mark and I can eat in the TV room where our microwave is.
Hey! That is a funny story. My husband is NO Mr. Fix it and he hates working on things.
Our microwave went out the other day and he said "that figures." Yesterday he was taking the holder out of the wall that holds is and I said "be careful" and he gave me the look so I went down stairs to work and then I heard a crash! That is how he does things so I didn't say anything. This morning, he said brightly "good news, I dropped the microwave yesterday and it works like a charm. " Haha, yep, that's how we do it around here.
Happy Day everyone. Don't get caught up in the crabiness of the Season and if you are a Christian remember that this is all about the birth of Christ. It should be a happy time when we value our blessings and our friends and family. If you aren't in the hospital today or alone in a nursing home with no one to visit and there are lots of people who are, you are blessed!
Please comment on my blog, I love it when you do.
As my dear old Dad always said "Enjoy the Day"

By the way, we will be doing a swap after the first of the year in my chatroom with pot holders and mugs. Who doesn't need new clean fresh potholders? If you join my newsletter through this blog, you can learn more about this.

Take this Christmas song test and see how you do.

http://tinyurl.com/yxrp87

MY HAPPY CHRISTMAS QUILT

Thought I would post this quilt photo. This will be featured in my new book that covers story quilts and "creativity". If you are feeling like you are "in the box" just wait and my new book will tell you how to "get out of the box and create a story quilt about YOU and who you love."

note- the Hoochy Mama borders give this color and personality. I love borders with these.

The entire background is beaded by hand...it took me months and many many hours to get each bead sewn on and knotted in the middle layer. But it is a colorful and happy quilt about the joy of Christmas day.

HAVE A PIECE OF SWISS CANDY AND ENJOY THE PHOTOS BELOW PLEASE

Below is the best chocolate in the WORLD and I am not kidding

Today I wanted to share some more photos of my Bernina trip and show some of the teachers you might know and also some of the fun we were treated to. My goodness they know how to celebrate Christmas in a wonderful way in Europe!

A Nativity scene I wanted but couldn't afford. Good grief, what is that in the background (?) and where was this photo taken? I do not remember seeing a donkey other than with Schmootley...perhaps he was there and I did not remember. If you don't know who Schmootly is, read on please.

The above is "Swiss Santa" Samichlaus and he is a happy fellow- he is delivering Berninas to good girls.

Below is Schmootly (spelled wrong but you can pronounce it from how I spelled it)

He is the Dec. 6th guy who takes naughty children back into the woods with him. He asks children if they have been good or naughty. What would you say? A nice Swiss man there told me when he was a little boy that Schmootly took one arm and his Grandmother took the other and they played like they were fighting over him. He said it scared him to death. Then he said Schmootly is really a nice icon of Christmas too. Hmmmm, I guess I like just having Santa and of coarse the real Christmas story. The neat thing is that you see Schmootly's walking with donkies all over Switzerland before and around Dec. 6th. What fun! For good children who leave their shoes out side their door that night they find candy and a little prize of some kind.

When I was at Brenda's in San Antonio, her daughter (age16) left her shoe out and found a beautiful necklace sent to her by her Father who is in Islamabad serving for the military. His family is German so they celebrate this fun little date every year.

Pretty fun to see.
Below is Schmootly without his donkey and switch that he carries-he looks like he is having trouble seeing........haha

Suzanne Staud is one of my favorite designers and here is hee Christmas card this year.

Below are the Grand Poobahs of quilting who were in Europe together a year ago this time. I had a thing about taking colorful photos so I asked them to stand here for a photo....kind of like "the little people ME (not size), with the Important people. So here is the green group-who do you recognize? Please comment.

Above is the red group. The thing we have in common is we all love and us Bernina sewing machines.

And Eleanor Peace Bailey posing for a nice photo with Bobbie Aug. Eleanor had just lost her husband and at dinner she got up and recited the most beautiful poem I have ever heard about growing her own garden of color and people not understanding but God gave her the gift....I am probably ruining it here. I needed kleenex by the time she was done.

It was fun walking behind her in Europe and watching people look at her. :-)

If you do now know Eleanor, she is a doll maker who is a lifesize doll herself (I am not kidding)

Are you creating and not listening to other people's critisisms ?- I wouldn't be doing what I am doing if I had listened. I hang out with positive, fun people now and we all see the world as a happy place filled with other nice people. We just wanna be happy.

WONDERFUL JANE below.

Speaking of happy people, this is colorful Jane Sassaman who is wonderful inside and out. She is always inspiring, kind and fun.
Laura Jenkins-Thompson holding a great dessert menu-she is a teacher from South Carolina-isn't she beautiful? And she smells wonderful too!

!
This is my cohorts for most of the trip. Carolyn Lowe my roomate who works for Debbie Mumm took this photo of breakfast. Sheila Reuen from TN is in front and next to Jane Sassaman, and then me in the corner and Laura Jenkins-Thompson on the right. What fun to share Europe with wonderful people and all because we love Bernina!

The beauty of European decorations- I wanted to bring them all home.........Scroll way down for more

Hope you are happy this time of year and baking, imagining, sewing, smiling or calling a friend who would love to hear from you.

Happy Day.