I took advantage of the beautiful weather (cold, windy, but full of sunshine) and got some outdoor projects done this weekend.  We got socked in with tule fog the first part of December, which stayed until the rain came just before Christmas.  I sorely needed some sunshine in my life!  There were a few breakthroughs in the tule fog, but we have a few days of clear skies, which was a nice break.  Rain is coming back this week, so I'll enjoy it while I can! 

I did take the time to put together the Island Hopping Mystery 5-O quilt.  I'll admit, it looks better than I thought it would.  The borders really help it. 

Judy watches Alli two days a week and brought her the cutest Christmas present!  She made it on a circle loom, and was working on, if not this toy, at least something similar, while she was watching Alli.  I've made hats and scarves with the loom, but never thought about making a toy. 

 

Cindy M was out of town for Christmas, so I was dog-sitting her two babies.  Cooper is always a dream to keep, such a great dog.  As for Roo....lets just say she's more of a handful.  (Cindy spells her name Rue for a reason.)  They all got toys for Christmas. 

And some even lasted for a bit.  Not the lobster though.

 

Roo is crate trained, and sleeps in her crate at night.  During the day though, it seems that everyone wants to sleep in the crate.

They all went to work with me, though we need another bed out there - just kidding!  There is another bed, but Ripley always sleeps where she is now.

Roo did move and sleep at my feet during part of the day.

I made it!  The Christmas quilt was finished before Christmas!  (Okay, I finished it on Christmas Eve, but a win still in my book!)  It took a bit longer than I expected.  I had it all quilted and was sewing the binding on the back when realized that the last set of quilting was unraveling.  I had changed out the bobbin when I started that section and when I reset everything, I evidently missed a step (the Allegro is a very fussy sister - if it's not done her way, she won't play nice).  I had to re-quilt the last part of the quilt after putting the binding on. I gave the quilt a wash on Christmas Day, and it's done! 

I also finished the binding on the RBD (Riley Blake Designs) 2025 Block Challenge quilt while I was at ti - one more UFO (unfinished object) completed - just in time to start the 2026 RBD Block Challenge! 

 

 

An update for the rain that we got in the area - this is from the Record Searchlight.  We got 2 inches, other areas got a whole lot more! 

How many inches of rain did Redding and nearby towns get?

Here's how much rain Shasta County towns got from Friday, Dec. 19 to Tuesday morning, Dec. 23:

• Redding Fire Station/Buenaventura Boulevard: 7.24 inches

• Redding Regional Airport: 2.1 inches

• Whiskeytown: 10.01 inches

• Shasta Dam/Lake Shasta: 8.76 inches

• Mule Mountain/3-4 miles south of Whiskeytown Lake: 4.77 inches

• Sims, 38 miles north of Redding on Interstate 5: 6.6 inches

• Sugarloaf/Southwest Redding near Placer Road: 5.46 inches

• Arbuckle Gulch/west of Gas Point Road in Cottonwood: 3.25 inches

• Manzanita Lake, 19 miles east of Shingletown: 7.28 inches

• Whitmore: 4.14 inches

Rainfall totals in towns near Shasta County:

• South Red Bluff/Red Bluff Municipal Airport: 2.03 inches

• Weaverville: 2.65 inches

• Mount Shasta: 2.43 inches (Dec. 19-21)

 

One of the new babies decided to molt in December.  Poor thing, she looks miserable!  It isn't cold at least - we've been in the mid 50's during the day, but definitely wet!  This last storm came with wind, so hopefully she's snuggling up in the coop.

 

I had several people see our current storm on-line and reach out to make sure I was okay.  Fortunately, I think they all saw what is probably the same AI generated photo of Redding with flood waters rushing through the streets.  I'm not saying we didn't have flooding, but that wasn't real! 

Redding got 2 inches of rain in 2 hours - more than then systems come move.  There was one fatality with the storm, which was someone that drove around the police barriers (and police waiving at them to stop).  There are a lot of road closures and damages due to the water.  Alli's day program was closed yesterday, I'm assuming due to the transportation risk, the building itself didn't have any damage.  All in all, a wet storm.  I think we are back to our normal winter rain, but SoCal is next in line for the storm.

I didn't get very far on my quilt yesterday.  But, I did get 12 dozen cookies baked for Alli's day program (okay, I baked 13, but one batch burned - oops!) and stiffened and pinned some snowflakes, as well as the other odds and ends that needed to be done (breakfast, lunch, and dinner, laundry, etc.) 

The pink snowflakes are for Lisa - each year she asks for a different color snowflake.

The look much better unpinned!

I think I have a 50/50 chance of getting my Christmas quilt done before Christmas.  I got the top put together and sandwiched, and even put up on the quilting frame.  Now "all" I need to do is quilt it and put the binding on and add a label.  Since Christmas is Thursday, it's possible. I also still need to pick up more Christmas Cards, mail said Christmas cards, which includes my gifts to the team that I work with, as well as friends and family.  So much for being early this year, sigh.... 

I'm also having brunch here on Thursday, so need to clean/spruce up the house a bit and do some more baking.  Dave is supposed to come, but we have a winter storm watch, so that may not happen.  It's a warm storm (so far) so it's just rain, but it doesn't take much of a temperature drop to make it snow.  Last time I checked, we were expected to get close to 10 inches of rain with this storm, so that's a lot of snow.  

It's also a lot of wind!  AJ and I raked leaved yesterday in the short break we had between rain, just to clear the driveway (I hate tracking in leaves!) and I don't think we needed to bother, at least for my leaves.  The neighbor's leaves, on the other hand have covered my driveway again.

AJ and I went to the Garden of Lights at Turtle Bay last night, and then to dinner (our "new" tradition").  Photos don't do the light show justice of course, but it was a beautiful walk.  A bit wet - the fog we've had for three + weeks is still here, and acted like a misty rain.  It's been replaced by real rain - we are expecting about 10 inches in the storm that started this morning.

 

 

 

 

I took a couple of days off work - supposedly to get ready for Christmas, but really just to have some free time.  Meredith had Monday off as well, and she wanted to do a "craft day", so I joined her to make a pipe cleaner tree.  It didn't turn out too badly, but my fingers are sore from being pricked by the pipe cleaners!  Today will be the final prep of the cookie plates, delivering some of them, and hopefully some sewing!

 

The Mystery quilt got moved off the design board.  I put one of each block together (so I could remember what the final decision was).  I'll finish putting it together after I work on my Christmas quilt.  I'd really like to have that one done before Christmas, but I'm not holding my breath on it.  Here are the two quilt blocks that make up the Mystery quilt.

 

And the Christmas quilt blocks are up!  There is sashing (strips of fabric) between each block that I started working on yesterday.  

 

 

I will have to say I am very disappointed in the original instructions for the quilt.  The amount of fabric needed was way off.  That wouldn't usually be an issue because I used some of the standard fabric that Joann's always had in stock so could easily pick up more fabric, but with them going out of business, I could not find replacement fabric.  I purposefully chose fabric that Joann's always carried because this is not the first time the designer gave the wrong fabric amounts.  I like her designs, but not her measurements, lol!

 

The cornerstones between the sachings are 2 1/2 inch squares, and I have to piece fabric together for about 10 blocks using my small scraps to even make it.  This is all the fabric I have left of one color - all under 2 inches.  I had to swap another color out much earlier on in the quilt.  I did not intend on having red in  my quilt, it was supposed to be all blues and greens, but I ran out of some of the green fabric around block 5 or 6.  Funny, I have a lot of red fabric left, and used more than I intended.

 

 

I think I've posted all of my photos from Japan, except for my souvenirs.  I didn't bring home a lot of things, but...a few things did follow me home.  The first was a bag to carry all my purchases in, lol! 

A T-short from Kyoto

AJ and friends went to the Warhammer store in Tokyo (of course they did....they are all into the game).  AJ got a shirt for himself and one of his friends in Sac, and I got one for me.  I just hope when I wear it no one asks me questions about the game that I can't bluff through.

I picked up these earring (of course - at least one pair had to follow me home - I'm lucky it was just the one pair!)

This is my Beckoning Cat from the Temple.  According to legend, if you make a wish when you're there and the wish comes true, the cat is sent back to the temple.

I got a fox in a similar pose/color combo.

These are the more traditional poses for the guardian foxes.

A trip to japan wouldn't be the same without bringing home a Pokemon (or two - AJ got one to fill in his collection as well.)

I picked up this scarf at a random store while walking around, and I should have picked up more. They are so versatile. This one is cats, and I love it!  

Never leave random skeins of yarn lying around.  You'd think I would know that after all these years of cats, but, once again, I fell victim to a yarn thief.  Not only did she dig out my completed dish clothes, she stole my yarn and took it to the bedroom.  It's a good thing she's cute.

 

AJ helped me rake leaves last weekend, and so did Ripley.

And the non-traditional 2026 calendar is ordered - photos from my trip.