2017 in review

It is the 30th of December...almost the end of 2017. This year hasn't been bad. We welcomed my handsome grandson, Isaiah Robert Rubright. He was born on my birthday which was special. I had major surgery on June 7th. I was off work 8 weeks. The recovery was harder than I thought, but my back is much better now. I also finally got my feet back in shape. Went through several weeks of intense physical therapy.

We saw 26 movies
I took several classes - fabric painting and another wet felted hat with Tone, quilting classes with Cynthia England, Kaye England and Pat Delaney, wet felted vessels with Geri Forkner, crochet socks with Jonee Davis and Nantucket basket with Robin Goatey, a hawaiian quilting with Patty Ashworth and a paper piecing class with Pat Pagni.
The only trip I went on this year was to Savannah, GA for the Modern Quilt Show
I saw 14 Plays
Only 2 concerts and they were both the Black Jacket Symphony

Now to my books for the year. I think I have a best ever year. I read 59,838 pages across 179 books.
Shortest - 102 pages "When We Touch" by Brenda Novak
Longest - 928 pages "A Woman of Substance" by Barbara Taylor Bradford
Average length - 340 pages
Most Popular - "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins
Least Popular - "Cottage on Crystal Creek" by Julie Gaskill

New writers I started reading - Isabel Wolff, Diane Chamberlain, Curtis Sittenfeld, Molly MacRae, Liz Trenow, Julie Gaskill and Alyssa Maxwell

I started another book club. This is with my quilt guild. Not many members but I have read some wonderful books through it.

I was elected President of my guild in December. I hope I'm a good one.

For 2018 - I hope to do better about eating well, get more exercise and take at least one day trip a month. I want to visit some of the small towns that are within driving distance of Knoxville.

Christmas with Stitch and Bitch ladies

 This year for Christmas, my friend Mary got everyone in the Stitch and Bitch group a wet felted scarf kit. We spent Wednesday eating good food and making scarfs. We had a blast. Mary's kitchen was a perfect place to make the scarves. Which was good cause it was cold outside. We got great gifts. Marian got us each a beautiful miniature piece of original art from a Tennessee artist. Gina got us a beautiful measuring tape in leather. Nancy made us a storage bag with a Sue Spargo piece she made on the front. Such great friends!

2017 Holiday Cookie Weekend

Taylor insisted Josh take a picture of us in our new aprons. This was taken late on Saturday afternoon. We had a great time. Friday we made up all of our refrigerated dough and we probably should have gone ahead and baked some. Instead we went to Red Robin for a burger. It was a fantastic burger. It has brown sugar, candied bacon, cheddar cheese and BBQ sauce on it. Yummy! On Saturday, we took a detour from baking - went and had breakfast, then tried to find some silk chiffon fabric at a fabric store in Nashville, near the fairgrounds. No luck. So we didn't actually start baking until noonish. We baked until about 9:30. We were so exhausted. We had two failures - our fudge recipe wasn't good and Christmas marbles. One recipe of those only made a sandwich bag full of cookies and they weren't that good. So we need a new fudge recipe for next year. Otherwise things went well. I love this weekend and getting to spend so much time with my sweet daughter.

I loved these Molasses cookies!

This was a new recipe. 

Grinch cookies waiting to be baked.

Mine and Taylor's favorite. I forgot to get the red hots for their eyes though.

These turned out much better this year since we got the correct size of Reese's peanut butter cups.

Full refrigerator

Table full of cookie supplies

Wet Felting projects

I have discovered a new craft - wet felting. I have taken four classes now, a small purse class, 2 hat classes and a vessel class. All have been fun. This weekend I made 4 hats and several pincushions. After the hate dry, I will need to decorate them, but here they are.

Another wet felted hat class

Saturday the whole gang signed up to do a wet felted hat class with Tone. Things didn't go as planned, however. Gina's aunt passed away and Nancy got sick. So it ended up just being me, Marian and Mary. We had a great time though. Here is my hat.

I love the way it turned out. Marian and I went up on Monday to the Spinnery in Gatlinburg and purchased some roving. I have two more hats on balls, but it has been cold and wet outside so I haven't felted them yet. Maybe tomorrow or Saturday.

The finished hat. Going to Mom for Christmas.

Apron

I spent today making two aprons. They are for Taylor and me for our annual Christmas cookie baking weekend. I told her last year I would make us aprons. Now keep in mind, I am not a garment maker. In fact, in high school the garment I had to make for my Home Ec class was awful. It terrifies me to try garment sewing, but it is something I want to do. So I found a cute apron pattern. I actually bought several, but my favorite one is one I got at a quilt show. I made a few mistakes, but I think they turned out okay. We will find out when we wear them in December as we make our cookies.

Another Board and Brush visit

We went to Murfreesboro for the weekend.  Our visit was to take in the Bellbuckle craft show. We took the day off on Friday and left town early. We stopped along the way and visited our favorite antique store - the Rocking Horse in Crossville. Then we headed to Jamestown and visited a quilt shop. Once we got to the Boro, we had dinner at this new burger place. I liked my burger but Taylor and Marian didn't so much. Then we head off to the Board and Brush. Taylor worked on another city - Chicago. I did signs for my bathroom and Marian worked on one she may donate to the guild quilt show.

Jonas and my annual away game trip - 2017

This year Jonas and I decided to go to the first UT away game. It was against Georgia Tech in the new Mercedes Benz stadium in Atlanta. The game was on Monday, September 4th. I drove to his house that morning and spent a wonderful hour cuddling with my sweet Isaiah. Then we headed to Atlanta. Jonas knew a back way so we took that to miss all the traffic. We were staying downtown right next to the aquarium. We checked in and headed over to the pep rally hosted by Chick-fil-a. We had a great time and got some free chick minis! Then we went to the stadium. It was amazing! So pretty with lots of places to eat and a special bar on each level sponsored by a different alcohol vendor. The game wasn't too exciting until the last few minutes. UT managed to tie it up and we went into double overtime. UT won when Georgia Tech went for the 2 point conversion and didn't make it. It was the first time UT stopped the running game all day. So much fun! I love these trips with my son.

Total Eclipse of the Sun - August 21, 2017

Today there was a total eclipse of the sun for most of the United States. We had a 99.75 percentage here in Knoxville. They had an eclipse party on the hill at Ayres Hall on UTK's campus. It was amazing! So glad I got to experience it.

Isaiah pictures

Board and Brush - Taylor's 30th birthday party

We had a party at Board and Brush for Taylor's birthday. She thought it was the only party we were having. It was a lot of fun. We brought food and drinks and a lot of people.

The sign I made. It was a gift for Taylor. She is doing a sign for all the cities she and Josh have traveled to. In the background you see Taylor.

This is the sign Mom made.

The is Marian's sign.

This is Karen's sign for her puppies.

This is Taylor's best friend, Jessica's sign. 

Taylor and Jessica.

Karen, Marian's back and Jessica's sister, Amanda.

Mom

Marian's back, Jessica and Karen.