It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Hoping everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Now on to Christmas. Started decorating the house for Christmas on Friday. I decorate almost every room of the house with the exception of the laundry room. We have 4 full size fake trees and get 1 real one each year for the living room. Most rooms have at least a small tree and creche in them as seen in the photo from our bedroom. Next up is the baking and gift buying.

We kicked off our holiday season by attending the tree lighting ceremony in downtown Grayslake. It's always fun to watch the kids' reactions to seeing Santa pull up on the fire truck and then light the tree. We follow that with shopping in the stores and having dinner. This year we decided to eat at Something's Brewing. We enjoyed their Buffalo chicken salads followed by samples of the delicious toffee from Uniquely Sweet.

This will be our last week of class. As the holidays approach, the girls just get too busy. Julia made great progress on her round neck blouse and Lauren is nearly finished with her robe.

Anna is almost done with her sport blouse, Izzy was absent due to going to visit family, Meghan is getting so close to finishing her banded top and Katie is working really hard on the nightshirt for her mom.

I am working an a duvet cover being fashioned from a quilt that a client made while also ordering hardware and fabric for other clients. There will be some beautiful homes this Christmas.

My hubby and I have been part of a program, Elite Body Composition, to lose weight that started in September. We have 2 more weeks left in the program and we both have managed to reach our goals even with two Thanksgiving celebrations. We both want to lose a few more pounds still but were very happy to have gotten this far. Many thanks to Matt and the coaches at TFP for pushing us all. The Sunday afternoon bike rides haven't always been the most pleasant but we survived.

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. We celebrated Thanksgiving this past Sunday with my husband's two sisters and a fiancee, our three children, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, three of the parent-in-laws and my mom. We started the day with the Turkey Trot in Lincolnwood where I helped my daughter-in-law finish her first 10K. She did very well.

That was followed by breakfast at iHop and then back to the house for showers and dinner prep. A few hours watching the Packers win was followed by the rest of the guests arriving and a great time was had by all. We finished the night with a few rousing games of Smart Ass.

In the sewing classes, Julia is working on her round neck blouse, already has it sewn together at the shoulders after finishing all the zigzagging. Lauren has the pockets on her robe and the back and fronts together and the facing attached.

Anna has finished her car organizer and has started on a sports blouse, Izzy is working on her sewing bag, Meghan is getting closer to finishing her banded top and Katie finished her peasant blouse and started on a nightshirt for her mom.

I finished the pillows, had a consultation with a new client and will do some shopping with her next week. Had some business coaching sessions also. Have some 'homework' that I need to do for them. Will be working hard today so I can enjoy taking off the next couple of days.

Holiday Crunch Time

The holidays are fast approaching and I have lots of projects to get finished. That is both good and bad. Just finding some time to get into the workroom has been a problem lately. Multiple meetings in a week really impacts my production time. Oh well, this is something I just need to work on. The family room pillows are almost done, then some hemming, ottoman slipcover, valances with grommets and a duvet cover. I do love what I do.

Julia finished her back slit denim skirt and has started cutting out a round neck blouse to go with it. Lauren started on sewing her robe. She started by embellishing the pockets with raw edge applique flowers cut from the capri fabric. Anna missed class last week, Izzy started her sewing bag, Meghan is working on her banded blouse and Katie is almost done with her peasant blouse.

Also had a couple of private sewing lessons this week. It is fun to see the adults as excited as the girls.

Need to start working on dinner for Sunday. We are celebrating Thanksgiving with family. There will be 15 for dinner. Should be a good time. John and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary this past weekend by staying at a B&B in Woodstock and going to see Pirates of Penzance at the Woodstock Opera house. The B&B we stayed at was the Royal Victorian which was used as the Cherry Street Inn in the movie Groundhog Day. At the time of the movie it was a private residence and just recently was made into a B&B. It is a lovely place. We had dinner at the Woodstock Public House. The loaded baked potato soup was so good!!! We might need to drive out there again.

Finding Time

Met with my client again last week to finalize the pillows for her family room. Here is the first one for her brown leather recliner. The four large pillows will all be the same black fabric with covered cord of this stripe. The backs are going to be sewn from her old pillows as they are the same fabric as the couch and love seat. The two smaller pillows are out of a brown print and will have covered cord from the fabric of the larger pillows. So happy we were able to come to a final decision. Now she is just looking for a rod for the kitchen valance and I can finish that.

Meeting with someone next week who is looking for window treatments for her living room and dining room. I just need to find some time to get these projects all sewn as I also have an ottoman to slipcover and another kitchen valance to make.

Having some minor surgery tomorrow so that is going to take time away from work.

Julia is just putting the finishing touches on her back slit denim skirt and will be starting a new project next week. Lauren got her robe all cut out and will be able to start sewing next week. We are discussing the possibilities for embellishment. Anna ran out of bobbin thread as she was putting in the last few stitches on her car organizer. She will finish it at home and start on something new next time. Izzy picked out the fabric for her sewing bag and will start on cutting it out today. Meghan is working on putting the facing onto her banded top and Katie is working on her peasant blouse. I will be offering a Saturday sewing session during our December break where they can make gifts for their family or friends.

Did the Hot Chocolate 15K on Saturday and was pleased with my time. It was a cool and breezy day with plenty of sunshine so it made for a great race. Next up is the 10K Lincolnwood Turkey Trot on the 20th. Not sure how well I will be able to run. Hopefully I will be helping my new daughter-in-law complete her first 10K.

Had another Action Coach group meeting this morning so I have lots of 'homework' to do, so I had better finish this up and get back to work.

Keeping Busy

Better late than never, a happy Halloween. Hope you all had a good one. We were light on trick or treaters this year so I have lots of pretzels and graham Goldfish left. Oh well they will keep until I have my summer camps when the kids will enjoy them at treat time.
Sewing classes are going well. We canceled class for Monday due to Halloween. I figured my girls would rather be out getting candy and I wouldn't have to listen to the doorbell ring while I was trying to teach. Anna is almost done with her car organizer. She still won't show it to her mom until she is all finished. Isabelle started last week. She has some experience with a sewing machine so she is moving right along. I think Meghan finally has the band on right on her blouse. She has been so frustrated with it but has kept working at it. Katie is putting the elastic in her peasant blouse and should be finished soon.
Finished some vests for Adventure Princesses and some much needed hemming for my daughter. It's funny how the family stuff keeps slipping to the bottom of the pile. Now on to some pillows and a slipcover for an ottoman. I'm thinking of putting in an invisible zipper to make it easier to take on and off for washing. The client has two little girls and it might need to be washed frequently. Here is a before photo.

I met with my trainer yesterday evening to discuss how 2010 went and plans for 2011. I am losing weight and body fat nicely with the Elite Body Composition class my husband and I are doing. I attained my goal of doing a half marathon in under two hours in Nashville in April and my hubby and I did our first duathlon in June followed by a second one in October after getting ourselves some road bikes this August. Next year I am planning to run my first marathon and do several sprint duathlons with my hubby followed by an olympic distance one in November. Sounds like it could be a challenging year but with Lauri's guidance I should be able to do it.