Christmas Party

Oh how exciting.... the Secret Santa gifts are being distributed..

Michelle was the first one to receive her gift and she is going to blog about it.

The question was... does she open it now or when???? I suggest we open them as we receive them, (if that is your wish) because at Christmas time we will be very busy with family... so why don't we allow this time for the Charming Girls' Christmas Party?

You are cordially invited to a Charming Girl Secret Santa Party

When... December 2009

Time: Anytime

What to bring: eye candy of your Secret Santa gift

Where: To your blog

R.S.V.P. : to my blog that you have posted your photo

Responsibility: to visit the CG's blogs and have a chat in the "comment" corner.

My favorite punch recipe (and easy to prepare)

1 bottle ginger ale (2 L)

1 bottle apple cider (1.82 L)

1/2 cup grenadine

Orange slices and ice chips

A Christmas Tag for the Charming Girls

When I was a little girl, (not too long ago) the week before Christmas my father would drive us all over the Community to see the Christmas decorations . What a magical moment for my two sisters and I!! This year I have relived those moments when I visited your blogs and admired your taste in Christmas décor...There are so many beautiful arrangements and in my book they would all be winners if there was a contest to pick the best..
So I am going to leave it up to you. A few of you have posted some of your decorated corners and it gave me the idea to tag you to post your special corner or your special decoration. You may have more than one, so by all means share them all..Of course your entries will be put in the draws for one of the two $25.00 gift certificates from Cotton Charm Here are mine...
This is my favourite corner.. Every year I display the pictures of my four grand-daughters on their first Christmas and in the book there are the photos of my children's Christmases when they were little. I have this on the end of my sideboard in the dining area of my kitchen with a miniature Nativity set. It is often the topic of discussion and certainly makes us reminisce the Christmases past.


This one is also one of my favourite in the living room where the book on the Birth of the Messiah encourages me to read about the meaning of Christmas.

I collect ♥Nativity Sets♥ ( can you tell?) and this one, in my family room, carved in wood, is very special. When my daughter Liette was 8 years old, she had gone with her cousin to the big city, Halifax, shopping and this is the Christmas gift she had bought me. I will cherish it forever!

Notice the little kitty cat figurine on the side? Just like my Christmas tree that is decorated with unbreakables at the bottom, on every table that I have ornaments I made sure I put a piece which would attract little Émilie to play with. She learnt immediately which ones she was allowed to touch and does not even look at the others on the tables. After all Christmas is not about Grandmas saying NO do not touch! To see their little faces light up is worth more than a figurine or a Christmas ball!

So I can't wait to see your favorite corner/decorations and a brief explanation as to why it is so important to you. Post your pictures on your blogs and leave me a message here that you have done so...

It is a perfect opportunity to visit all our CG blogs and to leave them a wish for a Merry Christmas all the while getting to know one another better.

May the Christmas spirit be with you always......

Santa's letter

Dear Santa,

It has been a long time since I wrote you a letter and my letters to you were all in french "en français". Along the years I have enjoyed helping my children write their letters to you and now my grand-daughters. If you remember my gift requests were always crafts supplies, coloring books, paint sets, sewing and knitting kits. I remember one year jewellery kits were on my list and even a basket weaving kit, well things have not changed with the passing of the years. I still would like a gift that would compliment my favourite craft.. quilting. And here is the gift I would absolutely love... a fat quarter ofOr a fat quarter of.....
Thank you Santa and a special thanks to

for providing the link so I can connect to you with my special request.

Un gros merci!

Joyenx Noël à tous/Merry Christmas to all

Sunday Project

You know how when you finish a project there are always leftovers? Well mine end up in a drawer and never never in the waste basket no matter how small the piece is. Of course these are great for appliqués and I do use a lot. However, I have made a

decision, even before the New Year, to use as much of the leftovers as I can immediately after I finish my projects This is why I decided to make some new place mats with fabric, by Sandy Jarvais, Holly Jolly, which I used to make my Secret Santa projects. For the next two weeks I will have several luncheon get-togethers, so these will be perfect .

The pattern came from the latest Quilter's World.. I decided to eliminate the holly appliqués, as I found it would be too busy,

Half Pint

Check out Kelly 's post for the beautiful "Half Pint" eye candy and the two winners of the "Whimpsy" Jelly roll by Sandy Jarvais and the "Martinique" Jelly roll by 3 Sisters.
Congratulation to the winners and I agree with Kelly we should do this again. She promised no tiny HST's in her next design.

Oh! my... a blizzard

My mother always told me be careful what you asked for...you may get it and not now what to do with it...

I asked for snow and would have gladly accepted a blizzard but only if I was in the comfort of my home and not on the road... what a drive home..... Whew! BUT the decorations are beautiful♥♥♥

Well 38 years ago it was a beautiful sunny day and my heart glowed as my second daughter Liette was born.. this is Miss Émilie's mom..

Émilie who loves to write was waiting for her mom after school with a hand made birthday card.... Liette is the principal at the Port Maitland Elementary School and an inspiration to me in many ways. She has not taken up sewing but loves cross stitch.

I am very glad we celebrated her birthday Sunday because tonight is not a night to venture out but a night for sewing preferably lap work.

Some of you asked for a close up picture of my angels... These are made with a mesh fabric ( the name of the fabric escapes me) which you wet and shape as you wish. Once its dry it is very stiff and holds its shape.

The year I made these I had made smaller ones for my whole Christmas tree for an angel tree!

"It's Begining to Look A lot Like Christmas"

It' begining to look a lot like.....

Yipee♥♥♥ snow.. I went from one window to the next to take in the sights of the freshly fallen snow in the early morning..

A perfect winter wonderland.

So maybe I will be able to wear these..

They are very hard to get... As soon as the Olympic torch passes through an area the mittens all go; so from here to Quebec ..forget it... there are none to be found.... but a good friend of mine happenend to be in Vancover and yes! they had lots. So Santa may have some in his sack after all....

My mitten model did very well!

Speaking of Santa.. I hope all you Secret Santas are enjoying visiting your partners blogs and hopefully your gifts are coming along well. I finished mine and it was shipped yesterday so I am hoping she will like it as much as I enjoyed making it for her. I know I asked you to e-mail me photos of your finished Secret Santa projects but hold on to them for now as I am still in the bog with my e-mail . Today is the deadline.. if Yahoo doesn't come through I will change my server.