Amy Currioman

My horoscope said nothing about how great today was going to be. First, I went to Starbucks and they gave me a free chocolate cherry mocha coffee. They had made one for someone else who decided they didn’t want it and the barrista didn’t want to throw it away, so she asked me if i would like it. Heck, yes!

Then I went to Home Depot to get a couple of rakes for my overdue yard work and went to the self checkout. The rakes both had the bar codes on them, but the second one would not scan. the checkout display said to wait for assistance. I waited and waited and even with 4 idle workers milling about, no one came to help me. So I got a little ticked off and loudly asked “Where’s my assistance?” the clerk came and tried to scan the rake, but it didn’t work. So he went somewhere else and left me standing there along with a growing line of other impatient customers. When he came back he tried to scan it one more time. It still didn’t work. He leaned toward me and said softly, “I’m not going to charge you for this rake. It’s not your fault the scan won’t work and I’m sorry you’ve had to wait so long.” He smiled and handed me the rake – another freebie!

Our Christmas tree this year – most of the ornaments were hand made, mostly by myself or family members or friends.  Isn’t it pretty?  I even crocheted the angel topper and the tree skirt myself!  This year the tree is a small 3 1/2′ artificial tree that had light bulbs already strung on it.  I just didn’t want to bother with stringing lights this year myself!  And we decided on a small tree to put on a table to help keep the dogs from bothering the tree.  The last couple of years one of our dogs decided that chewing the strands of lights was a good idea!

I’ve spent most of the last two days sewing a quillow. Do you know what a quillow is? It is a quilt with a pocket sewn in so that the entire quilt can be folded into the pocket. Once that is folded in, the quillow now looks like, and can be used as, a pillow. So it is a quilt/pillow, therefore called a quillow. I’ve made several quillows in my life. I’ve sold some, and I’ve given some as presents.

This one I just made is being sold to one of my husband’s friends. He is planning to give it to his wife as a Christmas gift! I made a matching pillow case for it, so he can get a pillow form from the local fabric store to put inside it, or they can insert a throw pillow that they already own inside it.

Anyway, here is a picture of my lastest quillow! I hand-tied this one instead of machine quilting it. I thought that the pattern of the fabric lended itself to hand-tying. When I make a quillow, I let the fabric “tell me” what type of quilting would be the best suited. I hope the wife enjoys it!

My hubby loves chrome because it is shiny. I can’t really blame him, I like silver and gold shiny jewelry too! So for him, chrome is jewelry for his motorcycle and his truck! In the house, however, my hubby is all about stainless steel. Especially whenever we have to replace something. When we moved into this house we needed new appliances. I didn’t care what color they were, I just needed some appliances that worked! So we trotted off to the store and it became obvious that he would agree to just about anything as long as it was stainless steel!

So now that Christmas gift time is approaching I’m thinking about buying him some bloomus stainless steel fireplace accessories to set beside the fireplace in the family room.  Or perhaps a nice shiny bloomus stainless steel mailbox to use as a drop box beside the garage. I’m sure he’d also love a nice bloomus stainless steel birdfeeder for the back yard!

While I was putting the boxes of items on the new storage shelves I tried to take a peek inside them to see what was in them.  I wanted to use a marker to write on the outside what was inside to make it easier to find later.  It really has been a mess down there!  I was pleased to find several boxes marked “Planters” and “Garden Statues.”  I’ve been wondering where my favorite Decorative Planter had gone to when we moved down here three years ago!

We’ve been putting off buying any new Outdoor Planters until we found our “stash” of planters, and now that we’ve come across it we can sort through them and clean them up and see if any are salvageable to use on the front porch or back deck next spring.  Now I’ll be anxious for spring to come again and it isn’t even winter yet!