August Celebration: Just Because Day

I have been having a lot of fun this year looking for unusual and creative ways to celebrate.  I have found some quirky holidays.  But as unusual as some holidays are, and there is probably a holiday for everything, this month has a holiday for anything you want.  On August 27^th, you have to celebrate Just Because Day.

The idea is that since we spend much of our days doing things we HAVE to do, why not have a day to do something for no reason than Just Because.  I like it.  Doesn’t everyone want to do something or like to do something for no particular reason. 

Maybe you see a new outfit at a store.  You don’t need it for an event.  You might have plenty of clothes.  You just want it so buy it, just because.

 aybe you want to go on a picnic but it is not a weekend day or a holiday.  So take the day off and have a picnic, just because.

Figure out something you want to do on this day and just do it.  Or better yet wake up that morning and do the first fun thing that comes to your head.  And make sure to let everyone know you are doing it Just Because.  Who knows if enough people do something just because it might become a national holiday marked in red on the calendar for no reason than just because. 

©2018 Cheryl Fillion

July’s Quirky Holidays

July has a lot of holidays.  Of course in the US, there is July 4^th, Independence Day when it was decided to separate from Britain and form our own nation.  That is a big summer celebration with picnics, parades and fireworks.  But there are a lot more reasons to celebrate in July, especially if a picnic on July 4^th isn’t enough.

There are all kinds of food “Days”.  July 1^st is Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day and International Chicken Wing Day. July 3^rd is Eat Beans Day.  Sidewalk Egg Frying Day is also on July 4^th (not sure I would want to eat that egg).  Do you like apple turnovers?  Well, have one on July 5^th, that is National Apple Turnover Day.  July 6^th is National Fried Chicken Day.  July 7^th is Chocolate Day, International Cherry Pit Spitting Day (got to eat the cherry to get the pit) and National Strawberry Sundae Day.  My favorite summer fruit – blueberries is honored on July 8^th.(and then Pick Blueberries Day is on the 10^th and National Blueberry Muffins Day is the 11^th)

July 10^th is National Sugar Cookie Day (and you could revisit the Chocolate Day and Strawberry Sundae Day by having aother sundae with a little chocolate syrup and a cookie).  Just to make sure we get in another dessert, Pecan Pie Day is July 12^th.  French Fries are honored on July 13^th (appropriate since French Bastille Day is the 14^th).  We go back to ice cream with National Ice Cream Day (different from July 1^st which is Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day, remember). Have some pudding on Tapioca Pudding Day on the 15^th.  And with all these sweets, eat some spinach on the 16^th for Fresh Spinach Day.

We do another flavor of ice cream on the 17^th for Peach Ice Cream Day.  And to get a little fancy, try some caviar on National Caviar Day on the 18^th but I wouldn’t combined it with the other food honored on that day, Hot Dogs.  And with all this food you do need a drink now and then, so for the adults try a Daiquiri on its day the 19^th. Cakes are also back on the 19^th with National Raspberry Cake Day.  The 20^th brings another ice cream day with National Ice Cream Soda day.  Don’t want anymore ice cream but you do want something sweet?  Switch the ice cream for a lollipop on the 20^th – it’s that sweet sucker’s national day. 

And so we don’t forget a favorite ‘unofficial’ food group, July 21^st is National Junk Food Day.  Remember with chips, you can’t eat just one.  July still hasn’t had enough of ice cream.  We have to honor the basic, vanilla on July 23rd. You don’t have to live south of the border to get some tequila on the 24^th.  That day is National Tequila Day.  The 28^th is a favorite of children of every age: National Milk Chocolate Day.

July 1^st was International Chicken Wing Day.  We also need to bring it home with National Chicken Wing Day on July 29^th.  If you want more of a meal, the 29^th is also National Lasagna Day.  And we finish off the food month with a sweetie on the 30^th, National Cheesecake Day. 

Now if you can’t find something to celebrate with food during the month of July, you are just too picky of an eater.  To the rest of us, I say “LET’S EAT!”

©2018, 2023 Cheryl Fillion

 

 

Celebrations of Music – May Holidays

 

I found two fun celebration days for May and they occur on the same week and involve music. 

The first is Tap Dance Day on May 25^th.  Tap dance is seen as an American form of dance and Tap Dance Day was started in 1989, although it is celebrated in other countries such as Japan, Australia, India and Iceland.

Whether you are a tap dancer yourself (I am not) or just an appreciator of tap (I am), enjoy the day with a little dance of your own.  You don’t have to be good.  Your dance doesn’t have to be public.  Just tap dance. Maybe even sign up for some lessons.  If you are lucky enough, check out a live performance of dance. Or if nothing else watch a movie with a little tap dancing in it. 

The second celebration is May 26^th and that is International Jazz Day. This celebration was founded in 2011 by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization.  It is intended to show the international aspect of jazz.  And like so many other forms of music, jazz seems to bring people together and that is a great thing.

So spend the day listening to jazz ( and maybe tap dancing to some).  If you are able to go to a live concert or even a local festival of jazz on that day, do so.  I am sure you won’t regret it.  If you are one who plays an instrument, play a little jazz that day if only for yourself (but sharing with others is also good).  You don’t have to be great at it; you just have to do it.

And if you are ending the week with a Memorial Day celebration, include a little tap and a little jazz in your backyard barbeque.  Celebrate the music.

©2018, 2023- Cheryl Fillion 

April celebrations

 

 I have been doing blog posts on holidays for a couple of months now.  It is fun to see what people around the world celebrate.  This month I have two.  I just couldn’t decide. 

The first is actually the whole month of April.  It is National Poetry month.  That alone should tell you what I am going to recommend.  Yup, poetry.  Do you read poetry?  If not give it a whirl. 

If you are not sure you will understand poetry, start out with some children’s poems. If you don’t like the structure of poetry, read some freeform poetry.  My favorite poet is Emily Dickinson.

Have you ever tried to write poetry?  Try it.  Know that all the words don’t have to rhyme but that might be a lot of fun to try.  Here is an experiment to try: go to a page in a book or newspaper and randomly pick out 5 words.  No fair picking only words you like.  Then with these words write a 4 line poem.  If you want to start easy, go with a children’s book or the funny pages in the newspaper.  You don’t have to publish it.  You don’t even have to show anyone your poem.  But as a line from a commercial once said, try it, you’ll like it.

The other holiday is April 22, Earth Day.  This holiday was created in the 1970s when the environmental movement was just getting started.  It is one that has special meanung to me.  I recycle and reuse (and reuse and reuse) but it is a holiday when my dad would send me a Happy Earth Day card.  He always tried to find some card with a nature scene on it and make it into his own Earth Day card.

So on this day do something nice for the Earth.  Take your cans and bottles to the recycling center.  Plant some flowers (and if your ground is still frozen, plant some flowers in a pot).  Paint or embroider a picture of a natural scene.  Or take a walk and watch nature (and then come home and write a poem about it.  Ah, you knew I would get these two holidays together.)  Maybe even continue my dad’s tradition and send someone a nice card with a nature scene on it.

So                    Roses are Red

                        Violets are blue

                        Celebrate Earth Day

                        And poetry too.

 

©2018 , 2023Cheryl E. Fillion

 

 

 

A Doll Festival

 In Japan on March 3^rd, the Hina Matsuri, Doll’s Festival, is celebrated.  This is a day to pray for a young girl’s growth and happiness.  On this day girls host a party of tea and poetry for their friends and they serve little pink and green diamond shaped mochi (rice) cakes.

At the party is a display of dolls.  These aren’t dolls that the girls play with everyday but instead heirlooms that have been passed down for generations.  The display is a tier of shelves with dolls representing the members of the imperial court in ancient court costumes as well as pieces of furniture, small meal dishes and other things.

This used to be one occasion when little girls had their own parties.  The set was brought out for the day and quickly put away after March 3^rd.  (It was thought that if it was not put away immediately the girl would have trouble marrying.)

No one really knows where the origin of this holiday came from but it is thought that it actually started with the Shinto religion.  On March 3^rd a folded paper doll resembling a kimono known as a Kata Shiro would be cast into water and with it the user’s sins, illness and bad luck. 

 I like the idea of a day to pray for young girls (there is a similar day for boys in May) but what really intrigues me is the doll display.  I have one baby doll of my mother’s and much of her miniature doll furniture.  I actually have some of the pieces displayed on furniture in my living room.  The furniture while made of plastic is very well made.  My favorite piece is a sewing machine which folds down into a cabinet just like the old Singer sewing machines did.  And when you turn the knob on the side of the machine, the little “needle” goes up and down.

Maybe if there is a special little girl in your life, you could tell her about the Doll Festival and find a way to display her dolls or toys on March 3rd.  The dolls and toys might not have the significance of a imperial court but it might show her that her possessions are just as important as she is. 

©2018, 2023- Cheryl E. Fillion

Celebrate Christmas All Month Long

 

I really love Christmas.  I tend to go all out.  I start playing my Christmas music before Thanksgiving.  I get out the books I have on Christmas customs and traditions and reread why we do the things we do.  I try to make my yearly ornaments to give out in early December.  I try to make the holiday last as long as I can.  And one friend described my decorated house as sensory overload.

While looking for a celebration to write about this month besides Christmas, I found there are all kinds of days in December set aside to get you ready for the big holiday itself.

December 6^th is St. Nicholas Day.  In some parts of Europe and even here in the States, this is the day when St Nicholas (Santa Claus) comes for an early visit.  There actually was a St. Nicholas who was an Archbishop in Turkey back in the 5^th century.  He became the patron saint of boys and December 6^th is his birthday and on this day he is known for bringing little gifts for the good children, and sticks for the bad. 

 If you are Christmas Card sender, December 9^th is Christmas Card Day.  If you haven’t gotten your cards yet, this might be a good day.  Or maybe this is the day to make cards.  Wouldn’t Grandma prefer a hand made card from the little ones than a store bought one?

Poinsettias, considered the flower of Christmas, have their own day on December 12^th.  So make sure you get out to your favorite garden store to pick out your festive plant.  December 14^th is Roast Chestnuts Day.  If you are not much of a chestnut person, how about picking up those other nuts you might eat.  A favorite part of Christmas growing up was going to the local grocers to get our bag of mixed nuts (only available this time of year).  They would have bins of unshelled nuts.  My favorite then and now were the walnuts.

And what is Christmas without the cookies.  Well, December 18^th is set aside just to get those holiday sweets completed for Santa’s visit with Bake Cookies Day.  And so you don’t forget that tree, Look for an Evergreen Day is December 19^th.  And while you are getting ready, why not take a break on December 20^th and celebrate Go Caroling Day.

If by now in the month you are bogged down with shopping and decorating and feeling a bit overwhelmed, there is a day for you to go ahead and just feel a little like Scrooge.  December 21^st is Humbug Day.  Just don’t let it last more than a day.

And finally on December 24^th, hopefully all the preparations are done and you can sit back and enjoy a little eggnog for it is not just Christmas Eve but also Nation Egg Nog Day.

If you are one who likes to have Christmas last as long as you can, go ahead and celebrate it all month long.  And Merry Christmas to you.

 

©2018, 2021 Cheryl Fillion

 

It’s Football Season!!

 I like this time of year, not only to the temperatures start cooling and school starts but it’s football season.  Anyone who is a fan has been counting down the days since the

Superbowl game.  For me it means getting out my favorite team’s glass and cup to use on game day.  (I am a Green bay Packer fan. Green Bay, Wisconsin is my family’s hometown.)

A whil3 back I bought a set of cookie cutters which included a helmet and football shape.  Now I didn’t buy these cutters for cookies; I bought them for needle felting (See my blog post “Needle Felting in a Cookie Cutter”).  But I began to wonder what other things the cutters could be used for.  

So here are ten ways to use the football and helmet cookie cutters (but any shape and any occasion will work here).

1- Use the shape to needlefelt an ornament or press the cookie cutter into clay for an ornament.

2- Trace the shape onto a blank card and decorate it for an invitation to your football watching party.

3- Trace the shape onto a blank card but leave the shape plain.  Tell your guests they have to bring the card colored or decorated to the party and a prize will be given to the best card.

4- String yarn or a chain through the cookie cutter and wear it as a necklace.

5- Having coloring sheets with the shapes on it for the children or adults to color if the game gets boring or your team is losing.

6- Use the cutter as a template for appliqué, embroidery or coloring on fabric.  (See blog post “Cookie Cutters are just for Cookies” and “Colored Pencils on Fabric”) 

7- Use the cutters to create different shaped deli meats or cheese for your food table

8-Tic Tac Toe game – Create a 9 patch ( a 3 x 3 square grid) with the squares big enough for the cookie cutter shape.  Pick 2 shapes and make five of each.  You can use paper, card stock, felt, or fabric.  You can also use one shape like the helmet and make 5 from 2 different colors.  Use the shapes as you would Xs and Os in a tic tac toe game but instead of marking a paper, you place the shapes on the squares. 

9- Use them as napkin holders.  If you have just a couple of sports related cookie cutters, add stars, circles, hearts, fall leaves, whatever might be appropriate or fun.  (If the weather is still warm or even if it isn’t, try a snowman). 

10- Oh, yeah, and make cookies with the cutters.

Remember what I said in an earlier blog: cookie cutters aren’t just for cookies.  So go have some fun with football or any cookie cutters.

©2021  Cheryl Fillion

Happy Holidays

I wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays.  There are a lot of celebrations at this time of year and whatever you honor, I hope your holiday is wonderful.

 

This year has been challenging for everyone but I hope you are able to spend the end of this year with those you love, enjoying great food, wonderful decorations and lots of love and laughter.

 

So  may the last week of 2020 be merry and bright.

 

©2020 Cheryl Fillion

Celebrate Christmas All Month Long

This has been a crazy year.  With all that has gone on, you might think there is nothing much to celebrate but I think you would be wrong.  This is exactly the time to celebrate and have some fun.  A couple of years ago I posted this blog about December celebrations and I think this is what we need to do again.

 

December 6^th is St. Nicholas Day.  In some parts of Europe and even here in the States, this is the day when St Nicholas (Santa Claus) comes for an early visit.  There actually was a St. Nicholas who was an Archbishop in Turkey back in the 5^th century.  He became the patron saint of boys and December 6^th is his birthday and on this day he is known for bringing little gifts for the good children, and sticks for the bad. 

 

If you are Christmas Card sender, December 9^th is Christmas Card Day.  If you haven’t gotten your cards yet, this might be a good day.  Or maybe this is the day to make cards.  Wouldn’t Grandma prefer a hand made card from the little ones than a store bought one?

 

Poinsettias, considered the flower of Christmas, have their own day on December 12^th.  So make sure you get out to your favorite garden store to pick out your festive plant.  December 14^th is Roast Chestnuts Day.  If you are not much of a chestnut person, how about picking up those other nuts you might eat.  A favorite part of Christmas growing up was going to the local grocers to get our bag of mixed nuts (only available this time of year).  They would have bins of unshelled nuts.  My favorite then and now were the walnuts.

 

And what is Christmas without the cookies.  Well, December 18^th is set aside just to get those holiday sweets completed for Santa’s visit with Bake Cookies Day.  And so you don’t forget that tree, Look for an Evergreen Day is December 19^th.  And while you are getting ready, why not take a break on December 20^th and celebrate Go Caroling Day.

 

If by now in the month you are bogged down with shopping and decorating and feeling a bit overwhelmed, there is a day for you to go ahead and just feel a little like Scrooge.  December 21^st is Humbug Day.  Just don’t let it last more than a day.

 

And finally on December 24^th, hopefully all the preparations are done and you can sit back and enjoy a little eggnog for it is not just Christmas Eve but also National Egg Nog Day.

 

If you are one who likes to have Christmas last as long as you can, go ahead and celebrate it all month long.  And Merry Christmas to you.

 

©2018, 2020 Cheryl Fillion

My Quilt Festival Weekend

 

For the last two years I wrote of my adventures at the Houston International Quilt Festival. But this year, due to Covid, it has been cancelled.  So many of the things we look forward to and enjoy doing have been cancelled. 

 

In the Spring here in Tyler we had our local quilt show cancelled.  It was always my little staycation in March.  It was a way to immerse myself with beautiful colors and quilts and people who speak the same language (you know piecing, appliqué, embellishment). This year I felt a bit lost that weekend.  All my activities gone. 

 

Well I recently decided that even if I couldn’t go to Houston for the Quilt show, I was going to have my own quilt festival. So for the first weekend in November I am planning some quilt activities of my own.

 

I am thinking of going to both local quilts shops and if nothing else wander around the wonderful fabrics they have.  I will try to find something to buy so I am supporting our local small business shops.  Shopping is a big activity at any quilts show,

 

I am hoping it will be cold so I can sit under one of my quilts or maybe many of them by switching them out every couple of hours.  I love old quilts so I am going to pull out a quilt history book to read or maybe browse through all the picture I took in Houston the past 2 years.

 

I am trying to decide whether to start a new quilt project or work on one in progress but some amount of stitching needs to occur that weekend. The big question is which project to decide on.  Or maybe I will watch a new technique on Youtube like I would with the free demos at the show.

 

I do know I plan to get a pizza that weekend.  When you think about it pizza is the perfect quilty food.  You have the crust on the bottom which is like the backing of the quilt.  The sauce on the top is like the background fabric of the front of the quilt and the toppings are like an appliqué design with the cheese holding everything together just as the quilting stitches do on a quilt.  Plus by getting a pizza delivered, I don’t have to cook and can spend more time looking, stitching and shopping quilts. 

 

So for one weekend I am going to immerse myself in quilts.  But you don’t make quilts, you say.  Well what other event or activity is being cancelled due to this pandemic?  What about Halloween?   Is trick or treating allowed in your community?  If not what are you going to do?

 

My paternal grandmother lived in a little apartment in the back of a small apartment building.  In the fall it would get dark very early and since the driveway was not well lit and you couldn’t see her porch light from the street, she did not get many trick or treaters except for my brothers and I.  Now I liked going to her house because she always made such a fuss of our costumes but also because she didn’t get many kids, she would buy the big candy bars not the little fun sizes to give out and we would get what was left over.

 

So what if you just took the kids to house where you knew the people (like grandma and grandpa) and give them a big size candy bar..  Or maybe decorate the back yard and have a Halloween treat hunt (like an Easter Egg hunt).  You could buy things you wouldn’t give for regular trick or treat, like big candy bars, or apples, cut out cookies, coloring books or some Halloween themed toys. 

 

There is no reason to just let the events and activities which are cancelled from Covid to slip by.  Create your own event.  No it will not be the same.  I won’t be traveling by bus to Houston with 40 other quilters but I will provide myself with a quilt filled weekend and probably have just as much fun.

 

©2020 Cheryl Fillion 

 

Show and Tell

I have always liked show and tell in school.  You were able to see what other kids got as gifts; maybe see a pet or two (usually turtles or lizards) and hear stories.  I still like show and tell but now it is with fiber. We have show and tell in the quilt guild meetings, in our fiber artist group, and with the sampler group I belong to at our local quilt shop. It is a way to see what other people are working on and hear the stories behind their projects.

In our sampler group, I like to see how quilters arrange the same blocks I am working on.  It gives me an idea of how to arrange my blocks or even some blocks in a future quilt.  With any show and tell, I learn about new techniques or new patterns I might like to try. I am always learning about weaving styles in our fiber artist group.

And I love to hear the stories behind whatever is being shown.  It might be a funny one about how they started this or that years ago (like a baby quilt for a niece who is now having a baby of their own) or a project someone started in a class or at a retreat.  That always makes me want to take a class. 

I think though my favorite part is seeing the pride in the person’s face that is showing their work and especially if that person is a new quilter, weaver or artist and they hear the praise from other more experienced people.  It is such a vote of confidence for them. I tried to cheer louder for a newbie.  It takes a lot of guts to show your work when you are a beginner.

If ever you get a chance to show off your work to a group, do so.  You might be inspiring some one else and it is always nice to hear the applause.  And if some is showing you something they make, always applaud.  In showing what they are creating, they are showing you a bit of themselves.

 

©2020 Cheryl Fillion

New Years Resolutions

How many of you make New Year’s Resolutions?  Is it to stop a bad habit or lose weight or exercise more?  Getting healthy sure is a good thing to do.

But what if your resolution was to be more creative?  What if you made a promise to yourself to do more art or sewing or learn a new craft? 

Every year I go through my unfinished quilting projects and decide which one I am going to finish for the upcoming quilt show in March.  It is amazing to me when I find I only have a little more to do on a project for it to be finished.

Other years I have promised myself to take advantage of the classes my quilt guild offers.  I have learned different ways to quilt on my home sewing machine, new ways to appliqué, new embroidery stitches (after a recent class with our guild I can now do a successful bullion stitch) and can now piece a Y-seam in a quilt block.

This coming year I want to try more embroidery techniques and learn to appliqué on my sewing machine and as always finish some of the projects I started this year.

Why not make sure you add some creativity to your resolutions list?  You can still break a bad habit, lose weight and exercise more but make sure you also create new art that represents who you are and what your 2018 brought to your life.

Happy 2020 to you.

Cheryl

©2017, 2019  Cheryl Fillion

Holiday Wishes

This is one of the most wonderful times of the year. There are the various holidays that sneak up at year’s end.  There is the changing of the seasons from autumn to winter which for some means snow and hot chocolate and for others might mean sunshine and lemonade.

So for what ever the end of the year means to you, I hope you are with family and friends, exchanging gifts and cards, involved in sledding or swimming and are having a wonderfully creative time.

Remember to involve all your senses in your holiday activities.  Not just listening to the laughter of your family or the carols heard on the radio, but also tasting new things with new recipes or new restaurants, smelling all the wonderful fragrances from the pine tree to the gingerbread men in the oven to the sights of holiday lights or country sunrises.  And don’t forget to touch, not just the gifts that someone has given you but the someone themselves.  Enjoy those hugs and kisses.

I hope all of you have a great holiday whatever and wherever you are celebrating it and you gather up all kinds of memories and ideas to last you a year of creating.

Happy Holidays (whatever holiday you celebrate).

Cheryl

©2016, 2019  Cheryl Fillion 

 

Autumn is here

I came across this blog post and since it seemed to fit my mood of late, I thought I would repost it.   

Autumn is here.  You can tell by the cooler weather, the falling leaves, the harvest of apples and pumpkins, the falling leaves, the shorter amount of daylight, the falling leaves, the Halloween decorations, and, of course, the falling of leaves.   What is also here is seasonal fun.

To me fall is here when I see caramel apples in the grocery store and rows of potted mums near the parking lot.  I love to see the trees change colors.  Where I grew up in Green Bay Wisconsin there was a park behind my Mother’s house.  It was filled with maple trees, which would turn the most beautiful red and gold every year.  I still to this day can’t decided if I liked the color of the trees against a blue clear or gray cloudy sky.  Each sky changed the hue of the leaves just a little. 

I was always thought to be crazy because I enjoy raking leaves.  Still do.  It allowed me to be outdoors in cool crisp weather.  I love the smell of the air while raking – it was fresh and earthy.  And there is something meditative about pulling the rake back and forth as I worked across the lawn.  I love to rake; I hate to bag the leaves.  I always wanted to do what writer and psychologist Leo Buscaglia talked about doing.  He liked walking through piles of leaves so much he wanted to bring them into his house.  It’s not so crazy, he would add, when you think that people bring whole trees into their house at Christmas. So what’s a few leaves.  And as he would say, “I am not asking you to clean them up.”

Autumn provides a wonderful way to have fun.  It is time for outdoor activities now that the heat of summer has passed.  Why do we need to bag up the leaves?  Put them in a big pile in the middle of your yard and jump in them.  Take a handful and throw them up in the air like confetti.  Roll around in them until your hair is tangled in leaves (you might want that as your Halloween costume.)

Of course Halloween is the highlight of autumn fun.   Halloween was originally associated with death and the supernatural, falling on the eve of All Saint’s Day, a holy holiday for Catholics and Anglicans.  Now it is a day of fun and parties and dressing up in costume.  It allows children of all ages to fantasize.  I have never been a costume person but my favorite one was an old sheet and a plastic mask to be a friendly ghost when I was about 7. I have liked ghosts ever since. 

I remember that holiday as one where my mother created my brother Jim and my costumes.  I can see her on our living room floor copying in white paint the design of a skeleton on to a black costume she’d sewn for Jim.  I know it was a lot of work but my guess is that she enjoyed doing that much more than buying a store bought costume.

Autumn and Halloween is when you can have fun and try your hand at something new.  Carve a different face on the pumpkin you bought.  Roast the pumpkin seeds if you have never done that. Try a little bit of costume designing of your own.  Dance a jig in the pile of leaves you have in the back yard (and when you are done, rake them to a corner of the yard and let them decompose through the winter into compost. It will be great for your garden in the spring.) Decorate your house with goblins and ghouls or leaves and gourds.  Try some new apple or pumpkin recipes.  Let the season into your house and life.

Autumn is here and it can be fun.  So try something new and creative.

© 2016, 2019 – Cheryl Fillion

 

It’s Football Season!!

It’s football season.  Anyone who is a fan has been counting down the days since the

Superbowl game.  For me it means getting out my favorite team’s glass and cup to use on game day.  (I am a Green bay Packer fan. Green Bay, Wisconsin is my family’s hometown.)

Recently I bought a set of cookie cutters which included a helmet and football shape.  Now I didn’t buy these cutters for cookies; I bought them for needle felting (See my blog post “Needle Felting in a Cookie Cutter”).  But I began to wonder what other things the cutters could be used for.  

So here are ten ways to use the football and helmet cookie cutters (but any shape and any occasion will work here).

1- Use the shape to needlefelt an ornament or press the cookie cutter into clay for an ornament.

2- Trace the shape onto a blank card and decorate it for an invitation to your football watching party.

3- Trace the shape onto a blank card but leave the shape plain.  Tell your guests they have to bring the card colored or decorated to the party and a prize will be given to the best card.

4- String yarn or a chain through the cookie cutter and wear it as a necklace.

5- Having coloring sheets with the shapes on it for the children or adults to color if the game gets boring or your team is losing.

6- Use the cutter as a template for appliqué, embroidery or coloring on fabric.  (See blog post “CookieCutters are just for Cookies” and “Colored Pencils on Fabric”).

7- Use the cutters to create different shaped deli meats or cheese for your food table

8-Tic Tac Toe game – Create a 9 patch ( a 3 x 3 square grid) with the squares big enough for the cookie cutter shape.  Pick 2 shapes and make five of each.  You can use paper, card stock, felt, or fabric.  You can also use one shape like the helmet and make 5 from 2 different colors.  Use the shapes as you would Xs and Os in a tic tac toe game but instead of marking a paper, you place the shapes on the squares.

9- Use them as napkin holders.  If you have just a couple of sports related cookie cutters, add stars, circles, hearts, fall leaves, whatever might be appropriate or fun.  (If the weather is still warm or even if it isn’t try a snowman).

10- Oh, yeah, and make cookies with the cutters.

Remember what I said in an earlier blog: cookie cutters aren’t just for cookies.  So go have some fun with football or any cookie cutters.

 

©2017, 2019  Cheryl Fillion

Take Time Off

Every year I ask myself what I want for my birthday.  Often it is a book or a piece of fabric or some new quilt pattern.  But this year when I asked myself that question, the answer that popped in my head was Time. 

My summer started with teaching a new class at the college where I worked.  There was so much preparation involved that I hadn’t had time to do much needlework.  I missed that.  So I have planned my birthday celebration to spend the day sewing and stitching; doing everything that involved a needle and thread.

And it is all going to be fun stitching.  Nothing for my etsy shop, just things for me and fun things for me so also no clothes.   Sometimes you have to make special plans to set aside time to do stitching.  We are all so busy these days; it is hard to work it in to our schedule. 

If you don’t make time for the things you enjoy then as the old saying goes life is all work and no play.  And you need play.   As I write this, I am planning on giving my last lecture for this summer session and it is on health psychology.  Much of that deals with managing stress.  One of the suggestions is to take a break from your normal routine. 

Taking a break actually improves your health, especially if that break is from work.  It gives your brain a chance to rest.  And studies show your performance and thinking is better when you have taken a break   If you are working all the time, your adrenaline goes up which takes a toll on your cardiovascular system.  So taking a break allows your whole body to relax.  And when you are doing something you enjoy, well that just makes you happy and there is nothing wrong with being happy.

So I have planned my birthday around stitching for fun.  I also added a little summer theme of flamingos.  I love flamingos.  So I have various projects with flamingos on them and I think I will work on those.  I bought myself some flamingo fabric at the last quilt show to make a little summer quilt. To me that is a quilt with no batting. It gets hot here in Texas but sometimes when the air conditioning starts up and I am sitting under the ceiling fan I get a little chilled so this little quilt can keep me from shivering.  

I also bought a little flamingo cookie cutter to use with needle felting but haven’t used it yet.  So I am going to make myself a felted flamingo ornament to hang near my computer.   I want to try to stitch a little flamingo necklace in a heart shaped mini hoop I bought for myself.  And maybe try my hand at doing some cross stitch (I haven’t done that in years) to finish a small flamingo picture I bought on my birthday last year.

I am hoping by the end of the day, I will have some new flamingos to enjoy (and share with you) and be a little more relaxed when the second summer semester starts the next week.  Think about giving yourself the gift of time for your birthday.  And spend the day indulging in something you enjoy.

©2019 Cheryl Fillion

 

Take In A Show

I am in the middle of getting ready for our annual Quilt Show, so I thought I would post this blog again.  This is just a gentle reminder that taking in a show is a great thing to do for you and your community.

As I am writing this, I am frantically finishing up my entries, getting the items ready for the hand work demonstration I have organized (to go on during the show) and trying to figure out what to make for the potluck our guild provides for our vendors and volunteers.  

I just posted on my Facebook page about the show, inviting all my local friends to attend.  Have any of you been to a quilt show?  It is a fun place to go if you like quilts or if you like color, patterns and texture.  But it is also a good place to go to increase your creativity.

In fact, attending any craft or art show is a good idea for the same reason.  You can see what is trending, as they say now, in patterns, designs or colors. You can get inspired by a different way to do a design.  One quilt show I went to many years ago, displayed a quilt with a skeleton of a dinosaur which had its head and tail extended off the main body of the quilt. I never thought of having part of the design expanded like that.  

Something you see at a quilt or art show might just click a memory of yours that you would like to capture in paint, or ink, or fabric.  It might give you an idea of something to make for a loved one. With quilts, it might show you just the arrangement of quilt blocks that you were looking for or just the pattern you wanted to make.

Even if you are not a quilter or a painter or photographer, going to an exhibit or show can still give you ideas.  The artist or the quilter’s perspective may show you a different way of looking at or thinking about a subject matter or just the world in general.  

When you go to a quilt or art show, you are supporting the arts in your community and that in itself is a good thing to do.  If you are reading this, you are probably interested in creativity in one form or another.  Think about how your life would be without what you create.  Don’t you want to make sure creativity in all its forms is available for everyone?

So do yourself and your community a favor: go to a show.

©2019 = Cheryl E. Fillion

It’s Resolutions Time

Well it’s the end of another year.  Where did it go?  I feel like it just started.  Now is the time we traditionally make resolutions for the next year. Usually our resolutions are to stop doing something like smoking or over eating but sometimes a resolution is a goal, a plan to do something.

I like making the second type of resolutions.    I like setting goals, making plans.  Sometimes my plan making is more fun than the actual event itself.  And again this year my resolutions are goals.

I want more music in my life.  Not in the way of learning an instrument – although you never know – but just in listening to more music and watching less news.  The last couple of days with Christmas music and holiday movies pushed the news off my TV and radio.  I have noticed a difference, a more upbeat difference in my mood.  

I definitely want to do more of the needlework my life is filled up with already.  I always tell people if I could figure out how to do my needlework while lecturing my classes, it would be perfect.  (The big problem is not me.  I can multi-task.  I just have a feeling my students would be watching what I am doing and not taking notes.  Not good for their grades.).

I definitely want to take more needle work classes.  Not sure in what yet.  I didn’t know at the beginning of this year that an art quilt class would be a high-light of the year so who knows what this upcoming year will bring. 

And speaking of art quilts, I want to do more of those.  The class I took included using paint on fabric.  At first I thought, no not for me but then the idea started to grow on me.  So one gift idea I gave to my brother was paint and sponge brushes; which were both under my tree.  I can’t let his gift go to waste so I will be playing with paint and fabric this year. (I’ll let you know how it goes.)

I want to read more just for pleasure.  You would be surprised at the ideas you can get from reading a novel or a mystery (my favorite type of books).  And read more biographies; there are so many people in the world to inspire us by their example.

So those are my resolutions for 2019.  What are yours going to be?  I hope they include needle work, creativity, and most of all, fun.  Happy New Year!!!!!

© 2018  Cheryl Fillion

Holiday Greetings

I am writing this the week before Christmas.  If you are like me, you are busy with holiday preparations.

I like this time of year with the decorations, the lights, the wishing each other (including strangers) a Merry Christmas or a Happy Holiday.  Everyone seems friendlier and homes and streets are dressed up and cheery.  We need more of that in the world these days.

I just wanted to take time to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  I hope your holiday includes a lot of creativity in gifts or decorating, that you try something new maybe a recipe or a different way to dress up your tree, and you take time to care for yourself in all the holiday busyness (I bought myself some new embroidery threads for a little stitching during this holiday break).

So once again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Celebrate Christmas All Month Long

I really love Christmas.  I tend to go all out.  I start playing my Christmas music before Thanksgiving.  I get out the books I have on Christmas customs and traditions and reread why we do the things we do.  I try to make my yearly ornaments to give out in early December.  I try to make the holiday last as long as I can.   

While looking for a celebration to write about this month besides Christmas, I found there are all kinds of days in December set aside to get you ready for the big holiday itself.

December 6^th is St. Nicholas Day.  In some parts of Europe and even here in the States, this is the day when St Nicholas (Santa Claus) comes for an early visit.  There actually was a St. Nicholas who was an Archbishop in Turkey back in the 5^th century.  He became the patron saint of boys and December 6^th is his birthday and on this day he is known for bringing little gifts for the good children, and sticks for the bad. 

If you are Christmas Card sender, December 9^th is Christmas Card Day.  If you haven’t gotten your cards yet, this might be a good day.  Or maybe this is the day to make cards.  Wouldn’t Grandma prefer a hand made card from the little ones than a store bought one?

Poinsettias, considered the flower of Christmas, have their own day on December 12^th.  So make sure you get out to your favorite garden store to pick out your festive plant.  December 14^th is Roast Chestnuts Day.  If you are not much of a chestnut person, how about picking up those other nuts you might eat.  A favorite part of Christmas growing up was going to the local grocers to get our bag of mixed nuts (only available this time of year).  They would have bins of unshelled nuts.  My favorite then and now were the walnuts.

And what is Christmas without the cookies.  Well, December 18^th is set aside just to get those holiday sweets completed for Santa’s visit with Bake Cookies Day.  And so you don’t forget that tree, Look for an Evergreen Day is December 19^th.  And while you are getting ready, why not take a break on December 20^th and celebrate Go Caroling Day.

If by now in the month you are bogged down with shopping and decorating and feeling a bit overwhelmed, there is a day for you to go ahead and just feel a little like Scrooge.  December 21^st is Humbug Day.  Just don’t let it last more than a day.

And finally on December 24^th, hopefully all the preparations are done and you can sit back and enjoy a little eggnog for it is not just Christmas Eve but also National Egg Nog Day.

If you are one who likes to have Christmas last as long as you can, go ahead and celebrate it all month long.  And Merry Christmas to you.

©2018 Cheryl Fillion