Happy New Year!

My mom used to tell me, "Whatever you do on New Year's day, is what you'll do all year long!" I was curious if that was a widely held superstition or just a saying within my own family....so I did a little googling and it appears it is indeed a superstition. "Whatever happens on New Year's Day sets the pattern for the rest of the year." That means this year.......I'm in for lots of cooking.....

Croutons! Homemade, garlic and butter toasted......The Peanut Gallery said, "Yum!" through a mouthful.

And pot pies!

I saw this idea on an ad somewhere and spent an inordinate amount of time making a twisted lattice crust......

which promptly flattened and overflowed and still turned out delicious, thank you! The Peanut Gallery was pleased. I got several compliments :)

I'm also in for lots of friendly competition in 2008 - playing board games with the family! Uncle Kevin and Aunt Jacqui sent us "Life" and Laurie and Billy gave us "Yahtzee". Michael and I used to play these a long, long time ago (translation: before carpools, soccer practice, orthodontia appointments, and tutoring sessions, not to mention the birth and growth of my medical transcription service) and we are really enjoying playing again with the girls and their friends!

I'm going to continue to be surrounded with DOGZ........as my New Year's Day was filled with the tapping of the toenails of sixteen paws......

But hey, Sadie likes board games....She enjoyed the Yahtzee competition.....or was it sitting on Laurie's lap that was the attraction for her??

And thankfully......I took a few moments of time to get into my sewing room. Because my mommy didn't raise a dummy. I am, after all, just suspicious enough to want to insure that my quilting is a continuing activity throughout 2008!!

This is a picture of the Fons&Porter "Checkerboard" quilt I am adapting. I enlarged the individual "checkers" to a finished size of 3" squares. The squares will be set in the denim-blue solid you see in the pictures. The blue was picked out by my Color Guru, Karene! There will be a piano key border, incorporating all of the 1930's reproductions used in the checkerboards. It will be bound with the denim-blue.

What did YOU do on New Year's Day????