Happy Holidays!

I had hoped to have about three other postings before today (the afghan I'm close to finishing, the flower crafts I've been working on, the new projects I'm getting ready to begin) but there's just been a lack of time for blogging. Considering we leave for the holiday tomorrow, I'll have to hope that some free time to blog will be available next week. My crafty time over the holidays is already booked with first finishing the afghan of the sandman (I'm finally on the border!) and starting another baby blanket that needs to be done ASAP. The little girl is due on January 4th though I'm kidding myself if I think I can make that deadline.

I leave you with a photo of our tree this year. Can you find the little sheep among the branches? Perhaps I should knit or crochet him a little scarf and hat for next year.




Wishing everyone the happiest of holidays!

PRESENTS!!!

Since our first Christmas together six years ago, Sean and I still cannot wait until Christmas to exchange gifts. The very first year, we exchanged gifts the weekend after Thanksgiving. The tradition has continued though we have (most years) waited until December. Sometimes we make a big deal of it - wrapping everything and picking a special time to sit and open them together - and other times, we're too excited to give the gifts to the other person so we'll hand them the box to open when it arrives at the door. The later is what happened for me this year - and how could it not when the boxes arriving are from KnitPicks!

Sock needle holders, yarn cutting charm, blocking mats and the knitted bag kit in green (which thank goodness he ordered it a while ago because it's out of stock now).



Don't I have a wonderful husband? :)

Completed Project: Advent Calendar

Finished this before Thanksgiving - and it gets to be used today. Sean is looking forward to the Lindt chocolate and Ghirardelli caramel squares hiding behind the doors.



No rhyme or reason to the images on the doors. I just picked stuff that reminded me of the holiday season and tried to make it look good. It took much longer to finish this than I thought it would. Covering up the original paint job took a lot of coats of white paint. Here's the before photo:



Only took me a year to paint this - at least I got it done in time for the advent to begin.

A Whirlwind Weekend Ahead

My to-do list for this weekend is daunting, and I'm not talking about the mundane grocery shopping, laundry and clean the house on the list. It is the crafty to-do's that are looking insurmountable - not each on their own, but all of them completed (or at least started) in one weekend is looking like too much. Here's the list:

• Make curtain for Office shelving
  
• Make craft room curtains
  
• Paint advent calendar
  
• Colorflow lady bugs and gingerbread house decorations
  
• Start making reindeer candy canes
  
• Christmas photo of Seamus
  
• Wrap Gifts
  
• Organize craft room

I need to get started and complete a few of these because Thanksgiving will be held at our house this year as well as a big holiday party a few weekends later. I've got to get this stuff done ahead of time so that I can focus on cooking and entertaining. I'm even going to have to break my own long-standing rule and put up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. The tree will probably wait until after Thanksgiving but the swags and Christmas lights will probably go up next weekend.

Any guesses on how much I will actually get done this weekend? And how much caffeine I'll need to ingest to tackle it all?

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all the best this holiday season, whichever holiday(s) you celebrate. May your travels be safe and your eggnog extra strong! Cheers!

A Work in Progress

Just like the baby, KMP's blanket #2 is still a work in progress. ::sigh:: I had hoped to have finished the blanket by now so I could take a different and new project with me on the train ride to Boston tomorrow. Alas and alack, the knitted Homespun blanket will be with me. Unlike KMP's situation, carrying this project around is a lot less of a hassle as an overdue 8 lb baby boy.



Currently, the blanket is 37" wide by 19 1/2" long. I'm 2 skeins in and I bought the third one today at Joann's. I had hoped to only use two skeins but that just didn't happen. As a consolation gift, I bought myself an Artbin yarn caddy/organizer. I got it at Joann's for $8 and it's a lovely burgundy color. I didn't have time to put stuff in it today, so it will have to wait until New Year's weekend.

I'll be knitting away on the train for the 7 hour trip up to New England - so there's still a chance this blanket will wind up in the "completed in 2008" pile. But it won't be done in time for the baby's arrival because if KMP hasn't had him already, she's scheduled to be induced tomorrow! (Tuesday Dec 23rd)

Girls - if I hear anything, I'll text message you and vice versa, okay?

Crafty Christmas

I wanted to share a couple of non-crochet/non-knit crafts I made this year. First is a traditional one (traditional meaning I make them each year).

Reindeer Candy Canes - 2008 Version


Aren't reindeer candy canes just the cutest thing? Here is the 2008 version next to the 2007 version on the tree.



Last year, I made them for both my office and Sean's office. This year, I wasn't even going to bother with them. Then on Thursday, someone in Sean's office noticed the 2007 version on Sean's desk and she asked Sean if I was making them again this year. I was so happy to know someone was looking forward to them that I just had to make a herd. They were delivered on Friday and even more people were delighted to see them again this year.

And here's crafty project #2...Now this was a brand new concept to me. For friends of mine, this was a yearly tradition growing up. The kids would sprinkle the reindeer food out on the lawn on Christmas Eve. Here's mine:

Reindeer Food


Reindeer food consists of oatmeal (uncooked and not the instant kind) and red and green sugar crystals. The reindeer food is in a baggie and wrapped up in some shiny red wrapping paper. That is wrapped up in a sheer white fabric that I hastily cut into a circle and sewed over the edges with green thread. I tied it up with some gold curling ribbon and attached the tag. You can't see it in the photo, but on the other side it reads:

Sprinkle on the lawn at night.
The moon will make it sparkle bright.
As Santa's reindeer fly and roam,
This will guide them to your home.

Isn't that cute? I only made 2 bags of reindeer food. One was given to a co-worker to share with her grandchildren and the other one was sent up to Buffalo to Brodie. I hope the kids have fun with it. I wish I had know about reindeer food when I was growing up.

The Holiday Spirit is in the Air

I'm supposed to have both blankets for KMP done by next Saturday. Egads! Good news is that I'm working on the border of the Afghan of the Sandman (round 4 of 10) so that may even get done today or tomorrow. Bad news is that I'm only one or two rows into skein 2 of the knitted baby blanket. Worse news is that the blanket looks way too long and may require a third skein. This means I've got to get it done and check the length and if necessary, buy another skein and keep knitting. So I'm suspecting I won't have it done in time to mail out on Saturday. I am hedging my bets by including some cute little onesies with funny iron on decals (details to follow in a future post - including photos).

I'm also feeling extra crafty and the holiday spirit is definitely in the air. I've got Christmas music playing as I type. I made applesauce and cranberry sauce today for Thanksgiving. The house smelled wonderful with cranberry, apple and cinnamon wafting through the air. (Note - if you don't have orange zest to add to simmering cranberry sauce, a shot of Triple Sec will do the trick nicely.) I've got the menu planned out for Thanksgiving, too. I'm not hosting this year, but I have plenty to prepare to bring down to dinner. Spinach dip, veggies, pumpkin squares, a crab ball with crackers....::drooling::

I'm also putting together the Christmas gift lists - what to buy and for whom - so I can keep an eye on the sale ads and online deals. It will be a leaner Christmas this year so I want to buy just the right things at the best prices. Speaking of a lean Christmas, the hopes of buying a new fake tree to replace my old, little tree have been put on hold. Instead, I found a more affordable holiday project. I bought a wooden advent calendar from Joann's which I'm going to repaint and include candy and/or little gifts for Sean to open each day until Christmas. I'm hoping this creative project will make up for not getting a new tree, ornaments and decorations. It is definitely cheaper ($30 for the whole project). I'll work on it next weekend so photos to follow.

Thank goodness I'm only working Monday and Tuesday and will have 5 days to work on all this craftiness. So much to do and so little time.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!