It's over with

Hello, hello, hello! How was your Christmas? It was good here. Lots of fun, and then there's always that downer. That part was really ugly. I won't even go into details here except to say one of my relatives will not be invited back. Otherwise, everything else was fun! I enjoyed my children, my grandchildren. We had good food, laughs, fun gifts, and a great big mess in my living room!

I can show you some things now that I couldn't before Christmas. I made my daughter some new jammies, she wanted a "northerny" theme. This is what I made her. Moose jammies! And I ironed a couple cutouts onto the t-shirt sleeves.

And to keep her head nice and warm, I did some stranded knitting and made her an ear flap hat! I really like it and so does she.

And just for fun, I made her one of those funny little hedgehogs . . . in pink! It's so cute and squishy.

She loves all of her stuff. The hedgie will go on a shelf in her dorm room. It will remind her of mom and home and all things good.

I'm really enjoying this time off work. I saved my vacation days and I'm off until January 5. Yay me! I finally got the Spring Forward socks done. Finally.

Now I can move on to a whole new project. Exciting! Not sure what I'll make next. I have that lace weight I bought, but I probably won't start any lace until I have the house to myself again. It needs my full concentration.

So that's about it for now. How was your Christmas? Hope you had a good one!

Christmas cookies!

We've been baking and baking and baking here! Lots of fun with my daughter. Here she is, hard at work making and decorating sugar cookies.

It just tickles me to see her so hard at work. I love that kid to pieces! Here are the finished cookies.

I also made some Chex mix, some call it Chex Muddy Buddies, some call it Puppy Chow. Whatever you call it, it's yummy!

And, I made some rum balls. They are to die for, so good. They just taste like Christmas!

I've also made some fudge, and some cookies called cherry berry bars. So many goodies in the house at the moment!

And let me tell you, I'm so glad to be in the house. More snow today. It just won't stop falling from the sky. But now it has changed to freezing rain, I can hear it hitting out there. Scary. I'm so glad I'm as snug as a bug in a rug in my house! Hope you're all cozy too!

It's freeeeeeeeeeeeeezing

Holy crap it's cold out there. It's like hell has frozen over. And that gusting wind just makes it even worse. I'm so glad I'm inside where it's nice and warm and cozy. I'll worry about the heating bill later. Can't think about that right now.

Still getting ready for Christmas here. My daughter is home for the break and I'm really enjoying having her around. I finally got all the handmade gifts done. Now I can get back to my neglected sock. I made these fingerless mittens for my daughter-in-law. I made them with that Caron Naturals Country yarn I showed you a post or two ago.

See that little pickle ornament by them? My son calls my grandson "Pickle", that's his nickname. I saw that pickle ornament in Target and just HAD to get it. I love buying silly stuff like that at Christmas. It makes it fun!

We had our office lunch the other day. My boss got me this perfume, lotion and candle set. It's really nice.

And another co-worker gave me this candle. Isn't it cute! It's a snowglobe on the bottom and in the top part you can put a tealight. I don't know where she found such a cute thing. I just love it!

I've got my shopping done, the wrapping is done. Can you tell what this is?

I couldn't resist wrapping that hat like that. It's for my son. He got me a T-fal pan one year and wrapped it in the shape of the pan. I can finally do the same in return!

Now it's time to relax and just knit, fun knitting on my sock, no deadline.

I hope you're staying warm where you are!

Christmas Spirit

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Wow, we got socked with a snowstorm today. Really nasty out there. I had a planned day off so I didn't have to go to work. I did manage to get out and do some Christmas shopping. Had a ton of fun shopping with my daughter. The roads were awful, but we persevered and made it through. I'm getting into the Christmas spirit now. We have a lot of fun at Christmas. Lots of little surprises and memories. I can't wait!

Tomorrow I will bake some cookies. YUM!!!

I wanted to share a picture of my Christmas tree. It's really hard to get a picture of a lit tree. I took this one with the cell phone. It looks so twinkly!

The kitties love to lay under it. And they look real cute laying there.

Have a great weekend! If you get this snowstorm, stay safe in it and take your time digging out.

Just give me a straw

Lots going on lately. My stress level is through the roof. So just give me a straw and pass the bottle.

Want some? If I drank that, even a shot glass full, it would burn and make me choke. But at the moment, I don't care. I need it. But, that's not for me. I got that for my boss for Christmas. Maybe he'll share.

I'm still busy making Christmas gifts. I'm almost done. I bought this yarn the other day.

I'm making some fingerless mittens with it. It's really really splitty. But when knitted, OMG, it's so soft. So I guess I can put up with it for fingerless mittens.

I got a pair of jammie pants sewed for my son. It's OK, he doesn't read this, I can show you.

I love that fabric! Hope he likes them.

Remember my fascination with matroyshka fabric? I still love it. My mom loved the apron I made with that fabric, so I made her one for Christmas.

So I'm just moving right along here. Almost done with the homemade gifts.

We've got a snowstorm moving in, 3 to 5 inches predicted. A good night to stay in and knit. And that's exactly what I'll do. While eyeing that bottle of booze.

I took the day off!

My knitting needles are still clicking furiously. I got the first pair of mittens done.

I've started the second pair which are in a blue by the name of "denim", and they do look like faded blue jeans. I'll post a pic of them next time. I should have a lot more done on them later. I found out yesterday I have more vacation days left than I thought I had, so I took the day off, yay me! Lots of knitting time today. It's rainy and icky outside, a good day to stay inside and be cozy.

My little grandson helped me set up my skater pond the other day. I haven't put this display out in a few years. It's pretty old and the skaters don't glide smoothly anymore. But still fun to look at. I think I may replace the felt on the bottom of the skaters. Maybe that will help.

He was fascinated with this thing. I enjoyed our time together setting it up.

I treated myself and bought some lace yarn. Oh it's so beautiful! And so thin. I've never used lace weight before. I want to make a shawl but I won't start that until after I get all the Christmas knitting off the needles and finish the Spring Forward socks. This will be a real challenge for me during the long winter months.

The yarn is from Yarntopia Treasures on etsy. Beautiful yarn! And very reasonably priced.

So that's it for today. Time to get back to my needles and the sewing machine. I'm going to make my son some jammie pants for Christmas. Gotta get cracking here, no time to waste.

Smokin' Needles

We're getting down to the wire here. Not a lot of gift knitting time left before Christmas. Can you hear my needles clicking? Can you see them smoking? I've been on a roll. I've got a pair of mittens almost done.

After I get those done, I'll be casting on one more pair. I'm so focused on this right now I haven't been doing much else. Just sitting on the couch knitting. With a kitty or two by me.

With Pixie sleeping on my leg like that, I can't get up. You can't disturb a sleeping cozy cat! So I do another row. And she still sleeps. So one more row. She's not awake yet. So I keep going and I get a lot done! Yay for kitties! It's their fault. They hold me hostage to the couch and I keep knitting!

Hope you're having some knitting or crafting fun wherever you are!