Miniature Treasures from Yule

This Yule/Christmas saw several new miniatures added to my stash.  I've got a couple of projects whispering to me from the other side of the basement.  Maybe in the next few weeks I'll give in.

Belated birthday gifts from my mini group in St. Louis.  The fern is by IGMA Artisan Mary Ellis.  The Halloween candy is by Fay Zerbolio.

Christmas gifts from the St. Louis group.  The sailboat is made from Baltic amber.  The fern is also by Mary Ellis and the candy by Fay Zerbolio.

The stash of baking minis I ordered from Marsha at SassyMiniDolls.  FH stole them before I could open the box, wrapped it, and put it under the tree.

A door and windows from FH.  A third window is coming when they are back in stock.  They are earmarked for one of those "whispering" projects I mentioned.

Reutter hamper from my in-laws.  This was the free gift that came with the subscription to Dollhouse Miniatures that my Mother-in-law has been getting me for the last three

I hope everyone's New Year is filled with fun, creativity, productivity, happiness, and good health.  See you all in 2011.

Christmas Day 2010

Here's the second post for today. 

FH and I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast for two yesterday morning.

We opened our stockings through breakfast and then moved onto the boxes under the tree.

Castor was worn out after all the excitement.  Pollux was just waiting to see what would happen next.

 

Then we packed up some yummy things and put jeans on over our pajamas and made the drive over to the apartment to spend the rest of the day with our friend and her previously naughty children.  Pajamas were the dress of the day/evening over there, hence our choice of wardrobe.

Dinner consisted of turkey, mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, broccoli casserole, cranberry-apple stuffing, humus and flat bread, and a fresh vegetable tray.  Here's the lovely bird coming out of the oven.

For Christmas FH and I got Little D a beginner's leather tool set so he can 1)have his own tools and 2) can work on leather at home instead of always at our house, giving him more freedom to practice.  Hummingbird was given lots of findings, beads, and tools that fit her hands so she can make jewelry at home with her mom.  Their mother was given a night out at her favorite restaurant.

For dessert we dug into a red velvet cake and watched the kids play with their treasures.  It was a fantastic day.

Christmas Eve 2010

First of two posts today.  I had planning on combining them, but there are too many pictures.

Christmas Eve saw FH off from work since Christmas was on a Saturday.  Snow was coming down thickly so we shifted our plans around to deal with that.  We had word that a pregnant friend had gone into labor that morning so off we went to buy a "Baby's 1st Christmas" ornament.  We got the last one in the store... no choices... Classic Winnie the Pooh or nothing.

Then we did some food and spirit shopping (yay for Jameson) and went to see our borrowed kids while their mom was at work.  That's when things got "interesting."  The kids weren't at home and their mom had no idea where they were.  Keeping in mind the hazardous weather AND the simple fact of them not being allowed to leave the apartment without their mother's permission.  Also the little darlings knew we were coming by.  This was planned the night before.

Once they reappeared (only because they had a minuscule bit of forethought and had a cell phone) they were bodily tossed into our car with me barking like a drill instructor the whole way.  Apparently they were "bored with waiting" for us to show up and it was snowing so they decided to go outside.  They neglected to call either their mother or us before disappearing, which of course was their major blunder.  I told them since they couldn't be trusted to be at home by themselves to consider themselves grounded until their mother got to our house after work. 

I proceeded to shovel the driveway just to be outside and not looking at them for a bit so I could regain composure.  They were allowed to read, but were confined to the kitchen table for the remainder of the day.  Little D was allowed to finish his mother's Christmas gift, but that was it.  Grrr.  The really irritating part is the boy is almost 16... more than old enough to know better.

Anyway once their mom got to our place and heard the full story she decided that since I had succeeded in putting the fear of God into them, and that they'd been in detention for over 6 hours, that they might have learned their lesson.  Maybe.  We'll see.  But the three of us are watching.

The actual fun part about this post are the pictures of the things the kids made for each other and their mom.  So here they are:

Medicine wheel Little D made for his mom.

Detail of the center carving.

Necklace and matching earrings Hummingbird made for her mom.

Leather bracelet Hummingbird made for Little D.

Back of the coin purse Little D made for Hummingbird.  Her name is carved on the front and looks great.

Oh and before I forget, Jackson Mathew entered the world around 6pm eastern time on Christmas Eve.  He's healthy and gorgeous.  His mother is doing great and ready to be at home.

The Letter I Love Writing

Dearest Fuzzy Husband,

Three years ago we made promises to each other that are still holding strong.  Sure we've had arguments, but we've also had pillow fights.  There's been grief, but also joy.  We've paid off the car, but then bought a home.

Everything has remained balanced, and that's how a partnership works.  I think as long as we keep doing things together, we'll be just fine.  What do you think?

Love, Me

Another New Bauble

I had this one made.  It finally arrived the other day and we just love it.

Update on Tempie

Tempie seems to be eating well again.  We've cut back her dose of medication to see if she will still eat with less of it in her system.  I really think she had a bit too much hair in her belly and thus just didn't feel good.

Thanks to everyone who was thinking good thoughts for her.  :-)

Sneaking In A Project

I decided to help someone learn how to make simple jewelry earlier this week.  We had a great time with a fast and highly rewarding project and I thought I'd share my half of the deal.  I cannot show the other half since a mutual friend (who might read the blog) is receiving the pretties for Christmas.  However once the gift is given I can fill you all in on the rest of the story.

I neglected to take step by step photos, since I didn't even think about it.  But here's the finished products.

I bought the snowman beads at a semi-local bead shop.  I just love snowmen.  We used Swarovski crystals to keep the headpins from slipping right through the bead.

My little guys were done in about five minutes, accounting for me stopping what I was doing to give instruction to my companion.

I picked up some other shapes while I was shopping.  I plan on turning them into earrings and stash them for gifts next year.  Less stress by planning ahead.  I'll see how many I can put together with the supplies I have on hand, perhaps yet this weekend.

For now I must feed Castor, since he's currently between me and the laptop, and crash for the night.

Tempie Slowing Me Down

She's not eating again, which means I have to make her eat.  Happily we have some of the right medicine to give her in addition to the feedings.  The vet (and we) hopes it's nothing but a minor hairball.  We'll know in a day or so if the problem will correct itself or if I have to take her south to see the vet.

So for a while this will be my life 3-4 times a day.

Old picture, but it was handy.

Hmmm..

The National Weather Service said, "This Afternoon: Widespread blowing snow and a chance of snow before 3pm, then widespread blowing snow after 3pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 26. Wind chill values between -4 and 1. Windy, with a north northwest wind between 29 and 31 mph, with gusts as high as 47 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%."

Huh.  I see your 30% and raise you 70%.   See the snow that's blown onto the sunporch floor?  Yeah.  There's high winds.

FH's business trip was canceled.  The planes are all grounded.

But we have power, water, heat, the Packers game, plenty of food, and each other.  Life is good.

New Bauble

My mom broke her favorite red coffee mug earlier in the week.  It was from a local restaurant and had both a white interior and a funny saying of some sort on the side.  It also happens my niece always gravitated to that mug whenever she was at Mom's house.

Happily the restaurant's gift shop got more of them in, so I went over there yesterday to get one for each of them.  I needed a graduation gift for my niece anyway so this seemed like a fantastic solution.

That's when this caught my eye and held on for dear life.

The same company that makes the Precious Moments figures makes these lovelies.  They had all shapes, sizes, and designs for sale, but you know how I am about snowmen.

The painting is all done on the inside of the glass, so it can't be rubbed off.  The nice ladies at the gift shop gave me a coupon for 20% off too. 

Happy Krimbo to me!

How to Dress Up a Garland

Whilst hall decking I decided to put up some silver tinsel garland along the big picture window upstairs.  It looked sort of "blah" when I got it up there.  See what I mean?

So I went out on the search for ribbon to make some bows.  I could have purchased bows, but for some reason this year they're all red.  Not my favorite color any time of the year.  Instead I found these:

Actually I found two bunches of them.  After some dismantling I went down and unearthed my hotglue gun.

Lots of hot glue and an ornament hanger.  Messy but fun.

Voila!

Silk poinsettias to the rescue!

Time to go do more errands and other sundry chores.  Ttfn!

More of Me to Love...

...I blame the baking.

Chocolate sponge sandwiched with marmalade cream and dusted with a snowman stencil.

You could resist the creamy, orange goodness in the center, but why?

Four ingredients: lemon cake mix (with pudding in mix), 1 egg, an 8 ounce container of whipped topping, and powdered sugar to roll balls of dough in.  Bake about 10 minutes at 325F.

They are insanely good.

 My final baking for the year (and probably until February when I play hostess to guild groups) is yet to come.  It will only be three, maybe four batches of cookies and they're all for gifts.  None shall remain in the house.

I remember now why I stopped baking.  It's because I put on weight quite easily... the extra 15 pounds I picked up since September are making me feel blah.  Therefore there will be no baking without specific reason for a while.  If it's not here, I can't eat it.

I'm going to go roll down the hill to today's guild meeting now.  Ugh.

2010 Guild Ornament Exchange

I had a wonderful time at the Stitchers' Guild Holiday Treat party yesterday.  There were so many tasty things to eat (but that will be a later blog post) and the company was wonderful.

A funny thing happened with the ornament exchange.  A friend (who is also a mini person) and I ended up with each others' ornaments.

Here's my friend with the ornament I made. (A bigger photo can be found here.)

Here's the ornament she made this year hanging on my tree.

 Every year she makes a different little bear, usually with a theme in mind.  This year it's a pink baby girl bear in honor of the birth of her first granddaughter.  I love her little teddy and the rosebud bow at her left ear. SO cute!

I'm off to finish some real housework and start dinner.  Catch you later! 

Infamy - (Mostly) Reposted from 2008

On this day sixty-nine years ago my grandmother lost a son, my father lost a brother, the Marines lost a good man.

PFC Everett Ray ***** Jr. died serving his country without ever knowing we were at war. He only knew when he was supposed to drive the admiral's wife to her Bridge game the next week and when the last letter home was sent. Did he have a sweetheart that the family never got to meet? What were his dreams and goals?

Please remember him and the hundreds of other men who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor, HI on December 7, 1941.

Boring

Nothing much to report here.  I've caught a cold that seems bent on making me miserable and is threatening to take away my voice.  It's also slowed me down for the annual hall decking, but I'm hoping to get some of that underway this week.

The stitchers' guild has asked me to build them a website, so I've been beating HTML into place for a couple of days.  I'm at a stopping point now, at least until I get more information from the board. 

Here's hoping I can get some stitching done soon.  I've actually done some minis, but I can't show them until after the coming weekend.  They're gifts for my friends down south and I'm heading that way (weather permitting) on Saturday for the holiday luncheon.


That's all for now.  I'm off to find more herbal tea with honey and perhaps some chocolate.

Thanksgiving in Pictures

Happy (belated)Thanksgiving to all my blog friends.  FH and I have been busy for the last several days with prep work.  My parents came up for the holiday and we cooked a feast.  Everything with the exception of the pumpkin pie was home-made.  [FH was given the pie by the Red Cross for donating blood Tuesday night.  One less thing I needed to bake and it wasn't bad.  My pies are better though.]

Everything went smoothly except for the weather.  It was so cold after three hours of smoking the bird FH had to bring it inside so it would finish properly.  However it only delayed getting to the table by thirty minutes.

Hickory smoked turkey, before carving.

Set table, complete with shaped napkins.

Mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, bread dressing, blue cranberries, and plain cranberries.

Pumpkin pie, stir-fried broccoli, turkey, green beans with almonds, cherry-pecan cake, grape tomatoes, clemintine oranges, the sulphide-free wines, and chocolate.

Plate lacking bread dressing, since I forgot it.  Also the home-made dinner rolls.

Tea with cream and sugar.

Blackberry cobbler with ice cream.

Late night snack that FH whipped together for us.

A cure for leftovers: turkey salad with dried cranberries, pecans, celery, sweet onion, egg, and mayonnaise on home-made honey-oat bread.

Same sandwich bt with home-grown cabbage and carrot sprouts.

Not bad for the first big dinner that involved parts of the family.

Afterward I was able to get a bit of stitching in.

Crochet-top towel for my stash of gifts.

Ornament for the Guild exchange next month.

I'm off to go sleep off the leftovers.  Night all!

By the Fireside

A Few Finishes

I've been getting a few hibernating projects finished lately.  Here are pictures of two with one new project for giggles.

A baby blanket that I started for a great-nephew five years ago.  I got distracted and now I dug it out for a baby who's due in mid January.

A fall/Thanksgiving themed crochet top towel.  I worked this one up the night I finished the blanket.

Fleece booties for my stash of baby gifts.  I like to have a supply on hand and I've been running low for a while now.  This pair had been lacking soles and the decorative buttons for about four years.

I've got another project I'm finishing up and another to start.  Here's hoping I can work on them in between cooking/baking for the holiday.