House beautiful - hah!~

Resident Chef hauled out the Christmas decorations on the weekend so I dutifully 'decorated'.  Our tree is perilously close to running competition with Charlie Brown's tree and is most definitely showing its age.  Two strings of lights are burnt out necessitating a trip to the store to buy more and it's shedding 'needles' in a vast shower all over the carpet.  It needs a fluffy green/gold garland to be stuffed all around the 'trunk' to make it look as if it might actually BE a tree and not just some sticks stuck into a broom handle.   Yeah, as I said - pitiful.  

No  matchy-poo ornaments or fancy beaded garlands for us either - it's a collection of mis-matched ornies that have been accumulated carefully chosen over our years of marriage.  Needless to say 'House Beautiful' magazine won't be knocking on our door for a photo shoot anytime soon.  

This is one of my favourite Santas that I made a number of years ago.  He depicts a Besnickle and for those of you who don't know, here's a description I found on Wikipedia....Belsnickel is a crotchety, fur-clad Christmas gift-bringer figure in the folklore of the Palatinate region of southwestern Germany along the Rhine

He has a real fur coat and is mounted on a log.

I love our nativity set - it's one I collected that was once sold by Avon.  At the time I was a rep and I treated myself to these.  It's not the complete set, sadly.

Continuing on

 I'm back to working on the 'ghostly' landscape and adding to the embroidery in the foreground....

Today's quote..."I've finally reached the wonder years....wonder where I parked the car?....wonder where I left my phone?....wonder where my glasses are?....wonder what day it is?

Where angels fear to tread?

I was casting about to find something to post about today and so I thought I'd be brave and show you my little corner of the living room where I sit in front of the tv and either knit, crochet or read at nights.  

Just a few words of explanation - the blue 'blob' on the left is a corner of my chair and the black 'blob' on the right is the corner of the end table.  In between is my mess - the pink and grey (back left) is a sweater I'm working on for the baby and the Janet basket to the right is *supposed* to hold my knitting project but instead it currently has my zippered pouch I use when I'm knitting socks, my yarn bowl and a plastic sectioned container that holds such important things as cable needles and stitch markers.  In front of that is a ball of red yarn I'm auditioning to maybe make myself a scarf of some sort, and the bag to the right of that is currently holding a baby afghan I'm working on.  

And speaking of baby things, I just finished putting the binding on the wee baby quilt and this is the result....

Nothing spectacular about it - just a panel and coordinating 5" squares.  Here's the backing....

It's a lovely soft minky fabric.  Soft, but a brute to hand stitch through.  Good thing I machine quilted the quilt and only had to hand stitch the binding!

The quote, from Gandhi..."When the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace"

On waistlines and silliness

 Resident Chef appeared in my sewing room doorway on the weekend bearing these....

Homemade chocolates.
AND there isn't a single calorie to them!!
Uh huh.
They're bound for the freezer, minus
one or two for testing for quality control purposes.

For reasons even I can't explain I returned to making this....

I have absolutely NO use for it...no reason to make it....and nobody to give it to. Sheer silliness to spend that much time working on something utterly useless, but what can I say!

Pattern can be found HERE .  I used 16 mm wooden beads and Sugar 'n Cream crochet cotton (100 beads!)

Today's quote...

The last one!.....?

 This is the last Christmas present I'm making for this year.  Yes, it is - uh huh - yep - done.  

My friend has a habit of keeping notes about her knitting on random pieces of paper that tend to go AWOL so I thought she might have a use for a notebook.  I couldn't give her just any ol' notebook so I gussied it up with embroidery on the front.  

The back cover was created using a piece from a blouse she once gave me for use in crafting.  She loved it so hopefully she will like it here too.  The spine is made from a scrap of musical fabric I had (she's musical so I thought it was fitting).  Hope she likes it and gives up on her bits of paper!!

Today's quote..."Conformity is doing what you're told regardless of what's right.  Morality is doing what's right regardless of what you're told"

Another baby knit and granola

 Last weekend I finished working on another little sweater for our expected grandie that's due to arrive in January.  Pattern is THIS one - I did the short-sleeved version because I didn't think I had enough yarn to do long sleeves...

Yarn label is missing but I think it's Caron Simply Soft.

A couple of you have expressed interest in the granola recipe Resident Chef uses, so here you go....

RESIDENT CHEF'S GRANOLA

(NOTE: This makes a lot but it keeps
a very long time if you seal it well)

8 c. rolled oats (not the instant kind)
1 1/2 cups EACH: wheat germ and oat bran
1 cup EACH: sunflower seeds; rye flakes; 
cashews or pecans (finely chopped); almonds 
(finely chopped)

1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. maple syrup
3/4 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 c. honey
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla

2 c. dried cranberries or raisins (or combination)
1 c. coconut

Preheat oven to 325.  Line two large baking sheets with parchment or aluminum foil.  Combine dry ingredients.  Combine remaining ingredients with the exception of the vanilla, cranberries, raisins and coconut and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Add vanilla and pour over dry ingredients and stir to coat.  Spread evenly on baking sheets.  Bake until crispy and toasted, about 20 minutes.  Stir once halfway through.  Cool, and then add the cranberries, raisins and coconut.  

Today's quote..."When you see something beautiful in someone, tell them.  It may take a second to say, but for them it could last a lifetime"

oops and kitchen doings and no more drips!

 I'm sorry, but I can't show you pictures of the completed sleep pants because they're already wrapped up and residing in the box ready to be picked up by UPS tomorrow. I fully intended to take pictures to show you but completely forgot until it was too late.

While I had the sewing machine running full throttle, Resident Chef was busy in the kitchen, as you can see from these photos...

Homemade granola which will be gifted this year instead of tins of all kinds of baking.  This is easier on Resident Chef and doesn't need freezer space to store.  Win/win?  I hope so!

If you're interested in our recipe, let me know and I'll publish it for you.

And butter tarts.  There ALWAYS has to be butter tarts for our kids and a couple other close friends.  Heaven help Resident Chef if he doesn't make some!!

We've been dealing with a leaky kitchen tap for quite some time and finally managed to get someone to come to make a repair.  Or at least we expected a repair, but instead we got a new tap.  A rather Rolls-Roy-ish tap too!  Before we had the cheapest possible junky tap that the building management put in but this one is a huge leap forward.  It even has a pull out spray thingie.  Some things just make us ridiculously happy and this is one of them...

The quote for today..."Sometimes you get what you want.  Other times you get a lesson in patience, timing, alignment, empathy, compassion, faith, perseverance, resilience, humility, trust, meaning, awareness, resistance, purpose, clarity, grief, beauty and life.  Either way you win"

Revving up the sewing machine

 This pile of fabric is about to be turned into sleep pants so you know what I'll be doing for the next few days!

Today's quote is from Michael C. Clark...."Negativity is contagious.  Unhappiness is contagious.  Fear is contagious.  But so is happiness.  So is optimism.  So is love.  Surround yourself with people who bring out the best in you and strive to be a reflection of what you want to receive"

Public service announcement - and baby thing

 

`````````````````````````

PLEASE READ!

There is a universal hand gesture signal for
people to use when they're in trouble and if 
you've watched the news in the past few days you
will have heard that it saved a young girl from
a kidnapping.
This is vital information we ALL need to
be aware of.
Please go HERE for further information.

Please also share this on your blogs
because this needs to be known!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is another completed 'evening project' ...

The crochet pattern is one I've had in my files for years and I don't have any idea where I found it.  The original pattern calls for long sleeves but I opted for sleeveless and just trimmed them with some picots.  Yarn is 'Baby Marble' from James C. Brett....another one I've had in my stash for too many years to count.

Hard to see but there's progress - and a little sumthin''

 I know it's very difficult to see but yes there HAS been progress on the landscape....probably about ten hours worth of embroidery so far.  I know - I need to get a life!

Another of my evening projects involved making this little guy...

He will accompany a copy of THIS book that will be gifted at Christmas to #2 grandie.  Pattern is from HERE.  

Today's quote is from John Lennon..."When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life.  When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I wrote down 'happy'.  They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life"

A tad more progress and a finish

 There's been some more progress on the landscape as you can see here...

You should be able to click to embiggen if you'd like to.  I fussy cut all those flowers and now I'm in the process of adding embroidery details over top.  There's going to be a LOT of French knots on this one!

And, one of my evening projects ended up with this little finish for our expected 'grandie'...

The sweater is a pattern in a book 'Grammy's Favorite Knits For Baby' by Doreen L. Marquart and the headband is THIS one.  Yarn is 'Baby Soft' from Lion Brand.

Today's quote..."My body sometimes feels sore, but it works.  I don't sleep well most nights, but I do wake up to fight another day.  My wallet is not full but my stomach is.  I don't have all the things I ever wanted but I do have everything I will ever need.  My life is by no means perfect but it's my life and I'm happy"

Maybe?

 Yes, maybe I'm on the right track with this one....at least until I try to add something else in which case the entire thing could very well still be fodder for the trash heap!

At this point it's been quilted and next 'up' will be 

adding the borders and then the embroidery.

Jury is still out on what I might, or might not, add
to the church.

The next two photos are the view from our balcony the other day just before the sun set.  

Those skies look rather forbidding, don't they!

Today's quote..."Perhaps they are not stars in the sky, but rather openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy"

Fearless - or - foolhardy??

 In the background, while you were reading all about Shudayra last week, I have been working on the latest landscape.  My inspiration is this photo, kindly shared with me by Dale Stewart....

Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Raymore, Saskatchewan

Photo by (and used with permission) Dale Stewart

For reasons I can't entirely understand I immediately thought that church should be a ghostly image.  Of course I have NO clue how to accomplish that using fabric but never let it be said that I'm afraid to try.  As I said - either fearless or foolhardy, take your pick!

In progress - and thinking seriously about chucking the entire idea.....

Better....maybe....

Adding further details and some shading...

But, mama still isn't happy.

Stay tuned!

For those of you who are curious, the church was printed onto organza using my computer.

Today's quote..."Don't stress about your eyesight failing as you get older.  It's nature's way of protecting you from shock as you walk past the mirror"