I'm Definitely Anti-Scurvy

yum.

Morning

Snow

It made noise as it fell so it should really be classified as sleet, not snow.
It was still chilly on the toes, though.

Copycat

I have been enjoying this lately, so I thought I'd give it a try, albeit solo.
I like the idea of a quick little shot of creativity to start the day off.

Slowly Making Headway

I always have about a million projects going at any one time.

This is good for my short-attention span days, but bad for ever actually finishing anything. It allows me to just pick up something new rather than attend to those not-so-fun nit-picky details: buttons, hems, etc. This shirt has been (literally) hanging around waiting for me to finish the hem for a month or so—all so I could knit some yarn swatches, make bias strips for napkin-edging, work on a new bathrobe, etc.

The pattern is vintage and was actually originally a dress. I bought the fabric from MakeMe, a wonderful vintage fabric store. It seems that they have a brick-and-mortar outpost in Barnardsville, NC. Their fabric is quite lovely! I want most of it, but do not have time or space for such dreams.

Thankfully I can cross this lovely off of my to-do list now, though I guess I should wait until the temperature rises at least above freezing before it can make it's debut at the office.
Ah, winter.
I guess it would make sense to go knit a few rows on that half-finished vest.

Honky-tonk'n

Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co. at Otto's Shrunken Head with the camera set on "manual".
Very entertaining...assuming you like twangy music and tiki-drinks, which I do.

You Are a Good Daughter and a Good Wife

My most frequent crafting time is on the subway. I've learned to knit standing up—not an easy task when it's crowded and speeding (or not!)—through the tunnel. Sewing is not so easy. I got a seat after the first stop, so I was able to do the last little sewing bits on this bag. The Chinese gentleman in the seat next to me was fascinated by the fact that I was sewing (or perhaps just grateful that I replaced the loud-ipod-toting teen who had been in the seat next to him?)
Anyway, he asked me if I sewed it. Yes. Then, "who taught you?" Well, my mother did. As I progressed and he saw the embroidered side he asked again "you made all of this?" and just kept smiling.
He seemed very pleased—I'm not really sure why. Then he announced that "You are a good daughter and a good wife" (he was to my left so the ring was in effect).
At Canal Street he said " Well, I must go. Good-bye." So I said good-bye, too.
Very sweet.
It sure put me in a good mood.
Plus, the bag has solved the problem of me not being able to find my wallet and keys in my bag.

You're Not in New York Anymore

So this is the chaos that I saw on the eve of Christmas Eve.


But by Christmas Day, my view was of this:


Not exactly my home, but home to my (dad's) people. It's hard to feel anything but calm when I look at these.
I think it helps to be a "grown-up" to appreciate the beauty. It was a little scary (too empty) when I was a little kid and a little dull (again, too empty) as a teenager.




Now I absolutely love the color of wintery Kansas, with or without snow.
(And those are sunrise photos, courtesty of Curt. I hadn't quite gotten up yet.)

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow....

...well, maybe snow. I think it's safe to assume that some of our Christmas cards will be late due to the Denver-area blizzard rather than just to the last-minuteness of their creation.




Still, I have/we have made our cards almost every year and I am pretty proud of these guys. I did the drawings and Mr. Curt spent some quality time with the gocco and cranked out a ton of cards on Saturda afternoon.
The little bird made me smile almost every time I picked one up to trim it.

And the stamps!

I like the concept of using your own image on an official stamp, but I hate the huge barcode-ish black and white checkers. So. I thought it would be cute to imitate that with the little tree. I really like how it turned out. Of course, this year's snowflake stamps are very pretty and I think that I'll have to go with these next year, but I needed to get this out of my system.

C is for Cookie...or...Sprinkle Madness

I actually didn't make or frost any of those.
I was too busy making these puppies.



I have wonderful patience with many time-consuming hobbies/activities that other people might (or might not) find crazy, but decorating cookies is not one of them. My friend Steph really shines at mixing colors...



Much sugar was consumed this day. And we determined that "Ethel's" sugar cookies are better than "Mary's", though I'm not quite ready to give up the cream of tartar completely.

A Bear on a Bicycle

This fellow rode away from me today. He rode into the hands of a coworker who will be framing him and giving him as a gift. It is always so flattering when someone likes what you create enough to want to pay to own it (or buy it as a gift.)

This ursine fellow has always been one of my more popular etchings. I suppose people like the anthropomorphic element to it. And, I guess a bear on a bike is a pretty comical sight. He is wearing a tutu after all.

Like mother (and grandmother), like daughter

My mother's parents ran a duck and goose hatchery when she was a child. Sometimes the eggs were "no good" (for hatching, anyway). My grandmother used to decorate these. Then she began to order and decorate all kinds of eggs, from the tiniest quail to the largest ostrich. My brother and I both got decorated ostrich eggs as our first communion presents. My mother continued this tradition, painting flowers and little scenes directly onto blown-out eggs for Christmas ornaments. She also saves chicken egg shells (she cuts little windows out of them rather than cracking them normally) and creates tiny Christmas scenes inside of them for ornaments. My grandmother bought me a dremel tool one year which I proceed to burn out while carving a design into an ostrich egg. There is a huge curio-cabinet in my folks living room that is stuffed with dozens of fancy eggs.

All that said, it's pretty obvious where the inspiration came from when I signed up to participate in the Holiday Ornament Swap (and now with pictures).

The ornaments went out on the first and packages were just barely big enough to actually be accepted at the post office. whew! I hope that they do not have too much trouble getting to their destinations. I have received ornaments (2) from one of my swap-mates so far. So exciting! I am itching to get the rest, but I can't be judgemental since I was sending mine out at 6:00PM on the last day.

This little guys is telling the packages where to go...

I'm calling him Octo-claus and he has inspired a theoretical underwater Christmas theme to our gift wrapping this year. We shall see.

And then there were two...

There were 3 jack 'o' lanterns out on our stoop on Halloween.



One went missing the next day. He looks so worried here--maybe he knew what was coming.
But who steals a pumpkin after Halloween?



A week later, we drank some pumpkin beer in his honor.
R.I.P., my little pumpkin friend.
We hardly knew you.

The Witch and the Reluctant Ghost

The witch (or warlock, to use the more gender-appropriate term, I guess) costume is from 2003 or 2004. Gilligan put up with my hijinks for a moment or two and then with a quick shake of the head, the hat was dispatched.

Oh, poor ghost. This was just days ago. He let me put his ears through the ear slots, but then he sat very still with his eyes closed. He was in his happy place, I suppose. The costume was then removed. He tends to stand a lot, so I had thought that he would make a good ghost. I was wrong, and Shiner, I promise not to do it again.

I cannot claim responsibility for this jolly fellow, but he sure makes me laugh.

Just in Time for Hallow'een!

A little cleaning, decorating and baking went on this weekend in the house. A Zip car helped with the usual trip to the farmer's market and we came home with these gourds and a giant pumpkin for our carving pleasure. The object at the right is a miniature fence post (made of limestone from my Grandmother's childhood home) that we got as a wedding gift, but I like that it looks all tombstone-y in this photo.



And then came the baking! I'm not sure of the variety, but I have fallen in love with a squash. It's a little pumpkin-ish, but a little pointier on top. And the color? The most beautiful orange-red color. Unbelievably autumn. And what else? It is delicious!



So out came the pumpkin spice cake recipe from the Halloween mail order and my inner Martha was released. I used the above-mentioned squash mixed with butternut squash (again, yum) and added some crystallized ginger.



RRaaaaaaaaaaAAaAAAAaaaaAAAWwwwwWWRRRRRR!!!!



Beware!
They went to work with me to keep us from eating the entire batch. Yum!

ooooOOOOOooooo

ooooOOOOOooooo
Originally uploaded by Luck(x8).

Today my boss made a really cool paper monster that wrapped around her office door and "protected" her candy bucket outside.
All I could come up with was bond-paper ghosts, hiding behind the frosted glass. In person they looked better from outside my office, but the photo from the inside turned out better.
Spooky, no?

Three Years and Counting...

Zombie Rabbit with Carrot

Stayed up late to finish...was it worth it?
He is made from a repurposed smiley face pillow.
And he wants your (plush) veggie's brains!




CAAAAAAAAARROTTSSS

A Recipe for Cute?

Take this pattern...

Add this cute—if a little wacky—vintage bunny fabric...

Have husband photograph you wearing vintage blouse made from vintage fabric in lovely backyard!

That was easy, right?

We Sent Them For You

The Gallery of Clowns
Originally uploaded by Luck(x8).

I made this nearly five years ago as a little artistic cheering-up exercise.
The clowns are happy.
Why aren't you?