A Little Christmas

Aren't these adorable little birdhouse ornaments for the tree? I was very pleased with this little purchase back in November. Sears had decided not to sell any more Martha Stewart products, so they were clearing out all of last year's Christmas stock at drastically reduced prices. I think these may have been originally marked at $8, but they were marked down to $1.94 and then had ANOTHER 75% off that! Wow! I won't bore you with the math, but I bought all they had - seven - and still had change from a five. I love a bargain, and was very pleased with myself.

'Course, you can't please everyone, and Nigel frequently shudders when I veer off to the bargain bin (I think he thinks it's beneath him). When we decorated the tree the other night I told him the story of my great bargain and there was some wise-ass remark about looking like Blitzen threw up.

Well!

I went out today to a lovely little boutique down the road, and before you could say, "they cost HOW much?", out came the Visa card,



and there are now THREE of these on the tree.

Only 'cause I'm trying to please everybody, don't you know.

I've got a little bit of last minute Christmas knitting on the needles, so I decorated a little (large) basket for myself.



And here's two snaps of what's in the works,





but no guessing as to what, or for who. You're just going to have to wait and see...

Come On Baby Light My Fire

Okay, December's handmade is on it's way to Jane, so I guess I'll show it off. Since Jane's household is a diverse one, I opted for a Hanukkah themed handmade for December (to go in the box with all the Christmas presents).

Full frontal, it's the Menorah Pillow from Handknit Holidays by Melanie Falick. I used the recommended yarn, Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, in a soft cream colour. I realise cream isn't always the best choice for a busy family, but you can wash the pillow cover in cool water, Jane, and lay it flat to dry.



And from the back,



I swapped out the recommended knitted i-cord knot buttons for some sleek and modern shell ones. Much more to Jane's taste I think.

It should arrive by the end of the week in amongst the Christmas presents.

Happy Handmade for December Jane!

Oh yes, and I've fixed the link to ambermoggie from the last post. Go check out her work, lovely!

In The Mood

It's starting to look a little Christmasy around here.



That's December's handmade, very soon to be on it's way to Jane. Once it's mobile I'll show what it looks like full frontal, as it were.

Last week I received another ambermoggie creation in the post.



Her name is Bastet and she is the Egyptian guardian goddess of cats, also known to be a house guardian. She likes to spin negatives aspects into positives ones. Hmmm...I've been doing exactly the opposite of that lately, so I think she's going to be just the influence I need.



Here she is next to Coventina. I adore these little dolls. I've always liked faceless dolls, so easy-going and non-judgemental. I'm going to have to add some more of these little lovelies to my household, two is definitely not enough

I don't have much in the way of knitting to show you today, in fact, I've almost completely lost my will to knit lately. I always get to feeling just a tad overwhelmed before Christmas - I don't think I'm alone in that.

Here's a couple of shots of the dogs.

Gus doing his best imitation of a gargoyle from the top of the stairs,



and here's Whimsy, pretending to ignore him at the bottom of the stairs.

Took Me Forever

This little meme took a shockingly long time for me to configure, but I persevered.

Here's how to play:

Using Mosaic Maker on Flickr, enter your answers to the following questions into Flickr search. Using only the images that appear on the first page of each search, choose your favourite, then copy and paste into Mosaic Maker using the 3 columns and 4 rows setting.

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favourite food?
3. What high school did you attend?
4. What is your favourite colour?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favourite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favourite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you?
12. Your Flickr name?

My creation
Originally uploaded by aniexma13

A bit of fun

A Disappointing Hat and Garland

I finished the Noro hat for Ian. I love the way the colours block into those stripes. Unfortunately, Ian finds it a bit itchy. I've soaked it twice in Eucalan and it's much softer than it was initially, but the boy still eyes it suspiciously when I ask him to wear it. He's sticking to the store bought hat I bought for him to wear while I worked on the "nice" one, even when earlier this week he left the bought one on the school bus - he preferred to go hatless (it was fairly cold) instead of wearing the Noro.

***sigh***

I've been thinking much about festooning the house for Christmas. I want it to be cheerful and bright for when Elly comes home at the end of December. This year I thought it might be nice to go with a colour theme of red and white - that's usually pretty cheerful, right?

I thought, at first, that heaps and heaps of paper garland might be the way to go, so I bought a big roll of red and white striped paper and went to work, cutting all those little pieces....



and gluing them into garland - with big paper tassels on the ends. But when I saw how they looked in our Living-room, I cringed.



The colours are all wrong. The wood floors and trim in our house are dark and I've painted the walls to co-ordinate - that means ochres and deep botanical greens, which looks great (the mantle is the only thing painted close to white - and it's more of a rich, warm white). And then, there's this red and white garland. It just ends up looking cheap - and not cheap and cheerful - just plain, old cheap.

So...I've bought another roll of paper, this one is a bright, rich red and now I'm trying to decide if I should go ahead and start cutting, or just ditch the whole idea.



Any thoughts?

Buttons and Lids

Wow! My button-of-the-month arrived from Jane. This is the last in the year-long series and she's really outdone herself. It's a huge grouping of metal buttons from The Button Drawer, and I see from their website that they have a catalogue! Nigel may have to finally take all the credit cards away!

My favourite:



This one is called "Pelican in Piety", too funny:



Jane's been in a Celtic/heraldic sort of mood:








I love these buttons, they're heavy and have a beautiful definition to their designs, and the colours have depth and character. Aren't they fantastic? I'm wrapping my mind around a project to display them all.

And for Jane, I finished the handmade-of-the-month for November. I made the French Beret from Hats Gloves Scarves by Louisa Harding. I've made this pattern for myself, and Mum's made at least one for herself, so I think it was time Jane had one too.



Knit from Rowanspun 4ply in a bright purple colour called "Turkish", it's not the quick knit that it appears. Don't get me wrong, it's only ribbing and reverse stocking stitch, but at it's widest point it has a whopping 218 stitches. If you can persevere through that section, then once the decreases start it zips along. I popped it in the post last Sunday, so it should be there soon. Happy Handmade Jane!

And Jane isn't the only one with a new lid, I finally added the shingles to the dollhouse roof:





Sadly, it's been overcast for days and days and I can't seem to get a truly good snapshot of those fabulous black shingles. I might do another photo shoot another day.

If the sun ever decides to shine.

Ain't It Pretty?

The weather yesterday was abysmal. Driving winds, sleet, icy pellets that tore through flesh, and icy streets and sidewalks that made any venturing out treacherous.



But today, the winds is less fierce and the snow is sticking to the trees and roofs, leaving us with a picture postcard perfect looking world. Sadly, it's just looks - driving and walking are still tricky. I'm only going to venture out to the grocery store with a friend, and perhaps, a quick lunch out at a new Thai restaurant that I've heard is good.

On the needles, I'm knitting a new winter hat for Ian. I'm using Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn. There's been an awful lot of hype about the new Noro sock yarns out in the yarn world. Even though I'm almost never pleased with Noro yarns (breakage, knots, uneven textures, feels like steel wool) I was influenced by all the talk.



I haven't come across any knots or breakage and the texture is fairly even, though it does feel quite rough. The colours are fantastic - Noro's saving attribute. The design is by Saartje Knits and is available free on her website. The original pattern is made using the original Noro Silk Garden yarn. Since the sock yarn is quite a bit finer I've cast on 145 stitches instead of the recommended 95 and I'll just keep going until it looks like I should be decreasing.

Ain't it pretty?