Happy Christmas, Everyone!!

I hope everyone has a fantastic holiday, surrounded by loved ones and partaking in all sorts of merriment!




And to all a good night...

Christmas Cheer

We've been having unseasonably warm weather of late, and most likely won't have a White Christmas, even one that we can claim on the technicality of spying one or two snowflakes floating in the air. So, to get into the holiday spirit, I saw this on Erin's blog:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper - shiny silver paper with wide burgundy ribbon

2. Real tree or artificial? We really haven't put up a tree in the last two years. I'm boycotting until we buy a pre-lit model. Here's our tree this year, which was made for us by DH's Aunt.



3. When do you put up the tree? The day after Thanksgiving.

4. When do you take the tree down? New Year's Day.

5. Do you like eggnog? Not really, but if I indulge, I choose the spiked version.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Back when I was in high school, one of those 80's vintage tower stereos, with the stacked components, the two glass doors in front and a record player on top.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? DH's Aunt (from question #2) hand-made us a set as a wedding present. We even bought the buffet with our dining room set specifically to put the Nativity set.







8. Hardest person to buy for? DH!

9. Easiest person to buy for? DSis - Victoria's Secret gift certificate and she's done!

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Really, nothing. Growing up, my sister and I would make detailed lists, with catalog page #s, stores listed that had the best price, etc. We would make the list longer than what we knew we'd get so that at least there'd be some surprise as to what we'd get off our lists.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail, and typically hand made cards.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Christmas Vacation (Where's the Tylenol?), Love Actually, and Miracle on 34th Street

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I try to start my hand-made gifts early, though I don't really start shopping for the 'store-boughts' until after Thanksgiving, which is always done online.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No, I really haven't!

15. Favorite thing to eat and drink at Christmas? Traditional turkey dinner, which must be accompanied by Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce. It just isn't the holidays without the can marks on the edges. (I almost was thrown this year, when I went to buy it a couple days ago, I almost missed it because they changed the can labels after all these years! :o)

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear lights ONLY!

17. Favorite Christmas song? Do They Know it's Christmas (Band Aid), Feliz Navidad (Jose Feliciano), Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) (U2), and White Christmas (Bing Crosby). Honorable mention: The Twelve Days of Christmas (The Muppets)

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Just to Mum and Dad's house.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dopey, Sleepy, Doc... Whoops! Better lay off the eggnog! ;o)

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Neither, we put a little nest with a cardinal in it at the top of the tree for good luck.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Eve, so we can sleep in on Christmas Morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Traffic, traffic and traffic!!

23. Favorite thing about the Christmas Holidays? An over-abundance of merriment, and fun.

24. Most Memorable gift? The kitties!!!



25. What's the one thing you seem to never get done at Christmas time? Keeping the house clean.

Swallowtail shawl is ready to fly

Last night, I blocked DSis's Swallowtail shawl. Surprisingly, I had no feline supervision. Perhaps it was because I accidentally kicked Abner in the head when I was backing up and didn't see that he was 'roasting' just behind me. Good thing he has a hard head! :o)


Here's the final result:




A detail shot of the design:
*To be uploaded. Sorry Blogger isn't cooperating.*

And a model shot... :o)




Now I just have to do the sewing portion of my Christmas gifties. Those will take considerably less time to complete!

Dainty Bess (AKA The Mum Scarf)

For the past week, my lunch hours have been dedicated to knitting away at the Mum Scarf to finish her up in time for Santa. And yesterday, at 1:10pm (don't tell my boss! ;o), I made the last bind-off stitch.




Last night, with two overly ambitious felines supervising, I hand washed it, pressed out the excess water and blocked it on my Craftatorium floor, letting it lay out all night with the ceiling fan on high (and door firmly closed to keep out two curious onlookers).

For those non-knitter folk, blocking means I pinned down the edges, stretching it out, and letting it dry that way.


Here she is in her full glory:



And a closeup of the design:




The Details:
Re-started: August 25, 2006
Completed: December 20, 2006
Pattern: Elizabeth I Scarves, Dainty Bess design (from Knit Picks)
Yarn: Alpaca Cloud, one hank (in Smoke, also from Knit Picks)
Needles: Addi Natura Size 4 (as with my DSis's shawl, I did NOT like these needles)
Blocked Size: 10" X 72"


I'm really happy with how it turned out. It was my very first attempt at knitting lace (I started it before starting DSis's shawl), and I think I'm hooked! I have the same yarn, but in a soft pink colorway, that I also bought. Now I have to decide on a lace project for me! :o)

A Girl's Weekend

No, *sigh* I didn't fly off to some fantastically exotic location for a relaxing spa weekend with the girlfriends. But Fairy Flora and I did spend some quality time together. And since it was a SAL weekend at The Robin's Nest, my timing couldn't have been better.

Before:



After:



And, like all great girlfriends, she didn't care that I wore my glasses, no makeup and hair all twisted up in a bun.


Now, is it me, because I did no stitching on her face, but doesn't it look like Flora is smiling in the 'After' shot, compared to the 'Before' shot? Hmmmm. I guess I'd be happy too, if I finally had arms and some hair... ;o)

Flora has a face

Miss Flora can now face the world. And put her best face forward. And face the nation. And-- OK, you probably get the idea. :o)

I enjoyed my first evening of guilt-free stitching since my final. Speaking of which, it was a killer! Our class went from 5:20-7:50, and I was about the fifth person (out of about 30) to leave, and I walked out of the classroom at 8:00! My hand hurt from all the writing, and it wasn't an essay test, but all math. I was glad my brain functioned well enough to figure out how to get me home!




I couldn't not include a picture that I took this morning before going out the door of Queen Itchey on her Royal Bed. I would have also had a picture of King Abner too, but he had already run down after DH for his breakfast. Little Missy was far too comfortable to move for food. I really want their job!

Stress Stitching

We're down to the wire, folks. Tomorrow evening is my Statistics final. When I took stats for my MBA, I don't remember it being as tricky as this class is. This class is geared towards scientific research, so I've had to recall calculus that I haven't thought about for decades! :o)


I usually close out each day with some de-stressing stitching before snuggling under the covers. I have the Mum scarf to work on, but I've been drawn to work on Fairy Flora. I'm not a particularly fast stitcher, so with the little bits of time here and there in between studying and just before bed, here's my progress so far:



Apparently, I'm stressed a little more than I thought. :o)

On the home stretch

...for a few things, really.

I've been MIA on the blog front recently, and will probably post rather infrequently until after my Statistics final on December 12th. Please send good thoughts!

Over Thanksgiving Holiday, I just couldn't wait any longer and restarted Fairy Flora on 32ct linen (I had originally used 28ct). I like the smaller count a lot better!



This is the top of the skirt on her dress, just below the waistline.


I'm also about .01% from being done with the Mom scarf! MIL's birthday is in a few days, so we decided to send it to her for her birthday so that she could wear it to Christmas church services, rather than just opening it on Christmas.


And, in other news, on Friday, we had a strong cold front blow through with lots of wind and found the top of one of our trees no longer on the top of the tree. The top was dead, so we were planning to get the top cut off anyway, so we just got it done earlier and for free.

For perspective, our deck is 18 feet across. Thankfully, it just missed the corner of the deck and did no damage. (Although I'm sure the thump it made sent the kitties scrambling under the couch in the Ladies Parlour!)