Hello Yummy Treats, Goodbye Diet

It was a making day today. I made all of our little family's favorite and traditional holiday treats:

a batch of Chex Party Mix,








a pan of English Toffee,









a double batch of Samurai Knitter's Toffee Shortbread (new last year and so delicious they're dangerous),









and Eggnog flavor (regular spritz recipe with 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg sifted into the flour) "Pooping Dog" spritz cookies with Red Hot eyes and mini chocolate chip poops.






I am making things with yarn too. I'm crocheting hexagons with all the leftover yarn I can dig up. I plan to attach them not in a straight line and leave the tails on the edges for fringe. It's going to be sort of like a scarf I saw in a mall store window, but when I went back to see the scarf it was gone and the store wasn't open so I couldn't go in and see if they still had one, so I'm just guessing, but I'm having fun and not buying any new yarn to do it. That's a good thing; I have too much yarn.

A Plethora of Purses

A herd of purse? A flock of purses? A felt of purses? Okay, enough already, you get the drift. I finished the felted purses. I left them in a bit longer than I should have so they're a bit smaller than I wanted but I think they look great and today they all go to their new, hopefully happy with them, owners.

First is Carla's purse. It's for my beautician (her 10 year old daughter will probably appropriate it.):






The other two are for my writing group friends. We have no men in our group this year so it was easy to decide on a gift for them:








Felting the purses didn't change them too dramatically, but they're a bit smaller and firmer. I decided not to line them. I like the way they turned out.

Zoom!

I sat down after supper and knitted like the wind. I finished the second Prospectors purse and got the 3 of them felted. Now they're drying. They smell a lot like wet sheep.

Here's the purse pre-felting.






I'll post pictures of all three when they're dry and not so smelly.

Rescued Crocheting

I went to Goodwill yesterday afternoon in search of a last minute Christmas idea. While flipping the rack in the Domestics dept. I saw something I just couldn't leave there. It's a crocheted doily made with a teensy hook and thin crochet cotton. It's 20" in diameter and quite plain but pretty. I think it needs to live here for a while.












I worked on the snowman at FNKC and I cast on the third of the purses I need to have finished and felted by daybreak on Thursday. I did work on the last of the Stealth knitting, but of course you have to wait to see it until after Christmas.






Remind me next year to scale back by Christmas knitting enthusiasms.

Hub Deep To A Ferris Wheel

That's how much snow we got. You think I'm kidding? Look. That poor mourning dove was so confused. 14.6" total snowfall in 2 days.













I started another project. I just had to; I can't work on only one at a time. It's a crocheted snowman that sits on a table or mantle. Don't think that the Stealth Project and this little snowman are the only things OTN, but the other three (four? maybe more) are on hold until after the Stealth knitting is finished, to be picked up soon.
















I bought myself an amarylis bulb week before last. I'm amazed at how quickly it grows.

It's A Lock

We're having a white Christmas--guaranteed. Here's how it looked yesterday in the early evening, about 6 PM. (Fifi is my 9' tall Christmas lawn decoration. I tell people who are silly enough to ask "why a flamingo" that I'm rebelling against traditional Christmas themes. I ask you, who wouldn't rather have a flamingo in their yard than a snowman? There's a 12' palm tree that goes with her but I can't carry it by myself. There'll have to be some modifications to it before next Christmas so she won't be alone.)





And here's how it looks this morning. Blizzard Alison has moved in and
she's pissed. So far we have 12" of snow and it's blowing like crazy, with more snow expected before noon. It's the wet, heavy stuff.










This is what I'm thankful for today. My big red snow blower with the electric starter. Thanks again, Durwood.

And For Those Hoping For A White Christmas...

Friday morning there were snow flurries. See the little white spots on the patio?






The weather guessers have issued a Weather Advisory for 2"-4" for tonight into tomorrow, and we're supposed to have another 4" on Wednesday. Here it comes! I got my warm boots out to wear to work tomorrow. Goodbye mismatched socks, hello warm wooly ones.