The stockings were hung ......

I have a love/hate- or more of a strongly dislike relationship with knitting. I love the look of anything hand knit. I strongly dislike the fact that I can't read patterns well enough to make anything correctly. I love all the cool yarn, I strongly dislike the fact that I need 30 different pair of needles. When I have the proper size in a circular needle, it's not the right length, when I have the proper size in regular needles, I need double points and it just goes on and on.
I love the fact that my friend Kathy will make socks for me in super cool colors, but strongly dislike the fact that I can't make them myself.

I strongly dislike when I have money and time invested and things like this happen. In case you don't want to read the whole sorted story, here is a picture of this disaster.

These were slippers that went arye. They are only 3 inches across and 12 inches long.
Sometimes I wonder why I even bother to pick up the needles again, then something like this comes along and I can't resist.

It turned out kind of cute and only took two evenings for me to make just one.

I just had a calling to do somthing quick and easy and get something finished so I whipped up these little partially eaten gingerbread men.  You can find the tutorial here.I changed mine a little bit.  I'm sending mine in the mail so I didn't stuff them, I used timtex,  a very heavy stabilizer for the inside. I didn't have enough tan felt to make two of them and the closest store to get any is 20 miles away so for the smaller one I coffee dyed some off white felt.   I still didn't think it was dark enough so I sprayed it with a little disstress spray. They turned out pretty cute so I may just have to get some more felt and make a couple more.

Another get-together

Yesterday I got together with my two friends Jeanette and Kathy one last time before they go south. We didn't get any stitching done but we did do a lot of eating Christmas goodies and chatting.

I received this cute little snowman from Jeanette.

The two postcards are from a give away that Kathy had on her blog awhile back.

This little puzzle piece is an extra that Kathy had and she gave it to me to add to my collection. It just happens to be my favorite color.

Holiday cheer

Here are two of my favorite things

#1 Fabric post cards

This one is from my blogging friend Jenna Louise. If you haven't been to her blog, you really should pop over there and check it out.

# 2 favorite thing - cute pictures of my puppy

 

Isn't she adorable?

Mail and more

I received this adorable post card in the mail from my blogging friend Gina over at Patra's Place all the way from Australia.  I send her one of my dress/apron postcard's in exchange you can see it here.

This is a Christmas cracker I received from the exchange I am doing with the International crazy quilt group on yahoo. You can see the two that I sent here.  We are supposed to wait until Christmas to open them, but I know that's not going to happen ' cause that's not how I roll.  I already opened one of the little gifts, but that's because it was wrapped in cellophane so I thought it might be candy and I was really hungry.

This is what I'm working on today.  My goal is to get all  of the 2.5 inch squares sewn of the corners.  Four down and 44 more to go.

Welcome December

Nothing too exciting going on here.  I just finished the December circle of the month for my welcome sign. I really like these so I am managing to stay right on top on them.  Most of them anyway, I still need to go back and get Novembers done.

Continuing the Lefsa Tradition

Lefsa has been a long standing tradition in my family and I remember my mother and aunt making it when I was a child. So after begging for a lefsa griddle for Christmas a few years ago, I thought I should continue the tradition. I convinced my sister she should be a part of this wonderful tradition and she honored to be asked. (At least in my mind) We had fun doing it for a couple of years and one year she even brought a Krum kaka iron and really went crazy. The last couple years it hasn't worked out with her and now with her being in Kurdistan it's not even an option so I have had to continue the tradition with out her. One year I tried to make it myself and it was just too difficult and no fun at all so what's the point in that? So the next year I tried to co-horst my lefsa loving husband into helping. Well, he wasn't as attentive as I thought he should be, and he thought he could make up his own rules so I had to let him go before things got ugly.

This year I found a new partner. One that knows her way around a kitchen and took her job every seriously. Our daughter, Michele, turns out she a natural when it comes to making lefsa. Perhaps it that Norwegian from both sides of the family.

The lefsa gets rolled nice and thin.

 

Then baked on a hot griddle and is gets laid to rest.

 

Lefsa resting.

Lucy resting.

Warm lefsa with butter, cinnamon and sugar, yummy, it  just doesn't get any better.

Happy Thanksgiving

I thought this year for Thanksgiving I would try to make something special and different so when I saw some cute little pumpkins on Marsha's Kitchen blog I decided to give it a whirl.  I have all kinds of cookie cutters so I found my pumpkin shape one and proceeded to make them only to find that I could only put 1 teaspoon of pumpkin on each little pumpkin shape and it would take me days to use up all the pumpkin mix at that rate.So I made one batch with the cookie cutter, then rolled out another pie crust and made the rest into pumpkin pie.

They turned out cute and very tasty, but then I dropped the container on the floor and now they don't look so pretty.Good thing I took a picture first.

 

Opps, I forgot to take a picture before my hubby cut into it.

Well, the truth is, I don't really like pumpkin pie so I decided to do what I know and love.

Yes, that would be cookies.  Since I had spent so much time with the pumpkin and such, I decided to keep it simple.  I used the Toll House recipe and used M&M's instead of chips.

I used the holiday dark chocolate and holiday mint.

Raw cookie dough.  Yum.  There's nothing better.  I know you aren't supposed to eat unbaked cookie dough but I have been doing it all my life and don't actually know of anyone that has died from it and if it happens to me.... well, I can't think of a better way to go; with a big ol' spoon full of cookie dough in my mouth.

Yes, I did bake a few, just for fun.

Happy Thanksgiving and remember to be thankful.

Chrsitmas Crackers crazy quilt style

These are Christmas Crackers crazy quilt style.  The tradition of Christmas Crackers can be found here. I joined a Christmas Cracker swap on the International crazy quilt yahoo group.  Instead of wrapping them in paper we are wrapping them in a crazy quilt block.  Then they are filled with buttons, beads, silk ribbons and other goodies used for crazy quilting.

 Here is a sample of the things I put inside.  I signed up for two so I made the outsides very similar then varied the insides to meet the receivers taste.

These were so much fun to make and gatherings the little goodies for the insides is almost as fun as opening the ones I will receive.

Monthly Get-Together

Once a month Jeanette, Kathy and I try to get together to work on projects and  get things done.  So far we have only  started new projects and  of us have managed to finish any of our projects.  This month Kathy couldn't make it but this is what Jeanette and I started.

 There are 12 little house blocks and you will just have to trust me when I say they are going to be really cute if when we get them done.

Another circle of the month done

My mind works in mysterious ways.  I should have been working on the month of November but instread I worked backwards and got September done.  I think the fact that I'm not real crazy about the one for November had something to do with me not getting that one done since I skipped over it and now I am working on December.

Wine anyone?

This has got to be one of the quickest projects I have ever done.  I started it and finished it in an evening, which is almost a recond for me.  I will be giving a couple of bottles of wine from our local winery this Christmas and this little wool porject will be accompanying each bottle.

Unproductive

The last two weeks have proved to be very unproductive for me, I have no finished projects to show since  I just jump from one thing to another,  not staying on task to finish anything. So here are a few of the things I have been working on in no particular order.

.

Stay tuned to see if I actually finish any of them.

A few Postcards to go

A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of my lastest grommet bag and asked if anyone could guess what was in it.  Anyone that guessed correctly would win a prize.  Well, no one got it right, but I decied it send each of the guessers a post card.  They should have gotten them by now so I thought it would be safe to post a picture.

Happy Halloween

I'm 17 years old, leave me alone and please don't ever do this to me again. The dog may deserve this, but not me.

I don't think much of this Halloween business either but if I sit and be cute, I might get a bone.

Boo

Last evening we had our monthly crazy quilt meeting at Susan's home.  We always expect wonderful food, a fun project and a great time.  She never lets us down, this time we made  fun little woven bracelets and I got mine done first so I won the door prize.  Isn't it just the cutest?

The bracelet looks better in person.  It could also be made with funky fibers or pearl cotton and used for bookmarks or on crazy quilt projects.

Then she also gives everyone a little gift just for coming and this year is was this sweet little pin cushion.

Picture This Post That

This is another wall hanging from my pattern. I had one that  hung in our business with pictures of our employees but one day on a whim I took it down and gave it to a friend so I had to make another one. I like to keep the fabric and colors simple to keep the accent on the pictures.

Road Trip

Yesterday was road trip day with my two friends Kathy and Jeanette. There will be not pictures with this post as there was an little "incident" while I was gone.  My cat and dog were in punishing me for leaving town.  My cat knocked my thingy that is used to upload my pictures off my desk and my puppy chewed the cord to pieces.
Anyway we had a super wonderful time on the road time.  We laughed way too much, and yes it is possible to laugh too much, as least when you are driving.  We stopped at two great quilt shops in New Ulm, then headed to Manako where there are two more wonderful quilt shops. By then it was 4:00, we had done our part to help the economy and I think they were ready to go home, but NO, I was the driver and had custody of them and no one goes home until I say so. There was one more stop that I felt we must make, but was there time to get there? We had to try, so after a phone call to see if they would stay open for us, they said they would,  once again we where on road.  Our next stop would be The Old Alley Quilt Shop in Sherburn.  This is a wonderful place, not only is the shop great, but the owners are the best. If you are ever driving across southern Minestoa on I 90 be sure to stop in, you won't be sorry.  It ended up be a long but very fun day.

Welcome

I love welcome signs.  I don't know why, I guess because they are just so welcoming. ;>

This is the most recent one  I finished.

The center is removable and there is a different pattern for each month. This hangs on my front door.

This one I designed just because I like sheep.  There is just something so peaceful about them. When ever I see some, I just want to count them and go to sleep.

This spring/summer one was so much fun to make .......

I made another one for fall/winter.

I don't know when I made this angel one, it seems like a hundred years ago, but it was when woolfelt wasn't really very popular yet. There weren't a lot of color choices  out there so I started dying my own. The rest of these take turns hanging above the closet doors in my foyer.