To Die For

 Today I'm off to my dear friend's 75th birthday party. It's a surprise party. To tell you the truth I'm surprised I have a friend that's turning 75. She looks younger than me and although retired, she still gets up at 4:30 am to make the long commute from Annapolis to substitute at her old school on a regular basis. I wish I could borrow some of her energy.

 I was down in the card room again last night working on her birthday card when I decided to play with the snowmen design one more time. This new frame die just arrived in the mail and I think it's just what the little fellas needed.

Ta dah....I think we have the card. Now I can put the assembly line in motion and have these things knocked out in no time.

Ho Ho Hum

 I said I wasn't going to but The Mister thought we should make a few handmade cards. A few is the working premise here. After a day of wrangling drywall I'm in no mood to be fussing with cards.

Making the snowmen is fun but I hate having to line up words. I'm terrible at it. The good thing is that once I get it right I can leave the stamps on the stamping plate and I can make a bunch all at once. I'm not quite there yet.

 Speaking of wrangling drywall, we got that stud shaved down and the new piece put up. Now I have a nice smooth surface for tile-when and if I ever pick any out.

My poor dining room table has been put to good use. I don't think Ikea had intended for it to be a work table but it does the job. I hope it lasts the re-do because I really like it.

Kitchen Update

 The cabinets are coming out so that means going through your junk and being ashamed. I had one whole drawer of nothing but candles. Most of them were so old they were either covered in dust or weepy. Who does this? They are gone now along with a lot of other weird stuff I had in the drawers.

 The old laminate counter top had to be sawed off so we could pull the base cabinets out. It was messy but nothing like the floor mess.

 Ta dah....one wall done. We still have one more to go but that 's for another day because we have an issue to deal with first.

 See that wall stud? That's where the old wall was between the kitchen and dining room. We removed all the walls to make one big living space. In our haste to get things done when we first moved in we didn't pay much attention to it since the cabinets covered it but now I want to tile behind the cabinets so we have to level the wall. Like all the bathroom studs they are out farther than they should be and make a bump. We had to shave them all down and now we have to do the same here and then replace the drywall. It's always something.

The one perk for destroying your kitchen is guilt free junk food. For dinner it was a little bit of everything including a quart of fancy ice cream from the ice cream store. I could get used to this.

Big Needle Wednesday: On the Road

 We had to drive out to Annapolis to the floor place yesterday to get the transition pieces that hadn't arrived early. On the way up and back I got the first of the Big Mister socks down.  Last night I also finished my third Mosi hat and got that second sock cast on and cuff knit. No SSS for me.

 Soldotna is now at 8 inches below the armhole. I'd like to get to 12 before I start the border and the ribbing. I hope the green holds out. Those two balls are getting mighty small.

I did figure out the issue with the seam thanks to this video by Purl Soho.  The top is their method and the bottom is my wonky try at carrying all those yarns going up the side. It was simpler than I imagined. As usual I was trying too hard.

 Pup's latest sweater looks like this and I am ashamed to confess I ordered her $30 worth of Pup pajamas on Amazon the other night.

I also bought her a $13 Fair Isle Christmas sweater from Marshall's on yesterday's excursion. We are going to the holiday thing at Nats Stadium for my birthday and it's a pup friendly event (with a $15 ticket for your pup!) so I want her to be warm and look festive. I was going to knit one but this one is better than anything I could make in so short a time.

Also on the trip to Annapolis we stopped in a Micheal's so I could get some fixins' for my naked door wreath. I wanted something that could stay up all winter since I'm just not in the ho ho ho mood this year. In this unholy mess I am NOT digging out any of my holiday bins. Nope. Nope. Nope.

Look at that bow. I tied it. Do you know how many tries it took? I am beyond chuffed that I pulled it off. I could have bought a bow but when I saw the pine cone ribbon (on sale) I thought I would give it a go. I love it.

Waiting at home in the mailbox was the first of the holiday cards. It was from Betsy who also enclosed the little snowflake stitch marker. How perfect is that? I love it.
Thanks Betsy!

Tiny Needle Tuesday: ISO Joyfulness

It's hard to believe it's December already. It's also hard to believe I am on the last block of the Sheep Virtues sampler.

 I could use a little Joyfulness around here. The weather has been bleak. I hate cold and rainy. I can take cold and I can take rainy but I hate them together. If it's going to be in the 30's it might as well snow but nooooo.....we just get drizzle.

 Block number 35 of the Dear Jane Misadventure is finally finished. As you can see it has a mind of its own. That's been the problem all along. I just couldn't tame it.

Here's the pile of them without an end project in mind. I guess I'll just keep going until something comes to me.

Sew Sew Sunday

 It was a cold, wet Sunday perfect for getting things cleaned up in the soap room. I made my last loaf yesterday. I now have 88 little gift bars and 55 big chunky bars curing at the moment so I thought it was time to put all the soap stuff away and reclaim my table for sewing.

 I had my batting and backing ready to sandwich the autumn batik quilt but when I looked over at the ironing board I saw.....

....the towel I needed to hem.

 After hemming the towel I looked over at the Juki and saw that I still needed to finish machine quilting the scrappy Dresden. I thought I better practice a bit first. I was really rusty.

 This thing is no fun to wrestle but thankfully it's going quick. I've only got five more blocks to go.

Then all my sewing fun was interrupted by an itchy Pup. She was way overdue for a trim so instead of ever getting around to making my autumn batik sandwich I played dog groomer instead. Thank goodness it's sweater weather for little doggies because she looks pretty ragged after my chop job.

Wash Day 2

Last night we went to the town tree lighting on the pier and I was miserable. 

 It was cold so I pulled out my heaviest, coziest sweater that for some reason I didn't wash during the big annual handknit washing event a few weeks ago. It's all acrylic so it didn't need a handwash just a toss in the machine but it never got done.

 I also pulled out a pair of my big warm mittens that I hadn't washed yet either.....

...and a scarf I haven't warn since last year that also had escaped a bath.

What I got for all that cozy warmth was an epic allergy attack that ruined the night for me. I was an itchy, wheezing mess. I had to come home and take a long hot bath and a big swig of Benadryl. How dumb was I to forget to wash my dusty accessories? Pretty dumb.

The day wasn't a total wash though. Look what showed up in the mail. Another of those amazing pine candles AND the most beautiful chunk of nougat I have ever seen. Thanks so much Momolake! You're the best!!!