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Last weekend The Mister had a giant truck full of wood dropped off in our driveway.
Then we had a lot of rain. I did NOT want that ugly pile of blue tarp covered wood in my front yard for Christmas so that means that we've been spending a lot of time dodging raindrops and doing this.
I fill up the cart and drive it around back and then toss it over to The Mister who is stacking it under our deck. It's taken several days of hard labor but I am happy to say that I got my part done and the driveway is now clear. The Mister still has some stacking to do but at least the neighbors won't have to look at that mess when they gather for their holiday celebration on Christmas Eve.
Now I've got plenty of wood for roasting marshmallows. I was lucky in that this particular load there were lots of short cuts of wood perfectly sized for my little Solo Stove. I just need some dry winter weather instead of all this rain and wind we've been having. Happy Solstice!
If you know anything about the Washington DC area you know where we were yesterday.
We went to the National Harbor to check out the holiday goings on but we pretty much were underwhelmed.
The only decor was on the parking garage and it was pretty lame. I wasn't expecting 5th Avenue but I was expecting something.
The advertised tree lighting was a bit boring. I've seen the Rockefeller tree and this was no Rockefeller tree.
There were these amazing lifelike statues everywhere. I've been to New Orleans where things like this turn out to be actual people so I was a bit startled by them at first.
This was the first one I saw outside the parking garage and I swore she was real.
We didn't plan on doing any shopping but I came home with a bag of candy and The Mister came home with a new coat. He had ripped the pocket of his and wouldn't stop complaining about it so when we walked past a Carhartt shop I sent him in with the instructions not to come out until he found a replacement. He did.
Other than my fruitcakes, I've been dragging my feet about holiday baking this year but I did take out the little pizzelle maker last night.
I thought I'd test out a few recipes but this wasn't it. They turned out dry and brittle.
I have one of those wooden things you use to roll them up krumkake style while they are hot but most of them broke.
I like to fill them up with ice cream for dessert. The Mister bought me a little cup of Peppermint Stick for my birthday. A spoonful or two is all I can handle at a time these days so that little cup will last me forever.
And.....I've also started testing the soap I made in October. It's had a nice, long rest.
I'm not going to lie, it's different. Remember, I had to change my formula because the price of some of my usual butters and oils went through the roof this year because of crop failures. It's not terrible but it's softer and I don't think it lathers as well. The good news is that it didn't bother my sensitive skin. It's actually been fun to play with because it feels a bit more "slippery" than my old soap-or maybe it's just my imagination. I do get carried away sometimes and think too hard about such things. It's just soap.
The only down side to the advent thing is when you get to the point where there aren't many days left to count. I don't think I ever remember the clothespin I use for marking the days flying across so quickly.
I blame projects like this for making it all go by so fast. I've really, really enjoyed all the stocking making. It's a ritual I don't want to end. Every night I put on a holiday movie and look forward to picking it up. It's hard to believe only 6 rows a night gives you all this.
Bon Amie doesn't look much different even though I'm slowly getting closer to finishing the body. Knit Picks made good on their promise to get my yarn to me so I'm all set to start those sleeves.
And...my travel projects, the Regia twins are getting their heels turned this week. I told The Mister I should just go out and sit in the car and knit one day. I can see so much better outside. I don't mind wrinkles or gray hair but I really HATE what growing old does to your eyes.
The person who never finishes anything has yet another finish for the year. Patchwork Hiver is a done deal.
Ta da....a whole year of seasons that took me several years to complete. In case you are wondering what I'm going to do with them, they are in the drawer where I keep all my stitching finishes. I never know what to do with any of them tbh.
The Christmas Quaker is getting a big, fancy snowflake added over on the right but it's slow going since apparently I can't count.
If you were wondering about Peter Rabbit, he's back in rotation. I get superstitious about such things so he was put away until the wee one made a safe landing. Grandson #6 has been here a few weeks now so now I'm working on all the outlining before I add the name and date of arrival.
Patchwork of the Crosses has two new blocks and two more packages of paper pieces. This is a terribly addicting project so I bought 200 more pieces in case I want this to go on forever. I don't like working on really big quilts anymore but who says I can't make several smaller ones out of them?
And finally.....Dear Jane kicked my behind this week. For the life of me I could NOT applique down those oval things. They looked terrible, like lopsided footballs. I cut them all out and will sub some other shape for them. Jane's are so darn perfect. It must be magic.
Today's my 71st birthday but I have absolutely no interest in posting about that. I'd rather talk about fruitcake. I usually make mine the weekend after Thanksgiving but things got away from me so I made mine yesterday.
One thing that always gets in the way is that I can't find this stuff anywhere anymore so I have to order it. Yes, I know it's awful and full of terrible chemicals and artificial colors but fruitcake isn't fruitcake without it and believe me, I've tried to do without. This year I paid a fortune for it and had it mailed here. Life is just too short for healthy fruitcake.
I make a big production out of it. I soak my dried fruit in brandy over night.
The only time I use the mixer is at Christmas so it gets a good cleaning before I put it to work on the batter.
Ta da.....three itty bitty fruitcakes waiting to get glazed with the leftover soaking brandy. My little oven is not very good with cake so they cracked but that lets the brandy soak in better so it's not really a problem. Now I'll wrap them up and put them away until Christmas while giving them another soaking every few days. They'll be plenty boozy by then. All the leftover fruit won't go to waste. Next weekend I'll use it for some mincemeat and steam a plum pudding. Since my inner Scrooge usually starts to kick in right about now, eating my way through it always seems like the plan.
No. Not me or The Mister or Pup this time. It was the tree plushies that had to be opened up. It was time for new batteries.
I have quite a collection of the noisy things. The November my mom died, Dad would have nothing to do with Christmas so I bought him some musical friends in hopes of lifting his spirits. It didn't work that year but a few years later, when the loss was more tolerable, he got a kick out of getting them out of the closet for the holidays.
And....I did finally get the tree up and the ornaments on. I'm taking bets on how long it stays up. As soon as I see the first cobweb or dust bunny in close proximity, it goes. That's usually on or very near December 26th.
My little sweaters are telling me that we are more than halfway to Christmas. These December days went so slowly when I was a kid, now they are speeding by.
Yesterday, Friday the 13th started out really great for me and then went downhill fast. First I got notified that the blue hoodie I ordered for myself from the Taylor Swift merch store was out of stock and they were refunding my money. This was not bad news because silly me had accidentally ordered an XL and had decided I didn't want it. I already received the black one I had ordered at the same time and I can swim in it and it's a large. The good news is that the refund included a 70% off coupon AND free shipping so I got another similar $75 hoodie for only $22.50 and a few hours later they had even notified me it had already shipped. Woo hoo! What luck.
Then The Mister woke up and my luck ran out. I had planned on spending the morning sorting out my Christmas ornaments. I have boxes and boxes of them and I had bought a new container to organize them but....
....instead of that I spent the morning cleaning up a HUGE mess.
The Mister had pulled his new, very large container of tea out of the refrigerator and somehow dropped it on the floor which broke the bottom out of it resulting in my kitchen floor being flooded (and I mean flooded) with sticky, sweet tea. Oy....what a mess. I mopped and mopped and then mopped again. Cleaning under the fridge was no fun.
As if that wasn't enough, his Friday the 13th advent puzzle box was MISSING A PIECE OF THE BORDER. We even looked through all the neighboring boxes with no luck. What a catastrophe that was. I told him to go sit down and don't get up until after midnight. Someone had some bad juju going on and I didn't want anymore of it rubbing off on me.
The only way I get anything done around here is to make sure The Mister has plenty to keep him occupied. I'm not happy that he's almost finished the Santa puzzle this early in the month but I was ready for it.
I got him this one to take its place. Isn't it pretty?
It only takes him about 20 minutes to get the day's advent pieces put together so it wasn't exactly the respite I was expecting. He's halfway through it now.
And.....I also made sure he had a Christmas Paint by Number to work on. I've got a stocking KAL to keep up with and a quilt that needs finishing. I need the time.
I got a big bag of Palette yarn in the mail yesterday only.....it wasn't mine. It was supposed to be for someone named Sara as that who was thanked on the packing slip. You can almost see this project in your mind and poor Sara didn't get what she needed to start it.
Of course, I didn't get the four balls that I needed to start the sleeves on Bon Amie either. I guess Sara got it. Knit Picks customer service re-ordered mine for me and told me to just keep what came. Now I've got to figure out something to do with it. I wish you could see how much Palette I already have. It's ridiculous.
And....it's not the first time this has happened to me. In 2021 these Mosi mittens were made from some other "surprise" yarn that Knit Picks sent me. No complaints there. Whoever was supposed to get this yarn had much better color sense than I do. The navy, cream and gold are beautiful together and I would have never thought of it.
It's not exactly Christmas Eve yet so Rudolph wasn't needed but we did have a very foggy day yesterday.
We spent the afternoon on the foggy deck putting up new lighting.
Now my tree house of a deck has a string of Edison lights on it so I can see what I'm doing when I'm hanging out by the Solo Stove.
Since we had the electricity off I had to take my usual Wednesday WIPs outside to get photos of my progress. The Regia Twins look like this now. I only work on them when I'm in the car so they are growing rather slowly.
Bon Amie is almost at the shoulders. I have about 10 rows left of the body to finish.
The 2024 KAL Stocking looks like this now. I've got to attempt that Afterthought Heel again soon so wish me luck.
And....in spite of the cold, my pink camellia decided to gift me the most perfect bloom I've ever seen this week. In December. Crazy.
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