Testing, Testing....

 

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.

Wednesday WIPs

 

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. 

TNT: The Four Seasons

 

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. 

Better Late Than Never

 

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. 

Minor Surgery

 

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. 

Friggatriskaidekaphobia

 

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. 

Busy Work

 

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.