Five on Friday

I made my first ever Christmas cake with a recipe that Mom gave me many years ago. It's not a really dark one like she used to make, so I'm thinking maybe she used a different recipe. I'll have to search through some recipes I have of hers to see if there's a different one. I haven't sliced into this cake yet, but it is ageing in the garage wrapped in rum-soaked cheesecloth. It's tucked inside Mom's official Christmas cake tin too (which I didn't get a photo of, but maybe another day I'll remember to do that). It's an old unpainted heavy square tin that is quite aged and lovely because of that. It's not a pretty tin, but Mom liked it because it closed up tight. She stored her Christmas cakes in there every year, and there were butter tarts at other times. Good memories.

A couple of weeks ago the four of us plus one (my daughter's boyfriend) all went to Toronto to do a bit of fun Christmas shopping. This is inside the Eaton's Centre. They always put up a magnificent display for Christmas, and this is the "tree" reaching from basement level right up to the glass roof. I used to work just across the street from the Eaton's Centre and spent many a rushed, but happy lunchtime there Christmas shopping!

Back at home the following week, we worked on decorating our house and got our own fat tree assembled and placed in the front window. A lot fewer decorations adorn it this year, and I'm really happy with the results. The photos don't do it justice (phone!!!grrr), but it simply glows with the clear lights we put on it this year. I've always wanted clear lights and it's made quite a difference to the tree. I put strands of faux red berries, icicles, snowflakes and tiny felt mice on it. Also a long ribbon of burlap with red edging made by me about 30 years ago. I've always loved the rustic look of burlap ;)

A beautiful tatted snowflake from a new friend was gifted to me this year.

A crystal snowflake that we made from chenille sticks and Borax

A red-tailed hawk my son made out of papier mache
for a school project sis on the tree top

 The living room looks a lot nicer this year without all the clutter of Christmas decorations I usually set around it. We have room to put things on the coffee table and the buffet now :)

a cozy corner with Christmas cushions

Just a few decorations here and there ... this is a tiny porcelain snowman
I picked up when shopping with my girlfriend a few years ago

A cedar branch display with "nature" themed decorations.
Some of these stay on the branches all year. I peeled the bark
off the branches and they are super smooth and now darkening a bit with age.

A small thrifted aged lantern full of tiny pinecones

Another small snowman tealight & tree on top of the desk

Just a few things on the buffet with some greenery in front and
a big log tealight holder underneath

Log tealight, hedgehog bootscrape and metal reindeer (also made by my son)

My "Winter" Brambly Hedge teacup that my husband gave me years ago.

Mom & Dad's ancient tree-top angel that I cleaned up sits
on top of the bookshelf with a few friends

Father Time atop the only logical place

Just a few of the many nutcrackers we have. Even they were getting on my nerves in the past,
so I put only a few on top of the china cabinet this year.

The kitchen was decorated as well, and received it's usual garlands of pinecones across the windows and my pinecone wreath in between. I put some greenery around our light as well, but am a little bit leery of the oil lamp being lit right underneath it. So far, so good.

I made a little felt decoration that sits inside the wreath this year.

Our Countdown to Christmas chalkboard.
I really like this small calendar rather than an advent calendar and have
had it since my kids were little. It was a kit I painted up.

We have a full-sized red pick-up truck, so I couldn't wait to decorate my son's
childhood toy with a fake tree. Couldn't find a smaller tree, but we had a laugh
over this one ;)

A favourite wooden bead and wooden snowman & Santa garland leading into the living room

This is a tiny smoking table at the top of my entryway stairs. Just added my mini tree there with some polymer clay ornaments I made about 30 years ago. I'm surprised they lasted this long! The photo is on the table all year round and is from a blogging friend last Christmas :)

My son was looking around the house the other day and commented "we have a lot of pinecones in our house". It's true! But I find they are such simple yet pretty decoration year round. I get out more at Christmas time, but some are out all year round.

I'm joining up with Amy at Love Made My Home and her world famous Five on Friday.

Christmas Looming

With Christmas looming, all my time is being manipulated to completing handmade gifts. I finished the scarf I was working on in the last post, and have started on the next one (nothing really to show just yet). I know I'll get it done, but at this point I think it's going to be tight!

My son helped me drag the Christmas tree and boxes of ornaments from the crawlspace early last week. He then helped me get the tree assembled and it sat unadorned in front of the living room window for a week. This past weekend I picked up some clear lights and set to decorating it in a style that we don't normally do. Normally we just pile all the decorations we have ever purchased onto the tree complete with many coloured lights with a programmable lighting sequence. Each year the tree looked more and more chaotic! I was determined to try something different this year with the hope that less really is more, and I quite like it! Although I do miss that personal touch of all those familiar decorations, and the clear lights seemed foreign at first, everyone seems happy with the result. Now I have added a few very special ornaments that have been gifted to me or have special meaning. I like it a lot better now.

One thing I have been working on feverishly were these little dolls to send out as gifts. They are fairly easy to make, and I got them completed a few weeks ago. The tiny flower pots weren't meant to be part of the dolls, I just popped them in the pots for the photo shoot. I kind of like the flower pot base though :)

The sad part about this story is that when I took them all to the post office to be mailed out, the bead I used for the head wouldn't fit through the slot to measure "letter post" which would have cost $1.80 for each envelope. Because of that the envelope was bumped up to "parcel post" and would have cost me $9.00 for each envelope I had to send out! I wasn't about to spend $45 on this. Needless to say I didn't send them, and I had to start on the gifts all over again. I didn't have the heart to rip off all the doll heads to rework them because they're very well secured onto the dolls, and I think it would have ruined the entire doll. Anyway, the new gifts have been made in a complete frenzy and are now off in the mail. Lesson learned.

I've been unable to post or visit anyone properly with all stuff I've been working on and I'm quite busy with the daycare kids as well. I also chose this crazy time of year to advertise for new daycare kids, and have been busy with interviews. The difficult part about having interviews for daycare is keeping my house really clean and tidy all the time! The whole house is open for inspection which becomes tricky when I have kids in the house all day and Christmas stuff threatening to take over. I don't know what I was thinking.

Anyway, yesterday I didn't have any kids in as two are sick and two were not coming because they had hockey games out of town. It snowed heavily Sunday night, so it was a good day to knit ... and clear the driveway :[  If I can squeeze a few photos out of the camera (which I mentioned earlier is not working properly), I'll share some Christmas pics and snow pics. I'm sure you're all dying to see those ha ha! Today is again going to be spent on my own with the two littles still ill at home. I can't say I'm sorry for another unexpected day off (who would!). Back to knitting and clearing away empty Christmas boxes and cleaning house and generally getting all ready for Christmas!

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope to be able to visit everyone very soon!

Wendy

Winter Project

Today I'm linking up with Jennifer at Thistlebear and her Winter Project Link Party. Thanks for hosting Jennifer! 

I usually have something on the go throughout the winter. At this time of year it's most often a Christmas present. Right now I'm working on two scarves for two of my daycare kids. I'm often in a quandary with the kids because I know they get an absolute ton of gifts at Christmas from parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents (these two kids have 3 sets of grandparents), and friends! I have to keep my gift giving expenses quite low, and have been able to keep each gift at $15 each for many years. It's surprising what you can come up with for $15. A lot of times I'll give a small child a book with a handmade character or two that match up with the story. Last year I made felt animals to go with the book "The Mitten". It was fun to make and well received. 

This year the scarves are going to be given to the older kids. I had to wait until the kids wore their new winter coats so I could see the colours of them. The girl's coat is purple and blue with lime accents. I went with just the purple and blue.

I'm using a simple knit/purl pattern called the Two-Stitch Check. Basically you knit two, purl two all the way across one row. On the return row you purl the knits and knit the purls. It makes a surprisingly pretty pattern that is thick and squishy ... perfect for a cozy scarf. I also did two knit stitches at the beginning and ending of every row to make a slight border. The best part about this pattern is that it's the same on both sides, which is something you want for a scarf.

Since I'm only knitting four rows alternating with each colour, I twisted the yarn not in use up the sides. You can see that in the photo below.

I've decided to use up both the balls of yarn, and that will determine the length of the scarf. I thought I might like to add some pom poms on the ends, but I won't have enough yarn for that. Right now the scarf is 50 inches long. I worried a bit that I made it too wide at 8 1/2 inches, but everyone I ask thinks it's a nice width. The girl who is getting this is as tall as I am, so she's not a tiny thing. The scarf folds over nicely without too much bulk, so I think it'll be okay. 

I'm using acrylic yarn since I don't think the mom would bother to handwash a pure wool scarf for her kids. I prefer wool myself, but this is a fairly nice acrylic, and the colours were perfect for the girl's coat.

The next scarf will be for her brother. His coat is orange and grey. I have the yarn already, and will start on that as soon as I finish the purple & blue. I want to do a two-row alternating colour scheme, but still have to decide on a pattern. It might just be 1 x 1 ribbing to keep it simple and so the scarf will lie flat. However, I really, really hate doing a knit one, purl one pattern ... so much bringing the yarn forward and back! 

Thanks for stopping by during this very busy month!

Wendy

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