Almost Ready...

Almost ready...

A few more gifts finished.

One just about complete.

A last minute decoration made while chatting with good friends.

A trip to town for food to feed us and our company over the holidays...and for cane sugar candy canes for sweet, little (or not so little anymore, I suppose) boys.

And a crazy notion to make one more gift for my love...if only I could find where I put the knitting needles I need.  ;-)

Solstice

Yesterday we celebrated Winter Solstice in this temporary  home of ours - this house above the clouds. I love the sense of deep connection to Nature and her seasons that comes from celebrating the solstices and, as a sun-lover, I especially love Winter Solstice when we celebrate the day that marks the return of the sun.

Happy Solstice to you and yours.

Knitted Solstice Gifts and Cranberry Decorations

The other day a friend sent me this link on making some cranberry tree decorations.  We just happened to have some cranberries and wire on hand for making them so E and I set to it.

You can make circles.

Hearts.

Or...um, any shape that pleases you!?!?

They are very simple to make and look lovely tucked on the tree.

I've been enjoying finding these tiny little pinecones on my walks and decided to use some for a package decoration.

There has also been some Solstice gift knitting happening whenever I had a moment to myself.  I kept these projects tucked in my bedside drawer away from prying eyes. ;-)

And now we are ready for Solstice and have only one more Christmas gift to make and two more to finish off.  Plenty of time.

;-)

Felted Mice and Apple Pies

When I saw E's mice I knew I had to make some too.  Yesterday I got round to giving these poor creatures some eyes (they really were three blind mice) and what a difference it made.  I think they are adorable.

I also wanted to make a few more headbands and decided to try some reversible ones this time.  I did them a little differently because I didn't have interfacing and I wanted to just stitch them together and then turn right side out. 

It was also edging well past time to use up the last of all those apples we picked so we decided to have pie.  E peeled, W made the topping and I did the rest.  And...since we had the oven on we figured we might as well make two.  Right?

And now I need to get busy on a little Solstice knitting. Eep, where does the time go?

Half Eaten Gingerbread Men Ornaments

I came across these gingerbread men last year when I was looking for gift ideas and thought they were adorable but didn't have time to make them. This year when we got our big tree I started looking for ornaments to make and came across them again and decided I must make them.  The directions are here and they are such fun to make.  I made one.

Then some more.

Then more.

Here they are.  Now I'll just attach a hanging thread and put them on our tree.

I just love their little faces.

WIP Wednesday

I've got all sorts of projects on the go right now and so does the rest of my family.  It's a regular Santa's workshop these days.  This scarf is for myself and is another attempt to use up my stash of thrifted yarn - a multi-coloured cotton, a cotton/silk blend and a lovely soft mohair.

This is a gift for my mom (to go with the bookmark and some other goodies).  This is an old favourite blouse of hers which she no longer wears.

I decided to make a pretty rag bag out of it.

It is all done except for some handles.

And these fellahs...there are plenty of these fellahs in progress.  They are pure fun!

Gingerbread Men, Solstice Treats and Wooden Breadboards

We like to make gingerbread men each year.  Yesterday we decided we would have a baking day.  We started off with gingerbread men and then realized that most of the cookie cutters had not yet been unpacked.  Where to look?  Did I really want to dig through the boxes in the storage closet to find the gingerbread man cutter or should we just make stars since we had that cutter?  Thankfully W and S went searching and found my old cookie jar filled with cutters.

We rolled out the dough and then the boys and I got busy.  This year W had decided that he wanted to start a new tradition that his friend had told him about.  He wanted to cut out a gingerbread man for each person spending Christmas day with us and decorate it to look like that person.  He and E were thrilled because this meant...ICING.  W informed me that he had never used icing on cookies at home (poor fellah).  So they mixed up different colours and had some serious fun with this.

I made stars and heart to go on the tree.

Then we decided that we would make our dog some treats too.  We used to always make him biscuits but haven't since we started feeing him raw several years ago.  These ones are banana/nettle/carrot/molasses biscuits and does he ever love them.  (we decided it would be cruel to make him wait 'til Christmas to taste them)

Since we had a serious mess going we started on our Solstice bird treats.  We had some cranberries and apples and decided to thread these into little hanging ornaments.

We also couldn't wait 'til Solstice to put these out so we put them out right away and we'll make more for Solstice. ;-)

Since my favourite taffy was such a hit with the boys I thought they should probably try homemade Nanaimo bars too.  Big hit!

S was busy too.  He made his annual treat of whipped shortbread and he was also busy in the garage making some bread boards out of walnut slabs we've had on hand.  He plans on making a table one day but decided to use the smaller bits for boards for gifts.  They are beautiful - too beautiful to cut on, perhaps?

Edited to add recipe for Dog Treats

4 1/2 cups "flour" (I use a combination of mostly oats with wheat flour, barley flour or rice flour depending on what I have on hand)

1/2 tsp baking powder (optional)

1 cup-ish fruit or veg.( mashed banana, grated apples or carrots, cooked and mashed pumpkin or sweet potato are some to try - this time I included the nettle left over from my infusion too.  I mash whatever I am going to use with the rest of the liquid ingredients and then add it to the dry.

2 -4 tbsp oil

3 Tbsp molasses (this part our dog really loves)

2 Tbsp peanut butter (I sometimes add this and you could add egg if you like)

Put dry flours and oats in bowl with baking powder.  Mix all wet ingredients together (I run this through the vitamix) and then add to dry.  Mix to make a fairly stiff dough that you can roll out and cut into shapes.  Depending on the combination of fruits and veg you use you may need to add a bit more flour to your mix.  We like to cut them into heart shapes.  Bake in 350 oven for 20-20 minutes depending on how thin you roll them.  You want them to be crunchy.  Share with your furry friends.  :-)  When E was little he took great delight in making these and then eating them as well, it tickled him to share treats with his dog friends and to be able to say he was eating dog biscuits.  Go figure. ;-)