Merry Christmas

A glimpse of our home.


Space age Christmas tree.



A tree full of pickles.



The traditional tree.



Honey & Pine nut tart.



Fresh baguettes.

Much love from our home to yours this Holiday Season.

-- Post From My iPhone

Advent Calendar

My big project for Christmas this year was to make an advent calendar for the Cookie & Kiss.













Thankfully those two still live in the present moment because it took me eight days to sew rather than the two days I gave myself.



















After looking at several different patterns for inspiration I thought I knew what I wanted to do. There are pros and cons to working without a pattern. One advantage was the freedom to do anything I wanted, but the flip side was that it took longer as I made design choices along the way.













Originally I thought I would do the numbers in small buttons, but that would have distorted the pockets and added bulk. The buttons were tossed in favor of appliqued numbers. The pockets are roughly 5x5 squares. The dimensions came to 33" x 41". It was big, but with two kiddos the pockets had accommodate two of everything.

Two years ago, I made the kids their stockings. Luckily I had lots of bias tape from the project that I used to trim the calendar.













Cookie and Kiss love their calendar and were more interested in filling the pockets than emptying them. Kiss claimed number 3 because it had the star on it.













Christmas is two days away. Our tree has yet to be trimmed, but it is beautiful in its natural state. We bought a big one this year. For the most part the presents have been bought and wrapped. Today there will be grocery shopping and last minute runs, dressing the naked Christmas tree, and cleaning up after days and days of rain.



















Are you ready for Santa?

Good Day Today

This gave me a good chuckle this morning. I love a good laugh in the morning and I believe it is a sign of a good day ahead. So I am sharing this silly little video in the hopes you have a little laugh and your day is lighter and brighter for it.



Did I detect a few Bah humbugs out there? Naw, I think it was my cat trying to sing along.
Carry on.

String Trees

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.



Crochet Today has been putting out the cutest patterns and this tree garland was no exception. The sock yarn was Heart & Sole by Red Heart in Christmas and Razzle Dazzle. Razzle Dazzle is the best name.





There is enough yarn to make one another one. This one was made for Cookie and Kiss. It's for one of the pockets on their Advent Calendar. The calendar was finished this morning and sent out for overnight delivery, so they will get it tomorrow. YAY! All this making of special things has put in me in the Holiday Spirit. Has the spirit caught up with you yet?

These fabulous photos were taken by my good friend, Ellen. I think I have to enlist Ellen to photograph all my makings. She has a great eye and makes my trees look tres, tres jolie. Thanks, Ellen.

What are you making for the holidays?

The count down begins

The last three days I have been in a mad jam session with my sewing machine. The Christmas season is here and I am slightly behind in my tasks, but having a blast nonetheless.

Right now the madness centers on an advent calendar. Yep, it's the first day in the count down to Christmas. Told ya this elf was a little behind.

Funny how one minute it's Turkey time and the next it's Christmas. Time moves fast. We had an amazing weekend with fantastic food and spending time with family and friends. I hope you all had a turkey-riffic Thanksgiving.



-- Post From My iPhone