Batten Down the Hatches!

So it seems 2014 is coming in with a bang--we're expecting a major snowstorm here, starting today and going into tomorrow, with temps below zero.  Fun, fun.  Today I will spend a lot of time getting cracks and crevices blocked up so everyone is comfortable and safe.  No small task, but very necessary.

I haven't had a chance to really think about what I'd like to accomplish this year as of yet.  Actually, I've spent this past week finishing projects, and putting away the Christmas decorations.  Is it just me, or is putting away the Christmas tree just unbelievably sad?  That little tree gets to be like a member of the family in a way, and when it's lit up, the whole room is warm.  But as the month goes on, and the holiday ends, it's time to part, and we eventually de-decorated it and take ours out to feed to the goats, who appreciate it quite a bit.  But the room looks lonelier to me. 

Blah.

Anyway, before I get to working on getting everyone settled and insulated, I would like to share some pics of the projects I've finished.  Here goes!

Project number 8:

Two little snowmen candlestick holders.  These were also sitting in the closet from 15 years ago, waiting to be painted.  Done!

 

Project 9:

This is a pattern from Mary Corbet's Needle and Thread, which I've loved forever, but never got to.  She designed them as a hanging, but I have nowhere to hang them, so I improvised.

 

 

Project 10:

This was not on my list.  I saw a pretty Dresden Plate Christmas quilt, and wanted to do one like it.  But I didn't have enough of any fabric to do it, just bits and pieces, so I settled for a small table thing, and used the little bits and pieces.  It looks nothing like the project that inspired it, but I like it quite a lot.

Project 11:

I designed this quilt years ago, based on an Amish design, of which I am a big fan.  I then set out to find all the fabrics, which I eventually did.  It's been a pile of fabric with a picture of the quilt on it for years and years.  I finally took the dang thing out of the drawer it was in, cut it, pieced it, and then quilted it.  It came out well.  I think the stuff's been hanging out since 2006 or 2007, so it was about time!

Project 12:

I dunno....can you tell it was windy yesterday?   Maybe?

This one was pieced and sitting and sitting and sitting.  It's huge, like a twin size, so that's why.  I was feeling brave after finishing the blue quilt, so I figured I'd take the initiative and get it done.  What a pain in the rear!  If you've ever quilted a large quilt on a home sewing machine, you know what I mean.  I stuffed this thing under my machine mercilessly until it was done.  My shoulders still ache.  And the scalloped border was a pain in the butt.  But it's done!  And it's no longer laughing at me, taunting me to finish, which it's done since maybe 2008 or so.  So there, quilt!  Take that!

There is one more quilt to show you, but I didn't take a picture.  I will get there!

So...done and done.  Someone asked me, or commented a while ago, about what to do with projects I don't like anymore.  Do I finish them anyway? 

Nope.  In fact, I just found a small quilt top that I must have done at some point, and I hate it.  I threw it away.  I will do that with the small tops (sometimes I'll use them for the animals or as scrap as well), but if it's a larger top, I will find someone to give it to, who may finish it.  Quite a few tops over the years have gone to charity for that reason.  If I like the top but I don't love it and don't feel it's worth quilting, I might turn it into something else.  I did that with a Halloween quilt once--I liked it, but not enough to quilt, so I turned the edges under and made it a tablecloth.  And once I finished a quilt, realized I hated it, so I then used it as the "batting" to another quilt.  Yeah, the damn thing's heavy as heck.  But at least the ugly quilt was useful. 

So no, I don't feel beholden to finish every project I start, especially if I no longer like it.  It gets tricky when it's a cross stitch project, because there are SO MANY HOURS involved in those, throwing them out is not so simple.  I have a couple now that I really need to think about, as I don't like them, may not finish them, and don't really want them anymore.  It may just come down to passing them along to someone who will like them.  But with the quilts, I'll just donate them or toss them.  I have SO many quilts, some stupid number of them that's completely ridiculous.  Sewing is my creative outlet, so if I get an idea, I make it.  That leads to a lot of quilts.  Everyone's bed has a quilt, my kids have quilts I made for them additionally, there are quilts all over the dang place.  So parting with a few along the way that I don't like is no big deal.

And as I've told my husband, when I die, he can have one hell of a yard sale.

....or one hell of a bonfire.

His choice.

Stay warm, my friends!

Slowing Down--Sorta

I was scheduled to work all this week, but with the weather being whatever it is, the schools have been closed.  This causes me not to have to work, but also to have two VERY bored children in the house.  They have hit the ages of "We don't want to play together", and so now come to me individually to complain that there's nothing to do.  When I suggest that they play together, the suggestion is met with derision.  Forget mentioning things like cleaning out their closets or toyboxes no one plays with anymore.  HA!  So....I give up.  Instead, yesterday I did what any good mom would do--hid in the kitchen and made chicken stock.  Oh, and a cake.  Don't forget the cake.

This, my friends, is the ULTIMATE gingerbread cake.  Dark and chewy and spicy goodness.  Not for the faint of heart.  The house smelled amazing while it was baking.

Yep, it seems my little cherubs have hit the "difficult" stage.  Joy and happiness.  On Sunday we went to cut down our Christmas tree, like we do every year, only to have both children cry about it at one point or another as they could not agree on a tree.  My husband and I finally had to declare that this year my son would choose, as my daughter chose last year, and that we would alternate year to year.  This made my son happy, but not my daughter, who cried and cried and cried.  It made for a difficult day, and I declared more than once I was just going to go down to the Agway next year and pull one off the lot, instead of having everyone upset.

Yep, I handled THAT masterfully.

Oh well.  We brought the tree home, and put it in the stand, and then I proceeded to upset the whole turnip cart, because this year I put on clear lights.

Dum dum daDUM!!

We were a colored lights family, my friends--for years.  And I always liked them.  But a few years ago, I looked at the tree and thought "I betcha I would really like that tree with clear lights".  And then every year thereafter I thought the same thing, but did nothing about it.  This year I finally went for it. 

And the kids complained like it was going out of style.

.....At first.

I asked them to wait and see.  I was thinking if they really hated it, I could just unlight the dang thing and start all over again with the colored lights if necessary.  But then the ornaments started to be put on.  And all of a sudden, it was "Oh! The tree is glowing!" and "I can see all the ornaments!"  and "It's so pretty!" and "I'm glad you changed them, I like the clear lights better".  And mommy-o here did an inner smirk and passed out the glass balls.

And it is, indeed, pretty.

The tree was the last piece to be put on.  The rest of the decorating was done last week, and I have to say this for a small house: it may be very difficult to find places to put things, but it is much easier to decorate.

In our last house, which was considerably larger, decorating was a three day affair.  Here?  Ha!  One day, if that. 

 

A couple of surfaces....

 

Put some things in the open bookshelves....

Done!!

And it looks pretty.  The other nice thing about coming from a larger house is that I have SO many decorations, I can pick and choose what I want to use (heh, that rhymed).  It can be overwhelming, but it means I don't have to add anything, and it looks full nonetheless.  Yeay!!

Other than the decorating and work, things have been pretty slow.  The animals are all on "maintenance" right now, as it's too cold or crappy to do much, so it's been the routine of feeding, watering, milking, putting in, taking out, that sort of thing.  Most of my time is spent indoors, thinking of what to do.  I'll be honest--I'm not good at "slow".  Though I can sit with a cuppa and relax to some music (John Denver and the Muppets, anyone?  We are HUGE fans here), eventually I just want to do SOMETHING.  I'd rather be insanely busy than sitting around, that's the truth of it.  But it's the time of the year when we're meant to slow down--look at any cat, and you'll see this is the time of year to just do nothing.

 

Exhibit A--Phynn.
The incidence of cat "deaths" this time of year is particularly high.  Very sad.  :(

 

Exhibit B--Icky

I wish I could take a leaf from a cat's book and just do what they do, as I need to slow down, if only to recuperate for next year.  But UGH!  I'm not going quietly, that's for dang sure.  This year I am having a tough time.  I am trying to find things to keep myself busy, even if it's only a little busy, but it's not really working.  Last year I got so bored, I painted the kitchen cabinets.  This year there are no cabinets to paint.  This will not be an easy winter, I think.

But enough complaining.  While I've been trying to keep occupied, I have whittled away at my project list.  Coming in at number 5, I have that snowman pillow that you saw the beginning of here.  I admit, this one was a softball, compared to that cross stitch.  I simply sat one day for about an hour and did it.  Here he is, sitting with a friend:

 

This is a pattern from the Better Homes and Gardens magazine that comes out yearly, Holiday Crafts.  This one (I think) was from 2010.  I had seemingly cut out the snowman's head, nose, earmuffs, and part of the scarf, and then put it away, thinking I'd remember what the pieces were for.  Ha!  I gave myself too much credit.  I found the bits last month and had no idea what they were--that'll show me.  Only after digging through the magazines I have did I figure it out.  Since I am not leaving any projects hanging around this year, I put him together and here he is!  I've done a lot of those pillows from that magazine.  They are all designed by Bird Brain Designs, which I really like.  This is the first that she's done that's not on a light blue background, and I just love that.  It really pops the snowman, I think. 

Coming in at project number 6, another cross stitch piece:

And before you think that I'm a really fast cross-stitcher, let me just say that I had half finished this piece before I put it away, which is why it took me so little time to finish it.  I had stopped at the blue Santa line, so I had very little left to do.  When I found this buried in my closet, I wondered why I did not finish it.  But let's just say I remembered very quickly why when I started on it again.  What a pain in the rear this project was!  Not only is the linen very difficult to work on because of the color changes and thread blending in it, but the pattern itself was full of fiddly little bits of colors that were like putting three squares of color here, three squares of color there, and so on.  Super fiddly.  I did get through it, but I also cheated because the last line under the wreaths was supposed to be pine cones, and I just wasn't going to do it.  I put some stars in there instead and called it good.  Enough is enough is enough and I just wasn't enjoying myself. 

How old is that project?  Well.....I looked at the chart and the date on it is 2002.  I don't think that I got it then, I think it was a couple of years later.  Either way, this one has been sitting a while.  Oh...and if you love fiddly cross stitch and would like the chart to this, you can have it.  Just shoot me an email and I'll mail it to you.  It's in very good shape and there's no reason to not pass it along.

And last, but not least, project number 7, which was unplanned, but worked out ok anyway.

This one was not unfinished, so it probably should be 6A or something instead of project 7, but oh well.  The little choir ladies were a pattern from this year's Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Crafts magazine.  I liked their little gnome outfits, but didn't want to make just little random people without a setting.  If the cats ever wake up, they'd steal them for sure.  So I dug through my stash and pulled out all these little wood pieces-the base, the house, the birdhouse, the lights, and put it all together.  I think it's cute, and happily it used up many wood pieces that I have been hanging onto for YEARS.  How many years?  Back before I got my first "adult" job in a bank, I worked retail, and one of those jobs was at a craft store called Creativity (now defunct).  They had the best wood department, hands down--I've never seen any other store have anything even remotely like it.  Just amazing little wooden shapes.  That's where this all came from, I just finally took it out of the box I had it stored in, painted it up, and put it together.  So...I want to say 15+ years or so, that's how long I've had those bits.  Not too bad, right?  HA!

Onto the next!  I hope you are all staying safe and warm and will talk to you all again soon!

Weekend Update

Friday

My heart broke.  The world's gone mad, and children are being murdered.  Not for the first time.

Deep, deep sadness and shock and fear.  I have school aged children, too.

My heart goes out to all those families.  There are no words.

Saturday

Dulci had a date with "destiny".  She went into full-blown heat, and no matter how I feel on the inside, the world keeps turning and we have to keep on going and assuming there's still a tomorrow.  Therefore, out she went to my friend's farm to meet her lover, Zeus.  She is tiny, he is huge.  She decided when we got there that she would really rather be with Bill, who is a wethered Saanan buck, and she flirted and peed for him and the whole nine.  However, as he couldn't oblige, she went to Zeus.

She liked the sniffing and licking and blubbering and sneezing bit (very sexy), but she did NOT like when he climbed on up.  In fact, she went right down.  After two attempts and one VERY frustrated Zeus, we got her over a hay bail, and into a nice position, and it seemed like he did what he needed to do.  She is small, though, so it wasn't easy.  And she ran around a lot.  Needless to say, I got hurt and threw out my back, and I never realized that mating would be so participatory on my end.  I was right in the middle of the action, so to speak. 

It's one for the books.  Now I will watch and see if we accomplished anything.  If she goes back into heat, then I know we'll have to try again.  And I'll wear a back brace.  Live and learn.

Sunday

Dulci, who came back smelling like rutting buck on Saturday, threw Minerva into raging heat, and Minerva is in a bad mood.  Can't blame her, poor girl.  I wish there was something I could do for her, but it's not to be right now. 

Daphne has built a nest to end all nests, torn out miles of hair, and made a general disaster in her cage, but still no babies.  She's at 35 days today, and I'm thinking she got her signals crossed somewhere.

Decided to create a little, just to give me something else to think about.  I made placecard holders for Christmas Eve dinner, which I haven't gotten a good pic of yet.  I started the Christmas cookie-a-thon, and I did a little chalkboard art.

This, my friends, is a pain in the ass to do.

It came out cute, though, so I'm happy.  Free crafts are nice when they work out.

Today I will sub in my children's school, after taking many, many pills to sort out my back.  And I'll be grateful when I bring them back home.

Have a great day.

Craft Fair Booth Pictures

This was the booth at the craft fair.  I thought it looked nice. 

I thought I'd share!

The World Has a Sense of Humor

But luckily, so do I.

I celebrated a birthday Thursday.

It turns out to the be the same day as a neighbor of mine--discovered only by fluke when his son said "Dad, it's your birthday!" at the bus stop.  I was surprised, and offered my congratulations at having his birthday being the same day as mine (you know, 'cause I'm so cool  :) ).  Then his little one announced dad's age, as little ones like to do.

.....and I am 5 years older.

I have successfully become the oldest neighbor in a group of neighbors with kids, when I used to be the youngest.

Ha ha ha.

The craft fair was a total bust.  It started at 10, and we made a good amount of money in the first hour, and just as I was hoping that it would be the start of good things to come, the fair completely died.  By 12, it was a ghost town and I was just waiting for it to end.

I happened to hear from a lady behind me that the fair is "always" like this.  Needless to say, I packed up pretty much everything I came with, as did everyone else.  I have decided, that no matter how much I love the area I live in, I will only do shows in monied areas from now on.  I'm tired of  unpacking and then packing up my inventory.  I would actually, you know, like it to sell.

However, I think the booth looked lovely.  When my husband gets the pictures off of his phone, I will post them.

Then oddities of all oddities this morning, I woke to the sound of a rooster crow.

Beneath my window.

That should never be.  They are all locked away in the coop and I can't hear them except when I go outside to feed and let them out.

Every chicken that lives here was out this morning.  The back door on the coop was open.  I think I may have had a child come through here and open the door to look at the chickens and then leave it open.  A child that's not mine, mind you.  Unfortunately, sometimes the kids around here think that the animals are there for everyone to look at whenever, and just wander in and do what they like.  It's been a little issue, but I try to maintain my calm about it.  Thankfully, all chickens seem to be present and accounted for, even though they spent the night in an open coop.

That's just luck.  I'll be making sure all the doors are locked tight every night from now on.

And then, weirdness of weirdness.  Bella did something awesome last night or early this morning.

That stinker, Philip Johnny Bob!!!

I thought he had gotten to her right after the last little one she had!  I had a feeling.  She's been grouchy for weeks.  Snorty and snotty.  Yesterday, she built a nest, and I thought, "Ok, here it comes".  She pulled her hair out and all that good stuff.  But in truth, she nested after that first little one the last time, so there was a chance that it was a false pregnancy.  I have a New Zealand who nests all the time for no reason whatsoever, so I was weary and watching, but as I didn't SEE the mating, who knows?

She did!  This morning, as I was taking care of the chicken weirdness, I saw Bella standing next to her nest, which was closed up.  I thought maybe she was getting ready to deliver, or that she'd given up (like the last time she built a nest), when I did a little digging and inside was WARM.  Three beautiful dark babies are in there. 

I am pleased to say that they are seemingly healthy, warm despite the cold outside, and Bella seems to be caring for them.  Her nesting is certainly kick-ass.  The babies are so ugly they are beautiful, and I babbled like an idiot the moment I saw them.

I am a sucker for babies.  Non-human ones, mostly.

It's a little miracle.  She made some beautiful babies, and they are wonderful.  I'll be keeping my eye on her and her littles to make sure all is well, and hopefully they will grow up and get big and be hairy, as mama is a Jersey Wooly and daddy is an English Angora.  They should be interesting.

And I get the feeling PJB is proud, proud, proud.

And I will be reinforcing his outside fence a lot, a lot, a lot.

And it more than makes up for the crappy craft fair.

The end. ; )

How Jocelyn Got Her Groove Back

Her crafting groove, that is.

And maybe I got it back.  I feel like I may have, anyway.

To tell the story, I have to take you back 20 + years and show you a picture of a younger me.  You ready??

Not sure which one is me?  That's fair, since you've only seen one picture.  Here I am:

This was a long time ago.  Long, long long.  I was so young.  So, so young.  My two friends (who will remain anonymous so I don't get beat up) and I used to do the craft fair that was held in the middle school of our school district.  We made things like clothespin angels, cross stitch pictures, and painted ornaments.  Apparently we also made t-shirts to go with our table, but my memory's crap, so I only know that from looking at the picture.  I do remember it was a lot of red and green, and there was a heinous overuse of those ribbon roses from the craft store, but that's about all I can tell you.  However, funny enough, I still have things left over from those craft fairs.  Things that didn't sell, or that I liked so much I hid.  Every year they go on the tree and every year I think, I was so young.  So, so young.

Anywho, that's not the point.  Back in those days, I loved to craft.  I did anything and everything--those corn husk dolls that were made out of that horrid untwistable twisted paper, stenciling pretty much anything that didn't move, cross stitch on Aida cloth, clothespin stuff, painted wood, things with pine cones and pompoms, and one year I painted an entire plaster village for my mom for Christmas.  That was fun, and I can still remember sitting at the table in the kitchen, just painting away. 

But as I got older, I didn't do that anymore.  There were other things to do.  I turned from crafting to decorating my room, then later, decorating my house.  And there was lots of renovation.  I still cross stitch (on linen--the Aida has gone the way of the dodo), and crochet and embroider and stuff, but sitting down to make things really didn't happen.

So when I decided to do this craft fair on Saturday, I made soap and baskets and other nice things.  But then I went to Michael's for something and got inspired.  So I crafted again.  Along with the soaps and baskets and lovely things at this fair this year, there will also be:

 

Ornaments

 Crocheted snowmen

 



It's like a little snowman mugshot, isn't it?

"We didn't do it, we have an alibi!"

"We want our lawyer"

 

Felt trees that are jingle bells:

Salt shakers that are snow globe ornaments:

Another mug shot picture.  Ok, which one of you is the pepper?

 

"Not me, I swear!"

I thought those were pretty clever, I have to admit. 

 

And then, because I got on this snow globe kick, I had an "inspiration burp", and made a larger version:

 

 

Some traditional,

 

 

 

And some not so traditional.

Ooooh! Terrible picture!  Yeay!

 

 

I love the front detail on this one

So along with the soaps, I have some crafts that I think are really lovely.  What will anyone else think?  I guess I'll find out on Saturday. 

So did I get my crafting groove back?  Maybe.  You tell me, but it was very therapeutic.  I didn't enjoy the HUGE mess on my table for days and days, but I did enjoy creating again.  It was a nice break.

Sometimes it's nice to go back to our "roots", isn't it?  It was good to go back and find something I thought I'd lost.

And I didn't use a single ribbon rose. 

Yeehaw.