an Alien concept...

 Christmas!

It's been a busy season.  It was a rush, but I did get a couple of Christmas gifts made.  First, this hat/glove set (Beeswax)...a real delight to knit, even if knitting anything with cables automatically doubles the knitting time.

The second was a fun project for Todd.  Our plastic Scrabble tile bag is in shreds, so I decided to make a new one with fun fabric.  This bag was a real challenge for me, since I have a terrible time following written directions and there were several new techniques involved...but...I love the finished product.

The bottom has pleats (!!!) so that it will sit nicely.

It's lined, and has drawstrings at the top to keep the tiles contained.  I love this bag.

A lot of usual Christmas traditions here.  A different-flavored Christmas cookie each night in the week leading up to Christmas, all flavored from a basic sugar cookie dough:

A week of Elf on the Shelf, culminating in one of my favorites...an Alien-themed scene.  Todd and I are huge fans of the (first two) movies, and it didn't take long to stitch the basic Facehugger shape out of felt a couple of days before Christmas Eve.  Our "household Elf" is fairly sinister, so this is a fitting ending for his week!  :)

We watched loads of Christmas movies, spent Christmas day in pajamas, and had some delicious homemade sweet bread.

What we Midwesterners call Mexican Wedding Cakes, but Todd calls Russian Tea Cakes...

A slightly stuffed...but happy!...day!

The kittens loved the huge piles of wrapping paper, although we were infringing on their territory a bit.  They've claimed the floor space by the window, both cramming into a small dog bed there.  It's so sweet, though, that we don't mind a bit.  Kitten love!!

There's quite a lot to see, and always nice to have a snuggle buddy!  It's become the popular hangout spot in the house.  Even Borga wants in on the action!

Just one more day of leisure before we get back to the daily grind.  Temperatures have been cold here, although we missed the big snowfall that other places received.  Still, it was harsh enough outside to keep us inside!

Looking forward to a final vacation day today...tidying up the Christmas mess, eating leftovers, and curling up in front of the fire with a good book.

Hope you had a great holiday season!

a fine Alpine

 Just a bare dusting of snow...but plenty to see.

I love photographing snowflakes.  Some are filled out with flat ridges of ice...

...and some are all prickly shards.

You can see in the first picture how different each snowflake looks.  We are supposed to get between 3 - 8 inches of snow this week - a white Christmas!! - so I'll have more chances to find new shapes.

It's been dry, cold, and quiet here.  The front pond is frozen...

...and even sunny mornings are foggy and atmospheric.

The kittens seem to know that it's a sleepy season.  I put a small wooden bench by our front windows, for the kittens' viewing pleasure.  I decided to go one further and added a cat bed.  It seems to be a success...

...even more than our bed!

Busy busy, but I'm making time for some creative pursuits.  I'm slowly picking away at my Vintage Christmas quilt, having finished all 15-square side pieces (see left section) and the wide patchwork alternating sections (see right section).  I'm working on the middle section, blue stars made up of different styles of fabric. It's very colorful and cheerful, so I'm excited to see the finished product!

I've also picked up my knitting again.  I'm knitting this cardigan:

Deco, photo courtesy of Kate Davies

The dress is Alpine from Lindy Bop...must buy!!

I put it away for a while, because I had Christmas knitting and other time-sensitive projects.  It's knitted in an unusual (to me) way.  You make a basic vest, and then pick up the stitches around the armpit hole.  You knit in a back-and-forth fashion (short rows), picking up an extra stitch each time, until you've worked the entire circle.  This creates an excess of fabric at the top, where you need it.

Then you can knit in the round, making a tube.

After both arms are finished, you have to pick up stitches for the hem, neck, and front button bands. It's a bit confusing, and I'd chosen this cardigan as an easy knit.  But I love a challenge and look forward to conquering these techniques!

Colder weather is coming, Christmas is coming, and it's wonderful to have so many fun projects to work on in my free time...the aforementioned, as well as working hard to beat my personal post-college best for the most books read in a year.  Bring on the snow!!

Have a great week!  

gorn adorn

 It's been a long two weeks but CHRISTMAS TREE UP!

Mantle was simple, tree boughs from our fir trees.

Bring on the ornaments!  Old favorites...

And we always add new ones each year.  This year, I bought a possum ornament for Todd, in honor of our nightly guest:

Todd topped me by finding this Star Trek Gorn ornament, which I love so much that I'm going to keep it out all year.  I've been reading a lot about/trying to defeat my own "lizard brain" so this is especially perfect.

taken from this scene...

The cats have shown some interest in the tree...

...but seem more interested in the displaced chair that we moved to accommodate the tree.

♩♪Saturday night's alright for fighting...♪♪

Most of the photos I've taken lately have been strictly cats...

...because I was sick for over a week and very slow to move past it.  I had a low-key birthday...I did make it out for a Christmas choir performance, and had a delicious brownie at home.

I don't believe in cutting corners on birthday treats, but this year's cake was no sugar...no flour...no oil...no butter...no egg...no dairy.  I'd made it the week before and it was so delicious, I wanted it again.

The World's Healthiest Brownie

(modified from Chocolate Covered Katie)

1 cup pumpkin puree

2/3 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sugar substitute (I used Swerve)

1/4 cup chocolate chips (so, a little sugar...)

Mix it all together, bake it at 325 in a standard pie dish for 20 minutes, and put it in the refrigerator to firm it up.  Top it with some lightly sweetened cream cheese if you don't mind dairy and it's ready to go!  It's really rich and delicious.  

Birthday done, Christmas cards out, tree is up, and now we're focusing on our Christmas rush at work.  It's a lovely time of year and I'm hoping to rally within a few days to really get our massive Christmas week planned out properly.  I can't wait!

Have a great week!

waiting for a star to fall

 After several mostly-dry weeks, we finally got some rain...

...and an absolutely gorgeous hard frost.

Still, it's mainly on the warmer side, even though there's usually a skim of ice at the edges of the front pond.

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and as usual, I made a feast.  In college, I used to carefully recopy my notes to get the contents straight in my mind, and I do the same thing with recipes...just a bit messier.

We ate...

...and spent the rest of the day like this:

Oh, I did find a real gem.  I made 6 mini (single-serving) pies - apple, cherry, and chocolate.  I'm not much of a pie person, though, so I added a half-batch of cookies  Now, I've tried dozens of oatmeal cookie recipes in my lifetime, and this seemed unlikely to overtake my beloved oatmeal/coconut/chocolate chunk one.  Somehow, though, it did.

Sally's Baking Addiction Iced Oatmeal Cookies

Plain and unassuming, sure, but with crispy edges and a soft center.  Pulverizing half the oats is a genius move, and the icing that tastes too sweet and sharp on its own somehow elevates a not-very-sweet cookie into something special.  This is going into rotation around here!

Otherwise, we had a bit of excitement this week.  I was outside at dawn, taking photos, when I noticed something unusual in the sky beyond the barn.

I used my Zoom to get a bit closer:

And more:

This was no airplane trail!  I submitted it to the American Meteor Society and got this terse response:

Not a meteor/fireball.  Someone online suggested falling space junk.  I'm dying to know what it was, but googling "strange things falling from sky" produced some, well, strange results.  Hopefully I'll have more time after the holidays to delve into this mystery!

Until then, I'll just keep an eye on the sky.  It's awfully pretty this time of year.

Have a great week!