Tomorrow's baking adventures

Tomorrow is Christmas baking day. I've got two gifts to bake, plus a recipe I'm intrigued to try myself...

Here's the plan (all courtesy of pinterest, of course!):

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti
Earl Grey Tea Cookies
Salted Chocolate Caramel Bark

Oh, delicious. Hopefully these will all turn out perfect the first time! But then again, it wouldn't be an adventure if they did...

I'll do my best to remember to photograph them and review them after Christmas!

Christmas Break Plans

Tomorrow marks the fourth week in Advent. Advent. Such a busy time, but one of my favorites for the whole year. A time of preparation, planning, anticipation, and hope. A time for reflection, renewal, and comfort. A time for longing, peace, and joy.

Now that I'm officially on Christmas break (and an extended one at that!), it seems that, in a microcosmic way, much of this preparation, planning, longing, anticipation, and hope has been fulfilled. I now have time to reflect, renew, be filled with peace, comfort, and joy. What a blessing to have this time off and enjoy it with family and friends.

I can't wait to get started on all my crafting plans for the next few weeks...

• I've got plans to meet up with some friends for some quality girlfriend coffee bonding time.
• I've got plans to meet up with some friends for some quality girlfriend crafting bonding time.
• I've got plans for working on inventory for my Etsy shop to finally get it up off the ground!
• I've got Christmas presents to finish knitting and crafting, and need to get those out in the post.
• I've got sewing plans, movie watching plans, copious amounts of coffee and tea drinking plans, and enjoying my Christmas present plans (D and I decided to go in on one big gift to ourselves this year, so I already know what I'm getting and it's on its way!).
• I've got RELAXING plans. Oh, sweet relaxing, I've been waiting all year for these few weeks.

We've got a nasty-sounding wintry mix storm going on this weekend. This morning we woke up to a nice thick layer of ice covering the stairs and car. It should hopefully melt off this afternoon, just in time for more ice and snow tonight. I'm so thankful I don't have to go to work next week so I can just stay inside and work on projects.

Pardon me while I go look for my comfy pants and pour myself another cup of coffee.

A Christmas Carol Cup of Tea Swap

 

This holiday season, I participated in a swap on Ravelry based on the legendary Dickens' classic, "A Christmas Carol." The three categories were (you guessed it!): past, present, future. Our mission was to include tea, yarn/knitting-related, and other goodies based on these three times in our life and our swap partner's life. 

Look at all the wonderful treats waiting for me!

Past:
- a family recipe for Hermits, which are a type of chewy, spicy cookie/bar. Yum! Can't wait to try them.
- Sleepytime tea, which is one of my swap partner's (and my) favorites
- Tea pot stitch markers

Present:
- Earl Grey tea, because seriously, you can't go wrong with it!
- knitted necklace/bracelet. Have a few outfits in mind already, and the button on it is so pretty.
- Embroidered tea towel, so precious. How did she know that was perfect for me?!

Future:
- Vanilla caramel tea- can't wait to try this out, sounds so perfectly mellow and desserty
- Yarn that my swap partner hand dyed. The colors are absolutely gorgeous and remind me of the magical fall season where the leaves are so rich and colorful.

She also included some tea candies, a soap, candy canes, Yule Ale, and a cute Christmas spatula. I'm also getting a pattern of my choosing. An excuse for shopping? Haha, doesn't get much better than that!

I'm so tickled by all the wonderful goodies my swap partner Cait decided to include. Thank you, Cait, and happy swapping!

Finished Object: Chiefs Gear Galore

One of my sweet coworkers is a diehard Chiefs fan. Every year, she puts up this hilarious Chiefs Morgue with rubber chickens dressed like their opponents. (Yes, the chickens even make it to the games!) She asked me to sew some coordinating curtains to complete her office decorations and give her storage cabinet a "door."

She was so excited when I brought in the finished curtains last week, right after the Chiefs became 6-0. What a way to celebrate!

These curtains were super simple to make. I just measured the cabinet dimensions, adjusted my measurements for two panels with some extra width, and gave a 1/2" hem allowance all around, plus a generous casing for the tension rod.

To attempt neat corners, I followed this tutorial I found via Pinterest. It wasn't hard to follow, but I probably should have measured the angle of some of my corners instead of eyeballing it. Next time...!

Once I sat down to work on these, it took about 4 hours from cutting out the fabric on my too-small table, to measuring and pinning the hems, to finishing the casing. Easy peasy, just needed to find that magical window of time where I could pull out my sewing machine and get it done. I love quick and easy projects like this that have such a huge impact on a space.

Stay tuned.... I've got another Chiefs-related project in the works for her, now that they're 7-0!

coffee and cozy and chicken, oh my.

I'm sitting here bundled up in my sweatshirt and pathetically warming my hands on my once-steaming hot cup of coffee. Apparently we decided to skip the majority of our lovely fall temperatures and go from the sweltering 90s to something much... chillier.

Supper tonight is going to be warm and delicious. Trying out this Balsamic Bruschetta Chicken recipe from Budget Bytes. It looks good, and anything that's easy and uses up what I've got in the fridge is a plus for me.

Lately, I've been on a real coffee cozy knitting kick. These varying patterns are great for using up little remnants of skeins leftover from other projects. I'm planning on stocking up on these -- they're great for gift giving and donating to church functions and auctions.

This pink Pumpkin Spice cozy was so much fun to knit with the braided cable. Can't wait to make some more of these!

These two pink cozies were based on the welted rib stitch pattern. Just figured out how many I needed to cast on and they were done before I knew it! The second one is a little smaller, because I was afraid I'd run out of yarn. (I didn't. It was the skein that keeps on giving, haha!)

       

This one is a basic seed stitch cozy. I love how the purple button coordinates so well with the fall colors. I completed this one during a mini road trip the other weekend, and that purple button happened to be the only one in my little project and notions bags at the time.. Next time, I think I'll make it just a bit longer so it won't pull as much at the button.

thoughts on a saturday...

- i've got my lovely new cowl soaking in some wool wash. blocking later tonight and hopefully that means i'll be able to seam it up at knit night on monday.

- i currently want to cast on all the things. this is dangerous.

- cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2 is the best movie i've seen in a long time. i liked it even better than the first movie, which is saying something. chock full of cheesy humor, it was right up my alley and probably the best down time i've had in a good, long time.

- husbands are wonderful. especially mine. see previous thought.

- it finally feels like fall outside! this is the best news concerning my favorite season.

- found out on friday that we get three unexpected, extra paid holidays at work this year. so excited i'll have the day before thanksgiving off! even though it means we won't be able to see family any sooner, i'll love having that extra time to clean and pack.

- pot roast in the crockpot for supper, along with mashed potatoes and green beans? yes please!

- knitting for my niece is becoming super addicting. so far, i've got a hat, some legwarmers on the needles, and her christmas present? well, let's just say it's going to be adorable.

Project Bags Galore

I recently completed not one, not two, but six custom orders for project bags. This was such a fun adventure, and I'm considering building up some inventory of project bags, stitch markers, and other knitting-related items to sell in the future. Each customer selected their own fabrics from my stash and I love all the combinations they came up with. It's hard to pick a favorite!

Here are the fabric selections! Minus the Chiefs fabric, that's for a different, upcoming project.

Love the way they turned out! Their new owners love them too, which makes me very happy.

This final one was completed at the request of my friend for a swap she's in. It's traveling all the way to Canada, and I know it will be well-used and loved.

Absolutely love the fun, colorful fabrics she chose. They go perfectly together, don't you think?!