Resolutions for the new year

Today I joined my Red Hat group for a holiday lunch. The last time I attended a Red Hat get-together was for the infamous Rhode Island "all-about-the-potty" lunch train. Today's event was closer to home at a very nice restaurant that had plenty of restrooms. And it was certainly nice not to have to think about that. There were a dozen of us, and most everyone was pretty well decked out in their red and purple finery. There were red hats all around and many boas and fancy purses and a few pairs of shoes in the appropriate colors.....and lots of pictures of grandchildren (some new since last we met) being passed around the table....and a couple of conversations about operations and medical procedures. It was pretty typical of a gathering of women, many of whom now qualify for senior citizen discounts. Not me, of course.....

So our Queen Mother--the lady who started our group and is an extraordinary organizer--proclaimed that we should all bring a wrapped present that we would re-gift. In other words, none of us should be required to go back to the mall to shop (horrors!) Rather, we would find something among our things that would be appropriate to pass on. I, being a real pack rat, was having a hard time coming up with something as the deadline loomed, so I ended up wrapping one of my craft items--a cute little grapevine wreath with a homespun bow and two yellow fabric chicks. After all, Spring is just around the corner.

When the gifts were sorted out, by way of a clever draw-a-number system, I ended up with the snack plates pictured above. And when I got home and took them out to show Mr. Gadget and Tech Guy, it dawned on me that the messages were perfect for adopting as my New Years resolutions. They are short and to the point, and most importantly--they don't have any words that refer to dieting....

And on another subject, which would be knitting, today I assembled the Noro shawl-collared jacket. I was finally able to fix the sleeve (the one I cut into when trying to rip out the first assembling attempt). I still have lots of yarn ends to weave in before it will be ready for its photo debut. I hope to have it finished in the next day or two. And the gray striped socks too. Then I'll move on to the elderberry sweater. I'm still looking for the lost pattern though, and if it doesn't reveal itself soon I may have to consult my Ouija board.......

Mister and the little woman

Here is a cute little couple that I made a long time ago--back when I was quite heavily into the glue gun. Good thing I didn't bring that weapon onto the Christmas morning battlefield...heh...heh. The Mister's hat is glued on, as is his nose, and the same for the Missus....and her buttons too. I've gradually switched over to sewing on more of the doll accessories. Hats can be sewn on almost invisibly with a long doll needle and matching thread, and the dolls don't seem to mind. Polymer clay noses that have been glued onto the face have a way of popping off at the most awkward times....like just as I'm putting a snowman doll into a bag for a customer. Now I make a small hole in the face, just slightly smaller than the base of the nose, and force it in with just a dab of glue on the end. These guys are from my early crafting days, but they always have a place in our house for Christmas. No one is turned away....

So each year I get Tech Guy and Big City Girl an ornament for Christmas. The idea is that they will have quite a nice starter set for their own family trees one of these days. Here is the one I got for BCG this year. She's quite the coffee fan. Would you believe, it even smells like coffee? Maybe next year Hallmark will make a bagel ornament I can get to go with. Then the New York City breakfast-on-the-run set will be complete.

And here is the one I got for Tech Guy. It's a cell phone, complete with batteries. It plays Christmas tunes and the display screen lights up. What with 4 cell phones in the house, plus the one on the tree, we were never without some sort of holiday music for the duration.

So I mentioned in a previous post that I would be taking a vote on Christmas day to see whether the family thought that one questionable ornament might qualify as a pornament. The final tally was two-t0-two. It remains "up in the air" as to whether the Christmas pickle qualifies. We may have to invite the mailman in to break the tie. There were, however, a few comments about the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, but no official vote was taken.

I hope you readers don't mind this little deviation from the usual G rating of this blog. It was all in good fun, wasn't it? Now I'm going back to work on my clean-up-the-treehouse project. I have lots of body parts scattered around and I need to get them organized. Don't worry. They're all G rated too.......

The gifts

One of my Christmas gifts from Mr. Gadget, which he wrapped using his 3 Laws of Wrapping, came with this tag (no Scotch tape required since it came with its own sticky stuff.) He's not one of my regular blog readers (otherwise he'd know I call him Mr. Gadget), but he does pretend to be interested. "Did you blog today?" he'll usually ask. If I say yes, he'll ask me what I blogged about. I usually tell him, unless I've written something so silly I'm embarrassed to say, in which case I'll make up a story.

So Gadget Guy gave me an MP-3 player for Christmas. I had mentioned not long ago that the local library was starting an audio book program that would allow downloads from home onto one of these gadgets. I thought it might be a way to make walking on the treadmill more endurable, and then I could get my doctor to stop nagging me about the exercise issue. So now I have to read the instructions and figure out how to use it.....and that sounds like mental exercise. Maybe I'll just go outside, gadgetless, for a little jog......

After dinner, the four of us sat around and played this game that Big City Girl gave her father. We're all fans of trivia games and this one looked like fun, what with it being Jeopardy-like and all. The problem was the instructions were too long and complicated. We needed Ken just to explain it to us, and he was nowhere around. I'm thinking after he got unseated at Jeopardy, he went on to design board games and sucked us all in, and added to his millions and had the last laugh. Not nice Ken!

And Big City Girl thoughtfully gave her brother a new toy....one of these. Fortunately, no one got hurt, and later on we burned all the wrapping paper in the nice fire Mr. Gadget built, as is our annual tradition, and roasted marshmellows--thereby using up all of TG's ammunition.

Today I cleaned up the battlefield, I mean the family room, and then I decided to cut out a few doll parts from Christmas fabric I found on sale. It's never too early to plan a head...heh...heh... Besides, it's kinda quiet here in the treehouse. I could use some company.

Merry Christmas!

It won't be a white Christmas here in Connecticut this year. Those happen hardly at all actually. I remember growing up in southern California with all that warm sunshine---perfect weather for trying out a new bicycle or pair of roller skates. Sleds weren't too big out there...heh...heh. I did get BCG and TG a sled one year--one of those wooden ones with the runners. Little did I know that it would work best when the ground was icy and it would go much too fast for a mom's comfort. The sled went very quickly into the garage attic and was replaced with a safer snow tube.

So today I'm finishing up some last-minute wrapping, and baking a pumpkin pie and a blueberry cheesecake. Soon I'll have to clear off the dining room table, which ends up as our collection spot for various things we haven't gotten around to putting away. I've heard other families have this same situation. Moms across the country are probably doing the same thing I'm doing.....looking for places to put this stuff, or just dumping the whole mess into a big shopping bag and stashing it behind the couch. Or setting the kitchen table? Now there's an idea!

The ornaments (definitely not pornaments) are ones I've made in previous years. One is embroidered and the other is cross-stitched. I haven't yet mentioned my cross-stitch phase, but just know there was one. I think I got that one out of my system, but I guess a true crafter should never say never.

Right now I'm going to find a knitting project. I still have those gray-striped socks to finish. It might be just the ticket for handling the holiday stress. Besides, there might be an after- Christmas road trip to Knitter's Heaven in the planning stages, where there might possibly be a yarn sale going on. As they say......"I'm just sayin."

Merry Christmas all!

Angels going and coming

Last week I sent the two Christmas angels on their way, and yesterday this one arrived in the mail. It's an ornament handmade by my friend Sandi. She's a little like me in that she never knows when, or by what, she will be inspired to create something. She happened to be walking through a store in Houston looking for some decorator fabric, when she spotted this wonderful fringe.

And speaking of inspiration, today I was in the grocery store with all the other crazy shoppers when who should I see but the priest from our local church. He is a most interesting man. First, I should say that Mr. Gadget is Catholic as are our children, but I am not. When TG and BCG were little we used to go to church fairly regularly. I'll be honest, I found most of the sermons very dry. Well, I did until Mr. Inspiring Priest came to town. This is a man who was married with a family, and lost his wife several years ago. After he was widowed, he decided to become a priest, and apparently that's ok with the church higher-ups, although I don't really understand all this, but the congregation was the winner in this situation because all of a sudden people were leaving church on Sunday all fired up to do good things.

Mr. IP doesn't fit my image of a priest--someone rather stern and unapproachable and thank goodness I'm not Catholic so I don't have to go to one for confession. For one thing, Mr. Gadget and I used to run into him occasionally in the sushi restaurant. And Tech Guy tells us he sold him a cell phone not long ago--one with all the bells and whistles. Today I noticed he took his groceries over to the self-checkout register. He probably bagged them himself too. Recently there was an article in the local paper that said he was taking a leave from his priestly duties to go back to college for an advanced degree in psychology because he thinks it will make him better able to counsel people. He's in his 70's mind you.

So, I'm thinking maybe I should be a little braver about this technical stuff. Maybe I could learn how to program my phone and figure out a few more functions on my digital camera. Maybe I could learn how to make Peking duck or creme brulee. And to think all these years I've been feeling so proud of my ability to pump my own gas......

Laws of Wrapping

Mr. Gadget doesn't get involved in very many of the Christmas preparations around our house. He does put the outside lights up sometime after Thanksgiving. Everything else is pretty much my job.....except for the wrapping of his presents to me. Today he asked me where the wrapping paper was, and the tags and the ribbon and the scissors and he disappeared into the basement and reappeared shortly afterwards with the two wrapped gifts above. Then he began a short discussion of his "3 Laws of Wrapping." These, he says, are not unlike Newton's 3 Laws of Physics, or Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics. They are as follows:

• There is no gift-wrapping problem that cannot be solved with more Scotch tape.
• Wrapping doesn't make the gift. The gift makes the gift.
• If you really botch the job, just remember it's the thought that counts.

These Laws have worked very well for Mr. Gadget over the years. Somehow I've had trouble living with them because I always figure why should I keep things simple when it's so much more exciting to complicate them.

And moving on, today as I was making the trek downtown to fetch more kerosene for our trusty heater, I was listening to Dr. Joy Brown, the radio psychologist. She was referring to something I had never heard of, but I made a mental note to remember it because I do like to expand my vocabulary. Pornaments. Yeah, I guess it's pretty much self-explanatory. Then I got to wondering if there might be anything hanging on our tree that could be construed as a pornament, so I did a thorough check when I got home. There was nothing obvious. I think we are pretty much G-rated. Well, maybe there is that one ornament hanging back among the branches that the neighbors gave us one year. I suppose it could be considered borderline. I think I'll take a vote on Christmas morning and see what the family thinks. I wonder if it will be unanimous?

Not very Christmasy

Just popping in for a quick post to let everyone know I'm still afloat. Last week I was busy moving Tech Guy out of his apartment, and helping him clean it up a bit with hopes of getting some of his security deposit back. It gave me a chance to get in touch with my "inner scrubwoman." After I thought we were done, I woke up in the middle of the night and realized his fridge was not frost-free, and since there was quite a build-up of frost (defrosting is so not Tech Guy's thing) it might cause some damage when the electricity was shut off. So off we went first thing in the morning, with the hair dryer and a supply of towels, and took care of that.....only to find out later that the landlady planned to get a new fridge since the old one was not.....you guessed it.....frost-free. My inner scrubwoman is still angry.....

Pictured above is a piece of my embroidery which I framed on one of those stretcher bar thingies, and Tech Guy had it hanging in his apartment. I stitched it a long time ago (during one of my embroidery phases) and I think it's mostly done in Pearl cotton. I think I'll keep it handy, since it's suddenly gotten colder here and at least it helps me remember the warm.

I am feeling a little more Christmasy now that the temperature has dipped, and I've started (and almost finished) my shopping, and have half of the Christmas cards in the mail. I even made a batch of fudge. I'll take some with me tonight when we visit some friends for dinner. I'll also be taking the knitted surprise. And if I don't feel enough of the holiday spirit now, I'm sure to feel it later. This friend decorates every square inch of her house for the holidays. She even has a couple of my Santas on display. You know, it never crossed my mind that maybe she scurries to get them out of the back closet when she hears our car in the driveway. Naw, she wouldn't do that. Have you ever been tempted to do that with gifts you've been given? Maybe thought of devoting one part of a shelf for rotating those uncomfortable gifts? I've never given it a thought. Well, maybe just once or twice when my mother-in-law was coming to visit.......heh...heh....

Christmas angels

I finished the two angels and quickly photographed them before delivery to my friend for Christmas gift mailing. She seemed delighted. I hope the recipients are also. I worked on them mostly in the evenings after helping Tech Guy during the days with his move. Wow, does that boy have lots of stuff! He has inherited his father's gadget-collecting trait.

Here is a close-up of one of the dolls. I had fun doing the wings with feather stitch embroidery and gold beads. The collar is hand-crocheted. Some time ago I got on a roll and made many of these collars (my crochet phase) and now I have quite a few on hand. Little did I know that they would come in so handy later when I was pressed for time. The collar is decorated with an old button sewn on a yo-yo (a fabric circle gathered around the edge and drawn in.)

So now I'm taking a break from dollmaking to do Christmas shopping and card-addressing, and of course, cartoon-making. I thought maybe I could slip by this year without the cartoon, but quite a few of the cards we've received include notes that say something like, "Marcia, we always look forward to your cartoon.....you're still doing it, aren't you?" One of my biggest cartoon fans was a lady I worked with over 25 years ago. She used to make a bunch of copies and send them to some of her family and friends...and even a few of our old co-workers. Several years ago she passed away, and the next Christmas I received a very nice card from her daughter who asked if I might continue to send the cartoon to her since it had become somewhat of a Christmas tradition for her family. So I guess I'll get my drawing tools out tomorrow and see what I can come up with. After all, I hate to disappoint.....

I've been sketching up a few ideas for Christmas ornaments in preparation for next years' craft-selling season. I sold quite a few this year, and I know there are many people who look for handmade ornaments as opposed to those that are mass-produced. I love when I can use something I have on hand too, like the driftwood Santas I made a few years ago.

So I guess I'd better go start the card-addressing project. Tech Guy's two cats, who made the move home with him, are exploring the treehouse at the moment, and walking over my keyboard. Maybe they aspire to be guest blogcats. I can only imagine what tales they would tell......

Otherwise Involved

Sorry for the lack of blog posts lately. Mr. Gadget and I have been busy as bees (and not Christmas bees) getting Big City Girl's old room repainted for the return of Tech Guy. Yes, the empty nest was quite comfy while it lasted, but now we're fluffing it up a bit for what should prove to be an interesting adventure. Today is the painting and tomorrow is the moving--with storage locker already secured, since our storage area here at the homefront is already bursting at the seams.

After tomorrow, I'm hopeful of starting some of my Christmas shopping. Maybe I'll just go spend a day at Target. They've probably got something for everyone on my list. Oh.....did I mention I have no list, because I have no idea what anyone wants? Maybe it's just as well. I'll do a little impulse shopping. Maybe it'll be new underwear for everyone. Do I sound a little testy and lacking in holiday spirit? Maybe it's the paint fumes. Maybe a little spiked eggnog would help.

I should mention that the craft fair last Friday was fun, but not particularly profitable. That was partly because I bought myself a beautiful handpainted scarf from one of the other crafters. It's always ok to do some Christmas shopping for yourself, isn't it? My table area was wonderful though, with lots of space around it to get in and out, and they had placed it right in front of a lovely sofa, so I was able to sit and knit in cushy comfort.

So now I'm working on a couple of angel dolls for a friend. I promised her I'd have them ready by Thursday so she can mail them in time for Christmas. I'm very happy with them, and will take a picture for sharing. And my red hat snowlady sold on eBay yesterday and is in the mail on her way to Missouri. She'll be a mother-in-law gift. Life continues to be interesting. For now, I'm moving dolls out and offspring in. I always do try to have a positive outlook. At least now I'll have in-house tech support.......

Blog Medley

Here is one of the ornaments from Big City Girl's collection. I'm featuring it here today because, strange as it must sound, the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile can be credited with prodding me along toward blogdom. Once, when I was in California, I was coming out of a store (why yes, it was a fabric store!) and I spotted the real Weinermobile parked at the curb. I doubt that the driver was in the fabric store. I would imagine he was in the Elephant Bar next door...heh...heh. But I remember thinking how great it would have been to have had a digital camera so I could have snapped a picture. I mean, how often do you see the real thing?! So it wasn't too long afterwards that I sent Mr. Gadget out to shop for one. And then once you've got a camera, you've gotta have a blog.

Now you're probably wondering why I didn't go out shopping for the camera myself. That's because Mr. Gadget is also known as Mr. Negotiator. He wears many hats. I inform him of the features I want in a gadget (it should have an on-off switch and one of those zoom thingies) and he goes out and gets the absolute minimum price with extra things thrown in.....like things I'll never use. That's how I ended up with my first new car with seat warmers.

Mr. Gadget has other skills too. He's very good with knives. Last night while we were watching Jeopardy, he peeled himself an orange with such mastery that I asked if I could take a picture for the blog. He consented. I'm not sure how he learned this, but I'm wondering if it was in Catholic school. That's an experience, and a lesson, I missed......

So today I've been getting my things ready for the craft fair tomorrow at the health care facility. Since I didn't remove the dolls in a timely fashion from the crates I transported them in last weekend, I now find that some ironing is in order. I do plan to have it all done by early evening, so I can watch a women's basketball game and work on the elderberry sweater knitting. Yesterday I found the pattern under a pile of fabric in a stack of papers. The only problem is I'll only be able to knit up to the sleeves. The pattern for those is on the back of the pattern sheet and for some reason I didn't copy that. Wouldn't it be great if you could do a Google search for missing things in your house? Maybe those big high-paid tech guys can start working on that. And while they're at it, maybe they can figure out where those missing socks go......

Holiday catalogs

Well I must say this catalog certainly caught my eye when it arrived in the mailbox yesterday. I'm sure Big City Girl got on a few mailing lists when she signed up for boxing lessons down there in the big city. I emailed her and asked if she was interested in a hot pink boxing t-shirt to go with her hot pink boxing gloves, but I haven't heard back from her yet. I'm sure she's still pondering.....

There are a few snow flurries flying around outside as I sit here in the treehouse. The weather has suddenly gotten colder and it feels like an assault. I guess we got spoiled with that 70 degree day on December 1. These little baby flurries would have caused me to stay home back in the early days of our living here. I was sure bigger flakes would be coming soon and then the roads would be treacherous and I wouldn't make it up our hill. But now I'm wiser and I have a 4-wheel-drive car.

So I ventured out to Joann's this morning, before the nasty flurries, and used my 40% coupon to stock up on muslin. That's a dollmarker's necessity and I was getting frighteningly low. I was pretty good today. I didn't do much impulse shopping, which is easy to do at Joann's.....what with all the holiday garbage, I mean goodies, they offer this time of year. I bought a nice little gift bag for wrapping the knitted gift (still a secret...you never know who reads, ya know!) I'm thinking I'll separate the 10 yards of muslin into two 5-yard pieces and dye one with tan Rit . It does have kind of a tea-dyed effect and it works well for some of my projects.

The other day I took a few pictures of Santa ornaments on our tree, and here's one I made out of some driftwood I found along the ocean in northern California. I got the idea from the oyster shell Santa. Mr. Gadget used his mighty drill press to make a hole in the top for stringing the hanger, and then I did the painting. The wired leaves worked well for the hat decoration and also covered up the line between the two colors. I always love when I have license to be a little sloppy...heh...heh....

So yesterday, in place of blogging, I put my Red Hat snowlady up on eBay. She didn't sell at the last craft fair, even though I happen to know there are lots of Red Hat ladies in that neck of the woods. Maybe they were all out at a big holiday bash. I didn't think of that. You can check her out by going to eBay and looking for "handmade red hat snowlady."

A couple of weeks ago I put the elderberry sweater knitting project on hold while working on the gift knitting, and now I'm ready to go back to it....but I can't find the pattern. I know it's here somewhere. I keep thinking one of these days I'll get organized, but the creative bug bites me and the lure of a new project is always greater than the guilt over the mess. Maybe I'll just close the door on the treehouse and walk away for a few days....and address a few Christmas cards. Now......where did I put that Christmas card list?

Craft Fair

Here I am at the craft fair yesterday, photo thanks to Mr. Gadget. He dropped by, as he usually does, around lunch time and offered to buy me the standard craft fair fare. It wasn't gourmet quality by any means, but it always tastes good when someone else buys and brings it to you. Poor Mr. G. had to hand me the tray and then crawl under the table to join me. It seems that the lady who was in charge didn't understand that we might need to get out from behind our tables once in a while during the day. Although my table was along the wall, which is always preferable to being out in the middle of the room, it was jammed up against the next table. There were at least a dozen tables along the wall with nary a space to escape.

My predictions about the fair were pretty predictable, although the table cloths weren't as shiny this year, and the music was just the radio playing over the P.A. system complete with commercials. The priest came around to say hello, and Santa showed up on schedule. I did just so-so with my sales, but I did manage to sell a couple of my larger dolls that had been hanging around the treehouse for a long time. I also sold quite a few ornaments, including 3 of the new Santas. You might remember my comment about printing the date on the back. One buyer said she was getting it for a newly-married couple and it would be nice for them to have the year of their wedding on it.

So Mr. G. got the lights on the tree and today I finished the decorating. We have accumulated way too many ornaments, but of course all of them are meaningful, or just too wonderful not to put on. Here is a picture of the handmade oyster shell Santa that I mentioned earlier:

His nose has been made out of some kind of modeling compound and attached to the shell. He was made by a lady in South Carolina, and I'm sure she collected the shells along the beach. I realized while decorating the tree that we have quite a collection of Santa ornaments--some purchased and some handmade. Maybe I'll include a few pictures in a future post.

I'm just as bad about my craft fair paraphernalia as I am about my suitcase. It takes me a long time to get stuff unpacked. But this week I have a good excuse. I'm doing another fair on Friday at a local health care facility. I've done it for the last 3 or 4 years. There will only be about a dozen tables (all nicely spaced). While I used the time yesterday to do some gift knitting, I'll use the time on Friday to work on my Christmas cartoon--the macaroni version of the Christmas letter. I keep threatening to make each issue my last, but then friends and relatives tell me it makes them laugh and they excitedly wait by their mailboxes each year. I guess I'm just a glutton for the compliments. But I'm really going to stop soon......maybe next year.....unless they send chocolate......

December 1st?

It's kinda hard to believe it's the first of December here in the northeast, what with the thermometer on our back deck saying it's a balmy almost-70. It's been raining all day. Sometimes when it rains this time of year, people will say something like, "Do you know how many inches we'd have if this was snow?" I'm not sure exactly how it all translates, but I think it's probably something like dog years. There would be a lot by now, and most likely the craft fair tomorrow would be canceled. I have heard rumors that things will be chilling up soon.

So I'm almost all packed for the fair tomorrow, but still finding a few long lost items. Here are some candle holders I made a while back.

Mr. Gadget offered me some "saw time" and cut out lots o' blocks for my brilliant creative project idea. I made some Merry Christmas blocks, which I kept and put on the window sill each holiday. I also made some candle holders in red that say "Noel." Today I found two sets of the Joy ones hidden away--one in green and one in red--that I will offer for sale.

While I'm sitting around at the fair waiting for customers, I'll be working on a quick knitting project that will be a gift for a friend. It's always nice to have something to work on, but not something that takes all of my attention. It's nice to be able to put it down quickly to chat with fair-goers. I know some folks do crossword puzzles or read books, but that sort of says they aren't really interested in engaging you in conversation.....or in a sales transaction either. At least that's my take. I enjoy talking to people who take the time to stop and pay me a compliment. But I must admit I skirt around those questions about how I make things. After all, my characters are to me like family recipes are to others. Ya gotta have a few secrets, right?

So I'm gearing up for the tree assembly and fluffing activity that will most likely take place after dinner. Mr. G. tells me there's no football on Friday nights, and I find that hard to believe. I'm sure he'll find something to watch. Maybe reruns of This Old House or Motor Week, or something with James Bond. Anything to avoid the fluffing......