Finishes!

With Dale's help I was able to finish the fobots I had started way back when.  I had parked the pieces parts on a tray in the garage--the man cave, and he had put them up in the rafters.  

 I remembered them, and yesterday afternoon we got them finished.  I also finished our advent calendar.  I decided we'll just keep decorating the little tree until it's done, a little charm or milagro a day and that way we'll get to enjoy it for a while.  Better late than never!

I think I'm done for now.  Time to enjoy some eggnog with a liberal helping of Amaretto!

 

Eve of the Solstice

I haven't been very productive...or maybe everything I've been doing just takes more time than I think it should.

I got caught up in making ornaments.  I used lots of costume jewelry from my mother-in-law and some other recycled items such as (unusable) bobbins, empty wooden spools, wine corks, and leftover yarn.  It's addictive and lots of inspiration to be found online.

I also made candies, trying to recreate Brazilian confections, such as "cajuzinho" and "beijinhos de coco."  (little cashews and little coconut kisses)  Confections that can be had in any corner bakery in Brazil, as shown below.

These are the "salgadinhos" or savory snacks.  I wish I could go shopping for these treats for the boys' birthday party.  Instead I'll be trying to recreate them after Christmas.

The character of the light at this time of year is so wonderful.  Here is the setting sun, lighting up plants in my kitchen window.

This morning I saw the tiniest sliver of moon come up, so very difficult for me to photograph.  One of these days I'll try to use the camera on something besides "Auto."

Tomorrow I'm having a solstice celebration dinner with Pat.  Looking forward to longer daylight again!

Just a couple of monsters, hanging out

I finished the boys' monsters with a minor hiccup.  I sat them on the ironing board for their photo ops and noticed the second one was missing ears!

So I had to do emergency surgery and attach some ears to the second monster.  They don't look identical, but then neither are the twins!

Another beautiful sunrise in NM.  I so love the early morning color displays.

Here are the monsters with their pet badgers (doesn't every monster need a badger companion?) that I picked up Black Friday shopping at IKEA in Denver.  I must say as far as shopping on Black Friday goes, IKEA was certainly more mellow than most of the "regular" stores, which thankfully we stayed away from.  




 

Only two posts in November?

The past month just got away from me, and now it's only 19 days until Christmas??  So many things I had in mind to do/finish.

I finally got a quilt finished for Dr. Kaufman, but have only three in the queue to be delivered.  This one was from Patty E.  I used Mr. Potato Head panto on it.

I started on making the monsters for the grandboys, and am almost finished with the first one.  

Haven't done a thing about getting an advent calendar done for us, but that's okay.  Should really try to do that while I still have all the wool stuff out. 

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Colorado where I did lots and lots of cooking.  I made the pies here before going up.  Tried a new pie, apple cranberry one crust pie with a crumb topping and it turned to be just about everyone's new favorite.  I think it's going to become a regular.  

We still like the "cranberry pudding" (pictured in the center) which is not a pudding at all but more of a rich pie to me, and it's nice to use the rest of the cranberry package with the apple.

Our snowstorm back in November yielded a beautiful flocked landscape, so bright and pretty in the sunshine.