Saturday, December 31, 2016

Last post of 2016...

...and I haven't posted since the first week of December. Needless to say, things have been busy in my world. If it's any consolation, my Flickr account has suffered as well. The best I could manage was to post to my Instagram account, which was also shared to Facebook.

So, let's play a little catch-up. Here are some photos of the last 3 weeks.

Spumoni slices

Spumoni Slices

Chocolate-Espresso slices

Chocolate-Espresso Slices

Mexican Wedding cookies

Mexican Wedding cookies, finished

Sugar cookie snowflakes

Sugar cookie snowflakes

Biscotti

Biscotti, drying

Cookie Packages in process

Cookie packages

Cookie boxes ready to mail

Cookie packages to mail

Christmas tree on Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve!

Tomato cage trees in the backyard

Tomato cage trees

And finally, the last sunset of 2016

Sunset 12/31/16

I hope to get back into regular blogging in 2017.

I wish you all good health, prosperity, and peace in the new year.
.

Wednesday, December 07, 2016

Sigh...

...things are completely nuts in my world. By the time I remember to blog, it's way too late in the evening.

I am behind on Christmas baking, mostly because of being sick during Thanksgiving week. Normally, I do all of the ingredient shopping and bake the fruitcakes during that week. This time, I just concentrated on getting well.

I did most of my ingredient shopping Thursday afternoon when I had a half day off. The rest of it I did on Sunday.

Saturday was full from start to finish. We got our Christmas tree (which is still sitting in the back yard in a bucket of water), gave the cat a flea bath (yuck), I baked the fruitcakes, and then did the laundry.

Almond fruitcakes

Sunday was grocery/ingredient shopping. I prepped the crock pot with our dinner and then got down to baking. I made the dough for the sugar cookies, chocolate sugar cookies, Mexican Wedding cookies, Spumoni Slices, and Coffee-Chocolate Ribbons. I baked the Christmas Spritz

Christmas spritz cookies

...and the Cherry Kisses.

Cherry Kisses cookies

I ran out of steam at that point. I'd still like to make the Saigon Cinnamon Cookies, but that will have to wait until my half-day on Friday.

I still have to figure out how I'm going to assemble the cookie samplers, but that will have to wait until next week.

I managed to do a little knitting at Craft Coffee on Monday. I'm working on the decreases for the Icelandic Hat for Halos of Hope. It was the last Craft Coffee of the year, so I'm not sure whether I'll be able to get any more concentrated knitting time until after Christmas.

*WIPs roll call*

Worked on:
  • All That Glitters Christmas quilt (quilting)
    Still playing with the layout
  • Christmas baking
    Cherry Kisses and Spritz are done; 5 doughs ready to cut and bake; fruitcakes done.
  • Christmas goodie cookbook (desktop publishing)
    I made the decision to print the cookies and biscotti as recipe card sets and only print two copies of the complete book (one for me and one for the Daughter). I'll give the sets to selected family members and make the PDF available to my entire gift list.
  • Icelandic Halos of Hope hat (knitting)
    Started the decreases.
Works In Progress, did not work on:
  1. 4-shaft sampler (weaving) [Ravelry]
  2. Bear Paw pottery (needlepoint)
  3. Mother of Dragons shawl (knitting)  [Ravelry]
  4. Sea of Dreams baby quilt (quilting)
  5. St. Charles (needlepoint)
  6. Valley of the Heart's Delight sampler design (cross stitch)
UFOs/Hibernation:
  1. Be My Baby for My Baby (knitting) [Ravelry]
  2. Canto de Sirena shawl (knitting) [Ravelry]
  3. Celaeno Shawl (knitting) [Ravelry]
  4. Finishing work
  5. Mermaid of the Pearls (cross stitch)
  6. Peacock Pomatomus socks (knitting) [Ravelry]
  7. Peacock Majesty by Just Nan (cross stitch)
  8. Tucson Twilight (needlepoint)
WIPs To Be:
  • A peacock or mermaid quilt for me.

Thursday, December 01, 2016

October 2016 recap...

...finally.

Finished:

  • 10/16 Echo No-Noro Hat (knitting) [Ravelry]
  • 10/23 SW Blue art yarn [Ravelry]
    Custom rolags from Woodlake Woolies
    20.1 yds., bulky weight 
  • 10/29 Multi-Llama handspun [Ravelry]
    Llama top (4 oz.) from Tall Tail Ranch
    249.4 yds 2-ply; 18 WPI
  • Books:
    1. Dead in the Water, Hailey Edwards
    2. Head Above Water, Hailey Edwards
    3. Hell or High Water, Hailey Edwards
    4. Fish Out of Water, Hailey Edwards
    5. Venom and Vanilla, Shannon Mayer
    6. Exhume, Danielle Girard
    7. Legacy of the Demon, Diana Rowland
Started:
  • 10/15 Multi-Llama handspun [Ravelry]
  • 10/23 SW Blue art yarn [Ravelry]
Works In Progress:
  1. 4-shaft sampler (weaving) [Ravelry]
  2. All That Glitters Christmas quilt (quilting)
  3. Bear Paw pottery (needlepoint)
  4. Christmas goodie cookbook (desktop publishing)
  5. Icelandic Halos of Hope hat (knitting) [Ravelry]
  6. Mother of Dragons shawl (knitting)  [Ravelry]
  7. Sea of Dreams baby quilt (quilting)
  8. St. Charles (needlepoint)
  9. Valley of the Heart's Delight sampler design (cross stitch)
UFOs/Hibernation:
  1. Be My Baby for My Baby (knitting) [Ravelry]
  2. Canto de Sirena shawl (knitting) [Ravelry]
  3. Celaeno Shawl (knitting) [Ravelry]
  4. Finishing work
  5. Mermaid of the Pearls (cross stitch)
  6. Peacock Pomatomus socks (knitting) [Ravelry]
  7. Peacock Majesty by Just Nan (cross stitch)
  8. Tucson Twilight (needlepoint)
WIPs To Be:
  • A peacock or mermaid quilt for me.

Another Finished Object...

 ...yay! I finished the first yarn on my new Lendrum DT. I tried a 2-ply and it turned out OK. Using the plying head was not as smooth...