lots accomplished, little to show...

...partly because I worked on Christmas projects that are secret, and partly because the you can't really see the progress I made.

**SPOILER ALERT! If you belong to the Petals Collection club, there is a picture of the last installment at the bottom of this post**

Saturday, I worked on the Christmas wall hanging. I took care of all the loose threads, added a hanging sleeve, and worked on the binding. I've got about 1/3 of the binding tacked down, so I still have quite a bit to do. I should be able to finish it over the holiday. I'm having trouble coming up with a suitable name for it, though. Nothing "punny" comes to mind, at least not that I haven't already used for something else.

Sunday, I worked on the Daughter's Peekaboo mittens. I didn't get very far, but at least they are progressing. Tight now they don't look any different than a pair of socks as I'm still doing the cuffs.

I spent a good part of the weekend doing Thanksgiving prep. I made my first run to the grocery store and bought the turkey plus a lot of the other things I needed to get things started. Mr. Turkey is defrosting in the refrigerator as we speak. He'll go into his brine bath on Wednesday.

I made a smaller batch of cranberry sauce. I kept this year's version pretty simple: 1 bag of cranberries, brown sugar, one lemon, one orange, and a generous splash of faux Grand Marnier. There's not really a recipe; I just kind of dump it all together, cook it until the berries burst, and then taste it to adjust the liqueur. Then I add my "secret" ingredient: 1 can of Ocean Spray Cranberry sauce! It makes the sauce thicker and mellows out the tartness of the citrus. In previous years, I made my sauce totally from scratch, but I've decided I'd rather put more effort in the turkey and the stuffing rather than the cranberry sauce.

I spent a lot of time looking for a recipe that I used last year for Eggnog Bread Pudding. I want to serve two desserts, pumpkin pie and something else. The bread pudding was a hit when I took it to a potluck last December and it can be made ahead of time, a big plus. I looked every where, including online, and finally found it buried in a folder of potential cookie recipes. And, it had all my notes about substitutions written on it. Yay! I made the eggnog bread last night and will put this together Wednesday night.

I still have a lot to do, and I'm working M-W this week. It's good we're not eating until 3pm!

And just so this is not a picture-less post, the last installment of the Petals Collection arrived today.

This is Magnolia. As with all of Sundara's colorways, it's gorgeous. And, well, pink. I am not a pink person; pink doesn't look that great on me; pink and I have a history (see Pink Nightmare). However, I'm sure I can find someone who will love this yarn, I just need to find the right pattern for it. The pattern, on the other hand, is right up my alley! I just love it! It's going ot be hard not casting on for this pair of socks!

Magnolia is final installment of the Petals Collection club. I'm really sorry it's ending, but I now have a wonderful library of Sundara sock patterns and some gorgeous socks.

Posting this week will be kind of sporadic. I've got lots to do before Thursday!