Kimara's blog

Like most of you, the next couple of weeks are going to be very busy! Starting, gulp, day after tomorrow, our home will be swarming with out-of-town guests, and the celebrating will begin. Although I couldn't be happier, I do feel like a deer in headlights. Rather stunned. Where did all the time go? I had months to finish every thing, now I'm down to days. Fortunately, I have all my projects done except the afghan for my son and daughter-in-law, but I'm not throwing in the towel yet!

In order to really enjoy the holidays, Michelle and I are taking the next 2 weeks off. We will check comments and emails so we can answer questions, but we will not have any new blog entries. While we are off, we hope you still make use of our site, if time permits! 

What do we have planned for the New Year? Plenty! To begin with, I've promised the pattern and directions for the Hobby Horses...that will be one of my first projects. I have been hankering to make some door stops. There are ideas for a few different kind playing gentle on my mind. You can expect to see them surfacing in January. Also, we have this lovely little button in the right column that says Crafting Glossary. Click on it and...NOTHING happens! High on my list of to-dos is to get a helpful glossary going. Because I want to work on the glossary, I decided to create some type of Glossary Project that will display all the stitches I wish to add. I haven't totally decided on the "how" or "what" yet, but it will be a great way to expand your embroidery skills.

Because many of our projects are done with felt, as will the Glossary Project, we've contacted the very sweet ladies at Prairie Point Junction. This is the shop Michelle and I use for all of our felt. They have generously agreed to offer a special discount for our Crafting Club Members. When we return in January, we will post their coupon, and give you a material list for several of our up and coming projects. This is not a money making event for Michelle and I, just an opportunity to get a discount on the materials we buy anyway! So, if you get a chance, go check out Prairie Point Junction. And, if you're like me, you'll put together a wish list!

Michelle and I want to wish everyone a happy, safe and blessed Holiday. As we are sitting around Michelle's roaring fire (pictured above) sipping our Holiday wassail, we will lift our glasses in a toast to you and offer up a prayer for you and yours!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!  

We thought it would be rather fun to bring together all the various projects that we shared over the past 4 months. Most of them are quick projects so if you're still in need of some Christmas ideas, most of these are very doable. Just click on the picture and it will take you to the directions. Enjoy!

My Bushia was a marvelous cook...of basic foods. And, hey, let's face it, we consume mostly basic foods, right? As a mother of 13 children there wasn't much time for fluff, but there was no shortage of flavor! A very Old World, traditional little lady. Now my Grandma Pearl...she was cheeky and modern. Her foods always reflected the latest trends, and she too was a marvelous cook...just different.

Today, I want to share a Christmas cookie Bushia always made. Come to think of it, it was probably the only Christmas cookie she made. The cookie was like Bushia herself...plain on the outside, but a treasure trove of richness inside! (If you'd like to hear a little more about how my heritage and grandmothers affect our holiday celebration, check out my other blog, One Generation To Another this week and read "Polish for a Day".) 

Surprise Cookies

I finally finished the hobby horses. Boy, these sure have been a long undertaking. It's not that making the individual horses took that long, but when you design something instead of following a pattern, you wind up with a couple beta runs and there's usually at least some "tweakage"! The last piece was trying to decide how to best attach the heads to the dowel rods. Then, in the last moments, I decided I wanted tags, so I printed some paper and put together a label. BUT I LOVE THEM! I am very satisfied with how they turned out and I can't wait to give them to Bug (Lightning), Fairy (Daisy) and Pixie (Iris). I do plan to eventually write up instructions for the horses...obviously, at this point, it will be after Christmas. But now I can check one more project off the list. Here's some pics of the herd.

I've learned 2 very important things in the past 24 hours. First, I'm as allergic to alpaca as I am to wool, and second, apparently my pictures turn out just as good when I'm blindly flailing the camera around as when I painstakingly try to control focus and lighting!

Yesterday, I decided to sneak in one more homemade gift. I hit my lovely local yarn store, Ewe-Nique Yarns, how cute is that, and they told me some people who are allergic to wool aren't allergic to alpaca. And this yarn felt oh so good! Debbie Bliss's Alpaca Silk. I thought, "Nothing that feels THAT good would ever hurt me!" Well, 24 hours later, I'm totally congested, my eyes itch, and any where on my body that made contact with the yarn, (and wasn't coated in Liquid Gloves), is red and itchy. Having said that, I will sing the praises of alpaca. It is such a lovely yarn to work with, and if you don't have my unreasonable constitution, lovely to wear.

And about my photography abilities...I bet you can't tell the difference between the pictures I tried to focus and those where I held the camera at arms length and Willy Nilly snapped. A rather depressing and sobering thought! Obviously, I've been going about this photography thing all wrong!

Anyway, I love how the mitts and scarf turned out. The scarf is the crocheted "One-Skein Scarf" in The Happy Hooker. I had made a couple of them last summer when I was learning to crochet. (I still consider myself a beginning student of crochet!) The mittens are from a free pattern from Kelbourne Woolens. They are so cute and nicely shaped...the shape has become my favorite mitten pattern...I will be making them again.

As far as time goes...the mitts probably took me 8 hours to knit, and the scarf 3. Hope everyone is progressing nicely on their projects! (BTW...I'm far from done...but beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel!)