Every year as Christmas approaches, we make handmade Christmas ornaments. Often we give them as gifts to teachers and grandparents, but just as often we make them for the sheer joy of making them and hanging them on our tree. Some are more temporary than others. Popcorn garlands and gingerbread cookie ornaments don’t last much [...]
I like having projects on the go. I like keeping my hands and mind busy. I have come to believe that when you live with chronic pain, if you wallow in it, if you allow yourself to focus on the negatives, over time your general outlook on life will change, and not for the better. [...]
Halloween just wouldn’t be Halloween without pumpkins. (Ironically, Halloween didn’t have pumpkins until it migrated to North America. It used to have turnips. Really.) Every year, we set the kids loose to carve their own pumpkins. Some years, they choose little ones. This year, they choose rather large pumpkins, and did rather a lot of [...]
With Christmas rapidly approaching and a dear friend (whom I’ve known for far too many years) with a baby on the way, there’s no question but that my evenings should be filled with yarn and thread and busy, busy fingers. First, there’s the luscious Seascape Stole on the knitting needles. It is slowly chugging along. Slowly. [...]
It’s true. Some yarns are so soft and luscious and have such a beautiful colour and feel and haze, you just want to devour them. Like this one: It’s a handspun, hand dyed mohair that was hand carried back from South Africa by a dear friend and is in the process of becoming a Seascape Stole so [...]
I’ve been working steadily away on the Christmas felt kit I first blogged about here and to my great surprise, it has now joined the ranks of finished objects. Of course, I couldn’t just leave it the way it was meant to be in the pattern designer’s eyes… oh no! Follow the ‘recipe’? Nope, not [...]
It has begun. The collecting and deciding and stitching and fussing has begun. You see, I finally, finally finished stitching the tree skirt I started several years ago. It’s true! It’s done! That tree skirt now has history, and it hasn’t even made it under the Christmas tree yet. Every year on the first of [...]
Lately, the kids have been asking for Christmas ornaments for our tree. Not for the Christmas tree, oh no… for the big Sunset Maple in the front yard. Several of our neighbours have bought enormous oversized ornaments for their trees, you see, and the kids have decided that having a decorated tree outdoors is a [...]
