Pin Cushion

My favourite thing to do recently is spend a long morning at Barnes and Nobles with a hot chocolate, browsing through all the wonderful crafty books and jotting down a few ideas.

Here's a little sketch I made on Monday for a funky pincushion I saw:

And here's what it became, after a little on-the-couch-sewing session last night:

So spotty! And yes, my pins are colour-coordinated right now, but I don't expect that to last for long! It really makes me want to sew something... (hint, hint, amazon: deliver my baby book!)

First fabric for baby

Thank you, Joanns, for this wonderfully cute fabric! I can't wait for my Simple Sewing for Baby book to arrive so I can put it to good use!

I think it would be cute as a quilt, with gingham binding, or as a little bib, or anything really!

Oh, and if we find out we're having a boy, I guess there's one lucky friend in Georgia who'll be finding these birdies in her mail box in a few months!

Pretzel Num-Nums

Here's an easy little recipe I just learnt about, which makes surprisingly tasty treats. I don't think they have an official name, so I call them Pretzel Num-Nums.

All you need is salted pretzels,

Hershey's Kisses, and M&Ms,

and an oven!

Just unwrap the Hershey's Kisses and place one on top of each pretzel, on a cookie sheet (no greasing needed).

Stick them in the oven for a bit (I did about 7 minutes at 250 degrees), checking every few minutes to see if the chocolate is melty.

Once the chocolate is getting soft, remove from the oven, and press an M&M into each Kiss, then let them cool. (Or eat them while hot, if you prefer that, like my husband!)

So tasty... enjoy!

New Month's Resolutions

A year seems like a long time to stick to, so here are my resolutions for the next month:

1. Order this amazing book I found today in Barnes and Nobles, and make something from it. Even if it's just one bib, make something!

2. Celebrate not feeling like this (below) anymore by getting out and about! I.e. walking the dog further than to the mailbox.

(drawing by the awesome Gemma Correll)

3. Take photos of some of the beautifully rusty buildings in downtown Bryan. Who knows when they might get new roofs?

4. Cook. More. At least five nights a week, let's say. And no more bloody canned soup!

That's it!

I feel confident I can stick to these, and enjoy sticking to them.

Comfy, cozy, rusty?

This week, I'm mostly:

• Trying to find excuses to leave the house, so I can wear the wonderfully warm and fluffy UGGs my Mum sent me for Christmas. I LOVE them!

(Well, okay, to be honest, I'm wearing them inside too, and completely abandoning my Anti-Shoes-in-House policy, much to Justin's relief!)

• Eating the Terry's chocolate orange that Bella got me for Christmas, and wishing I was in England.

(Well, okay, I bought it for myself, but Bella showed

no signs of going to the shops on her own!)

• Loving rustiness. All the barns we saw on the drive back from San Antonio really inspired me, and though I haven't decided what form my 'Tribute to Rust' will be in, I'm working on it!

• Writing and illustrating a few pages on how the pregnancy is going so far. I tried using a regular 'baby book' type thing, but four lines a week isn't enough room! I want a page a day, and room to draw!

What a lot of fun!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas,

full of family, fun and chocolate ('tis the English way...)!

xo

Christmas fun!

I'm not sure if I mentioned this already, but this year, Justin and I had parts in the Christmas nativity scene! Here's a little group photo:

(I'm Mary, on the far left, with Justin/Joseph hiding behind me!)

It was such a laugh, as all of the wise men, shepherds and angels are our good friends, and so we filled the long hours backstage with chatting and playing my new favourite game:

If you've never played this, go grab it for Christmas! It costs five bucks, and is totally addicting. And unlike real Monopoly, it's normally over in fifteen minutes. Seriously!

Justin and I actually realized we'd bought it for each other for Christmas when there were two suspiciously similar-shaped presents under the tree... so we ripped the wrapping off one and started playing right away! I love game time!

Jingle Bella

So well-behaved, Bella hasn't eaten any of our tree decorations. See how she's sitting so neatly, toes pointed, by the tree? The camera definitely brings out her best behaviour.

Sale!

I'd kind of let me etsy shop slide a little in the last few months, as pregnancy took away all my energy. But today, someone found me, and bought a print of Betsy and her books.

What a lovely surprise! I'm going to put a little something extra special in with this order, as I really feel grateful to the buyer for inspiring me to keep it up, and continue making the effort on etsy. What a wonderful day!

Freedom!

(from here)

Yes, yes, all those things are good, but what about 'Freedom to craft'? That's what I'm celebrating right now!

It was a great office party yesterday, and the trifle was a big hit (even if people did call it the "cherries and cream thing"... they're strawberries and raspberries, people!). About half way through the party, someone hit the angel food cake layer, and caused a mini-stampede when everyone else who hadn't realized you need to go deep rushed back for seconds. Success!

So, now I have a month. A month to:

*Make Bella's stocking (although that should really be done sooner!)

*Make the final presents

*Start knitting baby clothes

*Look into cross stitch patterns, and hopefully find a copy of the pattern for this amazing pillow:

(from here... my new favourite blog, check it out!)

But first, let's have a morning of email catch-ups and hot chocolate!

Enjoy your freedom, if you're off already!

xo

Stockings

I recently hung up the felt stockings I made last year, and felt a resurging of pride! I'd really wanted to make stockings that we'll keep for a long time, and I definitely still love them one year on!

Here's Justin's, with a grizzly bear and Christmas trees:

And mine, with a moosie and folky hearts:

I need to make one for Bella, too, for this year, and now that work is over, that should be easy to find time for. I can't decide whether to put her one of her favourite animals on (a beaver or a hedgehog) or do a dog that looks like her. Maybe both? I do know that I want to do little paw-prints on the white band at the top!

So, yay for hand-stitching and hand-made all the way! I hope Santa notices!

White Elephant Gift

Work at the Writing Centre is over for the year, and today we have our office Christmas party. We'll be doing a White Elephant gift swap, and since we're all complete nerds, I thought I'd make something with a bit of a grammar theme:

Felt ornaments, adorned with my favourite punctuation marks! (Semi-colon, exclamation point, and an apostrophe/comma, in case you weren't sure!)

They were so simple to make, just felt circles with punctuation marks cut free-hand and sewn on, then stuffed!

Here's the gift ready to be wrapped, with a little note explaining what they are!

And, the dessert I made: an English trifle, with real imported Bird's custard, but no sherry this year! (Cran-raspberry will have to do... I hope you know the sacrifices I'm making, baby!)

Yummy looking, but again, oh so simple. Angel food cake, jello, frozen strawberries and raspberries soaked in juice, custard, more frozen fruit, and heaps of freshly whipped cream... in that order!

This should be the best office party ever!

Adventure

This year, advent kind of snuck up on me. Sure, I had our sweet little advent train out on the counter, but it hadn't occurred to me to buy any treats to put in it yet.

So, yesterday, I was rummaging through the cupboards trying to find something to stick inside. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, (the only chocolate in our cupboard) unfortunately, do not fit.

So, I went healthy... almonds. They fit just fine, but Justin was not impressed to open the little door and find a nut!

"Where are the Hersey's Kisses this year?"

I guess I'm off to get some today...