Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Santa was good to us:


There are very few ornaments on the tree, due to the cats' love of taking them off.

I still don't have any crafty stuff to blog about, but there's no shortage of cat pictures.

Max decided he wants to go to work with me next time I go.


"This bag is just my size!"

We seem to have a new fetch player at our house.


"It was fun having Mama throw the mouse for me today!"

And this one spend a good part of the day in time-out:


"But Mama, your glass of milk was just sitting there. And after I got out of the first time out, I was hungry, and your rolls are so good..."

Easily distracted by shiny objects

I had Monday and Tuesday off this week. Today, too. I *should* have spent the time working like crazy on my stealth projects, since they are Christmas gifts.

Instead.....



I made a boatload of stitch markers and a pair of earrings. Actually I made 4 pairs of earrings. It's just that two of them were more peppermint candy earrings, and I've already posted those twice. The other pair I just didn't get a picture of.

I also re-strung my peppermint bracelet, which I dropped last week at work. Marble floors are *really* hard and glass beads are very brittle. I put a different toggle on the bracelet, so now it doesn't come undone when I move around.

I put this together, too.



It needs more of those glass beads inside, but I only had one bag of them. I'm thinking about mixing in some red beads instead, just to get some color in there. I should probably add some pretty ribbon around it and a bow on top, too. If/when I get around to that, I'll post another picture.

I did finish one of my stealth projects today. That just leaves one more to go. I'm not sure I 'm going to get it done in time. I better get busy.


"I'll help you, Mama!"

Mouse Wars 2009

One of my coworkers, Lisa, decorates our office every year for Christmas. This year, she brought in this calendar.



There's a little mouse that travels the pockets. Lisa says it's a count down calendar and started the mouse at 24 on Dec 1, as in 24 days till Christmas. The rest of us say it starts at 1, so Mousie goes in the pocket number of the date.

Thus started Mouse Wars. We kept putting Mousie in the pocket number of the date and Lisa kept moving it back, eventually stapling it in place. It was then unstapled, moved and safety pinned in place. Mousie disappeared, the calendar itself was moved out of a public area, and finally removed altogether. Mousie has been spotted around the office, though.





I have a feeling he'll really be getting around....

Personally, I think the calendar's defective. If it's meant to be a countdown calendar, the numbers should start at the top with 24. If it's meant to be more of a regular calendar, it should go all the way to 25. Confusing.

In other news, a friend of mine is an Uppercase Living consultant and she and couple of other consultants held a project night on Thursday. I made a couple of lamps. Here's the first one:



And the second:



The design wraps around 3 sides of both lamps. If you like the lamps themselves, you can get them at Ikea. I think craft stores carry vinyl stickers to put on them. Or you could contact and Uppercase Living consultant to get their stuff.

We also each got an ornament. I decorated both sides of mine:



We all got another expression. Mine is a "Welcome". Oh, and I won a $25 gift certificate. :-)

See this?



That's Blue's collar. Notice it's not around Blue's neck. I've been finding it in various places around the house in the morning, or when I get home. This morning I found it about 4 feet up in the as-yet-undecorated Christmas tree. He won't tell me how it got there. He got a new collar this afternoon. Hopefully it will stay on better.

The scene last night on the couch:


Yes, they're laying on a Halloween quilt.

A few minutes later:


Yes, that's the Christmas tree in the background. And....?

More beady goodness

We went to Crop Bistro for lunch today. I had the Mac and Brisket, which is a really yummy mac & cheese topped with pulled beef brisket. We were admiring the artwork but couldn't figure out what one of the pictures was. Any guesses?



Apparently it's Monstera Deliciosa - a weird fruit that grows in kernels on a central stalk, like corn. The whole plant is poisonous except the fruit, and that's only okay after it's ripe. Crazy. It sounds a little too dangerous for me - like eating blowfish. I think I'll pass

I had the day off Wednesday. I'm still working on my stealth projects, but I had intended to spend the day sewing. I did spend most of it in the sewing room, but I was playing with beads instead of fabric or yarn. Here's what I can show you.



I got the hematite rings, beads and crystals in the clearance bin at JoAnn's. When I went to put the toggle on the bracelet I noticed there was no eyelet for it, as you can see. I improvised a loop with the small beads instead.

I had a few of the beads leftover so I made some tiny stitch markers, for use with projects on smaller needles, like socks or lace.



The red and green peppermint earrings are for my friend KB, who requested them that way. I also made a couple of dozen beaded icicle ornaments that I gave to the women's club at work for their craft sale today. As far as I know, none of them sold. And a bunch of the fabric ornaments I made a year or two ago were still there, too. It's kind of depressing, actually. I won't waste my time making crafty stuff for them again. :-(

Ripley loves me, at least. This picture was taken a week or so ago, but it's a good one of my senior baby.


"Who you callin' old, Mama? I make 17 look good!"