December's Projects

December has been absolutely packed full of projects of all kinds.  Small and large, new and old, fun and...otherwise.  One of the first things I finished was the Blankie Project.  Audrey's original blanket was getting so worn out that it was obviously only a matter of time before my continual mendings would no longer be enough to hold it all together.  She's 6 years old, she could stand to set aside the blankie.  But she's my littlest and I couldn't bring myself to make her phase it out.  I'm going with the idea that she'll do it herself when she's ready.  So I ended up making a new one.  Audrey went to shop for the yarn with me, and checked my progress quite often to make sure that the bumps all felt right.  She was thrilled to have it finished, although she doesn't use it much.  It's so fluffy that she's not used to it.  I should probably run it through the washer to get rid of the new, fluffy feeling.  I did end up confiscating the oldest blankie without her knowledge or consent.  Surprisingly, she hasn't mentioned it yet (it has been a couple of weeks) so we'll see how that goes.

Another project had to do with two trees that we inherited when we moved into our house nearly a year ago. They are actually real branches with silk flowers hot glued on. And covered with decades of dust.  I didn't manage to transform both of them (mostly because the perfectionist in me wasn't entirely happy with the results...I think I need to find different pots to put them in.)  We pulled off the flowers, removed the old containers, then I spray painted the branches and chipped off some of the plaster that the branches were set in.  Then into the new pot, a few Christmas lights and ornaments later, and voila!  A new modern addition to our decorations.

We also did some furniture shopping.  The family/friend Christmas party was to be at our house, and we had a rather empty great room.  We ended up finding some great pieces on sale.  I fell in love with the green recliner, and then soon after we found the sofa/chair set, so those had to come home with us too.  The original brown couches that came with our house were slightly regrouped in order to make better seating areas.

All of a sudden our great room feels like a Great Room!  It feels great to have done something to make the house more personal.  It is such a huge place, and there are so many things that we dream of doing to it at some point, that it can often more like a house and less like a home, if that makes any sense.  Homey is a nice way to feel in December.

Where Did Thanksgiving Go?

I've been remiss in keeping this blog updated. :(

Yes, I've been crazy, nuts-o, reee-diculously busy. Am still, actually, but somehow almost a month has passed since we enjoyed our Thanksgiving spread and I haven't even addressed the subject, let alone anything that has happened in the month of December.


We had a great Thanksgiving holiday.  It was great to see family and friends, and as always, the food was fantastic. (is the word "fantastic" supposed to sound so plastic and elastic and spastic? hm.)  My mom and dad got to visit before the actual day-of-the-turkey, and we had a wonderful visit.  The snow kept coming down, piling up like an end-of-the-year storm instead of a beginning-of-the-season storm.

The Thursday in question was spent with great friends, cooking all day long.  Of course, everything was homemade.  Is there any other option?  (....oops, just remembered that the cranberry sauce this year was canned.)  So then, almost everything was homemade.  I made yams, rolls, pumpkin pie, and cherry pie.  Chris made the turkey, mashed potatoes, and some of the best dressing and gravy on earth.  Mmm.

That weekend, I finally watched Breakfast at Tiffany's all the way through.  Every other time I've tried to watch it I get distracted and disengaged.  Melinda and Timothy joined me in being amazed at the quirks in this movie, as well as the fashion of the very early '60s.  I'm sure that 1961 New York (setting for the film) was different from 1964 Southern California (when our house was built) but it was still fun to draw on any possible similarities.  Oh, and I happened to get a picture of Audrey with Audrey Hepburn in the background.

Now on to December...

Like Snow

 My established love for snow is joining my new found appreciation for poetry today.  When we were in Tahoe for Thanksgiving, we had some great snow storms, the kind of storms that usually wait until Christmas/New Years.  I hope it was just a practice run...we'll be back there soon and hope that the snow keeps falling!  This poem is by Wendell Berry, and is called "Like Snow".  I thought it would be fitting for my snowy pictures.

Suppose we did our work
like the snow, quietly, quietly
leaving nothing out.