Cookies

I made some dough a couple of days ago and we made cookies today. Gingerbread.

A ton of them.

The recipe called for 7 cups of flour and my mixer almost gave up the ghost.

The kids had fun decorating them.

Yesterday we saw the Atlanta Ballet Nutcracker at the Fox Theater. It was so elegantly done, great dancers, beautiful costumes and scenery (no pandas fell into the orchestra pit either).

 I've been noodling around with snowflakes.

I saw a German or Dutch pattern somewhere that showed an entire tree in red snowflakes, so I wanted to try them. Now I need to get some red ribbon to match.

Packages are wrapped and we're headed to Illinois tomorrow. I washed all the clothes, packed, left instructions for the pet sitter, etc. Whew. We're leaving bright and early and I think the weather will be cold but clear. I'll see you back here around New Year's.

Bowling Party

Here's a good smattering of photos from the bowling party. My camera isn't up to the task, obviously, and it was *Cosmic Bowling* which means disco lights and black lights with florescent balls. Super fun! The bowling alley has the party experience down to a science, so it was easy for me, and the kids had a blast.

Birthday Time!

Eight years old and greedy for presents.

This was a week of baking, mostly. Tuesday I made cupcakes to take to school, and then Thursday I made a chocolate cake, which was very ugly but tastes pretty good. Both times I used a really dark cocoa, which seems to make the frosting dry or something, so you have to add more liquid ingredients.

Also, I bought a Sideswipe Blade for my mixer and it seems to make everything slosh out when I use it. My Kitchenaid needs a tuneup or something, I hate to blame it all on the new blade, need to look into having it all realigned, I think. I never had problems with it throwing the contents out of the bowl until recently.

Ds and I made this gingerbread house last weekend, from a kit we bought at Kroger. What a timesaver not to have to make the cookies for the structure. We had a few hours to kill while dd was busy taking a test, so we were able to go out and buy the kit and put it together in one morning.

My birthday is today, and I had a birthday coupon from my LYS, so when I saw this cardigan pattern I went and bought some yarn. I ended up buying a variegated purple, because they had it in stock and said that this particular yarn company was an unreliable place to order from. I am trying not to buy variegated yarn anymore, because although I love it in the skein, I often hate the finished item. So, I'm having buyer's remorse already!

Still working on the felted backpack, I've lost my mojo a little bit on it. I think during the felting process, the whole bag got a little twisted or something, so I can't get the straps centered and it is bugging me. I'm doing small steps on it and then standing back to decide whether to redo or not. I want to love this bag, not hate it.

Tomorrow we're having ds's party at the bowling alley.  I ordered a bowling themed cake from Publix for that.  Whew, enough baking. . .  

Making Ornaments

Some tiny snowflakes, pattern at Ravelry. I can tell I haven't made anything tiny in a while, I think I need to make the picots in the front of the stitch instead of the back, so they don't stretch out. Ah, no one will notice but me. These are for ds's tiny tree, but he didn't seem very excited about them, so I might use them for mine instead. I put a couple of these in Christmas cards last year, but I hate the fact that people throw them away, so I'll use them as ornaments instead.

These Tiny Sweaters are so fun to make. I've made one every afternoon this week and I'm not tired of them yet. I love using up leftover sock yarn.


The cats are enjoying afternoon sun.



Tiger managed to knock the lid off the catfood bin this morning! And the sad thing is, he WOULD eat it all if he could. . .

We have a crazy busy weekend coming (which includes a horse show, SATs, basketball game, cub scout service project).  Must remember to gas up the car.  Dh is out of town until late in the month, so I'm doing all the driving. . .  I have felted bag that needs a sewn lining and was hoping to be in the sewing room this weekend, but don't see it happening. . .

December's Sweater

*Where's the chipmunk?*

*He went through there!*

*Darn, I missed him. . . *