Leftover Christmas Ideas

I know, it's too late this year. But it seems like every year I find a great pattern for something just after the holiday is over (I did that with the Easter Peeps, remember?!) But I can plan ahead for next year, yes?!

Here's an owl ornament tutorial--these are very cute. I may have to make a couple of these for the tree next year....It would be really cute to up-size this and make some throw pillows for a bed in the same manner!

This is one of the best scarves I've ever seen. What a cute thing, I love it totally! Must see if I can reproduce that myself =D (I really love that Anthropologie inspires so many knock-offs!)

Love this pattern for a fabric basket. I'd like to make something like that in the future, when I have more time!

Here is a recipe for easy and yummy sounding eggnog--though it should be mentioned it has raw eggs in it. I think there's a way around this, you can very slowly soft-cook the eggs in a double boiler or something to eliminate the possibility of food poisoning. I'd have to google that....

Look at the cutest felted bunny you ever saw! I like this blog....

I'm loving this great vintage humor stuff. Really want these christmas cards ;0) Check it out....

I also found an interesting idea/recipe/method for brining your Thanksgiving turkey prior to roasting. I know that is what restaurants do with their fried chicken prior to cooking it, but home-brining a turkey hadn't occurred to me. I may have to try that next year (we'd need a big big fridge).

Anyone interested in origami? This website is cool: it has some printable downloads for rhombicuboctahedral world globes you can fold....

Well, that was more random than not. And though I actually published it on New Year's Day, I kept the date the post was started as my publishing date. I just want to start off 2009 with a clean slate!

Happy happy!

Vintage Owls

Here is a collection of my gramma's vintage owls. She is no longer with us, as of 2003, and sorely missed. My grampa has not changed one thing in the house since she passed, and I really feel her presence there whenever I visit. This pic is for you owl lovers out there--I think they are starting to grow on ME too!

I am so tired of the overcast rainy days we have had every day this July. Or it just feels like it's been everyday, since it's been the whole past two weeks. It is really hard to get out of bed each day with this gray ambient light in the sky. Awful. I never knew I would be such a sun-dependent adult.... Maui, here we come!

Wait, here's a pic of my shawl-knitting by the (sunny) lake on the 4th of July:



I am halfway done with chart #6 of Summer sampler (most recent pics here). It is much easier to knit this current pattern while watching TV. We watched two awful movies yesterday, one was The Langoliers by Stephen King, and the other was from Netflix, an old 40's B&W movie called 'The Shanghai Gesture'. Man, were they bad films. Bonus: I got much knitting done :D

Oh, BTW, I did some damage at the Fiber festival. I will probably not go to Stitches Midwest next month, because of it :) Unless I sign up for a couple of classes, which would be cool--I've not done that before. I got some Briar Rose wool yarn to make a Cul de Sac vest...can't wait to cast on for that project!!! I also purchased some beautiful wool to spin up, in extremely happy colorways :D And, some corn yarn--a must try! I'll add pics of those soon...

Happy Monday (think FISH FACE)