Some Christmas Craftiness

As the gifts have been given now.. and also I did sell a few of these little ornaments I made... well, anyway, I feel okay about putting some pictures up of what I've been up to in the week before Christmas!
I suppose just about every child has made salt dough ornaments at some point.. but it seemed like a brilliant idea for me to revisit those times.. so here is the dough, all ready to roll out.. (4 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, and hot water, just enough to make a good dough)...


I used cookie cutters.. actually I gave up on the little gingerbread man shapes.. wasn't very fond of them, and then they kept curling up and breaking too easily... but I made loads of stockings, stars and trees...
Popped them into the oven on a really low temperature until they were totally dried out... and then came the really fun part..
Painting and varnishing... except this is a lousy picture.. /sigh...
I think I may do more next Christmas... maybe sell a few more, who knows? The stockings I did put names on.. I did three with my own children's names on them... three to sell, with the buyers' childrens names.. and a couple with 2007 on them.. in gold paint.. very pretty really... and fun to do.

20/12/07

Not this past Sunday, because the weather was so bad, but the Sunday before, I took my kids, and one of my neighbour's kids to see the Putz in one of the local towns around here. Everything in it was made by hand... the place where they have the putz used to be an orphanage, and it was the superintendent's wife who made everything.. I think she was the matron.
So, I took a whole bunch of pictures while we were there... the tree was up in one corner of the display..


This church was on the opposite side... inside there were lots of dolls, all dressed beautifully, as though a wedding was being held...
The rounded building is a replica of Radio City Music Hall.. at least, that's what they say. I couldn't tell you for sure, as I haven't seen RCMH!
What the pictures don't show, is that all the merry go rounds and fountains etc actually work. It's lovely.. really.
And the nativity scene part of the putz was splendid...look, the woman even hung the angels who appeared to the shepherds from 'clouds' in the sky... just amazing...
And she didn't just do the stable scene.. she made the entire town of Bethlehem.
Such an artistic woman.. makes me want to go out and do something like this. One day maybe I'll "play" with doll houses, and see what I can create...

The putz is displayed in what was once the chapel of the orphanage.. and I just love stained glass windows, so that is why I took this picture.

19/12/07

I've been knitting like a maniac really for the past few weeks.. 3 of the 4 scarves I needed to get done are finished now.. one more to go, and I've got about 4 inches of it done today, while I sat in the doctor's office, waiting to be seen. (Not sick.. just a routine thing)
Anyway... here's "Valerie" modelling the turquoise scarf I made for one of my daughters... it's done with 2 balls of Lion Brand Fun Fur - in fact, all of them except for the dark coloured one are the same pattern... very simple pattern, but they are always the best, huh?

This two tone scarf is for my neighbour's youngest daughter...
Now, this one I admit I don't like quite so much. It'd be fine for a young child, I think.. so I'm not going to 'frog it' .. but I won't do this one again... it was one ball of Fancy Fur.. again by Lion Brand...
This one is part white, and the stripey half.. well, it wasn't me changing yarns all the time.. it was just how the yarn knit up.. one of those nice multi-colour yarns, you know? This scarf is for the neighbour's eldest girl...
It all keeps me busy, which is good, I suppose.. although it'll be nice to do something other than a scarf soon! :o)

I'm sitting here watching The Nutcracker on television tonight.... love the ballet. I've always wished to be able to see the Nutcracker in "real life" ... one day, I'll do it.

Tuesday now....

It makes you look at life, and the things around you a bit differently, when you're looking for something to take a picture of! :o) So, this may be a bit different.. but... it's a part of life here...

Clean Sheets Day!

I do enjoy getting into bed, when the sheets are fresh... and I keep (as much as possible) to the routine of changing them on a Monday.. so that's something else I did last night...



I wonder if I'm the only 40 something person who names her "cuddlies"? I've got Betty Bunny, Barbara Bear, Sebastian, Leo, Charles and Scrapple sitting on my bed... they have to move when it's time to..but don't you think they look cute? :o)
And this is just a picture of some of the mince pies I made last night... I was up way too late making them, but I'm glad to have them done. My eldest loves them.. I do too.. a few years back, my girl asked for them instead of a birthday cake! :o)
Oh, I did take a tester.. a "cooks' perk" .. and it went down really well, with a cup of hot tea!

Monday

So, today was a different sort of Monday in some ways. First of all, we had a two hour delay at school.. which was a nice, relaxed start to the morning! I didn't have to clean any ice off of the car at all, which was wonderful.. I think the wind last night kept it all away. And the roads weren't too bad at all.. well, not the main roads at least. I kept off the side roads as much as possible.. but the road leading up to the school was a bit nasty still.. had to go slowly..but I'd rather that and be safe, than the other alternative.

After work, I went to the laundromat, and also went to my appointment.. which was interesting, because of some validation I received. I'm not the only woman who is seeing the ugly side of someone..

And then home... where I found a Christmas gift in the mailbox from my sister. The envelope says not to open until 25th December.. now, I won't do it.. but it's teasing the life out of me! :o)

I've taken time to do some more painting on something which I will post pictures of at a later date....when you've seen what I'm up to. And soon, I will go into the kitchen and do some baking... maybe I'm overstretching my time and energy some, but it'll be worth it to have the goodies for next week.

These pictures are of my latest "treasures". You know, I've got a thing for china thimbles, huh? Well, I was wandering around a second hand shop the other week, and saw the thimble holder which is on top there, for just a dollar. So I got it, knowing that one day I'd have some 'goodies' to put in it. And then, last week, when I was at the Dollar Store, I saw a pack of 6 thimbles.. so I've put it up on the wall, and I'm quite pleased! :o)

You can even see my jar of knitting needles there!

I tried a closer picture too.. the thimbles are all flowers.. very pretty. :o)

Sunday 16th

This is the weather we woke up to this morning. Snapped this picture from the porch. It looks very pretty.. but I wish really that it had just been all snow, and not also the ice. The main road, which you can see there, isn't too bad... the ploughs have been through a few times... but I still had no desire to go out in the car today.
So, I skipped church, and stayed in bed till after 10... listening to the radio, and being lazy! The old car belongs to the landlord.. it has been there for quite some time now, with a "for sale" sign on it.. I'm sure one day a car enthusiast will buy it.

This was the view from the back door.. no activity in the little shops here today. I bet the malls are still crowded with people daft enough to go out in this weather though, huh?
The tree branches looked so pretty, with their ice coats on... the picture doesn't do them any justice really. I'm a little surprised that some of the smaller branches don't fall in this sort of weather..
especially with the wind blowing.... if there is any doubt that there is some wind here today, just look at the sock moving!
It wasn't too freezing out there while I cleaned off the car... I started it up, and had the heaters going while I cleaned it off. Should've taken before and after pictures, I suppose. But I didn't think of that! :o)

Back indoors now.. and going to stay pretty much put for the rest of the day! :o)

The Cottage is Open!

It was while I was at work today that I decided to begin this blog. I thought it would be a nice way, perhaps, to share some pictures with you... and record some parts of my life here in this little cottage - show what I get up to when you're not around! :o)

I chose "Cricket" as my screen name.. for no particular reason really, except that I like it. :o) And it keeps my real name a secret on here.. which is how I would like it.

Just a little bit of fun....