Dave and I order a lot of stuff online. And since we don’t have postal delivery to the door in this town (everyone has a post office box), anything too big to fit in our box (anything bigger than a letter), goes to the post office/township office next door for us to pick up.

Since moving here, we’ve gotten to know the two post office ladies VERY well. In fact, we’ve learned that we get the most parcels out of EVERYONE in the town!!! Since they have to put up with us stopping by so often, I gave them each a coffee gift card last year.

But this year, I wanted to do something more fun and personal. They know I quilt (since I’m always ordering fabric) so I thought why not something fun and quilty? Why not some mug rugs???

I did a quick search online, and came up with a cute little tree pattern, and the other night, I banged a couple out using up some scraps

Now let me explain something about how I sew… I don’t actually READ patterns. I mostly find pictures and then draft the blocks myself. But when I get an actual pattern, I usually just check the cutting instructions and start putting things together from the picture – because usually, it’s pretty intuitive. So it wasn’t until after I had everything cut, and I started sewing pieces together that I realized…. these were looking pretty big for a mug rug…. 8 inches to be exact.

Hmmmm… that just seems a little excessive. For a pot holder… fine… but a mug rug?

Yeah…. that’s way too big for a mug rug.

So… I did a little math to see if I could downsize it a bit…

I got it down to six inches… any smaller and the pieces would be much smaller than I want to work with.

It’s better… but it’s still a little bigger than I would like…

So…. anyone got a mug rug pattern they can recommend?

Several of you said it would be night and day going from Dad’s big sweater to my brother’s sock…

And you were right, of course! It’s just flying. I’m through the gusset already and working my way down the foot. With any luck, I can get this pair of the needles by the end of the weekend!

The to-do list in the sewing room is still miles long, but I decided to take the weekend off. Well – not off – I just had another project that needed doing as much as the stuff in the sewing room. And it involved paint and wood.

Ages ago, I got a project panel from Home Depot, and had Dave cut it into a couple squares for me – with plans to make a couple of barn quilts.

We live near several Barn Quilt trails here, and I see so many when we go out for out drives. I’ve long wanted to make one of my own, and one for Mom. We don’t have barns, so technically they will be Shed Quilts, but that doesn’t really matter – the idea is the same.

Mom knows I’m making her one for Christmas, but she doesn’t know what it will look like… so I can’t show you hers. But I can share mine.

Because my shed isn’t very big, mine is quite small – only 10″ square. It made it tricky to lay out the design I wanted, but with a tiny ruler, and a big eraser, eventually I got it all worked out.

Naturally, I chose cats for my barn quilt. It’s the snail trail cat pattern. I’d love to make an actual quilt with it one day, but for now I’m content to have it as a Barn Quilt.

The paints I have are just cheap craft acrylics, so it took many, many, many coats, and almost all weekend to get good coverage. Naturally, I had “help” periodically throughout the process.

Once the colour was solid enough for my liking, I tackled the outlining with my hand paint pens. My hands just aren’t steady enough to do it with a brush anymore.

Purrfection! Now it just needs a good thick coat of clear! And I’ll have Dave hang it on the shed in spring!

Well… here it is…

Dad’s finished birthday sweater. I started in on June 1, 2022, intending it to be for his birthday last year. That, of course, didn’t happen. But I finally pushed and finished it on November 26 of this year. So, one-and-a-half years of not-so-steady knitting.

The pattern is Southwood. It’s a basic top down raglan – lots of sizes (child to adult) and very easy to follow. It’s a free pattern too.

The yarn is Patons Classic Wool in a pretty, light grey/white marl.

Simple, classic, and very warm. I’ve still got a fair bit left, so there will probably be some hats and such as some point. But not for a while. I’ve had enough of grey for now.

One of my favourite things about this time of year is picking out a poinsettia. I couldn’t decide this year so I got two!

As usual, I will try to keep these going as house plants past December. They usually die by March, depsite my best effort, but maybe this year will be different….

And speaking of murdering plants….

It’s been ages since I murdered a Cyclamen! That’s mostly because it’s been ages since I’ve actually seen a Cyclamen anywhere!

But maybe it’s just good timing, because I’ve learned so much about Cyclamen from my gardening shows, I might just be able to keep this one alive.

I’ll give you an update on it (and the poinsettias) in the New Year!

With the outside decorated, it was time to get the inside done. Like the outside, I keep things simple. I have one bin of Christmas decorations, plus the tree. There is still room in the bin, so I can add some more decorations here and there.

I loved my Hallowe’en gnome bunting so much, I had to get a Christmas one.

Such sweet little gnomies.

You will notice that Skiing Sock Monkey is back, counting down the days for us.

And beside him is a little friend, dressed or winter. He’s new. I found him at the grocery store and just had to bring him home. He’ll probably hang out all winter, not just for Christmas

Same with this little gnome I now have hanging on the livingroom hutch.

He’s so cute, he’ll probably be a year-round resident.

But back to bunting… when I picked up the gnome bunting, they were buy one get one free so…

I got this cute one of Santa’s clothes and hung it on the dining room hutch! Check out Santa’s underpants!!!

And of course, there’s the tree. You may remember we have a small 4 ft tree. The first year we got it, we put it on the ground with no cat issues. Last year we had Lemmy, so it got moved to the plant shelf but it wasn’t high enough…

While I was decorating, Dave was repairing some of last years casualties…

So this year, we put the tree up on top of the hutch.

It made it a little harder for me to decorate (hence no star at the top) but it’s done! Let the countdown begin!

I mentioned in a post long ago, the Lemmy is a wee bit of a hellion.

He LOVES knocking stuff off tables, and anything not secured or too heavy to push with a paw is fair game – though little things are his favourite: nail clippers, stitch markers, pens, pill bottles, etc.

But his other favourite thing is DESTROYING anything paper or cardboard. We knew he had this tendency right from the start – last December I bought him a little cardboard cat house and he just mutilated it.

I was actually thinking about getting him a new one the other day but…

I mean – why spend $30 on a cardboard cat house when he’s content to destroy a $1.50 box of tissues? The kicker though… that box wasn’t originally in the bedroom. He grabbed it from the living room – and brought it all the way up the stairs so he could demolish it on the bedroom floor? Why? I have NO idea.

I don’t think he has an idea why either…

Last Friday, I was off work a little earlier than normal, and the sun was shining, so I decided it was a good time to get my Christmas lights out, and get the front of the house decorated.

I don’t do a lot just the front porch/walkway – keeping it simple means I can do the whole thing in just a couple hours, AND I only need a couple rubbermaid tubs to store it all in.

There are a few things different from last year. Last year we didnt have the arbour, so it needed some lights too.

I’m a little annoyed that the “white” lights are bought this year don’t match the ones I bought last year. The new ones (which I put on the porch), are “Pure white”, where the others are “Warm white” and you can see, there’s quite a difference. Next year, I’ll rectify that, but for now I can live with.

The arbour also got some sparkly blue snowflakes.

New to the lawn, facing the walkway, are a pretty little pair of deer. I actually had these last year, but never got around to putting them out.

They look so sweet – I just love them.

The porch has the most decoration – mostly the same as previous years: Fir garland, lights, a few ornaments.

And fresh Christmas greens in my white boxes.

I get the fresh stuff from a local nursery that grows everything on site.

The only new thing added to the front porch is a pretty “snowflake” curtain

It would look nicer if those other lights weren’t so darn “pure white” but oh well! It’s still nice and festive.

AND… I got the whole set-up on a photo-cell timer system this year so I don’t even have to worry about turning them on and off! Now that’s some real Christmas magic!

Despite feeling unwell, one of the things I had to do on the weekend was get new tires put on Dory. It was to the point where I couldn’t put it off any longer. So I had an appointment booked at the tire place for first thing in the morning…

And while Dory got nice grippy new shoes, I worked on my brother’s birthday socks.

They were pretty quick with the tire change, so I didn’t get a tonne done, but I’m through the ribbing and about an inch into the plain leg knitting. If I can keep after this like I did with Dad’s sweater, I’ll have a second sock done in no time.

The Ginger Twins are primed and ready to keep my on task!

First, thank you for all the well wishes. I felt much better by Monday morning.

Before the weekend, I’d been diligently working in the evenings to add more rounds to the last sleeve on Dad’s birthday sweater. I had a rotating cast of helpers too…

And then by Sunday, when I just didn’t have much energy to do anything else… I plunked myself in the recliner, put on Good Omens 2, and Burton and I pushed through to finish it!

About an hour before bed, I was happily casting off the the final round!

It still needs blocking and all the ends sewn in, so Burton and Lemmy say you have to wait for a proper FO post to see it. But we are all very happy to have finished well in advance of our deadline and can move on to something fun, and not HUGE and GREY!