Bad Attitude

I know, it's the Christmas season and I should be grateful for the gifts I receive. I should be grateful anyone would want to give me a gift, any gift at all. But instead, I got some gifts that were not to my liking and I feel like a greedy, non appreciative person. But really, see the clock? Why would anyone see this and think of me? Maybe my neighbors whose husband works for a winery would like it.

And this purse? Really? I don't even know what to say. My neighbor brought me these gifts on Christmas Eve. Closely followed by going to my parents house and receiving cartridges for my Cricut. Yes, the cricut I did not want and don't use. My mom picked out some nice floral cartridges for me. So I can add flowers to my sons' scrapbook pages? Pages I haven't worked on in years? Ungrateful ? That is me. My mom said she looked at the books on my Amazon.com wish list and thought they were boring. Well, she wasn't going to be the one reading them!

Christmas hysteria starts at Halloween with my family getting onto each other about gift lists and wish lists and such. And ever year someone pronounces someones lists lame and buys off of the list. Not me. I shop from the list and do my best to make people happy and I would simply appreciate the cooperation of others. It should not so hard to get everyone on the same page.

Christmas was not a total bust, I got a great book from my sister in law and a book from Scott, alog with the weaving loom I wanted. We are leaving for a bit, but i will be busting out the loom as son as I return and can get back into my happy crafting place again.

Homemade Christmas

Once again it was time to celebrate Christmas with my best girlfriends with our annual exchange of homemade presents. I scored the necklace (above) from my friend Rebecca. I also got a dozen tamales and some lip gloss, but don't have photos of either because they were immediately pressed into service. The necklace is made from sculpey, stamped and baked and glossed. I love it. the pattern on it reminds me of something from nature, and fairly African in look. I have got to learn how to do this!

My friend Stephenie P. made me a homemade pillow. I love this, it will match great on our guest bed. It is very fun and funky and has a great style to it.

My friend Stephanie B made felted items for us. I really had no idea what i would get from her, because we were together when we saw felted items we loved. I knew she was working with felt this year, but had no idea what she would come up with. This is already on my table.

A friend of Rebecca's knew we had a homemade exchange and contributed carved wooden pieces for all of us. I got a door stopper but have it on my bookshelves right now. It looks like a beautiful piece of sculptural art to me.

What did I give? Well, of course I don't have a photo to share! I went with an office theme and made everyone a lunch bag made from oil cloth, monogrammed notecards and a frame with flowers on them. I used felt and card making type flowers for decorations on the frame. Next year I'll have to take photos of my own gifts, too.

As for the Lemon Cookie recipe:

1 box Lemon Cake Mix

1/3 cup oil

2 eggs.

Mix together and drop cookies onto a cookie sheet for about 10 minutes. Cooking time varies based on the size of the dough balls. Mine were fairly big so I baked them for 13 minutes. I added a bag of white choc chips to stretch the dough and made a double batch. You can use this recipe with any kind of cake mix. Imagine Red Velvet cookies rolled in powdered sugar before baking. Next for me will be chocolate fudge cookies with butterscotch chips. It is not an original recipe, but one found on the internet. God Bless the internet. I do love it.

Not Much, That's What I Got

I have not felt terribly crafty since I finished up the mittens and stockings. So, there isn't much to report on the Crafting front. I did make an ornament for a friend who is a wicked game player. She will be horrified that I used Scrabble tiles, thinking I broke up a perfectly good game. But the truth is that I ordered the tiles from ebay a while back, thus rescuing what might have otherwise been seen as (gasp) trash. I found out some time later that you an also buy fake scrabble tiles in the section of the local; craft store that sells wooden pieces, making it much easier to craft with them since you won't need to purchase a game, or search for tile parts on the internet.

Our next door neighbors moved away recently and I went to meet the new neighbors yesterday, taking homemade cinnamon hot cocoa mix and homemade granola with me. The wife came over last night with some homemade cookies warm from the oven. Oh, I think I really like these people! I made lemon cookies for a cookie exchange Friday. Now, I make a decent size thick cookie, right? My neighbors toffee cookies are next to my lemon cookies in this photo. Yep. She can kick my cookie baking butt. I hope she shares her secrets. They tasted yummy, too.

I am meeting my friend Maria today. She is moving to Brazil on Friday and I cannot even tell you how much I am going to miss her. But I will be every happy to see her in Brazil soon! When? I don't know, but I know I am visiting as soon as I can.

Wintery Wonderland

I can't resist taking pictures of my house in the snow. I don't know why. I think my house is very pretty and I like it year round, but in the winter it really calls to me. No doubt when the kids are old and they are parents themselves they will want to show their own kids what the home they were raised in looked like. Then they will think Global Warming has really taken effect as all the pictures will show snow on the ground. Noah even wore shorts to school yesterday, most likely compounding his memory problems as an adult. He'll tell his kids we were so poor we couldn't afford pants.

In an effort to make homemade Christmas presents I am on a mission to make hats. The school colors are really green and White but no one believes this as the school tends to use Green and Gold all the time. Gold is supposed to be an accent color, but has become a main color. I made my first hat in Green and White much to the dismay of my children, so now I am making Green and Gold hats. The pattern is called Zportz and is available free on Ravelry if you are inclined to knit these yourself.

Fourth Grade is the year you learn about Indiana History in school. They have a day called "Wax Museum". The kids pick their favorite Hoosier off of a list and research them. Then on Wax Museum Day the kids all go to the auditorium, dressed like their person and wait for people to come press their "button". Once "turned on" the kids come to life and recite a speech about their famous Hoosier. Seth is Michael Jackson. He held his pose so I could get a photo of him.

If you look closely you will see a bit of my dog in the picture. She was fully in the picture but one eye was illuminated green and the other was illuminated blue. The red eye control on my photo program could not eradicate the glow nor the colors of her eyes.. Thus proving once again my dog is weird.