Counting Down

 Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays 

to all my friends worldwide.

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Mo is still opening his Advent Calendar each afternoon. 

My to do list is dwindling: just have to get out the platters and wine glasses for  my Christmas Eve get together, bake a few cookies. I admit I'm struggling a bit post IV treatment and some sort of respiratory illness.  I had one unexpected last min sewing project. A new stocking for Little Friend [LF].

Somehow I lost the one I made a few years ago, after looking at it on the shelf of little quilts for the past twelve months.

Oh well she needed a bigger stocking anyway.

SO fun to fill with Dollat Store junk. Including a tiny felt Pug "learn to sew' kit.

Fabrics are a mix of Christmas prints and tropicals, her family always spend Christmas through New Years in a warm beach resort.

Used this funny giant polka dot for the back and lining. Took me about two hours total.

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We had a horrible scary storm here this morning. 70 mph winds [hurricane force is 74 mph] and I had to gather my courage and go out to retie down the lattice that protects Mo from falling over the edge of the deck. The lattice is heavy plastic and if flung by 70 mph wind, it would break my windows. We'd get brief moments of clearing, then more storms, but the wind has moved to the west and gusts lessened to about 45-50 mph.

The winter solstice is tomorrow. My mother always said there are storms for the solstices and equinox, tho she had no explanation why the Fall storms arere on Halloween not September 21. [Perfect Storm, H Sandy, Halloween Noor'easter  in the early 90s...]

Here's some simple ways to take note. Yes longer days, but despite that hopeful notion, the long cold winter has just begun. Time to be slow annd thoughtful, tea and good books.

Merry Christmas from lizzy and Mo.

Snow Day

 

Hi everyone!\What happened to the WeatherBug forecast of ''dusting turning to sleet and rain?" Instead we woke up Sunday morning to that odd hush of silence that means a big snow is falling.

I do love a Christmas snow but this was unexpected. Again I'm hoping the power stays on. Gale winds and single digit ''feels like'' temps are to arrive this evening.

It won't be a deck sit and sew day, will it. Seven months til summer.

Mo donned his special glo in the dark and in the drifts jacket made for him by my friend Mel

 when Mo was a baby. 

Still fits, still keeps him toasty warm, still dries really fast.

The jacket is easy on, over the head and a wide tummy belt. Very soft too. 

He was so good, I wouldn't want to have to go sit in 8" of snow to potty. Though most pugs actually like snow, they are a double coated cold weather hardy breed.

This week I've been poring through all my holiday season vintage books and patterns. Fun to imagine what to make next t year or even next week if we're snow bound.

I love the Pinecones & Hollyberries vintage books from dear friend Penny in SA. 

I  am attracted to the Sue Spargo version's colors. Usually I don't care for her designs tho I admire her expertise. Love the [unclear in these fast pics] black and white gingham w the reds and golds. Though that Urn block has got to go, ugh.

And this very vintage early 90s Cheri book has darling ideas. This arch is so different. Her Two Hour Christmas projects book is wonderful too, if wildly optimistic or I am very slow.

Yesterday before the snow came, my little friend and her mom  and I made a gingerbread house. LF did most of the decorating, I think she did great for only being 5 going on 6. So fun and my skills still intact. Use of a hot glue gun is essential.

And I delivered her Dolly's Christmas Skating outfit. It fits and looks so cute, I think. 

This is just a check in. We're fine, the HOA has finally cleared the lanes and walkways. I have loads of food* I just hope the power stays on. I have my infusion tomorrow noon. I'll answer comments from this post and yesterday's post as best I can, I love reading your comments, as you well know.

Merry Christmas

love

lizzy and Mo

*The week's food for IV week/ snow storm: hamburger/ tomato casserole, Ham salad, roast beef salad, a green salad w cranberries and parm. I didn't yet make---but later in the week---: Egg salad, apple blue cheese Waldorf salad. And Chewy delivered an extra bag of Mo's pug specific kibble and potty pads. We're all set!

Bad news is, neighbors/ friends are texting me their water is off. Car skidded on ice and broke a hydrant. Hope I m far enough away, but filled pots and bowls just in case.

Christmas is Coming!

 Hi! It's mid-December, oh how time flies these days. And here I am awaiting Santa, the house all decked in its own small way.

The tree is decorated, the quilts are out, aired and admired once again.

I got a new little tree this year. It does not have integrated lights, so was very inexpensive. I love it! I've wanted a white tree for years, got a bargain with this cutie.

These are repro Shiny Brite ornaments I got at Home Goods. So adorable, wish I d bought more sets. Be sure to save the boxes, old or new.

My Noah's Ark is out with about 1/3 of the animals displayed.

A quick walk thru. Mo and I expect a few guests over the holiday weeks, but I mostly decorate for myself--and for you! I hope you enjoy a peek around.

Tiny treasures hidden in the stacked Shaker and pantry boxes.

The quilts are the first Christmas decor to emerge, I love seeing them. Some are aired, then used on beds and sofas. 

Others are refolded and stacked.

And then there's all the Christmas minis I have made over the past years.

Mo is interested but perplexed. Though that may just be his resting Pug face? 

He LOVES his Trader Joe's  Advent calendar. But I fear he is learning bad habits, what will he expect come January?!

Presents are wrapped, hidden or mailed.  I finished the skating outfit for my little friend's soon to be supplanted by bigger/ better Dolly. So fun to design and make doll clothes.

Wine is chosen, menu is planned. Cookies will be baked next week, always the last thing I do. My mom used to make many cookies, all thru December. One year, I was very small, but a willing helper--she was in a frenzy baking for a party or cooky swap, but my dad ate the cookies as fast as she baked and decorated. Now remember these were young parents, maybe early thirties, and though later bickering became an art form, back then they rarely argued.  I was the big eyed spectator to this tiff, unforgettable. [Kids see all, recall all.]

So as Daddy's hand reached for yet another cookie [Pfeffernüsse? eew], my mom lost her temper---burst into tears,  grabbed the tray of cookies and dumped it on the kitchen floor at my dad's feet. Screeched, "I will NEVER bake another cooky. Ever." And she did not. She followed up unbeknownst to us, by selling all our cooky cutters to an antiques/ vintage dealer friend! And years later when I came home from college, my dad and I went to make the cookies---not a cookie cutter was to be found. Mom was unrepentant. "I told you so fifteen years ago..

My dad went to his workshop and created the white star cutter in the pics below [left]. Was it made from aluminum siding or a gutter? I treasure it. The colored handled ones remind me of the vintage cutters my mom gave away. 

After the cooky fiasco, my mom---undaunted--- instead embraced the creation of a traditional European Christmas bread, stollen , recipe from her own mom. Normally a wonderful educated gourmet cook and baker, her stollen was truly terrible, worse than her famously bad meatloaf. We'd use it up by making french toast or bread pudding on New Years Day morning. (Stollen is  a braided yeast bread with nasty candied fruit similar to Panettone, but a flat braid.)

Pfeffernusse recipe: HERE   "FEH-fer-noose"

Stollen recipe: HERE

Holiday  memories, family stories, do you have one to share?

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...

beach pics/ Wednesday: a clear storm, as we call them here. High winds from the south over the ocean. 50+ mph gusts. Huge waves. I had to wash my salt encrusted windows today.

And rainbows from my chandelier prism suncatchers greet me now each morning.

Happy Holidays!