Thankful

I really thought I would be blogging more regularly but for now, in this stage of life, I will have to settle for a catch-up blog.  Earlier this fall, we took Teagan’s Girl Scout troop to a local Audubon wildlife sanctuary to work on their animal habitat badge.  I have driven by this place about a hundred times but in my 14 years living here, have never gone until we were forced to find a place quickly because our original place cancelled our tour. It was so beautiful and peaceful; we just had to go back with Sean and Ceara when we had a free afternoon. Now that I know what a great place it is, I can’t wait to go back in the spring when we might be able to see the osprey that live in that nest.

We have been playing with air dry clay a little bit and we made these little ornaments for a fundraiser at my work.  They were the perfect thing for people who only wanted to spend a couple of dollars and they were really fun to make. The girls made a few other treasures that are still getting some finishing touches.  A few of the things they made are for Christmas gifts and I am impressed with how much time and detail they have put into their creations.

I had bought this Rifle Paper & Co fabric with the intention of turning it into little zip pouches for Christmas gifts but after looking at it for a little while, I knew that the gold would be perfect with my china so I decided to made a quick table runner.  I absolutely love the way it came out and it looks even better without the table-cloth underneath. The navy and gold combination feels really holiday-ish without being too fall or too Christmassy.  I balanced all the gold with some burlap silverware holders.  Can’t be too fancy. 🙂  I just stitched them up with a navy blue zig-zag stitch and cut up a Target dollar bin garland for some greenery.  But we had to keep with tradition; so we displayed the pilgrim napkin rings that we made about 5 years ago and of course, we made our pilgrim hats, which are just chocolate covered marshmallows on top of upside-down Fudge Stripe cookies.  I think I saw the idea (as well as the pilgrim napkin rings) in some issue of Family Fun a million years ago but it has stuck and they will probably always be on our Thanksgiving menu!

I finished the Livie cardigan that I knit for my cousin’s daughter and I am really happy with how it came out.  The yarn is incredibly soft and I was thrilled to find a button that matched perfectly in the jars of buttons that I inherited from Sean’s grandmother.  I still have a lot of knitting and sewing to go before Christmas but I am making progress and enjoying making as much as I can.

Speaking of that, we made our first batch of soap with honey from the bees!  We made a honey/ginger/orange/buttermilk soap and it smells amazing.  We used a recipe from Pure Soapmaking but made a few tweaks that didn’t mess with the critical parts of the recipe. I was a little nervous about working with lye (even with all the precautions) so I had my trusty assistant take on that part but my fear was a little overboard and I am ready to take it on for the next batches.  Since soap has to cure for four weeks, we have to make more this week if we want to have it ready for Christmas.  Our goal is to be able to make a few different things with honey and/or beeswax to give out as gifts.  I am so excited to finally be able to make stuff from our hives.  xo