How bad is that!

It is so bad that when I just read my last post I realized that I thought it was the 19th when it was only the 17th ..... my head is just not screwed on right..... that's what Christmas does to me.

The church pageant is tomorrow night and so we have been busy prepping for that. I spent the day shopping and so that is all finished... except I bought lots of paper towel instead of toilet paper.... so I have to go to the store Monday and do that. I'm pleased to say that there is no one else to shop for. I am still waiting for Hubby's gifts to come in the mail but at least I have a couple of things for him.

We are finished with the setting up of the furniture and painting the floor but we still need to decorate the house for Christmas.... we will be working on that tomorrow and Monday.

Hubby and I decided to have an open house on the 29th of December so I am going to have to start thinking about getting some cooking done for that. Tuesday will be my day for wrapping and cooking. I also have to get the Turkey for Christmas day... can't forget that or I'll be like Dave from the Vinyl Cafe.

I thought you might like to try some of my favorite recipes for the holiday season... I will post some here over the next few days.

I'm starting to feel more organized. As soon as the tree is up I will post picture of my little abode. At least I now know what day it is....

Meanwhile, watch over the next few days for yummy recipes that I will be working on.....

Insanity

It's the 19th.... aaaaahhhhh! When I last wrote here I was not sure the red would be ok. It is growing on me. I am slowly getting used to it and it is better now that the whole floor is finished. I just finished the floor today. I am waiting patiently for the floor to dry so that I can get the furniture back into place. That is my job for tomorrow. The new furniture looks great so far. It fits well in the house and we all appreciate the couch-like qualities of the corner dining set. I sometimes wonder if my head is screwed on right when I take on these insane ideas, like painting your floor a week before Christmas. But here I am proving to the world, my insanity by blogging about one of my dumber ideas. Hubby must love me to put up with all of my insanity. Speaking of Hubby, I am hoping that Hubby will cut the shelves for our Christmas villiage. I am hoping that then I will feel like I am starting to get things done.

I love my Christmas villiage. I made it when I was first married. I ordered the pieces from Mary Maxim. They were unpainted pre-cast ceramics which I painted.... of course I had to paint them in my own way and ignored the instructions...... there was lots of room for creativity. I would mix the paints up and create new colours, I would dab the paint on instead of making smooth strokes. I enjoyed every minute of making them. They have always been a source of pride. When we moved into our very small house we had no clue as to where we would put my Christmas villiage but it was a must.... and so it went up regardless of having room for it. Over the years it has been moved from one corner and set of shelves to another more appropriate spot as our house morphs. This year he villiage has grown to an impossible size and so we are puting shelves in the windows so that it can be both indoor and outdoor decoration.

We always deck the rails of the steps with garland and ornaments. Over the years we have collected so many ornaments and many of them have a lot of nostalgia attached to them and so, even though we say every year that we will alternate them year after year, when the time comes to actually choose we end up breaking down and using them all. Our house ends up looking like a Christmas bomb has hit. We don't put up our Christmas stuff until late but we are late taking it down too.

When we moved to the mainland we were surprised that people didn't know what old Christmas day was. Old Christmas day has as much meaning for us as does the 25th. We celebrate all over again.... but instead of celebrating by decorating, we do the opposite... we celebrate by taking down. We hang old stockings and give gift just like on the real Christmas. Some people know it as Ukranian Christmas but for us it is old Christmas day. Our tradition of celebrating old Christmas day started when the girls stopped believing in Santa a few years back.... I had alway celebrated it but not with gifts. The girls were so upset that Santa was Dad and me, that we felt something needed to be done to end Christmas on a better note.

Christmas has been odd this year. Normally I'm further ahead with this than I am this year. But somehow I've managed to let things get away from me. I panic whenever I look at the gifts that are coming in in the mail.... gifts from people that I have gifts for too. Only the gifts that I have for them are not in the mail, gifts that are not even wrapped yet. I've reached the point in the calendar year where I just don't care about dates any more. I've passed panic! It's all about us now. If I don't get all my away gifts in the mail till the 24th, so be it. I'm late. Big deal. It's the 19th and I am resigned to the fact that I will once again be the person that everyone shakes their head at because I just can't meet deadlines. But that is ok. because on Christmas morning I won't have any of those people to listen to.... now it is just about us. Once I get to this point I throw my hands up in the air and say "come what may!" Christmas starts to be fun. My family is so laid back it will be alright I think. Nine days left. Woo Hoo!!!!! Soon it will be all over..... Our family away will just have to enjoy their gifts on Olde Christmas Day instead. Maybe I can start a new tradition. How cool is that? Maybe I'm not so insane after all.

Knit Night

I just want to take a day and not talk about decorating for a moment. Last night I went to knit night and we had a good group of ladies out for that. There's L who is a Grandma and knits the sweatest little sweaters for her grandkids and is now working on sweaters for her grand puppies. Then there is P who is a new knitter and astounds me with how quickly she catches on to the different patterns she tries. She started out with a little square out of handspun wool that I had spun and given her for practice. Then she graduated to plain cotton wash cloths then on to neatly patterned wash cloths and then on to a scarf made with eyelash yarn.... not for the faint of heart that eyelash yarn. So then when I asked her if she wanted me to bring in a few easy patterns for beginner knitters she said her next project would be a sweater with cables..... good girl, I'm thinking.. jump right in. A and M were missing last night. : ( B dropped in and didn't have knitting but it is always good to have her as she is such a great one for keeping the chatting going. Then V had brought along her crochet and was working on bookmarks. They were lovely delicate things. Very pretty. The last young lady that was there was N and I was devastated to realize that last night would be her last time with us. She was in our comunity for a short time and just fit right in with the knitters. She is the person who brought the most devastatingly lovely sox and got me turned on to trying some. Last night she was working on another lovely pair of men's sox. (I think they were men's.) She was getting very frustrated with the pattern as it was a new style of heal that she had never tried and it was not working out to her liking. We won't get to see the finished item which is very sad. But I do wish her well and hope that she comes back to our little town again.... I don't know if that is possible though the company that she worked for here does move their people around so you never know. She is getting married in the summer so I guess a lot will depend on her future with him. But she is a spinner and I do hope I run across her sometime in that world. If you read this N all the best in your future endeavours.

I am so glad I started knit night. I come home rejunenated and ready to keep going. I would miss it terribly. We have become a great group of friends and cohorts. Knitting is a good thing for bringing people together.

That leaves me. I was plying the red for my hat that has to be finished tomorrow. I will do the weaving today and the felting. I may even have to pull a late night. We will see. Tomorrow is the day of the great adventure into the world of Christmas for spinners and weavers. Our potluck and gift exchange is something I look forward to each year. I must remember to bring the camera and take lots of pictures. Decorating the house will have to be put on hold for now. The couch langours and the floor stinks, the fumes are overwhelming..... but oil paint is like that. It is about 1/3 finished. I will have to stay home on Sunday to work on it. Stay tuned....

Red!

Hmmmmm! Not sure about this!

New Skin And Other Stuff

After skipping a night due to babysitting problems, Hubby and I got back at the new skin for the couch, last night. Very quickly we were able to get the fabric on the back of the couch. I have to cut a fitted piece for the side of the couch today and then I have to start covering the cushions. That is my job for today. Hubby is picking up new nuts and bolts to replace older ones that were stripped. I am hoping to be finished with it by Friday. Perhaps that is wishful thinking but I am a wishful person. Meanwhile my art hat is progressing slowly. I have finished the spinning for it and now have to work on the felting. My art hat is for the annual gift exchange that the NPSW guild has. I should have had this done a while ago but just couldn't get inspired.... nothing like a deadline to inspire.

I have decided on a colour to paint the floor.... thanks to you who emailed me with suggestions. The floor will be a high gloss Fire Red. I don't think I will get time to be fancy smancy with it. Hubby has promised to get 1/4 round in half inch to finish the flooring in the kitchen so that things look finished. When will this all happen? Before Christmas? Stay tuned!

A New Skin #2

So Hubby and I didn't get as far as I hoped. The bottom of the couch is done with extra padding. The back has the extra padding, but not it's outer shell. So far so good. Hubby is not too thrilled with having to do this as he hates anything that smacks of building projects. But though I'm not gone on doing this so close to Christmas, I am glad it is getting done. I think we will finish the skeleton tomorrow and then I will have to finish the cushions. Once the couch has it's new upholstery it will be up to the new furniture that is coming on Saturday.

Next project before Christmas will be the floor. We have taken the carpet up three years ago with the intention of laying new flooring in the near future. Problem is, flooring is horifically priced and so two years have passed and still the flooring is not done. I, at one point, got the idiotic idea to make flooring of our own by making plywood tiles and wood burning them with vines. I have not got the satmina to complete 175 tiles. I did 49 tiles and stalled. So I have decided to keep the tiles done for my studio room when it is built next year. I just need 35 more tiles. The ones that I completed look really great. I just wish I could do enough for the whole house. But I'm a realist.

Meanwhile we have been walking on rough plywood subflooring in the living room... the kitchen has a nice laminate flooring on it and the front porch has vinyl tiles. A friend recently redid their flooring and so we are jealous. It looks great. They used vinyl plank flooring from Home Depot. We want that through our whole house. It looks like wood until you get down on your hands and knees and look closely. But who's going to do that? The laminate flooring in our kitchen is getting old and chipped and we were very disappointed in it's ability to stand up to the wear and tear of our family. The flooring in the bathroom is in bad shape too from a leak we sprung from the laundry area two years ago. So we want to do our whole house like theirs.

Meanwhile we can't afford it right now. Sooo.... I have to paint the plywood subfloor between now and Christmas if the new furniture is going to make a debut. One of the reasons I like living in a log house is because I don't have to change colours every few years. BUT I HAVE TO CHOOSE A CCOLOUR FOR THE FLOOR!!!! I'm not sure I can do that. I walk into those paint places and all those paint chips get me excited. I start to lose any sense of reality and then..... and then..... I just can't do it!

Ask me what my favorite colour is and I start to panic.... I love them all.... it depends on the day... on my mood... what the weather is like.... I just can't choose.

So, I chose green for the couch now I need to decide what to colour the floor. Help!!!

Getting A New Skin

I am giving our couch a new skin. We had gotten a great shaker style couch from a friend but the fabric was in sad shape. So my plan was to replace the fabric at some point in time. As Christmas creeped closer and I had so much to do I decided that I would just throw a great quilt over it for Christmas and ignore it till after the Yuletide season.

Daughter #1 had her 13th birthday over the weekend and I had promised her a day of shopping and a movie at the theater (that's a big deal in our house) and dinner after. So we headed to the nearest shopping mall to do some shopping. When we were done, Hubby and I wanted to look at TVs for a family Christmas gift. We headed to the nearest furniture store TO HAVE A LOOK. Shortly after we left with the agreement to pick up our TV with a new Dining set as well, next week. I came home and spent the next few days staring at my depressing living room trying to figure out what I was going to do to make the old suitable to receive the new. Thus, the new skin for the couch. This is what it used to look like... well it was the best picture I had.... I can't help my couch always having piles of wool.... : )


This is what it looks like now.

I am hoping to finish it in the next few days. Then I have to paint the floor. Yeesh!!! Is this insanity or what? I thnk I should take a picture of the living room now and the living room after I am done. It could be interesting.