No surprise- it has been crazy around here. I’m not very good at maintaining my sanity around this time of year. There is never enough time, everything seems out of control and this year seemed worse then usual. I always look forward to the first week in January when life returns to normal. Sort of.

I went on a cookie making toot- got to start with chocolate of course… and once I was in the cake decorating store there are so many fun things to look at. I had to get these chenille fir trees- I am sure they’ll come in very useful for something! and the flowers… they even sold edible glitter there!

here is my chocolate melting-

so I can dip the biscotti-

some classics- I have great admiration for people who make beautifully decorated sugar frosting cookies- not one of my skills!

then I found an old issue of Fine Cooking that had some great recipes-

lime nut-

and these spice cookies came out just like in the photo!

there are about 4 other types that I haven’t photographed. These will be our family gifts. I’ve also been knitting, sewing, cooking and cleaning- busy, busy busy. Pictures of the projects will hopefully be posted after Christmas. It will be very strange to have Christmas without Eleanor here. She is experiencing the Holiday in the Southern Hemisphere. WE MISS YOU!!!!

Tonight we will have fondue from Brandy at Loosetooth. The perfect food for teenage boys. Nothing like a new tradition- yum!

I finished up a group of these- fun, but labor intensive. They are made of paper, illustration board and ribbon.

and Grandma looks very happy in her new home with Jan at Bemused!

I was away for a few days and when I got home, a nice pile of mail was waiting for me- The highlights were my calendar from Camilla and my “prize” from the Vintage Cloth Dollmaking list challange. It is a Yahoo group that I belong to. There are regular challenges- to do a doll in the style that the group is interested in, or from a particular vintage pattern. People donate “door prizes” which are distributed by choosing names out of a hat. No winning or losing. Sometimes there are enough prizes donated or few enough dolls posted that everyone gets a prize- that makes it lots of fun! The Fall challenge was to do an old style Santa. I made the wool Santa which started me off on the whole group of wool dolls. Here is what I got in the mail-

It is a button box- from Ike Putney. What a treasure trove! I have been enjoying going through all the goodies. My personal challenge will be to find some way to use the really big buttons- they are fantastic, but not suitable for the dolls I’ve been making.

I have been doing the boring stuff since the sale and being away- trying to get my studio usable again (what a mess!) and the rest of the house in some order enough to start getting ready for Christmas. Now that the kids aren’t little, I just don’t care that much about it… As usual, I am running very late on all the Holiday prep. I am thinking about cards or ornaments though and have been fooling around with a mini sweater baby-

I tried it out of fabric and now I’m trying paper and card stock. You’ll see if I get anything I’m happy with.

The Craft Fair was fun- I saw lots of people I knew, my kids teachers from elementary school, neighbors and friends. And I sold some stuff! Not surprising- no one asked for the “blog discount”… I thought it was unlikely, but a fun experiment.

I made a gallery of the wool dolls. Email me if you are interested in any of them. US shipping is free for this month- that’s my Holiday marketing! Actually, contact me if there is anything in my finished project catagory you are interested in…

This is the Craft Fair I am doing tomorrow- if you tell me that you saw this in my blog, I’ll give you a 10% discount on anything you buy from me. I’ll have my new wooly dolls and also bug pins and who knows what else- I’ll be deciding as I pack up the car!

Bishop Craft Fair and Bazaar!!

This Wednesday, Dec.7 from 5-10pm.
Sons of Italy Hall (behind Paper & More) Lots of free parking!

Over 25 vendors and crafters.
Lots of unusual gift items — Shop for friends, family or yourself!
Cash bar. FREE hors d’oeuvres