Filled Up Fall Fresh New Year

BEWARE! A bit of marathon writing happening here.

There's something about January 1st that makes things seem fresh, new and possible.  The overwhelming past few months make that concept all the more lightening for me.

There's something about the last three months of a calendar year that seems just too full!

In the US, I feel like we all live in a blur which begins with September's annual back to school time and ends with New Year's Day.  There's so much good stuff in between that you can hardly take it all in.  I say specifically in the US because once the summer vacation ends and the schools open again for a new fall year, we jump from one holiday occasion to the next hardly able to breathe in between.  At least that's how it is for me.  In this post you will find my own personal take on the busyness of the end of the year season - the things I like and the things I don't - the opinions are only my own and I don't hope to make others feel bad if they like things about the season that I don't.  Everyone should celebrate as it best fits him or her.

Once our family vacation to the beach ended in August, it was time to take my kids to college and then the busy craziness began (wait - what? am empty nest is busy and crazy?)

I love the fall season, the fall weather, the anticipation of winter and snow.  It's one of my favorite times of the year.  I love the fall colors and the new views out the windows as the leaves thin from the trees and fall to the ground painting my yard in an abundance of colors.

 

I love the cooling temperatures and the lowering of the humidity.  I love how quickly the clothes dry on the line.  I don't love how short the days get, but after a while I get used to it and give in to more time inside.  I love it when I can wrap myself up in hand made blankets, planning and making and getting a head-start on gift giving.  But it all goes just too fast for me.  There are too many good things all trying to race their way into a few months at the end of each year.

This year, the fall seemed even shorter.  Since hubby and I found ourselves in an empty nest this fall for the first time in our lives, we took a vacation sans kids in September. We went to San Francisco and the north western coast of California.  I've got tons of lovely photos I haven't even had a chance to peruse and I really want to make a photo album of this vacation time.

Fort Bragg, CA

Chinatown, San Francisco

Cable Car Museum, San Francisco

Giant Sequoias, Avenue of the Giants, CA

Super steep street in the city - view from the front of our hotel

Coming home from California at the beginning of October, we found the neighborhood already totally decked out in Halloween decor.  It's a big thing in the US to decorate the outside of one's house for the entire month of October in anticipation of Halloween and trick-or-treaters.

Here are some extreme cases

Add to that, I got invited to two Halloween parties so costumes were in order for hubby and me.

Bank Robbers for Halloween this year!

I made a cute little Halloween crochet bunting for one of the party hosts since her birthday is also in October and she's one of my in-home crochet students -  That was a fun to do.

Check my Halloween Pinterest board for the sugar skull pattern.   The ghosts came from Simply Crochet mag.

On Halloween night, we put our movable fire pit in the front yard, and sat outside enjoying a few beers whilst handing out candy and chatting with neighboring families.  We also decided to dress up in Harry Potter costumes (ones we already had from dressing up to help at my nephew's 8th Harry Potter theme party).  I'm surprised at how many of the younger kids identified that we were costumed as Prof. Trelawney and Mad Eye Moody.  It seems like some of the younger kids aren't as familiar with the JK Rowling stories as the kids were back in the 90s.

As soon as Halloween is over, its a rush to get the Halloween decor down and deck the house out in fall themed trimmings to prepare for Thanksgiving.

I waited til Halloween day to shop for a pumpkin - the only one left was yellow and I couldn't have loved it more!

These ghosts made from thrifted sheets with sharpie faces have been in my Halloween decor since my kids were little

Likewise, the egg carton spiders were made by my kids when they were in elementary school.

Thanksgiving is a big travel holiday for families and stems around a traditional meal.  Typically, that meal includes a turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc etc depending on the variances one's family is accustomed to.  In our family it's a bit different and it also includes TWO Thanksgiving meals, one with my side of the family and one with my hubby's.  We hosted my husband's family at our house - 19 in all - a big, big crowd!  But, we don't have a typical Thanksgiving meal, we have a big Italian meal.  That's his family's tradition.  We used to make homemade raviolis together early in the day and them eat them later, but some years that's just too much work.  This year, I made 5 lasagnas instead of the raviolis (1 vegan, 2 regular, 1 zuchini and 1 zuchini with spinach) and a BIG pot of tomato sauce.

If you are in need for an awesome vegan lasagna, I have a great recipe in my pinterst board: Food Etc

I also made bread and a big harvest salad.  It's a long and busy day.  The preparation for it all seems to take a lot more time than the celebration itself but it was a good day for all.

We had three tables, in two separate rooms to fit everyone.  I kept the table scapes very simple.  We had to use plastic utensils as I didn't even have enough forks to serve the whole crowd.

The very next day we headed down to my sister's house (1.5hr drive) and had a second family Thanksgiving with my side of the family down there.  Although our 2nd meal involves much more of the traditional Thanksgiving fare, we don't have turkey.  This 2nd Thanksgiving is totally a vegan meal.  Instead of the turkey, my brother-in-law made individual pot pies, I made mushroom gravy and the rest of the meal is pretty standard but just avoids dairy, eggs and meat - and of course, is all organic.  People wonder what we eat at a vegan Thanksgiving but honestly, the table is so full I often don't get to sample some things because my plate is too crammed with goodness.

Heading home from Thanksgiving #2, I felt a cold coming on and I dreaded the idea of losing any days being sick.  I rarely get sick and I don't like to give myself too much down time but I did give myself a full day of bed and TV to recuperate.

The day after Thanksgiving is BLACK FRIDAY - I mean the US goes nuts on this day with shopping and stockpiling and buying - I do not participate.  Some stores open on Thanksgiving Day at 6pm - it's crazy.  Online sales continue thru the week with Cyber Monday etc. etc... It's a tradition I simply don't care for and it encompasses all the things I don't like about the Christmas holiday.  From Thanksgiving on, the newspapers are filled with advert offerings from stores and the TV advertisements are enough to make you nuts.  Its usually the time that I sit down to review the gifts I plan to make and see how many I can tick off my list as complete and assure that I have the supplies to make the things not yet finished.  I like to sit affront the TV at the end of the night stitching away in front of sappy Hallmark Christmas movies which I find humorously entertaining if overwhelmingly sugary sweet - somewhere between nice and nauseating.

And of course, in the US, the day after Thanksgiving is ALSO the time when all the fall decor is removed and the inside and outside of ones house are decked out for Christmas.  And in the US people go seriously berserk with the outdoor decorating and not just with lights - there are giant blow up Santas and reindeer riding motorcycles and snoopy on top of gingerbread houses.  I call them Blow Up Shits - I can't stand them!  The hum of electricity blowing them up every night and then they sit in a crinkled pile on people's lawns during the day.  Some peoples yards are so filled with lights and statues that they triple or quadruple their electric bill during the month of December.  Again, overdoing the outside lighting is not something I like about Christmas season in the US!  When we finally got our tree up this year just over a week before Christmas, my son came in late one night and knocked on the bedroom door asking if we had intended to leave the Christmas tree lying down on the couch in the living room - UM NO!!!!  Nothing broke when it fell but what a doozy it was to upright and reset a huge 7foot tree that already had all it's lights and ornaments.

This year there were only  a few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas so every caroling party, holiday bunco, Christmas Open House, etc all had to take place in a few short weeks.  It's all crammed up with hardly a chance to breathe - it does little to make me feel calm.  I am not a religious person but rather a spiritual one but I was really glad I didn't also have to add churchy things into the holiday mix.  I prefer simplicity and calm at the holidays. I prefer home made instead of store bought I prefer celebrating the season and noting the outdoor changes and enjoying the weather, etc... to hustling and bustling through the stores with the loud Chrismtas music blaring through the speakers.  I find Christmas preparations exhausting and I do what I can in my own life to minimalize the craziness yet enjoy the things I like.  Someone did a holiday posts about Samhain and Winter Solstace, the pagan celebrations of seasonal change.  I was both surprised by how many of the non religious traditions cross paths with religious ones.  It was interesting to note some of the age old customs and how they have evolved into our current traditions.

All in all - the three big events of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas that occur at the end of October, November and December seem a raging blur of activity and decorating and rushing and planning and cooking and buying etc etc etc... I wish I could stretch it all out for 6 months, not 3.  I wish I could spend the time enjoying the posting of my holiday cards instead of speedily sticking stamps on the outsides of  envelopes and slowing down many other details.

I miss doing a lot of holiday baking.  So much of the family who visits at Christmas is vegan, I don't really bake much which I miss.

It probably didn't help that during this busy three months we also re-did a bedroom, experienced two, yes TWO pipe explosion floods in our basement laundry room, dealt with two leaking toilets, hundreds of dollars of plumber visits, installed a clothes dryer for the first time in more than 6 years and more.

Tho I've always had a washer, I've not had a dryer.  I have really mixed emotions about owning it - but it was rather handy for washing masses of sheets and blankets and table covers after the family had gone, those big things were always a challenge to hang inside the house.  And the very expensive new plumbing is just to the left of the washing machine, first a faucet valve and then another valve (that now doesn't exist) a few inches from the faucet both exploded - about 3 weeks apart from one another and flooded our laundry room TWICE! One time it was so bad, insurance had to be called.

I finished several jobs for clients in my photo organizing businesss, taught two weekly crochet classes and hosted 15 students for a Kronum tournment.  Kronum is a sport that 3 of my 4 kids have been playing since 2011.  Kronum could fill a whole blog post on its own!

I'm tired just remembering it all...

For those of you who wondered what happened to my posting between July and January, you will now understand that many other things simply took over and my blog sat quiet while life flew by.

Serene Silly Selfie New Year!

 

 

Welcome to 2015!

 

As the end of 2014 neared, I captured images around the house in the fading sunlight of dusk...

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I took this goofy selfie after having a pre-party drink and getting ready to head upstairs to dress  for New Year's Eve, I thought about the funny little photo shoot my hubby and I did a few days back.

 

 

There is a photo booth at a restaurant we often frequent in Philly - we have several times gone in the photo booth and instead of taking photo booth photos, we take silly selfies with our camera phones!  Here is what we took a few days after Christmas when we had a night out in the city.

 

 

 

I have been making a concerted effort of late (past few years) to not take myself too seriously and in general have more fun in little, insignificant ways.

 

Before we headed out to a neighbor's New Year's Eve party, we took another selfie collection.  We aren't very good at selfies, we never know where to look at the camera and struggle to hold on to the phone and click the button without dropping it or photographing our hands or something.  I guess that shows our age cuz all of my kids take selfies without any struggle.

 

 

We had fun, stayed out past 1am, kept our drinking well in check, woke up super hungry yet without hangovers to keep us sleeping in.  We got up early and headed out to a neighborhood breakfast spot and ate a HUGE yummy breakfast which has kept me completely full all the way into this afternoon.

 

The first day of 2015 brought with it cold temperatures and loads of bright and happy sunshine.

 

See how it poured in the windows this morning?

 

 

So I'm off for now but wishing you a sunny, happy, bright, shiny and maybe a bit silly new year.  Here's to 2015!  Cheers!  Sher









Creatively Christmas 2014

While I haven't been blogging...
I HAVE been making.

Much of my making was Christmas gifts.  However, I have a bunch of patterns to share for things I've created and projects I'm in the midst of.  So if I keep on blogging you will have that to come...

Here are some snippets of our Christmas:

One of my favorite moments is on Christmas Eve when most everyone has gone off to bed and only the indoor Christmas lights brighten the room.  Under the tree is loaded with gifts.  It's very quiet, it's totally serene.  I have to stop myself from taking photos to try to make that special time hold still...

 

Once the morning arrives and the crazy kids awake (4 of these kids are mine, 2 are my sisters and the one at the top of the steps is my youngest sister who is 20 years my junior - so she is lucky enough to get to be part of the batch of kids yet), the Christmas crazy begins.

 

 



For the past several years it's been my goal to use all non-traditional wrappings.  My attempt is to use no paper wrapping at all.  Most of my wrap gets re-used from year to year.  In these photos of the wrapped gifts you can see a variety of wrappings: old clothing, sweaters, pant legs, shirts, skirts etc... made into wrap bags and tied with re-usable ribbons.  Only the handmade paper gift tags get tossed.  Also in the mix is mailing envelopes (you can see one on the far right with a tree drawn on it), handled shopping bags (which are then given as part of the gift), flannel backed and plastic table cloths (which I buy at the dollar store and re-use year after year - works great for bigger gifts), paper grocery bags, the paper and bubblewrap that comes in the shipping boxes from amazon, etc.... Once a gift is open the family returns the clothing bags, ribbons, etc... and I store them in a box to re-use the following year.

For my little niece Maisie, my husband and I co-created doll beds and bedding.  Maisie has three dolls (handed down from her mom, my sister).  There is a blond, brunette and red-head doll.  My husband fashioned them beds that stack in bunks or come apart as separate.

We trash pick wood and re-use old furniture quite a bit.  My husband probably didn't buy anything new to create these beds - he fashioned them all from the odd bits of wood and molding strips already in his garage.

Likewise - I did my part to dress the beds.  After all, these dollies needed a bit of soft and warm for proper sleeping:

Each doll bed had entirely handmade bedding (by me).

An old ikea curtain provided the means to sew hand-tufted mattresses stuffed with leftover couch pillow stuffing.  Atop the mattress was a double-sided flat sheet (easy for a toddler to make up the bed).  Once the doll was on the sheet she'd need a place to rest her head so I sewed a pillow and a coordinating pillow case (to match the sheet and other bedding).  Most of the sheets and pillow cases were made from thrifted vintage sheets.  Atop the doll were then a quilt and a blanket.  The quilts were all handmade (sewing machine made) by me.  Each quilt had a traditional pieced side and a more modern side.  Then, each doll received a crocheted blanket.  There were three total bedding sets, one each with a pink, orange and green theme.  My sewing machine was in the shop for 6 weeks before Christmas and I just barely got it back in time to complete the bed sewing.  WHEW!

I hope Maisie will love the doll items for years to come.

And then there were the hats.  My daughter got 4 (because I like to make hats in front of the TV while watching sappy Hallmark Christmas shows)!  The first one is slouchy and kinda Rasta in an acrylic-cotton blend.

Then there was the acrylic-wool blend purple and turquoise slouchy.  I should have photographed all the hats before giving them so you could see the actual hat other than just seeing it perched on a head with all the detail missing.

 

 This one was again, wool acrylic with a  very chunky yarn and a pattern I got from Moogly blog. Consequently - the white hat was my personal favorite and I might make one for myself.

This final hat was a beret with a pom pom - of course which you cannot see!  It's made from 100% Peruvian wool in a double green/blue twist.

Finally, I winged one final hat - in royal blue with red and white accents in my son's college colors.

It's an unwritten tradition to wear everything you get on xmas morning - so my son has a bow tie, a football jersey and a crochet hat all together.

An annual tradition is for each kid to have a crochet college bunting to hang in the dorm room.  This one is for the son on the left to hang at his college, Shippensburg, and has two little ships wheels included (I made up that ship wheel pattern and will share it).  I also used the capital letters pattern from moogly blog.  Do you love that blog? It's one of my favorites!

Remember what I said about wearing everything you get - take a crazy pj outfit and start adding hats and purses and OH MY!

In a house full of teenagers and twenty-somethings - this group gift was a HUGE big hit and they cheered for about 5 straight minutes.  The gift was a card game called "Cards Against Humanity" which is a very inappropriate version of Apples to Apples.  They have been wanting this crazy and very non-PC card game for a while.  Yes it got played that night - and I and my hubby joined in.  It's very inappropriately funny - but those of you with high morals or young kids would be abashed (I have neither the high morals or the young kids).

A few years back I suggested that the Christmas dinner meal be a casual one.  Since everyone stays at my home for several days before and after Christmas, things are a bit hectic... I figured an easy meal would help with the strain and stress of heavy cooking duties and it does.  Here is our Christmas table in which everyone dresses as he or she pleases, pjs are welcome.  We have 3 pots of soup (2 vegan since most of the family is vegan, and 1 organic but not vegan).  This year we had vegan veggie, vegan creamy broccoli and organic chicken noodle.  Typically I also provide a salad and this year it had arugula, baby kale, baby chard, baby romaine, baby spinach, organic tri-color quinoa, heirloom rainbow cherry tomatoes, roasted yam, dried cranberry, homemade sweet and salty pecans and balsamic dressing.  Often there is homemade bread but this time we had a few organic store-bought.  One whole grain and one with rosemary.  A big pitcher or pomegranate iced tea, some alcoholic beverages and the meal was a done deal.  I don't have fancy dishes enough for everyone, so each third of the table had their own dishes pattern. 

Around mid-day we had eaten some hearty appetizers: peppered salami and sharp cheese for the non-vegans and all the rest was vegan: hot salsa with chips, bread with spinach artichoke dip, anti-pasta salad with olives, peppers, artichokes and mushrooms, roasted veggies with cauliflower, carrots, onions and zucchini, tapenade with crackers, hummus, salted nuts... and a variety of other things that kept us fully satisfied with simple to serve type food.

 And a big bonus this Christmas for me?  I got to sleep in a bedroom and in a bed while the guests were here!!!!  Usually I have to give up my bed and my bedroom and I end up sleeping on a couch or a floor (as does my hubby).  But this year we re-did the "boys" room that was rather teenage boyish and yucky and turned it into a bedroom that we could offer to a guest. SO I then got to sleep in an actual bed in my own room.  And that was Christmas bliss.

I love to make and to give gifts at Christmas.  I don't as much like getting gifts.  However, my hubby gave me two bottles of wine, two yummy little boxes of chocolate and two new indoor scarves... all good stuff!

How was your Christmas?  What are your traditions?  Do you celebrate another holiday or a different religion?  If so, what do you do on Christmas when others are celebrating with lighted trees and holiday wrapping?

Next up - all the making and creating that's been happening for the past 6 months... to include some new free patterns for you!  TA TA and Happy New Year's Eve!  Sher

And Half the Year Later...

I haven't blogged since July- that's almost half the year.

The blog sat.  From time to time it called my name, got added to my to do list, and thought about in my dreams.

Do I care if I blog only for me - or do I blog for others or is this whole experience just a public journal interspersed with a personal pattern catalog?  Do you want to come along for the ride? Do you miss me - or even notice when I'm gone?

Should I stay or should I go.  Does anyone hear my words, like my posts, know my blog thoughts?

Would I be missed, would my patterns be lost on little slips of paper and my crafty ideas waft out of my brain without a mention?

Am I weighed down by my blog or lifted?

I still don't know.

I'm not ready to quit- I don't want to create a set of blog rules for myself, but I am not ready to end my blogging authorship.

Sometimes I write blog posts in my head and they never make it to the keyboard and the world wide web.  Sometimes I forget my own blog even exists in my RSS reading list -because it's never bold anymore, begging me to click on it to see my latest updates.

I read the blogs I follow pretty much every day.  I know the writers, the authors, their families - they don't know me at all.  I visit their lives, see the scenes inside their houses, follow their patterns, create along side them - day in and day out - but they have no idea who I am, that I'm here - that I follow - that I know them.

It's a strange world the blogging world.  Kind of weird and kind of wonderful.

So almost 6 months since my last post - I muse.  Do I stay absent or do I become present.  I don't know.  Maybe blogs are just something I read and write and follow so I can justify the time to drink another cup of coffee...

Fondly, Sher