Somethings to do with the holiday past, and a new long term visitor.

I managed to let most of the things I'd made for Christmas leave the house/be eaten without taking photographs, which is a shame because I actually had a pretty successful year as far as making went.

It was the year of the cowl, and I made three. All from free patterns that can be found on www.loopknits.com. Two, the chic cabled cowl, and the pebbled neck warmer, came out swimmingly, and were gratefully received by their intendeds. One, the herringbone neck warmer, left something to be desired and was reserved from gifting.

I also had some time for decorating. I made a simple garland using an old anthropologie catalogue, string, a hole-punch, and a glue stick. I was quite pleased with the way it turned out. My husband, however, was much happier with the peppermint bark I made.

My sister-in-law the younger is studying abroad this semester (Florence, Italy - poor thing), and we've been charged with caring for the little cat. Cyrus gets on with her quite well, and I think we'll all be a little sorry to see her go when the time comes.

Twice a month, or why you should invite me to your next party (a visual guide).

So, I was thinking I'd try to post one a week, which felt like a reasonable goal. But I decided I didn't want a reasonable goal - I wanted a modest and very achievable goal, so I shall post at least twice a month. More posts will be fine, but less will be considered unacceptable.

Sean and I were invited by a co-worker of mine to an Alice and Wonderland Themed costume party (for Halloween, which was months ago...sorry). Sean went as Humpty Dumpty and I went as Dinah (going for a both sides of the looking glass kind of thing). Sean's costume - I made the egg party of it - was pretty great, but the thing I was really proud of were the mini-pies I brought. They were loosely based on these from Design Sponge, but when I went to the store to get figs I was told that figs were out of season. My immediate reaction was to say "so are watermelons, but I see a huge stack of those," but instead I thanked the store employee and got kiwis and a pomegranate. Now that it's almost Christmas they look seasonally appropriate.

I am also pretty desperate to win this give-away on grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com. To have a chance to win one just has to add a link to the give-away (Social Darling Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!) on his/her blog. While I don't want to create more competition for the dress (as you can see it's absolutely stunning), I figure it's best to give everybody a try if they're interested.

Also, this is a hilarious photograph of my dog. I'm sure he's embarrassed that I'm posting it, but he really shouldn't be - he can't help himself - his tongue is just too big for his face.

Until the next time....