gotta have fath*

10 December 2011

Advent, Week 1

I've been totally inspired by my sister's wonderful Advent posts this year!
So I've decided to mirror her weekly breakdown of Advent activities...here is week 1:

-:- 1. Decorate our Christmas tree -:- This was the first thing we did this season. We got a perfect little Scotch Pine and we love it.

-:- 2. Deck the Halls -:- Probably my favorite thing about decorating our home for the holidays is watching the cats as we drape potential prey over every part of the house. Wilbur gets a very intense look in his eye...prepares himself for the kill...

...and then catches me looking at him through a camera lens and twists his body awkwardly to casually sniff the radiator. Cheek.

-:- 3. Go see the Nutcracker Ballet -:- On our way to the show, Casy asked me why the Nutcracker was such a big deal. By the end of the show, he told me he knew each one of those songs, but didn't know they all came from that ballet! He said Home Alone is the Nutcracker!
We finished the night with some brick oven pizza and the OSU game.

-:- 4. Make our Advent wreath -:- One of my most favorite Christmas traditions.

-:- 5. Start reading the Christmas Carol -:-

-:- 6. Exchange ornaments on St. Nicolas Day -:- Um, in our shoes, with some Christmas candy too. Hello, gingerbread cream-filled Godiva bar. And thank you, husband.

-:- 7. Sponsor a child (or two!) for Christmas through the Salvation Army -:- We went toy shopping this weekend for our girls!

Love, T.

28 November 2011

Hobbit Bread

At last Gandalf pushed away his plate and jug - he had eaten two whole loaves (with masses of butter and honey and clotted cream) and drunk at least a quart of mead - and he took out his pipe.

I imagine the bread that Gandalf ate, and all of the other loaves in Middle Earth, were like the one I made last weekend. Full of flax seeds and currants and best eaten with butter and honey.

I will probably post nothing but Advent and Christmas-realted things from now until the 25th! Get ready!

Love, T.

24 November 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love Thanksgiving in a major way.

I try to think about and acknowledge everything I'm grateful for each day
but it's so nice to have a holiday dedicated to giving thanks.

I think there's so much power in collective thanksgiving
and I love the thought of us all sending gratitude out into the world on a single day.

I have so much to be thankful for.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday
and that your days are full of warmth and joy.

Love, T.

20 November 2011

Sparkling Sunday

I love gingerbread around this time of year.

I love how it smells when it's baking and I love how warming it is to eat.

I especially love it when it sparkles.

Which is why I love this recipe.

I made this with one cup of whole wheat flour and one cup of all-purpose flour.

And only because I didn't have any oranges on hand, I didn't include the orange peel.

It was delicious, but I bet the orange peel would have really knocked it out of the park.

Highly recommended.

Enjoy the rest of your weekends!

Love, T.

18 November 2011

One Down...

Oh, pairs of things.

I love the idea of knitting them,
(they are so cozy, so useful, and so beautiful)
but having to knit two of the same thing...in a row...
is usually more than I can handle.

It's like...you knit something awesome, cast off, start to admire your gorgeous hand-knit item...
and then suddenly you are faced with the reality that you have to knit that thing all over again before it's useful in any way.

And you're all, "Really? Not cool."

And your project's all, "Whatever. You're the one who decided to knit me."

So then you wait 177 million days before starting the second half.

That's how it usually goes for me, anyway.

177 million days...starting now.

---------

On a different note,
this was my first colorwork project and it has absolutely revolutionized my knitting world.

Kind of like this: