Winter Is Here

Me Thinketh Winter Be Upon Us! lol Hubby reported this
morning that the temp. was 1 degree! No wonder my
windows are frosty and my coffee tastes so yummy this
morning!

I've been getting ready for the holidays as of late, and
things are a bit hectic in my world. I just now finished
up a darling little stocking for a friend's grandson. It's
made of John Deere flannel, fully lined, and has batting
between the layers. I've tried to find a stocking
pattern that I really liked. I have a problem with the
shape of them. I like a nice full, rounded stocking, and
a pattern for such seemed to be ever elusive to me. I
found a tiny little free pattern on the net and loved the
general shape of it. My sister and I enlarged it by
200%, then I added a contrasting heel patch, toe
patch, and cuff.... walah.... the perfect stocking for
my tastes.

I also made stockings for my Grandmonsters, all in
John Deere print, blue background for the boy and
pink background for the girls. They are just too
cute for words. Everyone that's seen them just fell
in love with them. Now the real test.... will the
Grandmonsters like them?? Of course not, they'll
only be concerned with the treasures the
stockings contain.

My precious Hubby wanted a new tree stand, so
that's what I did for his Christmas. He got it
early so he could use it during deer season, we
also got him a new range finder.... much to his
delight.

Last week when I was getting ready to go shopping
Hubby came out of the bedroom with a sly grin on
his face. He then asked me if I was still wanting an
embroidery machine. When I replied that I was,
he handed me a handful of money and told me to
get myself one for Christmas! Talk about
surprise of surprises! I am impatiently waiting
for the UPS man to deliver it to my house! lol

We had an EMS (Emergency Medical Services)
dinner a few nights later and low and behold
I won the very first door prize of the evening....
a $100 gift card for Wal-Mart! So I'm saving
that to buy some thread and stuff for my
new embroidery machine. I am so
excited!!

Last week I churned out some more of the
soap that looks like popsicles. I had an
order for a few bars and decided I'd just
make as much as I needed to use up all
the packaging bags I had. Got that little
chore done! Now I also have some more
soap that can be sold on a moment's
notice.

I love lurking around on etsy.com and
looking at the unusual items that other
people create. I stumbled upon a neat
looking item the other day, Smores On A
Stick. They were very unusual, looked
delicious and caught my eye. I decided
to try making some. They turned out
so neat, everyone that had one thought
they were good and very neat looking.
Just take a wooden skewer, put 3 or 4
large marshmallows on it. Cover it in
melted chocolate and then sprinkle
graham cracker crumbs on it. Stick
them in the freezer until they set up. I then
wrapped each one in saran wrap and
twisted the ends around the stick. Turned
out really cute and the Grandmonsters
loved them. By the time Cookie ate
one, she was covered in chocolate, she
looked adorable!

Jaylan was with us over the weekend so she
helped me do some cooking. That kid loves
to be in the kitchen with me! I bought one of
those little two step kitchen stools a while
back to help me reach light bulbs, etc. Well,
it has turned into Jaylan's stool. If she stands
on the top step she's the perfect height for
my kitchen counters and she can reach my
stand mixer really good.

Soooo.... yesterday we mixed up some
chocolate chunk cookie dough, some Andres
mints cookie dough, some peanut butter balls,
some chocolate fudge, some graham candy,
and some rice krispy treats. I still have to
bake the cookies and dip the peanut butter
balls, but that shouldn't be a problem.

Today and tomorrow I have to make my
sister a couple reversible aprons for her gift
for Christmas Eve. She requested aprons, and
even went so far as to buy some fabric and a
pattern. Well, she's lost the pattern! lol Her
Hubby cleaned out their truck, the pattern was
in the truck, and now they don't know where
he put all the stuff.... her winter coat is
even missing! LOL Can you believe that???
Ok... back to the apron.... I tried to find a
pattern for these aprons to no avail. I had to
end up buying an apron kit, you got the
pattern and the fabric to make the apron
with. Wonder why you couldn't just buy
the pattern? So I waited for the "kit" to
arrive, and of course it seemed to take
forever. I finally got it Thursday evening
when I went to get my mail. I sure
couldn't sew anything over the weekend
with Miss Nosey Pants (Jaylan) here.

I've been hearing so much of the garbage
about Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
controversy. Why is wishing someone a
Merry Christmas such a problem?? I believe
in the old saying that "Jesus is the reason for
the season.". And why should it bother a
person for me to wish them a Merry Christmas?
How does that infringe upon their "rights"?
Don't I have the "right" to wish them holiday
tidings in any way I so choose? You know, I've
had people say and do things to me that I
don't particularly care for, but I sure didn't
make a stink about it, I just kept my mouth
shut and went on with life. What would I
accomplish by making waves? I have
learned throughout my 47 years on this earth,
that sometimes it's better to just keep my
mouth shut and eat a little crow. I believe
this helps me grow into a better person.
What do you think?

I'll try to post some pics of all the goodies
I've been making in a few days. But for
now I'm off to the kitchen to bake a cookie
or two!

Happy Holidays.... Noooo....
Merry CHRISTmas!!!