In the Midst of Final Preparations

Here at our house, we are scrambling to finish the last of the Christmas preparations.   Nick has been home all week.  We've been enjoying our time together.

Baking...

Making gifts for one another.

Here are 2 of Sweetpea's ornament creations that I'm sure are to become favorites of their recipient.

And crocheting...  I finally finished the scarf and hat set for Munch.  Well, it's really not a set.  Munch loves accessories.  I made her a scarf for her birthday as well.  All have some shade of orange in them (her favorite color) so they can be mixed and matched at will.  None of them "go" together.  But, that totally suits her style.

Here's the scarf.  I followed the Icarus Scarf pattern on the Purl Bee website.  Loosely followed, really.  I wanted to make the whole thing, just as is, from start to finish.  But it was a last minute plan of mine (I have those often).  And I had this corn fiber yarn from Kollage Yarns that I wanted to try in a similar color scheme.  So I went with it.  Munch is only 11, so I shortened the scarf to 250 chains.  And then I ran out of yarn (that's what tends to happen with my last minute plans), so I couldn't finish all the rows.  Since it was a smaller scarf, I then decided to shorten the fringe from 6 inches to 4.

The corn yarn is really soft and has a nice sheen to it.  It's made in the USA.  From corn.  Which always fascinates me.  It's called Corntastic by Kollage Yarns.

Her hat is the Lacy Scallop Hat found on the Ravelry site.

I used this really great cotton/rayon blend yarn called Cotton Blossom Yarn by Dixie (also made in the USA) in tangerine.  I absolutely love how you can see the shiny rayon fibers crinkled in with the cotton fibers.  It was easy to stitch with.  The hat looks better in person.  Someday, I may even take a better pic of it on Munch and post it. 

Nick has been wanting to get some molds to start a gingerbread house making tradition with our kids.  In the meantime, I picked up a kit for them to start on.  They had fun putting that together last night.

We still have a lot of things to do - ice cookies, bake a few more, make a gift for my parents, finish putting together the rest of Sweetpea's ornament creations, make food for gatherings, clean...  I'm working very hard at staying sane.  Right now, i'm taking a little break.  Everything will wait for me while I recharge my batteries a bit...