{The Perfect Sunday}

The perfect Sunday began by sleeping in WAY later than normal (like 8 o'clock people. It's unnatural for me), then a pancake breakfast!  Shortly after, with a cup of hot chai in hand, I began my final exam for International Politics class.  2 1/2 hours plus 8 pages type written later, I was finished with the whole day ahead of me!

Mr. Pie and I made a quick grocery store run and I came back to chat with two of my favorite people ever - Jenny and Anna - on Skype.   (do you Skype?  I kinda heart it hard.)  Then as the sun was going down the Christmassy Spirit arose!  We made bread bowls from scratch and some clam chowder to go in them for dinner, plus homemade eggnog for dessert.  SO easy and SO SO SO much better than store bought eggnog!

Bing Crosby went straight in to the cd player and some tree decorating begun!!

It was really hard to get a good picture of the tree, so it looks kinda bare. I'll try again tomorrow in the natural light, I promise. Here's a few of our favorite ornaments and our angel topper too. :)

I also have an FO to show you!! How exciting is that?  Mr. Pie asked for a balaclava to wear to work next week since it's going to be in the teens in the early morning and he'll be working outside (!!!) so of course I was happy to oblige.  I pulled out some cascade pastaza, which is 50% wool and 50% llama, VERY warm!

This is a super simple knit, just a 2x2 rib, I cast on 88 stitches and knit it in the round until it was long enough to cover his nose.  I cast off about 32 stitches, knit two rows back and forth, then used the backward loop method to cast the 32 back on.  From there I did about an inch and a half of rib then switched to stockinette so that the decreases were easier.  I knit 6, knit 2 together, all the way around, knit one row straight, then knit 5 knit two together all the way across, etc. 

I ran out of yarn so close to the end that you may notice the very tippy top is a slightly mixed green. hehe I think it's kinda cute!  This knit will certainly be super warm and functional.  That's one of my favorite parts of knitting I think, just knowing the things I create help keep my loved ones warm and cozy. :)

{More Frogging than Knitting}

I'm not traditionally a frogger.  I loathe the idea of undoing hours of time and work and starting from the beginning, so instead I usually try to make do.  But I tried on my bottom-up sweater only to find that it was about 6" too large in the waist for me, which isn't really fixable, so two skeins of Sundara Silky Merino made their way back in to cakes and I recast on for a much smaller size.  This yarn is just too good to not wear when my V-Neck sweater is complete! The frogging had an added bonus of allowing me a second chance at the cast on since I found it was rolling something terrible.  I restarted with an I-Cord cast on instead of a few rows of garder.  It took two days to do, but I really like the result.  I'll talk more about the project when I'm a little farther along and have something to show you.

I have had significantly more success in doing small projects around the house!  I found the inspiration for this 5 minute project on Design Sponge where they wrapped yarn around balls to create their snowmen, but when I first saw it I just thought it was stacked cakes!  So that's what I did! 

The buttons are just attacked with two stick pins and the arms are tiny twigs.  It was just what I was looking for in my display!  I love the textures beside each other (cotton, wool and linen) plus the slightly different cream colours and fun too.

Mr. Pie and I also made our second annual Gingerbread House!  We had such fun last year that we decided to give it another go. 

We struggled with our dough in the morning and by the afternoon I'd become so frustrated I ditched it for a kit from the grocery store.  I like the simplicity of just putting it together and decorating it, but it lacks personality I think. So next year the secret will be to refrigerate the HECK out of the gingerbread dough so it's not sticky.

 And we got our first snowfall this weekend!  Always an exciting time!  We took the opportunity to do a teensy bit of baking. What you see are some chocolate covered almost and pecans setting in the cold because the cutting board didn't fit in the fridge. hehe 

They were super easy - just melt some chocolate chips in a double boiler (or a metal bowl and a regular soup pot, as it was in our case) and then toss the nuts in the chocolate until you feel like you've got them covered without too much chocolate left over, them spoon them on to some wax paper and allow them to cool. We were a bit impatient. hehe

I hope your December is coming along as nicely as ours is here!  The final projects for the semester have been turned in, but that hardly means I'm done.  I have two big final exams coming up that will be the bain of my existence for about the next week or so.  Wish me luck!

{Finished Curtains}

The inspiration hit last night after dinner.  I had all the necessary materials and when a projects grips me like this it tells I have to do it Right Now!   In this case, it was curtains for the dining room!  I had some extra muslin fabric and some green fabric left over from my quilt, plus some burlap for extra length on the bottoms - all I had to do was sew it together!

Here's a before picture I found from last Christmas (I think).  These were some stock drapes I picked up years ago when I worked at Pier 1 Imports.

 

And now, here's the NEW curtains!  The cost? $4 for two! (the other one is on the light side of the house, so no good picture. hehe)

I think this was the best solution for our old house. Since we're renting we don't want to get too involved with buying brand new curtain rods or custom anything.  These are fun! The burlap adds dimension and weight to the otherwise very thin fabric and the custom height gives the room a bit of a regal feeling without being formal at all.  The white of the muslin is also really clean and fresh in this room.

Using the branch for a curtain rod was an idea I saw on a blog AGES ago and I have no idea where to find it again, but it must have affected me deeply because I've been hanging on to these branches for a long time for this purpose.   For the top of the drapes I used grommets (my only expense) and some twine to tie them up since they won't be functional draperies at all. 

I think my dining room is ready for dinner guests now!  :)

{My Fall "Mantel"}

We don't have a fireplace in this house (something that will definitely be rectified in our next home), so the one flat surface that I get to decorate up all pretty is the credenza in the dining room.

This Monday coming up is Thanksgiving in Canada.  Even though I don't live within the borders of my country anymore, I still like to live in the spirit.  Plus Mr. Pie likes having two Thanksgivings so it's not a hard sell. ;)   We're expecting a house full of people which for us means there will be 6 to dinner, including ourselves.  We really love entertaining on occasion and I'm really looking forward to it!  Doesn't it always make you think about sprucing up the house a little? 

Thus, I bring you my student-budget mantel / credenza decorating.   I wish I had a before but I never remember that part. Just picture clutter. lol

 The empty cake platter will have Pie on it come saturday, and then after that I think I'll put a pumpkin up there! Maybe we'll even carve it, or maybe I'll try one of those cool painting techniques I've been seeing all over the blogosphere! :)  Here's some closeups, of course.

This was an experiment that I'm happy to say went relatively right.  It's first incarnation was of a VERY fake summer wreath from the dollar store.  They must have thought highly of it though because it was marked $8.00.  I found it in the 90% off shelf and paid $0.80. The summer flowers were falling off in the bag on the way home. lol  The other flowers were from the dollar store too and it was only one stem.  I paid $3 for that one and just snipped off the flowers and a couple of leaves and worked them under the wire.  This little wreath might get a few more makeovers in the future, so I didn't use any glue.

A fresh pumpkin and a single $1 stem of fall leaves dressed up some items I already had on hand.  I love using books for decorating, don't you?

The only new thing purchased here are the reeds.  I probably could have done with another bundle, but for $3 I'll stick with the one for now. hehe  The vase I made in January during the snows and I'm so happy I'm finally finding a great place for it! Isn't the texture great?  Check out my Recycled Sweater Vase over Here.

So there ya have it! I think I'm planning one more project for tonight too. Muwahaha. (If I find time at my sewing machine. hehe)