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Something highly unusual has happened her at the Sty. People have given me prezzies …. and I haven’t thought they were from Cara! How about that for something different?!

On Friday the cute little pig measuring tape arrived in my mailbox. Liz saw it and thought of me. You know the old saying, find a pig, pick it up, send it to Ann, all day long you’ll have good luck Thank you Liz —- I love it!! and will think of you every time I pull its tail!

Next up is a Christmas present from Kathleen. I love this coffee mug – Got Gauge? items support Heifer International which is such a worthwhile charity. But, back to the mug – I am a coffee junkie, and therefore somewhat particular about my mugs. This one is the perfect heft. Kathleen had to drop it off early because Kevin was coveting it.

Thank you pals!!

On the knitting front, I am attempting to finish all projects before beginning another. My aim is to have a nanosecond when there is nothing on the needles. Having recently finished the sweater and now the socks, I have only this shawl/scarf thing going at the moment. It is something of a monster, 360 stitches per row!, so I don’t know if I will be able to persevere and keep going with no other distractions, but I am going to try. I don’t want to start Irish Moss until after the holiday hub bub is over. My next pair of socks will be Jaywalkers and I am waiting for a pair of Addi’s size 1 to arrive ….. speaking of, I found great price on these, here is the ebay link. I am waiting for my shipment, but this person has great feedback, so I am confident that this isn’t too good to be true.

an entry where Ann is so crafty & clever it makes you mad …

…. but remember ladies; only dogs get mad, people get angry.

let’s move on, shall we? Have you been considering the Pocket Creature? Have you thought to yourself, ‘How twee!’ but then allowed thoughts of that little lavendar and rice sachet not to mention picking up stitches for the arms stop you? Ladies, have I got a solution for you!

Allow me to introduce a completed creature ……

Pocket_creature_dec_19_001

the thought of setting up the old Singer to make a sachet almost spelled the end for him. But then I stroked my genius ;) and came up with this. Brilliant, no? A simple, yet elegant solution – a tea bag! Cut the tea bag as close to that mini staple as possible. Replace tea with rice. Or if you don’t have any lavender handy (did you allow your dried herb cupboard to go empty??) leave some of the tea in there for the smell good factor. Once your tea bag is full of tea and rice, refold the top and staple. A regular sized staple just fits. Violá!

~~I did think of one flaw in my plan, that turned out to not be too much of a flaw. As I was watching my tea bag/sachet spinning in my microwave, it occurred to me that the staple is metal …… metal & microwaves = sparks. In this case, nothing happened. Maybe it is too little metal?

As for the arms — the directions would have you pick up stitches. This is way too much aggravation to endure for this little frivolity. I knit an I-cord of appropriate length and threaded it through the little arm holes. Rather than weave in the ends of the I-cord, I threaded them back through to where they met the body and anchored the ‘arms’ that way.

Now that we’ve gotten the ‘clever’ out of the way, how about a crafty display?

Dec_19_002

bittersweet wreath

I noticed some bittersweet growing along the side of the road – I pulled over and had a Martha moment.

not politically correct

CAROLS FOR THE PSYCHIATRICALLY CHALLENGED

  • Schizophrenia Do I Hear What I Hear?
  • Multiple Personality Disorder We Three Queens Disoriented Are
  • Amnesia I don’t know if I’ll be Home for Christmas
  • Narcissistic Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me
  • Manic Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and Fire Hydrants and……
  • Paranoid Santa Claus is coming to Get Me
  • Borderline Personality Disorder Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire
  • Personality Disorder You Better Watch Out, I’m Gonna Cry, I’m Gonna Pout, Maybe I’ll tell You Why
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells ,Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells
  • Agoraphobia I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day But Wouldn’t Leave My House
  • Senile Dementia Walking in a Winter Wonderland Miles From My House In My Slippers and Robe
  • Oppositional Defiant Disorder I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus So I Burned Down the House
  • Social Anxiety Disorder Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas While I Sit Here and Hyperventilate

[via Claire]