Creativity Fettered

I'm taking a cake decorating class! I am so excited, because this is something that I've been wanting to do as long as I can remember. I'm acquiring the tools and techniques I've wanted for years. I made a yummy coconut cream cake for our Sunday dinner at Cory & Lisa's house, and I'm working on a yellow cake with lemon filling now.

I am also finally working on my sister's Christmas present, I'm making her a coat. It is a more extensive tailoring project than I usually tackle. It is going to be fantastic. The sewing machine is out, the ironing board is up, the bedroom is a disaster, and I'm sewing again!

I finally have the time I needed to get some of these things done, I've been home all day for the last 2 days! I can watch TV, read blogs, do some writing of my own, its almost perfect.... except one thing:

I'm sick.

You know, the winter plague- deep chest congestion, sinus headaches, drippy nose, loud cough. All of it. Which means: I'm not getting a heck of a lot done. I'm not at work, because my body won't let me work. So, I try to rest.

I lay there.... thinking about my cake.... about my coat... about my blog... This isn't rest. This is unrest.

Wouldn't it be great to have a few days off, get the to-do list checked off, maybe even go to a mid-week matinee? Too bad I have to use up my sick days on the real thing.

December!

The month is already half over and I'm only now sitting down to blog all our Flynn fun this month.

We found out at the beginning of the month that Western has turned down Steve's request to begin school in Spring rather than January, so now we have no idea what we'll be doing. It'll be fun to see how everything works itself out, but for now its the "maybe we should do this" game. Steve is looking for a new job, since we'll be here awhile longer.

We went up to the mountains on the 6th to go get our Christmas tree. No snow! It felt weird, like we were going too early. It looks very lovely sitting on the table in our room- we picked a short one as we are quite limited on space.

You can't tell from the picture very well, but we have an ornament with a picture of the 2 of us, celebrating our first Christmas together. We decided on our honeymoon that we would collect Christmas ornaments to commemerate special trips and occasions. Unfortunately we seem to have packed up and hidden the one we bought in Victoria when we made that desicion in the first place! Oh, well, there is always next year... and the ones after that.

Speaking of ornaments, this year I joined my mom and her girlfriends in their annual ornament exchange. I made some cute felt poinsettias and figgy puddings and received some really lovely ones (and ideas!) in exchange.

In other craft news, I've been busy this month sewing new stockings for Steve and I. He designed them both (with lots of input, of course) and I sewed them up. I just finished this afternoon. Steve's is Santa, and mine is a snowman. Santa's hat has a real jingle-bell, and my snowflakes are beaded and there is a row of little bells along the bottom of the cuff. We had a lot of fun with these, and we are very excited to hang them for years to come.

We both enjoyed my work Christmas party last week. I was (foolishly) quite concerned about what to wear, but Steve surprised me with a beautiful red sweater and a pretty pin and some earrings, and made me feel beautiful.

Yesterday I threw a baby shower for my friend Leslie. I forgot to get any pictures, but we had a good time. I made an ice cream cake. Leslie requested one when we were teenagers for her wedding cake- I was a little late, but at least I made her the cake. We played Nursery Rhyme Jeopardy and guess which flavor of baby food was in the jars, and she took home so lovely gifts. It was a lot of fun to spend time with her and friends and family. And of course, baby Harvey is the most fun of all- he gets cuter every day.

We are looking forward to a busy week of cookie and candy making, followed by Christmas!!! We hope you are all enjoying the season as much as we are.

Crafty Season

Belated Happy Thanksgiving!

I've been crafting a bit lately, I think its just that time of year. I made my friend Leslie a baby-sling for her new little one, but I forgot to take any pictures of it. Also, I made it much too big for her so I'll be stealing it back and making her a smaller one. We had a combined baby shower for 2 of the gals at work that are expecting soon, I made each of them a blanket with a cute flannel print on one side and soft satin on the other.





I have also been playing around with my Knifty Knitter lately. I've always had a desire to knit/crochet/etc... but I've never been patient enough with it. The Knifty Knitter speeds up the process a lot, and I'm really enjoying it it.





Steve has really wanted a knit hat for awhile, so I made a striped one with a pom pom top on it. The other hat I gave to Abbey, my brother Ben's girlfriend. It looked so cute on her I told her she had to keep it. Now for some new yarn colors!!