Getting Busy

I bought the Advent stitching box from Pastime Pieces. This year it’s divided into the 4 seasons with 6 treats each. Winter was a little zippered pouch with, pattern, floss, decals, etc.

On Sunday I thought I’d make quick work of the stitching on the 14ct Aida panel. I started in the centre and stitched towards the left. When I went to start the ‘W’ I realized there was not enough room! The pattern was 107 stitches wide and my Aida panel was only 105 sts wide. Argh! So I started frogging.

Looking at the pattern, the zipper pouch was supposed to be 10” wide and mine was only 7 1/2” wide. No wonder the design didn’t fit. I decided to omit the big snowflake to the right of ‘Winter’ and centred the word. Much better. You can see the pile of frogged threads… I had also changed the colour of the floss to DMC 930 as I felt it was a better match to the fabric colour than the WDW Blue Suede that was provided. So glad it wasn’t the hand-dyed floss that I had to frog and waste.

On Monday after stitching, I got the Christmas tree out of the basement, up, and decorated. A bunch of the lights are not working but I had an extra string that filled in the gaps, even though about a third of those lights weren’t working either. I also changed the batteries in my candles on the mantle. 

It was so hard to get motivated to do this because I had to remove my sewing cart from that corner and find room in the dining room for it. I didn’t put the tree up last year because I had spent Christmas in the Dominican Republic with family. All the ornaments on the tree are handmade mostly by me.   It is very cozy in the family room now with only the tree lights on and the candles lit.

Yesterday, Scooter ventured out to Whitby for a visit. I had a couple of errands to run after retrieving him from the GO Station: a drop-off at the Salvation Army (surplus Christmas ornaments), and a trip to Bulk Barn for some items to make my spritz cookies. I also picked up the ingredients to make a batch of glögg - a Swedish spiced wine. Our friend, Lena, shared her recipe with me several years ago and I make a batch every year to sip on through the holiday season.

I also made a batch of chocolate ‘haystacks’ or as MaryK calls them ‘poop cookies”. They’re quite chewy but yummy.

I bought enough ingredients yesterday to make a second batch of them. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow after my last yoga class of this session.

This morning, I awoke to a thick blanket of snow outside and the water shut off. The snowplough had come by this morning so there was a big pile at the bottom of the driveway. I decided I wasn’t going to go out today at all. My next-door neighbour warned me about the possibility of a water shut-off after her was turned off yesterday and she found the note about it attached to her door handle. I didn’t receive one.  Instead of starting to make cookies, I goofed off in the morning crocheting and watching TV. 

The water got turned on at about 2pm so I got busy making cookies. I have a cookie press which makes forming the spritz cookies very easy. I did a batch and a half, cranking out about 10 dozen cookies in total.

Sometime this afternoon the snow clearing service cleared out the driveway including the big windrow at the bottom of the driveway. Hurrah! I can run my next bunch of errands tomorrow.

I somehow found some more energy and made zucchini fritters for supper. I had the zucchini in the fridge and thought I’d better use them before they went bad. The fritters were still pretty soft but very yummy. I have ordered the little handheld vacuum packing device in hopes it will help me keep leftovers from going bad. I hope it arrives soon. 

After supper I got busy working on a stealth Christmas project and got the first part completed. Tomorrow I’ll do the finishing touches. I need to hit the dollar store for some decorative bags for gifting cookies and wrapping Christmas treats. I also have to compose my Christmas newsletter and get some cards ready to send out and hand out.

Another task is to wrap the ornament I’m going to put in the guild’s ornament exchange next week.

In spite of having a lack of motivation most of the time, I’m very pleased I got so much accomplished so far this week. And it’s only Wednesday!