Friday, December 23, 2022

'Tis the Season

Treats from Neighbor S

Neighbor S stopped by on Wednesday afternoon with some homemade gata (Armenian cookies, foreground, on the festive paper plate), that she had made, slices of pound cake, and slices of Armenian puri bread.  Her gata are delicious and the puri bread was very much to my liking!  I had some of the bread with chicken curry for my dinner!

I had been putting together a couple of Christmas decorations and I gave one to S in return for all the yummy goodies she's been giving me (she had brought two other pieces of cake for me on Tuesday, too - a slice of the pound cake and a piece of bird's milk cake!)

Christmas Decoration

I had the basket and the greenery, etc. in my stash.  I put together two baskets and gave one to S and the other one to neighbor T's daughter to take to neighbor T.  

Another item I made with supplies in my stash is this pair of crocheted candles, similar to the ones my mother used to make:

Crocheted Candles

They are ready to be gifted to a friend of mine, along with this item I made for her first grandchild, expected to arrive in January:

Another Pink Baby Blanket

That is the end of the pink and the white yarn I had in the stash!

I have now set up the sewing machine on the dining table!  I started on the next lot of holiday gifts which will be sewn with fabric in my stash!  I'm almost running out of time to make the gifts!  Every year, I tell myself that I will get started on the gift making early and every year, I seem to wait until the last minute!  Then, again, when it is 100F in the summer, I don't feel like making Christmas and New Year's gifts.

In between making holiday gifts, I have done laundry, cooked more chicken curry, done some essential cleaning of bathrooms and litter boxes, chatted with family and friends, and spent more time on the computer than I should have!  Also, the doctor's office called with my scan results - everything was normal, they said, which is a big relief!

Today, I am grateful for:
- Neighbor S sharing more treats with me
- The great Stash!
- Being able to crochet, sew, knit, etc.
- Hot glue sticks and glue guns!
- My recent scan results were all normal per the doctor's office.

Are you making any of your holiday gifts?  If so, have you finished making them or are you still working on them?  Do you procrastinate doing them as I tend to do?

10 comments:

  1. Yay! for good scan results. I look forward to seeing all of your gift creations.

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    1. Thank you, June. I will post pictures of the gift creations, later. :)

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  2. I have a really easy gift buying system which doesn't involve making gifts. I only buy for the under 18 year olds and they all want/have money ... I just transferred this year's money to their accounts and that took all of 20 minutes! It's not quite the same as buying a gift but it is what the older ones want and the two little ones just have the same.

    S is so good at remembering to share food with you and it always looks so good. I hope you enjoyed it.

    How is your daughter feeling?

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    1. I like your gift giving system! Makes it easy and no doubt appreciated by the recipients! I give money or gift cards to a few people but, that gets expensive and I have a self-imposed budget I try to stick to. Had my peach jam turned out better, I'd be set for gifts, but, it didn't turn out well and with all that's been going on, I sort of ran out of time to order or make gifts. But, I think I'll do OK (some people are getting New Year's gifts anyway).
      S's food is always good and I think I enjoy it a bit too much! :D
      I don't want to jinx anything, but, my daughter is feeling better, thank you. :)

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  3. I'm so glad your scan results were all normal! Neighbour S is making sure the season is merry and bright with all the lovely treats! You are doing well with the crafting of presents. I hope your sewing goes well. I suppose Dancer will be working overtime with you?

    Our power was off when I woke up to a lot of snow outside. It went off at 6 am but was back again in a few hours. A huge branch suddenly crashed down from our white pine, but not on the driveway. I now have DH's cold, while he is feeling a lot better now. I took a Covid test which was negative and I don't think DH needs to take one as I got this from him, for sure. Well, there is much to be thankful for when you have a warm home, a generator, and someone to plow the driveway, although I don't think we will be going far today with the forecast so dire.

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    1. Thank you, Bushlady; the scan results are a relief! S is definitely making sure that I have plenty of treats to keep my spirits up! I'm coming along with the gift making, but, my quality control officer seems to be sleeping on the job!
      Oh, I'm sorry your power was off, but, thank goodness it was back on later and you have a generator to keep things going in the meantime. Sorry, too, that you have caught DH's cold! Tell him I said he's very generous! LOL. I'm glad your Covid test came negative. Stay well hydrated, warm, and safe! We have much to be thankful for, don't we?

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  4. Oh those treats from neighbor S look very good. I bet that bread was delicious with your curry.
    The gifts you made are so nice and perfect for giving to S and neighbor T.
    I wondered what you were working on the last few times when you mentioned you crocheted in the evenings. Did you have a pattern for the candles? I like the red with the pink poinsettias.

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    1. S makes some of the best treats and the bread was very good.
      Thank you, Debra; I enjoyed putting together the basket gifts.
      I don't have a written down pattern for the candles - my mother made hers based on one that she was given by the parent of one of her students and I based mine on the candle my mother made. What I do is crochet about 5 chains and join them in a circle - I don't know to do those magic rings, I just join with a slip stitch. Then, I do about 8 or so double crochets right around and do one more row of double crochets, sometimes doing two stitches into one chain to increase the round. After that, I do double crochets all around without increasing the number of stitches - this makes a tube and I make it about 4 inches long (about the length of a cardboard tube from a toilet paper roll). Then, I start increasing the number of stitches, to make the ruffled bottom. I usually do two double crochets into each stitch for the first round, then two double crochets every 2 or 3 stitches, as evenly as possible, for about 3 rows. The original candle that my mother received wasn't very ruffly, but, I like the ruffles. For the flame, I chain about 5 or 6 stitches, then, do single crochets on each chain stitch. Finally, I insert a clean cardboard tube from a toilet roll to keep the candle upright (I usually cover the tube with plain white paper to make it look better). You can use a cardboard tube from a roll of paper towels, too, cut to size. Does that make sense? There might be better instruction online!

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  5. What wonderful news from your doctor's office! That is a great Christmas present to you! The crocheted candles are very pretty. They're such a nice idea. The baby blanket is very sweet. I hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend!

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    1. Thank you, Celie. Yes, it was very good news!
      I hope you are having a lovely holiday weekend, yourself. Stay warm and safe!

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