With APOLOGIES to Clement C. Moore

'Twas 5 days before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The fur-babies were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-frosted squirrels danced in their heads;

And dad in his sweatpants, and I without a cap,

Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,
When inside the bedroom wall there arose such a clatter,
We knew immediately just what was the matter.

To that wall I wanted to fly like a flash,

With sledgehammer in hand and a loud evil laugh.

They were playing chase the acorn and then roll the walnut began,
That squirrel and 37 of his closest friends .. at 2:30am.

But I couldn't destroy walls my husband reminded me in time,

So I turned on the lamp and read a good book (even though that doesn't rhyme).

And I heard that squirrel exclaim, before his party was through,

"Happy Christmas to all .. Deb lives in a zoo."

it's the weekend and I'll blog if I wanna ....

Thought I'd share what I've been working on the past couple of weeks on my days off .. more scarf felting .. what can I say? It's fun!

I had made this first one (at right) this past September .. Dave called it the 'swiss cheese effect'. Then I decided it had to be a 'more' warm weather scarf and 'added' to it. I like the way it came out this way too (it's below)! Definitely looks more like Michigan weather ware than the first time around!

A bit of glitz and some funky chunky yarns woven through the wool created the brown on brown with touches of turquoise scarf above.

Then I went with another double sided scarf ... argyle pattern on one side and overlaid shades of greens, blues and blacks on the other side. It's quite thin and would make an great indoor 'fashion type' scarf .. but since it IS 100% Merino Wool, it will work under a coat outside too!
The scarf at right is predominately browns, greys, mauves and pale blues. Again, has some chunky yarns laid through it. It's another very lightweight scarf and very soft!

Then we come to my 'inspiration masterpiece'! I had the idea just spring into my wee little brain for this one while making a previous scarf and just started to play. I really had no intention of making any more, but ... ! It's a mixture of Merino wool, bits of acrylic glitz and some Angelina, and a fiber mixture (a secret mohair/merino/nylon/silk and "Bling" bits) from Pagewood Farms called 'tinkerbell fluff'. I've got a picture of the 'fluff' at far left, but my assortment - of course - was all Whites and Creams with bits of gold, silver and bits and pieces of color mixed in with it.

It took nearly 4 times as long to felt, but the result is incredible!! I've never felt anything as soft as this one - I brought some in to the shop today for Show And Tell and everyone was going crazy over this one too .. so it's not just me!! And it looks like you can see right through it to other layers too ... c'est magnifique!!!

Now I did say "I was done" ... but decided that tomorrow I'll do just one more! It's an addiction ... help me ... make it stop ... I'm supposed to be cross stitching!!!

One more .. just one more I promise!!

Corrected Tech Info and Stitching

Ok ok ok ... Debbie has pointed out to me that my little freebie toy is NOT an iPod ... it's an MP3 player. A cheap one at that, but NOT an iPod. toMAYtoes/toMAHtoes

Got a bit of felting done yesterday ... but didn't turn out well. Going to have to see what I can do to rescue this scarf on Wednesday as I really don't want to start all over again. Spent the evening last night stitching on Raise The Roof's "Christmasland". Still on chartpack #1, but it's coming along.

Put the tree up .. it's a little fake one, a tall thin (can you say THIN) Alpine tree .. but it's up and decorated. Stuck off in a corner by the wood stove where I can see it from my stitching/tv chair. Why have a tree up if you can't see it whenever you look up? And that my dear, is WHY it's a fake .. it's very very hot in that corner by the stove!
Thinking about the ornaments I put on it "this" year. Decided to bring down a box of my old favorites (aka extremely breakable) as Padme has experienced Christmas trees, and really doesn't give them a thought .. as long as she can lay under it. Mocha, the very well behaved princess, could care less .. as long as the tree isn't where she 'usually sleeps', she's fine with it.
Anyway .. thinking about the ornaments and realized that .. with the exception of 4 unbreakable ornies on the lowest branches just in case the temptation becomes too great .. there isn't an ornament on it that is LESS than 20 years old. Actually, I think most of mine are in the 30-year old range, and then those from my grandmother are in the 70 to 90-year old range. And I have a vintage 1930's star at the very top! Each one has a lot of meaning to me, and to see them on my tree again, brings a smile to my mind!

Music N Felting N Stitching N Things

The "Sting" CD is gone .. sold .. thank you to my bud Theresa at Homestead Needlearts, I've been able to afford a hot Cappuccino for the past two days!! And most interesting of all ... "she" REALLY likes that CD. Takes all kinds I guess (ducking)

Now I've got a new bit of technology ... my very first iPod!!! Not state of the art by any means .. it was a 'free with $100 purchase' at one of the office supply stores .. so that kind of gives you an idea of just how 'fantastic an iPod' this really is! LOL With the remainder of my gift certificate from Amazon, I purchased Rod Stewart's newest "Soulbook". I couldn't get it to 'load' on the device ... I had a customer's husband spent time trying to download it (while his wife shopped - got him out of her hair for awhile!) and he couldn't get it working. So Tuesday I had Debbie do it for me .. she's my chief techie here .. and she had problems too. But would not be daunted, and 'finally' got it on the iPod for me!! whoo hooo
She did report, however, that one of the ear buds did NOT work.
So I got to listen to a bit of it in 'mono' and not stereo on the way home ... and it wasn't loud at all! In fact, could hardly hear it over the sound of my car tires!

Pulled out the ear buds I bought for my Kindle, and listened a bit more on the drive into work the next morning. Still couldn't get that volume to go up. Obviously this device was developed by some one's MOM ... 'don't want to ruin your hearing with that loud music'!!
Disgusted ... oh well, at least this thingy didn't cost me 'anything' other than the office supplies I would have been ordering anyway!

Then .. on the way home last night .. tried to give it 'one last try'. Hey .. you really CAN get the music out of an iPod IF you have the earplug device pushed ALL THE WAY IN!
And .. even better .. I discovered on the way back to the shop this morning that ... my Kindle ear bud things even have a 'volume turnerupper/downer' built right onto the cord!!!! And to think I flew all the way home using the Kindles' volume up and down instead!
I'm so incredibly observant!!!
This means I'm now rather pleased with my little iPod freebie, AND 'most' of the songs on my new Rod Stewart. His scratchy voice was perfect for ALL of the "Great American Songbook" CD's he'd done but I think he's rather reaching on "Soulbook" .. but it's not a loss .. think I'll keep it!!! LOL

Hopefully I'll be able to stay home all day tomorrow! Worked my day off here at the shop for Debbie and that screwed up my carefully planned out schedule of (1) taking mom out to shop (2) felting another scarf (3) getting my hair cut and (4) putting up the tree. Now I have two scarves to make tomorrow as well as put up the tree. Don't think there's enough hours tomorrow for all of that though...deep sigh!!! Under a deadline here to get Christmas gifts out in time and .. once again I'm in crunch time - just when I thought I had it all together. Will have to wait till Weds. to do 'some' of it ... maybe I can put mom off tomorrow too!

Also waiting for my next installment of Bent Creek's Christmas Branch - the owl - to arrive. If it doesn't' come today, I'll be on the 'email' with BC to find out why! They 'rarely, if ever' have their newest to Hoffman and Norden even within 2 weeks of a shop getting their auto. And I've not gotten my auto yet .. HDC and NC have the new ones though! And Kathy just informed me that so do some 'other shops' ... as of early last week!!!! aarrgghhh Not like I don't have anything to stitch .. I've just started Raise The Roof's "Christmasland". I can't do scarf making in the evening at home ... not enough light to see exactly what I'm doing. Except for my two stitching areas and Dave's chair (Ott-Light Heaven), our living room is very dark.

oops .. store is open .. time to get to work!