This and That

 Not much to talk about right now.  Going into the Christmas holiday, and winter time seems idle at the moment.  We've now had more rain, and the weather is said to be rain all weekend.  Not what we wanted to hear, with the coop work in progress.

I'm still not listening to Christmas music, nor decorating anything else.  Maybe I'll get there, and maybe I won't.  I tried to listen to Christmas music at the beginning of the week, and I just couldn't do it.  Not yet.

I'm missing my Mom this Christmas. Last year, this exact time, we were ripping out our entire living room floor and replacing the joists and flooring.  I think we were so busy working, that we didn't have time to "feel" during the holidays.

I did dig through some Christmas totes (was not easy to get to), for one daughter's Christmas stocking.  She came home from the hospital Christmas Eve in this handmade stocking (donated by a local resident).  

I can't believe all the ornaments we've accumulated over the years.  I will be going through those totes whenever we get a day to purge the garage.  

Buying more yarn at the check out at our local Meijer.  Yep.  Out of all the yarn I own, I did not have enough to make a matching scarf for my husband.  Luckily, Meijer had 2 skeins left.  Oh, and by the way, they had a section of hooks up now.  The last time I went, there were zero hooks for sale.  Anyway, I'm hoping I have enough yarn to finish his scarf. 

I do not have all of my yarn put away in their homes.  Not yet anyway.  I had some in every room in the house, ha ha!  I have also written down all of my unfinished projects and tucked it into my planner, so I can focus on getting them all done (before starting a new one).  My poor husband.  I had so much yarn in the bedroom, that I had to put it in bags to take back upstairs, ha ha!

I am working smarter this time around with unfinished handiwork.  The half-made items, along with their patterns, were all put inside one tote.  I was even smarter, by writing down the hook size on any pattern that did not state size.

I have already crossed off one unfinished project.   The ends are all sewn in, and the hot pad is tucked into my kitchen drawer.  These were fun to make, and it is a way to use small scraps of cotton yarn (on the inner areas anyway).

I have lost one knob for the master bath hardware.  We took one to the hardware store to make sure the screws we bought were correct.  Well, now that knob is hiding somewhere.  I am sure it's in a bag around here.

I made a batch of Einkorn peanut butter cookies.  However, I warned my husband that these have brown sugar in them, and are rolled in white sugar.  I sent some home with one of the kids, and next time I make them, I will try monk fruit in them.

I do miss all the holiday baking I used to do.  I miss the kids sitting around the table helping roll the buckeyes, and frosting my famous butter cut outs.  There maybe cut outs this year.  I guess we'll see.  

I would love to return a tradition with my grandkids, but  worried my grand daughter would want to eat all the candy.  They built sugar cube candy castles.

Question:  does anyone have a sugar free powdered peppermint mocha coffee creamer recipe?  I'm looking for something that is giftable (why I said powdered), but sugar free, and sugar substitute free (other than monk fruit)?

I looked online, and found some with liquid vs powdered. Thanks in advance!

Last Craft Show

 

The weekend went pretty fast, and with ugly weather.  The rain never stopped.

The craft show is over with, and we did okay.  I have also sold the blanket yarn I have in stock (what I had left), that I used only for the water balloons.  I have emptied a few totes thankfully.  However, like my husband said, no one has money right now.  Most of what was sold, was very low priced items.  

The cost to participate with a 10 x 10 foot area, was a whopping $45.00 this year.  It will be marked as the very last craft show for us.  It was a dreary, rainy day, and not many people went out, plus there were a ton of other area craft shows going on during the same day.  So many people, who told me they were coming to the show, never even showed up.

I gifted hats to a few of the kids, and packed up displays to put up for sale at a later date.  

A local lady, who ordered 6 knitted dishcloths picked them up at the show.  She was thrilled to get them.  She said craft shows are not "craft" shows anymore.  She is right.  There are so many other vendors using cricut machines to sell shirts/mugs/bags, pampered chef, Tupperware, and the like.  There were about 4 booths with crochet work there.

Now the abandoned, unfinished projects will resume.  There is much to work on yet around here.