Thimbleanna – Page 130 – My little online diary.

Gingerbread Houses 2008

49 Comments / December 29, 2008 December 29, 2011 / Gingerbread Houses, Holidays

Christmas is over already? It came and went so fast I practically missed it. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Thank you so much for all your great comments over the last week. I usually try to answer all of them, but I’m so far behind this year that I’m going to have to skip it. I started to read a few blogs this morning, so hopefully I’ll catch up with all of you before New Year’s Eve.

As I mentioned last time, we had our family’s annual gingerbread competition on the 23rd. Our houses this year reflected the kind of Christmas we had — chaotic! I think MyCrazyBIL’s heart attack and the power outage that had everyone living here for three days sort of threw us all off this year. Despite my best intentions, I didn’t have time to make the gingerbread until the day of the 23rd, so it didn’t have a lot of time to dry out. That caused problems in the roof department for a few of the houses. The houses weren’t as pretty as last year, but the males in the group lived up to their rowdy reputation. Read on at your own risk! (If you’re brave enough, you can click on each picture to make it bigger too.)

The team of MyCrazyBIL and my nephew were the first to have roof failure. They tried to compensate by creating a pyramid type house, but it just wasn’t cooperating. I think they should get an honorable mention for best use of candy wrappers in an attempt to cover up the crumble-age. They also indicated that some sort of candy bomb went off in the backyard which critically injured the marshmallow snowman.

MyDadLovesMeBestSister and my youngest niece also had roof failure, so they compensated by building an open-air gingerbread house. And if you have an open air house, it only makes sense to have a camp fire in your living room. They get a BIG prize for creativity in the face of disaster!

Last year’s defending champions, the bride and groom, always build a house with a theme. They got married last year, so it was a wedding chapel. In honor of their med-school suffering this year, they built a hospital. Complete with a helipad and an injured patient in a wheel chair. They had good roof and gable pieces but they decided to cut them up for a non-traditional gingerbread house shape.

Last year, I was teamed with my oldest niece and TheManoftheHouse was with TheSecondChild. We swapped this year in an attempt to break up a rowdy all male team. Shockingly, it didn’t work, and my sweet and innocent niece was happy to create a strip bar with TheSecondChild. Rumor has it that it may have been her idea. Naughty, Naughty! Even worse, they took third place in the voting.

Coming in in second place were MeMum and BigDaddy who had a cute little house. They decided to have the main entrance be on the side of the house and they created a drive in house. We weren’t sure exactly what sort of drive in it was though. I love their gumdrop Christmas lights.

And the first place winners this year were TheManoftheHouse and me. I decided that since the bride and groom always have a themed house, we should have one too, so naturally it had to be a quilt shop. (‘Cause I knew there was no way TheManoftheHouse was going to agree to have a Blog House LOL.) In keeping with the mess that was this year, we petered out before we got the back of the house decorated. We did, however, manage to get the all-important sale table of fabric strategically placed out front where all who passed by would notice!

Oh, and here’s a close-up of MeMum and BigDaddy’s star on top of their house. They get kudos for best use of a Christmas cookie.

So, our houses were very messy this year, but we all had a great time. There was a TON of laughing and joking around. And it wasn’t long before someone’s fat little hand was pinching the goodies off of the houses!

Coming up next — a blogiversary!

XOXO,
Anna

Merry Christmas!

35 Comments / December 24, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Holidays

No. Time. For. Blogging! I’m so sad that I haven’t had time to read any blogs this week. I was keeping up with my e-mail, but finally lost control of that two days ago. I had several posts that I wanted to do, but there has just been no time. We had our family gingerbread contest tonight and I’ll post about that later — mostly because I like having a record of it here. It’s fun for us to look back and see what we did in the past.

In the meantime, I just wanted to hop on here so that my little angel and I could wish those of you who celebrate, a Very, Very Merry Christmas. I hope your Christmas is the holiday of your dreams. And don’t forget the milk and cookies for Santa!

XOXO,
Anna

Icy Christmas?

42 Comments / December 20, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Family, Recipes

For those of you in the northern half of the US, is it cold enough for you out there? We got a whopper of an ice storm last night. It’s beautiful out there and ice is covering everything. I went out early in the morning to snap a few pictures, but after watching the tops of a few of our trees come crashing to the ground, I decided it would be safer inside the house.

Our house is full tonight as MeMum/BigDaddy and CrazyBIL/MyDadLovesMeBestSister are all without power. We’ve been lucky and ours is still on. Lots of stores and schools were closed and I thought how sad for all the school children who had their Christmas parties planned for today. The next few days aren’t looking much better weather-wise — it’s not supposed to be warm enough for the ice to melt. I’m wondering how much longer many of the bent over branches can last. Even more, I’m wondering how Santa and his reindeer are going to keep from sliding off of the roof!

I stayed in most of the day and finished decorating (finally!) and eeked out my first batch of cookies. For me, it isn’t Christmas without Angel Slices. MeMum has been making them for as long as I can remember. The recipe is on page 703 of The Joy of Cooking (at least in my version) and I love what the editors say about it:

“Many a copy of the Joy has been sold on the strength of this recipe. One fan says her family is sure these are the cakes St. Peter gives little children at the Gates of Heaven, to get them over the first pangs of homesickness. Her family has dubbed them Angel Cookies.”

The Joy. I have a friend who calls it the Joy too. “…such and such recipe is in the Joy.” I love it. If you google “The Joy of Cooking Angel Slices”, you’ll find several sites that have the recipe. (Although I found one site where they add nutmeg and vinegar — my version of the book doesn’t have those two ingredients listed in the Angel Slices recipe.) If for some reason the people who are posting the recipe have been arrested and you can’t find it, e-mail me and I’ll send you a copy.

You’ve probably already seen this, but since we’re talking cookies, you should check out this beautiful cookie post. I read it with my mouth hanging open. After that, you’ll need a little gift-giving humor, so go and read a little something to tickle your funny bone.

And finally, THANK YOU for all the CrazyBIL love and good wishes. He’s home from the hospital now and trying his very best to behave himself — which is very difficult with all the trees and branches down everywhere that need to be taken care of. He doesn’t sit still very well! Anyway, I thought I should show you what we’re dealing with here. This is an old picture of CrazyBIL and it’s one of my favorites. Crazy, huh? If I could give all of you a gift for Christmas, it would be for you to have your very own CrazyBIL. He’s a really fun guy and he makes me laugh. A. Lot. I probably should change his name to CrazyAboutBIL!

XOXO,
Anna

December Busy

48 Comments / December 17, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Crafting, Sewing

It’s nuts here, just like I’m sure it is where you are. If you’re even there — you’re probably too busy working to even be lurking here. I’ve noticed it’s been a lot quieter in blogland these days — how fun to think of all the exciting holiday preparations going on out there! I’ve been cramming to finish up some projects that need to go into the mail tomorrow. Think there’s any chance they’ll make it before Christmas?

I made a few machine embroidered kitchen towels. The Jolly design is from Embroidables.com and the towels are from Crate and Barrel.

Then, some Keep Calm and Carry On pendants that I did in my soldering frenzy last week. Speaking of which, did you see this fantastic Keep Calm and Carry On knock off design? Procrastinate Now and Panic Later. That’s. Awesome. (We have a big thing about procrastinating here in ThimbleannaLand. When I made college quilts for TheFirstChild and a few of his friends, he insisted that I put “Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now” on the backs of their quilts. So the girls got nice motivational sayings and the boys got procrastination. Nice. It caused a few raised eyebrows and laughs.) I’ll definitely have to make this new Procrastinate saying in a soldered pendant. Too bad I didn’t know about it earlier — I would have put it on the flip side of these pendants. Thanks to One Pretty Thing for bringing that knock-off to our attention!

And I think these are going to be my new favorite pincushions. They’re giant (see the thimble sitting on top of that first one for scale?) and they’re perfect to sit on your sewing table. Thanks to Darlene for the awesome hint about using crushed walnut shells to stuff pincushions. It’s great and it gives them some weight. I made these pincushions from the Posy Pin Pie pattern by Jill Finley. Its finished size is 6″ in diameter by 2 1/2″ tall.

So, off to bed for me — it’s pretty late here. But wait! Looky Looky….She’s Baacckkkkk!!! WooHoo!!!

Oh, and Hell might as well have Frozen Over this morning, because CrazyBIL had a heart attack. I know this is a VERY serious matter, but you’d have to know CrazyBIL to know just how crazy this really is. He’s the most … MOST fit person I know. He does EVERYTHING right. And, at not even 45, he had a heart attack. He’s in good shape tonight, and we’re all feeling VERY grateful to still have him with us. Poor guy though, he’s going to have to endure a lot of harassment — those of us who are more sendentary have been telling him for years that all of that working out was going to kill him and now…well, it happened while he was working out.

We LOVE you CrazyBIL — slow down and get well soon!!!

XOXO,
Anna

Need a Scarf?

36 Comments / December 14, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Holidays, Knitting

Well, how’s it going out there? Are you all busy working on holiday projects this weekend? I’ve been sewing all day and plan to do more tomorrow. I would normally put up our real Christmas tree this weekend, but I have too much sewing to do and didn’t think I could afford to lose the weekend to decorating. I’ll work on the tree this week after work.

A few weeks ago, when I posted the knitted hats pattern, I mentioned to a few of you in e-mail that I have a scarf pattern that can be knit to match the hat. Just like the hat pattern, our now-out-of-business yarn shop provided this pattern when I purchased yarn from them. It’s a great scarf — it’s knit in the round, so it’s effectively a two layer scarf and it’s nice and cozy and warm!

I made this hat and scarf a few years ago for TheFirstChild. I knit it in his school colors and before I put the fringe on the end of the scarf, I used my embroidery machine to add an “E” (he went to Earlham College) to one end before I closed the end with the fringe. It’s a fairly quick knit — the year I made it I started about 10 days before Christmas and had it finished in time for a Christmas present. (This pattern can also be used to create a Harry Potter type of scarf without a letter.)

The “E” is from Husqvarna Viking’s baseball font set. I loved this font when the kids were in high school. One year I made our family baseball sweatshirts with our last name across the back of the shirts. Very Dorky, but everyone knew who we were there to support!

Collegiate Scarf

Sizes: Children’s (Adult’s)
Measurements: approx 6.5″ x 60″ (8″ x 84″) excluding fringe
Materials: 2 skeins each gray wool (Cascade 220, Encore, etc. — I used Cascade 220) and burgundy wool, 16″ #8 circular needle, piece of cardboard 4″ x 7″, size F or G crochet hook and yarn needle.

Note: Cut fringe before beginning scarf — with gray, wind 48 (56) times around the 7″ length of the cardboard. Cut one end and set aside. With the burgundy wind around the cardboard 56(64) times.

Scarf: With burgundy yarn, cast on 60 (72) stitches and join being careful not to twist cast on edge. Knit 20 (25) rounds. Change to gray and knit 20 (25) rounds. Repeat this color sequence for 17 (21) stripes, ending with burgundy. Bind off all stitches loosely. Using an overcast stitch, sew the ends of the scarf closed.

Fringe: Beginning with burgundy and alternating colors, attach fringe with crochet hook using 4 strands per fringe for a total of 13 (15) times. Trim edges of fringe even.

My front door Santa seemed very happy to have a little warmth — it’s cold out there. He’s not alone, even TheEmptyNestChild loves this scarf!

And for the non-knitters among you, primarily Isabelle (who I’m sure is only temporarily a non-knitter), I offer my front door Christmas lights. Isabelle posted her front door (make that beautiful front door with the gorgeous stained glass window!) with a description of how it will look after Mr. Life puts some lights on her little tree. Rather than wait on TheManoftheHouse to put lights on our trees, I’ve resorted to two little fake trees and a garland that get put into the attic with lights in tact every year. That way I can just pull them out of the attic and plug them in. The Christmas tree in the window is fake too (although it gets taken apart, so it’s more work) and it’s inside where it can be decorated in warmth. The red bells in the window were my grandparents and they’re one of my most treasured Christmas ornaments. They’re not valuable (SweetiePie just bought some on e-bay for $3.00) but very sentimental.

Oh! And I had a really weird thing happen last night. I was commenting on someone’s blogspot blog and the verification word that popped up was our last name! Has anyone else ever had that happen? Your own last name??? Maybe blogspot is stalking me LOL!

XOXO,
Anna