Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, dear readers! 

We stuck close to home the last couple of days. 

Christmas Eve I spent the morning doing a bit of food prep. The only two things I took pictures of were the two cheeseballs I made. 

This one I started off with a recipe from Almanac. I was a bit disappointed with it.  Don't get me wrong, it tasted just fine.  However, one of the groups at our local Cathedral church makes cheeseballs every year for a fundraiser and they are SO good. I know some of the ingredients that are used for the cheeseball.  I'm going to try and make one.  Wish me luck. 

The other cheeseball I made was a dessert cheeseball, that I made with my own inspiration, no recipe. 

This one was a HUGE hit with my husband.  I tried to replicate the flavor of the cranberry-covered goat cheese logs from Aldi.   I done did good. 

For the main meal we had a gorgeous prime rib roast. 

We went hunting in the afternoon. The neighbors started shooting firearms again.  Incredibly frustrating. This time around the shooting sounded further away. 

Oh! Sunday I did watch some Christmas movies. My friend Becky was talking about Christmas movies on a recent blog post and I got to thinking that I should probably watch a few. 

While I was doing food prep I watched Christmas at PeeWee's Play house. 

Then later on I watched A Muppet Family Christmas. 

What a throwback watching this movie was.  It included the commercials from the year 1987. 

Today was a quiet day.  Woke up to more rain.  Did I mention the rain we had yesterday?  Yup.  Rain. 

Then more rain today. 

Today our big meal was beef tenderloin steaks.  Yum! And then the boys had crab legs (surf and turf) 

This is one of the crab leg clusters. 

What did we have on the television while we were prepping this meal and eating? 

Why MXC of course.  Nothing screams Christmas quite like this show. 

I watched a bit of A Christmas Story while knitting a few rows on my Harvest Cardigan before we ate.

If you couldn't tell, I completely forgot about a Christmas Day cast on. As much as I try to remember these sorts of things, I more often than not forget about them.  So, for now until maybe New Year's Eve, I'll just keep working on my cardigan and other current WIPs I have. 

Or, maybe I'm in the minority of my knitting/stitching/crafting circle. Does anyone do Christmas or New Year's Eve cast ons? 

A little bit later I was watching the Muppets Christmas Carol.  My first time seeing it.  They have a different spin on the story.  I haven't finished the movie yet. Don't tell me how it ends. *wink* 

I told my husband the rats in this movie reminds me of the creatures that hang on Jabba the Hut in the Star Wars movies. He agreed.  Even the noises the rats make are similar to what the other creatures make. 

This afternoon we went out hunting again. No random shooting from the neighbors this time. 

ANNNNNDD I had a bit of action. 

A small doe showed up.  She was super skittish and left within a few seconds after this girl showed up. Then this gal left after a moment. 

It was the first deer I've seen in almost two months. 

So that was exciting. 

Then close to shooting hours ending I got a text from my hubby, saying he was packing up.  I wrote back, saying "okay" and started packing up myself. 

Then I looked out the window and went "Sh*t!" and quickly sent a text saying "Deer!" 

I quick looked through my scope and through my binoculars.  Another doe. Possibly one of the "babies" we said we were going to pass on.  I confirmed it was not a buck. Also, you see that ribbon?  I have that. ribbon to help me know if the deer is big enough to harvest. 

I got to sit for a few moments and watch her guard the pile from another deer.  Then she ate for a few moments and then disappeared.  A moment or two later my husband was there, waiting for me to leave the blind so we could go back to the house.  

This evening we opened gifts and my husband was happily surprised by the gift from our son, and my son was really surprised by the gifts we gave him. I already received my gifts from my husband (the yarn) and my son ordered my gift but it won't be here for a few weeks. My guess is that it's something garden-related. 

Speaking of gardening ... now I can officially start thinking about all things gardening-related, if I haven't mentioned it already. Yay! I need to pull out my binder that I started this year, and I'm taking notes from some of the things shared from Kristin at Shifting Roots. 

Christmas music and snow

 I have a Pandora music station that is all pretty choral Christmas music.  

Music like this: 

This morning I was in the kitchen, puttering around, getting lunch ready, and listening to this music.  

I realized the music just doesn't hit quite as good when there's no snow on the ground, or snow coming down. 

And then ... it snowed for a bit. 

Thankfully my husband and I got one of his projects knocked out before the snow started. 

We were in the back 20 taking down trees and clearing brush. 

I didn't take pictures of everything. Oops. 

This past spring we planted a few apple trees back there. Today he cut down a few popple trees that were blocking the sun for these apple trees this past summer. 

Continuing on the preparation for garden 2024, my husband made a soil sifter for me. 

Last year the hardest part of making soil blocks was the twigs in the soil mix. No more! 

Also, both the seed orders from MIGardener and Sandia seeds arrived. 

Woo hoo!

Is it crazy that I'm already thinking about starting seeds in January? 

Cookies!

 Continuing with the very un-December-like weather for my area ... look at this beautiful sky and how the sun hit the trees this morning. 

I told my husband this morning (or maybe last night) that with how mild the weather has been for our area, I could have still been growing greens, or something. They could have been protected with some greenhouse plastic.  In past years I've had at least 6 inches of snow in the garden by now. 

I finally got that second green leg warmer unwound. 

I have four skeins of ramen yarn, ready for the bath. 

Seriously, this little project is taking me longer than I thought it would. 

Anywho ... 

Instead of spending most of my "free time" working on anything crafty, I opted to make cookies. 

Cookies for me, using a new recipe. 

I used a low carb/keto recipe as a base to make chocolate chip cookies.  I like them a lot. 

I made regular chocolate chip cookies for my son. 

And I made peanut butter cookies for my husband. 

Treats for everybody! 

Stitchy eye candy for the evening.  A few threads before bed. 

If I wasn't so bleary-eyed in the morning I would work on this before work.  My goal will be to get this done before Saturday morning. 

Busyish day, here

 Today was one of those days where I had a full to-do list, and was steadily busy from 7 a.m. til after supper. 

We are still having warm temps in my area. I took a long lunch and cleaned out the chicken coop for my girls.  

One barred rock kept popping her head into the coop, trying to figure out what I was doing, and if it was safe to go in.  I could tell she was thinking she could be really clever and run past me and out the open door, but she was terrified of the shovel. 

I also replaced the cover on my greenhouse. 

Way earlier in the year I was singing the praises of this greenhouse I got off Amazon a few years ago. 

Then we got a metric ton of snow and she couldn't take it anymore.  The zippers gave out on me. The frame is still solid. 

I have a lot of stuff stored in there. 

Off went the cover. 

It looks so different without the cover. 

She looks pretty with a "fresh coat of paint."

I'd say "I wonder if my husband will notice the new cover," but he reads my blog.  This will be a pleasant surprise for him. 

Speaking of surprises (ha, see what I did there?) I was surprised yesterday when I got an email notification that my seed order from MIGardener shipped.  I had totally forgotten I placed a small order when MIGardener had a 20 percent off seed sale for Cyber Monday, or whatever. 

*facepalm*

Seeds ordered were: 

Broccoli Rabe - Spring Rapini

Self blanching cauliflower

Mushroom red pepper

Big Jim pepper

Shishito peppers (I'm so set for these seeds now.)

Ghost peppers

Rutgers tomato

Tiny Tim tomato

Geranium Kiss tomato

Muncher cucumber

San Marzano tomato

Yeah ... I guess I'm totally set for seeds. Ooops.  What can I blame for forgetting the order? 

I also took a quick walk out to the back 20. The SD cards in the game cams needed to be swapped out. 

See? Still so much brown. 

Some neat things were seen. 

This evening, after dinner, clean up and doing some work-for-pay, I stitched a few threads on the ornament. Slow and steady.  I kind of wish I could just knock these out so I can FFO them and get them on the tree before Christmas. 

Yesterday I realized I "lost" my monkey sock project. This morning I remembered where I put it. I forgot I put it in a project bag. 

I need to give it some attention soon. 

Weekend fun

 But first, can I say that this was basically me and my hubby this morning? 

The morning after Daylight Savings end is always tough.   I was so bleary-eyed this morning. 

Okay. That out of the way ... 

Weekend fun was had. 

My husband and I decided to try making venison hot dogs this weekend. 

So tasty! 

Saturday I got a bee in my bonnet to dye some aida cloth. 

I purchased a mess of RIT dyes within the last year.  I'm getting braver about dying aida cloth.  Even though it's so easy there's still the "What if I mess it up?" thoughts. 

I threw on a tutorial from the Housewives to make sure I remembered how to do it correctly. 

When I poured the dye out of the bottle I had a bit of a start.  The dye came out greenish instead of the expected light brown color. 

After a stir it looked okay, and I started out with a small amount of color.  I had something in mind. 

Then I decided to try something that may make my dyer friends cringe.  I placed the pan on top of the wood stove, to heat up the fabric and set the dye. 

It worked! 

I have a cross stitch project in mind for this piece of fabric. 

While the fabric was cooking on the stove I decide to be brave and pull out the pieces of my crochet cardigan and started pinning it together. 

I rewatched the craftsy class videos and the gal's method of seaming the pieces together made more sense the second time I watched.  Basically it was a double whip stitch to seam everything together. 

The cardigan has been receiving attention each night. 

Tonite I stitched the ribbing on the bottom. 

I'm getting so close to the completion of this piece. Up next is the collar and the button band. 

Before I sign off for the night I want to share a couple photos of the Christmas cactus I have. It was purchased at Aldi's a few years ago.  It bloomed the first year.  This summer I had it outside and it grew a lot more segments.  It came back in to the house about a month ago. 

It's sitting on the back of the toilet.  I figured it was one of the best places in the house for it, and it bloomed for me. 

It's full of blooms now. 

The "big snow" we had last week; it's all gone.  Temps have risen past the freezing point and most everything melted.  What didn't melt was washed away by the rain that started on Sunday.  

Rain! Blech! 

I have a finished object!

 Last weekend, while sitting out in the deer blind, I started working on a CC copycat hat.  

I messed up the provisional cast on and had to start over. Boo!  Specially after 3.5" of 1 x 1 ribbing. 

The second time was much better. 

I worked on it a little bit each morning and each night this week.  

Just a little bit ago I cast off. 

I've been wanting a cc copycat hat in orange for years. 

Started: Oct. 28, 2023

Finished: Nov. 3, 2023

Designer/Source: Clementine Knits and Crochets

Yarn: Loops and Threads Impeccable

Colorway: Orange crush

Colors: orange

Required Amount: half a skein of the yarn

Needle/Hook Size: U.S. 7 (4.5 mm)

Gauge: beats me

Made For: Myself

Dye Lots: 2022-05-643066

In other news, I signed up for a mystery CAL I saw on Instagram. 

Already picked up the yarn. 

Our area had snow earlier this week.  Tuesday, Oct. 31, if memory serves. I was definitely not ready for it. 

I got the chicken run winter prepped just in time.  I opened the door to see how the birds were doing, because no one was outside. 

Yeah, they weren't too happy about the snow either. 

I dragged some in on my shoes and they were shooting it dirty looks, like they couldn't decide if they should kill it or eat it. 

Little Feffer didn't look very happy either.  I tried taking a photo of him and he's even more camera shy than the birds. 

That day, on my lunch hour, I went out and dug up the carrots out of the garden. 

That was a treat, trying to find the greens in the snow. 

And, in hardcore gardener fashion, I sat down in the snow and separated the greens from the carrots so I'd have less of a mess in the house. 

The carrots all cleaned up.  I've heard about how great carrots taste if they are harvested after a frost.  I heard correctly!  

The garden is officially done for the year.  Come February I'll be starting seeds up again in the house and all the fun garden madness will start again. I learned a lot this garden year and am proud that every single plant in my garden this year I started fro seed.  Including the flowers. 

Today my husband and I went up to Fleet Farm for their orange Friday.

We each received a blaze orange cap, and ended up not buying what we went there to look at. 

It's fun to get the hat, though.  

We got back home in time for me to start my work day. 

There is supposed to be a warming weather trend this weekend.  Likely our last decent weekend before the weather turns *serious*