Slippers for Him and Her

The cold weather hit and so did my urge to knit. I'm always knitting dishcloths, but I really get excited for new patterns in the wintertime. John and I both needed new slippers, so I spent far too many hours on Ravelry looking for a free pattern at my skill level. I found one that looked quick and easy and even found a Knit-along on YouTube in case I ran into trouble.

John got a pair made with Super Bulky (#6) chunky yarn, using one strand of yarn.

My slippers were made with Medium (#4) worsted yarn, so I held two strands together. I had leftover yarn from my Harry Potter Gryffindor scarf, so I made myself some Gryffindor slippers.

Car Cookies

A friend of ours recently got her driver's licence, and I celebrated by making her some car shaped cookies. I didn't have a car cookie cutter, but as with my d20 dice cookies, I made my own. Cookie cutters are really easy and fun to make, and really cost-effective if you want a shape that you might only use once.

I learned how to make cookie cutters from this blog tutorial. I hopefully will do a tutorial of my own here soon, I just couldn't get it together to take photos this time around.

Here is the cookie cutter I made/used:

And here are the adorable car cookies made from my favourite gingerbread cookie recipe:

Hand Me Down Santas

Last year I posted about all the snowmen decorations that take up residence in the house in December. I still have them, but have added a number of Santa figurines to my collection, as Mom cleared out a lot of her Christmas goodies and handed them down to me. Some of these figurines I grew up with so it is nice to see them.

Now if I could just get my ass in gear to decorate the house for Christmas... I'm normally a December 1st decorator, but because I think it's still June, I am slow moving this year.

Santa Figurines "from around the world". 
I loved these growing up. 
Mom would place them on the bookshelf on a bed of fake snow. 
When these guys went up you knew Christmas was on the way.

Toy Maker Santa Figurine

Cool Santa Shelf Hanger. 
This guy sits and hangs over a shelf. 
I always thought he looked so laid back and cool. 
He fits in at our place. :)

Wooden Snowmen

Tree Ornaments. 
I'll set them out as figurines.

Santa Moon Figurine. 
It lights up.

Chicken Wings with a Side of Corn #FoodPicFriday

This meal was from sometime in September when farmer corn was still around. Love that stuff. We were getting some wicked deals on chicken wings around that time too (which have since ceased), so we were making them as often as we could. It was good living.

This meal consisted of spicy BBQ chicken wings, corn on the cob, and some sidekicks on the side.

Christmas Cactus Clone

The Christmas Cactus we got from Mom's (and that she got from Nanny's) has gotten big. Like, really big. John wants to cut it back, but I love it, even though it is a little out of control. It is out of control but still very beautiful. I think we might just transplant it to a bigger pot and let it be as big and awesome as it wants to be.

Some of the cactus did get trimmed a few years ago, and we made a little plant from it. This week it started blooming and I continue to be impressed by how hearty this 60+ year old plant proves to be.

Previous posts about the Christmas Cactus:
A Lesson in Perseverance #1
Back in Bloom #2
Guess What's Blooming #3
Well Hello #4
Christmas Cactus - 2012/2013 Season #5
Christmas Cactus - December 2013 #6