Goodbye November, Hello December! Woot!

And with a WHOOOOOOSH Thanksgiving is over, the family has cleared out and Nate and I are back to our little cozy lives and thinking about Christmas!  Aaaaah, sweet sweet Chrissssstmassss.....

This is the PERFECT time of year for knitting and crocheting and lucky for me, my two favorite knitters were in da house last week and gave me major inspiration and instruction.  My Mom helped me find the right stitch and get the right size hook going for this rug for Baby's Mo's room which I'm making out of yarn which I made out of my old tshirts.  I'm thinking it's colorful, durable and can be thrown in the washer and dryer.  Perfect for a little boy's room.  It's about 18" in diameter now and I'm thinking I'll border it with a solid color, maybe a dark gray. 

And then, my amazing beauty of a sister taught me how to knit cables which I've been avoiding for years and years.  I've had the ding dang cable sticks and plenty of opportunities but have always shied away from them.  This year is a year of "firsts" so I went ahead and added 'knitted cables' to my list for this cowl I'm making:

I love the silvery gray color and am planning to make a twice-around cowl with antique military button closures, should be pretty rockin'... for a pregnant lady at least.

AND THEN, my bro brought me back this amazing fabric from Ghana or Togo, can't remember which now.  But I'm planning to make some hobo-type bags to sell on Etsy using these beauties (here's a far-away and a close-up of each of the two fabrics):

Do you feel inspired?  I do!  :)

Lastly, when my bro was in Togo he had this sign made for Casa Terry. This is the housing building for the orphans that is in honor of my mother-in-law, Terry, who left this earthly realm last March and in her name many generous donations were made to Grace Orphanage. 

I had sent over a drawing of "CASA TERRY" with the sun rising from it and they added the trees and hand-carved it over there.   Isn't it beautiful?!  

Here's the actual building that the sign will hang upon when finished:

And here, my peeps, is a picture of the children holding the sign.  The adults on the left are George and Florence who live there and basically run the orphanage:

I tell you what, blessings abound my friend, blessings abound.  Even in the midst of the dark and dirty there are always blessings.  These wee Togolese peeps can attest to that!  :) 

Do I have any food on my face?

Happy Monday!  Countdown to Thanksgiving: 17 days... countdown to Christmas: 47 days.  Woot!

I'm planning to be cooking and eating A LOT of food in the coming weeks so figured I'd better sew some napkins -- no need to add to the landfills with mounds of paper napkins when I have fabric galore just waiting to be sewn into adorable little napkins for our faces.   We've got family coming the next couple weeks then again for Christmas and it is just so much more fun to have cute little cloth napkins than to rip a paper towel in half and try to make it look pretty.  It took me forever just to cut and sew seven napkins because I need to either eat or nap every hour or so nowadays.  I do realize that I should have made 14 napkins but have decided to make the other seven this coming weekend and I will make them in warm colors to complement these here I made in cool colors:

They are different on each side so depending on what color of food you're eating you have more choices of where to aim it at on the napkin, or am I the only one who does that?:

I used my pastor's wife's pattern for these napkins, if you'd like to check out her blog and see the fun dresses she makes and sells on Etsy here it is:  www.sosewsomething.com

Ok, and you know how much I love Frida Kahlo?  Well, I've told of my love for her to practically everyone and a girl I work with (who shares my Frida-love) brought me back beer FROM MEXICO that has Frida on it!  This girl is from Mexico and while she was home visiting her family she saw the beer and thought of me and brought it back to the states FOR ME!  Can't you believe it!?!?!  Sometimes the generosity and thoughtfulness of others is just staggering!  It most definitely inspires me to be more generous and thoughtful!  A gift IN a gift!  :) 

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I'm a total Christmas music freak and every year it's like TORTURE to have to wait until November 1 to start listening but I find it's usually better than starting sometime around August... and the people around me appreciate my waiting as well.  

I love this time of year with three fun holidays all packed in tight; Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas all one big holiday food and cheer blur.  We managed to carve a couple pumpkins:

Nate's 'kin wins the prize fo sho:

and here's mine:

To be honest, I only carved mine to get to the seeds which I was dying to roast... and then I burned all of the seeds.  Sad day.   But eating three of these pumpkin cayenne cupcakes I baked made me feel better:

Ok, look at the most adorable itty bitty fuzzy wuzzy (practicing my babytalk) babyhat for a little babyhead that you every did see!

My Mom ("Grandmum") knitted this little hat for our sweet little boy!  It is beyond precious.  I'm going to have him wear it at the hospital so he can feel the love as soon as he's out in the world!   I'm thinking of knitting him some little matching booties because it has been confirmed that our boy does indeed have feet:

Lastly, here's the fabric my bro brought back from Ghana last time he was over there:

Isn't it great?!  I'm thinking of making a diaper bag out of it and also using it on some bags to sew to put on my Etsy store - I HAVE to branch out from the jewelry because Etsy is just overrun with it and I'm not getting much action there.  I'm inspired to sew sew sew!  This weekend I'm making cloth napkins so we don't go through so many paper ones during this great season of overeating.  :)  And when Jonathan is over in Togo this year he's bringing me back MORE fabric so there will be more awesomeness to report!

Alrighty, back to work for me!  Love. Strength. Peace. Truth. xoxo