Jenn's Crafty World

I finally "de'Christmas-ed" today. Normally I'm itching to get everything put away by January 1, but this year I really wanted to just let the spirit keep going on. I had a really good Christmas, and 2009 was a pretty good year, so I was a bit reluctant to let it go. However now it's done, and I'm looking at the empty spaces around the house and enjoying the calm that comes from it. I still have 2 poinsettias left over; by some miracle I didn't kill them off before the holidays so I get to enjoy them for a while longer!

As I said we had a nice Christmas. Lots of treats for good girls and boys. We didn't really do anything for a week, and it was so nice. I actually read a book; a whole book in a week. I haven't done that in years. Here's the book:


Mr. Crafty World bought a few things off my Amazon Wish List. Don't you love those things?!
I really enjoyed this one, and have made quite a few recipes from it already. The author has a blog, Orangette (which I haven't visited yet), and this book is a compilation of some of her posts. It's an easy read, but I did cry when she wrote about the death of her father. (Don't worry, that part isn't a spoiler; it's mentioned on the jacket.)

I have been trying to stitch up one of Shepherd's Bush nativity story pieces every year, so that one day I'll have eight lovely pieces to display. I don't think I did any last year, and this year I started this one in November.

I got so busy in December I didn't finish it, and just about put it in my UFO pile. Once I saw how little I had left to do (and felt the guilt about having one not done and 5 left to go) I sat down the other day and finished it off. I felt good about that.

I've been doing a lot of puttering around as well; nothing too notable but things that make me feel like I am accomplishing something, even if I am still in my pyjamas at 3p.m. I purged our filing cabinet and came up with a new and I hope improved system for filing all the stuff I have to file in a year. I cleaned up my sewing area, which you can imagine is always a mess right after Christmas. I moved some stuff around in there so it's not really easy for me to pile stuff on my machine and then get frustrated that I can't sew when I want to.
Oh, and I did my Christmas cards! I did them on January 1, so they ended up being more "Happy New Year/Thank-You for the Gifts" cards, but I finally got them sent. Guilt, be gone!

All that organizing always put me in the mood for doing something creative, so I picked up my crochet hook and a pattern and have been having a go at this:


It's supposed to be a scarf someday. I have pulled it apart at least 5 times (no, I'm not exaggerating) and am so far only on row five, out of seven. Then repeat, repeat, repeat until you get a scarf. I think I may have picked something a little too challenging for my current abilities.
Anyway at least I'm getting practice. I no longer have to look up how to do a double crochet everytime, since I have had to do it over and over and over.

Today I went to one of our local shops and did a bit of shopping. I have had a gift card from this place in my wallet for 9 months now and figured I should use it up. One of the things I bought was this book:

I have not seen it before and it's really cute. There are mini angel food cakes (from scratch) in here that only take 10 minutes to make. You just make them in a mini muffin pan. Can you imagine anything so cute?

Happy New Year folks!