]]>http://www.freewebs.com/dragonflyducky/myblog.htm?blogentryid=44270982009-1-01T18:39:00-0100<![CDATA[WHO IS THAT?]]>So NEXT year I'll start earlier and expect to get less accomplished Here's last night's cookie marathon's results:
Sugar cookies and almond crescents....and I made some chocolate chocolate chip and candy cane cookies too...all gluten free!
Today I'll make some cupcakes for Christmas Eve, and try to sew some Christmas pajamas. I still have to find a few presents....I know they came in the mail and just can't remember where I stashed them! I hope I can find them....I'm going to need a bulldozer to clean up today. Tomorrow I make cinnamon bread and pastry for our Christmas breakfast and some pies for dinner desert. After that I won't want to bake for a month.
I hope you are all able to get your last minute crafting and cooking and cleaning done...and have a little time to sit and think too!
]]>http://www.freewebs.com/dragonflyducky/myblog.htm?blogentryid=44163342008-12-22T21:24:00-0100<![CDATA[]]> I made some herbal salve last night. My hands get so dried out and cracked every winter, and this really seems to help!
Here's my recipe:
Comfrey Skin Salve
1 1/2 oz jojoba oil 1 1/2 oz beeswax 3 oz shea butter 4 1/2 oz olive oil infused with herbs ( I use comfrey and calendula) 20 drops seabuckthorn oil (you can just skip this part if you can't find it) 2 tsp lavender essential oil 1/2 tsp tea tree oil 3-5 vit E gel caps ( just pierce and squish the oil out)
You just melt the first four ingredients on low on the stove top (or in short bursts in the microwave), stir until all melted, add the rest of the ingredients and pour into sterile containers. (You can sterilize containers and tools through sustained 150 F heat for 20 minutes or with a 15 % chlorine bleach water solution.) It's very very simple to make...and shea butter feels wonderful on your skin!
I like to get ingredients at Brambleberry or Snowdrift Farm, but you often can find many of the ingredients at your local health food store.
I have finally finished my last pair of socks-woo! I think I earned some time with a movie and my spinning wheel today.
With my army of soap bars..... well, my kids will have lots of gifts for their teachers. I'm still very behind in my crafting schedule.....I have a hat to knit, a skein of yarn to finish spinning, two pair of pajamas to make, three more kinds of cookie to bake, and a few shirts to stencil. I still have to clean the house for company and wrap all the gifts too. Maybe I can get it all done.....I have six whole days right? Unfortunately I will have to be on chauffeur duty and at the dance studio most of tomorrow...maybe I can get the hat done at least.....maybe it will snow so much tonight that everything will be cancelled tomorrow....maybe??
]]>http://www.freewebs.com/dragonflyducky/myblog.htm?blogentryid=44116362008-12-19T17:47:00-0100<![CDATA[MWA HA HA HA HA HA!]]>With my gluten free gingerbread man army I will take over the world!!!
Yes, the sleep deprivation is starting to get to me. It sure did take a long time to roll all these out. Tomorrow they get chocolate pants-can't have them running around nekkid!
I'm a bit behind on the cookie baking. I usually have a freezer full of cookies by this time in December. But I have three kinds of dough made and waiting in the fridge and am going to bake bake bake tomorrow.
I got a head start on the cleaning...and dug the couch out of a pile of wool: But I'm going to need some prayers when I get to the dining room: Yeah...that's where all the wool went. Just goes to show that you must destroy in order to create.
8 days! ]]>http://www.freewebs.com/dragonflyducky/myblog.htm?blogentryid=44016862008-12-17T00:08:00-0100<![CDATA[]]> Wishing you lots of wintery fun! Blog posts are few and far between in December! I feel like I'm crafting from morning till night. I have scaled back my Christmas crafting plans in the interest of sanity. The 6 pairs of socks are not going to happen.....I might get four done though! And hopefully some hats. I've made five batches of soap and have one more to go. We have TEN teachers gifts to give this year with all the classes and lessons my kids take.....so they all get baskets of homemade soap. Last year I thought I should do something different for the teachers who had already gotten soap the year before...but they were disappointed to NOT get the soap last year....so it's soap they'll get this year. I actually got some rovings dyed this week too:
Next week I'll finally get to do some spinning again. Woo! And I'll hopefully have some finished socks to show...though not very exciting looking ones as they are a simple pattern......I need simple things to knit while waiting at the dance studio. Hope all your holiday crafting is coming along as planned! ]]>http://www.freewebs.com/dragonflyducky/myblog.htm?blogentryid=43770842008-12-11T21:27:00-0100<![CDATA[Busy Busy Busy!]]>
It was Saint Nicholas Day....so they got candy in their shoes! My mom is German, so we always celebrated St Nicholas Day as a child. We always had to polish our shoes on Dec 5th to get them ready....but my kids just had to bang the mud off their sneakers.
I feel like I should be in high gear getting ready for Christmas...but have just been soooo tired the past two days. I think all the sleep deprivation from the past few weeks has finally caught up with me. I slept a LOT this weekend....which really annoys me as I always try to get lots done on weekends.
I helped my daughter bake the pieces for her gingerbread house last week. Our town has a contest every year that she wanted to participate in. She said she wanted to do the Taj Mahal. yeah. That meant gingerbread DOMES. But she made it work! The large dome cracked and had to be replaced with a pile of mashed marshmallows. She wanted to make minarets too, but had been at dance for hours and was really tired so she had to call it quits.
I taught a needle felting class this Saturday. It was fun! I'm so happy when students go away proud of what they made. I need to make up some more felting projects as I think the students got the felting bug! woo! Always happy to spread the mania
I got a few things needle felted: Another snowman and a little Santa:
Wishing you lots of time to enjoy the season! ]]>http://www.freewebs.com/dragonflyducky/myblog.htm?blogentryid=43632992008-12-08T21:11:00-0100<![CDATA[]]> Some needle felted aliens! I've been so busy needle felting lately that I haven't been able to even touch my spinning wheel for a long time. I had a lot of playmats orders to fill and finally finished them. I have a few more things to felt and then I can finally play. I've got three pair of socks done...and three more to go before Christmas. I'm not sure I'll make it with all the other things I want to do....only 24 days to go! ]]>http://www.freewebs.com/dragonflyducky/myblog.htm?blogentryid=43301822008-12-01T21:45:00-0100<![CDATA[My Own Little Christmas Elf]]> That's thick copper wire leftover from when we made troll caves for a Hobbit birthday party a few years ago. Finally a use for it!
This pile of greens is just the tip of the iceberg. We lost quite a few large evergreen branches during the ice storm a few weeks ago. It seemed a shame to let them go to waste. My partner in crime.....she's a natural! My baby girl made the wreath for our front door all by herself! She even wired on some pine cones. And then she made a spray to hang on our picket fence. It's like having my own little Christmas elf around here. SWEET!
I didn't finish making my wreath yet....still needs a ribbon and other stuff. I wanted it to be big as it will get hung on a big blank spot on the side of the house...but it got a bit bigger than I had planned. It must be almost three feet across and weighs a ton! At the end of the night I had really itchy hands and a huge mess on the floor. I still have a HUGE pile of greens so I am contemplating making pine roping to hang on our picket fence.....but it will take about 80 feet. That's a lot of hunching and clipping and itching! ONLY 31 DAYS LEFT!!!! WOOOOOO! ]]>http://www.freewebs.com/dragonflyducky/myblog.htm?blogentryid=42899482008-11-24T00:14:00-0100
yeah. That meant gingerbread DOMES. 
