Moving Day

Nope, we're not leaving Port Angeles or anything.
I'm just combining my blogs and making one mega-blog. Like a superband, only with blogs.
It's a conglomeration of my cooking blog and this here crafting blog.
You might get a little more of Abby too.
All of the posts that are here have been copied and moved, so they are all in one cool little spot.

GO HERE to find me:
www.rhubarbsky.com
bookmark it, love it, comment on it and enjoy.
See you there!
Carrie

Last minute indeed!

Abby trying out the tutu I made as part of a birthday gift. What? You don't wear frog boots, polar fleece and a vest with your tutu?

I am a procrastinator. I always have been. 5am the day a paper was due, you'd find me at the computer banging it out while I was in college. I'm forever pushing the envelope with my last-minute-ness. This was the cream of the crop though. This is a picture of the crown I finished in the car, on the way to the party. Yes, it's snowing outside. Yes, it's a bad picture. Yes, I still ended up wrapping it. . . in the car. Crazy.
Pam, if you're reading this, I promise I wouldn't do yours last minute. I'd be on time and even early. Really.

Holiday News

Our holiday card. I thought, since there are a few of you dear old friends out there that read this, but don't e-mail me (no guilt. . . really), that you might be interested in a bit of our holiday letter. I'm only posting the bits about Tom's health, as the rest is just stuff you'd have gleaned by reading this blog anyway.
Hope you all had a wonderful Solstice and Christmas and that your New Year is safe and Happy.

from the Sanford e-mailed holiday letter:
"I waited a few extra days to send this e-mail, as I wanted to be able to share all of the good news at once. As almost all of you know, we've had an extraordinary year. Tom had sinus surgery at the end of last year to try and resolve headaches that had been mounting for several years. By the end of June, it was clear that it was something much more worrisome and on July 11th, Tom had a tumor the size of a golf ball removed from his brain. It was benign and the resection was a complete success, but he contracted bacterial meningitis and consequently spent much of the summer either in the hospital or connected to I.V. antibiotics. It was a crazy time, and if this is somehow the first you've heard of this, write back and I'm glad to go into further detail. So, to bring us all up to speed: Tom had his 3 month post-op MRIs and appointments right before Thanksgiving. Everything looks great with no sign of tumor at all. In fact, though we expected to get MRIs every 3 months during the first year, his neurosurgeon told him not to come back until NEXT Thanksgiving. Great news. Throughout this whole process, a growth was found on Tom's liver. We've just gotten confirmation today that it is absolutely unrelated to his brain tumor and completely harmless. The liver specialist said: "No further action is required." This is a huge relief to all of us over here at Chez Sanford. The recovery from all of this continues to effect our daily life as Tom still deals with daily nausea and near-daily vomiting, but we are counting our blessings and thanking our lucky stars for his general good health. He's gained back all of the weight that he lost over the summer and is looking forward to working out and building his strength in the coming year."

Christmas Gifts

I've been hiding these away.
A puppet theater for my nephew from Bend the Rules Sewing.


Framed embroidery from a picture by Abby for my mom.

because 2 posts aren't enough for one day

A library thing list of our winter books.

Center Square hat redux

I love this hat so much that it kind of hurt to take it off to take the picture.

I used lion brand wool-ease in worsted weight. I'm usually a yarn snob, but I got two of these hats out of one skein of each color. Since I was gifting the first one to someone who may not pay attention to washing directions (a dude), I wanted something washable. Now I can be twinsies with Tom's snowboarding neurosurgeon (yup, I will never tire of how great it is that a brain surgeon also snowboards. I love that). Info on the pattern on the link above.

More tiny mittens and some stockings too!

These are ornament size for topping packages. I made a little star too, but it didn't end up looking like a star, so it's been added to Abby's kitchen set as a pot holder.

Pleated Handbag

For Emily's birthday.
The pleated handbag from Bend the Rules Sewing. I left out the interfacing on the bottom and the embellishments on the front. I'd do both of those things if I make it again, but it wasn't in the stars for this one. It's thrifted brown corduroy and funky orange and yellow flowered flannel in the pleats. It came together much more quickly than I expected and now that I see how it's made, I'm excited to make one for myself.

Birthdays in December! Aack!

This little number is what I made for Abby when she wanted to shake jingle bells while singing jingle bells. This is now a large part of our day. The singing of the jingle bells. I wake up with it ringing in my ears. This is why the jingle bells book must be put away during the rest of the year. Anyway, it's just a stick with a bunch of ribbons wrapped around it all willy-nilly with jingle bells tied to the ends. She loves it.
I have 3 birthdays to craft for this month. What's up with December birthdays!? Drives me nuts. I made another crown for one of Abby's little friends who turned 2. It has a firetruck embroidered on it and it's very cute. I did not get a picture. Blast.
Above is the beginnings of a pleated handbag for another birthday this month.
AND, I decided to buy for my sister in law. She gets something handmade by a friend of mine. Love it and will show it off later.

A big thanks to those of you stopping by from the link over at The Rowdy Pea.
It's been fun seeing who's come over from there. We're still enjoying our book advent. I'll do a list of books at some point.
But not today. Today is full of car insurance dealings as we got hit in a parking lot last week. Ugh. We're fine, but it's a hassle.