Yarn along...I'm blessed!

I think Clementine was looking at Nutmeg in a curious way, that made her self conscious...I crocheted a shawl out of some gray wool I got in either New Mexico or Arizona this summer. Unfortunately, she didn't like it, and tried to get it off and got her foot stuck in it...so I helped her out.

Follow the yarn along here: http://www.gsheller.com

Last night, I finished a wonderful book, Angelina's Bachelors, filled with wonderful recipes and a tender story...that made me realize how blessed I am indeed, to have a husband and 2 children...and 4 pets, and this one (in the photo above) is laying eggs!

Timer photos....

Setting up the timer and taking a family photo...
We wanted to have Lusy and Velvet in the picture...thought about having Clementine and Nutmeg in the picture, too, but it would be too much to get all 8 looking at the camera smiling...without us looking frazzled. All of our pets get along nicely, though.Now, which one do you think we should use for a Christmas card? I'm thinking about cropping one of them (I don't want our shoes in it).

Beautiful mosaics...

Yesterday I went to a Greek church for their Saint Nicholas day service. I have been there before (for the funeral of my friend's Irene's mother last year and for their festival). I got to spend more time inside the church after the service and took some photos...A woman donated $500,000 to have the mosaics of Jesus, Mary and the 4 evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke John) along with numerous other saints...so a team from Italy came in and worked on it for 5 months, the result is breath-taking...the photos don't do it justice, as you can't see the gold glittering, looking like stars, as it may appear in heaven. St. Barbara (my mom's patron saint), St. Theodore (my sister is probably going to name her baby Theodore when he is born, due next month) and St. Paraskeva, above.
And there are also stained glass windows, which are very nice, my favorite little one was this (rooster or hen, I'm not sure)...My cousin, Zoya, posted this picture of a chicken from Shelburne, Vermont...and I had to share it, too...was a cute sweater, I wonder how long the chicken wore it. Shall I knit or crochet a shawl for my 2 chickens?

Yarn along....and our first snow!

I'm still working on the circle blanket...inspired by this.We read a book every morning together (if you read my previous post...40 books in 40 days, but you could do a countdown just for December). I'm reading Alexander McCall Smith's Corduroy Mansions, which is okay, but I really love his No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books. I've read all of those, which take place in Botswana, and look forward to his next one, the 13th in this series, which is due out April 2012.

What are you reading and working on (a crochet or knit project with yarn)? Follow the yarn along here with Ginny.

Last night, we got our first real snowfall...it was so pretty, but sadly has melted this morning. Hannah and Olivia put on their snowpants and went outside to play, jumped on the trampoline (there's still a small pile of snow there, actually), slid down the snow-covered slide, it was really wet. Olivia made snowballs and threw them at our house.
(I wish I'd taken some pictures)

40 books in 40 days

Today begins the Nativity fast for us...40 days from now is December 25th on the old calendar (which looks like January 7th on the new calendar, but it's still 2011 in our church calendar).

Every morning from now til then, we'll unwrap and read a book together. I added more books to our collection (thanks to our local library, we'll read those ones first). One of my favorites is Mortimer's Christmas Manger by Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jane Chapman. Have you read that one? It's about a little mouse who lives in a house and finds a nice bed (in the manger they have set up). Mortimer takes the baby out of the manger and sleeps there...when he hears the family reading the story of Jesus, how He didn't have a place to sleep, he decided it was better for the baby Jesus to sleep there and he would find another bed...and that's when he finds the gingerbread house!

* * *

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving...started off the day by going to church to give thanks to God and spent the afternoon with our family, most of them live here in Ohio, my sister and her husband came from Canada and my aunt from Vermont, her son and a friend. Then, we had more guests (Anthony, Joanna and Ephraim) stay the night after they left...on the way home to New York, they'd spent Thanksgiving with their grandmother in Indiana.

Hannah got 2 ukulele lessons...one from my aunt and one from Anthony (both of them are awesome guitar players). She can play the chords for "How much is that doggie in the window?" "Somewhere over the rainbow" and "Down by the bay, where the watermelons grow." Olivia is also learning how to play, now. Here she is playing the C chord. So, now I'm looking for a good ukulele lesson book. Any suggestions?

Yarn along...illuminated glasses & more circles!

How do you like these glasses? They're old jars (oh, have I told you how much we love the Fleur de Sel Caramel Sauce from Trader Joe's?), I washed them and crocheted a cover...now they are illuminated with tealights.

I've been crocheting more circles...

Follow Ginny on her lovely blog (lately we've been picking carrots out of our garden, too, that's really all that's left) & see what others are making at the yarn along here.

Our first backyard eggs!!!

Saturday my husband found 3 eggs in the straw nesting area...I'm pretty sure it was Nutmeg the Rhode Island Red because she's a little bigger and the eggs were brown. Clementine is the Ameraucana and will lay greenish-blue eggs. Later, Hannah went out and discovered another egg. This morning, Olivia took our dog, Lusy, outside and found another egg! We ate them this morning over-easy with toast and butter. Mmmm.