Today's nonsense is brought to you by my fuzzy head cold. I fear I may be about to ramble incoherently. Sorry in advance. At 3 p.m. I realized that I forgot to apply deodorant this morning. I was going to say that it's been all downhill from there, but I'm pretty sure the downhill slide started on Friday morning, when I woke up with the runniest of runny noses.

I had big plans this past weekend for Christmas tree decorating, Christmas gift making, and the continuation of the great studio clean out. I was also going to write virtuously about how I had a good attitude towards Thanksgiving despite the fact that I had to spend it a day late at the home of my mother-in-law, eating the re-heated Thanksgiving Dinner for Four in a box from the local grocery store, listening to her complain about everything from the cost of paper towels to how difficult it is to find quality blouses at her local thrift store these days. I managed to help her balance her checkbook, and ignored the usual comparison of my obsessive sock knitting to that of Madame Defarge. She wasn't too bad this visit, and she was even quite pleasant at times. She sent me home with several vintage, pieced quilt tops, which I will photograph and share sometime soon. The quilt tops are, I believe, from the 30's and 40's, and include a gorgeous double wedding ring quilt-it's double or maybe even queen-sized! They are all hand-pieced, and there are a couple spots in need of repair, but otherwise all they need is batting, backing fabric and quilting!

She also gave me this sweet little bird that her aunt always had on her Christmas tree.

Instead of all those wonderful activities for what was a beautiful weekend weather-wise, once I got home late Friday night, I blew my nose every 10 minutes, rearranged the pillows to the proper angle for prime sinus drainage, counted off the hours until I could take the next dose of Theraflu/Benedryl/Airborne/Tylenol, none of which did much to alleviate my symptoms, and carefully maneuvered so as not to disturb the two cats curled up on either side of me (and the occasional dog, too). I am thankful for my lovely laptop, which kept me entertained for the last three days. I found all sorts of fun and interesting things out there on the interwebs. I watched movies on hulu.com (Master and Commander (one of my favorites) and 24: Redemption (Yay! a new season, finally!)) and Netflix (Dan in Real Life (meh, it was alright), Gone Baby Gone (pretty good, but sad)), played zilch and Bloon Tower Defense III and various escape from a locked room puzzle games (I think this was one of my favorites, and easy enough that I didn't have to cheat and get a hint), and found funny t-shirts that I think I need and lovely little videos of what look like miniature worlds, but are actually real life-sized ones, thanks to a little tilt-shift action (try this one, it's especially lovely, although the monster truck one is cute).

So, it wasn't the best Thanksgiving ever, but it wasn't the worst, and I still have a lot to be thankful for and one day soon when I'm feeling a little less fuzzy and incoherent I'll make a gratitude list. Although I suppose I could start by pointing to that list of links over there on the left under Family. I am thankful for family, even though I didn't get to spend time with them and they are all far away. And for Mr. Heylucy for getting me cookies when I'm sick. And for cats and dogs who will curl up next to me to keep me warm. I hope you all had lots of delicious turkey and that you're not sick of the leftovers yet!

My sister just wrote about their week here, and I didn’t realize what a great hostess I was, but I guess I did a really good job. Actually, she and Mr. P are very good house guests. They washed a lot of dishes and swept the floor a few times, two jobs I really don’t like. Her pictures are much better than mine, and there’s lots of good commentary, so I highly recommend having a look at her photo album.

It’s been a long week, so I decided to start off the weekend with a bubble bath. My selection of facial masks and pretty Oililiy soap was courtesy of Yvonne. What I should have also gotten a picture of was the cats, who stare endlessly at the bubbles whenever I fill the tub. I’m not sure if they are terrified or fascinated. A combination of both, I suspect.

Later, I took down the Christmas tree, which was as exciting for the cats as the day I put it up. Lucy made herself comfortable in the middle of the floral mesh I used as a garland. Later I found her in the tree box.

Lucy is a funny girl. Sijbrich thinks that I should train her to do tricks, and I think that is entirely possible. When we first brought the cats home, Petey settled in pretty quickly, and was a little cuddle-bug from the beginning, but Lucy took a little longer. Both cats were about nine months old when we got them, and had spent the previous six months living together in a cage at the shelter where they were being treated for ringworm. I think Lucy must have spent her first three months as a feral cat, because she would do things like steal bones out of the trash, running and hiding with her stash. Apparently she was worried that the feeder dish we keep perpetually filled with cat food Just Might Run Out one day, you never know with those humans, but she would be prepared for that day. She also likes to chew on plastic, any kind will do, plastic bags, plastic wrap, plastic tape. I’ve even caught her swallowing it, so now I try to keep it out of reach as much as possible. She also didn’t like being held. At all. She didn’t mind being petted, and was happy to rub against our legs, and even throw herself on the ground for a tummy rub, but the moment we would pick her up, her ears would flatten and she would squirm to get away. She seems to have realized that we are capable of holding her without dropping her now, so she’ll tolerate being held if we do it exactly the right way: right side up only (no cradling her like a baby), not too tight, and with lots of petting.

More and more she’s settling in and has decided that we humans aren’t so bad after all. She wants to play all the time, with us. Her favorite game is fetch, and she usually lets us know she’s ready to play by jumping on our headboard and dropping her toy on one of our faces and then chirping. She can do this, because her favorite time to play is around 6 a.m. So we throw the toy, she throws herself off the bed and runs after it and then brings it right back. She can do this for hours it seems, and it never gets old. If we’re not available, then Petey will do, and since he can’t throw a toy for her to fetch, they bounce from room to room and fly through the mini-blinds to hide on the window sills. If I ever get new curtains made for my living room, I’ll have to post before pictures of the sad state of the blinds. Then, when she’s tired from the ricocheting off the walls, she’ll curl up in my lap and sleep for as long as I can manage to sit still.

It took us a while to bring home new cats after losing Gigi, and a month later losing Dune, and these two will never replace them, but it’s comforting to know that they have their own specialness, and bring a new kind of joy into our little house.

I had to stay home this morning to wait for the plumber, and there was lots of sunshine, so I took more pictures. I’m still in auto mode, but I’m watching my Nikon School DVD, and reading my user manual, so eventually I’ll actually change a setting and see what happens. There are a lot of buttons and dials, so it may take me awhile just to learn what they all do. Typepad reduces the image size quite a bit, so I added these pictures to my Flickr account too, if you’d like to look at them a little bigger.

The cats love the new bathroom almost as much as I do. Lucy sits and looks at the spout on the tub, until I turn it on for her, so she can get a drink.

I got a pretty good close-up of our Christmas tree. You can see a couple of my glittery nests, and a pair of wings.

I finished up my gift-wrapping while waiting for the plumber this morning too. This idea I blantently stole from Kathleen. I’ve had the same Amy Butler paper for quite a while, and this was a very good use for some of it.

My sister and Mr. P will be in town for New Year’s, and she’ll be bringing her camera along, so we can go on some photo adventures out and about in San Diego. Fun!

Santa came early, and I must have been really really good this year, because I got something I’ve been wanting for a very long time. Santa also said that I could start playing with my new toy right away, so I have been. So far, I’ve just been using the auto settings, but the results are pretty darn good. My little Olympus point-and-shoot has served me well the past four years, but this little baby is just amazing. I took some pictures last night, which I never would have attempted before, and then this morning, it was grey and drizzly, but I still couldn’t stop myself from snapping away. I can’t wait to try it in full daylight. Click on all the pictures to see them big!

This is a cross-stitch I did years ago, and always pull out for Christmas.

A light supper last night, under the Christmas tree. I got my swap package from Yvonne yesterday, and did I rip open the caramel-ly stroopwafels? The spicy-sweet speculaas cookies? Oh no sir-ree, it was the beautiful wedge of cheese that I had to dig into right away! When Yvonne asked if I had any special requests, I jokingly told her Leidsekaas, please! And she sent a nice big chunk of a similar cheese from her home town. It is so good! There was much more in that pretty pink box, but it will have to wait until I can take some daylight pictures to truly do it all justice.

Today is our secret Santa gift exchange at work, and I was lucky enough to draw the name of a fellow knitter, so I made her a needle roll, the first one I’ve ever made. It came out pretty cute, I think. I hope she likes it. There’s also a yarn store gift certificate, so even if she hates the needle roll, she should be pretty happy with the rest of the gift.

Last week I picked up a frame at Ikea for my poster from Victoria. I was going to hang it in my laundry room, because I could use a little reminder not to get all worked up when I have to spend my Saturday doing five loads of laundry, but it looked so good in the guest room, that I think I’ll leave it in there. I do need to take it in and get the mat trimmed down a bit.

And one last picture. Every time it rains, the logs from the tree we cut down a couple months ago get all mossy and green. I love that color.

It snowed this weekend, so it was a perfect oppurtunity to turn on the Hallmark channel, watch sappy Christmas movies (my guilty pleasure this time of year), and decorate! Please ignore the unpainted walls, and just be glad the duck wallpaper is gone. Now that the bathroom is pretty much done, I’ll be moving on to the living room, but I’m a little busy at the moment.

I never thought it would happen, but I actually got a fake tree this year. First of all, it’s hard to find narrow trees to fit in our little house. Second of all, I like having the tree up for a good long time, and by the time I get the tree down, it’s an extreme fire hazard. And third of all, I’m the one that has to water the tree and clean up the needles, and I just didn’t want to have to deal with all that this year. So, I found this skinny tree a couple weeks ago, and now that it’s up, I actually really just love it. I love the way it looks, and I love that it doesn’t make a mess, and I love that I can leave it up until New Year’s, and I won’t have to worry about it drying out. I think I’ll go collect some branches from the pine trees in our yard, though, so we can still have that nice pine smell in the house.

It’s a cloudy day, so this is the best I could do for now. Lucy loves the Christmas tree. I’ve even caught her sitting in the middle of it, reaching for the ornaments from inside the tree. It will be a miracle if it doesn’t get knocked over. She also likes to just sit underneath it, especially when it’s all lit up. Both cats loved the lights as I was arranging them on the tree, and I had a hard time convincing them that electrical wiring is, in fact, not a good thing to chew on. That particular window sill is Petey’s favorite place to hang out and enjoy the sun and the view of the chickens under the lilac bushes. Now it’s even better, since there’s a pretty tree to look at too.

This year I decorated the tree with lots of vintage ball ornaments, birds nests that I caked with glitter, and gold angel wings. The garland is actually a gold and green mesh floral wrap, I just sort of shove in the branches. If I get ambitious, I want to make a felt bird for the top, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen before this Christmas. I found a little gold butterfly in with all my decorations, I think I should get more and put them all over the tree too. Wouldn’t that be pretty?

I added a few pretty decorations to my kitchen too.

The stocking is from last year’s Annual Christmas Swap with Yvonne. We’ve both just sent our packages for this year’s swap, and I can’t wait. I’m such a lucky duck that we have this tradition! The gumdrop wreath I made a few years ago, and it’s survived quite well. Also, when hungry husbands say, "oh, is that a candy wreath?" all I have to do is remind him that those gumdrops have been in a box in the shed since 2003, and he’s suddenly less inclined to pluck off a gumdrop and pop it in his mouth.

There’ll be more decorations soon, but for the next couple days I’ll be hanging out with one of my brothers, who is in town for a show. I have the next couple days off and we’re going fishing and Christmas shopping! Speaking of family, a couple more members have joined blogland, so check out the links to my other sister-in-law, where you can see pretty pictures of my brother and cute nephew in the snow, and my very hilarious cousin, who thinks she is a hick.