I wrote down everybody's names from the mushroom comments and put them in a little bowl, and then I captured the rest on film:
 
 

 


Yay for Rachel! I'll send you an e-mail to get your address, and your mushrooms will go out in tomorrow's post!

A couple things I forgot to mention: my (still unfinished, but definitely cuter-than-it-was) studio has been featured on the Modish Blog and on The 6 o’clock Stitch. You may be thinking, “yeah, well, I’ve seen your studio, you’ve been blathering on about it for the past month, I don’t need to go somewhere else and see it again.” Well, I’m not sending you over there to look at my studio (which I’ve taken to calling The Little House^tm [okay, maybe I didn’t actually trademark it]), but to look at all the other great studios. I love seeing other creative spaces, it gives me ideas for my own and keeps me inspired.

Also, if you weren’t here for my daily weekend posts, you’re going to want to scroll down and read them, because there’s a toy surprise inside one. Er, sort of. You’ll see.

I don’t think I ever showed you the mermaid I stole from Mr. Heylucy for The Little House^tm I just didn’t want to have a post without a picture.

1. terrarium, 2. Old Jar Moss Terrariums, 3. a terrarium, 4. terrarium trial, 5. this morning i made terrariums., 6. City on the Hill Terrarium, 7. Terrarium, 8. Moss Terrarium, 9. terrarium centerpiece

One of the projects not on my list is to make a little moss terrarium in a big jar I got at Ikea. I think that will be my weekend project this Saturday. Terrariums satisfy my love of miniatures and glass jars and moss all at once. I especially love the ones above with the little mushrooms and tiny houses. I think I will need to put something like that in my terrarium too. It also means that I will be going on a little hike to collect some local moss, that should be fun! This is the best time of year to head up the trail just up the road from our house.

I'm also starting to scheme and plan the curtains-over-the-bookcases project. I really love the Good Folks fabric line from Anna Maria Horner, and I'm seriously considering using a combination of these two pretty patterns:

I really love a lot of the new fabric designers, but when faced with actually buying their fabric I sort of freeze up. I have several problems. Number one: I just can't decide which I like best in any given group. What if I buy one print and then I get it home and realize that I actually really like a different one or a different colorway better. Number two: I don't feel like I can really make things for my shop out of them, because they are so well known that whatever design I come up with will never be quite worthy enough, and the item will only be purchased because of the fabric designer. Does that make sense? Like my design will be overshadowed by the fabulous-ness of the fabric. Or if I were to make a quilt all out of one line of fabric, it's not really very original of me. I'm just babbling, I don't know if I'm even making any sense. Anyway, what do you think of the above fabric choices? The curtains would be mostly the floral, with a deep hem of the geometric fabric at the bottom (like 18" or so). Or maybe I should go with a different fabric from that line…see how hard it is to commit!?

It's a Christmas Miracle! Well, maybe that's a little dramatic, but still, it looks like I'll actually manage to send out Christmas cards this year. This is quite an accomplishment for me. I always start December with the best intentions and plans for handmade, spectacular cards with long, personalized letters for each recipient. And then reality sets in, and not only do no cards get made or letters written, I can't even manage to send out boxed cards with just a signature. So this time I decided to try something a little different. I've been enjoying Christmas music so much this year that I made a nifty mix CD, and that's what I'm sending. Of course I had to make special, festive envelopes, but there won't be any long letters, just a signed CD that I hope will be enjoyed by those who receive them, as much as I have enjoyed listening to lots of great Christmas music while making them.

I want to share the music with all you lovely blog visitors too! I've got a dozen or so extra CDs to share, so the first twelve comments will get one. If there are more people interested, I'll probably be able to draw a few names from the additional commenters to receive CDs too. There some traditional Christmas songs, some original songs, some Winter songs, and maybe some irreverent songs, the common thread is that they are all songs I just love, and they are Christmas-y.

This is one of my favorite hymns from my favorite Christmas album right now:

Excuse the slightly cheesy video. And I know it's not really a Christmas song, but the message still fits the season.

But wait! There's more! Not a lot more, just a little thing. I made a Pandora Christmas radio station, based on some of my current favorites included on the CD, so if you'd like a little taste, click the Christmas link under HeyLucy radio to the left, and listen right now on your computer! Nifty, isn't it?

Here's a new game we've been playing at our house lately. It's called 'Where's Lucy?' If we make it until January without the tree falling over it will be another Christmas Miracle!

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!

Have you heard? They made a movie. If you go see it, you should take a lot of tissues. Knowing the story, I think I will probably cry from the opening credits all the way to the end.

Have you seen The Lives of Others? I actually watched it a while ago, but it is still with me. I highly recommend it.

That's all I've got for you right now, maybe I'll be more interesting by this weekend. On a lighter note, Craftzine linked to the post about my Ginger Pear Upside Down Cake. You know, the one where I talked about barfing for seven hours. It's so great that several hundred people who have probably never read my blog came to read about a delicious cake, but then had to read that. Sorry new visitors! I hope you'll come back anyway.