It’s alright. Honestly, the number of parties this time of year is more than a little overwhelming. It was literally every weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
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I made these like 10 minutes before the girls’ class party for their teachers.
@tendstowardschaos - beer mitts are so fun!
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Looks tasty!
Better than my quiche lol. It was edible but not nice. We had been DIYing and we ate all of it only because we were very hungry and too tired to cook something else. So now I need to figure out a new vegetarian main course. I asked my vegetarian sibling for inspiration!
I’m impressed by all your gifts, @Abbeeroad , @AntBee @tendstowardschaos . Your mitts look so professional, when I knit them the thumbs always look a bit wonky.
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Happy lastminute crafting day everyone!!
I still need to quilt and bind a wallhanging and we’re doing gifts tonight! Wish me luck 
It shouldn’t take more than an hour, and it’s lunchtime here, so it should be do-able as long as my sewing machine doesn’t suddently jam up or something. But we all know that sewing machines don’t cope very well with pressure …
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I have all the wrapping done, the house is decorated, and the food I’m able to prep is done. But I tried working on my last “have to make in time” gift, and it didn’t go well.
My niece is going to Spain for a semester abroad in January. I want to make her a secret pocket scrunchie to hide some emergency cash in, in case she’s pickpocketed. I know you can buy them, but the commercially available ones have a very obvious zipper, that’s a dead giveaway. Not very useful if pickpockets can spot them. So I found a couple tutorials for making one without a zipper, and tested it out yesterday. It uses two overlapping pieces of fabric, with an elastic casing in each, to keep things from falling out. Mine went together fine, but I was using scraps of sari silk and the extra elastic felt a bit lumpy in the thin fabric. And I only had enough elastic for one try. So I ran out to Joann’s for more last night. I found a couple options , including a skinner one for the pocket casing to cut down on the bulk. I also picked up a few slivers of jersey to try it with, and if all else fails, 2 invisible zippers that I think I might be able to hide a little better with a piece of fabric across the zip at the top, for the pull to hide in…
I was hoping to also make Jim a quilted cozy for his French press and an apron for Ada that would match the one I made myself a few weeks ago. But if all else fails, they each have birthdays in March.
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Hope you manage to finish the scrunchie in time! Sounds like a clever idea.
I didn’t just finish my wallhanging, I actually finished a potholder as well! I used a square of fabric to try out some quilting ideas, and decided to finish it off right away instead of piling it up and finishing it in 10 years. So 2 finishes, that’s not too bad!
Now, off to bake some things for tomorrow, then enjoy Christmas Eve with Mr. Imma! We’re eating a relatively simple dinner tonight - chicken vol-au-vents from meat picked off a carcass, steak, fries and broccoli, and then ice cream for dessert. Maybe we’ll light a candle if we’re feeling fancy.
I’m planning to bake Oma’s Dutch ginger butter cake (which takes only about 10 minutes, plus oven time!) and English mince pies, which take a bit more time but aren’t exactly difficult either.
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I am baking cookies today! My plans to make them earlier were quashed by my husband, who did not want to be tempted before he had his required physical and tests for his upcoming knee replacement surgery!
We have our Christmas dinner all set as well as New Year’s King Crab legs!
I didn’t send out many cards this year due to too many other non-Christmas commitments, so I think I am going to send out some New Year ones.
My family got all of their money and cards from us, so that is good! I got my husband “The History of Chocolate” to put under the tree since he already started using the Road Atlas I got him…
Is it too early to start on next year? ha ha I bought a bunch of Christmas cross stitch patterns at an end of year clearance…I think I will start them when they arrive next week! ha
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Never! I’m already plotting cross stitches and cards.
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Your cards were fabulous! They must be incredibly time consuming! I am amazed and honored to have received one!
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I think it’s fun to work on seasonal items during the actual season- bonus joy if you’re not racing a clock!
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I have two finished black jersey scrunchies, and now I’m working on some extras in some other fabrics.
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Yes, post-Christmas Christmas crafting is great! You’re still in the mood for Christmas but there’s no pressure. And future you will thank you in November.
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I agree. I had three projects on the go at the end and didn’t get two done in time and the last one was not to my satisfaction. So I definitely think I need to start now.
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Haha. #truth
Perfect! ha
Looks great! Clever idea, I had no idea this existed. When I travelled alone when I was younger I sewed an extra pocket on the inside of my jeans where I kept a banknote.
Christmas is two days here, so we’ve had the First Day of Christmas and now it’s the morning of the Second Day of Christmas. Yesterday we had a friend over, today my whole family.
The meal we had yesterday was relatively simple for Christmas (not a dozen dishes on the table) but it was generally healthy and easy to make. I was surprised at how easy, I’ll post a schedule later. Tonight is turkey, and we’ll have more guests, so hope that all goes well
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So, the promised schedule for a simple but nice and stress-less dinner for a small group!
We started with chicken vol-au-vents, we then had roast beef, roast potatoes, sprouts and squash in honey-mustard sauce for veg, and dinner was poached pear (guest was lactose intolerant and doesn’t have a sweet tooth). I prepared the chicken ragout and the poached pears a day before, so that’s a cheat. Both dishes take about 15 minutes to prepare and both taste better on the second day anyway.
After breakfast, the first thing I did was peel the potatoes, squash and clean the sprouts and prepared them (the potatoes had some herbs on them, the sprouts and squash were drizzled with a marinade that consisted of olive oil, balsamico, honey and mustard) and put them in the oven for 30 minutes. Then I let them cool in the fridge and counter (potatoes don’t deal with fridge and clingfilm very well, so I put them on the counter covered with a clean teatowel).
The meat for the main course was a roast beef, we got a small one (about a kilo) and they typically don’t have the bone here. I rubbed it with lots of pepper and salt, browned it for a couple of minutes in a cast iron pan, then transferred to the oven for 45 minutes on a lower temperature (145C). After about half an hour, I put the veggies and the potatoes back into the oven with the meat. When the meat was done and resting on the counter, I put the oven on a higher temperatures to get the potatoes and veggies a bit crispy.
All in all, when our guest arrived, I only had to go into the kitchen for 5 minutes at a time, to put things in and out of the oven or quickly heat something. It was super relaxed and even our guest commented that they’d never experienced such a relaxed Christmas dinner - healthy and cooked from scratch but without stressed people in the kitchen, just barely noticeable trips to the kitchen every now and then. 10/10, will serve this exact meal again, I’m sure.
The second day of Christmas, my family was … like my family. Chaos. I knew it 
Here, too, I decided to serve vol-au-vents (mushroom this time) as the starter, then turkey, chicken, the leftover sprouts and squash, potatoes and macaroni as sides. After my experimental veggie main course failed last week, I’d asked in our family group chat if anyone had a suggestion for a vegetarian main course, and my mother answered that she’d bring one. We agreed on a small dish, that could go into the oven when the turkey was resting, together with some other things - I let her know the exact temperature/oven time so she could figure out if that worked for her dish.
Well, instead of with a finished dish … she turned up with a bunch of ingredients. And didn’t even start preparing until the turkey was resting and I was going through the most busy 20 minutes in the kitchen - heating up things, putting things in and out of the oven. We have a small kitchen so she was in the way constantly, asking where she could find a clean oven dish (nowhere, they’re all in use!) tomatoes (we don’t have them!) herbs/spices, moving whatever I needed etc. Her dish ended up spending too little time in the oven and honestly wasn’t great. She’s a good cook but she’s not good at planning these kind of things.
When I agreed to let her do the veggie dish I knew something was going to go wrong And I’m no longer stressed out by it. She doesn’t like to be away from home for very long anymore, so my family only stayed for about 4 hours, and that’s enough. I know she’s kind, but she’s constantly asking “what can I do, what can I do, what can I do?” out of kindness but all the time, I’m trying to come up with things to keep her occupied and not in the way. I tried telling her to sit down and enjoy the festivities, but that just doesn’t work, she feels so guilty for not doing anything when she’s sitting down. But whatever tasks I give her, she ends up doing something completely else. At the end of the day, I still haven’t talked to anyone really, because I’m constantly trying to manage her. I remember my grandma was like that at that age, when she was transforming from the stereotypical “mother” role to the “older lady” who was comfortable sitting down and letting other people do the work. I suppose this is what happens when we all get older. I just try not to tell her she’s behaving like grandma
On the upside, after I finished writing them for this year, I finished a bunch of cards for next year! All papercraft too, which isn’t my main craft. I actually really like how they’ve turned out.
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It all sounds lovely to me. I do miss some of the family chaos…our holidays are rather boring now with just the two of us.
My sister keeps people out of the kitchen by setting up a puzzle that everyone can work on and she threatens no dessert if it is not done (it is usually a fairly simple holiday puzzle…).
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