:camera bag:

Gathering supplies to begin sewing a camera bag from the book Sew Liberated .

The Denyse Schmidt fabric I had on hand, but purchased the corduroy fabric from here. I bought the hardware from Strapworks, but they didn't have the right swivel snaps so, I'm waiting on those. I received the majority of my on-line purchases rather quickly and can hardly wait to get started on this project. :)

:it's cold outside:

Making Ina's Italian Wedding Soup tonight!

We kind of grew tired of chicken soup so, I'm trying this new recipe.

:fresh colors:

I love writing pads and pretty pencils.

When I found these over at See Jane Work I got excited!

The colors are bright, fresh and pretty.

Kind of like Spring-Just thinking about it puts a smile on my face.

:my knitting history:

I really wanted to learn how to knit.

This was my feeling many years ago and the feeling never went away.

I was going to have to teach myself how to knit so, I went to the library and gathered lots of books on knitting. I read and tried my hand at knitting and met with lots of stumbling blocks along the way. Sometimes I would put my needles and yarn away for months out of frustration, but I never gave up because I really wanted to learn how to knit. There was something magical about it that I loved.

Then one day, after so many years, it all made sense!

:homemade yogurt:

I made yogurt for us.

I began the process late last night and it was done this morning.

If you haven't had homemade yogurt-you really, really should-because it's quite different from the pre-made kind.

i love that smell

the one that lightly whiffs out when you've just opened up a pumpkin, but quickly disappears......

This is my last baking pumpkin, which I've saved since Fall.

I will be roasting the seeds and pumpkin and baking some pumpkin bread and pie. Yummy!

lemon bars anyone

Last night, I made these on the spur of the moment.

The recipe came from this cookie book, but I'm sure you can find it here .

This is a great recipe.

So, great they were quickly doing a disappearing act.

The recipe had me freeze the sticks of butter then grate them-looks like grated cheese.

Fluffing up the powdery white sugar and flour together

Ready-Ready

OOPS! Please excuse me for eating while writing or is it writing while eating?

newton's law

He stated once, "What goes up must come down".

So, my Christmas tree finally came down a couple of days ago and I began to pack ornaments away. Because we trim our tree late in December we get to keep it up longer, but I still get very sad when D-Day comes. Sad because I have to pack ornaments away (I hate packing) and sad because I won't see the pretty tree for several months again.

These little houses below were crafted a couple of years ago using MarthaStewat's templates.

The house on the right can be hung on the tree while the one on the left is part of a soon to be Winter village in the making. This year I'm planning on creating the small village throughout the year and not wait until October rolls around and add stress to myself. One of the things I'm changing is the type of glue I use-making sure its one that will dry clear this time around.

outdoors

One of the perks of having cool weather is getting to explore the outdoors a lot more than usual: discovering beautiful old buildings early in the afternoon and viewing pretty reflections in water. It doesn't take very much to make me happy.

daisy

Daisy enjoying the sun and cool weather-the day after Christmas Eve.
She loves her little toy bone.