Last of Christmas

Yes, I put away Christmas stuff on January 6 or 7. But I didn't post pictures until now!

These are those little houses ... I have to admit, while all snobby and classy in other respects, I confess to a weakness for Thomas Kinkade (in moderation) and little Dickensian houses that light up at Christmas.

(Peeking out under the drawer you can see the edge of some University of Texas demitasse cups my fabulous grandmother gave us, as we've each gone -- Himself for undergrad, me for my MA.)


And I got a gingerbread house kit in the secret santa at work, so ... house! It was truly a merger -- Himself had never made one before, so he was a novice, while I ... well, let's just say, the last one I made was a scale model of the Stephansdom in Vienna, with colored M&M's making up the patterned roof. So we compromised! I think it was sufficiently happy, anyhow!

Aunt Cushion

This is a cross-stitch cushion I made for my aunt. It's entertaining -- she has such specific likes in colors, ones that no one else has, that everyone who saw this in progress knew exactly who the intended recipient was.

It's about four inches across; as mentioned below, I don't like finishing, so I had my lovely mother (who's finished pillows for me before) make it up for me -- she added some ribbon around the needlework to make it a bit larger.

Sweet, don't you think? Pattern's from this book.

Christmas Quilt

A bit late, eh? Well, here's a little lap quilt I made for Himself, who gets cold. It's a silly cold -- he wants to sit around in light cotton clothing in January. I want to dress like it's January, and am actually doing stuff around the house (plus I have some extra natural insulation he doesn't have), and see no reason why I should be in a summer sundress and sweating to keep him comfortable sitting still in summer clothes in the winter ... so I refuse to turn the heat above 60, and make him put on blankets if he refuses to wear socks and sweaters!
Bizarrely, blogger seems to have rotated my picture ... but, as you can see, the back is poinsettias, with gold diamond-shaped quilting, and the front is santa toile (so funny!) with shaped quilting around each vignette. My first complete quilt! I tried to piece things when little (my mother's an accomplished quilter, and actually had to sew the bias tape around the edge here after I gave up, so I of course wanted to do what she was doing), but never actually completed one before. It was modeled after Erin's three and a half hour quilt, but it took me a bit longer ... lack of experience, I guess. And that's not even counting the binding. But, I'm pleased! And so was he.

Helvetica

Just watched Helvetica. Entertaining to see all the perspectives, from people loving it because they don't think typefaces should say anything, to people hating it because it doesn't say anything, to an ... interesting ... woman who connects it to militarism and admittedly without any evidence except her own animosity towards both typeface and ideology correlates its usage with voting for Reagan. I think I come down mostly on the side of the fellow who says it's fine, useful for things where readability is the goal (like road signs), but basically boring.

And I got to teach Himself about the difference between serif and sans serif ... twice ... and I don't think he paid attention the second time either. But he is very good to me and does pretend to be interested in the things that interest me (at the time, at least), and is entertained that I'm interested, so I can't complain.

Why didn't I read much in October? We were sleeping on a matress in the living room, post Ike, with no lamps, and I had to be even quieter than normal, and what spare daytime hours I had were spent laying a new laminate floor in our water-damaged bedroom. So, only got away with a few novels for teenage girls and one dear little story for small children. Oh, well!

Reading List

Between taking care of the husband, doing a bit of yardwork and housework, satisfying the we-never-see-you of the various family bits, and my job, I've managed to get a bit of reading in since my birthday (July 28):

July 28-:
Raisins and Almonds. Kerry Greenwood.
The Care and Feeding of Books Old and New. Margot Rosenberg and Ben Marcowitz.
Death Before Wicket. Kerry Greenwood.
A Hole in the Wall. Louisa May Alcott.
(Yes, it's a short story, but I bound it in a book all by itself, so it counts as a book!)

August:
Busman's Honeymoon. Dorothy Sayers.
Three For a Letter. Mary Reed and Eric Mayer.
Killer Stitch. Maggie Sefton. (These are fun mysteries hashed out by a knitting group -- I really enjoy them!)
Murder Must Advertise. Dorothy Sayers.
Away With the Fairies. Kerry Greenwood.
Clouds of Witness. Dorothy Sayers.
Thrones, Dominations. Dorothy Sayers and Jill Paton Walsh.
A Case of Nosy Neighbors. Lori Copeland.
The Last Hero. Terry Pratchett.
Bertie Wooster Sees it Through. P. G. Wodehouse.
Our Lady of Pain. Marion Chesney.
Murder in Montparnasse. Kerry Greenwood.
At Bertram's Hotel. Agatha Christie.
The Truth. Terry Pratchett.
Meg's Story. Susan Beth Pfeffer.
Mrs. Jeffries and the Feast of St. Stephen. Emily Brightwell.

September:
Further Chronicles of Avonlea. L. M. Montgomery.
Little Women. Louisa May Alcott.
Mrs. Jeffries and the Silent Knight. Emily Brightwell.
Unnatural Death. Dorothy Sayers.
The Documents in the Case. Dorothy Sayers.
A Gift for Meg. Susan Beth Pfeffer.
Along the Shore. L. M. Montgomery.
Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll.
The Road to Yesterday. L. M. Montgomery.
The Gold Bug. Edgar Allen Poe.
Dragons in the Waters. Madeleine L'Engle.
The Arm of the Starfish. Madeleine L'Engle.
Meet the Austins. Madeleine L'Engle.
The Young Unicorns. Madeleine L'Engle.
The Moon by Night. Madeleine L'Engle.
Troubling a Star. Madeleine L'Engle.
(Yes, I go on kicks!)

October:
A Ring of Endless Light. Madeleine L'Engle.
A House Like a Lotus. Madeleine L'Engle.
William Morris: Decor and Design. Elizabeth Wihilde.
An Acceptable Time. Madeleine L'Engle.
Us. Mrs. Molesworth.
Romance of a Christmas Card. Kate Douglas Wiggin.

November:
The Little Christmas Shoe. Jane Scott Woodruff.
Beasley's Christmas Party. Booth Tarkington.
Why the Chimes Rang. Raymond McDonald Alden.
A Captured Santa Claus. Thomas Nelson Page.
The Light Princess. George MacDonald.
Fin-de-siecle Vienna. Carl E. Schorshe.
My Book House: Over the Hills. Olive Beaupre Miller (Ed.)
Emily of New Moon. L. M. Montgomery.
The Matters at Mansfield (or: The Crawford Affair). Carrie Bebris. (These are the only knock-off Jane Austen books I've ever liked, and I've tried several ... if you're writing about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, don't have them swear, sleep around (especially not her, with anyone, or the pair between meeting and marriage), or do other massively anachronistic or out-of-character things, please!)
Emily Climbs. L. M. Montgomery.
Emily's Quest. L. M. Montgomery.
Fleece Navidad. Maggie Sefton.
Anne of Avonlea. L. M. Montgomery.
Anne of the Island. L. M. Montgomery.
The Lamnas Feast. Kate Sedley.
Equal Rites. Terry Pratchett.
Anne of Windy Poplars. L. M. Montgomery.
Anne's House of Dreams. L. M. Montgomery.

December:
Anne of Ingleside. L. M. Montgomery.
Mort. Terry Pratchett.
Sourcery. Terry Pratchett.
Rainbow Valley. L. M. Montgomery.
William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Home. Pamela Todd. (I love William Morris designs!)
Rilla of Ingleside. L. M. Montgomery.
The Story Girl. L. M. Montgomery.
An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews. Henry Fielding.
The Mysteries of Udolpho. Ann Radcliffe. (Long, but really just as good as all the reviews at the time said it would be!)
The Golden Road. L. M. Montgomery.
Kilmeny of the Orchard. L. M. Montgomery.
Relighting the Lamp of Excellence. Michael and Lois DeBakey.
America, 1908. Jim Rasenberger. (I've learned, if I give a book to someone in the hopes they'll lend it to me, I'll usually be wrong, so I should read it first -- this was a present for my grandfather.)
Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded. Samuel Richardson. (Ok, really? Servant girl resists master's advances, so he abducts her, locks her up, and attempts rape several times, and we're supposed to find it wonderful that he finally marries her? It's a good thing that the girl succumbs to Stockholm Syndrome? For ancient novels, I'll take Ann Radcliffe over Mr. Richardson any day!)
The Shuttle. Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Masterpieces in Miniature. Agatha Christie.

A lot of the Christmas ones were actually for work -- I was doing a display on Children's Christmas books, and read those on my lunch break so that I could review them.

Can you tell what I like? Sayers and Montgomery get read every year, sometimes multiple times (I can read Gaudy Night several times in a row), and Alcott and L'Engle get worked through on a two-year rotation, normally. And I do like "cosy" mysteries.

How do I read so much? Himself has to go to sleep very early sometimes, and I like to sleep early but not at 7:30, but I can't make noise, so reading gets done then; and, due to various regulations, I'm required to have a nine-hour workday and take a one-hour lunch, which is fine when I want to go out to a restaurant or something, but is a bit lengthy when I've brought a sandwich, so I get an hour of reading in around noon most days. And I'm a fast reader. Not a reader for retention, which sometimes threw me for a loop in class (but I really did read the book! I just forgot it after I read it!), but is great for novels -- I can read an Agatha Christie a year or two later and have no idea who did it, and I get as much enjoyment out of the books I read several times a year each time I read them, because it's always fresh to me!

Read anything good lately?

Happy Christmas!

I try to do some of the German things I picked up when living in Braunschweig, and these tissue-paper snowflakes are some of my favorites.


Our sweet little tree ... note the University of Texas longhorn for Himself ... the rest of our presents are at my mother's house and we're heading over there right now!

Snow!

I got home from work and looked outside (should have turned off the porch light to see our fairy lights better) and saw this:
Want a better look?
(I hate these palm-bushes, so spiky)
Even better, piling up on Himself's car:
It's all gone this morning, but goodness, it was fun. Snow in Houston!

Frosty

I've never done anything in plastic canvas before, but I needed a break from the two-year crossstitch project, so, when I heard of this fellow on freecycle, I jumped. You get to see a bit of my hand for fun -- he looked better against the wall of the Man Cave than on our wood floors.

Things I learned:

1) plastic canvas is fast!

2) when they say to do all stitching, including the overcast edges, before trimming the plastic, ignore them. I did that on the left stocking, and you can see the bits of plastic sticking out. The rest, I trimmed first, and it's much better.

It was fun!

Now back to the two-year project...

Last bit of October

So I'm slow :)

I finally took this off my front door:

Made it last year. Construction paper and tissue -- quite sweet.

Given my speed on that one, I think I won't be putting up my autumn leaves. Probably go straight to the snowflakes....

Man, things are easier when you're a housewife (like me last year) than when you have a full-time job!