MOONSTITCHES

Christmas?!

Because soon the holidays will be history... quickly three of my favourite Christmas pics:

Dagny in front of the tree, having put all her unwrapped presents under the tree again, closing her eyes and calling Santa-san to come back to take a look of what she had been given...

Busy with her new pots... and, yes, we were all nicely dressed!

Dagny is wearing my last minute sewing idea, an apron made of Heidi fabric.

My girl loves Heidi (I am so glad she loves her even more than Disney Princesses).

One of my dearest ornaments, from my mother.

21 hours... till later!

Will start answering your emails and comments during the day, no big plans for tonight.

Hope you are all well. Good night.

22 Hours...

Phew, only 22 hours to go till the new year starts and sooooo much to catch up with...
2006 will end without having done many things I wanted to do but now it's really too late to worry about that. The Long  Overdues which were begun in October are still waiting to be continued... next year.

What I'd like to tell about today is a parcel that Nic and Sabine have sent us. It traveled a while but reached us just in time... look at all this fabulous wool felt - the green and red one were perfect for the mittens!

I am such a lucky girl that Sabine of Farbenmix was going through her stash and thought I could use that gorgeous yet not machine washable wool felt for some not to be washed items...

If I try very, very hard, I might come up with some (more) ideas... ;)

Thank you so much, Sabine!

Echt, Sabine, der Filz ist herrlich und wird ueber die Jahre (ja, ja, so lange wird's wohl dauern, bis der weg ist!) mit groesster Freude verarbeitet werden.

Bist ein Schatz.

The other, very lucky girl here is Dagny. My poor girl that is still waiting for fitting clothes... She got a new dress! Nic who is writing Luzia Pimpinella, one of my favourite blogs because Nic is such a lovely person, extremely busy, creative and inspiring, instantly thought of making Dagny a dress of a certain fabric she had on her stash when she read that orange post of mine back in October...

And indeed, the dress would have fitted so well... and it actually is fitting well!

That's my happy girl...

Once again I am thrilled how wonderful people are out there.

Nic, thanks a lot!!!!!

Und auch mit Nic spreche ich immer noch Deutsch...

Mutter und Kind haben sich sehr gefreut, der Sesamstrassencharme ist ganz nach unserem Geschmack - und Deine Liebe zum Detail sowieso!

More pictures of that sweet dress here and here.

PS: Dagny needs new sweaters... ;-)

Green, White and Red...

Last minute crafting idea threw my intention to send you my best wishes for the holidays before they began. Instead of blogging I was sewing my dearest an apron today and she thanked me with a happy smile. And that smile was only one of many... oh, I did not expect Christmas could be that wonderful. Seeing our girl so excited and happy was really, really heartwarming.

Merry Christmas to You!

These mittens in my all time favourite Christmas colours are hanging on our tree now, besides all that stuff we collected over the years... quite an inhomogeneous blend altogether ... a happy tree as I would call it... And a very happy crafting project, by the way.

Liesl (disdressed) wrote a very nice and easy to follow tutorial   for making them, I think they are so charming in their simplicity.

Thanks, Liesl, for the inspiration and the tutorial!

More pictures of the ornaments here.

And speaking of ornaments... Michelle at Green Kitchen just hosted  an ornament swap, did you see what cool, clever, beautiful and adorable ideas everybody came up with? Amazing.

Go here and here to see pictures and links to the participant's blogs, please.

Happy Holidays!

Frohe Weihnachten!!! Seid gut zueinander und schlemmt schoen... und esst ruhig ein paar Lebkuchen fuer mich mit, Maedels ;-)

And if you're not celebrating Christmas: Have a good start into the new week!

Surprise!

Guess who has been coming home one day earlier than I thought he would?
At least he was so wise to remind me before he went to the airport... I can tell you, I was quite busy that day. By the way, it was Thursday, the day after my last post. Since I got up that day I've been doing almost nothing but making up for my domestic laziness over the last week.

But it's kind of okay now here, I even can say I was very successful regarding those vanilla crescents that are a substantial part of our little Advent and Christmas traditions. 125 vanilla crescents!!

Actually the best I ever made because I faithfully followed this recipe by Johann Lafer and went for the real vanilla pods, although it almost physically hurts buying them. But it's worth, so much better than anything else.

This little guy Dagny found this week in a thrift store. She recognized it as one of that kind... What a small world.

After all was done we sat down and indulged ourselves with some of the still warm cookies from the last sheet (it took six! in my Japanese sized oven...) - and went out for a walk in the park and onigiri on our favourite bench on the playground. And for freezing our bums off while working hard in the sandbox / taking loads of photos of the felt mittens I have been making for our Christmas tree.

Thank you so much for all your kind words on my blog anniversary. They made me laugh, smile, grin and blush. I am happy to have such a nice bunch of readers here.

Here in Japan we already have Dec. 24th but I'll go and take a nap before I am coming back for my Christmas post. 
Till then!

Take care.

Almost Forgotten

Whenever I am passing this rotten bag which is hanging on a fence not far from my home I must smile.
It surely is an ugly piece, yet I think it never was less ugly than today since the awfulness of the pleather and the shape has been fading a lot. The ravages of time could only do this bag good...

So, why do I smile?

Because I can't help but thinking:

Who is that person  that put the bag on the fence to  make  a photo for  her or his blog and then forgot to take it home because she or he was totally preoccupied with thinking about the blog entry already, or the next crafting project,  latest purchased books and fabrics, emails from blogging friends that were to be answered, parcels to be packed, dishes that were piling up in the kitchen because crafting urges came in the way of washing the dishes for several days ...?

The way I see the world has profoundly changed since I am having this blog.

And I like how it changed.

Today is my first blogiversary .

I was so surprised as I noticed it at the beginning of the week when I checked one of my first entries on my search for a recipe. This day almost slipped by without any word about it. But I can tell that happened to far more serious anniversaries here this year and we survived that, too.
So, I was taken by surprise. At a really bad point of time because I am in the middle of an excessive crafting phase which is happening because Dagny and I are alone this week.
Without some of our daily routines our home quickly  starts  to concentrate on crafting and, don't tell anybody, I can really go blind on purpose regarding all those used mugs and plates that can be found everywhere after a few days, and the laundry... lucky (crafting) me now - swearing not crafting me one day before everything has to be in order again... but why spoil these jaunty days... think of the mittens first, and the wool quilt that needs a great deal of attention  (what a terrific idea to  "let it snow"  on the quilt by  dispersing countless French Knots!) and another beret that is waiting be be crocheted...!

So, no time for preparing thoughtful words for today - let me just say Thank You then.

Thanks for stopping by, reading and commenting or just being there. It means a lot to me.
Thank you for becoming a friend, inhabit my crafty island and bring life to it.
Thanks for letting me be a part of that creative, constantly inspiring and kind community of crafters all over the world. You've been very nice to me.

And now back to those knots...!

Actually I will go to bed, it's almost half past two...

Good night.