Dinner

hmm. guess that would be turkey cheese roll-ups for dinner then, eh....?

Christmas Tree 2008

A last look at my Christmas tree before I take it down



New ormanents for this year:
from Ten Thousand Villages... made in Vietnam


paper cranes folded from Japanese origami paper

ornaments received as gifts

A Look Back

Somehow, it seems right to take a look back at some of my end of the year creativity before looking forward and setting new goals, new resolutions... Among the many December projects, here is a glimpse of a few:

my first attempts at "quilt journaling"....with yarn and wool

• for the wells of creativity that spout out randomly during nano
• for the recent election

making felt ornaments, mostly like those I saw in the store of pomegranetes or oranges, but here is one I designed of a snowman



my finished anemoi hat



and a free form wall-hanging (about 65% finished) inspired by small felt circles --a couple of which you can see, but most of which have yet to be embellished and attached



As for the new, my new year's resolutions are these:

1. Focus on the basics
2. Stop waiting for happiness. Happiness is right here. Right now. (this one is borrowed from Zen Habits blog. something I already now, but .... always good to be reminded.)

Some of my most favorite things

often come out of the garden or kitchen of my sister.

Let's just say fresh, beautiful, half-inch brussel sprouts, halved and fried and tossed with a touch of parmesan and seasoning salt--- mmm, mmm, good.

Oeufs en Cocotte

A very simple, decadent pleasure that I have somehow missed before this. Being a lover of eggs-- fried, scrambled, in an omelette, on a bagel, sunny-side up with toast, poached, even occasionally in a quiche-- I have somehow missed ever trying these. Or even knowing about these. (Although supposedly they were discussed in Julie and Julia.. a favorite book I now need to read again.) Until this week, when I went searching for ways to use up creme fraiche.

I love creme fraiche with grapes. But there are really only so many grapes with creme fraiche I can eat in a week. Thus... the search for recipes and my discovery of my new favorite food. Oeufs en Cocotte. Tonight marked the third time in a week I have made one for myself, and the week is not over.

I started with the recipe from the blog Chocolate and Zucchini and have been trying different variations. My favorite so far was made with ham, a dash of seasoning salt, and parmesan over the top....

Dancing With the Anemoi

The winds of fall are, thankfully, not as brisk as they were here a few weeks ago. This was brought home especially after a drive through Spring Grove Cemetary over the weekend. Everything was cleaned up and as beautiful as ever, but the number of trees that were missing parts of themselves was incredible.... Instead, the winds seem to have taken up residence in my mind, blowing this way and that with my current NaNoWriMo story. In fact, the working title of my current story is "North Wind."

They have even taken over my knitting. Here are a few of the winds trapped in my version of Ann (from Crossroad Knits)'s Anemoi Hat...

Lantern Walk

Well, after how many years of living in Cincinnati, I finally made it to the Clifton Lantern Walk!!! With the change in time, it was dark by six. The walk was lit with hundreds of paper sacks filled with sand and candles, and we were able to walk on the road. Perhaps 150 people or so showed up. Maybe more. I'm never a good judge of crowd size. There were many beautiful and colorful lanterns. Everything from old style tin-punched cans to colorful moons to paper stars to stainglass windows (cutouts with colored tissue paper). Here is a photo of my own low budget lantern.







And a more well-lit photo to see the detail. (cut out with an exacto knife in about 2 minutes...)







Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera, so no photos of the sea of lanterns bobbing fore and aft.