Yeah, I know it's not Thanksgiving yet...

But Family Dollar had 6' white trees for $25 yesterday, so here we are. The LED lights cost more than the tree... heh...

I forgot to take the green cord/white tree into consideration, so I'm thinking of them as garlands...

The vintage glass balls were on my parents' first Christmas tree, and have been on nearly all of mine ever since my mom gave them to me.

I have a large collection of Mt. St. Helen's ash blown glass ornaments. This Santa was a limited edition from the 80's.

This awful tree topper was purchased by a pair of 19 year olds on their first Christmas together.

The reverse has a full moon face.

Purty

 More purty

And my favorite ornament of all- from my friend Melaine. She always gets Pride of Place.

A Christmas Story

So, a couple of weeks back, my friend Nancie McCraw, of Badfaerie Designs, posted pictures of painted spindles and a painted spinning wheel and a painted weaving loom. Nancie's mother painted the pieces, and her work was breathtaking. Literally. I gasped when I saw this picture:

It's a large Schacht, hand painted. I immediately reposted the picture on my Facebook wall to help Nancie publicize her mother's amazing work.

I thought about the spindle for maybe 10 minutes or so, and then I contacted Nancie about prices, and about buying that spindle. She mournfully told me (and I could tell it was mournful even in a Facebook message) that the spindle had already been sold. I marveled at the speed of the sale, but understood- the spindle was gorgeous. Of course someone bought it right away.

So this spindle was not to be mine. But I could order another, which I did, delivery slated for sometime in January. I didn't care how it was painted- every example I'd seen was gorgeous, and I was perfectly happy to be surprised.

Fast forward to Christmas day, when my granddaughter, smiling hugely, handed me a bag. This was in it.

Look familiar????

My wonderful daughter-in-law Cassy just happened to be on Facebook when I posted the picture of that spindle. And she just happened to contact Nancie moments before I did. Cassy and Matt bought this spindle for me!

I usually spin with my wheel, but I love hand spindles and use them when the mood arises, and I definitely collect them as works of art, which this one is.

And the mood arose immediately. I spun up the little gray sample that came with the spindle.

It was nearly an ounce, and that is a lot to Andean ply, but I managed it (though my finger and thumb were a little low on blood by the time I got done winding) because I really wanted to ply this single to itself.

 It's a large spindle, and it spins forever. It's also very good for plying.

My handspun is never very fine, and my spindle spun yarn is not as uniform as anything I make on the wheel, but it's nice and squooshy (a technical term- you can look it up).

Just enough to wind on my mini-niddy noddy.

There was an even smaller amount of blue roving in the box, and some white (which I have not spun yet).

All washed and soft. When I finish the white, I think there will be enough for a hat. In the meantime, I bought some special roving just for the new spindle.

4 ozs of Merino/Bamboo from Flickertail Fibers, in a colorway called Tequila Sunrise. I may just put on some Eagles and get to work.

An NaCl Kind of Holiday

So, did you survive?
We had a wonderful, noisy, busy, delicious, love/laughter/family filled Christmas Eve.

 It's not that we like banishing the kids to a different table, it's just that our antique dining room table has no leaves, and can only sit six (maybe eight if we squeeze real tight). So the grownups sat at The Big Table. The centerpiece is a pewter Santa that The Hub smuggled back from Cannon Beach one year after I'd admired it there. He managed to keep it a secret not only on the trip home, but for the months between then and Christmas. It's been our Holiday Centerpiece ever since.

The girls' table was right next to ours (at least they weren't relegated to the basement). Everyone got an ornament, and I love getting out the Christmas Dishes.

The girls were wildly excited, and they absolutely loved their Totem Spindles from Halla, and their American Girl Doll Boots. And for a year in which I had absolutely no gift expectations (we're going to SoCal late in January, that's enough), we made out like bandits.

 The hub got this upside down, inside out, insulated beer glass. It works.

 My youngest sister made me a bracelet and earrings using pennies from 1952, though why she thought that year had anything to do with my year of birth is beyond me. Really, it's just a lovely bracelet featuring a random year. I'm not that old... heh...

 Sorry about the fuzzy pic- but this is a light-up wine stopper. Honest, it pulsates and glows red. I love it!

Several gifts came by mail, and as they arrived, I just put them in their Amazon boxes under the tree, so it wasn't until Christmas morning, after I'd opened the Quick Knits book (edited by my own editor at Taunton) which was a gift from a good friend, that I remembered that I actually ordered the Metal Clay Jewelry book myself. Merry Christmas to me!

Another sister gave me these gorgeous earrings. I can wear wire and dangle and hoop earrings now, and I'm enjoying every bit of the bling.

My friend Jane sent me these wonderful knitting socks. Are you jealous?

And, oh the sodium chloride. The Trader Joe's salt grinders are fantastic (the chili & garlic smoked sea salt is wonderful on leftover turkey). I used gift money to order the Lidded Salt Bowl from The Meadow, in Portland, OR, which is my absolute favorite salt store. Okay, it's the only salt store I know of, but it would be my favorite even if they were on every street corner. The bowl is carved from solid Himalayan Rock Salt, with a lid that fits perfectly. It weighs about 4lbs and it'll be perfect for serving cherry tomato halves, or as a salt cellar, or as a dish for unsalted butter. The two little bottles in front are specialty salts- one made from Oregon Pacific seawater, and the other from Alaskan waters. The Oregon salt is mild and crunchy, the Alaskan salt is wonderfully strong. Who knew that I would end up being a salt connoisseur?

But the best gift of all was the personal calendar that Matt and Cassy made for us. Every month has a picture of our family and friends, many from the wedding in July. Eyes were a little teary, I can tell you.

 And look! I'm a Calendar Girl!

My wish for you all...

...whatever holiday you celebrate, or if you celebrate none at all, may the hard times be over.

Shhhh....

Don't tell the girls, but I found some extremely cool boots for their American Girl dolls...

 You may remember that one girl collects Ladybugs, and another collects Bees. The third collects frogs, for which there seems to be no doll-sized boots, but I think she'll be enchanted with the Camo Hiking Boots. BTW, I got the bug boots from A Girl's Treasure, and the Camo boots from eBay.

And while I'd rather set my feet on fire than wear Crocs, these dollie shoes are pretty darn adorable. I found them on eBay as well.

 Over the last few months, I've been gathering charms to match the girls's totems. On Saturday, I sat down for a few hours with jump rings and pliers to assemble the goodies. Each one gets an American Girl necklace, plus...

A necklace for herself (Turtle, Ladybug, Bee, Book, Frog) and earrings. The charm bracelet on the right is for Mom, with each of her girls' totems. And in case you're keeping track, Turtle Girl is not a new member of my extended family, but she now lives nearby, which is wonderful.

All of the above are wrapped and waiting under the tree (and no, the girls don't read my blog) (I hope). We're celebrating a delayed Christmas with Voracious Reader in late January, so she'll get her goodies then.