Handmade Holidays, a cat, a bad dog and a chicken.

I love the idea of giving all (or most) handmade gifts for Christmas and birthdays. It sounds so sweet doesn't it? Yes indeed. The reality is, if it isn't done by the second week in December, it probably won't get made. My goal this year is to have most of my Christmas shopping and crafting completed by December 13th. I have a couple edible ideas to make in bulk for people, but other than that, I am trying to come up with a few things to sew/knit/paint/etc. Usually my good intentions end up flying out the window as soon as the climax of the holidays are upon us. Another reason I love Etsy is that if you don't have time to make something yourself, you can buy something handmade from another crafter. I love the above rainbow from Chubbas 'n Boop on Etsy. It was one of Isabel's really late birthday gifts and has already received a lot of use! As for the girls I think my re-vamped dollhouse counts as Handmade. Here is a sneak peak: It is looking SO AMAZING... and I still have so many things to do, and Nick is hopefully going to make some furniture for it. I have been consumed with this project the past 3 days... and today seems no different. Housework Shmouswork! This is so much more rewarding! And I found a great little dollhouse/miniature/antique store locally in Stephens City called "Bill's Barn". It is very home-towny but Bill is fantastic and was SO entirely helpful. I was able to get shutters and scalloped trim, and for the real miniature fanatic, there were all kinds of tiny versions of household items to feast your eyes upon. Oh, and Bill listens to Rush. So you get educated on the idiocracy of our current administration while looking at cuckoo clocks and tiny homes for dolls. And you can sit on the front porch swing for free. It doesn't get any better than that I assure you.

And our new cat, Ally O'Mally is settling in fine. He prefers the coziness of the indoors curled in someones lap than the porch or the great outdoors. And last night neither Nick, nor myself had the heart to put him outside:

He spent the night curled next to Anastasia. To protect her from spiders and mice while she sleeps. Good kitten. He adores Anastasia. He doesn't even TRY to run when she torments him. He eats it up, and from the look in his eyes and the purr that fills the entire room I think he believes he is the luckiest cat in the entire world!

How was every one's Halloween? Ours was AWESOME. You think Halloween is great fun when you are a kid... and then you become a parent and it becomes even more wonderful!! Our road was perfectly sized for children our age. There were only 7 houses and we met a few new neighbors, handed out cookies, and Anastasia invited herself into every neighbor's house for a tour. Most of our neighbors were happy to accommodate the whims of our sweet fairy.

And we met one new neighbor on Halloween night and Leia decided to visit them yesterday while running free (bad dog) with our next-door neighbor's Jack Russel... I guess she assumed they didn't really want all their chickens so she caught one, killed it, and brought it home (VERY BAD DOG!). How embarrassing is that? So I went down the street and offered to buy it from them... and they were really nice about it... but with all the deer and bobcat on their walls, I wouldn't put it past them to want a beautiful, blue-eyed husky on their wall. Especially one who eats chicken. I think I will make them some cookies as a great apology. Or maybe some chicken soup? lol. And wow this post has gotten very, very long.