Here's how Simon is enjoying the holidays so far and I think he has the right idea. Tonight I will be making my second batch of eggnog this season.

My second Little Tree, the pink version. Tell me this is not the cutest candy colored christmas tree you've seen lately. Well, maybe not, with all the little trees out there. I actually dyed this fabric a few years ago in a fabric dying phase when I dyed my bedsheets purple. This piece came out pinker. The bottom is green wool felt. I embelished it with a gorgeous piece of handmade art yarn that has a little strand of irridescence spun through that I got via the sampler from Misshawklet. You can't really tell from the picture, all cloudy all the time here, but it is gorgeous stuff! Then I attached a bunch of buttons that seemed christmas-fairyish and that was it. The most ridiculous part is that the whole time I was making this I was fretting that it wouldn't be modern enough for its intended recipient: as though a stuffed tree with yarn and buttons on it could ever be modern. Once I let go of that idea it went much more smoothly. Yay for trees!

My first attempt at a Little Tree. Actually, this is my second attempt: the first attempt looked more like a slanty horn than a straight-up-and-down-tree. Apparently I cannot follow directions because using the beautiful pattern Little Birds provided did not turn out very well for me (well I did tweak it a little for a taller tree which is probably the cause of the problem). For this second attempt I decided to wing it, and made a cone of indeterminate size and attached a circle to the bottom that seemed like it might fit. Much better. Here is a picture with smallish cat so you can get an idea of the size. These are fun and addictive to make, the trickiest part for me is getting the stuffing smooth and not lumpy. Considering my projects lately, 2 quilts and a batch of 10 pillows at once, it was very satisfying to make something in about an hour. This tree is to be a Christmas gift for a work colleague who is having a hard time lately. While I was making it I poured all of my happy thoughts for her into all that stuffing I was trying to cram in without lump so hopefully it will help a little. It looks a bit Dr. Seussish which I think will suit her just fine.

This picture pretty much sums up the excitement of setting up our tree this year for little Snuggles (Wesley Snipes officially). I think he had the best time.

This is an in progress picture of a quilt that I finished, that's right: FINISHED for Christmas! Whoopee! I really like how this one turned out. I've never done anything like this long stripey random pattern before. The theme of this quilt was dictated by it's recipient-to-be and she chose floral batiks. I really like the way the colors seem to bleed together for the most part and the black batik with it's larger scale really stands out. I'm pretty sure I lifted this basic strip idea from seeing pictures around of Amy Butler's designs but it's simple enough that I don't think I'm exactly plagiarizing. I hope Charr loves it as much as I do, there's always the temptation to tell the person that if they don't like it they can give it back, but I don't think that's really in the Spirit of the holiday.