Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah!

It's been an incredible year. Best wishes to everyone this holiday season!

Check out the fabulous cupcakes I made with ingredients from my lovely friend Casey in California, and the way my window snowflakes throw a shadow on a sleeping Moo!

Mooshes Takes a Bath

Take one warm and sunny November day, add a tub of warm water and a surprisingly patient dog, and you get cuteness. Every time.

Garden mascot

The Woodlands Community Garden is flourishing! We've built four more beds this month, which allows eight more people into the garden.



And we have a new mascot! Meet Bootsy Collins. This is the least blurry picture I could get of her. She's a West Philly mutt that Nic adopted and she's incredibly well behaved for a stray.



I've been harvesting cayenne peppers, potatoes, chives, and basil from my plot so far, and tomatoes, sweet potatoes, watermelon, and winter squash are on their way (among others)!

Oh There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays . . .

. . . baking a mince meat pie with Mom (crust recipe to come) . . .



. . . enjoying a sunlit room . . .



. . . knitting and watching the Parade and the Dog Show . . .



. . . having our own little dog show . . .



. . . receiving two dozen perfect brown eggs from Aunt E's chickens . . .



. . . and eating that meal that you know so well, with people you love (and looking forward to the leftovers). I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving!

Devil Moo

Just a little apres-Halloween hilarity.

Perfect Penny

Here's the other pup in my life. Her name is Penny and she belongs to my college friend Debbie, who believes that she is pretty much the most perfect thing to walk this earth (because she is).

In August we took her to the Wissahickon Creek to go swimming and I just thought I'd share this photo because it was just a little precious. I mean, look at those freckles.

The Moo

She loves her new bed.

Scramble McScrambleson

Eeerrrrgggg. No words.



She can "high five" and "high ten" and she's learning to do "bang bang your dead" where she lies down and rolls onto her back.



If you listen closely you can hear my mom call her "Scramble McScrambleson" in the background.



Now for a short hiatus while I go to Austin TX to see my dear friend Emilie and watch M perform at South by Southwest!

The Moosh

Time for some gratuitous pup pictures. My sister Allison has nicknamed her Moosh for jowl-flap reasons.



Gracie seems to think that she is a smaller dog than she is, a lap dog if you will. The moment you sit on the floor she makes your lap her space. She will even do the circle thing, while standing on top of you with those little paws digging into your thigh.







She also loves the car and she will fall asleep and stay asleep in the most awkward positions.





PUPPY!!!!

Say Hello, Gracie

Distractions abound recently. Last weekend we went to a wedding in New Orleans (gorgeous), coming back just in time for the inauguration. Then on Friday my parents adopted a pup!





Her name is Gracie (changed from the original name she came with, Princess Pixie). She is 17 months old and she is a boxer mix (we think she is mixed with pit bull). She's a face licking, butt wiggling, tile sliding, bone hiding, leash pulling, head tilting bundle of love.





She came from a shelter in Virginia originally and she's skin and bones. She also has some scarring on her neck where her collar is, bruises on her legs from being crated too often and a funny burn mark on one of her ears. But she's incredibly well adjusted for an abused dog.





Get used to seeing gratuitous pup pictures, as usual.

Fall romps

Walking with Sammy on a fresh autumn day. The crisp air gives him an extra bounce in his step, I swear.



He loves to carry his friends around. Right now the moose is his favorite.

The Unexpected Beanie

Well, I tried to make the "Robin's Egg Blue Hat" by Rachel Iufer, but mine definitely turned into a beanie rather than a nice tight cap. It kind of hangs. But that's okay, I think I know someone with a head big enough to appreciate this beanie, and an appreciation for buttons . . .



The pattern is very simple, and I love the little flap (though it looks better with a single color yarn than my crazy fall colors, I guess). If you try it, take her advice and come up with a different way to decrease. I also blocked this before sewing the flap together, which added to the slouch-factor.



Why do we do this to our animals? And why does it incapacitate me with giggles every time?

Caught Red-Pawed

"What?! I'm not allowed up here when no one's home?"



"Whatever, you're not the boss of me."

The best fall hat EVER

If I do say so myself. I'm pretty pleased with the way this one turned out - I used the same pattern for the wool hats last Christmas but I've learned to tweak the pattern a bit, plus this yarn was well made and NOT knobbly as all get out.



I got the yarn a year ago at the Yolo Wool Mill open house (which is coming up in two weeks!). Unfortunately, I forget who made it and what the blend is, though I do know that it is hand dyed and at least partly if not all merino wool. It's so soft and gorgeous, I just want to rub it on my face all day (is that weird?).



Aaaaaaand, I used those buttons right away! Shocking.



Here's a detail of the pompons - you can really see all of the rich colors in there.



This hat will be perfect for walking around town on blustery fall days like those we've been having lately in Davis. The shadows have been intense.



Yesterday, Sammy and I went for a long walk on just such a blustery day; partly to take the hat for a test drive, and partly because the light and temperature were just the way we like it. What a happy boy.