Christmas Countdown - Handmade for the Holidays

He sees you when you're snacking, he knows when you're awake. Rumor has it Merlin reports directly to Santa regarding naughty and nice lists. That stare tells me I've been naughty. I better make amends!

It's been a bit busy here on the Periphery with a mad scramble toward Christmas and putting the last touches on things. So naturally I've been procrastinating in my own way, by making things.

Homemade dog biscuits in the hopes of getting back on Merlin's good side. Specially formulated for senior dogs - but Shhh. Don't tell Merlin. He still thinks he's a pup.

Meatballs - from my mother's recipe. Merlin and Max are hoping to score a few of these. That would put me on the Nice list for sure.

A new brew of kombucha is percolating. Not for doggies.

On the handknit side, a lace cowl made of Peruvian wool. With all the cold weather we've been having, someone will need some stylish neck protection. Now onward to socks! Onward to mittens!

On the jewelry side, one of many pairs of handmade earrings being fashioned. This version of a Celtic Knot is in copper with glass beads. I learned a spiffy way to make earwires from YouTube.

Max remains indifferent to the whole Christmas thing, preferring to lounge on the bed and watch Star Wars. Of course, his place on the Nice list is assured - unless it's up to his brother.

Fragment Friday - The Pre-Christmas Edition

All I want for Christmas is a rabbit. Or two.

Here are some of the things I like about pre-Christmas.

1. The lights. Nothing gussies up the town better than Christmas lights. Kudos to all the houses that have fun, tasteful lights in various colors or themes of blue - my favorite.

2. Starbucks Christmas Blend. The only Starbucks coffee I really like. Amazingly, it doesn't taste burnt. Some coffee, creamer, and a shot of Bailey's and I'm good to go. Hint - the Salted Caramel Bailey's is better than the Irish Cream.

3. Stores that don't relentlessly play the same Christmas songs over and over. My favorite grocery was playing oldies Rock the other day. Hallelujah.

4. Amazon Prime. My Christmas shopping is complete, and I don't have to brave the stores to do it.

5. Holiday dog toys. Corgis say: "Destroy Santa? Sure! Shred a Candy Cane? No problem! Detach Rudolph's leg from his body? I'm on it! Destuff and Desqueak is what we do." 

Some things I don't like about pre-Christmas.

1. The light displays that looked like the bulbs were purloined from a disco. If it looks like a Tilt-O-Whirl and a Jack In The Box had a baby, I probably won't like it. Or look at it. Or drive past it. 

2. Eggnog flavored things that aren't eggnog.

3. Cinnamon scented pine cone displays that induce asthma when you walk into the entry of a store. Just don't. Most customers enjoy breathing. Although you probably put them out there because you didn't want to smell them either...

4. The Little Drummer Boy. This song is evil. Who goes to see a sleeping baby and launches into a drum solo? Mary should have clobbered him with a water bucket.

5. Christmas cards with glitter on them. I won't even take them out of the envelope anymore. Unless they come from a 5 year old. Then glitter is acceptable. 

So what are your Yeas or Nays for the Christmas season?

Fragment Friday - The Force Edition

My office door, decorated for the holidays - the Festivus Holidays that is.

1. I had a birthday and am officially able to say "Get off my lawn" while I shake my hiking stick at whippersnappers. That and I still have a good snowball arm from years of playing softball. So hasten off my lawn before I pelt you. As soon as it snows enough for ammunition.

2.  I'm a Star Wars fan from way back, but I just can't get whipped into a frenzy over The Force Awakens. I'll go see it, but I'm not going to camp out or buy my tickets in advance or trade my firstborn for tickets. (Although he would probably think it cool.) I hope it's good. Still feeling the searing burn that was Phantom Menace. And what's with trailers hinting at... nothing? Lots of explosions doesn't make me real optimistic. But I'll still go. Damn you, Disney!

3. About now we start preparing for the biannual visit from the Large Dog, Bruno. We bungee cord down the lid to the trash can, clear a space in the living room for his ginormous kennel, and stock up on chewy things so he doesn't try and eat the furniture. The Corgis enjoy and hate him in turns. Max doesn't like his routine disturbed by an overgrown puppy, and Merlin loves not being the low member of the pack anymore. 

4.  What I'm reading of late - It's time for the annual reread of Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. If I get ambitious, I may crack open the Silmarillion.  My brother gave me a memoir by musician Bruce Cockburn. I have the latest issue of Rattle to get through as well as poetry books by Dorianne Laux (Facts About The Moon & What We Carry) and W.S. Merwin (The Shadow of Sirius). How about you, what are you reading?

5.  Trying to get up the ambition to warp my big loom. I have some brightly colored yarn (often referred to as 'Clown Barf") that's wanting to be made into a windowpane scarf. And some coppery colored and dark brown yarns that said "houndstooth pattern" to me. But I'm also trying to get Christmas knitting done. Including one piece I started in August. Warping my loom is a 2 hour PITA, but then weaving goes really fast. Knitting is quick to start but I get bored by the 5th repetition of the lace pattern. Send some crafting mojo my way!

If Eldest Child was a Pop Vinyl, he'd look just like this.

Fragment Friday - Post Christmas Edition

What does Child One in the metal band get for Christmas? Why a skull cap of course.

1.  Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, or Hanukkah. Did you get any interesting presents? Did you give something weird and wonderful?

2. I had chickadees at the feeder for Christmas. They were quite vocal about me being late to feed, flitted around my head, hung upside down and twittered the whole time I was filling the feeders. I expect them to knock on my door next time. "Where's the grub??"

3. I got to relive Christmas Past watching the grandkids open their presents. They took such glee in shredding the paper and yanking out the gift. I heard Oohs and Aahs and squeals of delight. And one or two puzzled "What's this?" Did you make any such comments in your present opening?

4. The weather very kindly made it a white Christmas here. Luckily, my kids are only across town, not across the state of country. Did you know Starbucks is open early Christmas morning? The baristas deserve a medal. Or a big tip - which they got.

5. Sneak Preview - Coming up fast - the opening of our new poetry magazine, Gyroscope Review. Opening for submissions on January 5, 2015. Look for the announcement here and wherever fine magazines are hawked. Meanwhile, go read up on our submissions guidelines. Hope to see you in the slushpile!

"Winter sucks" said the dove. "I agree," said the sparrow. "Are you eating that seed?"

Post Corgi Christmas Post

Max and Merlin wanted to share their Christmas with everyone . . . Max started a bit early, sticking his head in an unwrapped box and stealing a grunting hedgehog present before the Powers That Be (confused) even noticed.

Max notes the fact their stockings were hung nowhere near a chimney and without much care. Once reassured Santa Paws had indeed visited, the Powers That Be (filling stockings) were forgiven.Merlin showed off festive eyes, while visions of sugarplum . . . err, beef chew bones danced in his head.Max was quite pleased with his IQube and proceeded to remove the santa hat squeaky balls and leave them for a patiently waiting Merlin . . .
whose toys must be pre-approved and pre-chewed by eldest brother before Merlin gets a turn.Max smugly carried around the empty IQube the entire day, proving once again toys can go in and out the dog door fifty times a day with no ill effect. Well, nothing that the Corgi Slave can't clean and return within the hour.
Merlin got the last laugh, however, as Max did the Wyoming Two Step in a vain attempt to remove the hated "Christmas Booties" from his feet.It took the "We Are Not Amused" glare from both dogs before the Power That Be (in big trouble) relented and removed the booties. Note the patented: "Don't Even Attempt To Put Those Things On Me" look from Merlin.

And Anubis? Perched atop the stacked kennels most of the day, practicing his disdainful expression. He finds Christmas tedious, and spent 21 of his 24 hour ordeal snoozing, only appearing for turkey, and to snicker at the dogs. I didn't tell him about the neat cat apparel I found online. Yep. Booties for little cat feet.
We'll let it be a surprise.

The Pre-Christmas Grab Bag Post

Merry Christmas from the Corgi Compound in Wyoming.

To go with my scattered thoughts, a scattered post.
Corgis are fine, enjoying the snow and the fact that their dog door doesn't freeze up so they can go in and out and in and out as they please. Someone gave me some winter booties for the dogs. I put the snow booties on Max, who rolled on his back and gave me wounded looks, then stood and alternated feet like each one was wrapped in hot coals. I let him out the front door and it was like a bronc out of the chute. He ran, kicking his feet, and had those icky booties off in a regulation 8 seconds. Merlin gave me the "Don't even try it" look, so I gathered the booties up and shoved them in a drawer. They'll have to be much higher and come with more velcro straps to stay on Corgi feet. Or a roll of duct tape.

The Christmas knitting barrage continues. I gave away the baby sweater, blanket and hat before I thought to take a picture of them, but socks and mittens and other hats are on the sets of needles strewn about the house.
The thrummed mittens came out a bit large, so I felted them down some and will go back and add more fluffy thrums. Next set will have longer cuffs so they stay tucked up under my jacket sleeves.

Regular mittens made from double stranding Patron's wool and some leftover sock yarn. They are quite dense, and nicely warm. Now that I have the pattern figured out, I'll tinker with more multi yarn mittens, methinks.

Then I unearthed a Norwegian mitten I started last year and misplaced. (imagine that) I couldn't find the pattern, and the second balls of yarn were no where in sight, so I figured I was out of luck. Linda rescued me with a copy of the pattern, so now I'm going to start over and do these mittens in tan and brown I think. I'll have to relearn how to do colorwork but hopefully I won't take too long to pick it up again.

A hat made from stranded together hand dyed wool and some leftover linen yarn. I like my hats a little tighter, so modifications to this pattern too.

There are other hats and socks on the needles, unphotographed as of yet. So much yarn, so little time.

In other news, Youngest Child asked The Girlfriend to marry him. She said yes. He has to wait another year until he finishes school. Eldest Child moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, but charitably left a non-working Chevy Monte Carlo in my side yard and 8 guitars in his old bedroom.

I carved an 8 x 10 lino block Christmas card, and hand colored it. Promptly gave away all the hand colored copies, so if I remember, I'll do one more to post, if not, there are other projects on the carving board, including the 2010 Year Of The Tiger postcard exchange, and a top secret project involving lino prints and an author to be named later.

Max, Merlin and Anubis are anxious to help me finish wrapping presents, and get to fixing (their) dinner. I'm sure there will be more news after Christmas. Meanwhile, relax, enjoy, and let me know how YOUR Christmas/Holiday festivities went.

Max & Merlin: What We Did On Our Christmas Vacation

Eat. Sleep. Play.

Max: Oh, you wanted more than that? Okay, here's the scoop. Our sister Emmy, and cousin Maggie came to stay with us for a few days while their humans went vacationing without them! I reassured my sis and cuz that they would have loads more fun at my house than stuck in the back seat of a pickup truck for hours and hours.

Just think - Four Corgis against one human - the one human who can open the giant magic food box, where she hides the turkey and treats. Four Corgis with the awesome power of cuteness should have no problem mind controlling a mere mortal.

L to R - Emmy, Max, Merlin, Maggie

(Open the magic kitchen box. You know you want to. Give us treats. Give us turkey. For doG's sake, just FEED us! We're starved...)

When we weren't eating and sleeping, we were playing. I introduced my cousin to Snow Ball. The object is to get the human to throw the half deflated basketball out in the yard, where I will retrieve it while trying to ignore my annoying yappy brother Merlin. Maggie didn't quite get the rules. It's MY ball, therefore I always get it. Silly girl.

















For some reason Maggie thought she could rewrite the rules of SnowBall, and tried to convince my brother Merlin to play her way. They argued a while...


















Then Emmy decided that she's rather be inside where it was warm. How strange...



















Using Corgi mind powers, she convinced Maggie that an inch of snow on the end of your snout was a bad thing...



















So we all went inside and practiced telepathically linked Corgi Mind Tricks on the human.
(You will give us many treats, and drop some of that turkey on the floor...)


















After using our incredible Corgi powers, we were tired and took many naps, then spent the rest of our time going in and out and in and out the dog door until the human began chanting "Make up your minds already" over and over again. We'll need to work on retraining her to appreciate our rampant indecisiveness. It's a gift, really.

Emmy got a little homesick for her people.


















Apparently her humans spoil her a lot more than my human spoils us. We had some talks on how to train our humans to better serve us. Emmy also taught us the Zombie Corgi Treat Stare. I'm happy to report it works like a charm, many homemade treats were forthcoming after we combined the Zombie Stare with the Corgi Mind Trick.
























All in all it was a good Christmas vacation. We ate lots of food, tracked lots of muddy paw prints on the kitchen floor, and managed to destroy at least four chewies, destuff two toys and give them a squeakerectomy, and let the human know through various expulsions of gases that the food was pretty tasty. I do have some work to do with my brother, though. Merlin still thinks a cute smile is all he needs to get by.

























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Merry Digital Christmas

Happy Holidays from the Periphery!