Scrub Scrub There...

Here are my 3 newest scrubs hot off the sewing machine. The dark blue one looks almost like stained glass and has snowflake motifs. The peppermint and candy cane one was just pretty, but the poinsettia one reminds me of a tablecloth or a handkerchief or cocktail apron from the 1950's! I just love it! Recently I've been putting linen water in my steam iron and used up a bottle that was citrus scented. I really enjoyed the lavender and the rose scented waters, but the citrus scented smelled like I'd filled my iron up with Sprite!

Back Burner

I have had this flannel for ages and finally got around to making baby blankies out of it. Three of them went to coworkers' children or grandchildren and one will go to my sister's baby on the way. I made all 4 of these in one afternoon and was quite tired of satin blanket binding by the end of it! Incidentally, my younger niece calls her bound blankie like this her "silky". :)

Melissa and Deedee and I got together for Crafty Fun Night the other day to make ornaments. Deedee was working on photo resin ornaments and Melissa and I finished up these cinnamon and applesauce ornaments. We'd mixed them and cut them out last week and they'd since dried, but they were so plain and boring. We didn't really have any set ideas when we began and just sat down with some acrylic paint and some irregularly shaped glitter and started to decorate them. I have to say I am very pleased with how these turned out! The glitter almost looks like coconut and they smell like cinnamon. I love too that we used cookie cutters I'd gotten at an antique store to cut them with. My mother has these exact same cookie cutters and they are what I would use for baking the Christmas sugar cookies every year growing up. We've already talked about making these again for Valentine's Day.

Farewell Knitting

Three more very dear coworkers (and friends) have left or are leaving our floor and will be sorely missed. Melissa P. and Melissa H. left us last month but are loving and adjusting to their new positions in an entirely new department. I knit each of them a pair of these fingerless mitts out of bulky Misti Alpaca that I bought at Prairie Yarns in Fargo. It was a pleasure to knit with this yarn and they knit up very quickly. I never got a picture of the other pair but they were a lovely blue-ish colorway.

Rachel will leave us next month and I knit her quite possibly the ugliest socks known to man. These were knit from scraps of the Licorice yarn from Joann's that I used for Christmas socks two years ago. They are mismatched and quite homely but are very warm. Best wishes to all of you and we miss you every day.

The Great Storm

Last week we only had a mere dusting of snow on the ground when I took this picture. These are my sister's finished birthday socks (her birthday is in July, btw) knit from Lion Brand Sock-Ease in the colorway "Rock Candy". But then...



...we got hit with a terrible blizzard on Tuesday night and got almost 12 inches of snow with freezing temperatures and terrible winds. I outgrew my apartment YEARS ago but one of the reasons I stay here is because I am so close to the hospital. Scores of employees were stranded here in town and I'm thankful that I can share my apartment with my out of town coworkers. My good friend Laura slept here after work and we rode together back to the hospital for her to work her shift and for me to collect my car as I was off for the evening. We had quite an adventure just getting IN to my apartment because there was 2 feet of snow blown into the driveway and we waded through snow past our knees to get in the front door. Upon returning to the hospital, not only did my car start, but I was able to dig it out of the parking lot and go do my shopping for the week. The stores were not busy at all that night so it was rather a pleasant shopping experience.

While I was out and about, I got a phone call from Brenda who invited me over for some wonderfully comforting chicken and noodles. We watched Julie & Julia next to a roaring fire and played with yarn. You couldn't PLAN a better way to spend a snow day! Thank you again Brenda. After a night like that, I felt like Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby when she said, "I hope we have the coldest winter ever."