Pre Holiday Jitters

This is my childhood toy box.  It is one sturdy unit made entirely of wood.  I think my uncle Brad might have made it but I remember watching my mom soak and apply the kitten decals.  You don't see decals anymore but she had a small collection of them.  This was saved in the basement of my childhood home and delivered to me by my parents when we moved into this house.  We lived here 5 years before we had M and I didn't really know what to do with it so it sat in our basement.  Then I had the brilliant idea to put it in our landing behind the front door and store all the winter knits in it.  It looked great and solved all kinds of organizational problems and protected our wall from the doorknob....but people kept sitting on it to put their shoes and boots on.  It is sturdy but I was always afraid it would crack or get ruined.

I found this bona fide wooden bench at Saver's and paid $24 for it.  It was after we got our new vehicle so I was even able to haul it myself!  I felt so rugged and outdoorsy!  This was no doubt some one's high school shop project but I'm so glad I found it!  It is strong and the seat is reinforced.  Now all the mittens and hats live here and the toy box is in the living room housing toys as nature intended.  That wall hanging is a prayer rug my mother brought me from Turkey.  Marek can't access this area of the house so I decided to put my wooden bowl of Grandpa Maynerd's ornaments down here.  This way I can see them every day and I think they look rather striking if I say so myself.

I had the bright idea to put a battery powered string of LED lights inside the bowl and I feel like a domestic goddess!  We had Dave's parents and two of his sisters over for dinner last weekend so the Halloween decorations came down.  I fished out my turkey figurines and left the generic fall decorations up.  Normally when I take Halloween down, I immediately launch into Christmas with some Turkeys thrown in for good measure.  It makes practical sense if you think about it because you already have the boxes out to put stuff away, you might as well get Christmas out.  Anyhoo, I set out the bowl of ornaments because I thought it was such a great idea and it scratched at my holiday itch.  Tonight or tomorrow I will put up the tree and any decorations I can get away with out of The Boy's reach.  We've had snow already a few times so it's totally legal.

Speaking of that dinner, I made a pumpkin roll cake for dessert and realized I didn't have a long and narrow serving dish to put it on.  In the end I used my long IKEA sardine serving tray!  Like I said, domestic goddess!  ;)

My holly plant has red berries on it at the moment!  It does this a couple times a year.  I don't know if that is normal or if the poor thing is confused about the seasons.  You can see a bit of our fleeting snow in the background.

And I'm gearing up for a new project!  Weeeeeee!  It's almost as exciting as when you open a new bar of soap!  Marek needs a new winter hat.  His gray bonnet from last year still fits but it needs to be a bit deeper because his forehead and temples are exposed.  I love this elf shaped hat from Drops and I even have the yarn called for in the pattern!  It was purchased 9 years ago in Finland before Dave was even on my radar.  It was so soft and I loved the color so it was purchased as Souvenir Stash.  Never did I imagine that one day I'd be using it to knit a winter bonnet for my son!

Gopher Halloween

Happy Late Halloween!  This post is mainly about football which is unusual because I hate football.  Absolutely hate it.  I realize this is an unpopular opinion around this time of year.  I just feel it takes way too much time.  A one hour game is stretched out into four hours so the corporate swine who profit off the game can sell you Doritos and Pepsi.  They show 90 seconds of play and then 8 minutes of commercials.

However, my husband is a huge Gopher fan and the last two weeks he has been waiting for today's showdown between Minnesota and Penn State.  He has managed to wear Gopher attire every day for the last two weeks (without running out!) and he even went to bed early last night so he could get up early to watch the game with his dad.  In his defense, the team is 8 - 0 which they haven't been since the 1940's so it is historical.  He gave me a Gopher request for the Jack-O-Lantern this year and this is what I came up with.

Marek wore his lamb costume the weekend before, but on the day he wore an outfit that says, "I don't boo, I poo!"  It was cute and I found it amusing.  Here are the two kids watching Sesame Street.

I had a raging migraine all that week but on the day I scraped myself together and went with Dave to his parents' house to show them his outfit and he tried on his costume for them.  Here he is "helping" Grandma with the candy.

Even Lopi came in her costume!

Compulsory photo on the steps.  Note the Gopher regalia.

Here I am looking and feeling my migraine best.

This was an alternate costume idea.  We inherited this hand me down Adidas track suit and he looks like a West German gymnast in it!

Back to today's game.  In short, we won and I have to say it was a thrilling game.  Marek and I tuned in at home and played and colored throughout.  The Boy wore his second hand jersey and I wore one of Dave's Gopher shirts.  I cooked Dave a celebratory chicken dinner tonight and we'll eat leftovers all week.

Dave has dragged me to see Gopher rival trophies at the State Fair over the years like Paul Bunyan's Axe this summer.  Floyd of Rosedale and The Little Brown Jug have been there in the past and next summer we'll see today's Governor's Victory Bell trophy.

In sewing news, I used Joann coupons and got two new bobbin cases for 60% off.  This is the best improvement I've made in a long time.  These cases have attached lids and foam cavities that hold the bobbins in place.  Both the old and new are made by Dritz but my old one was a simple molded plastic tray and I can't tell you how many times I've bumped or slid it off the end of the sewing table.  Bobbins would go flying and rolling everywhere with much swearing and gnashing of teeth.  These new cases are awesome!

And whether you like it or not, the passing of Halloween ushers in the official beginning of The Holiday Season!  Christmas commercials are surfacing, stores are decorated and The Holiday Baking Displays are appearing!!!  I was at HyVee today and saw this one!  Weeeeeee!