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!