This post was originally more awesome when I planned it in my head...

I thought I had more pictures on my camera, but apparently it was a fiction of my poor teacher brain. So, more pictures to follow at some other time!

What I have is, I built a castle!

I probably spent about 3-4 hours in total working on this, but I found it oddly rewarding. The precision of the cutting, folding, and gluing was an interesting challenge, and I was fascinated by the shapes that the flat cardstock came together to make.

This will be a part of the decorations for our Medieval birthday party on Wednesday of this week. Half my house will end up there actually as I apparently like that sort of thing...

I've been cross stitching a lot lately as well as working on some gifty things for Christmas gifts. Pictures to follow soon...

Various small projects

I may have committed some more plastic canvass.

Because I saw something similar when I was in Ohio, I decided that I wanted to try making these with my handwork group. We're not doing this big one--it's way to complex for my kids, but I'm working on scaling it down.

I went on a teacher cross stitch kick last week--notice that I didn't feel like doing that big chunk of black more than once!

I've also been playing with model making. There is a castle under construction right now, but last night I finished this model of the Globe that has been kicking around my house for the last year or so. *cough cough*

Beth brought me back some fun goodies--this totally made my day! NERD!

I also had to laugh at these napkins-

When I got back, I had a lot of fun arranging my new magnets on my not-so-boring-anymore fridge.

I also made a whole lot of banana bread the day the kids came back, and after giving a few loaves away I stashed the rest in the freezer. Freezers are a missionary's friend...

Finally, my very own "I'm in ur box" moment. Silly cat!

Random cuteness

I'm heading to Tennessee for a day and a bit, and I'm hoping to have some cool pictures of that to share when I get back, but till then here are some random fun things.

Anything is cute when its in miniature, and that goes for food as well! Mini hamburger cookies I made a few weeks back and have just got around to sharing. It's nice having the things on hand to make them!

You need to go check this out--an usual Edwardian sampler that never was finished, but makes you wonder what awesome mother set this up for her daughter! The best explanation for it that I've heard is that the Doctor visited her.

Lastly, I found my mom's complete series of the obscure BBC comedy Mulberry, and have been enjoying it again. The premise is a little out there--Mulberry is sent to carry Miss Farnaby into death, but instead makes it his task to rekindle her joy in life. Though truthful described as a "cantankerous old trout," Miss Farnaby's character is a lot of fun to watch as she yields to Mulberry's zany antics. I wish they had made another season of this! We all can use a reminder to celebrate and enjoy life sometimes...

I have my travel knitting--the socks that I'm not so in love with now but I need something to knit at my future brother in law's graduation, and my trust kindle Lewis to see me through. Yay for road trips! Too bad there won't be time for a yarn store visit...

Easter Crafts

So, I have been making tiny bunnies!

How tinny are these bunnies you might ask? Here is a picture of one with a penny for some perspective.

Another Eastery craft I did this weekend was to make 'stained glass' eggs. Here are the results:

I call this one "scary old man.' You know how sometimes things don't turn out the way you intended them to?

Huzzah for holiday crafting!

Bits n' bobs

We're studying The Phantom Tollbooth in literature this term, so I decided that I would finally get around to making those roll-out cookies I had wanted to try, and allow my kids to 'eat their words.' My first idea was to cut out their initials and put them on a large cookie, but that quickly became impractical. So, I just stamped the letters, and worked better than I thought it would. The larger cookie I chose as the background? Texas of course!

My poor cat is recovering from being spayed--yesterday she looked so pitiful! She's doing better today though; much more like herself. I'm having to giver her liquid anitbiotics three times a day, and Java is appreciating it less and less. At least it won't be for long...

I've been thinking a lot about what I'll be telling people back home about life here; there are so many little oddities that I just take for granted now! This made me smile this morning:

Why yes, those ARE ketchup and mustard bottles in my shower!

You can't get travel bottles here, so this was the best solution to the huge bottles I had been sent on the container.

By the way, Paula Dean's sugar cookie recipe is pretty good!

Getting Ready for Christmas!

I haven’t done a lot yet to get ready for one of my favorite holidays, because I’ve been in town for the last week, but I did managed to get a few things taken care of before I went. I had fun playing with some extras from the Christmas ornament kits I bought for my handwork group. Nothing like a springy Christmas tree

and beaded candy canes!

I finished some Christmas knitting with ours to spare—a hat for my TA which I need a picture of, and this little shawlette for Hannah-

I had a lot of fun knitting it, and was very pleased with how it turned out! I also had some time to get my tree up—I love the lights!

I tried something new today—candied pineapple. I’m getting ready to make my grandmother’s famous fruit cake, and I had a bit of candied pineapple, but not enough for the large batch of cake that I want to make. So, I cut up two fresh pineapples, squeezed some juice out of the one I didn’t need, and started the long process of cooking it down in lots of sugar and juice. I was pretty pleased by how it came out—it looks like it just might have been worth all the effort and propane! Now it’s just drying before I get down to some serious cake making.

One of the highlights of my town trip was getting to enjoy a latte at one of my favorite Zambian restaurants, Barcellos. As you can see, I took my knitting along. This will be a birthday present for someone here on station. Ah—coffee and knitting. Life dosen’t get much better!

Christmas is coming!