Wowee! So excited! I commissioned my cousin Kristin to make a quilt for me and it arrived yesterday (last delivery of the year!). Here is Eva on the new quilt, all spread out for us to see more closely and a detail of one square on the quilt. I am so excited and can't believe I am actually going to use something so beautiful. I have a quilt that my grandmother's grandmother made (the same woman who started the Christmas cactus I have a clipping off...) and it has never been used? Is that possible? When it was offered to me I was cautioned against using it as well. Of course now it is so old it can't really be used. So nice to have such a lovely quilt! Thank you Kristin! The kids are already asking for their own :) Today we made pants for barbie out of some left over bird fabric!

Eva and Samuel have been very into Alladin the last couple of days and I have the catchy tunes from that movie perpetually in my head. They really are catchy. And I have to say I love it that he chooses to free the genie in the end as his third wish (sorry if this spoils the movie for anyone). I was truly touched when I heard that. And how wonderful that the genie sticks around as his friend and helper ever after...



So sweet. Knit fairy and her horse having a little fish and water. There is also a raven sitting on a chair behind the horse who didn't make it in the photo and another fairy on the ground taking a nap or some such but I wasn't sure if she was actually a part of the scene or just haphazard chaos from earlier.

Santa brought these little guys...

fifty degrees, snow's melting away...

I like this passage from Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson:

It was a funny little path, winding here and there, dashing off in different directions, and sometimes even tying a knot in itself from sheer joy. (You don't get tired of a path like that, and I'm not sure that it doesn't get you home quicker in the end.)

And this one:

(Hemulens are generally a bit slow in grasping an idea, but they are very pleasant if you don't annoy them.)

And this one:

Enormous crabs were sidling in and out between the shells, telling each other how strange it was that the water had disappeared. They wondered who had taken it away and when it would come back. "Thank goodness I'm not a jelly-fish!" said one. "Out of the water they are nothing but miserable little splodges, but we of course are equally happy wherever we are."

I feel so sorry for anybody who wasn't born a crab," said another. "It's quite possible that this drying-up of the sea has been arranged especially so that we shall have more space to live in."

"What an excellent thought! Why not a world peopled entirely by crabs?" exclaimed a third, waving his claws.

And of course:

"Well, strike me pink!" exclaimed Moomintroll.

and those knit dinosaurs...

ellen's chocolate covered raspberries and cinnamon covered chocolate truffles!
eva roller skating around the house naked
samuel playing with one of eva's new barbies, the one with the fancy boots and making her "police-woman-barbie"!
finishing the knit dinosaurs and eva's coming to tea with her new tea set
jack and his bone and running back in the house to find it after being outdoors for a bit
devising a mending solution for the agent #4 lego set so it doesn't keep splitting in two every 10 minutes
ellen and evan visiting
fun with mario kart
wintry mix falling from the sky
kids' first white christmas
maxwell loved the market chicken
mastermind
ellen's glove animals
eva's little fairies
ladybug chocolates
lovely abundance and love for all