31 Degrees this Morning and Heavy Frost - Can Christmas Be Far Behind?

The weather this year has been unusual to say the least. Spring was cold, wet, and very late in coming. Summer was also very wet and uncommonly cool. Fall came early, has been extremely rainy and colder than usual...this does not bode well for winter!! If the moisture pattern stays the same, we may have tons of snow...sigh. Thoughts of snow have put me in a Christmas mood, so I'm posting a couple of wintry items. The small mat above is entitled, "Papa 'n Me" and I still plan to hook a larger (and maybe more elaborate) version. It features button stars, and the hat on the small snowman is a miniature stocking cap that I hand sewed onto the rug. My rug hooking sessions have been very sporadic lately, and I am frustrated at my slow progress on my current two projects. My life seems very hectic right now, and I'm looking forward to the holiday vacations to get down to business on some projects.

My brother (from Birmingham, AL) and my sister (from Knoxville, TN) were here this week, and I was able to spend some time with them. We had planned a wiener roast for Friday night, but the weather was windy and rainy, so we moved it indoors. Two brave souls weathered the rain and wind and cooked the hot dogs for everyone (14 of us) and we visited and ate waaaaay too much!! I found the cutest little sparkly black cat gift bags for Olivia and Allison, which we filled with candy and kids card games and gum. I bought Kale a little dump truck to play with. Everyone had lots of fun visiting and playing with the kids. Olivia was "Dorothy" from the "Wizard of Oz", Allison was "Glinda" the good witch, and Kale was the Lion with a "badge of courage" from the "Wizard of Oz" for Halloween. Their costumes were very cute...I hope to post a picture soon.

This is a needle felted snowman pillow which I designed a few years ago. Needle felting is so much quicker than hooking!! The snowman has blue bead eyes. I hope you all are enjoying beautiful colors and weather this fall, and I'm actually starting to think about Christmas decorating already. I guess it won't hurt to at least start planning how I want to decorate this soon! Have a great week, everyone!