Happy Tasty!!!

Mój wkład w święta - ciasta.
(oraz ćwikła, którą od śmierci ojca chyba już tylko ja jadam...)

My input into Christmas preparations - cakes.
(and beetroots and horseradish salad, since my Father died I think I am the only one left who eats it...)

Upiekłam sernik:

I baked cheesecake:

Oraz makowiec w kruchym cieście:

And poppy seed cake on short crust:

Smacznych wesołych świąt!!! *^V^*

Have a tasty happy holidays!!! *^V^*

I survived!

Yes, I officially survived Christmas time! ^^ With lots of eating, meeting with my extensive family, visiting, ect, ect... We are back home with tons of food we got from my mom and my two mothers-in-law, everybody liked their gifts and all's well that ends well. *^v^*
And I even did not have any arguments with my mother, whoa!... (well, she tried to start a row on Christmas Eve, just as we met at the door, but I ignored it - I squashed my answer in my mouth... - and the rest of the evening went rather smoothly).

I should add one more button here because I not only bellydance, I also swim - we went to a swimming pool today to loose some of the Christmas food fat! ^^ I swam 16 times across the 50-metre pool, then we went for some bubly recreation in jacuzzi, and then we went outside to an open air pool - that was fun! ^^ Water was 26 degrees C hot, but the air was about 3 degrees C, so we had to hide under the surface of the water all the time and I felt a bit like in the Japanese onsen, yikes! ^^

As far as bellydancing is concerned, I'm a bit worried that my dancing group may possibly be dissolved after this term. We started with about 25 people, and for the last month there were 5 or 6 people coming to classes... This is the intermediate level and more work has to be put into it this term, the steps and moves are a bit more difficult and we practice dancing with a veil, so obviously not everybody who enlisted for this group are willing to make a bigger effort. Our teacher is also sad because if this happens she will have to start the beginners group again, and teach simple hip drops, which is a bit boring for her.

Knitting

I already started the scarf for Anna but I ran out of colours in my stash so I'll have to buy some more. In the meantime I dug out some Regia sock yarn

and started the more or less mindless socks knitting that I can do while watching tv. ^^

I like the regular stripes and it seems that there will be enough yarn left after finishing a full sock to knit a short anklet, too. ^^

Knitting like crazy!

OMG!... Last minute knitting is not the best idea in the world!... My wrist sinew hurts like hell (injury from last year from my jewelery course that renews every time I overdo it with my hand...) and I'm going to put the stiffener on my hand any minute now (as soon as I wrap all the gifts! ^^).
I'm not sure whether you're going to believe me that I've knitted all this since last Wednesday, but it's true *^v^*.

Kendra, I sound to be busy all the time because:
- my time management is terrible... I start many things and then finish them just in time, so I have to rush with everything,
- I sew and knit as my job, so I always think that I should make one more item either for my gothic shop, or the on-line galleries, so I'm always engaged in new projects (and lots of old ones...).
But I'm planning to do nothing in the next three days and give my hand a break (which I'll probably fail to accomplish, but anyway, that's the plan! *^v^*).

I promised pictures with my knitting, so here we go:
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Commissioned gifts for my friend's nieces (they are 3, 4 and 5 years old), three sets of a hat and a poncho, one blue one and two pinks ones (my own pattern, matching the hat):

Yarn: YarnArt Baby (100% acryl)
Needles: 5mm
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Christmas gift for my Mother-in-Law I (Robert's mom) - Liesel wrap:

Yarn: Opus Tiftik (5% mohair, 95% acrylic)
Needles: 5 mm
Surprisingly quick and easy pattern, although it's lace. ^^ I added more repeats of the pattern.
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Christmas gift for my Mother-in-Law II - Irish Hiking scarf:

Yarn: Oliwia Plus (25% wool, 75% acryl) in caramel
Needles: 6mm
I love this pattern! Very quick, and I'm definitely going to knit one for myself, only wider (kind of wrap), and in other colour (green probably).
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Christmas gift for my Father-in-Law - Fingerless Cabled Gloves:

Yarn: Schachenmayr Nomotta Alpacana (35% wool, 35% acryl, 30% alpaca)
Neddles: 4mm
I love this patterns, I've knitted them for my husband before in black - nice quick and easy desing.
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Christmas gift for my Grandfather - a scarf (simple elegance for an older gentleman):

Yarn: Linate Yeni Cetiklik (90% wool, 10% acrylic)
Needles: 7 mm
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Plus (what I knitted some time earlier) my mom will receive green Ella shawl (as if she deserves...), aunt Basia will receive the Lithuanian Socks from Nancy Bush's book.
That's all I managed to knit this year for Christmas gifts, wow!

And, can you believe it?... I finished the second of my OPAL socks!!! ^^

They are totally different in the pattern changes, but I don't care - I love them very much! ^^

As for my knitting plans for the nearest future (yes, I'm already thinking about new projects, am I crazy or what?... ^^) - I'm going to finish Emelia choker, which is the belated birthday present for my best friend Anna (I only need about 2 cms of it to finish) and I want to knit a long colourful scarf for Anna as a New Year's gift, because I know she's been dreaming of such a scarf. I'll be also knitting a sweater for my husband. And several more new things, as always! *^v^*

I'll leave you with my tree! ^^

Merry Yule/Christmas, everyone! *^v^*

No snow for Christmas...

Well, I've checked the weather forecasts for 24th, 25th and 26th December and there is now snow planned for this period here in Poland. Or low temperatures, only about 6 or 8 degrees Celsius above zero. And you call this Winter?... White Christmas, huh!...

Thank you, Helene and Lobstah, for your words of consolation to my last post - I feel better now after a few days, and I even talked to my mom - she called me and talked about Christmas supper as if nothing happened between us, that's the way she deals with situations like that, especially when it's her fault (she yelled at me once that I hadn't answer my cell phone all weekend when she called but then it turned out that she was out of credits on her phone and didn't connect to any numbers, you might think I got a word "sorry, it seems it wasn't your fault" sentence... no way!).
And yes Helene, I am an only child, which in fact I like very much ^v^, but my mom often talks about the regrets that she never decided on a second child. Well, what's done is done (or rather "isn't done" ^^), and there is no way of changing it now.

Off to some craft news:
In the January editions of womens' magazine "Claudia" (which is at the newsagents' from the middle of December) there is an article about the lady from the folk gallery I'm cooperating with, Magda Wojdyna, and her on-line store!

I scanned part of the article so you could see her - she is on the right, the blond one, with her older daughter who helps her with the on-line part of the shop (she has two daughters).
That's fabulous because the more publicity she gets the more people may be tempted to check her store and see my products, and maybe buy them for Christmas presents, yikes! &^v^&

I'm still knitting like crazy, but I can see the light at the end of a tunnel ^^ - I'll be most happy when I've finished the commisioned baby hats and capelets for my friend (she ordered three sets of hats and capelets, all exactly the same, so you can imagine that I feel like working on the factory line... and I can see pink everywhere... @_# ). But other gifts are coming out very nice, I've got mittens for my Father-in-Law ready (thanks, Kimberly, for the pattern! ^^), scarves for my two Mothers-in_Law growing everyday, still to come scarves for my uncle and Grandfather. Photos in a couple of days.