Plath’s Adventures

All the Christmas crafting is finished, and the countdown has begun! I finished the second pair of socks for Eleanore’s stocking:

I *think* the yarn is June Carter on Glacier from Cider Moon, but I’m not sure, as the yarn has been tagless in my stash for a while.

I also even managed to fit in a surprise pair of socks for my mother in law, but I haven’t snagged a picture yet. She has been asking for a pair of socks for two years now, and I finally was able to fit in a pair for her. I used Araucania Nature Wool, a very light worsted/dk, and the International Sock of Doom pattern, so they worked up quickly. The pattern is now located here if you’re looking for it.

In the past week, I also found two new additions to our winter table.

My mother in law had the Santa Claus beeswax candle for years and years, and when she saw my etsy favorite list, she thought I might like to have hers.
The wool tapestry is from TheMoonGoat on etsy, and I love it. She is on vacation right now, so her shop is on hold, but you can see some of her past work here and a few pieces are on my favorite list, as well.

The season wouldn’t be complete without a visit to Santa, and we managed to see him at The Henry Ford Museum the other day. Eleanore even received her first set of Duplo Legos from him.

I thought this would be a tough year for us with Santa (and fully expected a screaming picture), but Eleanore was perfectly calm and collected, even though waiting in such a long line truly tested her patience, and she was ready for her afternoon nap.

Jason had a trade show to go to this past week in Indianapolis, so Eleanore and I tagged along for a few days for a mini vacation. We managed to go to the Children’s Museum for a day, and although she was young for most of the activities, she still had a nice time seeing the fish, hanging out with the dinosaurs and riding in race cars.

I also spotted some knitting graffiti downtown, which was really neat to see.

While we were nearby, we also fit in a stop to see the grandparents in Ohio, and made a stop at the Carriage Hill Metropark in Huber Heights, where Eleanore got to visit with some of her favorite animals: chickens and a horsie. She gets so excited whenever she sees a horse, I think riding lessons may be in our future.

Inspired by quite a few blogs, I pulled out my block of beeswax the other day, and made a few ornaments.

One tip I will give you, is if you’re using the plastic candy molds (like I used for the snowflakes), make sure you cool the beeswax a bit before pouring. My mold is now a melted mess, with only one cavity remaining intact! Oh well, you live and learn! The peace sign silicone ice cube tray worked perfectly, no matter the temperature. I’m going to try a few more as soon as my acorn and other snowflake molds arrive, as I think they’ll make great gifts, and will be perfect for our tree this year. Eleanore liked them so much, she carried around one of the peace signs all evening last night, smelling it and rubbing it, and holding it up to Jason’s nose, telling him to smell it. We’re nurturing such a nature lover.

They were great fun, and smell so deliciously of honey, I’ll definitely be making these next year as well. Bees are so interesting to me, and keeping them is on my list of things to try, although it won’t be for a few years. We’re going to try chickens in the spring, and we’d like to plant a few fruit trees, and then we may try bees if all goes well.