Early transition

So, are you ready to go from this....



To this....



Both my daughter and I are getting so excited for Christmas!! I'm not sure what it is, maybe the fact that the children are a little older this year and we can do more things with them. Like go ice skating, and make some handmade ornaments. Sit in front of the fireplace with hot cocoa and marshmallows, or we have been known to brave the cold and sit in front of the fire pit out on the patio! Whatever it is that's going on with us, we are ready to start decorating, and getting in the spirit earlier this year.
I plan to leave my fall decorations up until Thanksgiving, but I'm not opposed to include some Christmas here and there. I just received my dishwasher cover yesterday and I absolutely love it! Isn't it cute!??! I didn't get a chance to open it until this morning, so I'm anxious for tonight when it gets dark. It glows!!! I think it's the lights that probably glow since I can feel a different texture on them..how cute will that be surrounding the snowmen? I collect snow people, so this was perfect!!!

It started turning cold last night and we are expecting rain tonight. My fur babies wanted to snuggle under blankets next to me as we watched some tv (The Voice and Chicago Fire!!!), and I knitted. I've got about three feet of scarf now and if I stick with it, it should be finished the first part of this next week, if not sooner since I'm not sure how long I'm going to make it yet. My brother asked for it to be four feet, but I told him that's not long enough for a scarf, so it will be at least six feet. Thankfully, he's only about 5'9", instead of six feet like my husband! I seriously need to get it finished though because I am participating in a sweater knit-a-long with a podcast group I belong to on Ravelry and we are supposed to have our cardigans finished by the end of this month. I don't have too far to go, but I'm not sure I'm going to make it. I'm okay with that, so long as I get it finished, deadline or not.

Picking out which stones I want to wire wrap next became a bit of a challenge, and then I stopped and thought, hey wait, I can do ALL of them if I want! I have several vases and bowls of stones and even pieces of petrified wood that polished up beautifully, sitting around the house. They are just so pretty to look at and so interesting to learn about, since they have come from different regions of our country. These are probably going to be the ones I do next...

The ones on the far right are actually smaller than they appear, so I would like to attempt some earrings or maybe rings and bracelets. I have some even smaller agates that would be perfect for earrings...if you look closely, you can see some of them in the bottom of this vase. The trick is finding some similar in size and color, but then, I might be able to learn how to do multi color earrings and then it wouldn't matter so much I don't think. It's just fun to watch what my husband, the rockhound, collects out of the dirt, brings home and polishes up!