Vivianne so far! (Cat walk knock out! or disaster?)

The Westwood dress, I have been going round in circle literally and not just round and round, but up and down and backwoods I wanted texture but all in one piece.

And I got lost so I'm taking a break (Catching up with the Xmas, consumerism!) so I have popped in on the mannequin, so I Can sit back and take a look at where I go next.

My plan an elaborate under skirt, possibly in yellow, knitted on the round needles.

I need Niomi and some huge heels!(Anyone help with that! just let me know....)

third week of Advent

There's been a flurry of activity lately, and not much time to write, as I helped my daughter get ready for her trip to Florida with her cousin~we shopped, baked for gifting, and did laundry, all while worrying about the approaching nor'easter.

Besides caramel corn with cashews and amaretto truffles, I made these cherry double chocolate cookies from Epicurious.com. They may look like dark blobs in my picture, but they are scrumptious. I used dark chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate, and along with the toasted pecans and dried sour cherries ~ Mmmm, amazing!!

edited:

**[note~I used a melon-ball sized scoop of dough and had to reduce the cooking time to 8 minutes after my first pan burned.]**

[The labels, which I printed on some cardstock, are from The French-Inspired Home.]

The storm reached us Saturday night and left us with about 14 inches of snow. Thankfully, the two travelers left just in time to make it past the ice and snow, hitting mostly rain as they drove through the South, and arrived safely at their grandparents.
I took advantage of our 'snowed-in' weekend to decorate and put up the tree while watching Tasha Tudor's Take Peace and Cary Grant in The Bishop's Wife (I love this movie!).

This week, it's Christmas cards and more baking...and a few gifts yet to make...I hope.

How are your Christmas plans coming along?

I am so very grateful to the hundreds of you who have left me emails, comments on the blog, and on Ravelry. Peaches obviously was the celebrity she always thought she was! Having pet rabbits really helps you learn to live fully and enjoy the moment because they don't often live as long as dogs and cats and because they mask illness and can leave you suddenly. Even though her life was too short we both agree that Peaches was lucky to live here with us because we let her be herself and didn't mind that she wasn't as affectionate as other rabbits.

When we first got Peaches I called her the wallflower because she was always on the perimeter of the room and never part of the household action. But she slowly warmed up to us and loved being the center of attention. I was hoping she'd be here for Christmas though. A week ago I was wrapping some presents on the floor and she snuck up behind me and started ripping up some gifts I'd wrapped so I was planning on Christmas Eve to put all the gifts on the floor and let her open some presents.

Right after my wonderful DH got done burying our beautiful brown-eyed Peaches in a big snowstorm, he told me he knows we need to get another rabbit soon because I love them so much. We reacted briefly to the sadness of it all but we are both now looking forward to adopting a new bunny after the holidays. There are always plenty of wonderful rabbits out there who desperately need good homes which I try to remember at times like this.

I have found an unexpected source of healing - power yoga. I've always thought that the yoga idea that you store emotions in your body was malarkey but I'm seeing things differently now. On the new Veria channel I've been working along to Yoga for Life with Kurt Johnsen of American Power Yoga. I normally live in my head so the idea that something really physical can improve me this much mentally is a new one. Learning to deal with life's difficulties without letting it affect my health negatively is really crucial and the instructor talks about that a lot in the classes.

And to try to lighten the mood around here I thought I'd show the photo from the time we mistakenly let Peaches have the newspaper first and the one time Peaches jumped up on the futon with Jack.