It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

From the Kitchen:

For the past two days I've been busily baking. Really, yesterday I was in the kitchen from as soon as I hopped out of bed, till nearly two in the afternoon. I made pizza dough, and at least three different batches of cookies. I wish I had taken a picture, I had four huge plates piled with cookies. Sadly, I handed off about half of them before even thinking of it. This morning I got up and made banana bread (which I just pulled out of the oven. Perfect for a yummy afternoon snack, along with coffee, before going off to work.)

I'm listening to:

Cold December Night. I love this song. Really I do.

I'm thinking:

The other day I was thinking on words. Actually, this is something I think on quite a lot. If you know me you will know that words are something I love, and consequently they are something I talk a lot about. (Goodness, I even named my last blog Meaningful Words, and my first post was on how we should choose our words carefully, because each word means something.) I was thinking about this program which you can use to see what your say ten, fifteen, twenty most frequently used words were on various websites. It's interesting you know, seeing what words you use the most often. Are they nice words? Words that give you a nice happy feeling, even as they are, disconnected from each other and any sentence that they might have been put into. I was thinking about if you could gather all those words that you spoke as well as wrote, what words would they be? I know the sort of words I would want my vocabulary to be summed up with, the question is, whether I live up to that. I certainly hope my words are ones that are kind and meant to bring joy to those with whom I'm talking, and those words that I have spoken that do not live up to this goal, I hope that I might eliminate in future.

Anyhow, this is a word cloud of a collection of words on this blog.

One of my favorite things:

The week before Christmas. I just want it to last forever. I just want to stretch out these days in which we get to finish up on Christmas presents, baking Christmas cookies and making Christmas crafts. On which topic, here's a picture of my favorite Christmas craft of this year

 

Isn't it just lovely?

 

 

I'm creating:

 

A couple days ago I embroidered the facial features on my knit doll, and I'm just finishing up the red dress I made for her. I'll post a picture after I sew on the arms, as the arms really are necessary. I am a little nervous to actually sew them, because I've worked so hard on her and I don't want to mess her up. I've also named her Lorna, after Lorna Doone, so I'm trying to figure out a way to incorporate her name onto a tag of some sort.

 

I'm hoping:

 

For snow. I hope it will snow. Please? Please let it snow?

 

I'm reading:

 

The Book Thief. I'm actually really impressed by this book so far. It's one of the best written books of a recent publishing date that I've read.

 

I'm wearing:

 

Sweat pants, a green t-shirt and a jacket of my Dad's that is immensely to large for me. Yes, it is noon. Yes, I do have to work soon. No, I shan't be dressed in such a manner very shortly. However, too large jackets are really warm and cozy. Jackets that fit just aren't this cozy. They're really not.

 

 



The Victorian Lady and Christmas Lights

I'm thinking...(I wrote this yesterday? but I'm posting anyhow)

There is a lady who lives in the town nearest to us who wears Victorian garb every day, and when I say Victorian garb I mean everything. You can see her walking down the street with trailing skirts and lacy blouses, her hair up in a large pompadour. She often carries a parasol and rides on a very old fashioned looking bicycle. Now, I’ll be honest and say that originally I thought this rather strange. You know, one of those odd quirks of people belonging to a little town (and this is coming from someone obsessed with historic dresses and hairstyles.)
I’ve been thinking about her a lot though lately, and found that I really admire her. If I found it strange, you can well imagine the looks she must get when she walks into a grocery store or something. I admire her because she really doesn’t care. She isn’t doing it to make a show, to go against society or anything of the like- she does it because she likes to. She feels comfortable in floor length skirts and heels that lace or button up past the ankle. She wears clothes like that because she loves them, and honestly doesn’t care about other people’s opinions.
Which I find really refreshing.
It is all too common for us to worry how we appear in other people’s minds. To worry about the impression we are making, or what is being said about us. When really the most important thing is to have a good opinion of yourself. Now I’m not saying that we should all live a Victorian lifestyle, indeed that would be most impractical, but I think we should care a little less about what other people think of us. I know that there are times when I feel like simply being happy and humming as I go about doing whatever task I’m at work with, and yet I stifle the hum because I’m afraid of the stranger walking past me.
It’s not that I hide who I am, and if someone asks me I’m happy enough to answer them honestly, but there’s still that part of me that wants to be invisible. That doesn’t want to stand out. I want to be less afraid of being noticed, because if you’re confident and happy with yourself that’s what is really important, and that’s a beautiful thing.

Outside my window...it's a lovely chilly day.

I'm wearing...A striped sweater and jeans and am wrapped up in a large blanket.

I'm reading...Jeeves and Wooster books by P. G. Wodehouse

I'm creating... Almost finished with my doll's dress.

I'm listening to...Christmas music, yay!

A picture thought I'm sharing...

 

 

My room all decorated with lights, doesn't it look lovely?