Cleaning out the closets

Blake has been out of town a lot lately for work.  In fact, he's been gone about two nights a week for the last 5 weeks: Chicago, Dallas, New York, Boston, Atlanta...the list goes one. 

While he's away, I try to keep myself extra busy.  It's usually the time when I finally get down to business with my housekeeping- vacuuming, scrubbing baseboards etc., but it's also when I do a lot of crafting.

Last night some friends came over and we watched the movie Brave while we knitted/sewed on our various projects. 

Knitting night may sound a bit sister-wives-ish, but let me tell you: it's simply grand!  It's the perfect time to watch silly movies, eat snacks, and attempt one of the pins languishing in the depths of the pinterest archives. 

Blake served part of his mission in Cape Verde (a group of islands off the west coast of Africa).  Some of his converts made him lace doilies by hand as a thank you gift.  They've been hiding out in the back of his closet in New Hampshire ever since, but this summer when I saw them I knew I wanted to drag them out and make something useful out of them.  I'd seen an idea on pinterest via Martha Stewart and mentally filed it away as a potential use for the doilies.

So yesterday it was finally down to business.  After much arranging and re-arranging, I came up with a satisfactory placement and roughly sewed the doilies together.  I may or may not have accidentally sewn a couple of them to the rug as I went (wasn't that a fun discovery at the end when I tried to pick the whole thing up? whoops).

After snipping my creation free of the rug, I added it to the table with a new poinsettia from the grocery store and some grey-green candles.  Nothing glamorous, but it makes me happy to have Christmas making an appearance at the house.