happy thanksgiving!

and it sure was a happy thanksgiving indeed! last tuesday night, i drove bunkins to pittsburgh to pick up the jimster because he was just recovering from the flu and no one wanted to give his sickness a ride to nyc. so, as his big sister and as his bunny nephew (jimmy calls himself uncle jimmy to bunks! hahhahaha), bunks and i volunteered to haul him back to ct. well, turns out jimmy was swimmingly fine by the time we got to pitt. bunks spent the night in jimmy's room and had a field day playing in his boxsprings. unfortunately, no one got any sleep that night.the next morning, with jimmy and bunks in tow, i continued our travels home to ct. (in just one week, bunks has driven to durham, pittsburgh, and ct! poor bunny!) one of us always sat in the back seat to keep him company and he was much more calm. at home, bunkins would spend the days in the kitchen with us and the nights in my bedroom. his favorite place to keep warm (my rents keep the house fairly cold) is behind jimmy's butt at the kitchen table!mom cooked up a feast every night! we had turkey, ham, lobster, and steamed fish! for dessert, i made pumpkin pie squares! mom had made a pie with half a can of pumpkin, so i used the rest to make pie squares since we didn't have crisco to make a proper pie crust (i don't approve of frozen crusts like she does, sorry). and since i was home, i took the opportunity to take some pics of this baby animal series of cross-stitching that i made my parents to help them decorate their bare walls. (i grew up in a very white house. not white as in caucasian, but white as in all white walls!) this series lines the long wall leading to the kitchen door. the first that i made was a pair of baby tigers because dad loves tigers. the 2nd was a pair of baby brown bears because i went to brown university! go brown bears! (actually what i liked most about the bears was the little dab of purple in the violets next to the left bear!)

both of these flank a pair of baby elephants. this was the biggest project in my book of baby animals cross-stitching, and we all know i love "big guns" projects, so of course i had to do the most complex one!too bad you can't always zoom on the pics by clicking them. i don't know how to make that work more consistently on this page. trust that the details are intricate (i'm a fiend for detail)!

craft-wise my weekend was very productive as well! i finished applying hem glue to the unfinished edge of the pink ruffle on my refashioned sweater so that the silk would not shread to bits. i finished another batch of holiday birdie ornaments (the post on this will be next, so stay tuned!). i hit up joann fabrics on black friday (i can't buy clothes because of the pledge, so how else am i to spend my money?!) and scored tons of cute flannel for christmas presents (!!), a whole new set of bobbins (lan graciously gifted me her extra sewing machine so i gave mom back hers this weekend and of course i needed my own gear!), tons of elastic for $0.89 per yard (!!!), a set of make your own fabric covered buttons (!!!!!!!), and an amazing gift tag craft punch (!!!!!!!!!!). i "borrowed" some paint chips from the hardware store and made over 50 gift tags just to "test it out." hehehe. it's amazing. i've always wanted one, and it was 40% off at joann's! joann's is probs my new fav store and they have one in falls church, va too!!

hope you all had a great thanksgiving! bunks is certainly glad to be home and spent the night hopping around the condo in glee!