I’ve been spending the past week in holiday craft mode, getting my house ready for the upcoming seasonal gatherings. I used to manage an Anthropologie store, and though a few years removed at this point, it’s home-spun influence on my decorating aesthetic is forever in my blood now. Mass-market cardboard cut-outs of reindeer tacked to the wall will no longer suffice for this artsy gal.

This yarn ball mantel piece took 12 hours to pull off and 8 skeins of yarn-at $2 a pop thanks to Wallmart. I crunched up paper from my recycle bin into various size balls, then picked a color of yarn and started to wrap until there was no more paper showing and it was a perfect sphere. I tied it off and left a long tail of string to then wrap & tie off around the branch I salvaged from my backyard from a recent windstorm (free!), each ball at various lengths. (Total cost=$19, plus 7 vodka tonics during the process-split between 2 days!)

Once I was happy with the quantity of balls and placement, up it went, and then about an hour later of untangling the balls from the hanging process, I snipped the hanging yarn that went beyond the bottom of the yarn balls, stepped back, and admired my handiwork.

On the mantel itself, I laid out a scene of cut logs pilfered from my wood pile, then unraveled a skein of fuzzy white mohair to create “snow”. Then I made more white yarn balls in various sizes (same way as above minus the tails) for the snowballs, placed them, added a string of tree lights, and called it a snowy yarn mantel masterpiece. Total time, 45 minutes. Total cost=$5 and a shot of Whiskey neat.

We arrived home from Wrangell Alaska, late Tuesday night. We met a ton of great people, saw a lot of beautiful scenery and learned a whole lot about fish! The visit was great, the people were great, and we came back with eyes open and heads swimming with ideas.

Our controller Shirlee was at her grandson’s 8th birthday on Monday. Instead of going the route of traditional grandma presents (socks, sheets, sweaters, and other things kids find boring) she gave him a tiger salamander and all the necessary accouterments to ensure a long happy life (these things live up to 15-25 years!).

Her grandson’s friends all agreed that Shirlee would be dubbed “an awesome Grandma.” Grandma’s of the world should take notice and try to live up to the example set by one of their peers!

I turned around from my desk this morning and found a visitor from Barbarella. Seeing that Pygar is blind, I’m a little leery of the designs he’ll be cranking out for us today while visiting. Luke, for the firms sake, I hope you’re back tomorrow!

Pieter Hugo, best known for his series of men and their pet hyenas will be speaking at the Henry Art Gallery this Saturday at 5:00pm. I don’t know about you but I plan on going for sure.

Today our shipping master Angel was added to the Snohomish Skyhawks roster! The Skyhawks are a local semi-pro soccer team. Way to go Angel!