If you haven't discovered it, Etsy is a wonderful online shopping feature for the handmade item. Artists and crafters abound, it truly is filled with treasures. I have opened my own etsy shop at: www.etsy.com/shop/Jolouis
I am selling my samples as I really have no more room to house them. It's all about organizing for January!

http://knittingrobin.blogspot.com/2009/12/interview-withjoanne-yordanou.html

I can safely say I'm ready, but realize many are not. We hosted my side of the family's christmas party yesterday and, instead of the usual gift exchange (picking names out of a hat, Xmas Scrooge, etc) that was tired, I decided to do a non-monetary gift exchange. Names of the 32 (soon to move to 33) attending family members were arranged alphabetically in Excel, side by side (so that an A name, might match up with an L name). The gift would have to be made or performed by the giver. I baked Cowboy Cookies and knit sweater ornaments and cotton washcloths (love those!). 

I happened on another site that had even cuter ornaments that I wish I'd found earlier. Aside from these adorable stockings, Julie offers many other cute freebies and a great blog. Great for last minute Christmas knitting. I love the image here - similar to Purl's. She offer them as Christmas cards. Great idea for next year!

The 33rd attending was my niece, Amanda, who printed out sheets of Amazing Grace - a family favorite - and listed who was to join her singing after every couple stanzas. It was her gift to my Dad. It was a special moment that left everyone teary-eyed and smiling and one not likely to be forgotten.

I received an email from Jillian who who like to give a gift of knitting lessons, needles and my Adirondack Lap Blanket pattern as a gift for Christmas. The blanket is in my book (to the right) but wasn't available to individual sale. Well, now it is...
Best of the season to all.
Joanne

My other love: decorating. As we are finally tiling our new kitchen, the next eye sore is the dining room, where i still have my mother-in-law's old dining room table and chairs -uck. Here some dining room eye candy... would love to mix the top one with the bottom. Maybe with some black, tailored lamps. Mmmmm.
If you liked this post, visit me at Rooms Bloom.

What's supporting a team without a little competition????

The site seems to be busier than ever and yet no one leaves a comment. I welcome any friendly words so don't be shy! You too Mom!

Times is ticking and a certain event comes to Canada this winter. I have been wanting to do something in the spirit of team support and came up with a mitten (Lord knows we need them up here in Canada in January!). Likewise, I wanted to get out a trendy cowl scarf (freebie) and as that was even a faster knit, it got posted first. So here they are:

On a completely different note, my funny nephew Scott has launched a new site: for fab cooking ideas, recipes etc. Giving a lesson on awesome Christmas Truffles, here is Scott the Dot.....http://www.youtube.com/user/scottbishoplive (he also does a family staple Curry at http://www.youtube.com/user/scottbishoplive#p/a/u/2/xpqoOw3ZfvI). When I can get it working here, I'll add the video...