It's beginning to look a lot like clutter..

At least at my house. But it's happy clutter and  it's beginning to look a little like Christmas, too! Yesterday we started putting up decorations. Our oak hutch has a little town living in it now.

Here it is during the day. 

 

More Christmas pics to come, but first a (very controlled) look at the delightful (cough) clutter in my work area! Notice that I have carefully cropped each picture. You might be fooled into thinking my work area is tidy like this:

 But it isn't. It's pretty much wall to wall this:

 Even the skelly guys that have been hanging around for weeks think it's bad. And it takes a lot to shock a skelly.

 I ran out of table space so I put some nails in my bookshelves to hang my dolls. I guess I'll hang them from the ceiling next.

 My shelves are sort of tidy. I won't show you the boxes piled on the floor.

While I was taking these pictures I discovered two little frames I bought at a thrift store. It's like a treasure hunt!

 Just one stack of many, many stacks of fabric. Oy.

 But look, the trolls think all this mayhem is fabulous! Nothing gets them down. And I think their hair is very Chrismassy, don't you? Maybe we need a troll Christmas village...hmmm...

 Happy Ho Ho Ho!

Is that the holiday train I see...

...coming out of the tunnel...headed right for me? Yes, I think it is. And it sunk in today (double duh) that next week is Thanksgiving. THANKSGIVING.


Ah, well. We will have some sort of festive meal. I was thinking those chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs. I am only halfway kidding.

I sewed a couple of strange little gnome dolls. I think the gnomes are my version of a crazy quilt. I have a basket that I toss little scraps of fabric into, so these two are pieced together from bits of this and that. And of course, buttons. I need a 12-step program regarding buttons. Maybe Buttons Anonymous has a local chapter.

As for the paintings, here is a cat that juggles mice. Don't ask.

And a Frida. 

I hope you are all enjoying this kick-off to the holiday season (just watch out for that train). Wishing all my fellow Yanks a wonderful Thanksgiving. Me? I am looking forward to seeing family and eating pecan pie. Any other food is really extraneous. Mmm...pecan pie.

I won't forget this Fall...

(This is a pre-Sandy bus stop pic. I'm sure there are a lot less leaves on those trees now.)

Hurricane Sandy reminded me that Mother Nature is a force to be reckoned with. We didn't have constant gale force winds, but we got bursts that had us sitting up and taking notice. The kind of wind where you look at one another and say, "WHOA!"

This Halloween just slipped by me - whoosh! First of all, I was a little sick. I was so sick I barely had enough energy to eat Reese's, but I managed to anyway. We did have power, lights, candles, and most importantly, each other.

As for my blog, and the odd colors, and the missing texts on the sidebar widgets (because I can't get them to be white) and anything else that looks weird, I have found that Blogger is also a force to be reckoned with. A Dark Force.

Welcome to November!