Honalee - l'm looking forward to seeing your 'forest'. I've thought about making those tomato cage trees for years but so far haven't as I always use the ones I find at yard sales to prop up perennials. Thanks for the smartjane link which I've bookmarked and will look at later. I'm not sure what normal is but it sounds a bit boring so let's avoid it! LOL I actually love winter - the snow is beautiful and there's a respite from gardening. Occasionally I make "a snow angel!" I love decorating inside my house even more than I like decorating my garden and from March to September my house gets little decorating attention. In fact this year I had spring decor on my mantle until fall! The last few months I've been more serious about editing my house so have given away lots of decor accessories and things I no longer need or want. I have 45 years of accumulated "stuff" so there is lots to go thru and many decisions to make. It's an ongoing project but hope to finish by spring. With Christmas coming I've been shopping for gifts and need to wrap and send them, cleaning my house more thoroughly, and will be doing Christmas decorating starting today. It's taken me the last few days to pack away all the fall decor. Other than that I occasionally volunteer, read, 'play' online, talk on the phone and email, occasionally lunch with friends, attend a few social functions, only watch TV a little as there is not much that interests me on the hundred+ channels I get, and shovel snow and haul wood. I've been shoveling the few inches of snow we've gotten onto my perennials which takes more effort but I want them to survive the colder temps to come as I didn't winterize anything this fall. I heat my house mostly with a wood stove so that takes a bit of work. I do have a good and seldom used gas furnace but prefer wood heat. Oh, of course I cook and make almost all meals from scratch which takes time. Occasionally I do crafts, knit, and crochet altho haven't done much recently - have one knitting project on the go and hope to get it finished soon as it's boring me and I want to start something more interesting. I have 4 indoor pets who require care and attention which takes a bit of time. After Christmas things will slow down and I'll spend time planning, and re-planning, my garden. Plan will then go in the trash and the garden will continue to evolve as usual! LOL It's a lot of fun to plan tho and occasionally I discover something I want to implement. There are a few new craft projects I want to start but won't until the new year. I occasionally travel and have a short trip coming up soon so have to prepare for that. I always make to-do lists which helps me finish projects as I love crossing things off the lists! I love days like today when there's nothing scheduled and I can do only what I want. I will start Christmas decorating but will do it at my own pace so I enjoy it. Plan to finish by the weekend. I think most gardeners are probably creative people who do other creative things when they are not gardening.

Hi all! I finished several projects and have moved on to a matching purse (for mom --to match her baby's anouk I made from the knitty), a made a superfun and pink fuzzy felted purse for myself, and now I am knitting up a super warm shawl for myself to keep on my computer chair and snuggle as I surf the web!!! My goal is to chew down some of my yarn stash so I don't have to feel quite as guilty when I give in to my next yarn bash. I saw someone looking for slipper patterns.... I don't have the addy but do a search under knit a longs and there is currently a great knit along for slippers with loads of free patterns for you. Hope this helps. I like looking at the knit a longs as it gives great ideas and different color/yarn combos. Also for my next quick projects am thinking of making stripey pocket pals http://www.theknittinggarden.com/gallery/aug-free-3.htm a skele fish (cool glow in the dark one) http://www.fjsmjs.com/Mary/skelefish.htm and a few free toy patterns (love Monty the Monkey)on sullivan knitting yarns site http://www.sullivans.net to help use up some of my yarn stash and make it a bit of fun. Happy knitting/crocheting all!

It was a pleasant winter day here in NC in the 50's, after a brief dusting of snow the day before. We dont have Winters here, maybe 3 weeks of freezing temps at night. I just clicked on the link and it took me to 2 photos at photobucket.com, I have no idea why. You got a bonus pic of my crocheted shawl using the snowflake pattern in black for Halloween. I meant only to show you the red knit shawl photo of me in the fur hat. Has anyone else knitted a poncho and how? This one uses no pattern. I made it by guessing.

Could you tell us a bit more about the cape? Did it have a collar? How about slits for the hands, or did it cover the arms completely? How long (approximately)? As a child, you probably did not notice these details, but think back and get the feeling you had when you wore it - information may come back to you! Then tell us, and we'll keep looking! Anne B