::holiday::

Last weekend I took a happy little jaunt down to visit my lovely St. Louis friends for a Christmas ball and also to relax from my crazy life here at home. The night before I was rushing about trying to finish a dress for a customer and ended staying up until 5a.m. sewing on it before it was completed. I got about three hours of sleep, woke up, loaded the car and drove myself down to a friend's house about two hours south of me. We then were on our way to St. Louis. I filled up on French press coffee and took knitting in hand for the next three hours. I completed one knitting project only to find out after completing it that I did not like the size I made it. Rip rip rip... Kind of a sad site after all that work, but I'm happy I did, because the fit is much better now. Since it's for my sister, I really wanted it to be perfect. I'm making one for myself using thicker yarn and once that is complete, I will reveal what it is I'm making and the instructions I came up with in the process...





Back to my St. Louis adventure. We arrived Friday afternoon and then headed off to the most wonderful knitting shop called Knitty Couture not far from my friend's house. The lady who owns the shop is incredibly sweet! She was very gracious in allowing me to take a few pictures of her lovely display of yarns. The colors! It truly was breathtaking. I had fun feeling all the different types of yarns and imagining all the garments I could knit up. I felt like a little girl in a candy shop!



After the knit shop, I went with my friend Silvana to her work Christmas party where I got to meet a lot of professors and grad students and mooch off of their food and wine. hehe. Nothing like tagging along for the food and wine... (just kidding) The party was held in an elegant mansion on SLU campus, which I believe was built in the late 19th century. It was absolutely gorgeous inside and I had fun walking around pretending I was a grad student for the evening. :)







The rest of the weekend consisted of a Christmas ball at the Old Courthouse, Sunday dinner at the historic Oakland House, lots and lots of snow, a visit to Anthropologie and various other adventures. We also went out for dinner at a wonderful little restaurant called Seha after the ball. The people there made us a special menu and each table had a plate of lovely little cookies that are to DIE for. Now I wish I would have picked up a box of them to bring home. We got a little silly that night and decided to put the stickers of our beer bottles on our heads. I truly love my friends.





All in all, it was the most fantastic relaxing time. Now I'm home and trying to finish up all these Christmas presents! I'm making my grandma some quilted coasters from one of the Japanese Craft books I got awhile back. They're going to go along with the green glass juice cups I got for her. I hope she can use them! I also have a few more items to make and probably will need to go shopping at least once more. A few of my friends will be receiving a cake that I plan to make using an 1840s recipe. It's actually called Washington Pie, but it's more like a pound cake. My favorite part is the currants soaked in brandy. Believe me, this "pie" is Amazing. It's basically filled with lots of butter, heavy cream and sugar. If it all turns out, I'll share the recipe here (only don't blame me if you make it).



My next post will probably be about knitting, though it could change so who knows. I'm just in a very knitty mood these days. Right now the soft chunky wool variety is my yarn of choice. Stay warm!

More pictures Here. :)