December 3 - Mittens

What is cozier than a good pair of MITTENS? My favorite pair is one that Emily made me when she had my name for Christmas. They are purple and double-layered, with thick durable wool on the outside and soft light wool on the inside. I wear them all the time!

Emily comes by her mitten-making naturally. Darleen has just completed a massive mitten-making project that I want to share and celebrate here. Darleen made, not one, but TWO, mitten advent calendars, for Emily and Rachel to decorate their homes for the holidays!

For all the crafters, here is a link to the Ravelry pattern page. Darleen noted that she redesigned #6, since she wasn't sure what the design was supposed to be, and the red carried yarn showed through. 

When I was a small child, sitting in the back seat of the car, driving back from somewhere on a winter evening, my dad would tell the story of Granny Glittens and Her Amazing Mittens. It was in a book my dad’s parents read to him when he was little, and I found it online for us all to read: Click here to read the story! (I can verify that my dad was practically word-perfect in his retelling of this story - I could hear his voice in my head as I read it!)

Deanna is the one who taught me to knit mittens, when she and my mom came to visit me in Boston. I made one pair to give to Bryan, and they turned out really well - he has since worn them out! I started a second pair for myself but never got farther than the cuff. I should pull out that simple vintage pattern and give it another try!

If you have favorite mittens, describe them in the comments!

December 2 - Hygge

HYGGE is a word that's gotten a lot of attention in the past few years. ("HOO-gah" is a close pronunciation.) Despite the fact that our family has Danish ancestry and still has some Danish holiday traditions, I hadn't ever heard this word until it was all over the media. Happiness researchers have found that Danes are the happiest people on earth, and there are lots of reasons for this, but hygge seems to be one of them. 

(For more reading on the happy Danes, I recommend The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell.)

What is hygge? There's not a perfect English translation, but I found it described as “a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture).” Learn more on Wikipedia. 

Fortunately, The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking provides a blueprint for living your best hygge life. I recommend getting it from your library! The book is a fun, quick read. 

I listen to a podcast called By The Book. The two co-hosts, Kristen and Jolenta, live by the tenets of popular self-help books for two weeks and share their experiences. They lived by this book, so if you'd like, you can listen to the episodes detailing their experiences:

1. Kristen and Jolenta live by The Little Book of Hygge
2. Epilogue - one week after living by The Little Book of Hygge

(To listen, you can click the links above - there will be a Play button on the webpage to start playing the podcast. Please also note that Kristen and Jolenta use some adult language, so be prepared.)

There are lots of ways to embrace hygge in this cold, dark season:

• Use candles and soft lighting, accents and textures from nature, and blankets to create a cozy atmosphere.
• Choose comfy, casual clothes, and enjoy your wooly sweaters, thick socks, and warm scarves. 
• Indulge in yummy foods like hot drinks, baked goods and pastries, and slow-cooked recipes. 
• Spend time in nature when you can.

A very Danish, hygge treat: Aebleskiver!
 

I am sending you hyggeligt wishes from my couch, where I am wearing a puffy vest, sweater, wool socks, and slippers; snuggled with afghans made by Grandma Ada and Bryan's Aunt Jan, and a down blanket from my friend Amber; and Bryan has just brought me a cup of hot chocolate! We have achieved ultimate hygge already!

Cozily,

Amanda

December 1 - Snow!

 

SNOW is one of my favorite things. I love winter, and I have missed it during the years we lived in California. We had our first snow in our new house the day after we moved in (mid-October), and it has snowed, and then melted completely, several times since. 

It snowed yesterday, however, and it was finally enough that Bryan decided to give the snowblower a try - it worked! Hooray! We will be ready when the big snow comes!

Here is my favorite snow song, from one of my favorite holiday movies:

A couple of weeks ago, my friend paged through an old cookbook she found in an AirBnB. She came upon this recipe:

She wondered if I had ever heard of such a thing, because in doing more research, she found this recipe for Wisconsin Snow Pudding. Despite having grown up in Wisconsin, I had never had this or even heard of it, so of course I asked my personal home economist, my mom, and here's what she had to say:

"I have seen that snow pudding before - always in recipe books - but I've never made it. And I didn't realize it was a 'Wisconsin' thing. I've always thought of it as a kind of wobbly Schaum torte - mostly just sugar and egg whites. I'd probably like it with my sweet tooth! Especially served with raspberries and custard sauce. You should give it a try! It would be a lovely presentation for Christmas. Old cookbooks are so interesting - we can learn so much about people's lives - in and out of the kitchen."

Mom is right! I don't own any kind of decorative mold, so I don't think I can make the Wisconsin recipe - but maybe I could try the one from the old cookbook for a fun project sometime. If you are feeling ambitious and decide to make either recipe, I hope you'll take a picture and share a review!

For a bit of snowy reading, here is a snowy poem: "Snow Day" by Billy Collins

Please leave a comment to share your own thoughts on snow, or send me an email if you have a suggestion for an item to include on a future day of the advent calendar. 

Thanks for joining us for this 2020 Virtual Advent Calendar!

Amanda 

2020 Virtual Advent Calendar - Starting Soon!

Image Source: https://www.nikkisplate.com/40-diy-christmas-advent-calendars/

We moved back to Wisconsin in 2020, but there’s a global pandemic on, so we can’t spend the holiday time in-person with our local-ish family and friends that we had hoped and planned for. That’s a bummer, but we still want to celebrate all the things that are good about our lives - and for us, things are pretty good!

As a way to stay connected and to celebrate this festive season and countdown to Christmas, we’re hosting a virtual Advent Calendar. Every day from December 1 through December 25, we will post some holiday inspiration here on the blog.

You can expect to see:

• Stories, poems, or articles to read

• Pictures and videos

• Songs and music

• Recipes

• Games

• Suggested activities that put us in a holiday mood

• And other fun stuff we discover along the way!

If you are a contributor to the Fresh Bait blog (or if Darleen will make you one), and you would like to volunteer to host a day, please let me know via email which day(s) you would like to post. If you have ideas to contribute, send me those ideas as well. Please also feel free to comment on the posts - I hope you will contribute if you are inspired!

The Fresh Bait blog is read mostly by members of the Worm family - since we want to share this with a wider group of family and friends, it’s possible that we’ll see some additional readers. If there are other folks in your circles for whom this would be meaningful, feel free to invite them to read along too!

Here's to a fun virtual holiday celebration!

Amanda

Deer Camp Memories

Tonight while we were listening to Simply Folk on WXPR, our local community public radio station, we heard this song called "Deer Camp Memories", by Pat Wiley.

It made us smile, and we thought you might want to give it a listen too.

Hope everyone is staying safe and cozy at home!

 

Northwoods Projects

 Hello! Our first two weeks in the Northwoods have been lovely, beautiful, and cold! I've been wearing the slippers that Darlene gave me for Christmas nearly non-stop. And that means I've worn through the floss holding on the soles.

I decided that this time, I'd try a single-piece sole, instead of the separate forefoot and heal pads. And, I expanded it to cover the whole bottom, moving the stitching to the outer edge. I'm hoping this means that I walk on the stitching less, and that means the stitching doesn't wear through as fast.

This is also the first official project (other than unpacking and reassembling a bookshelf) in what was sold to us as a "third bedroom", but we have decided to call the "project room". All the craft supplies live here, as well as room to use them. The couch is here to relax as well, or to be converted into that third bed when guests become a regular thing again.

Amanda was also working on footwear - assembling our new snowshoes! We're prepared for the cold and snow to continue.

California to Wisconsin by Motorcycle!

 Hi, family! You've heard about the epic motorcycle trip that Amanda and I just took across the country, right? If you're wondering where we went and what we did, I have good news for you. I just posted a video documenting the whole thing!

The video is also public, so please feel free to share if you know others that would be interested!

Life in "Northern Minnesota?"

Sure has been warm lately, not sure I am living in Minnesota anymore.  Oh well, this too shall pass and fall will come.  Nope, not really ready for that yet.

Our garden is growing well. Lots of blossoms on the tomatoes, and some small tomatoes.  A blossom on the zucchini. The basil looks good, too.  We just might get a good crop this year. 

We have finally be getting a bit of rain here and there.  It had been very dry. All the storms we heard about went north or south of us for the longest time. We haven't gotten enough, however.  I hear the thunder now.

Abby has turned into quite a good dog, still needs work, but don't we all. I don't think she will get much bigger, kind of a medium sized dog. And yet tall enough to steal a tuna sandwich off the counter.

She likes to chase the cat and Emma never sounds too thrilled about it.  However, this weekend while Abby is with Joe at the Cottage for the 4th I think Emma kind of misses her. 

I am trying to remember where I ordered this bucket o'cat because I want to order another one.

I have been doing some stained glass for a while now. Last fall I made this one for my dad for Christmas. It is of their dog Charlie who passed away last August.  My cousin Colleen came up with the picture.  I think it turned out pretty well.

Enjoy the summer!

I hope everyone is staying well and safe.

What's going on in your area of the world?

Deanna

Dresser is finished!

Hello again, everyone. With two weeks to go before we really pack up in earnest, I've finished my new dresser!



More pictures and process at http://blog.beerriot.com/2020/03/12/dresser-finished/

Christmas gift build stories

Anyone else want to share the story of building the Christmas gift the made this year? I posted mine here: http://blog.beerriot.com/2019/12/29/resin-cherry-jewelry/