And more decorating

Here are more of the decorations. I set my "Grandfather Winter" (I think of him as being more like the Russian figure than Santa Claus or even Father Christmas) under the tree, and a few smaller figures (a nisse, a couple of smaller santas, and a vintage elf like one my grandmother used to have):



I also put out my Gene dolls. I don't even know if these are still made but back around 1998 they were a big thing for a certain segment of doll collectors. I have two - a brunette who was from one of the earlier runs, and a platinum blonde whose knees actually bend. (Gene is not very posable, unfortunately).

Even though the blonde is more posable, I like the brunette better; I think the hair color suits her better.

Both of these are outfits I made back when I had more time to do things like sew fabulous doll wardrobes. They are the most Christmassy outfits she has. Both of them are partly handsewn (the fiddly bits) and partly machine-sewn (the longer seams and things like hems.)



Sort of a flapper-style dress, with a "fur" (really a sort of faux velveteen) jacket. (It's hard to photograph this Gene well. Here's one without flash, but it's probably kind of dark:)



And the brunette. (One of the other things about Gene is she has that kind of thousand-yard stare; it's like her eyes are never really focused on the person looking at her but are looking off somewhere far away).



One other thing I did was got out a white china Christmas tree that you can put a candle in. However, I like the LED light faux tealights, because of no threat of fire and no smoke. (The ones I have you can replace the batteries in so they're not QUITE so one-use-and-then-throw-it-out.)




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The KnitPicks order I placed a little while back came today, despite SmartPost's tracking's claim that a package that took 2 days to make it from Ohio to Dallas would then take 4 days to get to my doorstep from Dallas. This contains the yarn for Miss Cheerilee..... and they sent me two balls of one of the Brava yarns I only ordered one of. (I got two of the body color, which I hope will be enough, and two of the darker mane and tale color, which is probably way more than I need, and I ordered one of the lighter color....but got two, despite paying for one.) My upbringing being what it is, I called KnitPicks to tell them and offer to pay for the second ball (easier than sending it back). The man on the other end chuckled and told me to "just keep it" but that he'd tell the stockers so they could enter it for inventorying.

Then after I got off the phone, I wondered: they were doing a "buy $15, get a ball of Brava free" promotion. I wonder if that was it even though I didn't expressly ask for it. At any rate, I feel better about it than if I had just kept the ball of yarn without saying something.

I also got yarn for another Crofter's Cowl, after thinking how handy the one I have is and how I'd like another in a different color. And some Capretta, for a minishawl.