It Must be a Random Sort of Month

Because, I still have very little to show on the fiber-y front.
A Christmas tree was purchased and set up. A lovely 7-8' tall tree. The incredible shrinking tree. Once we got it home I saw that the trunk was too big to fit in our stand (normally we take the stand with, but forgot this time), so I cut off about 4-5" of trunk and put the stand on. Once set up in the house, we saw that the trunk, beside being big around, had a definite bend to it, like no way would it stand up even passably close to straight, with a major 'elbow' about 8-9" up from the bottom.  So back outside where I cut off another 8-9" of trunk. Now the tree is maybe 6' tall, it gets a boost from the stand. And it is pretty close to pointing straight up, even though you can still see the trunk is curved. It is a brave little tree, proudly displaying the minimal amount of decorating it received. With an adolescent cat in the house, I felt is prudent to only use the non-breakable decorations.

So aforementioned cat would have something in the house to climb besides the Christmas tree (and the furniture), I decided to make a climbing/scratching post. I went to the local big box home improvement store and bought one of those cardboard cylinders used as forms for concrete footings. The one I used is 8" x 48". I was going to wrap it in sisal rope, but when I got the rope home and opened the package, the rope stunk! Of whatever they use during processing I guess. So I set the rope aside and decided to use an old doormat/area rug that was sitting around. I cut the tube so it would match the length of the rug, then used a staple gun to attach and wrap the rug around the tube, then trimmed of the excess rug. Then I tied the tube to the weight machine that sits in the family room, mostly unused whilst the Boys are away at school.

Scipio the cat ignored it for a while, but now he scratches, climbs and generally attacks the thing. I've a smaller tube to add to it, some time later. Eventually, I hope to add some cat perching areas to the weight machine. At least then, someone will be using it.

The Boys are home now, and its just like old times. I mostly see them when they're hungry, otherwise they're in their rooms, or hanging out with friends. Ryan did help me make some holiday goodies, chocolate covered peanut butter balls (except really, they look more like breasts). There was melted chocolate left over, so I dipped marshmallows, dried apricots and made chocolate covered almond clusters too.

Fun and delicious.