There’s a lot of making things like this

and this

going on, in preparation for the next Buyers Market wholesale show next week in Phili.

It was a beautiful day on Saturday and on the spur of the moment, knowing there was snow predicted for Sunday, we drove to New Paltz for lunch and some wandering.

I found an old slotted spoon for my collection.

Some of the holes are not fully drilled, the hole in the handle is off-center. Perfectly imperfect.

It was very windy over the holidays and when I went out to get kindling one morning I ended up gathering armloads of pine cones, blown down from the Norway spruce. For fun I filled a casserole dish with them, tightly lined up side by side.

A couple of days ago I found some of the cones on the floor and thought I knew for sure who the culprits were. But last night we heard a strange sound and when we investigated, discovered that the cones have been expanding in the heat and popping themselves out and away.

Not everything can be blamed on the woozles.

I made a Cranberry Upside-Downer Cake for the New Year’s party I went to last night. It was yummy. Emphasis on past tense.

The recipe is from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from my Home to Yours. I came across the book at the library and have since realized that every baker on the internet has been using it for years. Where was I?

I once had a German roommate who baked a cake every Saturday. God, that was a great year. We would sit perched on Indian bedspread-covered chairs and couches and eat our way through her delicious kuchen.

I’m thinking 2010 should be the Year of the Cake. I love to bake but almost never make cakes — time to rectify this. In my old roommate’s honor I think I’ll try a Bundt next.

I’m not usually in the mood for cleaning come Spring, wanting instead to run outside after the long cold. But the turn of the year seems like the best time to rearrange and pay attention to the corners of my home.

At the foot of the stairs I hung the framed print of my grandfather’s book plate — illustrated with a thistle, for Scotland, and a bee since he kept hives. Above a tiny solo mitten holds a dried hydrangea blossom that blew into the driveway from the neighbors. Below the volunteer fireman certificate earned by the 1861 owner of this house and miraculously recovered on ebay by the owners before me. And for company, a postcard of a dancing lady tucked into the light switch.

The clean floor is dirtying fast, but the little grouping delights me every time I pass.

There is a “wintery mix” coming down outside and after shoveling the walks and bringing in wood for the stove we do not plan to venture out again today.

I turned the rubber plant into an ersatz tree and so far it is surviving the excited onslaught of the wee ones.

We have a fridge full of leftovers. For our vegetarian feast on Christmas Eve I made Nutmeat Paté in Brioche from the 1972 classic The Vegetarian Epicure.

(A cookbook worth checking out if only for entertainment value since many recipes list MSG as an ingredient and there are notations on what to serve after “sharing a pipe”.)

M, despite his Texas roots, was entirely satisfied. Although who can complain about any meal that ends with pie?

Today I picked some lettuce from one of the raised beds!

I couldn’t believe it when I saw the perky leaves, I had given up on them and yanked off their row cover last week.

Spring is feeling very far off so it was a treat to carry the handful of green indoors.

There are a couple more days of the Bracelet Show at Kathleen Sommers in San Antonio, Texas.

And through the end of December you can see a collection of my work at Langman Gallery in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving. This morning I said goodbye to the last member of my holiday visiting family and drove home from the train station in the rain, feeling suitably glum and wintery.

Some houses still have pumpkins on their stoops, but this was obviously the weekend for getting out holiday decorations – lots of glowing icicles hanging from eaves, and May-pole shaped ‘trees’ made of Christmas lights strands. Some blow-up snowman snow globes of which I will not speak another word.

My decorations are on my radar but not up yet. And the idea of getting a tree was collectively nixed the minute the word “kitten” was mentioned. I need some time to come up with a solution to that energetic, furry problem.

On Thanksgiving day we went up to Sam’s Point and walked in the fog,

and were given the gift of blue sky when we reached the lake at the top of the ridge.

There was fog dew on everything.

We came home and ate turkey and then leftovers, leftovers, leftovers for days.

On Saturday we visited the fairytale Mohonk Mountain House for lunch (and a menu change).

We got lost, briefly, in the garden maze but managed to find our way home.

It was a real vacation. We watched movies, played with cats large and small, and talked and laughed a ton. So good. It felt both long and short – how the best days always feel. I am grateful.

I’ve been making armies of earrings and necklaces, including lots of these Daisy necklaces, and shipping them off around the country.

I’m delighted to be showing at two new stores – Diane’s Artisan Gallery in Lawrence, Kansas, and The Collector in Merrick, NY. Go check ‘em out if you live nearby!