Hunting, crafts and baking preparations

I've made the obligatory food run today and fell into the sales trap again - but that isn't always a bad thing, IMO. The fridge was basically empty, after all, and I got some basic food stuff for an almost acceptable price, so I feel quite accomplished. Of course, the fact that I could replace my gold marker by using the accumulated bonus points at Auchan's, and that my German crossword puzzle book has finally arrived, helped to lift my mood considerably.

So much so that I've made a big step towards finishing the back cover of Dani's quiet book. I still have 4 pieces of Velcro to sew on, but everything else is done, so I took a photo, since you can't see on it that the dratted Velcro is still just glued on, not sewn on yet.

Here it is:



I think I'll need to fix the teddy noses with super glue, so that the kid can't remove and - God beware - swallow them, but otherwise I'm fairly content. The recycled zipper (the brand new ones I had on stock were too short) is a bit wavy, so operating it will require some skill, but that's what these books are for: to help develop skills. Both the teddy heads and the bowties are removable and can be recombined due to the Velcro, so I think the little one will have his fun with them.

We ate leftovers, then watched some telly, and then I spent two "delightful" hours with chopping walnuts, pecans, extremely hard dark chocolate and crystalized ginger, as well as grinding cashews, making apple sauce and other such stuff. Christmas baking starts tomorrow, and I'll begin with banana-pecan cookies, cashew-coconut balls and spikesgirl's double ginger cookies. The latter have apple sauce as an ingredient, so I had to make that in advance.

So, I'm dead on my feet now, but it will be an absolute delight (and I mean it!) when all I'll have to do tomorrow will be to mix the ingredients, make the dough and throw the cookies into the oven. Yay!