A whirlwind in a snowstorm

Today kicks off the frenzy of preparations for our annual "can't hit a moving target" tour of PA. We leave Wednesday (though I hear rumors of a nor'easter). The gifts are bought and wrapped, the checklist is made, cat care arranged, and reservations confirmed. Today is cleaning and laundry, tomorrow is 'find home for refrigerator perishables', and Monday and Tuesday are 'pack clothes and stuff and figure out how to fit it all in the rental car'. All of this around our regular work schedules (in which I'm training two people to cover my workload).

We had a beautiful snowfall last night and the CatMan is taking advantage of it by hiking/climbing at Smuggs. I've been finishing off projects left and right to empty the bag for the travel knitting.

First off is a felted CD basket made from scraps. I used the Cocktail Monkey purse pattern from Knitty as a template.

Then a Bubby to go with R's Helena - Project specs: The Bubby pattern uses about 1/2 skein of Wildflower DK on #3 DPNs.

And then I finished off a Christmas collar out of Tilli Tomas' Peonies. The pattern is a simple lace rib. It's light and warm and will be great for travel.

The closet

Also edited to link up here.

Edited to participate in ASPtL's DIY day:

As you've probably noticed, we have been slowly but surely

updating/freshening the CattyAbode. Here's it the latest project.

I used Sherwin Williams' Open Air paint leftover from the bathroom project to paint the entire closet, then covered the floor and baseboard with 2 coats of polyurethane. The Rubbermaid shelving is from Lowe's and was artfully installed by the increasingly handy CatMan.

And I'm very excited about THIS project, which probably won't be tackled until the spring.

This space was to be an unfinished attic on the new addition my landlord and lady are building. But this week we found out it's going to be finished! The area is right off our current bedroom. We lost our upstairs windows to the addition, but the new space is going to have a dormer and hopefully a window or two on the end (straight ahead in the pic). I'm still pondering and waiting for some additional details, but right now it's melding into a craft room/closet area.