We spent the week of Christmas in Ohio with my family. It was a good week. I wasn’t sure how traveling would play out this year with my surgery happening the beginning of December.
It worked out to go and I got along pretty well riding and traveling. Yesterday was three weeks since my surgery and I can tell a difference each week. I’m doing some things now that I wouldn’t have attempted the first week.
The yellow dishcloth above was knitted by my mother. A friend and relative had asked her if she could make one for her to put with a gift box she was putting together.
It’s so cheery!
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I took my pom-pom makers to Ohio and my sister and I totally pom-pommed a couple of evenings. And I totally influenced her to search for and purchase her own set of pom-pom makers. Those things are awesome! {This Yarn Along post has information about the pom-pom makers if you are interested.}
The bulky yarns like these make such fluffy and fun pom-poms! I like all the color options of this Lion Brand yarn over here.
My sister was excited to use up some yarn she’d had stashed away for a while. I loved the chunky, red, chenille type yarn. It made some really great pom-poms! It will be perfect for Valentine’s Day!
The stripey, variegated yarn came out really cute too!
I’m still reading The Seven Laws of Love. It’s very close to the top of my favorites list right now. I talked about it in last week’s post and shared some different graphics from it. You can pre-order it here.
Coming from my bookshelves of favorite children’s books this week ~ it’s Punchinello!
The book is called You Are Special.
But the main character is Punchinello and I just love him. Perhaps because I relate so well to him.
Punchinello is a wooden Wemmick. He lives in the village with all the other wooden Wemmicks carved by Eli the woodworker.
All the Wemmicks are made by the wood carver, but they are all different and unique. Some have big noses. Some are tall. Some have hats.
And the Wemmicks give each other stickers. All day they do this. The good Wemmicks, the smart Wemmicks, the pretty ones; they get star stickers.
But the chipped Wemmicks or rough-wooded Wemmicks are given dot stickers. Wemmicks that mess up or do something silly get dots, too.
Stars and dots. Dots and stars.
And you can guess which kind of stickers dear Punchinello ends up with. Until one day he meets Lucia. She is a different kind of Wemmick. She has no stickers. AND THE STICKERS DON’T STICK TO HER!!
Punchinello wants to know her secret.
One of my dear friends had this book. I read it at her house years ago and promptly fell in love. She, then gifted me my own copy for Christmas that year. I was thrilled. I opened the cover when I was typing this post and re-read the handwritten note she jotted to me on the flyleaf.
There are some other Punchinello books too. Max Lucado wrote several more about the Wemmicks. We have three others, but we don’t have all of them. I will have to feature the others we do have in future posts. I love them all.
If you are looking for a special children’s book, well, this is one of my favorites! Find it on Amazon here…
Here’s a picture of Punchinello visiting Eli, the wood carver!
And a peek at a couple new balls of yarn I picked up at Wal-Mart in Ohio. I loved my sister’s pom-poms from the variegated yarn and want to give it a try myself.
Blessings as the last two days of 2015 are upon us!
Linking up with Ginny and Frontier Dreams and Life and Yarn!

Grewt post! Thanks for sharing.
Thank-you for the link up and for coming by!
That looks like a lovely book, I bet my kids would love it. I know Max Lucado but am not familiar with these books of his. Love your pompoms again!
I can’t recommend the Punchinello books highly enough! They have such good lessons.
I’m so stuck on pom-poms! Ha-ha! 🙂
so many cute pom poms 🙂 sounds like you had a nice visit with your sister!
I did! We really had a good time!
Love the illustrations!
Aren’t they great?!
You are just a pompom queen! Have you decided what you’re going to do with all of them yet? I think you’ve convinced me that I need to buy a pompom maker! 🙂
Oh, I’m quite sure you need a pom-pom maker! 😉
I’m planning to make a wreath. I may do some garlands and I like using some of them just piled in a basket. I will also probably use some on gifts and packages.
Oh those are fabulous pom-poms!
Why, thank-you!!
Love that there are *more* pom poms…and that you got to share the fun with your sister! I’ve been thinking about my pom pom tree garland for next Christmas after we exchanged comments last week!
And how fun to have the idea right now with plenty of time to make it happen!
I have a couple craft ideas for Christmas that I want to do before too long, hopefully. That makes it fun instead of rushed.
Sounds like you hadna great visit…yes pompoms can be addictive..
We really did have a good visit!
And the pom-poms have totally sucked me in! 🙂
Those pompoms look amazing, I want to squish them! 🙂
I know!! They’re so fluffy!!! Ha-ha!! 🙂