I bought this book because I make hats for the homeless. It looked like fun and I have lots of little balls of yarn left over from all the hats I have made for years now. I plan on starting on the 1st and hope I can get them all done next year. I am starting at the beginning and keep going til I am done. I try to make a hat a week, so I am gonna have to pick up the pace a bit to get these all done.
A year ago I lost the sweetest little girl. She was almost 19. Not only did I lose her but I found the family of the little gray tom I found in my front yard. It was a very tough day.
Both my knit groups made these stars. They are very addictive. Once you have made one, well can eat just one potato chip? I bought this kit: https://www.barrettwoolco.com/products/fabric-star-kit.
However you can just click on the link that is posted on the kit page and see how to make them. Come on you all know you have tons of little pieces of fabric laying around your craft room. I plan on making them for each month/holiday.
Why yes I am cutting out fabric for January as I decorate with snowmen.
A friend of mine gave me the table runner and I had a red bowl from my grandmother and since I made 5 stars they just all kind of go together.
Go watch the tutorial and make yourself some, bet you can't just make one.
We all have our addictions, shoes, chocolates, books, cats, yarn, etc etc etc.
This year I have a new one, they are bobble hot pads. I found the pattern on okiegirlblingnthings, She has some really cute patterns on there. I made several for birthdays and tried to find yarn to make them look like flowers: for instance I made sunflowers with a brown center, yellow bobbles and a green back. I decided I had 3 craft Christmas parties to go to and went to my stash and grabbed all my Christmas looking dishcloth yarn. You do not want to know how much I have (when Hobby Lobby went totally to their brand a few years ago, they put all the peaches and sugar and cream on clearance, i bought carts full).
I wrote down how many I needed and how many each person got and ended up making 50. They are so much fun to make and you can do a lot with the various colors. I plan on making some for me next year for all the holiday months.
My new addiction: These are a few I made. They are called Modern Round Crochet Potholder. You can use them as a potholder but I prefer them for hot pads as the bobble keeps the hot pan up off the counter. Go check out the pattern and make yourself some. They make a great last minute gift and pair them with a dishcloth, well people will love them.
A friend posted the Christmas Chevrolet commercial on FB, it is 5 minutes long. Best grab a box of kleenex before you watch it. Go ahead and look it up.
When I was a kid and we lived in Carlsbad, NM we would drive around and look at the Christmas lights, of course we went to the rich neighborhoods. They had some of the ugliest decorations ever. We would take cocoa and cookies and just have a fun evening.
Later in life my dad and i would still do this and when his dementia kicked in, I would bundle him up, grab cocoa and cookies and off we would go to the rich neighborhoods. Dad would often comment rich people have no taste. Or he would yell stop and sit and look at some house, memories of days past, just being in the moment of Christmas, or? Then he would say we can go now. I never asked, he never told.
I miss those days. Perhaps this year I will get in the car and drive through a couple of rich neighborhoods with cocoa for me and pretend dad is sitting next to me yelling STOP!.
Dad I know you can see ALL the lights from your seat up there and I can imagine how beautiful it is. Christmas was his holiday. If you did not put the tinsel on the tree one at a time and in the perfect place you had to take it off one by one and start over. Do not even think of throwing away that nasty silver tinsel, cos it was pulled off one by one and saved for next year. Afterall it was $.15/box.
Ok not the kind of deer you are thinking of, but the kind where you gasp and go holy crap. I just joined a private group on FB that has to do with WIPS (Works in Progress). I pulled them all out and went through them all. I grabbed a notebook and wrote them down and made a note of what needs to be done to finish them. I have 11 that just need things like ends woven in, buttons put on, etc and 16 that need to be finished knitting and then ends woven in. I knew I had projects all over the house but until I gathered them all I had no idea. I am sure as time goes along I will find more. 4 will be frogged that I did not put on the list.
These are just the knitting/crochet projects. Never mind how many cross stitch patterns I have going and then the Doll House. Guess it is going to be a very busy 2024.
So, how many unfinished projects do you have?
Smudgey was the sweetest little tuxedo. She was a feral for 13 years that I know of. I worried over her daily and loved her as much as she let me. I could pet but not pick her up. Feb 2021 was bitter cold for 2 weeks along with snow. She was so small even though I made her a shelter and fed/watered I worried more for her. After 2 days I figured she had not made but nope she showed up the next day. I brought her food in and carried her in, made her a bed with litter box and food/water bowls right by the front door. She must have finally wanted to come in cos she never put up a fuss, the warm house must have been too much for her to resist. She spent most of her time upstairs on my bed. She loved to snuggle many times during the night for about 20 minutes and if you did not snuggle enough she used the claws to let you know more more more. 2 weeks before she crossed the bridge I noticed her spending a lot of time downstairs in my chair with me and Groucho. I also noticed a drastic change in her coat, I knew it was close to time. So a year ago she had a very rough day and that evening she did the litter box thing every couple of minutes, I knew. I scooped her up and off to the ER vet we went. Their take was I could either do dialysis, etc etc etc or let her go. I was not going to put her through getting fluids a few days a week knowing it was not gonna make her better. I opted to give her back to God to watch over. I knew it was what was best for her.
She was a sister to Bucky and Groucho, my 3 tuxes. I still look for her outside as she would sit on the window ledges during the day. I miss her a lot.
I love geraniums, I wish I could leave them outside and they would come back. The past couple of years they have been hard to find around here, but I got this pink one and boy is she beautiful. I am never ready when that first freeze hits and you either bring the plants in or let them go. Well she is not ready to go. She is in my bedroom window which faces south so she gets some direct sun in the afternoon. She is blooming her little heart out. I hope I can keep her through the winter and set her out again next Spring.
My grandmother had a huge red geranium that covered the end of her porch. It would also be in bloom around Christmas time. But then she lived in LA so they bloomed all year long.
Dear Dad: 4 years ago today you went home. I know you are happy being with your family except for Uncle Jerry, I have a feeling he will join all of you soon. Not a day goes by my heart does not ache to be able to sit with you, have a cup of coffee and discuss the world. I know you are in a much better place, the dementia is gone as well as the bad heart. Someday.
When I was in elementary school in Carlsbad, NM, our church participated in UNICEF. The Sunday before Halloween children were given a heavy cardboard sheet with a church on it. My dad and I spent one evening during the week making the church, you folded the pieces up to make a church with a slot in the roof where dimes were dropped in. When we went Trick or Treating we were to say Trick or Treat for Unicef. Most people knew about this and would get a couple rolls of dimes to drop in the churches. Then the next week I would take the dimes and fill in slots on another cardboard piece and then turn them into the church. My goal was always to fill the sheet and if I did not get it full then my dad would pull out his roll of dimes and fill in my sheet.
It was fun to see if you could fill your sheet.
When I got home my dad would empty my sack, take what I did not like for himself. Then my bag was put up on a shelf and I got one piece a day til it was all gone. I always wanted to be in OKC for Halloween. My dad worked for the FAA and the families stayed in an apartment complex called Parkview Village (yes it is still there but nor for the FAA). Imagine if you will 243 units just waiting for kids to trick or treat. The caramel apples, popcorn balls, candy. I could easily fill a paper grocery sack.
We had Trunk or Treat at church Sunday and had 56 kids in an hour. So many cute costumes and all the kids were polite. Tonight it is to in the 30's which means the kids will be all bundled up. Too bad cos the costumes on little kids are worth the price of a bag of candy.
I love Juncos, they usually leave right before the Hummingbirds get here in the Spring and come back a few weeks after the Hummingbirds leave. I wish they stayed all year but alas I just have to enjoy them half the year.
Aren't they pretty?
Many of you know my love for the book Charlotte's Web. Well Charlotte and her kids have been busy at my house. I went out back to feed the feral the other day and look what I found. I guess there was not much for them to decorate but they found the dryer vent.
It is kind of cool huh?
How did we get to October already? That means this year is almost over.
I spied a very large garter snake in the yard Sunday afternoon, I fear he lives under the shed. He can stay as long as he does not enter the house, but if he does well then we will have to re-locate him if I can.
I planted marigolds in this pot, they did well but the squirrels dug them up to plant walnuts in it. However some of the seeds said we are not done and so I have this itty bitty bloom.
The tomato plant is zooming up and blooming and producing tomatoes. It was a nice plant but more plant than tomatoes, but they were good.
And my black cat Licorice comes daily, more than once a day now and eating a lot, putting on that winter weight and coat. I think he is just going to be a small cat. I get about 10 feet from him right now and then he backs off. It all takes time with ferals, some never let you pet them. Little Bit hung around for many years but only the last month of his life he leaned against me one day let me pet and love him and then a few days later he was gone. I knew his time was near cos he looked awful, his coat was a mess and he let me pet him. He knows I loved him and took care of him but he just never trusted me enough to get close.
