I Want One

 My FB feed is full of baby possum pictures.  They are so stinking cute.  Those little toes and toenails.  Many with their ears sticking out.  I want one.  However it is illegal in the state I live in to have one as a pet.  Besides I would not do it but then I want a baby pig too and I would call it Bacon.  I should move out in the country and have some animals.

I have a possum couple, he is quite large and looks old. She is very petitite. Sometimes they come up together and eat the dry cat food.  She often comes up on the deck and eats the bird seed.  

I think her coloring is very pretty and she is so cute.  I will just enjoy them while my tom and I look through the kitchen window and watch them. 

He is OK

 I looked out the window of the deck to see what feeders I needed to fill and look who was waiting for me. He looks ok, so he did survive after all. Thank You Lord for saving my baby.

January Good Riddance

 This has been a rough month, we spent many nights below zero and set some new record lows.  I have no idea how many days without sun and over 11 inches of snow/ice that would not go away because of no sun and temps either in negative or single digits.  I barely went outside except to fill the bird feeders all the time and put food out for the feral.

Speaking of the feral, Licorice, I fear he did not make it through the brutal temps.  I put straw in a shelter and had food out but it was perhaps too much. I have not seen him since the morning of the 18th.  I hate this because I had hopes of being able to bring him in some day.  I would have brought him in, but if I even put my hand out he ran.  I had him for 7 months and we do not always get to bring them inside.  They live in their own world.  I know he will be waiting for me someday and he can join all the other kitties up there. 

 

 

Since it was so cold I have been busy making charity items, nice to have all that yarn in my lap.  I have 5 hats done from the National Parks Hat book.  I have also been busy working on prayer shawls.  11 of them went to a prison and if just one woman turns her life around from knowing God loves her well it is all worthwhile to make them.  I have making plain hats as well.

 

I had crocus coming up before the brutal 2 weeks and my meadow sage had started growing. I did not cover it because I figured it was a lost cause and they would just die from the freeze.  Well was I wrong, when the snow melted and it got warm this week they are still there very green and growing.  I do not know why but we will see what happens til Spring gets here.  

Happy New Year 2024

 

63 Hats

 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.

Groucho Marx

 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.

My Next Addiction

 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.

Addictions

 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.

Memories

 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. 

Oh Dear

 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?

One Year

 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.

Pretty in Pink

 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.  

 

4 Years

 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.