Short Story Long

When I first started blogging, one of the things I loved was seeing all the preparations my fellow bloggers were doing: crafts with kids, and fresh-made beds for newly finished quilts, decorated mantles, cookies and baking.  Many gifts!  It seems those things have migrated to social medias, and I missed my intended post date of December 24th, but I want to get this out there for future nostalgia.   Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I've been participating in this annual photo list challenge nine years, now.  What I like about it is that it pushes me to capture things I would normall pass by.  Some of the topic ideas leap readily to mind, but many are things that I have to hunt for, either literally or figuratively.  It also is good fodder for some interesting dates out with one of my boys.   It is one item longer every year.  I almost never get them all, but of course I do usually start the new year thinking I'm going to spread them out and get the shots I want for every single one.  This year, the list includes things like 'gargoyle' and 'at the water's edge'.  My oldest son and I were going to visit New York in April, and I thought that would be a perfect place to find a great gargoyle.  There are not many in Colorado!  Unfortunately, the state of the world made me reconsider our travel plans, and we did not go.  And with many of the items, it just did not w...

I spent a couple of months this year on some Christmas presents, but as my family was all together at Thanksgiving, it was more fun to hand them out on Thanksgiving evening.  They were a big hit!   Last year, I made a couple pairs.  They turned out nice, but I realized they weren't going to be as quick as I'd hoped; I gave those to my mom and my aunt.  I worked the snowflake chart that came with the pattern on the first two pairs, but I didn't want to do it over and over again.  This year, I used my Pinterest board to find lots of inspiration for stranded knitting ideas.  Many snowflakes!  I wrote up a list of my people, what colors I thought they'd like, and an idea for the picture - and hunted down some shoe sizes!  The list made it a lot easier to keep track.  All the soles are different, too!  Eighteen pairs, and yes, I did block them all!  Project details  Basic pattern - Uppsala Slippers by Ram Wools Yarn Co-op Yarn...

HOW did I reformat my whole blog after I spent hours customizing it?  I clicked something irreversible and have not had time to go back through and edit it all again.   Moving on.  Happy autumn!  We're in the thick of it now, with leaves changing and the garden done.  Cool mornings, no more cricket sounds, and that light that gets a little lower every day.  At my house, we are cooking dinners inside instead of out on the grill.   We have spent too much time at home this year.  None from fear; mostly because the things we would do are not open, and possibly a bit of laziness.  It is easy to stay home and not do hair - or cut hair; not worry about matching clothes; not worry about timeliness.  It all blends.  I know you are there, too.  We have spent most of our church hours watching church online; it has been nice to have a quiet morning in pajamas, with hot drinks and fresh pancakes while we listen to a sermon.  ...

Hello September!  In anticipation of Ginnie's yarn-along , I included a picture of my most recent book.   Just finished reading:   Cassius Marcellus Clay: Firebrand of Freedom , by H. Edward Richardson In my family history research, I came across a 4th-great-uncle, Cassius Clay Easton, b. 1845.  This uncle could not be named after the famous boxer (b. 1942) and I was curious about the namesake who must have inspired at least two families to name their sons after him.  I dug around a bit and found this book.  Along with being a staunch abolitionist and member of President Lincoln's cabinet, Clay was infamous for some of his fights with a Bowie knife.   I enjoyed learning more about history and politics, but the author does address some of the more unsavory facets of Cassius Clay.  Written in the 1970s, the author had first-hand acquaintance of some of Clay's ancestors and includes some more personal perspectives.  Clay spent so much ...

goldfinch harvesting sunflower seeds I have been attempting to understand the technical changes here, and have gone through just about every (Blogger) element I can figure out, and some that I can't.  Many of them are a little too clean and modern for me, too cold.  I probably read and adjusted even more than I needed to on this platform, and then didn't figure out some of the things I really wanted to.  What a nuisance!  Please bear with me as I try to get this space all together again. In the midst of the frustration of this project, on top of everything the world keeps churning up, I took some time to decide if I even want to blog anymore.  The answer is, yes, I do.  I like being here, I like looking back at projects I've accomplished, recipes I use often, etc.  I suppose this is why I can never talk myself into journaling on paper, because I sort of do it online.  If no one else ever reads these posts, I have it for posterity.  Yet, knowi...

I was going to show you some pictures of my lilacs, but Google doesn't want me to load them here?  Option B - share a link from Flickr.  Nope.  I guess it is time to find my own ... place to blog, instead of relying on Blogger.  I'm sad.  Like many things in life, it seems my options are down to two - tow the party line, or find my own way.   Edited to add:  Perhaps I'm not done, things have synced up. 

Reclaiming some remnants of my former life at a yarn shop. Reclaiming the original meaning of a rainbow - a divine Promise, not human pride. Reclaiming the joy I found once in knitting. When my local yarn shop closed, one of the things I inherited was a plethora of small-yardage color samples.  I didn't know what I would possibly do with them.  Fair isle came up several times; that would have been lovely but I didn't want the planning, especially when the yardage was inconsistent.  So I put it in a bag.  Skip to 2017, I was working on this Koigu Oriental Jacket (below) and the construction struck me as something that would work well with the bits of yarn. For this blanket, every square starts with a new color and when that runs out, I finish it with black.  For the black, I started with half a skein of Cascade Heritage Silk  in solid black.  I wish I had sought out more of it to do the whole blanket.  I found some...

a walk around the block a prayer a real hug a Proverb a short nap a good stretch a glass of water a deep breath maybe a little chocolate