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 work out like I had expecte

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 - Cascade Yarns, 220 Superwash in a variety o