12th Night-Goodbye Christmas

 Tomorrow, the tree will be dark.

The outside lights will not come on at 5pm.

The decorations will be packed away for another year.

The big red totes will be carried up to my office closet and sit awaiting the time when they get to come out!

The house will look naked and I will be tired!

This week may be a wash!

 All my plans for this week are not going to well.  I began behind with the holiday and I haven't found the work "Caught-up" in my vocabulary!

First, I hurt my back on Christmas.  The two youngest grandchildren launched themselves at me for hugs- separately thank goodness- so I didn't have time to lift with my knees.  SO, ouch.  Weirdly, it doesn't hurt while walking, or sitting but as soon as I'm horizontal it screams clear down my left side as far as my knee.  So, sleep has been odd and mostly in the recliner.  All that means is that I'm slow and fuzzy-think I need the chiropractor.  It is getting better so there's hope.  This morning I had to go back to bed, breakfast-or maybe I should say Brunch was about 11:30am.  I groomed Miss Quinn before her appointment.  After all this time one would think that the dog would know better than to jerk just as I go to clip her nails.  That resulted in blood for a little while until I could get to the bandaids.  (I have now stocked bandaids in the grooming bag--Disney Princess ones!)  Her appointment was at 2:00pm and it's about a 20 minute drive from here.  She has lost a lot of weight this year and the Vet was concerned (me too) so she is doing blood work.  I will know about that on Friday-if it's okay I can schedule her teeth cleaning.  After that We went to the Pet store for her favorite bones.  It's always fun to go into a store with her--she especially likes the Garden Center's big greenhouses.  She stops and smells any flower that is low enough for her nose!

Anyway, I've done very little of the things I intended to do today and tomorrow will be a complete wash as I have a Dentist appointment which means a horrid headache and lots of sleep when I get home.  At least that's the last one for a while, I hope.

I think I'm going to go stitch awhile, maybe.

A new year begins!

The Nashville Trio left this morning.  I was sad to see them go but it was time for all of us to get back to normal.  I'll see them again in May if not before.

New Year's Eve was quiet here.  I did manage to stay awake until after Midnight, mostly because Greenwood is devoted to fireworks.  I knew there would be many blasts of celebration~ Welcoming 2024. There had already be one round of fireworks as the Chiefs (American Football) won. Then there were several rounds before midnight, probably someone wanting to put the sleepy little ones to bed.  The sleepy ones wanted to see the fireworks, SO.  Quinn (and Lola) wanted to go out and bark at them and I let them I figure if folks can set off fireworks I can let my dog bark at them!

Yesterday, I spent quite a bit of time working on this.

The master list of things I want to do.

Chris and I spent a lot of time talking at Shipshewana.  One of the things we talked about was all the things we lost (or gave up) especially during THE VIIRUS.  I want to retake those things and add a few that I've always wanted to do so there's a page for that.  There's a page for quilting, which actually has 10 things on it even though I'm not joining the Chookshed Stitchers stitch along.  (This idea is a great one but doesn't fit my way of working.)  Other pages for Sewing, knitting, cross-stitch and non-fiber crafts.

The page for non-fiction reading is just to read 12 books this year.

This month the book is the one I received for bookflood!

I've already begun and I think it's going to be very interesting!

The travel page includes:  Dallas, Nashville, San Diego and Scandinavia.

There's a list for things I need to buy, like a remote for the TV in my bedroom. One for tracking my weight--UGH! and one with the chores which is divided into Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Etc  (this has worked for me before.)

I doubt that I get to everything this month but as long as I do some things everyday I will be satisfied.

Right now I have to go give Quinn a bath as she has a Vet appointment tomorrow!

Then I have to come back to the office and pay bills-which also means that I have to FIND them!

See you tomorrow!

December 24th Christmas Eve

These three arrived from Nashville Thursday night!

Tired but pumped for Christmas!

They always want beef stew and biscuits for dinner so Friday night I made that only I made enough for a small army so we called my daughter's and they came to eat as well.

They also brought the PUPPIES!

Luna, the husky!

(She didn't like being an only dog at all!)

So, 

Maya, a border collie.  Joined the family as well.  

Maya really enjoys being held in her mom's arms!

As a border collie Maya requires a job-so her job is to run Luna (and herself ) to exhaustion!

Lola really wanted to play with them but she's quite a bit bigger so that was only semi-successful and Quinn wanted nothing to do with them at all!

It was a wonderful, happy, dinner enjoyed by all.  Must do it again.

Yesterday, I made Povitica (or Tica).

The soft dough is stretched as far as you can make it stretch.  This is a 4 x 6 foot table.

It was thin enough to read the paper through it--which wasn't so great once I started spreading the nut mixture on it and holes got torn, sigh.  It worked out okay. I have 5 really nice loaves.  So the children will be happy.

I still need to make the cheesy potatoes for Christmas Dinner and some bacon cooked in the oven.

In the morning there will be fruit salad and blueberry coffeecake to be made.

Then it's off to the insanity of gift giving!

It's HIGHLY unlikely that a post will go up tomorrow--so--

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 ps-to those of you who have been commenting, I've been reading them but I seem unable to respond!  I've enjoyed each and every one, Thank you!

Not quite every day!

My goal is to blog every day.

Yeah, well I'm trying!

Yesterday, after chores I set up the sewing machines in the studio.  Okay, they aren't plugged in yet but they are sitting in their usual spot-I count that as a win.

For some unknown reason I was really tired yesterday, had a nap and went to bed early!

Today, has been much better.

Before noon I had tidied the bathroom downstairs, gone to the post office to mail cards, and washed two sweaters.  Boring stuff.

This afternoon I began to tackle this ~~ 

I did some ironing (I'm headed back down to do some more soon.)

There is also mending in this mess!

I need to get the fabric pressed and put away.

If I don't have a big plan for a piece of fabric it gets ironed, folded and wrapped around an acid free cardboard.  I write the yardage on the cardboard and file it by the amount.  A fat quarter just gets ironed, wrapped around a small piece of cardboard and filed by color.  It works for me.  I guess once all the strips from the jelly roll are ironed I'll roll it up and put it in another drawer.

Every time I clean up the studio I reorganize things, then I wonder why I can't find anything!

Outside of the studio, I need to clean up my office in case someone needs to use it.

I have out of town guests coming on Friday ~~ My Nashville kids!

I don't want to do much in the way of housework while they are here.

Tomorrow I need to go to the market, early.  

Otherwise, I'm sure I will keep busy!

 

Clean up from Christmas explosion

Having learned that a lot can be accomplished while doing laundry last week, I worked at cleaning up the studio.

I'd really like to stitch again, that is currently impossible.

By lunch time I had the left side looking like this~~

Much better, I can see most of the top of the cutting tables!

The right side of the room~~

Not so good!

Look at that ironing basket!

You will notice that neither of my machines are out, they remain in their cases from Shipshewana! Mostly because the tables are covered.  

I'm going to try to get that side cleaned up and set up tomorrow.

Tonight, Quinn and I are puppy sitting this gorgeous girl!

Meet Luna!  

She's a 15 week-old Husky.  My daughter's new puppy.

(They lost their golden just before Thanksgiving and Libby CANNOT be without a dog!)

Quinn and Luna are negotiating the friendship thing.

At the moment they are resting.  I doubt that will last!

 

Christmas Exploded!

Cause all the wrapping is finished!

The cards are all addressed and waiting for me to take them to the Post Office for stamps.

Winding down towards the big day!

I even took a few stitches in my current cross stitch piece.

Tomorrow I start all over on the housework, isn't that always the way?

No matter how well you do it the next week you get to do it again.  (I am not trying to pull out the frig this week?)