TRYING TO CATCH UP

Okay, Christmas is over (I received a great new bed!) and New Year's Eve is day after tomorrow.  Time to recycle the last of the boxes and gather up all the glittery do-dads that can be used again and store them in the big box labeled "Christmas Stuff".  Not sure where that box will be stored since the room it was in is now my bedroom.

New Year's Eve is an annual non-event for us but I will stop by Pete and Melanie's in the afternoon and be back home before dark and the drunk drivers.  Melanie teaches hypertufa and sells her pieces at craft and garden fairs.  She is a vegetarian - tho' Pete is not - and she celebrates the equinox and seasonal changes by inviting friends to visit, have a glass of wine a snack and a chat.  Weather permitting, out doors in her garden with rescue cats in attendance.

Once construction has moved from this end of the house, I can do some serious rearranging in an effort to make my work run smoother.  Then, perhaps I can catch up with the DollWorks ladies.   Stop laughing - it's a goal!

CHRISTMAS BLESSINGS

Another year has rushed by.  I've been so busy, I hardly noticed - until I stop to think back on the high (and low) points that marked its progress.  The most life changing was the day I walked out of my home of 20+ years and moved to my son and daughter-in-law's  home to become a permanent family member.

This move prompted the get-it-done renovations (DIL) Luli had longed for for years - which is how I got both a bedroom and a studio/office and a totally rehabed bathroom.  When my bathroom is finished, the kitchen is up for a major renovation. Though Gus did a good upgrade job adding a new tiled counter top and a small pantry a couple of years ago, the kitchen footprint was obviously laid out by someone who had never cooked.  Insofar as load bearing walls will allow, we plan to enlarge the footprint and make it more efficient.

Then on to the master bath!  And the new garage door, the new irrigation system and new landscaping.  And God willing, my back will hold up long enough to have a small vegetable garden.

But best of all is the room I now call my studio/office, just three steps from my bedroom.  And like my bedroom, it's crammed full of those things I simply cannot function without; my computer, my sewing machine, the BIG storage container full of fabrics and furs and idea starters.  The TV and dog food container are in here, too, as is a table Luli gave me.  It fits perfectly in the space I had alloted for it and is long enough to lay out and cut a pattern.  The sewing machine sits on one end.

But space so limited is forcing me to rethink my requirements.  I'm giving my pretty sewing box to my grand daughter who is the go-to person for costumes that she and her friends wear when visiting medieval fairs.   My husband gave me that sewing box the first Christmas we were married. It is leather covered wood and so well made it 's still beautiful after 62 years of use.  With a little loving care, perhaps it will last another 62 years.