January

What is it about this month that seems to get off to such a rough start?  And I don't mean just me, I see it on my Facebook newsfeed.  Had a couple of stressful issues, which, surprisingly, resolved fairly quickly and all was well.  But it's just that stress of dealing with it through it's resolution that totally sucks.  

The weather is suffering from multiple personality disorder.  We started the year with that huge Nor'easter blizzard.  The weather immediately before and immediately after was bitter cold.  I have never felt it that cold.  The temp rapidly warmed to above 50 and it poured rain for a day.  Then we plunged back into single digits and low teens.  Then it snowed again.  Then another rapid warm up to 50.  And THEN, a huge, howling rainstorm with high winds, thunder & lightning.  Some gusts were so fierce that the house shook, one of my window crystals fell off my window and I was wondering if we'd just experienced a microburst.  

So no huge surprise that I, and almost everyone I know, got sick.  Russell came home looking and sounding like death warmed over and I pretty much figured I would be next and I was.  It hung on for a week, sapping my energy.

Here are some pretty windshield frost pics.

Our third anniversary was January 7th.  Cannot believe it's been 3 years already!!  Best 3 years ever, too.  I made this Bitstrip to celebrate.  We thought about going out to eat but it was too cold to leave the house so we had pizza delivered, cause that's how we roll.

I've been living in this town for over 2 years and a couple of months ago I noticed this tree in a rock.  I don't know how I managed to miss this...it's right on Main Street....although in a part that I don't pay much attention to.

I made another fibre bowl.  Not a very good pic.  

I seem to be starting some crafts that I don't feel like finishing...

(but I did)

...and others I can't wait to get to...but I'm not divulging any sneak peek pics of that yet.  If it turns out, it'll be epic.  But that peace sign...what's not to love? It was turning out to be more time consuming than I thought and I had all that crap on my TV table for over a week, making the table unusable.  

And check out the box full of goodies Marsha dropped off!  I didn't have the energy to take it all out and photograph it, but suffice to say it's stuffed full of crafty goodness.  I know I said it before, but I'll say it again, I am the King (Queen?) Moonracer of Misfit Craft Supplies. 

And then my friend Stephanie sent me some cool tie dye magnet clips!

I've gotten quite a bit accomplished the first half of the first month of the year.  The craft room is cleaned and organized.  The recipes are typed and organized.  3-4 art projects are done.  We've secured the house for another year with the landlords (YAY!!!) and taken care of some annoying paperwork things.  Last spring I did a really good spring cleaning but I suppose I could give the place another good scrubbing.  I suppose I'll get started on that next!  Well, as soon as I get over this cold!

And finally, as a bonus, THE SEATTLE SEAHAWKS ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!  WHOO HOOO!!!!

Another Year Gone By

2013 got off to a rough start, at least for me, and it seemed also for a lot of my friends, judging from my Facebook newsfeed.  There was a lot of frustration with vehicle repair issues, and then losing power after the blizzard in Feb. definitely sucked out loud.  The summer was long, hot and humid and I was a prisoner in my house for days at a time.  August was extremely social and full of photographic junkets on the few cool, dry days we got.  Yet I can't really remember what all I did while I was trapped in the house all summer.  I know I made stuff, but I have better memories of the summers of 2011 and 2012 than I do 6 months ago!  My fave part of the year was spending time with the kids.  

I was pleased we were able to get a few things we've needed for awhile.  My new recliner and camera are awesome.  And a generator....that's the best.  It's also nice to have a small wood kitchen table instead of a card table.

It snowed a few times this month, although we didn't have a white Christmas.  I managed to get a few snaps of the lights reflecting on the snow before the rain washed it all away.

Sunrise on 12/19.

Pepperbean rocking the comfy coziness on a cold winter day.  I put the blanket on her.  I had it on both dogs, but Sagan promptly got off the couch, wanting nothing to do with yet another photo op.  I've figured out that I can get them to stop pestering me if I point a camera at them.  That usually makes them turn away and go lay down.

We had a quiet holiday season.  I ran out of time to take night pics of the lights in town and in Sandwich. The weather just didn't cooperate at all.  It was either bitter cold, snowing or raining. I did enjoy getting together with some women in Sandwich one night, as one was in from China! She's lived there for 21 years and is a teacher there.  She said she was only supposed to stay for 2 years!  My cousins came up from Maryland right after Christmas and I visited with them as well.  I was also asked to take Christmas pics of our great nieces, Abi & Katie.  This is the first time I've ever shot portraits of humans, let alone babies! But I think they came out really well.

This one really makes me laugh.  It looks like Abi's pulling Katie's hat down and saying, 'Pay no attention to her! I'M the star here....'

Such sweet girls!!!  They were good as gold for the shoot.

Christmas Eve.

New toys for the puppies on Christmas day.

We visited w/ my mom on Christmas morning and then went to his sister's to visit his family before coming home to cook.  The youngest came over for dinner around 3.  Mom finally let me take the small jar of beach glass that I found in the 70s and 80s.  The jar has been on the hallway window sill since I was a kid, and many of these pieces are over 40 years old.  I noticed how much thicker the glass is too.

Sunset Christmas day.

The weather's been so erratic, temperature-wise.  It's either 20* or 50*.  It got super cold a couple days after Christmas.

This is the hood of my car.  My friends pointed out that it looks like a mountain range as seen from a plane.

I was amazed at this almost perfectly round spot of different frost patterns.

Indeed.

Close up of the patterns in the circle.

My stepdaughter and her boyfriend celebrated Christmas with us on the 28th.  I made these cupcakes for our get together.

Oh yeah!  Michelle sent me another box of pure awesomeness!!

This fibre is gorgeous.  So many colours with hints of gold sparkly thread.

Seriously, what's not to love about this stuff?!

When my nose gets cold, it's really uncomfortable, and for some reason, that happens a lot, even when I have the heat on.  Nothing I do seems to warm it up either.  Last year I mentioned it in passing to Michelle, and teased that I wanted her to knit me a little teeny blanket for my nose with thread on either side that I'd hook around my ears.  Instead, she knitted me this freakin AWESOME cowl that slips over my head and I can pull it up around my ears and nose, while keeping my hands & eyes free.  It works like a charm and I've been wearing it quite a bit.  It keeps my neck so toasty too.

As soon as I saw the fibre, I knew exactly what I was going to do for my first project with it.  I made a coiled little basket out of clothesline wrapped with the fibre.

It's quite small and I could have continued to make it taller but I stopped at this level.  I worked with 3 foot lengths at a time to avoid massive tangling, and used a tapestry needle to help with the wrapping and securing each coil to the one below it.  I was gonna top it with beads but I think I'll leave it plain.  As usual, this was just a prototype to see if I could remember how to make this (I made on in the late 90s from a kit and fortunately, I'd saved the instructions).

It's hard to believe this is our 3rd New Years Eve together and coming up on our 3rd anniversary on January 7.  We are talking more about getting married sooner rather than later, and it just may happen in 2014.  We want his son & fiancee' to be present, so we will have to coordinate when they are able to come out from Ohio.  My stepdaughter is my maid of honour and I am pretty sure that the boys will be the best men. It'll be really small, just the kids & us, I think.  Then later on we'll have something at the Legion or somewhere, for our friends to celebrate with us, eat and so forth.  I still get the butterflies when we're together and I look forward to taking his name.  I'm very blessed and grateful to have so may great friends and family.  I love my stepkids very much and I am so pleased that they love me too.  They see their dad happy for the first time ever and I really love making new memories together as a family.

I hope 2014 is a healthy and prosperous year for all of you!  

Sugar Frost

Winter's definitely coming! We woke up to our first heavy frost on 11/18 with temps in the upper 20s and low 30s.  The early morning sun shining on the ice crystals made them look like they were dusted with sugar.

And this one is my personal fave.