January is on the way out the door!

 Has it been January forever? It sure seems like it,  and I'm glad to see it gone.

 This is our current fireplace. It was wood burning when we bought the house, and years ago we had it converted to gas. It's been rarely used for a couple of reasons. When it's on, it makes the rest of the house colder. And Ralph would have me move everything ten feet away for fear of burning the house down. I love the mantle, it's got Valentine Gnomes on it and some birds.

So I contacted Reilly, who is engaged to one of my many great nephews, and works in The Fireplace Store, to see if we can convert it again, to electric this time. She sent me some brochures.

 I like this look. I would not change my brick, but I like the insert, so I just texted her pix with measurements. The process isn't mission critical, to quote Ralph, but I'd like to get it going.

I made more progress on Sally 2.0 last night, and hope to finish her today or tomorrow so I can get working on the Valentine's Day wreath. 

And I downloaded a couple of Melt the Ice hat patterns, so that may be the next crochet project.  

 

 

Brrrr

 It was  5 this morning, and now it's up to 12! Yikes! A good day to stay in. I just placed a Walmart grocery order to be delivered thi afternoon. 

Sally 2.0 is moving along. I'm watching Murder in a Small Town on Hulu while crocheting. 

I can't even watch any of the news shows, I'm so filled with rage at what the Melon Felon is doing to this country. This whole ice (they don't deserve to be capitalized) is so upsetting and maddening. I hope I live long enough to see the modern version of the Nuremberg Trials. From the newest "officer" right up to the Melon Felon, they need to be in jail forever for murder. And kudos to Bruce Springsteen for his new anthem. Like Ohio by CSN&Y after the Kent State shootings, only worse.

 

Deep breaths. Back to crafts. I got this kit from Shabby Fabrics, a store in Idaho that I buy a lot from. Yesterday I cut the strips, using my new stripology ruler. Did them all in a flash! 

A Finish!

 Yesterday I finished binding the tree skirt, and made the ties and attached them. So it's done!

 Despite the less than great directions, I'm very happy with how it turned out, and Steph loves it. I've been putting daily progress pics up on our family chat. 

We had a nice lunch out at Amy's Omelette House with Ken and Arlene, longtime friends. The omelette's there use like 5 eggs, and I'll get at least 3 meals from mine. The home fries are well seasons, and a huge quantity. Ralph weighed what we brought home, and it was about 1.5 pounds!

The crocheting of Sally 2.0 is progressing well. I forgot to take a pic of her last night.  

So cold out!

 It was 9 when I got up! Now it's up to 14, and Ralph and neighbor Dave are out playing with snowblowers.

Samantha said Boone loves the snow! Since she was born during a blizzard, I'm not surprised! 

 

I ordered these adorable pens for my WA state grandchildren. They love getting bonus gifts.

 A new cross stitch chart by my favorite designer that I'm considering.

 Tree skirt is "quilted"- more like the layers sewn together along the strip lines, and trimmed, today will be get binding ready.

And I ripped Sally Snake all the way back to her head, and restarted crocheting her. 

Aftermath

 We got a lot. Like 1-12 inches! The plow guy Ralph hired sent people to shovel the steps and walk, but still hasn't showed to plow. Ralph did go out with the snowblower for a while.

 Out the front window. 

 I don't know what possessed me to combine curved quilting safety pins, and regular large safety pins in a container. After I pin basted the tree skirt, I seperated them out into two containers.

It's pin basted and ready for some sewing!

 

Sigh. I ended up ripping out rows and rows and rows, because she wasn't a consistant tube, she had thinner and thicker spots. I think it was because I stopped each row and added a chain to change colors. So I'm ripping back to the head and restarting her. It should go fast because The colors are all there in one long piece of yarn.

Snow!

It's snowing really hard,  big fluffy flakes. Ralph cleared the back steps with a leaf blower so the feral cats could get to their food. They are holed up in the garage with their heated mats. 

Yikes, cold much?

 

I have about 15 more rows to do on Sally to reach Boone's six month birthday.

 Sally will be way taller than Boone!

 Backing fabric for the tree skirt. The fabric is pretty, but the lines are not straight, which won't matter as a backing.

 All laid out! Today's task is to pin with quilting pins. I'm going to quilt her on the Skyline 6, just following the lines. Steph and Dan get in late on February 11, so I'm well within my timeline. 

A waiting game

 The snow is predicted to start tonight, and we could get 6-12 inches. Ralph has a plow guy lined up- at 76, he's finally got the sense to not do it himself with the snowblower for that much snow. 

I've been printing out the charts for the latest Attic24 crochet along, called Wildshore. I love her patterns, and have made (and given away) several. Herrschners has free shipping today, so I have to go thru yarn and see what I have and what I need.

After I finish Sally the snake, I want to do another scrap afghan, then probably Wildshore. I only did 8 rows on Sally last night, so didn't take a pic.

And I never got into the sewing room yesterday, so no progress on the tree skirt.
 

A Pre Storm Day

 We're going to do a few errands today, and have lunch with Frank and Charlotte, before the storm comes in late tomorrow.

 Tree skirt flimsy! I have to pick backing and get it quilted. I'm planning on just doing some straight lines. I left a review on the Shabby Fabrics site, where I got the pattern from, and gave it 2 stars because of the waste of fabric, and the not great directions. I also went on the designer's site and left the same comments. 

Baby Boone's Temperature snake! It was going to be her first year, but I'm scaling it down to her first six months, because it would be way to long for her to play with anytime soon if I did the full year. When I did the other six snakes, for my 4 grandchildren and two great nephews, I did the year, and they were smaller around, and they ended up about 12 feet long. They also had safety eyes, but I'm going to embroider the eyes for Boone. I did 21 rows yesterday.  I have 40 some rows to get to August 12, which would be her six months. 

Grandchildren Eddie and Julianna are having a good start to their spring semesters at Stockton. Hard to believe it's Eddie's last semester and he'll get his BSN in May! He still wants ER, which he's been saying for years. 
 

Progress!

 We're supposed to have a beautiful day in the 50's today, a tease before we get blasted with snow over the weekend.

Yesterday I had to get Ralph to help me with the Holly Jolly Tree Skirt pattern, because he's so much better at geometry than I am. (it's a low bar.) 

First off, the strips sets did not match the diagram, even though I followed the directions. Mine were upside down. And trying to figure out a 60 degree angle for the trapezoids! We ended up making a fabric template, and that worked well. The directions said we'd get two trapezoids per strip set, which is correct. But the amount of waste is appalling!

This is the amount of waste per strip set, times 3 strip sets! If the trapezoids were an inch shorter at the base, we could have gotten 3 trapezoids per strip set. I actually wrote a review on the Shabby Fabrics site, and emailed the designer. I'll use the wasted fabric, but it up for binding or something.

 

This is how it looks put together but not sewn. That's today's goal.

 11 rows on Sally Snake last night!

 After checking sizes with mom Samantha, I ordered this bonus gift for Baby Boone. She's in a 12 months size, so I ordered 12-18 months. Samantha texted me that I'm the best, after I sent her a pic. It'll be delivered to their house on Friday. 

I'm waiting for Ralph to get home from breakfast with the Veterans. We have to go pay the water bill, and get some cash, since he's hired a snow plower.  

Brrr!

 It was 12 this morning! The high will be in the low 20's! And a storm coming in this weekend. We're set with bread, milk and eggs, yarn, kindle books, and fabric. 

 This is the pattern I'm using for Steph and Dan's tree skirt. The strip sets are sewn, today will be cut into triangles day.

First day of spring semester at Stockton University! They live close enough to commute, and neither had any interest in the dorms. You'll notice that they are in hoodies even tho it was 17 degrees. Mom Heather asked Julianna if she wanted gloves, and got an "are you crazy?" look. It's Eddie's last semester, and Julianna's second semester.

 

Sallie the snake is growing! I did 20+ rows last night while watching last season's Will Trent. It was going to be Boone's first year of temperatures, but may turn into her first 6 months due to size.

 My best score ever on Wridges, the WaPo daily word search game!

Snow and heaters

 We got a new heating system a few years ago, and have a service plan, thank goodness. In the last two years, the circulating motor has gone out about four times. Ralph thinks it's just not big enough. It's been replaced, the last time in December. Last night it went out again. It got down to 60 in here. He left a message with the company, and they called first thing this morning, they will be out. We plan to tell them that the owner needs to figure out what the problem is and fix it, because this is ridiculous. They have been great to work with, and I hope they can come up with a solution.

So. Yesterday- sleet, snow, sleet, snow. Total about an inch or so, but the roads are probably a mess, so we stayed in yesterday, and will today. I was productive in the sewing room!

 Strip sets laid out and ironed. There are 3 strip sets.

There are 9 strips in a set, and each strip gets offset by one inch. They will be subcut into triangles. This is the first of three, I hope to do another today.

 

I did another 20+ rows on the snake last night while watching last season's The Rookie. I'm thinking Sally the Snake for her name.

 

Winter weather Sunday

Rain, sleet, snow? Yes to all the above yesterday. Today no sleet (so far) but rain and snow all day. So we are staying in. 

Yesterday my back hurt, so I alternated ibuprofen and tylenol, and took up residence on the couch, with the snake and the TV. I'm catching up on last season's Rookie on hulu, after our DVR deleted it last year.

  Over the course of the day I added 28 rows, so up til the end of March, using the high temps of the days. 

I got into the sewing room Friday and set up my strip sets for the tree skirt. Yesterday I wasn't up to standing or sewing, so better luck today.  

Snake!

 I've gotten the snake's head done, and started on the rounds.

 I have to put some more stuffing in to make the snout more pronounced. I can't call her Sammy the snake, because Boone's mama's name is Samantha. I have to think about other S names. 

It's cold! It's 26 now, and next week could find us in the teens! Yikes! 

Plan for today is to stay in. I want to get into the sewing room and read the directions for the tree skirt pattern. 

Forgotton Flower

 I have a finish!

 I named her Forgotton Flower because I have no memory of making her! I do remember that she is paper pieced, so she must have been a class. She's machine quilted, but not by me. I sewed the binding on, so now I just need to get a curtain rod and clips, and decide where to hang her. 

This beauty is now 11 months old! She's the picture of her daddy. Since her birthday is in a month, that means the temperature snake of her first year better get worked on!

 

A terrible pic of the snakes head and first two rows of days. Once I get some stuffing in, you'll be able to see the nose of it. But it's in progress!

For the sewing room, Steph and Dan's Christmas tree skirt is up next. 

Weekly Goals

 The new planner I got for my crafting activities has a calendar view, then the next pages are broken down by weeks, with space to write in each day. At the top are a space for weekly goals. 

 I found this on top of a box of flimsies! I have no memory of making it. It's paper pieced, and 49 inches square. It's been machine quilted, not by me. All it needs is a binding. I had some of the dark blue. 

So the goal for this week was to cut the binding strips, and bind the quilt. I used my new stripology ruler to cut the strips, which is did in a jiffy! I got them sewed together and folded and ironed. Today's goal is to review how to mitre the corners and get the binding sewed (sewn?) on. 

It's Sunday, so lunch is at the Outback this week with Frank and Charlotte. Tomorrow, I see neuro for a followup.  

First Finish of 2026

 Last night I finished/ran out of purple yarn the scrapghan I've been working on for a few weeks.

 It went pretty fast, it was two strands, and is very heavy and snuggly. 

And I had a good score on Wridges, the Washington Post's daily word search. 

And I took inspiration pix of these two:

 

I may add them to the to do list, along with prosperity hens.

But next up is getting Baby Boone's Temperature Snake started. Her first birthday is February 12- yikes! I've been noting the temps since the day she was born, I have to decide today whether I'm doing the hots or the colds temps. I've had the yarn pulled since before she was born, more pastel colors than the  other snakes I've done. 

I'm getting labs drawn at noon, and when we get home I'll start the snake. 

Manic Monday

 The weather is so goofy. In the 30's today, up to almost 60 by the end of the week. 

My stripology ruler came yesterday, a day early. It's really big, and I'm eager to try it out. Last night I crocheted while getting caught up on Tracker on Paramount Plus.

 One of my Christmas gifts from Heather was a 40 ounce cup for my water. Yikes, it's big. My other one is 32 ounces, and there is such a size difference. It's so pretty, I love it! She also gave me two pair of house slipper socks, which I request every year, since I wear them all year long. The gray cup is my iced tea cup- I have one glass per day, then switch to water. 

Labs today at 12:15 for the neurologist. 

First Sunday of 2026

 This week between Christmas and New Years is so confusing. What day is it? What do I want to do? What to make for dinner? I'll actually be glad for the routine to kick back in tomorrow.

I didn't take any pictures yesterday. I started watching this season of Tracker on Paramount plus last night while crocheting on the scrapghan. I finished the first 8 oz skein of yarn of the year! 

This morning I did .15 miles on the treadmill, 900 steps, 8 minutes. Did my PT exercises on the vibration plate. 

It's Sunday, so lunch today with Frank and Charlotte. Filomena's this week, a local Italian place.  

Another cold day

 Right now it's 30 and cloudy. We see our new physician at 1 pm, all the paperwork has been filled out.

I did my exercises, but haven't walked on the treadmill yet.

 My current scrapghan in progress. It's two strands, one white and one shades of purple, with an H hook. Using up purple leftovers!

Happy New Year 2026

 Hello 2026! Hello January!

 I started the New Year right- .2 miles and 12 minutes on the treadmill, as well as my vibrating plate workout.  We had snow this morning, maybe a 1/2 inch, if that. Right now it's windy and 27 degrees, with a blue sky. 

Plan for today is to move things into the sewing room that are all over the house, and later to crochet on the scrap afghan.

 I made chicken enchiladas last night, with enough for tonight. We discovered pineapple salsa, which is sweet with a kick to it. 

Taylor Swift is playing on the Amazon Echo for background music.