new year, new post . . .

Are You there God?  It's me, Margaret.  

I pulled this Judy Blume book off the shelves at the library in Oak Hill Elementary, my third grade year.  I remember reading it over and over, during the course of my two-week check out.  The contents, which were so gripping to me fifty-plus years ago, have long been forgotten, but the title grabs me in different circumstances ALL the time, to this day.

Are you there fellow bloggers?  It's me, Denise.  :)

My niece, Megan, who is owner and founder of Two Tales Editing, sent out a clever gif on her IG account, asking pertinent New Year questions.  Here's how I completed mine . . .

Blogging is right up there at the top, baby!  So I figured two days in, I'd better go ahead and get busy and not let the days, weeks, months slide by like I did last year!  (Note: I may still go ahead and back-fill some entries from last year. It helps me in my dotage to remember when I did what.  <grin>)

First things first . . . if you know me, you know "resolutions" per se, are not my thing.  But a word of the year is very much in keeping with who I am.  I really struggled this year. No joke ... I tossed words around in my head for two months. As one of my sweet affirmation sisters said, I finally pivoted and landed on the perfect word for me and mine this year:  CARE.  

Whether it's what I 'care' about, or the 'care' I give to others or myself, it was definitely the right word for 2023.  I know that because just typing this paragraph makes me cry.  So there's that.  There were some pretty heavy reasons behind the picking, but that's a tale for another post.  :)

Of course, there's also my Bible reading plan for the year.  That didn't take as much thought as it has in the past.  I knew exactly what my plan would be this year . . . 

And so I did!  I've long admire Kandi Gallaty's faith and teaching.  And I've walked several "mentees" through Gallaty's book, Disciple Her.  When this year-long Bible study and reading plan came out last year, it was a no-brainer for me to work through it in 2023.  :)

As for stitching, I elected to join our Stitcher's ETC. UFO challenge again, for the third time running!  Look at that.  I have consistency somewhere in my life!  And would you believe, I've met each month's challenge for the past twelve months??

This month my challenge was to finish the herringbone embroidery stitching around my "Gathered Blessings" piece, and hand quilt the top half.  I have that well in hand.  Which is good, because I'd also like to start and finish a QAYG quilt for Todd . . . 

His own Crimson Tide quilt.  I love this layout.  It's simple, but also fun.  The Alabama print will make it even more fun. It's a 72" square quilt.  Which is why I'm using the QAYG method, so I can (easily) be the one to quilt it.

There's some wrap up from 2022 . . . a couple of crafty things I got in before the year ended:

I adore this pom pom Christmas tree pillow, inspired by the On Sutton Place blog.  Glad I had my pom pom maker ready!

And these darling little page markers.  I made a set for each of the local grandgirls.

Speaking of the locals grands, we enjoyed a lovely Christmas, including spending our Christmas Eve with them, as per tradition!

They've all grown so much over the past year!  But especially that Ezra Paul, who's not just a big boy, but big on personality, too!

He's cheesing it up for the camera.  I wish you could have seen the transformation of his face when he saw I was getting ready to take a pic!

Finally, on the 2022 recap . . .

This brings me full circle from my opening with a book title, right?? :P  I finished 113 books in 2022.  Not my best, but better than my goal of 100!  I set this year's goal for 125.  I hope that wasn't too lofty!  Do you use Goodreads?  I love it to help me track what/how much I've read.  If you're there ... look me up!

I think that (kinda) catches me up and sets the path for moving forward.  Todd and I celebrated the New Year at one of our favorite restaurants . . .

We looked good celebrating 2023!  (If I do say so myself.)

One year I'm going to resolve to limit my use of exclamation points to their grammatically correct status.  But it is not this year!!!  Happy New Year!

:)

one day in . . .

I love the new year . . . the roll out of new resolutions, new challenges, a new word, and a fresh opportunity to get it right.  A clean slate, so to speak!  Mind you, I do not do resolutions, but I do enjoy selecting a word to focus on for the coming year. This year my word is . . .

Yup, aware. That works on a lot levels.  Yesterday, it was important for me to be weather aware.

When your temps get up to eighty degrees ahead of a cold front, chances are good severe weather will follow.  It was a balmy, windy, day . . .

The sun kept popping in.  Dang it!  By early evening we were watching this . . .

. . . and heading over to our shelter.  Grateful we've got that space!

No damage in the camp, but our area of the county did take a hit as rotation moved through. When they say tornado season runs from November through April, they're serious about that 'through' part.

I did manage to prep a new little stitchery to work on.  Kathy Schmitz's One Stitch at a Time project was in my inbox first thing yesterday morning, so I printed it out and transferred it over.

I used one of my new frixon pens!  Then I spent a little time out in the screened room doing a little stitching. 

This year I'd like to make it a practice to keep some stitch work with me at all times so I can keep my hands busy if  I find myself waiting in the hospital or in the car or wherever.  :)

I can't get enough of these pom-poms, either.

I am thinking I might like a couple more sizes. Just in case.  LOL!

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for some slow Sunday stitching.  Happy New Year!!

:)

out with the old . . .

Happy New Year!

Well, almost. Counting down the remaining hours until 2022 here in good ol' central time . . . two and a half more hours! Figured I'd get one more post in and make it a rounded up forty-five for the year.  <grin> 

I got a Clover brand pom-pom maker.  This thing is such fun . . .

The possibilities are endless! You'll be seeing more of this in 2022. <wink>

My top nine photos from 2021 on Instagram. I shared my last nine years of top nines on my account, @daneesey.  It was fun to take the walk down memory lane!

My team won their bowl game this afternoon and are off to play in the National Championship game in ten days!

Roll Tide ROLL! So proud for these guys!

For my final photo of 2021, the most darlingest baby in the whole world.  I mean just look at that sweet smile!!

Yup.  ♥

Hugs and auld lang syne! 

:)

late out of the gate . . .

So.  Obviously my resolution for 2021 wasn't to spend more time on the blog.  Ha!

In fact, I didn't make resolutions (I haven't done that for the past several years, actually).  I took stock of 2020 (for what it's worth, am I right?), and instead made a couple of goals. Really, I just made a goal.  I finished my complete read of the Bible on December 24, but decided it was a lot of reading (the Bible in a year) without a lot of study.  So this year I decided to start over again, read just a chapter a day (which actually spans out to three years), and give some good study time to each chapter.  So I guess I made a goal for 2021, 2022, and 2023.  Heh.

That being done, I moved on to my word of 2021.  And instead of reinventing the wheel, I just went where I'd already gone.  So here's my word . . .

Isn't that pretty? It's on my desk at work. The word art was done by an apprentice of a local artist, Caroline Taylor.  She does beautiful work!

I wanted a quilted piece, too, to commemorate my word, so I drew it out and stitched it up pretty quick.

Tah-dah!  It's hanging in the alcove where I sit and read/study.  Just a pretty reminder of what my goal is.

I pulled out my Hospital Sketches BOM in wool and have made some good progress.  I still have the stitching to do on the majority of the blocks, but I love where this is going . . .

This piece deserves a blog post all of its own to cover the story behind it, so I won't say any more right now.  Except to say (of course), that this was a lesson in counting it all joy, for sure!  :)

Also, I made Ewenice . . .

Whom I'm completely in love with.  ♥  Isn't that a sweet pattern?  It's available here for free.  You're welcome!

Ellie turned NINE last month.  Holy guacamole!

She's such a beautiful girl, inside and out!  She also had a very Harry Potter birthday.  Fun times!

My nook is a hot mess and needs a lot of attention in it before I can be as productive as I'd like to be.  I've found ways around it (or rather, I've burrowed out a place to sit/iron/cut/sew).  Maybe when the days are longer.  And warmer.  Or maybe not?  Those days are typically reserved for the lake, but I got a little sneaky bonus day last week . . .

Todd had pulled the pontoon out to have its annual maintenance performed.  They finished up and we needed to get it back into the slip, so we drove out last Friday and launched it and drove it back to its spot.  It was easier for me to manage the boat and Todd to maneuver the truck/trailer, so I had the helm.  It was a lovely ten minutes of sunshine, clear skies, and no breeze. Doesn't that look inviting?  The water was a nippy 40 degrees that day.  That'll take your breath away!

This morning's sunset was also stunning (though no warmer) . . .

Just stunning!

That's it for now.  Peace be with you!

:)

out with the old . . .

Here it is . . . the last day of 2016.  Wow, this past year has simply flown by.  I don't know that I can handle time marching on any more quickly than it did this past year. If time moves more quickly the older one gets, I'm in trouble! I was woefully negligent to my bloggy-blog for the past twelve months--with only 41 posts for the entire year--but I don't for a minute regret the time I spent doing other things . . . like cuddling grandchildren, tinkering in the Nook (which actually was also a tad neglected), hanging out with my best friend/hubby, chilling on the lake, being with family . . . nope, no regrets. All-in-all it was a pretty terrific year!

Ellie and Evey agree that 2016 was pretty good!  :)

Todd and I will be serving our last Sunday at Wears Chapel tomorrow . . . so 2017 will be ushering in big changes right from the start. We plan on taking a brief furlough, visiting other churches in our association, before being re-assigned.  As of right now, we have no idea where we'll be!

I wanted to have closure on my 2016 stash report, so here it is . . .

. . . unchanged from the last one I reported on 11/20.  -grin-

And here's the first report for 2017 . . .

. . . all sparkly new and fresh and clean!  Although, I'll admit right off the bat that Patches & Stitches has it's annual sale on January 2nd, and I plan on being there. I wanted to start a little project, but realized I had very little 'grey' in my stash.  *sigh* At least I know it'll be out almost as soon as it's in!

Good thing wool isn't counted in stash reporting (and I'm not about to start). Todd and I took a little overnight jaunt to Nashville, just the two of us.

We stopped at Quilter's Square in Franklin, Tennessee, on the way home. They were having a nice little sale and I picked up some yummy wool (among other things, none of which was fabric) . . . 

Isn't that pretty?? And a four new little patterns, the bottom two of which are kits . . .

One of which I've started working on . . .

This will be my slow Sunday-into-Monday Stitching, for sure!

I'll be linking up to Patchwork Times and Kathy's Quilts (tomorrow). Happy New Year's blessings to you and yours!

:)

new thinking for a new year . . .

Happy New Year!!  A new year always feels so fresh and sparkly . . . a clean slate on which to start over (or press on) . . . a new opportunity to get it right!  But so much for a clean *stash* slate. Between spending time destashing and spending time shopping (and even spending some time stitching) my slate is already showing bigger overall numbers than it did for the whole of 2015!

Ha!!  How's that for a first report?! I really went through all my yardage with an attitude of, "Does it have a purpose . . . does it bring joy?"  If it couldn't be yes to one of those, in the to-go bag it went, to the tune of 48.5 yards. And I was on the lenient side. I think I'll give it a couple of months and then go through it all again. Since I ended the year with an accumulated total of better than 200 yards, it's obvious my stash needed some pruning!

I used up a half of a yard preparing all my EPP 'houses' for the Hexie Birthday Swap. It adds up pretty quickly, eh?  I have all of them (seventeen, including one for me and an extra one for Sarah) for the year cut and ready to be basted together (with the exception of several ladies who haven't made a color/fabric choice yet) . . .

And a lonely little Chrysanthemum for a late-comer to the club. Between those and this . . .

my poor, neglected POTC block, I should have enough to keep my stitching on a slow Sunday afternoon!

And then the purchase . . . I purchased more fabric in the space of one day at the New Year's Day sale at Patches & Stitches, than I purchased in the entire of 2015. CRAZY! But, to my credit, it's got a specific purpose! Our Stitcher's group is doing a block swap.  Six blocks (a 3.5" nine-patch) for sixteen ladies.  So 96 blocks (by June)! Here's the quilt the blocks are for . . . 

It's really lovely, but I'm not convinced I'll be using my blocks for that particular look. We're using all Civil War fabrics and a cream.  Here's what I picked up for my offerings:

Isn't that gorgeous??? Oh yeah, and those are some beads I picked up for 'snowflakes'! But back to that fabric.  I just loooooove it!!

Yup, it'll be fun playing with this stuff! The nice thing about going to the sale with a bunch of gals from the Stitcher's group . . . we didn't get the same fabrics -- lots of variety -- spice of life.  ;)

I've challenged myself in several quilty/crafty ways for 2016. For one thing, I've got way too many UFOs hanging around. Most are pieced and just need to be backed and quilted, but I've got an older one where the piecing needs to be finished. Anyway, I'm tired of them taking up space. So when I saw that All People Quilt was sponsoring a UFO Challenge, I jumped right on it! I printed and filled out my list of UFOs . . .

On January 1, I hopped over to the APQ webpage to see which number I'd be working on. Would you believe it?

Number 2! LOL! My Christmas Hexie Topper. I didn't realize how old this was.

Hmmmm.  The reason this is unfinished is because I've never determined exactly what I wanted to do with it! Any ideas?! Hahahaha! If this particular challenge is of interest to you, you can check it out HERE! 

My second goal is to complete a very modest two Christmas ornaments per month, for a total of 24 by the time next Christmas rolls around.  

I loved the wool snowman and the Christmas tree, so for January, I'll stick to one of each of them! This way, when I'm wanting to attach a little something handmade to a special gift, it's already crafted, and I don't feel the pressure of *having* to stitch into the wee hours to have something ready.

My third goal is to reduce my stash this year, in a significant way (hopefully a combination of use and gifting away anything I don't find appealing anymore) -- and not to purchase *anything* that doesn't have a specific purpose! 

And finally, I want to keep my Nook in better order! I spent the better part of a day cleaning/tidying/tossing so I could sit down and create. I am definitely one who needs order! And the Nook was rather chaotic (it's a small space -- it doesn't take much)!

So, what about you?  Any specific quilting/stitching/crafting goals for 2016?

I'll be linking up to Patchwork Times and Kathy's Quilts!  Enjoy the remainder of the weekend!!

:)