Sunday, January 2, 2022

I woke up this morning to the sound of dripping water. I was happy to know that the rain had arrived and the snow was melting. I didn’t go back to sleep but then I realized that the drip was a lot closer than outside. When I got up to investigate the bathroom fan had water dripping (dare I say running at times); I think the snow on the roof was melting and until it slid off it was melting beneath and running through the vent. It stopped dripping by mid-morning and even though it is raining heavily now there doesn’t seem to be any more drips.

I was determined to keep up to date on my task list today. I had removed or re-dated many of the tasks from last year that I hadn’t managed to complete. Most of them are tied in with my Challenges for the year and I added in several steps from both my e-mail and my “occasional” challenges. I’ve spent almost all day working at them and I’m happy to say I’m either caught up or have them slotted into times over the next week.

Pat went for some groceries this morning and I added a few things to his list. I’ve made a Tourtiere for supper, and we’ll have a spinach salad with it. That meant a lot more cooking than I usually do – the pie itself, plus bacon and boiled eggs for the salad. While I had the bacon out Pat suggested I cook it all and throw it in the freezer so that is what I did. I had planned to make up some meatballs to keep in the freezer but I ran out of energy so I’ll make them tomorrow. I don’t cook often and today I’ve had a good reminder why – it takes so much time and then there is all the cleaning up to do.

I want to get a start on some of my stitching challenges for the rest of the day. One of the decluttering tasks was to clear off the sewing table and clean your machine. Both my machines really needed it so I’m all set to go.

January 1, 2022

It’s going to take a bit of time to get used to typing 2022. I didn’t make it to midnight yesterday although Pat did and I missed a fireworks display down by the pier. I hadn’t seen any announcements that it was happening and we don’t know who was setting them off. Maybe next year I’ll decide it is worth staying up for.

This morning I still had a few spots to fill in my 2022 Challenge list. Usually the group I follow don’t post on the weekends and holidays so I was surprised to see that first thing this morning they had already released the monthly number. I switched up a few things so I had three projects for the month and filled in the empty spots later in the morning. Last year I didn’t finish everything on my list but that didn’t stop me from adding extra challenges for this year! I have also added some cross stitching goals.

Deloise put it into my mind that I should have a new project start for New Year’s Day. I’d been looking at this desk online as I thought it would be good for cross stitching; I went out yesterday and bought it. Pat spent most of the afternoon putting it together and I was ready to get started right after breakfast.

I have also joined a couple of decluttering groups – have they never heard of divesting I wonder? One is a 21-day challenge to clean up your sewing space and the other is one that provides a few ideas from time to time through e-mail. Today was the first day of the 21-day challenge and although it looks do-able I haven’t done anything yet. I’ll keep track of all the tasks and do them when they fit into my schedule.

We are expecting another storm tonight and the last two ferries from the Island are cancelled. I expected more snow today but so far all we’ve had is wind. Hopefully it will be rain that falls tonight and it will take away the snow we already have on the ground.

Friday, December 31, 2021

I’m almost running out of time for my year-end review. I may not stay up until midnight but I still have a lot of year-end things to do in my sewing space before I’m ready for the New Year – and tidying up isn’t one of them!

Looking back I didn’t have a lot of goals for the year so it was easy to surpass them – I must keep that in mind for tomorrow’s post.

I accepted the Goodreads Challenge and said I’d read 50 books but I managed to squeeze in 53. My new iPad (thank you, thank you, thank you) allows me to download books from the library and over the holidays I read one and returned it with a click of a button. I’m about half-done the second one – no more going out in the rain to return and pick up books.

A quick count tells me I did at least 60 cards throughout the year. I knit or crocheted four afghans as well as several hats and scarves. I finished ten quilts but for many of them the top was already pieced. I didn’t count how many additional quilt tops I worked on or started. I managed 16 miniatures as well as 26 miscellaneous small quilting projects (microwave bowls, tissue holders, mixer covers, etc.).

I finished one large cross stitch this year that was a UFO from many, many years ago, as well as my Hallowe’en stitch along. I finished 24 small cross-stitched quilt blocks before passing the patterns on to Stacia, and I finished a pillow top over the holidays. My Peppermint Purple Stitch-Along has just two blocks to fill in as well as a lot of border but I’ll continue to work on it on my hand stitching days. My Neglected Floss stitch along petered out after two months – not me, the designer – so I’m going to have to find something to fill in the remaining monthly gaps.

I’m looking forward to what the New Year will bring – all good I hope.

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

I just put the lock on my suitcase and I’m ready to go – vaccine passports packed, some stitching, my Kindle, my phone, a few clothes – I just need to log on and do our check-in and seat selection.

Without anything specific to do today I sort of floated around doing a bit of stuff but not really accomplishing much. I cleared off the fabric scraps on my cutting board and got the specific sizes of scraps (1.5″, 2″, 2.5″, etc.) into separate bins. That will make it a lot easier for when I need to pull fabric for some of my scrappy projects. I got a start on my 2022 UFO Challenge list and I have six scrappy quilts to work on throughout the year.

I made two trips to the pharmacy. I had about a one-minute call with the doctor this morning (about 9:15) to get some prescriptions renewed. He assured me he would fax the prescription to the pharmacy right away. It was after lunch before I went to pick them up and they said that they had only just received the fax. My guess is the doctor sent it to the front office right away but his staff didn’t deal with it as quickly. I managed to get some KN95 masks while I was there – Pat has heard that those are what we should be wearing- so we are set with plenty of masks for our trip – homemade 3-layer, medical masks and these new ones. After the news conference regarding Covid was over I got the prescriptions I needed.

We have new restrictions in place again today but nothing that affects our trip and really not much that will affect us when we get home. I plan to isolate for two weeks when we get home – is it wrong to say I’m actually looking forward to that?

While I wait to do our online check-in I’ll try to settle with some stitching – but I’m not ruling out a Solitaire marathon.

I won’t be sending out my posts over the holidays but you can always check the website as I’ve done some pre-publishing.