I admit it; I kind of become more of a couch potato during
winter’s cold, ice and snow. I have full-blown osteoporosis in my spine and
hips and since old age makes one unsteady to begin with, I figure there’s no
sense taking unnecessary chances. That’s my story anyway. Although I’ll also
add that when you step outside and the cold even makes your eyeballs hurt, that’s
some serious shit going on. This time of year, I can often go for a couple of
weeks without leaving the house so you can see why this blog gets smaller and
smaller.
I did have a successful showing of my wares during late November as we set up our display for the Humane Society at an assisted living facility craft show. We featured a darling adoptable puppy and my stuff; I tout that I donate profits to them so feel it makes people feel good about their purchase of my things.
My big totes didn’t go but my most expensive purse/clutch did plus two of the smaller bags, which lends me to believe smaller and lighter could be the way ladies are headed in what they want to carry. So, more and more, I am making these; for one thing they take way less fabric and I can offer them at a lower price point. Designer fabric has gotten outrageously expensive, but often times I just can’t help myself because they are so dang gorgeous! Online fabric stores are definitely my “candy store” and I can spend hours endlessly flipping through wonderful new choices. Obviously, I lean toward bright and lively colors; I just like it when things really stand out. In quite a few of these photos I do have a lot of fabrics which I've upcycled from upholstery samples or thrift stores however.
Thanksgiving and Christmas are quiet times at our house since we have no family visiting. Buster precludes us putting up Christmas decorations and he constantly knocks over the Christmas tree just with lights on it in his attempts to play or climb it. I did really score though for my birthday in that Marc told me to buy a new sewing machine as the old used Viking I had started presenting me with many glitches. I did a lot of online studying of reviews and features and settled on a Janome and so far, I’m very happy with it. There are a ton of features I’ve yet to even try.
Marc is keeping pretty busy at the high school involved in both his volunteer/mentoring and he also is helping out with maintaining and fixing a lot of their saw equipment, which had been woefully neglected. He likes passing on his skills so it’s a good use of his time. He sadly had to park his E bike once the roads became snow coated.
As a last note, with our harsh temperatures lately, we’ve turned into a little bit of a rescue operation for the wildlife. The black feral female cat we fed and fixed last year is back, along with another cat and I took mercy on a young cottontail who would hang out beneath my lilac branches eating wood. I’ve started feeding it and it now comes out from under the sunroom daily as it hears me calling. Rabbits are slow eaters so it gives Buster endless entertainment to watch it feed as he gazes from his kitty condo out the window.
We hope you have enjoyable and
safe holidays this year end. Merry Christmas and here’s to a much better New
Year!
