Mundane and semi-motivating on a Slow Sunday...

Hello -  well this post is rather mundane but also semi-motivating...at least to me...I'll admit that the last  two weeks blew past me... and while I made no formal New Years' resolutions... I never do... I did resolve to try to try to get a few things accomplished...and I was only slightly successful in my endeavors. The weather here has been all over the place... too many gray rainy days but a couple of lovely sunny ones with temperatures hitting 60!! It has been so warm that my daffodils are already popped up about 5"...

 Currently we have a return to a more proper seasonal pattern in the 30-40 degree range with snow flurries here and there and unfortunately more cloudy days... ugh... it seems like we are having waaaay more cloudy days than usual...and it isn't just rainy days and Mondays that get me down... its gray cloudy ones...soooooooo...

I'm attempting to keep myself busy with crafty stuff. Do you keep track of what you are working on?  I know a lot of the  crosstitchers use the Needlework Press Book of Days to record their progress. I used one a couple of years ago but I also use a paper calendar for the rest of what I'm doing and didn't like having 2 separate calendars... so now I have one calendar with space for everything....

each day I like to record what we ate and what I worked on along with things like appointments.  I know the eating part seems weird but my son often asks "what did we do for lunch/dinner the other day?" and I can then look it up... as the older I get the more I realize I don't always remember what I did yesterday... or the day before... without some notes. 

Also it is fun to decorate the pages of my calendar with stickers. As a child of the 50's I fondly remember getting papers back in school with cute stickers on them.  The nuns had to lick each one back then... no self- adhesive stuff... and along with gold stars there were seasonal stickers that made me happy. I'm using stickers from the Antiquarian Sticker Book Series like this edition...

I'll admit some of the stickers are creepy but lots have that vintage vibe I love! So I'm indulging myself in another childhood and giving myself lots of stickers!

As for what I've done... I'm ahead of my schedule for The 12 Days of Christmas by Prairie Schooler... I have 3 blocks completed and the outline for a couple more stitched... 

It is  satisfying to finish each block and easy stitching...comfort work. 

Then I got ambushed by a chart on IG from Calico Confectionery called the Lotsa Love Sampler...

... go check out her Etsy shop... lots of cute stuff and PDF downloads...instant gratification!! 

Now I told myself I wouldn't start this unless I had a piece of linen in my stash ready to go... I knew I wanted to stitch it on a turquoise background... and as luck would have it this scrap was the perfect size!

The designer charted this sampler so you can do pieces individually. I love the font on this one and rearranged it to be horizontal rather than vertical.  I used the DMC Color Variations floss 4210... they are similar to a hand dyed floss but less expensive ... and yes the variation isn't random but I don't think that shows up when you are stitching with it. I've picked up several colorways at Joanns and online at 123Stitch. 

I'm considering this piece to be a seasonal small... it took me about 3 evenings of work to complete...not bad... not certain how I'll finish it... have a couple of ideas. 

As for sewing, I got the Bright Ornaments quilt top done...

thought about adding borders but that would make it too big for the living room wall space. I used a layer cake of Basic Grey Peppermint Bark and the background in Grunge in the color Ale. Need to get a back together and I can take it to be quilted.

Started working on an new quilt for my son... the pattern is Cinnamon Twist.. not sure where I first saw this but tracked it down to FatQuarterShop....

It said it was a" free "pattern... but there is fine print... it is "free" when you purchase a Cinnamon & Cream Jolly Bar... so it's not entirely "free"... Nick really liked the pattern, so I  put the fabric in my stash... 

Nick picked out the fabrics for this quilt... he likes the blues and greens but nothing too frou frou... lots of geometric patterns... 

I think it looks very handsome!

I didn't knit much on the shawl but I am working on two pairs of socks... one one pair that is just a skein of Opal  and another that is a scrappy pair with leftover bits of Opal... mindless knitting...

Plain...

Scrappy...

Dan the handyman was finally able to finish up the back door project... it took longer than I thought it would, but then every home project takes longer than I think... 

Painting the raised panels of the door cream and the other part brown makes it match the garage door and the shutters on my house.. it also took waaaaaay longer to do and Dan painted both sides of the door this way so it looks great!  You see this door when you enter the breezeway next to the garage... it goes into the garage... the back door is just to the left of this door... but I think it makes a great impression.  I have several of those "Welcome" boards in different  seasonal designs... I saw a cute one online at my local garden store... it has snowmen... need to pop in and buy one. 

Hoping to finish out this month quietly... nothing on my calendar... dental work got pushed into February... my knees have been hurting on and off but I checked and I just got a shot of cortisone in my left one the end of October... and it has been my experience that you have to wait 5 months before they'll give you another, so, it appears I'm reaching the end of this treatment... I do know they hurt more when the weather gets crappy... my sainted Grandma was right... you can feel it in your bones!

Well as I review what I've written it appears that nothing is totally finished... everything is in flux... but that's okay... recording what I've been up to  is semi-motivating for me and countless times I refer back to this blog to figure out  what I was doing with one project or another.  Just yesterday I was looking at some quilt blocks  in my sewing studio that I started last year... and while I did remember the pattern name, I didn't remember how many blocks I planned on doing. So I searched it using that little box in  the upper left hand corner of the blog and refreshed my memory... I have 15 blocks done but need 25...glad I don't have to figure it out again!

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... should be a quiet one till around 3pm when the Cincinnati Bengals play the Buffalo Bills... lots of excitement in the city as we aren't use to having winning sports teams...LOL... we won't speak of my beleaguered Cincinnati Reds... I love them whether they win or lose, but it is a whole lot easier to love them when they are winning... 

Hope you have some creative time in your part of the world in the next  2 weeks... I'm plugging away at projects and already looking forward to Spring... 

happy stitching-

carol fun