A Little Yarn On The Side

I managed to go to a fabric store for this: and didn't even look at the fabric!  I know!!!!!!  I did pick up a few Christmas closeout floral picks, but I still walked out of Joann Fabrics having spent less than $6!!!!  Originally, I had planned to buy NO crafting supplies at all this year, but thread to finish a project seems reasonable, and over the weekend we ran across these at a thrift store, for $3, so let's just say I'm not spending MUCH on crafting.  I can't say that I even know what to do with this one,  and there are 4 of these,  which I may never do anything with, but now that 1.) I've come to terms with the bifocals/reading glasses and can see well enough to paint details, and 2.) I'm not frantically trying to finish a huge bunch of gifts, I hope to break out the paints and tackle some ornaments soon.  I'm not good at it, but I enjoy it. Interestingly, even though I really only opted to wear handmade things on Mondays, the w...

  I haven't purchased yarn in 6 months!!!!!!!!!!!!  

So yesterday I woke up with serious chest congestion and a sore throat.  NO!!!!!!!!!! I didn't even want to contemplate another 2 months of bronchitis, so with the aid of Nyquil, I slept most of the day and am feeling much better today.  I almost used one of my pajama days, but I was cold so instead I opted for this fleece shirt and pant set I made a few years ago.  I have no idea what one would really call this--dressy sweats?--but they're really warm.  The pants have an inexplicable flair to the hem, so they're really as close to bell-bottom sweats as one can ever [hopefully] get, and I'm always just a tad self-conscious wearing them out in public, but they were great for napping.  I had some crafting time on Sunday, and there was a brief period when I actually thought the purple jacket might be finished for Monday, but if I had any true sense of how long things take, my sewing room would NOT look like a craft store threw up, so I didn't make it....

In order to get some bigger projects done this year, I'm aiming for 50 finished projects, rather than something truly crazy....like 116 or something, which even I am surprised I'm not attempting. So, finishing a second project for the year means I'm doing well so far.  It's not clothing, which was going to be my main focus this year, but I like it.  We've decided to cut back a bit on handmade gifts this year.  Even alternating years, it gets really stressful, and we do a lot of Christmas gifts for family members who don't even let us know they arrive--much less thank us for them.  So, we talked it over, and decided that not saying thank you--even by email or Facebook--can be freely interpreted as "I hate homemade gifts--please don't send me any more."  This is Andy's year for gifts, so that takes a lot of pressure off of him, and I've been happily sending table runners to friends, whom I know love them.  Win-win. I am enjoying playing...

Happy New Year from Château Sutton-Goar! Santa made a surprise appearance at the Château last year, bringing Andy an acoustic parlor (smaller body) guitar and  me a 12-string, so there has been a lot of music here this year—and more than a few discussions about how many guitars two people actually need, though these discussions are quickly scrapped when either the sewing room or the third bay of the garage known as the Wood Shop are mentioned.  No one, however, is allowed to take up the tuba. Andy has always been interested in photography, and this year purchased a better digital camera to play with.  On one of the first outings with a camera, while Andy tried to get just the right shot of a goose with her gosling, I fended off another goose, presumably her agent, who wanted to A) bite, and B) talk royalties.  A day on the motorcycle with the camera has become a favorite weekend activity for him, and over Thanksgiving he took some wonderful pictures of my aunt a...

So, the new fabric has arrived, all EIGHTEEN yards of it.  Granted, I've managed MUCH larger fabric purchases, but that's still about 25% of what I used up for all of 2015.  I think I need to sew faster..... They're all, of course. FOR something.  These are cottons in my college colors, and as many of my friends and family are RABID University of Idaho fans, between kimono ornaments and table runners, these will make extremely popular gifts.  Frankly, I didn't even know they existed until I ran across them on clearance on Hancock Fabric's website.  Three yards of each should allow for a couple baby or lap quilts as well.  Did I mention rabid fans here?  Then there's this, which will become Andy's birthday shirt this year.  Again a cotton, and he loves the color.  Another 3 yards. Two border print fabrics, which are great for fast projects, two clearance prints that coordinate with a set of fat quarters I already own, a wine ...

I AM BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I took the last antibiotic yesterday, and until 2 days ago, I really thought I was going to have to go back to the doctor because the bronchitis was still hanging on, but I've had 3 good days in a row now and, while I'm weak, I am finally able to breathe normally.  To celebrate, we visited 2 different sets of friends yesterday--what a great way to spend a day!  One of our friends has been very ill and because of the bronchitis, I had to stay away from him, but this weekend I made a big batch of soup and Andy made bread and we got to spend a couple hours with one of our favorite couples.  Then we stopped by another house to deliver a late Christmas gift, deliver some of my old toys we'd brought back from the ranch, and get caught up with another favorite couple.  TODAY I am taking soup and a Christmas gift to a friend recovering from surgery.  I had a fairly lousy Christmas, but the new year is pretty lovely so far. And it's MONDAY!...