I rarely make bibs anymore, even though I really love them. Health issues have zapped my energy. I can’t even figure out how much energy I will have from one hour to the next. Take to day for instance. I finished sewing the last bib. Then packed the box. Folded one load of laundry and I am now exhausted. I will mail them out tomorrow.
Below is a picture of the bibs. I am afraid it is not one of my best pictures.
Today started off with the beginnings of a migraine at 4 am.So I started a load of non fussy laundry. Brewed a small pot of tea. While the tea was brewing I managed to empty most of the dishwasher. Then the tea was ready. With some tea and oatmeal, I was able to catch the migraine before it got too bad. The thing I have learned about migraines is they need to be stopped before the light show kicks in. I had enough caffeine in me to allow me to sleep until 10 am after breakfast. By the time I woke up John took care of the things I did not finish left on sticky notes.
The rest of the day was spent doing tasks in 5 to 10 minute increments. I am absolutely floored by the amount of cleaning that I can get done in 5 to ten minutes.
John surprised me with lunch out and a trip to Chico’s to pick up some new tops. Not all were on sale but the majority were. This lead to picking out an equal number of shirts leaving the house. I usually go by the one in, one out rule unless I quickly lose a lot of weight and inches. Then it is all the too big stuff out and get what I can to have at least 7 or 8 complete outfits. This might take a couple of trips. I have not had one of those since March 2024 when I got sick. So I am actually wearing out clothes.
John and I made a fresh batch of homemade stew. John cleaned and chopped the vegetables. I cooked and seasoned. The recipe for my stew is on the blog. Just look up the keywords beef and stew. Although I have made it with chicken too. Basically you can choose any meat your family likes or is within your budget. Conversely you can use all the vegetables and add beans or barley to make a vegan soup.
Now that I have cooled down, it’s time to give sleep a try.
The beginning of the week was very busy for me. Between holiday parties and appointments. I think I overdid myself. Today my body decided it was time for recovery mode. Really my body did not give me a chance to do otherwise. I slept in till after 8 o’clock this morning and had two naps today. I also managed to do a pressure point release and massage to get my neck feeling better. My right arm is not as sore as Tuesday.
As I get ready for bed, I can tell you that I feel so much better than I did when I woke up. This does not mean I will have a busy day tomorrow. Even though I have a ton of year end work to do. I still have all the paperwork that was supposed to do today and a little house straightening. I also have less than 100 yards of yarn left on a new shawl that I would like to finish before the end of the year. I really want to start a new shawl after that, but I have at least three shawls that need to be finished before I can start another new shawl. I also have a very large pile of finished projects that need to be photographed and logged into my Ravelry account before the 31st. At least I can do much of that sitting down.
I am really getting very tired with this recovery mode, it seems like all the time.
If I don’t write a new post before the end of 2025. I would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous 2026.
Now that the holiday season of 2025 is almost over, we are all giving a huge sigh of relief. Now it time to take a few moments of personal time. It’s also the time to get yourself a special treat that you can use all year long. After years of searching I have finally found my perfect slippers. I kid you not. Somewhere around the mid 1980’s a lot of slipper brands switched from natural fibers for slipper liners to polyester. Since I am allergic to polyester this made decent slippers hard to find. I was using candles for years as slippers.
I have been wearing Haflinger clogs for quite of few years for my winter shoes. They are nice and comfortable. It takes at least 4 or 5 winters to wear out. They are also stylish. I wear the clogs with both dresses and pants. The Haflinger Clogs are my go to travel shoes too. This is how I found my love for the brand.
Fast forward to October 2025. I left my black traveling shoes at my daughter’s house, because I was also using my red clogs as slippers. I just told my daughter that I would pick up the shoes on my next visit. I also said that I would come up with a slipper solution.
While I was looking for a replacement pair of black clogs I saw that they also carried slippers. In my size too. There were just so many styles to choose from. I picked out the navy slippers with colorful butterflies. They are a felted pure new wool top and shoe insert. They also have a rubber sole, so they do not slip and slide across the tile floors. I ordered my usual size and the slippers fit perfectly, there is even room for warm socks or a foot brace.
After a couple of weeks wearing the slippers, I ordered a pair to keep at my daughter’s house. You can find the complete line at Halfinger. There is also a very limited selection on Amazon or a number of independent shoe stores. If you like to support local businesses in your area check out the shoe stores in your area.
The opinions expressed in this blog are my own. I have paid for all of my Halfinger shoes and slippers. I have not been paid by the Halfinger company to write this blog post. I will earn a very small commission if you click on the link on this page.
Today my friends and I gathered together to celebrate and share mostly homemade gifts. I say mostly because most of the 8 cubic feet of yarn was not hand spun my me. Some of it was lace weight, which my hands can no longer work with. Other yarn the colors were not right for me anymore. Everyone was very happy with their yarn.
I also put together a random bag of small gifts for the staff. They are so kind to us during the year, that it only seems appropriate.
I will say that I really did over do it in the cleaning out of the yarn room. I can say redistributing the yarn made me feel a lot lighter. Although hit me today like a brick wall. I could do nothing but rest for 3 hours. I was even too tired to pick up knitting needles.
After an early shopping trip to pick up dinner and some essentials. I plan on resting most of the day.
I love the idea of mentoring. My dad was a very good mentor. My daughter followed in his footsteps. Mentors must be chosen with care. A recommendation from a trusted friend or teacher is a good place to start. I personally don’t recommend that everyone should be a mentor or teacher. A bad mentor can leave you cleaning up the mess that they taught you was absolutely necessary for years. If a mentor pushes more is better in terms of supplies turn and run away as fast as you can. Don’t get me wrong, especially in the arts you need a certain amount of resources also known as supplies.
More is not better. Let me explain why. Do you have so many supplies that you spend more time searching for the supplies to start your project than it takes to make your artwork? Do you find it’s faster to rebuy what you need to use rather than take the time to look for them? How many rooms are filled with supplies for the art projects? Do you have extra supplies stored in the garage or basement up to the ceiling? Do the amount of supplies you have, cause you anxiety? Do you spend too much money on your supplies? Could you survive an epidemic or the Zombie apocalypse with no problem? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions you picked the wrong mentor. The great part about the solution is that you don’t need a mentor to fix the problem.
All you need is a few good friends willing to help you out. Take my friend Louise for example. Louise on more occasions than I can count has willingly come to my house and filled her car up with yarn. Her family lives in an area with no local yarn or craft stores. Over 2 hours from a Walmart. So she has brought a lot of my for no better word for it is a horde of yarn home with her. Her family is enjoying the bounty.
I have donated to my local knitting guild. In fact I filled up the back of a Ford F150 pickup truck with yarn and still had too much. I have donated odds and ends with leftover yarn for camp projects. Had more friends pick out yarn for their next project and still had too much yarn. I have mailed yarn to random people who could not afford yarn.
What I am politely trying to say is this will take time. Each time you give away more of your yarn or other art stash it will hurt. You will berate yourself for spending so much money. You will berate yourself for not completing the projects you planned. You will feel like you let yourself and your family down. You will have second thoughts about giving all those supplies away. This is all perfectly normal. You will also find more supplies that you totally forgot about. This is normal too.
In the end after more than a few years of going through this process please know that your family will be very appreciative of your efforts. I have helped clean out enough family members homes to know that this is true.
I brought this up because in talking with my taller half we talked about my former mentor. How it took 3 Goodwill trucks to haul away her stash of yarn. It took them months of selling random 66 gallon trash bags stuffed to the brim with yarn at $5 a bag to get rid of it all. My goal is not to be that person. To get my yarn supplies into one room Then leave the multi purpose room to its original design. To be a sewing, jewelry making and guest room rolled into one neat and tidy space.
As I am writing this, I have filled up bags of yarn to the tune of 6 cubic feet. Then I found 2 more boxes that I had forgotten about to go through. Well after I finish this post, you know what I will be doing.
All this while resisting the urge to buy more yarn.
It’s been a very rough week physically for me. Even with all that going on I managed to finish one project, a Tunisian Crochet Scarf for me. After trying it on, I decided that it was not right for me so it will be leaving the house. I also will not be writing a pattern for it like I planned. I will not be writing a pattern for every bespoke project. I have also gone back to the 5 of cleaning. The five of cleaning is always one of 2 things. Putting 5 things away or cleaning for 5 minutes. I know it’s a little Squirrelly in cleaning methods, but it works for me.
Also when I finished the scarf I actually did not start another project. My goal is to finish a few more projects before I start another project. The exception will be charity work. I know I have at least 6 scarfs in various stages of completion. When I get down the last short scarf or no long scarves
I also did get some stitch markers finished. I still have a box full to finish. I am also working on my sewing repair pile. I am doing the easy stuff first. This also means for right now the little loom will not be weaving new straps for a few shopping bag repairs. This also means that I am also working on my multi purpose room. My multi purpose room house the guest room, the sewing room and the jewelry making room.
All of this sounds quite exhausting.
