It might be after Christmas but that doesn't mean the tree gets put away quickly. I like having the bright colors in my living room. It will be doing back into storage soon in the dungeon as Ducky likes to call it.
Yes, I kinda like to get the storage space mostly empty. Then go nuts buying yarn. I found this chart somewhere as to how much yarn to buy.
First post of the year and I have already read two books this year and started the third. I also added two items to the spreadsheet I keep for the list of books that I have read. First column is the approximate time frame the book takes place, second is the location. I saw items that had reading challenges, one for reading books of certain time frame, another for locations. Sounded like something interesting, so adding it to see where I go this coming year.
Weather has decided to warm up again, snow is melting, not that we had much snow on the ground anyway. It will soon be back to just the snow in the piles where the plows put it.
Still have my fiber optic trees out and lit up, just a little extra brightness inside the house for a few more days. Do want to get them tucked away before my cleaning people show up next Monday. Still have the outside lights on as well. They are just multi-colored lights and again, something bright.
Ducky photo bombing the book picture. He is doing OK for being 17.5 years old. He had a few days last week where he wasn't eating much but now seems to be eating his usual amount. Some days I worry about him and know that we are closer to the day when I will need to say goodbye to him. Just hope it isn't too soon.
Gingerbread Danger - it's Christmas time in Ohio Amish Country. Bailey is working her candy making miracles for the Candy Land themed pageant. She didn't want an over sized game piece on her roof and asked an employee Zeph to get it down with help. Only Zeph falls, or was he pushed. Speaking of pushing, Bailey's parents are in town and her mom is pushing a wedding planner at her.
Scandalous Women - mid 1960s, Nancy moves to New York City to get a job in publishing. Given more clerical work but she is assigned to help out when author Jacqueline Susann takes a shine to her while her new book, Valley of the Dolls, is being edited. As Nancy's career progresses she also works with author Jackie Collins. Over time with her experiences with women authors, Nancy sets up her own publishing house.
A Messy Murder is an installment of the Decluttering Mysteries. Ellen is asked to help downsize the house of a well know journalist. She starts her job the day after the 80th birthday party of the man. When she gets to the study she finds a dead body. Looks like suicide but some think its murder.
The Grim Reader time for the first book festival in Dharma and Brooklyn's mother, Becky, is the chair of the committee. A few problems arise at the last minute, the festival money being gone, someone trying to run Becky down, and a couple of murders. Never a dull moment.
If just the first letter of my name, either first or last, the total isn't anywhere close to my typical amount. Now if I add up all the letters in my first name I get to 126 (five letters), middle name 211 (eight letters) and last name 135 (four letters). If I average those I come out to 157, which is a pretty decent total for me for a year.
Happy Reading.
Happy New Year!
I haven't been into my local Michael's since they opened their "Knit & Sew Shop". So I don't know if they have expanded, I should wander in and see how things look now.
Left hand shelves is yarn that I have already made one blanket already this season, or have a duplicate on the right side. Some of the left hand side yarn is also for hats. I sometimes pass my excess yarn to a friend who knits scarves for the needy, or it goes to her church group who makes prayer shawls. The brown cakes on the second shelf on the left might end up with her. I already did a blanket and had way more yarn than I needed.
Right side is the to be worked on and there are 13 different colors there. So if I get all of these done, what has been done and the one in progress, that would make 27 blankets for the season. Wow.
Then there is the leftovers, the odds and ends that remain after I finish a blanket. This is what I make my hats with in the summer. I didn't go through these but it seems like I have more than I usually do. Maybe some of this will get passed along too.
Happy Weekend.
Happy New Year's Eve! I know I will be celebrating from home, being safe and probably asleep at midnight. I know, I live such an exciting life. HA!
A bit of book keeping. At this point I have read 171 books this year, not a record high, that was 200 back in 2022 which I also attribute to being home more at the end of the pandemic. Looking back over the past few years I would say this is about average for number of books.
Winter has come back as well. Nearly all of the snow was gone, except for the piles that the plow made by the street. We got an inch of snow on Monday and it has gotten much colder again. Time to be all bundled up or stay in the house for warmth.
While we are past the shortest daylight hours of the year, we have just reached the latest sun rise time here 7:24 AM where it will stay for another week. Sunset we have gained 10 minutes back on that time already, which sets at 4:27 PM today.
No Paw to Stand On Minnie and Rafe's wedding is fast approaching. All is well until they need a new officiant. Plus her matron of honor's restaurant has been closed because of a poisoning and another local chef murdered. Can Minnie figure it all out?
Eggsecutive Orders it is the week before Easter and the White House kitchen is hopping! Meals to prepare plus the annual Easter Egg Roll eggs to do. Then a White House meal guest dies and the kitchen staff is banished until they figure out if the reason had to do with the kitchen.
An Excellent Thing in a Woman Iris and Gwen are moving on with their lives and business. Iris is mourning the loss of her lover, Gwen is celebrating her freedom to live on her own with her son. A French client wants to get married NOW to an Englishman, but she ends up dead. Why?
Summit's Edge - part of the FBI K-9 series. Just two weeks before her wedding Meg with Hawk are on a case tracking a hijacker of a private plane through the Colorado Rockies. The hijacker has a vendetta and is determined not to be caught. Can Meg, Hawk and the rest of the team take him down?
My last checkout slip of 2025, I borrowed $4777 worth of books and other materials this calendar year. This is more than I paid in property taxes this year too. I do make good use of my library!
At least put the book on hold through your library!
While I didn't read all of her books I would vote for Sue Grafton. She had a series of books that started with the alphabet. She got to Y, then died. So she could come back and do Z.
Happy Reading.
Hope everyone had a pleasant holiday. Mine was quiet but did spend some time at my friends house on Christmas afternoon. Chatting with people and eating!
Weather continues to be quiet, good for those traveling. I have no place to travel to other than local trips, so no issues for me at all. I am not one who likes to travel during the holiday period. Too many crowds, delays and such. I want to relax when I travel.
Lots of time to read and crochet as well. That relaxes me, just taking it easy at home.
Latest finished product. Yarn is from Michael's Loops & Threads, Skinny Chennile, color Beetle Multi. Lavender color with bits of darker purples and occasional yellow spots too.
Very soft to the touch yarn but because it is a bit fuzzy it sort of tangles on itself. I would use the yarn again, especially for a baby blanket. I think I might also use a smaller hook. That would give a tighter stitch which might make it look better.
Happy Weekend.
Happy Christmas Eve!
The weather looks to be quiet, no storms and warmish temperatures. Almost all of the snow that has fallen is gone. Only the snow plow piles and some ice is left.
More than usual sunshine too. We have gained four minutes back on our earliest sunsets, but still losing time on the sunrise. Our latest sunrise doesn't occur until the first few days of January. So we are at the shortest time between sunrise and sunset right now.
Last trivia night of the year on Monday. We met early to do dinner as well for the holiday. We had a typical trivia night, not doing well on boy band and movie stuff. We had what I consider to be a typical score for us, but we ended up in fifth place this week. Oh well, we have fun.
Hail to the Chef the second installment of the White House Chef Mysteries. Holiday time is upon the White House. Thanksgiving dinner, receptions, family conflicts, possible matchmaking and showing off the holiday decorations for the press. But things get a little extra buzz and a gingerbread replica of the White House has some issues.
Beautiful Ugly a wonderful twisty thriller. Grady is an author who has just gotten his first New York Times listed best seller. Then his wife disappears. He goes into a writing funk so his agent sends him to a remote Scottish island to write. No distractions, no contact with the outside world and no way to leave. There he swears he keeps seeing his wife, but the residents, who are all women, say can't be. But is it?
Deep Cuts story of the relationship between Percy and Joe. Both into music and she has a knack for over analyzing songs. Can they make music together? Both literally and figuratively? Books set in the early 2000s and refers to music from that era, so hard for me to relate.
The Stolen Queen - Charlotte is part of a crew on an Egyptian dig in 1936 and helps find a fabulous necklace. A tragedy occurs and the necklace disappears. Fast forward to 1978, Charlotte is working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art when the necklace appears as part of the display for the Met Gala. During the gala there is a disruption to help cover a theft, which sends Charlotte back to Egypt to track the stolen item back.
I say yes to this. You might see something interesting, new author, then you can ask host about book. Also, when they are interviewing people on TV and they have books in the back, I try to read the titles. Another way to find more books to read.
Happy Reading. Have an enjoyable and safe Merry Christmas.
Made it to Friday, just one appointment today in the morning, then I can chill out. All of the peanut brittle I made has been given away. No more goodies tempting me to come and snack!
The weather warmed up, most of the snow has melted except for the plow piles. Roof is clear of snow as well. Not likely to have a white Christmas, or what I call a barely white Christmas.
I had an interesting visitor on Wednesday afternoon. Rocky Raccoon showed up to snack under the bird feeders.
Ducky snuggling under a blanket in progress. It was cold last weekend and we both needed the extra warmth. Thankfully it has gotten milder this week and is supposed to stay mild.
I got one hat done this past week and I edited the yarn sequence which I normally don't do. But I wanted more of the green and purple in the hat, not the browns. I think it turned out pretty good.
Happy Weekend.
We came out of the deep freeze of last weekend. Back to more normal temps which makes it nicer to be out and about. Which I have to be out doing things, seeing friends for Christmas lunches.
It is the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth. Maybe I should re-read some of her books this coming year. Born December 16, 1775. I have a hard cover book with all of her novels inside, so I can do them anytime. I know for a while I was reading Pride and Prejudice every year after it hit 200 years after its first publication.
Have to balance my book pile to read and the library hours with the holidays. Closed on both December 24 and 25 and I am getting close to being finished with my current check outs. So that means I need to get more books by December 23 to have some over Christmas and into early next year. Better put my requests in!
The Late Mrs. Willoughby blends together characters from Jane Austen's Sense & Sensibility along with the adult son of Elizabeth and Darcy, Jonathon. Invited to a house party of a former schoolmate, Jonathan arrives to find that a fellow guest is Juliet Tilney. When his schoolmate's wife is murdered, Jonathan and Juliet figure it out.
The Merlot Murders is the first in a series set in the wine country of Virginia. Lucie comes back from France for her father's funeral. Accident but things don't sit right, she thinks he was killed. When her godfather is also killed she knows something is up. Will Lucie be the next victim?
The Business Trip - Jasmine and Stephanie meet on a flight from Madison to Denver and notice their physical similarities. Jasmine is running from an abusive relationship, Stephanie on her way to a conference for TV news directors. Lots of twists and turns and an unexpected ending. Of note is that the author is a TV news director in Milwaukee!
The Inheritance a family reunion to celebrate the parents 40th wedding anniversary on a remote Scottish island. The adult children are also anticipating the division of their father's wealth. Old issues surface, new ones created. One thing, family first. Even when it means murder.
Happy Reading.
