Goodbye 2018

I am not sorry to see you go.  You caused me and mine rather a lot of distress and unhappiness, and that was just on the personal level.  You seemed to be heavy handed in shoveling your unpleasantness onto acquaintances and strangers as well, which, I admit, I still took somewhat personally.

The holiday decorations are already down and packed away till next year.  Our household is decidedly ready for 2019 to start.

The Elemental shawl was started August 4th, 2018.  It was bound off December 18th, 2018.  Honestly, this is probably some sort of record for me as it's not quite 1400 yards of laceweight.  Possibly, it is an indicator of how I deal with stress?  The shawl is not blocked yet, and is already the size of a baby blanket.

Yarn is already being wound for another 2000+ yard (also laceweight) shawl.  Igort'th Thawl will be knit in memoriam of MMario.  A knit along is being held by the Ankh-Morpork Knitters Guild. 

Gardening plans are being made, for when the temperatures are back above freezing.  Terroir Seeds has a wonderful selection of seeds, some of which I've not seen elsewhere.
Plans for different makings are also in progress; lotion and shampoo bars, a sourdough starter and whatever else catches my fancy.

When bandying about ideas for a word/theme of 2019, Husband suggested Recovery.  It is a suitable word, though I would add something along the lines of Authenticity as well, as Reclaim and Recover sounds more like a recycling program....and we are not quite that old, yet.

Her Ladyship Alzoa Shadowcat Fluffybutt (and her humans) wish you a wonderful New Year filled with treats and the adoration you so obviously deserve!

Glad Tidings of the Season....

Whatever you celebrate...or not.  Around here things start around the Winter Solstice and just all roll together till just after New Year's Day.
We started with a quiche for Solstice evening, exceptionally not fancy, but tasty.

Then the fun was allowed:  a fire to roast homemade marshmallows over.

After our fill of caramelized, melty sugar, we tossed one of the packets of color changing powder on the flames and watched the pretty colors.

Our tree is up:

Though most of our decorations are not.  Marvin has been over seeing the unpacking though:

Found yet more books in the bottom of a box yesterday, my expression may have been similar to Marvin.

Joy and ample storage find you and yours in the new year!

Still moving. Books help.

The last year and a bit has been rather stressful.  One of the few things that has genuinely helped me deal with things are books; specifically the paranormal cozy mystery genre.  The stories lend themselves well to a series, so you can hang out with the same characters for more than an evening and many of them are also high on the re-readable scale, so if your brain just needs a known happy place to hang out, these work well.

Morgana Best is definitely a favorite, her Witches and Wine series in particular (there are crazy old ladies who knit), but I have read all of her paranormal novels more times than I will admit to!  The novels tend to be set in Australia, so are enjoyable for a bit of armchair travel as well.

Gina LaManna has the Magic in Mixology series and the spin off series The Hex Files.  A fun series about witches and potions and bad people, of course.

H.Y. Hanna writes the Bewitched by Chocolate series, which makes me want to tromp through the British countryside while eating chocolate!  More witches.

Nancy Warren's Vampire Knitting Club series has been quite enjoyable so far!  Witches, knitting, vampires and arm chair travel.

None of these are graphic.  There is the expected dash of romance and frequently a cat.  They are fun distractions to play in.

If you are looking for something decidedly more intense and way more graphic on every level but still an outstanding read Meghan Ciana Doidge has the Dowser Series, which dove tails with the Reconstructionist series and the Oracle series.  Shifters, vampires, witches, dragons, cupcakes and chocolate.  They are highly descriptive and can get rather violent, there is sex as well,  but Husband has been enjoying reading these as well, unlike the other suggestions.

Hide in a book.  Support an author when you can.