JANUARY...THE BEST

Tuesday E and I went 30 minutes east of us to a Post Office (tiny one) to get new passports. I was kinda nervous and why I have no idea, it wasn’t like we would show up on the FBI 10 most wanted list, I have never even had a speeding ticket( E has). It was all so easy and our pictures actually turned out good. After submitting all the paperwork ( we took along every legal document proving who we are and that we are US citizens) and paying a rather LARGE fee we walked out free as birds and hungry. We stopped in the towns’ local cafe, Gray’s, a authentic small town greasy spoon sorta a place filled with local ole’ timer ranchers and the decor pure gun loving conservative dye in the wool GOP (trump) supporters. Listening to the conversation E and I just smiled and ate. The food was great and the place entertaining if not a bit weird. We did say on the way home “I eat there again” though.

January, where did it go? We had an ‘eat through the freezer and pantry’ month here, grocer shopping only to buy fresh produce and milk. I am happy to say our January food bill totaled $73.06. I had set a budget for $100. It was easy too and though we made very little of a dent in the big freezer,  the freezer upstairs I can see the bottom of the drawers. February we will continue are freezer/pantry eat down but we do need to stock up on a few things to continue this winter project.

 

I have a quilt retreat coming up and am busy cutting out two large quilt top patterns to sew up in 3 days of quilt heaven. 1) Soldiers Cross(civil war pattern) and 2) Shoo Fly pattern. I am a reproduction quilter and can’t make enough.

The cardigan my DIL is wearing -Felix cardigan, knit in Nutiden Yarn from Honerocheir in Sweden. Love the yarn, single plied. Wasn’t overly thrilled with the service but I may order more at some time.

I belong to a Featherweight sewing  machine group and a women told me as a resident of Colorado I can get an Ecard to just about any library in the state, I now have an Ecard to the Denver Library! So many books to look through and no or little wait time. 

Books Completed-

The Churchill Sisters(Rachel Trethewey)-  excellent

Founding Mothers(Cokie Roberts)-excellent

The First Conspiracy(Brad Seltzer)- very good

February will be a good book month I feel.

My rug hooking project is so close to being done. Maybe it will be a PJ day to finish.

-20 this morning! 

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Unravel Wednesday

 

THE BEST TIME OF YEAR

Folklore shirt

 spacing button gadget

Yup, it’s January 2023, no denying it any longer. Time is flying by -especially winter, my favorite season! Winter is my season to tuck in and do all the things I love- sewing, quilting, knitting, rug hooking and spinning. Far too many hobbies for this women to get all the projects done that she has planned. But, I have a start;

I have finished sewing the Folklore shirt and I am very happy with the results. I am not a detail anything kind of a person, (depend on my hubby for those skills) so doing buttons evenly is always a challenge here. No more, I have this new gadget and it does all the thinking for me!!!! Also, putting buttonholes in, well my new Bernina does all the math on that as well, all I do is hit a button. Sewing life is good here. Another old invention, new to me to use is Fray check. Sew in a button hole, fill with fray check, let dry and when that button hole is opened it’s perfect!!!! How did I not know about that!!!!

 On the Knitting front;

Ozetta Highland Slipover-Brown Sheep yarn from stash 

Gnome Pun Intended by Sarah Schira  

Hat completed . Planning on a monthly gnome project (will see how many actually get done. Remember I am not a detail, fuzzy anything kind of a person. This will stretch me(thank you Kat, I fell in love with your gnomes))

Several more projects started but we will talk about those later in the month.

January is a great month to eat down the freezer and pantry foods. It’s the month for lots of soups, homemade breads, roasts and …….

I love cooking in January and so far this month we have only spent 4 dollars at the grocery store.  The challenge is on as to how little we will spend this month on food. I am sure we will be doing this in February as well. 

linking up with Kat

unravel Wednesday