Livin' La Needle Loca

 ...blog and run. Not much new in the garden. However, I did remind myself to look up instead of always looking right in front of me. I saw these wonderful clouds on Tuesday. Have a good weekend!

 ...the week went by very quickly! I got a lot of adulting done in addition to project work. This morning I saw the sunrise and enjoyed these nasturtiums, and Spanish lavender in the front yard.

...blog and run. This morning's sunrise was wonderful: Our cape mallow seems to be happy in the backyard:

 ...and I'm trying to get back to blogging and regular crafting. First, today's sunrise: The last few months have been challenging. I haven't been able to concentrate on anything other than very small projects. With all the stuff for mom's estate, the traveling back and forth, and trying to continue a "normal" home life, my routine is all messed up. My studio is disorganized and I don't have enough space to store everything. It's not really conducive to working on big projects. I'm hoping that I'll get back into some semblance of order with the new year. The Husband and I are talking about remodeling the studio, the last remaining room to be done in the house. I need new flooring, lighting, and a new slider to replace the atrium door.  The new window is essential as the current one sticks. It also cannot take a cat door insert, which would be helpful. It's something to look forward to!

 ...going into the weekend. This morning's sky was gorgeous.

 ,,,blog and run. The sunrise was spectacular on Wednesday. I caught a hummingbird hanging out on one of our plant supports: In the courtyard we have a pink hibiscus. In the backyard we had a pink Iceland poppy.

 ...and a last minute trip to mom's house. It rained all the way down. But today it was clear skies. Mom's camellia bush is going crazy. It has both variegated pink camellias and these solid pink camellias. Going home tomorrow!

 ...blog and run. This mornings sky from mom's house:

 ...day after our anniversary. Yesterday, we celebrated 38 years married/43 year together. We took a quick trip to Pescadero Beach to enjoy a perfect weather day. We followed it up with lunch at the classic Duarte's restaurant.  Pescadero Beach Pelican perched on a rock Pink ice plant flower <

...and the last finished objects from 2021. Here is the first photo of 2022 - the sunrise: The Daughter prefers a white and gray color scheme for her home. That includes her Christmas tree. I've been wanting to make her something for her home, but hadn't figured out anything until I ran across some  fabric in my stash. I found 1/2 yard of a cream-based Fairy Frost and 1/2 yard of a white-based Fairy Frost. After a quick trip to the fabric store, I had some Moda Grunge fabrics in whites, silvers, and grays. I kept the pattern simple as she prefers clean lines and since Christmas was just 9 days away, I kept the machine-quilting simple as well. This is Shades of Winter: Specs: Started 12/16/2021 Finished 12/20/2021 Fabrics from the Moda Grunge By BasicGrey and Michael Miller Fairy Frost No pattern It's hard to take a good photo of a mostly white quilt so this was the best I could get after about 30 tries (gotta love digital cameras!) ...

 ..in which my current obsession is beading the mermaid. On Wednesday, I started beading the Renaissance Mermaid. This has been my main focus ever since. I want to finish this project as quickly as I can because I'd like to start another big project. On Thursday, I baked a batch of sourdough hamburger buns and froze most of them. I'm not baking as much sourdough bread as I did last year, but I'm managing to keep the starter going. I spent a little time on Tucson Twilight, the needlepoint project. I'm frustrated with a couple of the design elements because they are worked on the diagonal and are difficult to place. I'm trying to work through it by keeping my stitching sessions short. I'm still taking my sunrise photos. When I hit one year of Shelter-in-Place, I'll rethink whether to continue taking these photos. By then, I will have had my second COVID vaccination and will be able to ...

 ...and I'm still posting regularly (mostly). I've just finished my first year of retirement. Looking back over the last year, I've managed to keep posting twice a week. My goal of not spending a lot of time on the computer fell by the wayside as the pandemic happened. I spend probably 3 hours on my desktop paying bills, blogging, and processing photos. Within a few days of our first stay-at-home order in March, I started photographing the sunrise and posting the photos on Facebook. If the sunrise was particularly beautiful, I took several shots. Photo-processing takes the most computer time each day. I thought I'd be spending computer time keeping my blog, Ravelry, Instagram, website, and database updated. In reality, the database and website have been mostly neglected, with Instagram also suffering.  The last three months have been mentally exhausting and I've let several things go. I've experienced some project ennui and have...

 ...and I don't have much to show other than the sunrise. I can't believe it's already the 4th of December!

 ...that week went by fast! I totally forgot Eye Candy Friday. Oops!  I think I was just so happy to see clouds, blue sky, and the sun again after 10 days of smokey haze.   What I worked on this weekend: It's cool enough to work on my knitted cardigan project. I'm working on one of the sleeves I'm nearing the end of my secret project, but I need to do a little blocking before I can do the final step. I started a Halloween needleroll that has many more stitches than the small projects I've been working on. I hope to finish it in the next couple of days.  I started a new handspun. It's Autumn Flame [ Ravelry ], a Merino-Bamboo-Silk top from Greenwood Fiberworks.

 ...around 100 degrees for a couple of days. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hot days only happen a few times a year. In my area, temperatures in the high 90s and 100s are rare. Well, we've had several rare days in a row and it sucks!  Like many of my neighbors, we don't have air conditioning so over 100 degrees is miserable. Add to that, our power went out on Friday and was out for 19 hours, so no fans for relief. The only saving grace is that we hadn't gone food shopping for the week yet, so we didn't lose much. Early Sunday morning, we had thunderstorms, another unusual occurrence. The skies were spectacular! This morning, we had more gorgeous clouds: 20 minutes later, we had amazing color: Lots more photos in my Flickr photostream . And, yes, clouds are one of my favorite things to photograph! LOL!

...California Shelter-in-Place version. All Californians have been told to stay home starting today Here in the SF Bay area, we are on Day 4 fo Shelter in Place. I'm fortunate that I like staying home, but the Daughter and the Husband are having a harder time with it. I took an early morning walk. I saw a few cars and very few people. The sunrise was gorgeous this morning. I started a new quilt yesterday using a Laurel Burch mermaid panel that I had in the stash. I also finished spinning the singles for Scarab [ Ravelry ] and I started the bottom ribbing on the Pure Comfort Cardigan [ Ravelry . I hope to make progress on the quilt today and continue working on the cardigan. I just need to keep busy so I don't get depressed over the Covid-19 news. .

...sigh. I'm still trying to get back into the swing of posting. I was able to capture the sunrise this morning. There weren't very many clouds, but it was still pretty. It's just going to be the Husband and me tonight. I have some munchies and some champagne for midnight. Today marks the end of the 2019, the end of the decade, and the official end of my employment. I start the new year as a retired person. I'm not sure what retirement will look like, but I plan on making the best of whatever comes my way! .

...the first time since I started the blog in 2006. The blog's 13th birthday was January 5th. To be fair, that was a Saturday and I don't blog on the weekends. However, the date did escape me until last night. Oops. I posted about the same number of times in 2018 as I did in 2017. That's good, but I missed several Eye Candy Friday posts - some because I ran out of time and some because I didn't have any photos to post. I like posting about my projects and posting photos. I have no plans of stopping the blog any time soon. 2018 was a rough year for our family and extended family. Because it's personal, I don't always blog about it. And some things are still on-going. So if I disappear for a few days, it's because we're dealing with some family issue. Thanks for reading!

...we wish you peace and prosperity in the coming year. As for us, we're happy that 2018 is in our rear view mirror. We look forward to a more positive year. Sunrise this morning:

...hooray! First, a look at this morning's clouds: The acidanthera is blooming in our backyard: And our Spider Woman dahlia has bloomed, as attracted a spider of its very own: Up this weekend: Tour de Fleece begins tomorrow! I need to clean and prep my wheel today to be ready to start. Since my spinning is limited during the work week, I might try for art yarn this weekend and do a standard yarn during the week. We'll see. The other thing I'd like to do this weekend is printout two of the quilt squares. I have one for Tour de Fleece and another for our last name. I'll print these on fabric on our ink-jet printer. I need to hit the cross-stitch fabric stash to find a piece that will work for the cross-stitched version of my college's mascot. I need to check my floss stash to see if I have enough for that piece or if I need to buy more. When my knees get tried of spinning, I can work on this square. So much crafting, so little time! .