Exciting News!

Happy Monday morning to you all my friends. We have got the most gorgeous sunshiny day and it’s supposed to be 59°F today. The temperatures are supposed to plummet to below zero later this week but I’m determined to enjoy the warmth and the sunshine today. Zoey and I will soon be going out to take a walk around the neighborhood.

Thank you so much for your prayers for my friends who are sick. To answer a few questions, Steve is doing much, much better. He’s still in the hospital and after being intubated three times(!), he will be going to a long-term care facility for rehabilitation. He is still requiring oxygen most of the time. For those of you that don’t remember, Steve is in his early 40s and has had Covid and been in the hospital for over two months!

My friend Ellen who also has Covid and is in the hospital in Spokane, had a procedure to remove numerous blood clots from her lungs. She also has Covid pneumonia. I talked to her last night and she’s hopeful that she may get to leave in 5 to 7 days. Ellen‘s brother was our former pastor in Spokane. He passed away in December, but it was from complications of diabetes and kidney failure. There seem to be a little bit of confusion on whether he had Covid or not from some questions.

But, my best friend Jenny in Spokane now has Covid. She tested last Tuesday when she first started feeling sick and it was negative. I made her retest on Saturday and it was positive. She sounds horrible and has a terrible chest cough. Please add her to your prayers.

Whew! That’s a lot isn’t it? And on the title of this blog post you’ll think, “what in the world is wrong with this girl’s brain that she says this is all exciting news?” Well, get prepared for a lot of photos because I have something to share with you. Before we even went to look at trailers on Saturday, we had narrowed it down to three finalists. We were hoping we could find one of them. We didn’t want to be traipsing in and out of trailers that other people had been in, or spend much time at the dealership because of the dreaded Covid. We have been researching and watching videos since we sold our big trailer last summer. We set that money aside and didn’t touch it because our dream was to replace it with a smaller one that we could travel in. Guess what? We did it! Saturday we signed the papers for a 2022 Alta East West. It’s 26 feet long. The only thing it doesn’t have that we wanted was a fireplace. They are so convenient to heat the trailer without using propane on chilly nights. However, it is definitely something we can live without, it was just a wish. Without further ado, here are some photos of the inside.

I love how light and bright the kitchen is. The lighter cabinets make a huge difference in the feel of the trailer. There is not a speck of carpeting in this camper which I love. No more hauling a vacuum cleaner around with us. That little drawer on the very bottom of the cabinet on the left is called a pet feeder. Inside it is an insert with a place to put your dogs food and water. I don’t think we’ll be using it for that because I could see my self kicking it every time I walked by! The refrigerator is a 12 V refrigerator. That means that it runs the entire time you’re driving down the road and you don’t have to worry about your food spoiling. They used to always just be electric or propane but you were supposed to shut the propane off as you drove and obviously you couldn’t have it plugged in while driving so if you were going very long distance your food was in danger of spoiling. It looks like the same size as normal trailer refrigerators but it’s actually 2 cubic feet bigger, because they don’t need as many mechanisms in them for the 12 V.

The square thing above the television on the roof is the air conditioner. This trailer is also ductless so there are no AC or furnace ducts in the flooring to get stuff dropped into them. They’re all integrated into the walls and ceilings. Those are those little black circles you see on the cabinets. Our big trailer was like this and I just loved it.

Here is the bedroom. These trailers come standard with king size beds but we are having them switch it to a queen size mattress. We don’t need a king size bed and a smaller mattress will give us more room to walk around, plus all of our bedding is queen size. I like the little drawers on both side of the bed to keep small things like Chapstick in. They are actually good size drawers that we may actually use for things like underwear, etc. Behind those drawers you can barely see a little cut out. There’s one on both sides you can put water, books or whatever you want back in there. It’s like a little nightstand. Apparently, they actually designed it to hold a CPAP machine.

Here Dennis had lifted the bed up to look at the storage options underneath. We had never seen this before in a trailer, but it sure is handy. There are two nice size drawers with the tray on top and the open space is perfect for a laundry basket.

The booth will sit six people and will make into a nice size bed for Piper when she goes along with us. Underneath you can see that there are drawers under each bench that are quite large. They will be great for using as a pantry. The sofa that you see makes into a queen size bed but we’re having them exchange that for theater seating which is two recliners. I need to have a recliner for my back and we don’t need to be able to sleep six people in here. We have never had roller shades in any of our trailers before but I’ve always wanted them. They come standard on this trailer. And I like the little light fixture above the booth too.

The bathroom is huge! I actually think it’s the biggest bathroom I’ve ever seen in an RV. This photo shows you the medicine cabinet and vanity. The medicine cabinet has tons of storage inside of it and there’s lots of counter space on the vanity. More than we have at home! I have no idea what I’ll put there!

The shower is nice size too and there’s more storage in those square cubbies behind it. They will be perfect for towels and toilet paper, etc.

Here’s a view of the bathroom from the main room. Both the bathroom and bedroom have sliding wooden doors.

This closet is just inside the front door. I don’t know what it is about this trailer, but it seems so much bigger than 26 feet. It has solid steps not the flimsy trailer steps and with my clumsy body they will be great!

This is the view from the front of the trailer.

Now, one of the reasons I am so excited about this trailer is although we can’t go full-time like we had planned before, we’re hoping to be able to take trips throughout the year for several weeks to a month at a time. As long as I’m here to take mom to her doctors appointments and make sure her meds are taken care of, it should be fine at least for a while. Our plan as it is now is to go to Spokane for 3 to 4 weeks in the spring. Paul and Lori want to meet us in Montana to camp. I really, really want to go back to the Black Hills this year sometime. We used to go every year when we lived in Omaha but I’ve only been there once in the last 20 years. I love the Black Hills best of all the places I’ve ever been.

My friends, I feel so blessed that we were able to find this trailer. We had no intention of buying a new trailer. We have been looking and looking and looking and looking at used trailers for the last eight months. There just is nothing small that isn’t completely beat up that we could find. However, they gave us such a good deal on this trailer and are willing to do all of the things that we asked them to do. The trailer already has solar on the roof so we can do what is called Boondocking. That is where you camp with no hook ups. No water, electricity or sewer. A lot of people do that on BLM land or national forest land. We are really looking forward to doing some of that. The solar will run our lights and refrigerator and recharge during the day with the sunshine.

Gosh! Have a bored you all enough? I never really thought when we sold our other two trailers that even though we set all of the money aside and didn’t touch it, that we would ever be able to get another trailer just because of our life circumstances right now. I kind of gave up on the dream. But Dennis is determined to make this work. It was our dream to travel full-time during retirement. And even though that won’t be possible now, he says we should be able to get out for some shorter trips. I feel so blessed. I know I said that before, but it’s true. Our God is amazing. This is the dream we’ve worked and worked for for years. I sure hope we get to do some of it and nothing comes up to surprise us.

Now for what you probably really came here for. I’ll show you what little crafting I was able to finish this weekend.

I finished another baby sweater except for the buttons. The previous one I made was 0 to 3 months and this one is 6 to 9 months. Can you see the mistake I made by the left button band? It’s about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom. I purled when I should have knitted. One row. I’m so irritated with myself. I just noticed it about an hour ago and I’m debating whether to rip the whole thing back to that point to fix it. I probably will because I’m not going to be able to stand knowing that mistake is there.

On the needles is a hat to match. I have never knitted a hat that had to be seamed when finished. I sure hope it looks OK. I’m ready to begin the crown decreases now.

I also started another pair of socks. I’m still on the cuff and haven’t decided if I want to knit a pattern or make them plain vanilla like the last ones. The yarn is fairly “busy” so I’m leaning toward the plain vanilla. What do you all think?

Whew! This was a long long post wasn’t it? I’m sorry for doing this to you on a Monday morning, but I was excited to share with you. I sure hope you don’t all think we’re spoiled and selfish. We have worked for this our entire lives. As I said, our dream has always been to travel around this beautiful country of ours when we retired. One of the main reasons is that we want to be able to travel is so I can meet some of you. Can you just imagine actually being able to see each other face-to-face and share a hug? After Covid is over of course. We were so careful that we would not have to go into debt to buy a trailer. I sure hope we are able to fulfill these dreams and do some traveling so I can meet you.

Take care of yourselves and please stay warm. I’m praying for all of you on the East Coast too just seem to be getting slammed by the winter weather this year

Blessings and love, 

Betsy

Tunisian Crochet

Happy Friday! I finished my first square for the Tunisian crochet stitch along. “Jayda in Stitches” on YouTube is leading. She is teaching a different Tunisian stitch each month from January through December. Each stitch will make up a 12 x 12 square that will be sewn together into an Afghan. I’ve always been intimidated by Tunisian crochet so I decided to join the make along. Here is my first square for January. One thing that I learned pretty quickly is that Tunisian crochet tends to roll up on itself. This stitch was very, very simple. I hope the rest of them are as easy to learn.😍

I also decided I needed to make another baby sweater for our new grandbaby. The first one I made is newborn size and this one is a 3 to 6 month size. I know that she won’t be able to wear the newborn size very long, so this way they will have another one for her to grow into. Since I’m sure it will cost an arm and a leg to ship this box to London, I thought I might as well put as much in it as I can! This is a different pattern than the first one. I have never made it before and it is called “Marianna’s Lazydays Jack and Jill baby Cardigan Jacket”. Goodness! That’s a mouthful for a tiny baby sweater! I’m using the same yarn as the first sweater which is Hobby Lobby‘s Baby Bee Sweet Delight and it’s in the “flannel” colorway.

I also finished a pair of socks. These are made with West Yorkshire Spinners Signature four ply yarn that I bought in Deal in the UK when we were there last year. It is 35% Blue Faced Leicester and is 75% wool and 25% nylon.

They are just plain vanilla socks with a 20 row one by one ribbing. I didn’t want to use a pattern in the body of the sock because I thought the yarn made a pretty enough pattern.

Isn’t this sunset beautiful? This was in the parking lot at the church Wednesday night when we were on our way to Bible study. The colors were amazing. I do wish all of the powerlines weren’t in the way but they sure didn’t distract from the beauty of the sky.

Tomorrow we’re planning to go look at a few campers. It’s supposed to be 54°F for the high temp so we thought it would be a perfect day to look. I hope there aren’t a lot of people around or we’ll have to just leave. Next week the temperature is supposed to plummet again so we want to get out and enjoy it while we can. How are all of you doing this week? I would like to ask for prayers for a good friend of ours named Ellen who is in the ICU with pulmonary embolisms and Covid pneumonia. She used to be our housesitter all of the time in Spokane. She absolutely loved our dog Chloe and would stay with her whenever we had to go out of town. She is a very good friend to us and I’m very concerned about her. She is our former pastor, Mark‘s sister. You may remember that Mark died last month. Ellen is just in her 50’s so still very young. I’m positive she was vaccinated because she works in a doctors office. We know several people in Spokane who have Covid right now, as it’s very prevalent and spreading quickly. 

Take care my friends and stay safe.

Blessings and love, 

Betsy

Grand Reveal

We are finally almost done with both bathrooms. Each has just one small thing left to complete. I’ll tell you what they are as I show you the photos. The first several photos are of the main bath. The flooring is a plank flooring that is made of cork. So far I love it. It’s very soft and quiet to walk on.

The one thing that still needs done in this main bathroom is the transition piece between the bathroom floor and the hallway wood floor. Since we’re having the wood floors refinished the middle of February, they’re waiting to put that transition piece on until the refinishing is done.

You can see the change better in this picture down by Zoey.

I bought these little outhouses years ago from a friend of Mandy‘s who was selling for some interior decorating company. I thought they were very cute and whimsical. They are on the wall opposite the toilet. I’m sorry about the shadows.

This is the laundry closet that is behind the mirrored and louvered doors in the above pictures. The cabinets are new. The vanity looks very dark but it is actually the same color as these cabinets. The lighting was just way too bright this morning for good photos. Dennis is going to put a shelf between the two cabinets so that we can put the laundry detergent on so it doesn’t have to sit on the dryer.

I am loving the two cabinets. These are all of my laundry supplies nice and organized. In the basket on top are things like masks, sponges, lamp timers for when we’re out of town, door stoppers and other odds and ends.

In the opposite cabinet are a few cleaning supplies. The rest are under the kitchen sink. In the basket on top are all of our spare lightbulbs.

Then we move onto the master bathroom. This didn’t take nearly as long because they didn’t touch the shower. Both Dennis and the workmen all said if it doesn’t leak, leave it alone. The entire thing is tiled with cream colored tile. I think That it’s super ugly but it’s staying put with nothing done to it. Since we’re the only ones that use this bathroom, it’s not a big deal. Everything else needed to be replaced. The linoleum floor had a few holes in it and the sink was rusted out. The vanity doors wouldn’t stay shut, so those were the things we concentrated on. This medicine cabinet was original and Dennis painted it to match the vanity. The photos of the seagulls and the ocean waves are ones that we took on trips to the Oregon coast.

We put the same floor in here that is in the other bathroom and I love this cute little vanity. Both vanities are much taller because they make them about 6 inches higher now than they did in the 1960s when this house was built. That’s great for someone who is tall like me. You’ve probably noticed Zoey following me everywhere I go while I’m taking the pictures. She is my little shadow and is never far from me.

The curtains are the same ones I put up right after we moved in last summer. I think they go quite well since it has gray in the pattern. The only thing that needs to be done in here now is some sort of material to go between the shower door and the floor. When they took it off to put the floor down, there was black mold all behind the piece. It had to be thrown away. The mold was dry and very old so it just needed to be treated. It doesn’t seem to be an ongoing problem, but we’re going to leave the piece off for a few weeks just to make sure there’s no water getting in there somehow. Then Steve will come back and do that one little repair.

The only thing left to do in this project is the electrician will be out tomorrow to install an additional circuit breaker. Whenever we turn the electric fireplace on in the family room, everything goes off in the kitchen. He’s going to add a new additional line to take care of that. 

On February 14, the floor refinishers are supposed to start working on the dining room, living room and hallways. They are also doing the stairs. We’re not having the bedrooms done because they’re in pretty good shape as it is. Then, I think we will finally be done. At least I’m done. I’m tired of workers being in and out of the house every day of the week. They did it for a very reasonable price though. We certainly can’t complain. The contractor goes to our church and has done a lot of work for people there. He has practically redone my sister’s entire house now, one or two rooms at a time. 

I have started a Tunisian stitch blanket along with several other people that I know through video blogs. “Jayda in Stitches” on YouTube is hosting. Each month she teaches you a new stitch in Tunisian crochet. You make a 12 inch square out of that stitch. In December we’ll put them all together to make a blanket. I’ve never done much Tunisian stitch and I thought this would be a fun way to learn it with other people. 

I hope you’re all having a wonderful week. 

Blessings and hugs,

Betsy

Time Goes By

My goodness it’s been a week since I did a blog post! Wow! It sure doesn’t seem like it. Time is flying by. Hopefully our master bathroom will be finished today and all that will be left is the electrician coming on Thursday to put in a new circuit breaker for the utility room. He has to add an additional circuit breaker. I understand none of it so I won’t even try!

Mandy‘s birthday was Thursday, but since it’s so hard to do anything on weeknights because of her work schedule and Piper‘s homework, we celebrated on Saturday. My sister and the three of us went and had pedicures and then we just spent the day together. We watched the new Disney new movie. I don’t even remember the name of it but it was cute, all about a magic house. Then I made chicken kebabs in the oven along with Mexican rice. We had cherry cheesecake for dessert, which is what Dennis and Mandy always choose for their birthdays.

I made a prayer shawl over the weekend for the hospital. This was such an easy pattern and I think the color is very cheerful. It’s called “Sunflower.” The pattern is “Afternoon with Anna prayer shawl.” I guess Zoey thought she needed to inspect it as I was taking the photo.

Two more pair of mittens were made last Friday.

And I finished the blanket, sweater and hat for our new little grandbaby. None of these things have been washed and blocked yet so they should all look a little bit better when they’re done.

Early Friday morning I picked up Lizzie for a play date with Zoey. She spent the night Friday night and they were together all day Saturday too. These two girls are so hilarious. Look how they’re laying in the same position chewing on their bones. They do everything together. And I mean everything. Lizzie is about 1 pound smaller than Zoey but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t hold her own when they’re wrestling! I have never seen two animals who love each other as much as these two do. They hadn’t seen each other for two weeks because of both of them being spayed two weeks ago. We just didn’t think we could trust them not to wrestle and tear their stitches out. That was the longest they have ever gone without seeing each other and oh my! You should’ve heard the happy yips and barks when I walked in the door with Lizzie.

Dennis was able to spend time with Neal and Jenny when he was in Spokane last week. He stopped to see them on the way to the hotel from the airport on Sunday night, and had dinner with them on Wednesday. My goodness, we miss them and our other friends.

Tomorrow morning is my appointment with the neurologist. It took over five months to get in to see him. That’s what happens when you’re a new patient, and that was with the referral from my neurologist in Spokane! I sure hope he has another idea for treatment instead of the medication I’m taking. I really don’t like some of the side effects from it.

Last night Dennis picked up pizza around  6:00 from Little Caesars, about eight blocks from our house. We had promised mom pizza for dinner. Just a couple of hours later there was a shooting in the parking lot right outside of Little Caesars. One person died and two others are in the hospital with gunshot wounds. It is so scary around here. There is no respect for life whatsoever. Constant shootings, knifings, etc. Thank goodness the few blocks directly around our house are pretty good so far.

Well, on that happy note I need to close because I need to help carry the new bathroom vanity upstairs. Take care and I’ll talk to you soon. 

Blessings and love, 

Betsy

How are all of you?

Just wondering how all of you are faring with the storm if you live in the eastern part of the US? We ended up with about 6 inches of snow on Saturday morning. Dennis took the snowblower down the sidewalks on our side of the hill and back up the sidewalks on the other side, so all of the neighbors got their sidewalks cleared by him. I think they appreciated it. He does enjoy using his snowblower and always did the same thing back in Spokane. With the wind blowing the snow back on him, he looked like the abominable snowman by the time he was done! Sunday and today were above freezing so there’s been a lot of melting going on which would be absolutely wonderful if it didn’t refreeze at night and make everything very, very icy. The plumber was supposed to be here at 7:30 this morning and he’s usually very prompt. At 7:40 I heard his truck backing into the driveway. Apparently he couldn’t get up our hill. Even in four-wheel-drive he was sliding backwards down the hill but was able to go around to the block behind us and come in from the top! That clinched it for me. I stayed home all day. Everything that had melted yesterday just turned to solid ice on top of the snow in the street. It’s a real mess. I took Dennis to the airport yesterday and didn’t have any trouble at all getting back up the hill. I’m just glad I’m in the house safe and sound.

Speaking of Dennis, he’s having our “Friday” night lake pizza tonight with our lake friends. I ordered the pizza from here and he’s picking it up after work and Larry, Nita, Paul and Lori are all having pizza together, just like old times. I’m not going to think about it much or I know the tears will start. I do miss our friends. Remember when I used to order pizza Friday night at the lake and Dennis would pick it up on his way back after work? The five of us called him our pizza delivery boy as everyone would be waiting by the time he got there after the drive from town. I do miss the lake a LOT.

We have been keeping our eyes on advertisements for campers because we’d like to get one this spring. Our plan is to head to Spokane for a month in the spring or early summer if it all possible. There just doesn’t seem to be much out there in the way of campers right now. We are now kicking ourselves for not keeping the little one that we sold last year. We know the floorplan we want and we know that we want it to be much smaller than the one that we lived in last year so we can get into national parks and state parks. Apparently camping has become very popular during Covid and there’s just not a lot to be found that’s in decent shape. The prices for new ones are astronomical if you can even find them, because again, because of Covid there are shortages of a lot of parts. We’ve even considered just putting a canopy on the back of the pick up and putting a mattress in there and staying in it that way. It just may come to that because we’re both ready to go camping again!

I have been busy knitting and crocheting over the weekend. I finished the baby sweater except for buttons and I made a baby hat to match. Everything still has to be washed and blocked, but I’m happy with the way it turned out.

Now I’m crocheting a blanket to match. Sorry about the shadows. The lighting wasn’t very good today at all.

There’s not much to report considering the only place I’ve gone since my last post was to church on Sunday and to drop Dennis at the airport. There were a lot of people gone from church on Sunday. The virus is really making its rounds here. We know someone who is just put on a ventilator for the third time and he’s just in his early 40s. His name is Steve if any of you would be willing to pray for him.

I sincerely hope you are all doing well and are safe and warm and staying healthy. 

Blessings and love,

Betsy

Snow Day!

We’re trapped. Well, maybe not completely trapped, but as good as. It’s raining ice pellets right now outside. In an hour or two it is supposed to change to snow and depending on who you listen to, we could get anywhere from 3 to 10 inches of snow by tomorrow morning. Since we live on top of this hill, we’re not going anywhere. Dennis is supposed to be flying to Spokane on Sunday for a few days so I hope the hill is passable by then. Meanwhile, I have lots to keep me busy. I’m a homebody and could happily just stay here all of the time and never leave. But then again, I love to travel, so I guess I have split personalities!😂

I finished the first sock with my West Yorkshire Spinners yarn. I have the cuff started on the second sock, but I’ve set it aside temporarily. I really like the way the pattern and colors change with this yarn.

This is why I said I set the sock aside for now. Yesterday I started this baby sweater for our new little granddaughter. It’s a new pattern to me and I think it is so sweet. It’s called the “Max Baby Cardigan” and is on Ravelry. I have a pattern for a newborn hat that has cables and I think I’ll make that for her too. Maybe I will have time to find the yarn to make a coordinating blanket. I know it won’t fit her very long as it’s a 0 to 3 months size, but I fell in love with this cute pattern and the sweet little cables. Obviously I still have the sleeves to do. Maybe I will get those done today since I’m not going anywhere! Then I need to find some cute buttons.

The next photo is my view right at the moment. I have music playing on YouTube that is set to winter scenes. I love the quiet music while I am sitting here in my cozy little space. As you can see, I have a great view of my yarn wall and there’s lots of room for Zoey to play. That pink playpen thing? We bought it when we first got her to keep her contained in the kitchen or wherever we were that we couldn’t keep a close eye on her. That didn’t last long. Very quickly a hole formed in the bottom. But both her and Lizzie love to play with it. It was the best toy we could have gotten for them! They go in the door and turn it on its side and they run around the entire room inside it like a hamster wheel! It is hilarious. They know how to close it in on themselves so all of the sides collapse and then they climb out and try to pull it open again. Zoey takes her food in there to eat. Hours of entertainment for all of us! Puppies are so funny.

And that puppy bed? Well, she does lay in it sometimes when I put it in the sunshine by the front door if it’s nice enough to have the door open, but most of the time you can find her in one of our our laps, sound asleep. She wants to be as close to us as she can get and we like that too. 

I just realized as I wrote that last paragraph that this has turned into a puppy blog, almost more than a knitting blog. I’m so sorry about that for those of you who aren’t interested. I just pretty much write about my life and hope, that for some reason, you all find it interesting enough to come back and visit with me again.

Our master bathroom has hit a snag. Dennis took the vanity and toilet out over the weekend because the contractor and electrician were supposed to be here early Monday morning. Would you believe they both completely forgot? I texted the contractor in the evening on Monday and he admitted they had forgotten. They stopped yesterday for about 10 minutes just to look at the job and remind themselves of what needed done. It sounds like someone may be here next Monday. It’s a good thing we cancelled the floor people. They were supposed to be here this week refinishing our hardwood floors. And that was allowing several extra weeks for the bathrooms to be finished! We are rescheduled now for the floors the week of Valentine’s Day. I sure hope everything is done after that. I do know that remodeling never goes according to plan and when you’re told a month, you should allow three!

I know a lot of you have snow predicted for the next day or two. Be careful out there and stay safe and warm.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

Wonderful Warmth

We are supposed to have temperatures in the 50s today and tomorrow and possibly Thursday. But look out for Friday! Freezing rain and snow during the day and again overnight. Drastic changes on the way, but I’m going to enjoy the warmth and blue sky that we have right now.

Dennis went to Mandy‘s on Sunday and took the Zen collar for little Lizzie. She was so excited to see her Papa. Mandy said it was the most active she’s been since she came home from the vet. She really wanted to come home with Dennis, but we cannot have the girls playing with each other for a while. We have been super lucky that Zoey hasn’t even tried to get to her incision. You would never know she even had surgery. She has been going up and down the stairs since the second day and acting completely normal. It’s all we can do to keep her from jumping off of the furniture and we don’t always succeed. She seems to be no worse for the wear though. Poor Lizzie had a rougher time as she always seems to. She had pain medicine that she took and they sent the nasty old plastic cone of shame home with her. It hurt her and she wouldn’t move her head when she had it on. So we gave her our Zen collar and she’s done great! She wears it all of the time and even sleeps with it on. I highly recommend them. If we need one for Zoey, we know we can just run down the street to the vet and get another one for her. Otherwise we figure we can share it for the girls in the future, because the chances of them both needing it at the same time are pretty slim.

Poor Lizzie baby.

I did finish the prayer shawl last night and got it washed and blocked this morning. It’s a very simple granny shawl that I single crocheted around twice, then added a scalloped border just to finish it off. I didn’t use a pattern, but I’m sure there are similar things online. It has gone into the bin to take to the hospital next time I’m allowed in. This darn Covid.

I thought I would show you what I did with my snowmen when I put the Christmas decorations away. It didn’t make sense to me to have them upstairs in the living room where I rarely am at. So I brought some of them down and grouped a lot of them on my Hoosier cabinet in my craft area where I spend most of my time.

Here are a few on one side of the windows.

And this is the other side of the windows. Mandy gave me the beautiful winter wonderland sign for Christmas along with the Q she found in a clearance bin. On Sunday my sister gave me the snowman on the far right. He’s actually a tea light holder. I love to leave my snowman out until close to Valentine’s Day. They provide some winter decoration. These are not all of my snowman. I still have more scattered around the craft area and upstairs too.

I spent a few hours on Sunday tidying up my yarn area. When I first put it in the shelves I pretty much just stuffed it in anywhere it would fit. I’ve tried to go through and put like yarns together. My entire sock yarn stash is in the upper left two bins next to the basket. I have my worsted weight group together along with my specialty yarns, variegated yarn, cotton, baby yarns and mitten yarn. I also have some bins of scrap yarns. I like the way it looks now and know exactly where to find everything. I should have taken the time to do that sooner.

I have the door stopper in the felting process. I tried hand felting it and I just couldn’t stand at the counter stirring it any longer. Now it’s in the washing machine. We’ll see how it turns out. That had to have been the most boring thing I’ve made in a long time. A long rectangular piece of garter stitch. In brown. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Today I’m going to knit on my first pair of socks for the year. I’ll be using some of the West Yorkshire Spinners Signature yarn that I bought when we were in Great Britain last year. I only treated myself to 2 skeins of sock yarn because of space in my luggage, but I certainly do like this so far. I would love to find a distributor for Opal yarn here in the states, because I just love the patterns their yarn makes.. I think I need to do more digging online. I just haven’t taken the time for it.

I’m sure Zoey will continue to be my companion throughout the day. She never gets very far from my side. What did we ever do without her?

Take care everyone and stay safe. I heard a doctor online the other day say it’s not a matter of if we get Covid at this point it’s when. That’s not a pleasant thought is it?

Wishing you all a very blessed day.

Blessings and love, 

Betsy