Crafty plans and goals for 2024

 First of all, let me share this: 

Last year I wrote down all the stuff I wanted to do in 2023.  Wanna guess how much of it I got done?  yeah, I don't know how much I would be able to cross off that list. 

The list was overwhelming. 

I LOVE lists, and being able to cross items off lists.  I tried to bite was more off than I could chew with this one.

I also stopped doing Words of the Year a long time ago, too. 

I do my best. That's what I do. 

Recently I either read or heard a phrase along the lines of "Goals you can actually reach are ones that require little effort." and said to myself. "That makes a lot of sense. That's what I'm going to do." 

*Minimal is attainable* 

Sounds like I'm taking the easy way out, doesn't it? 

Well, maybe. ... maybe not.

I'm going to set my goals and then figure what I need to do to make reaching those goals realistic. 

So ... what is it that I want to do this year. 

*Quilting*

* My two quilt WIPs I have going right now. I want them done this year.  I need to break it up into bite-size pieces so I'll be able to have it complete by the end of December. 

Sandpiper quilt

Dancing Stars quilt

I also have the wall quilt for my bedroom.  I started it at the beginning of 2023.  I think. Yeah ... I want that finished ASAP.  *DONE!* - Jan. 18, 2024

* My snowflake cross stitch - I want that done!  I started the project back on 1/1/23. 

* A WIP project page I have the fabric already cut for.  *DONE! - Jan. 19, 2024

* An apron that I've had the fabric for for two years, at least, with the intention of making it for when I need to harvest produce from the garden. *DONE!* - Jan. 20, 2024

* Sweaters - I want to finish the Harvest Cardigan I'm currently working on.

Bly sweater pattern I have picked out for my handspun. 

Another crochet cardigan, like the grey one I made a few months ago. 

I need to find a pattern to use with some of the yarn my husband ordered for me from Temu. 

Ideally, I'd like to get 6 sweaters done this year. 

*Spinning 

I want to be consistant with my spinning, and not go in a burst during Tour de Fleece, and then drop it again for months at a time. 

If I spin ast least 4 ounces a month by the end of the year I think I will have enough for a sweater. 

   *UPDATE: 2/8/24 - I didn't make my 4 ounces for Jan.  The goal is to get caught up by the end of February. 

*Weaving

I haven't touched my loom in years.  I need to rectify that, STAT. My loom is out in the she shed so it's not like I can just sit down and start weaving.  In the wintertime I need to make a fire.  Oh, and there's warping the loom.  I struggle with warping.  I need practice.  

If anyone has suggestions for loom projects, let me know. 

*Charity stitching 

A few years ago I discovered a charity (Make Bundles for Babies) I wanted to stitch for.  I want to make one hat and blanket set a month.  Then send off a box at the end of the year. I have plenty of yarn for making this happen. 

*January - done!

*Knitting machine

More than a year ago my hubby brought home a knitting machine from one of the rental properties he was working on, I think.  

It needs some TLC.  I've spent time on it, trying to get it to work.  I have joined a few Facebook groups and will be doing some research to learn more about how the machines works and to verify that everything is in working order. 

If I can get this machine working as it should, I can make a TON of sweaters. Wouldn't that be awesome?!

These are the *big* goals I want to reach by the end of the year. I'm not going to micromanage myself and say "oh, I  can't start anything new until I finish one first." Nope, that's not gonna happen.  I need to be kind to myself and remind myself that I have other things going on my life, too. 

A lazy-ish Saturday

 I slept pretty good last night and woke up feeling somewhat refreshed. 

I spent some time knitting on my Harvest Cardigan, while watching Woody Woodpecker on MeTv. 

By the light of one low light, and watching the sky slowly brighten to a dull grey. 

There wasn't too much on the to-do list today.  

Late in the morning my hubby and I went tromping in to the cedar woods and looked around for some downed cedars. 

The trees we took samples have been down for around 10 years, if not longer.  

We took those samples and my husband knocked some chunks out of them and we got to see how good the wood is. 

Like it had been cut down yesterday. 

So pretty!

A couple years ago I had to go to one of the home improvement stores and pick out cedar planks for our sauna.  It was really hard to find cedar that looked as nice as what we just pulled out of our woods. 

Hubby and I are going around and around a potential homestead-y project, and use wood harvested from our land.  We are still going around and around, pondering it. 

Otherwise, it's been a fairly quiet Saturday. It snowed a bit. We did some hunting. Nothing to report there. 

Tomorrow I'm sure I'll have more on my to-do list, and speaking of lists, I'll be working on my goals for 2024 list. 

Northwoods weather

 Yesterday I woke up to a combo of ice and snow that was sticking to everything. 

When I went out to the back 20 it was so pretty. This blog post is going to be photo-heavy. 

I took a short video while I was out there.  The squirrels were running around and making all kinds of noises.  I'm not sure if I was able to record the noises. 

I saw this fella outside one of my windows, enjoying a snack. I thought it would make a neat photo. 

And then, in the early afternoon, the sun came out and the snow and ice mixture started melting. 

When you looked in the other direction, the sky looked completely different. 

Something neat happened when the sun hit the trees in the front yard. The sun started melting all the snow and ice in the trees and turned the frost on the tree trunks to steam.

This morning we woke up to more frost. 

Brrr!

You ever see something and think "Wow, that's so pretty!" and try to take a photo of it? 

That happened to me this morning. 

Sun shining bright behind the trees, and there was a mist in the air. 

The sun wouldn't let the camera on my phone focus. 

I ended up having to move until the sun was behind the trees. 

Frost on the leaves. 

Speaking of leaves, I gave Feffer some fresh oak leaves this morning and he was happy as can be. 

Last night I spent some time in the craft room drawing lines on pieces of fabric. Then I placed them together and stuck them with pins. 

A project I'm hoping to have done by the end of January.  Would be great if it was completed sooner. 

Today was a pretty quiet day, and it went quickly. My hubby was able to leave work early and we went out hunting this afternoon.  All I saw was a squirrel. 

This evening I knit a bit on my Harvest Cardigan. 

I'm also pondering a goal list for 2024.  Last year I tried a list and failed miserably.  I think I may have been dreaming too big.   Minimal is attainable. 

Snow and a finished object! Woo hoo!

 We woke up to a bit of snow on the ground this morning. 

Just a covering. ... 

Yeah, and the lighting was funky this morning. 

I feel so bad for the chickens. No matter what this season they can't have a dry coop run. 

My weekly trip to town was today. I would have gone yesterday, but I didn't want to deal with potential crowds. 

When I came back, I had lunch and took a quick cat nap.  

Then I played in the kitchen for the afternoon. 

I made a "sweet" cheeseball for my hubby.  

He said he liked this one better than the one I made for Christmas.  Woo hoo! 

And I just realized I didn't take a photo of it. 

I did take a photo of the cheeseball I was re-tweaking. 

I mixed the cream cheese for both cheeseballs until it was light and fluffy. 

While I was being all domestic and making and baking I was watching a garden show on Amazon Prime. 

I thought the closed caption caught was funny. 

Banana bread was made, too. 

In mini loaf pans because they are so fancy and pinky up. 

Yum!  It is tasty! 

This is what the front yard looked like this afternoon. 

My back yard. 

There was something pretty going on with the sky.  The sun kept trying to peek out and I thought it would win.  It did not. 

This evening I finished up the project I've been working on.  Could you tell from yesterday's photo what the project might be? 

It is a kitty cat. 

Maybe not the best lighting for her. 

Let's try this one. 

This is the biggest plush toy I've made with the chenille-type yarn. 

It was not easy to work with as you might think it will be. Especially if you have to unto stitching when you are sewing parts on.  And she's supposed to have a donut treat.  I'm not making one.  Maybe down the road, if I saw a color yarn I thought would go well.  Right now the local walmart has white, pink and green yarn of this type. 

But I digress.  

I'm happy it's done.  I have a grand plan to make a second one. Both will be gifts. 

Losing track of my days already

 I woke up today thinking it was Monday.  

Nope. So my pill minder is all in chaos. No idea how that happened. 

I'm on "real" vacation for the next few days.  None of that holiday stuff! 

Ha!

My day wasn't very exciting. 

After I made my hubby's lunch and kissed him and saw him off to work, I had a quick cup of coffee and proceeded to start my day by tidying up the house. 

Then I started laundry. Very exciting. 

There was paperwork-type stuff to be caught up on, and I had to do a bit of research so I could take care of something that's been on the to-do list for quite a while. 

Before I knew it, it was time to start supper. 

Then I worked on my pink yarn project while watching tv with my hubby. 

I decided to flip through the Hulu catalog and decided to give the Mary Tyler Moore show a go.  It's one of the few shows that I watched a bit when I was a kid, but didn't really get and didn't find funny.  Now that I'm more "seasoned" I understand it. 

I needed a bit of a break from House, M.D. that I've been watching.  I need new tv shows to watch. 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, dear readers! 

We stuck close to home the last couple of days. 

Christmas Eve I spent the morning doing a bit of food prep. The only two things I took pictures of were the two cheeseballs I made. 

This one I started off with a recipe from Almanac. I was a bit disappointed with it.  Don't get me wrong, it tasted just fine.  However, one of the groups at our local Cathedral church makes cheeseballs every year for a fundraiser and they are SO good. I know some of the ingredients that are used for the cheeseball.  I'm going to try and make one.  Wish me luck. 

The other cheeseball I made was a dessert cheeseball, that I made with my own inspiration, no recipe. 

This one was a HUGE hit with my husband.  I tried to replicate the flavor of the cranberry-covered goat cheese logs from Aldi.   I done did good. 

For the main meal we had a gorgeous prime rib roast. 

We went hunting in the afternoon. The neighbors started shooting firearms again.  Incredibly frustrating. This time around the shooting sounded further away. 

Oh! Sunday I did watch some Christmas movies. My friend Becky was talking about Christmas movies on a recent blog post and I got to thinking that I should probably watch a few. 

While I was doing food prep I watched Christmas at PeeWee's Play house. 

Then later on I watched A Muppet Family Christmas. 

What a throwback watching this movie was.  It included the commercials from the year 1987. 

Today was a quiet day.  Woke up to more rain.  Did I mention the rain we had yesterday?  Yup.  Rain. 

Then more rain today. 

Today our big meal was beef tenderloin steaks.  Yum! And then the boys had crab legs (surf and turf) 

This is one of the crab leg clusters. 

What did we have on the television while we were prepping this meal and eating? 

Why MXC of course.  Nothing screams Christmas quite like this show. 

I watched a bit of A Christmas Story while knitting a few rows on my Harvest Cardigan before we ate.

If you couldn't tell, I completely forgot about a Christmas Day cast on. As much as I try to remember these sorts of things, I more often than not forget about them.  So, for now until maybe New Year's Eve, I'll just keep working on my cardigan and other current WIPs I have. 

Or, maybe I'm in the minority of my knitting/stitching/crafting circle. Does anyone do Christmas or New Year's Eve cast ons? 

A little bit later I was watching the Muppets Christmas Carol.  My first time seeing it.  They have a different spin on the story.  I haven't finished the movie yet. Don't tell me how it ends. *wink* 

I told my husband the rats in this movie reminds me of the creatures that hang on Jabba the Hut in the Star Wars movies. He agreed.  Even the noises the rats make are similar to what the other creatures make. 

This afternoon we went out hunting again. No random shooting from the neighbors this time. 

ANNNNNDD I had a bit of action. 

A small doe showed up.  She was super skittish and left within a few seconds after this girl showed up. Then this gal left after a moment. 

It was the first deer I've seen in almost two months. 

So that was exciting. 

Then close to shooting hours ending I got a text from my hubby, saying he was packing up.  I wrote back, saying "okay" and started packing up myself. 

Then I looked out the window and went "Sh*t!" and quickly sent a text saying "Deer!" 

I quick looked through my scope and through my binoculars.  Another doe. Possibly one of the "babies" we said we were going to pass on.  I confirmed it was not a buck. Also, you see that ribbon?  I have that. ribbon to help me know if the deer is big enough to harvest. 

I got to sit for a few moments and watch her guard the pile from another deer.  Then she ate for a few moments and then disappeared.  A moment or two later my husband was there, waiting for me to leave the blind so we could go back to the house.  

This evening we opened gifts and my husband was happily surprised by the gift from our son, and my son was really surprised by the gifts we gave him. I already received my gifts from my husband (the yarn) and my son ordered my gift but it won't be here for a few weeks. My guess is that it's something garden-related. 

Speaking of gardening ... now I can officially start thinking about all things gardening-related, if I haven't mentioned it already. Yay! I need to pull out my binder that I started this year, and I'm taking notes from some of the things shared from Kristin at Shifting Roots. 

You don't have to be a fast knitter ...

 You just need to be dedicated and knit a LOT. 

Last night I had two inches of the mitten cuff.  

This morning I got up, wiped the bleariness from my eyes and had a cup of coffee.  

Then I started knitting.  

Don't remember how long I knit.  The day had to be started. And I was hungry. 

Then we ran to town. 

I didn't have to drive, so I brought the mitten. 

I knit on the way to town, and on the way home. 

When I got home, I did house-y things, like cleaning up the kitchen and ... I don't remember what else. 

Then I took a nap. 

Then I got up and got ready for hunting. 

Another time of it being so quiet out there that my ears were ringing. 

The temperature this afternoon ... unreal. I saw bugs flying around.  BUGS! on Dec. 23. 

I had immediate regrets that I didn't bring the mitten with me.  I could have knit and not have worried about my hands getting cold. 

And ... unfortunately my hunting time was cut short. 

Someone decided to empty a magazine of something that was not .22 ammo a little too close for comfort.  

I was reading a book on my kindle app when I heard "bang, bang, bang, bang ... etc.," and it felt stupidly close to where I was sitting.  My hubby said it sounded like it was right by him. 

So ... if anything might have been coming our way, it obviously took off and left the area. 

We came back to the house and had supper. 

Then ... I started knitting.  I knit and I knit. And I knit. 

And now I am done!

Just in time.