Happy 2019!
Tomorrow, the Democrats take over the House. I can’t wait!
We had a quiet New Year’s Eve, no surprise there. We went out for a late breakfast, walked to a vintage record shop, bought some cheese from our local cheese shop, shopped a bit at the antiques barn, had a veggie hot dog, and headed home. Late in the afternoon, we poured a glass of sparkling cider, had some cheese and crackers, and had an early toast to the New Year.
Those are my grandmother’s wine glasses. I was fond of them as a child because they had flowers etched into the glass.
Then we organized our records and watched four episodes of the Twilight Zone Marathon. We were in bed by 11:00.
From the antique barn:
A sheep and an egg cup. Is the egg cup Pyrex, Westmoreland, something else? I’m not sure. Glass egg cups have not been a part of the collection until now. But I loved the white and orange combination. Cheery. It’s tall and it won’t fit in the cubby cabinet, so it’s on the little shelves in the den.
I spent an hour or so yesterday making a backdrop for my mantel sheep. During a trip to Michael’s a couple of weeks ago, I found some interesting scrapbook paper that I thought might work. So I measured the width of the shelf and cut pieces of cardboard (which I found easily because I had just reorganized my pink cabinet!), taped them together, then I cut corresponding pieces of scrapbook paper and taped them on the cardboard with painter’s tape. That way I can change them out when I want to.
The paper has clouds and little airplanes. Keep in mind that the background is only 3½ inches high because the wall begins its slant at that point.
The ornament that is hanging on the right is made from a real egg and has two doves inside. Don gave it to me for Christmas because they’re turtle doves and because I love doves. It’s really beautiful. I’ll share a closeup sometime soon.
A closeup of the paper.
I finished the Louise Penny book this morning. I really liked it – Penny can’t write a bad book. The storylines were compelling. But, it’s not my favorite. Normally – and I’m not kidding about this – I am in tears at the end of one of her novels because she has woven everything together in a way that is life-affirming and transcendent. I didn’t cry this time and I knew I wouldn’t cry when I was reading in bed last night. Now, I realize that is no way to judge a novel. It’s just an indicator that, though I was engaged in the writing, it didn’t take me where it has taken me in the past. Something was missing for me.
All that being said, she is a wonderful writer and I love the characters and the setting of Three Pines and everything about that community and the people who live in it. And I can’t wait for next year’s book to come out.
Today? Christmas comes down. I’m ready for a change. I asked Don if he wanted me to keep the tree up for New Year’s Day and he said yes. So today it is. I’m also going to drop my book donations off at the library.
Happy Wednesday.
I wish I had taken a few days off this week; I would have loved to be able to start taking down the Christmas decor today. I always leave everything up through New Year’s Day (including keeping the lights on, etc on NY Day). But I am ready to get it put up now. I usually wait until Jan 6th each year, and because I am working this today – Fri this week and because I am taking my disabled foster son grocery shopping Saturday morning, I won’t get started until late Saturday afternoon. Oh well. Anyways, HAPPY NEW YEAR.
Dawn P.
Just relax, Dawn! It will get done when it gets done. I’ve left my decorations up until past Epiphany some years! Happy New Year to you!
You and Don have created a lovely life for yourselves. You are lovely people.
Thank you, Carolyn Marie!
oh, i think that background paper is perfect for your sheep … great choice!
nice of you to donate all those books.
and your new year’s eve and day sound lovely. except for your being a bit underwhelmed (is that fair to say?) by a favorite author’s latest book. sweet finds from the antiques shop, too.
when does don have to get his votes in for the sag awards (how much time do you have to watch all those screeners)?
and yay for having a check on 45 starting tomorrow.
happy wednesday!
kathy in iowa
Can’t remember when he has to vote – mid January? We need to get started!
You are amassing quite the flock of darling sheep! The cloud background is just perfect for them. Your too-tall egg cup makes me miss my Pyrex dishes at the lake, but it makes me happy to know that it lives with you now. (Looking at the bamboo tree and wondering if today will be the day to take it down? We’ll see…)
I’m still sitting here – having eaten and taken a shower, but no tree down yet! I’ll force myself to get going.
I’m now looking forward to a closeup of that dove ornament!
xo
I can’t seem to muster the energy to take down Christmas but I am ready for it to be put away. I’m chipping away at it slowly. I finished the new John Grisham novel and it was quite good. I want to see the Grands before they head back to school so will try to visit them today.
School started back up again today – I heard the school bus this morning! Enjoy the grands!
Christmas dishes will be back in their boxes today, along with the Christmas tree and the rest of the decorations. I am reading a Louise Penny book on your recommendation as her as an author. I thought it started slow, but now I am hooked in. She has lovely writing with lots of “asides” I guess you would call them. Makes me want to underline, but since I will be passing them on, I won’t do that. Have a very joyful and healthy 2019. PS- I love to type 2019. The keys are next to each other so I can use four fingers.
I hadn’t thought about typing 2019! You’re right.
It sounds like a lovely New Years and I love the sheep backdrop! All very good and a wonderful start to a new year!
I must try Louise Penny to see if she has that effect on me,need some positivity where I can get it these days. I usually read the Alexander McCall Smith books set in Botswana for feel good factor. I am reading the new Michael Connolly now, and like you I am rationing it so it lasts through dreary January (I hope). Good luck with throwing stuff out,I am taking Christmas down tomorrow and combining it with ruthlessly getting rid of things I really don’t need. Husband will take them all to a Charity shop quickly before I can change my mind and rummage through the bags again !
Good luck to an interesting tomorrow. My son lived on Long Island for a while and explains politics to me. ( as well as why the Jets are no good now !)
Take care, Megan.
I just put all the Christmas stuff away and tomorrow I’ll start in on the upstairs closet. Thanks, Megan!
Thank you, Jeanie!
I am still waking up in the morning and having trouble realizing what day of the week it is. School started today, so maybe now I will be back on track. I have been putzing about this morning, but as I sit here, I’m not quite sure what exactly (if anything) has been accomplished.
Love the pretty blue skyline for your sweet sheep. They look happy, too!
Hope you have a nice WEDNESDAY! Back to the routine of every-day!! I think I am ready.
I am definitely ready, Chris!
Perfect choice with that scrapbook paper. That’s definitely your green, for one thing, and it looks absolutely made for that spot with the sheep etc. I always get waylaid in a crafts store when I start looking over all the scrapbook goodies – my mind runs riot with possibilities. But then I never do anything. Just not my thing I guess. But I love seeing what other people do creatively – in any medium. YOU are incredibly creative, Claudia. Looking forward to seeing how you “do” your newest dollhouse. Enjoy the rest of your week! Peace.☃️
#Resist
#ProtectMueller
I’m not a scrapbooker, so I hardly ever buy that paper, but it does come in handy at times! Thanks, Janet!
I’m in the middle of a Louise Penny book myself. I can’t remember who/which blog recommended it but it was probably you. She is a good writer.
You are very lucky in your husband. He seems like a really good guy.
Probably me, as I’ve written extensively about her.
And Don IS a really good guy. Thanks, Jan.
I agree with you about the new Louise Penny. She is one of my favourite writers, but this one didn’t leave me quite satisfied. I actually had the thought that these characters had run their course and that it might be time for a new story line. The most moving part I found in her afterword.
Her afterward was very moving, Melanie. I agree.
Not to give away the ending to those who haven’t read it – I was surprised at the turn of events and wonder what that means for the future?
I’m on a Claudia break so to speak. Christmas is coming down…so I’m sitting here with my feet up, halfway done…giving my legs a rest.
Love that paper for your sheep…it’s perfect. I’m curious to see your new ornament…what a lovely gift. I received the last Penny novel for Christmas…so I’m anxious to start. I don’t cry when I finish reading one of her novels…but I always have this longing to live there…and be friends with everyone.
Yesterday, my youngest son and I went through a dozen boxes of my Mom and Dad’s books. They’ve been stored for 11 years now. So we kept some…really only a few…and the rest I’ll take to the Half Price bookstore here in town. It was time…and I made some room in the garage that we desperately need. There’s more sorting still to do…but, I’m off to a great start.
Oops…I’ve rested too long…back to work. Happy 2019! ;)
I think everyone has a longing to live in Three Pines – I sure do!!
I finished the new Louise Penny book a few days ago. While I enjoyed it very much it was not in any way my favorite either! Happy New Year to you and Don.
Happy New Year, Judy!
Claudia, I hope packing away your decorations won’t take too long. We didn’t do much decorating for the holidays so there is not much to put away. In fact, now that I look around, no items to put away! We always leave out my daughter’s collection of nutcrackers, a set of jingle bells that I put oh a hook at the back door, and very tiny ornaments on one of my jewelry trees that looks like a tree.
Today is handwashing all afternoon, but I use a product that doesn’t require rinsing. I just soak the garments (mostly our handknitted sweaters and shawls) for 10-15 minutes, squeeze out the liquid, and lay out to dry. So I just dump items in one at a time, and go off to do something while the item soaks. What I’m doing is reassembling a cutting table we gifted my Mom decades ago, and she no longer uses it, so it will be my downstairs cutting table. My upstairs one is in my sewing room but I use it mostly to lay cut pieces to pin together before sewing, and to stack projects. The sewing room is too small to extend both leaves, so I’m excited about having one downstairs and be able to lay flat over 2 yards of fabric.
We don’t have all that much on display for Christmas, but it does involved taking all the ornaments off the tree, etc., then carefully moving the egg cup cubby away from the wall, so I can store everything under the stairs. It took a couple of hours, all told.
Hi Claudia,
I just finished the Louise Penny book, too, and I think it is the last of the Gamache mysteries. It felt a little “hail and farewell” to me. Without giving too much away, I think all the main characters reached a resolution in their fictional lives, and I thought she telegraphed the solutions to the two main plots all the way through in a way that I haven’t noticed before. Penny does say in the acknowledgements that she wondered if she would write again following her husband’s death, and the book very much felt like a salute to him – she has said that Gamache is very much based on his personality and nature. She is such a good writer that it would be wonderful if she started a new series.
Happy New Year,
Betty
It’s not the last, Betty. I just received her newsletter today and she’s in the middle of editing her next book in the series.
I let my oldest son talked me into putting our tree up Thanksgiving weekend while he was here. Yesterday it came down after over a month, way longer than we’ve ever had it up. Today I wandered around the house finding things to take down and setting them on the dining room table. It was softly snowing all day long and was so beautiful I was easily distracted from totally dismantling Christmas. But I’m retired now so – it’ll happen when it happens and instead I sat and knitted and watched the snow ;-)
Love your shelf of tiny sheep. I don’t scrapbook either but find the paper sometimes comes in quite handy for other crafting.
Isn’t it nice that you can do all of that when you want to?
I decorated a bit earlier than usual this year, which is part of why I was ready to take it all down.
We started to take down some of the decorations. It is time to get the house back in order.
Marilyn
It will feel good, Marilyn!
Do you think Louise Penny will write another book about Three Pines? I felt she was tying up loose ends and leaving us with glimpses of happy endings in an anti-climactic way . The afterward also seemed to be showing us “the man behind the curtain”. I hope she will write more about Gamache – this has been a wonderful series of books!
Yes. I know that because I received her monthly newsletter yesterday and she’s in the middle of editing the next book. So, you’ll get your wish, Barbara!
I’m looking for a good vegetarian hotdog . Any suggestions? 😊
Not really. We got these from a vendor and I don’t know the brand name, Sue!
Maybe a bit of artificial green grass under the sheep would look cute too!
It’s a neat idea, but these vintage putz sheep are a bit wobbly and definitely fragile. It’s hard enough to keep them steady on a hard surface, let alone artificial green grass!
Sounds like a lovely way to say goodbye to a challenging year. I expect this year will be “interesting” too as the old Chinese curse says, interesting in a way that shows the unmaking of a tyrant, I hope. And while I’m beating to death the subject of pianos, just yesterday I heard from my sister that her daughter-in-law wants to sell or give away the lovely Baldwin spinet that was our aunt’s. I have lots of memories associated with that instrument which was in Aunt Marjorie’s house in El Paso, TX, for over 35 years, especially in relation to her wonderful lab mix, Susie, who was very frightened of thunderstorms which happen frequently and violently in that area. Susie would hurry to the bedroom where her “babies” were kept–an assortment of knitted toys made by another aunt”–and take a baby with her to hide under the coffee table, and when I was there I would hop to the piano and play as loudly as I could to help down out the sounds of ball lightening. It helped me not be so scared, too. Long story, it’s possible the kids will let me have the piano!! I only need to get it from Pittsburgh to. here–up and down two long dirty, muddy, slippery drives and from one second floor room to another. Piano mover estimate was $1500-2000. In the old days when I was younger, I could do it with my brother and 1 or 2 friends and a dolly, and that was moving the old upright. LOL. Being old is damned expensive! I have a few days to see what I can work out. Surprisingly, even with the Thompson dominating our living room, my husband did not throw a fit about bringing in another piano which I hope will go upstairs. If this works, he has no idea I’ve dreamed of a baby grand like the one I learned on oh these many years ago!! LOL. I hope CNN or something has the swearing in ceremonies of the new congress: all colors, all genders, all creeds–I can’t wait to see the class photo! I’m happy for you because I know you must feel hopeful about this, too. XO
Wow! Another piano! Good for you, Nora! I’m so glad you’re rescuing it.
(I always dreamed of a baby grand, too. Meredith has one, and it’s lovely!)