throwback Thursday and other thoughts

in which our plucky heroine cogitates...

I've been thinking, as one does, about what I hope to move forward on for 2024, and in some ways my mind is fizzing with desires... I know I want to and plan to complete the few remaining and various owed-to-others projects, that I have been loath to finish. I have a peculiar mental construct that ties finishing up the loose ends with finishing up my life, in an odd sort of staving off death way. I've decided this is foolish, and simply clearing the decks will only give me more space for new creative commissions.

I want to return to the tinyworld, in conjunction with some of the planned decluttering, as my tiny friends have been very patiently waiting for better living quarters than the tops of my bookcases and storage shelves. And Kenya is impatient to start populating her art gallery...

There will likely be a fair amount of garment sewing, other textile and handcraft projects, and time spent in the metal and enamel zone as well. I am looking forward to finding out what various creative projects will take my fancy each day as I add that extra 15 minutes to my morning routine

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~ Advent Swap day 28 ~

As we get closer to the end of December, the "Advent of a Better Year in 2024" swap is winding down, but I am still finding the daily treat to be a delight... today I had an origami box that was holding another specially chosen rock. This one was almost black, unlike the earlier creamy white one, with the same flat and rounded contour and also from Lake Michigan. It'd be a great fidget stone to keep in a pocket...

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I have discovered La Fermière yogurt, which showed up at my local grocery in the "spendy individual serving yogurt" section of the dairy cooler. (I usually buy my yogurt in the quart size containers, as an "ingredient") Instead of being sold in plastic tubs, their yogurt was in decorative glazed terracotta pots, which caught my eye as potentially useful. The shape is taller than it is wide, and slightly wider at the bottom than the top, which makes them hard to tip over, and I was thinking about pen or pencil cups, or possibly to hold paint water...

While talking to Raven and Marian, (who told me that it also comes in floral flavors!!{jasmine, lavender, and rose}), I saw that Marian had baked treats in some of their empty jars... apparently the jars are oven (and microwave) safe, which makes reusing them even more appealing. I'll not ever buy many, since they are so pricey, but it is by far the tastiest yogurt I have ever encountered...

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~ hat trinkets ~

The completed knitted oak leaf and acorns* brooch is a bit large to wear on a lapel, but will be a great hat decoration... I'll also be making an assortment of felt flowers, experimenting to recreate the lost Mexican abalone horse brooch, and thinking about what else could be found or remade to replace the lost hatband decorations and to add whimsy to my headwear...

Back in 2008, Andrea Zuill published a free embroidery design "Speckled Bird", which I embroidered on the front of a grey corduroy pinafore; when that garment wore out, I turned the bird into a brooch, which I loved and wore for years, until the hat it was pinned to got lost. As part of my desire to to re-create what has gone missing, I've started to embroider the bird again, using my old photo as a guide...

(my bird embroidery on a pinafore from 2010)
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December SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	7 jars quince	kitchen plumbing	old plumbing
2	dried pears	heat pump installed	old furnace
3	dried persimmons	return vent vanes	high pitched whine
4	linen gauze privacy curtains	bedroom register	yard waste bin
5	tiny peach charm	bike flat tire	recycle bin
6	1-wire Laurel setting	restring necklace	x
7	"merry mathoms" stamp	x	x
8	white Pelican setting	x	x
9	knit acorn oakleaf brooch	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. Julia picked up a small strand of LED lights for me, to use for dollhouse lighting... that will be fun to experiment with! I had already put aside a few miniatures to send to her...
2.the delicious La Fermière yogurt is sold in wee terra cotta jars. The jars are oven and microwave safe, which makes them even more useful, and somewhat mitigates the high cost...
3. It was quite wonderful to be out riding my bike today and having a Grateful Dead concert as the soundtrack. Old Me, riding along the empty drizzly street and singing aloud felt very much like longago Young Me, who also would ride around on her bicycle and sing. Then I was too young to care what people thought, and now I am old enough that I also do not care. And the music brings up eversomany transparent memories of the years between Old Me and Young Me

Time of Isolation - Day 1274

* pattern for knitting acorns and for oak leaves comes from the book 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet