The North Wind Doth Blow

It's cold here in Crazyville today, but we have no snow. I don't know if that's a blessing or not. I stayed home from the after-Christmas sales yesterday or from going to Mom's for some leftovers due to the winter weather warning we had. That turned out to be a false alarm and the bad weather was down in Southern Maryland and across the Bay.

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas if they celebrated. Ours was OK. Left-brain spent too much on me. I thought we were on a budget this year, but he was very generous. I am snuggling in my new Baltimore Ravens hoodie. Now, I love the Cowboys, but the Ravens are my #2 and it's about time I had some gear! I look good in purple! I bought Left-brain a Ravens tee as well; I was afraid he wouldn't like it because it has foil on it, but I thought he'd look good in it, and it's not too "rah-rah" for him, and I think he liked it. My mom got me a really sweet nativity scene where the participants were Amish--I had told her about it, but never thought she'd get it in time for the holidays. I set it up as soon as we got home from the gift exchange--such teeny little figures! I also got my Breyer Christmas horse--I set him under the coffee table where I have the other ones I managed to get out of the display box. I have a fairly large vintage collection of Breyers, but stopped collecting new ones when I bought my first car because it was an expensive hobby and I got more use out of a new car than model horses, but I still get the Christmas horses, and I have to say I love them. The boxes are still difficult to open, though--I poked myself in the finger two or three times, trying to get them out on Christmas Eve. It took me a half hour to undo one, and to sort out its festive trappings, so those were the only two I opened. Left-brain's brother and SIL got us a pretty candle holder that I'm loving! It was great fun.

Yesterday was a day of recovery, since we couldn't go anywhere--probably for the best, really. I unpacked our gifts and arranged them under the tree. And I tried to clean up--the office has become a den of iniquity and disarray over the last few days, so I picked up in there, and also put the mancave into a bit of order. I have some stitching stuff to put away so that, when my family comes over for New Year's Day, they don't think we live like pigs, but I think it's all doable in the first three days of the week.

To reward myself for another Christmas season successfully completed, I started a new project yesterday. I'm now working on Minguistitch's Autumn Equinox, a pretty freebie that is A LOT more challenging than I had imagined. Right now, I'm working on her, I think, hair, and it's a tumbled mass of colors, without a lot of sense of where we're going, but it's OK. I never thought grey and flesh would work well together, but it looks good.

5 more days til I can start my January Challenge. I can't wait. I think I'll start working the afghan in as I finish charts. Since I have a few smallish charts, I'll try to get those finished quickly. I still need to dye some fabric for my Pinto chart--I'm thinking of dying an oatmeal flecked fabric blue. Maybe later this week . . . I'm still trying to decide if I should use some of the good dye I have for floss dyeing or just purchase a pack of RIT. RIT is much easier to use--no need to mix vinegar, detergent, or any of that--but the good stuff has a better range of color. Arrrghhh, decisions . . .