Today happens to be both Easter and Earth Day. Happy Easter Earth Day, then!
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
If the above’s the Earth part, here’s the Easter part. 🙂
Benson Kua on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).
I love both images, as different as they are.
Hope your week has started enjoyably!
While looking through my photos for the last snowfalls in recent years, I ran into this striking April sunset from a few years ago:
The little pond is just down the street from us. I quite like living in the woods! 🙂
Now that I’m back to blogging, here’s the December 2018 recap.
Unusually, the first snow of the winter fell before Thanksgiving. It didn’t quite melt by the end of November, but for the most part the ground was bare and the weather warm for December.
We put my Christmas ornament projects to use. This year we decided on a rainbow-colored tree.
During our break we cooked, ate well and rested, of course…
…not forgetting to go outside either.
I really scored at my local public library this Christmas: ALL of the Downton Abbey seasons and ALL of the (so-far released) seasons of Call the Midwife were on the shelf!
Woot! 🙂 And we had a lovely, lovely period-drama-filled break.
Unfortunately, 2018 was a complicated year in terms of health. I won’t go into detail, but the situation is serious enough to have changed doctors, made my first visit to the ER and been introduced to the CT, EEG and MRI procedures. In addition, due to some baffling complications I haven’t been fully perky and/or upright for nine months. (Gosh, such a long time!)
I had hoped that continuing my treatment regimen AND enjoying a thoroughly guilt-free, restful Christmas would enable me to show these complications the door and wish them good riddance, but sadly that hasn’t yet happened. So, I’m going to have to continue with a lighter creative work load while taking care of myself.
What are you wishing most from 2019?
Best wishes for luck, good health and happiness to you and yours for 2019.
Stay safe.
Today is the Finnish Independence Day. We’re 101 years old!
As is our custom, I’m lighting two candles.
(In case you’re interested, here are my thoughts on the 100th anniversary.)
For the U.S.: Happy Thanksgiving!
I’m completely off (not even a peek at social media) for a few days to enjoy family time. I’ll resume posting next week.
Stay safe.
The next World of Warcraft expansion, Battle for Azeroth, is scheduled to launch soon, around August 14, 2018.
Three weeks. Eeeeek! There may be just enough time to do the very last things I want / need from Legion.
Anything you need to finish up?
The other day I was looking for something completely different in my Flickr albums, when I ran across this image from last year:
It still makes me smile: I just happened to look out the window at a good time to see a wild rabbit taking a sandbath in a shallow depression. The depressions were dug into our yard by a turtle, we think; we see them digging test holes some years. Other years they must be laying eggs somewhere else.
I guess the sand felt cooler to the rabbit than the grass? What an incredible coincidence nonetheless; I’ve never seen a wild bunny do that. It must’ve felt comfortable to have stretched out its back leg(s) like that. Cute attack! 🙂
What’s a summer without strawberry cake?
There’s something special about having a cake from fresh, local berries. As the first berries of the season, strawberries are extra special. Thank you, Hubby, for baking Finnish-style cakes!
P.S. Happy Independence Day to my U.S. readers!
This month, I tested a bucket bag pattern to make two canvas pouches. They have a round bottom, which allows them to stand upright when empty.
The canvas has a really great, understated floral pattern outlined in white. I added a coordinating green and white polka dot accent (a better view here). I just need to finish the documentation and take more pictures, then I can list them in the shop.
I use similar baggies to organize my socks, undies and bras when traveling, and find them very handy. These ended up really cute, even if I say so myself. 🙂 I’m also finishing another, slightly taller pair from teal floral canvas.
Otherwise, I spent most of my sewing time adapting patterns and making clothes for myself. Last year, I made a bunch of tops mostly out of linen…
I already picked apart the grey top’s neckline to re-do. 🙂
So, this year, to go with the tops, I adjusted a pajama pants pattern into two (day) shorts variants, one without and the other with a side seam.
Apart from creating a pattern that fits me well, it was great to use some of my leftover fabric with the first few test pairs. Some were highly experimental, others used up bits and pieces that by themselves were too small to make anything. At times I had to be very creative to make a whole pair of shorts!
Then I wanted to add pockets to the shorts without a side seam. That lead to more experiments…
I may have gone a little overboard – I now have five new pairs of shorts! Also, I want to make a pattern for a pantskirt (with pockets, naturally) and add pockets to a dress pattern I like. Good grief, I may have unleashed a pocket monster! 😀
Speaking of pantskirts – is that the English word commonly used? The Finnish term I grew up with is the same word for word (housuhame). I did also find the translation ‘coulottes’, but I don’t have a good enough of a grasp of that or pantskirt. Coulottes does ping my medieval or Renaissance-era brain, but that may just be the ex-SCAdian in me talking.
As usual, I took a few days off to enjoy the midsummer, and it was glorious. For one, wild roses in our neighborhood were absolutely loaded with blossoms this year.
The only interference came from the trees:
A-choo!
On the other hand, blossoming allergies meant I had a great excuse to stay inside and play more WoW. 🙂 I set the game aside last month, but now I wanted to get back to mop up last quests and achievements before the Battle for Azeroth expansion is released in August.
Both spring and summer were late this year, but we finally have pleasant summer weather. I hope it is enjoyable wherever you are!
