Country Fried Stitches...: It's a New Day!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

It's a New Day!

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Good Morning, 2013!!!!

Holy Moley - another year closes and a new day dawns. Isn't the concept of "a new year" fabulous? I mean, really, it's just another day, right? So the big blue marble encircled the giant fireball again, big whoop.. right? But, the idea of New Beginnings, Fresh Starts, Clean Slates, even the dreaded Resolutions... the whole Happy New Year enchilada is 100% brilliant, isn't it...? It's almost like free therapy (stay with me here)--- the calendar, random people on the street, your friends and family, the teevee, radio, newspaper all proclaiming in one loud voice: "Hey You! Here's your New Year! Throw out all that old year garbage (and bad habits) and make yourself/your home/your life new again." What an awesome message, and you know what's more incredible than that? The WHOLE WORLD celebrates the "New" Year. Think about that. The entire world celebrates this moment in time, a new beginning. I find that to be amazing in and of itself.

I like it so much, I think I'll have two in 2013! :-)

So, what have I been up to since my last post? A whole lot which is why my blogging time shrunk to zero. I was so busy, I didn't even have time to miss it but it does feel great to be back here today, catching up with all of your happenings over the holidays.

Year in Review: 2012 had two main themes - travel and my sweet Carmen.

Hubby and I enjoyed visiting Italy, Greece, Turkey, Colorado, and Las Vegas this past year. Since we both still work full-time, (and aren't spring chickens anymore) we nearly wore ourselves and our suitcases out!

And, as you might remember, we lost our precious 12 1/2 year old canine daughter Carmen in August. It took months to adjust to an empty house. The sadness was overwhelming. My distraction of choice was reorganizing everything that wasn't nailed down. When I ran out of stuff of my own to reorganize, I reorganized my sister's kitchen and pantry. Hubby took to his workshop. In our grief, we were not fully capable of comforting one another so the Universe reached out to us and brought a totally unexpected new bundle of love, Kitty White Socks, into our lives.

While we know absolutely nada-zip-zilch-zero about cats, she has helped us find our silly side again. After months of sadness, tears, loneliness and grief, we smile and laugh and act like goofballs again. Do pets have this effect on all people or is it just us? It's nice. :-)

After Thanksgiving, I thoughfully packed away all the fall decorations (in their very own new storage totes) and gleefully set about decorating for Christmas. I love combining the old stuff with some new, just to keep it fresh. This year was no different.

The new-ish nativity I love so much...

The old stockings were hung...

The table was set (with new and old)...

And the Jolly ol' Elf was watching...

On the stitching front, I used the electrified sewing machine more this past year than I ever have. Using some of the prettiest fabrics I've collected over the years, I made about a dozen of these fun shoe bags for family, friends and self...