hand eye crafts

Going through my downloads folder looking for my next knitting pattern, I came across several saved photos that had struck me for one reason or another.  Let's close out the year by taking a gander, what do you say? My daughter adores her.  This is the best photo of her I've ever seen. For all the nonsense in the world right now, it's good to find reminders of good hearts. President Kennedy meets Helen Keller.  It never ceases to amaze me the people who shared time on this planet. "You go right over there and think about what you've done." "OY." Everybody looks good in a cowboy hat. "OY." You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. Everybody looks good in a cowboy hat. This is a sonic boom.  Amazing. TruBama. See you in 2019.

People seem not to believe me when I say rain and gray weather invigorate me more than sunshine ever will.  A chronically clinically depressed person, they argue, would benefit from warmth and sunlight.  When it's cold or rainy or what other people might call "dreary," I can stay in feeling cozy. The lamp lights throughout the house give things a glow that sunny days don't allow you to see.  Plus, rain produces one of my favorite sounds: cars driving through it.  Things are snuggly, and you can read or do crossword puzzles or work jigsaw puzzles and comfortably drink hot beverages. It's been raining here for the last couple of days, there's a good chance it'll rain over the next few, there's lots of football on TV. . .   Lovely.

It seems spending some time around me has resulted in Briton suffering the same head/neck/chest misery as me.  Mine still has me feeling like a freight train has slammed into my chest every morning --- hopefully, his experience with whatever this is will be much briefer.   There's something a bit odd in him not having gotten sick via any of the many children he's around at the library, but falling victim to me. It's much, much easier packing up Christmas decorations when there's no tree to strip.  I'm not in any hurry, just putting things away a few at a time.  My post-Christmas tradition of rearranging the den furniture won't happen this year, not having had to move things around to make room for a tree to begin with.   Tap got a banana for Christmas (if you haven't seen  this video , I highly recommend it): What you can't see are the three holes on the other side of the toy, each holding a little monkey.  Th...

One of the very rare snowy Christmas Days when I was little, my father took me out onto the driveway and into the yard to show me two sets of footprints.  One, clearly, had been made by a boot.  (A boot verry close to the size Daddy wore.)  The other were hooves, small, pointy, and one out of each four had an "R" right in its center It's one of my clearest and happiest Christmas memories. Christmas Eve here, I came across these in the backyard: No distinguishing letters, mind you, but plainly someone had been running through.  Maybe practicing take-offs and landings before the big night?

(If you watch any crime shows, you'll get the title.) My Number One Wish, real or imagined, greed or no, is a beach house. When I came up with the idea of the Greed List, I must admit the beach house and the Newfoundland were big ol' givens.  It was coming up with the other 23 that posed a bit of a problem. Happy Christmas, greedy or not!!!!

I wish for a Newfoundland. They start out adorable and stay wonderful. They come in black or brown. They will play with you in the snow. If you have a pony, they can help you out there. I would name my Newfoundland Wilson.

Not sure how things were/are done at your house, but where I've come from, and where I am right now, the "big," the "special-est" Christmas present is always saved to be opened last.  As we near the end of our Greed Wishlist, things are getting very serious. The twenty-second entry onto my list is an endless supply of season tickets to Vanderbilt football games. This should surprise no one.   Yes, there would have to be travel to and from, accommodations while in Nashville, but just assume all that is part of the season tickets deal. It is a wish  list, after all.

I am a big analog clock proponent.  That said, when I saw this, it went immediately onto my Amazon Wishlist. Isn't it cool?

Sorry to have missed last night.  I honestly didn't realize that's what had happened.  Lots of over-the-counter medicines, lots of sniffing and blowing and coughing, lots of napping. Sometimes when you're sick, sometimes when you're bedridden, you read.  My head, due to more than 3 days with over a 100-degree fever, and general sinus misery due to rain that started today, has ruled that out.  Assuming, though, that I will be able to read in the future, my Greed List entry from yesterday would have been Promise   Me,   Dad  by Joe Biden.  Not necessarily an autographed copy as pictured here, though that would be nice. For my other wish. let me go back a whole bunch of years.  My 5th-grade year was spent in a Nashville public school.  Starting with 6th grade, I became a student at a private school, remaining until graduating in 1978.  One of the million things that school exposed me to was tennis.  It's safe, and acc...

The second day of My Sickness. Better to be ill this week than on Christmas itself, I suppose.  Thankfully,  Instacart  provided a way for me to get medicine, heating pad, and orange juice yesterday.   Bless Tap --- he's been a trooper.  Taking him out has been a true chore.  Today, there were maybe half a dozen guys here to take down a dead pine in the backyard, and he was able to run from window to window to door to window yapping as long as they were here. Day Eighteen of the Greed List, and I'm going to stick with the car theme.  Along with the MG, I've long coveted a 1972 Cougar: Chocolate brown, if you please.  I've always like the back end: the wingish/fin-ish body from trunk to roof

I hate to have to "waste" a wish today, but I am sick.  Maybe I should wish for a handsome doctor to come to my aid.  Or two.

This one is very simple.  If it were at all possible, I would like to have a nice apartment/townhouse in Nashville. (Don't have a photo for this one.) Nashville has grown so much and so fast since I've been gone that it's out of my price range for moving back on my own.  A magical Christmas wish seems my best chance for going home.

All my life, I have had pets.  Well, there was a small gap when I was in third grade, between when this guy (Lupo) died and I got my Beagle, Country.  Lupe was born the same year as me, and he was just always there.  Even on rare snowy days. Greed List Wish for today: a Boxer puppy. Because, how can you not?

My father was a car person.  My husband was a car person.  I am not a car person, but there are a couple of cars that I have long coveted and, therefore, will include on my Greed List. An MGB GT.  This body type, but in white.  The boys' PE teacher and tennis coach at my high school had one, and that's how I learned about them.  At the end of a long and sort of convoluted story was Daddy thinking about buying it for me.  Except I couldn't, and still can't, drive a stick. But, man, I would have looked so cute sitting in it!

Some of you are coming up with magnificently fun Christmas wishes.  Houses and cooks --- you all deserve those things and more. My experience with Christmas has always been a bit different from others'.  My mother made all my clothes --- ALL --- which meant that I got new things to wear year 'round.  Clothes weren't "special," if you know what I mean.  All my friends would get so excited about outfits they got at Christmas, but I never asked for clothes.  Didn't have to.  So it was toys and games and bikes and dolls and records and stuffed animals.  Thinking of Christmas as utilitarian blunts the magic. Does that sound bratty and snotty and spoiled?  It's just how I've always thought about and experienced this time of year. This item from my list does qualify as utilitarian, I realize, but it also speaks to a fascination I've had with an American city for many years. I'd like a house in Albuquerque.  It wouldn't have to be ...

Every year, I try to buy a new Nativity scene to add to my collection.  As part of my Greed List, I would like to have another.  Preferably quite different, unique and unlike anything already in my collection.

Well, "Tuna" and "Ocean Whitefish" aren't doing too much to tickle feline taste buds around here.  "Chicken," though --- now we're talking. It may be that the "bites" in the chicken are smaller than in the seafood offerings, but the chicken is much more a hit here than the others.  Don't misunderstand, she'll eat all three, but chicken is most certainly her favorite. Chewy.com, through its Influencer program, allows me to order and try products each month in return for honest reviews and accounts of my experiences with them.  No money traded hands.

Jefferson's Daughters  appears to be non-fiction, dear Twinster.  I've never seen a physical copy;  only online. And, Kathy, I envy your trip to Monticello.  The one time I went to Washington, the Jefferson Memorial was closed.  That's always been a regret of mine ---  not having seen it. Quite sorry for not posting yesterday.  I'm not sure why, exactly.  At any rate, today will be a two-fer. A great drum set and drum lessons.

I think I'm going to go back to a book for today's Greed List entry. Jefferson fascinates me.  I've never gotten my brain completely around him, so any interesting opportunity is welcome.  This book looks interesting.

I love Christmas lights.  Always have.  When I was growing up, they were relatively large bulbs, and they got hot as they burned.  More than one of my fingers has sizzled when putting a gift under the tree. There was a family up the street from us who strung green lights along their roof every Christmas.  I thought it was  the coolest.   One year, Daddy gave in to my asking and strung some along the front gutter.  Ours were multi-colored, so not as sweet as the Lewises', but we did it. My next Greed List item is having someone come in and hang string lights all over the house as decoration.  Someone who is more clever and artistic than me.

Tap is smitten.  Smitten, I say. No, really.  He loves these treats.  The first time he had one, I was trying to coax him down off a chair.  Now, if he wants one, he jumps into that chair.  The easiest training yet. Each month, I try products from Chewy.com in exchange for my honest reviews.  There is no money involved whatsoever.

Any Wish List that I author will include these boots.  They are "Sora," by Old Gringo, and cost more than $500.  They are the boots I most covet than I'm fairly sure I'll never have. *heavy sigh*

I side with  Twinnie  on the adjustable straight needles.  They could easily be made from a pair of circulars you already have.  My suspicion is that they're for "those" knitters who sit around the table at yarn shops and "casually" pull ridiculous and ridiculously expensive things out of their bags when they're sure everyone is watching. (And there's enough quiet for all their bracelets  to jangle.) Bitter?  Oh, a tad.  There was a yarn shop less than five miles from my parents' house in Tennessee that was no fun to go into whatsoever.  Judgy in the extreme.  If you have a good yarn shop with good, accepting, helpful people, thank your stars. If those bookshelves spoken of yesterday ever do appear, there should be new books to put in them, wouldn't you say?  Today's entry on my list: