Wow! Another year is coming to a close and it is a time for reflection. It has been a year. It has primarily been good but it certainly had its ups and downs...sometimes at the same time.
One of the mixed news was the fact I was told I was diabetic. It was mixed news since, well, nobody wants to hear that. the good news is that they discovered it in time and my treatments seem to be working. This was discovered when I went to the doctors for that wound on my foot. That is also good news since it brought up other things. I do not go to the wound doctor any longer. I do have neuropathy on that side but it is something that I will just learn to deal with. Overall my health is getting under control and that is what is important. Thank goodness for friends who overrode my objections and fears of going to doctors. I don't think they read this blog so I can say that. I was going to ask for a ride to the doctors but they beat me to it by 24 hours. Overall their support, as well as my other close friends (you know who you are) got me through it.
My eyesight is doing ok but I can tell my vision isn't as good as it was a year ago. The eye doctor, when I last saw him, said I didn't need to see him again unless I started to have problems that the cheap magnifier glasses couldn't help with. The operations that I had were working. I am still wearing the Dollar Tree magnifiers and they are helping enough for now.
I had a lot of friends and extended family tell me their health wasn't the best. So 2024 was a year with a lot of people having to deal with different issues. It is my prayer that everybody does better in 2025 and I hope they know that I am here to listen to them. It doesn't matter that I really can't do anything about your situations, but know that I am a phone call, FB messenger, or email away if you need somebody to just listen to you for whatever reason.
On the cooking front, I have tried some new recipes and mostly they have been good. Dan continue to be my guinea pig and I was totally happy with his non verbal critique of our Christmas dinner. It only took him 4 days to eat everything, leftovers and his Christmas present of New Years goodies, so that I a success I think. That reminds me I have to ask him if he likes goat cheese. For part of his birthday and/or Christmas present I was thinking of stuffed dates wrapped in bacon. If I don't use goat cheese I think I could use some of the whipped cream cheese blends.
On the crafting front, I am pleased to say that I did finish a couple of projects. I am close to finishing a couple more. I did finish stitching all the blocks for the dragon wall hanging. I have attached a pix of the blocks. Now I need to think about the rows that will go between the dragons. That material will be hard to determine since it will be the rows that I will put the words on. Plenty of time to figure that out.
Goldie, the gold/yellow dragon at the bottom might end up being put on the back as sort of a label. If not that she might end up on the island of Misfits. We'll see. By the way, that is not the final order of the dragons. I want to switch up a couple so that their eyes are looking in the right direction.
I worked on the Candlewicking and made good progress. My hands hurt after I stitch on that so it is set aside for a little bit. I do have a couple of new projects that I might do. I know that I will be doing more blackwork so I need to figure that in. I want to finish two or three UFOs in 2025. That might just be the tops but it might also be totally completed. We shall see.
I would also like to finish up a Kumihimo project. I need to get jewelry pliers but I wonder if needle nose would work. I need them to do the closures. I also would like to learn how to do the flat braids. One step at a time.
That's the quick recap. How about you? Are you planning on anything for 2025? Did you finish what you wanted to in 2024 or at least did you feel good about working on things? I figure life is too short to stress over if you finished a project or not. Do what you can and when you can...that's it. Take joy in the fact that you CAN still do crafts vs. you HAE to do crafts. The main thing is...
Enjoy life for as long as you can and never give up. Never let the nay-sayers the opportunity to say they told you so. Instead, prove them wrong and have the grace to just smile knowing that they had it wrong and THAT will bug them. If you don't react, you aren't playing into their hands and you are taking away their power. I know how great you are.
