Woke up to Christmas hatching out in the living room. My brother decided it was time to try and see how the furries will deal with trees and decorations.
Our John Deere Santa hanging on the room divider, with mermaid tail looking for a home.
Nutcracker trying to hide the stationary bike.
Dragon coming along.
Challenging piano solosNice easy carols, easy font to read. Fun, quick to master.
More challenging less known carols like the Wookiee one.
All 7 pages of When Christmas Comes Around (Polar Express)Probably the most challenging to me sounds the easiest, Linus and Lucy. And one I want to sing with (and my hands take all my concentration for now) Oh Holy Night.
For next year, I hope I start Christmas music before Halloween. I’d like to be more proficient by this point. And I hope I know those last few songs with very little brush up time.
Oh, in case you need to see how gentle goals help:
I started back to piano last October. The goal: sit and play as long as it’s fun, then move on to something else. At first, I’d only play a song, or five minutes. Today I’ve clocked an hour and a half! And it’s still fun! And I’m not hurting as much as I used to.
Ties waiting for their turn in the light.
The two frogged and reworked. Still not striping up like I’d like.
And a new writing goal: 500 words a day starting today. And work 4 scenes a day on Folie à Plusieurs. But TrackBear is being a BEAR! So I need to find another way to keep track. I did get 637 words in a zoom sprint with Yvensong.
Finally working on the top ( which means I work upside down so I can reach that part.)The Inktober prompts I’m using today: artic and rival. These are the only thing I could sketch to represent. The story perceived them differently.Two faces facing off.
So far I have 8,951 words. I have more to write tonight. Yeah, I’m behind now. But I am having fun with my imaginary friends. NaNoWriMo 2025. By the way, that site is TrackBear. A way to keep track of wordage.
Some of the songs I’m playing with now.All the socks in progress now.
Not so finished as midway or just getting started.
I still had enough of this yarn to make one more pair of socks. Besides I can’t stand to see naked needles. Size 2 40″ Chiaogoo needles TwoAtATime socks, Turkish cast-on done now on increasing section. I’m at 20 stitches per side and foot. I need 32 so 12 more rows to the arch.
My last pair of Yoga socks. These seem so pretty and soft. These are the size 1 Hiya-Hiya Flyers. They take some getting used to, but I’m liking the process more and more.
Watermelon socks are coming along. Size 2 40″ Chiaogoo needles TwoAtATime socks. I’m working on the arches now.
I never quite know what to call these. They are acrylic. Still, the yarn is soft and warm. Thick socks or slipper socks. Size 7 40″ Chiaogoo needles TwoAtATime socks. I need 2 more inches of arch ribbing before the start of the Fleegle Heel.
Bottom third of balloon diamond painting picture is done. I have some Halloween DPs waiting that I am anxious to start.
Well, look at that. I still enjoy Duo. I am sick of ads but I can’t afford the super or max. Still, I’m learning as much as I was way back when everything was free.
I’m still sight reading my way through this book. I am highlighting the ones I really want to work on. Those I will print out and tape together so I won’t have pages to turn.
I’ve made it through the ‘S’s. So much fun!
What I still need to do is NaNo characters and nearly two weeks of Inktober prompts. I tried today but couldn’t seem to get myself together enough. Maybe tomorrow.
Well, I reported the finished projects last week, so today I’ll share new projects and progress of others.
My new flower balloon is grounded. The dark drill eyestrain is done.
The yoga socks on the Hiya-Hiya Flyers are coming along. The more I work with these skinny, sharp needles, the more I like them. I just need my stronger glasses to ensure nice stitches.
My experimental yoga socks will teach me, soon, how to leave out a heel. But will I have enough yarn for the ankle? Playing yarn chicken.
The watermelon socks have progressed to the arch.
The slipper socks are coming along.
I’m sight-reading through this book. I’m about halfway through, song titles starting with “I” as in “I’ll Be There”. This is fun. Some songs surprise me. Eleanor Rigby was fun to sing and play. As I play I’m finding the ones that challenge me while being doable. Then I will systematically print them. Then I can learn them well enough to sing.
Having not found a website to track my November novel, I’ve started to prepare anyway. My friend and I got together today to start finding characters. We’ve done it often this way. In person when we could, but now on Zoom.
We take each characteristic, randomly select a trait, and move on to the next.
It’s always a surprise how quickly the new character becomes nearly flesh and blood. As my first character came through, Ervin Norbert Dorris (the name randomly generated in WriteItNow 6.03c) seems a dirty troll under his homemade bridge with an attitude like Dexter. Well, the antagonist showed up first. That’s different.
My friend found a rather strong pretty punk character I think will be quite fun.
How do you start a book? For us the characters seem to people a world. Hopefully, all that prep gives us a start.
Yay! Finished! I need to seal it but I’m starting another balloon diamond painting tomorrow.
I finished a Kindle book, an actual visually read book. I’ll post the review Sunday.
I love socks!
Up to the arches in this pair of Yoga socks.
Ribbing the arch on my watermelon socks.1
Almost to the arch on these slipper socks.
Future scrappy socks. Or should I frog and make yoga slipper socks? I don’t have much of my favorite yarn leftover.
Reawakening an old project. Convertible fingerless glove mittens. They are completely knitted, I just need to sew up the finger bits and attach the mitten part. I sewed one index finger. Nine more to go. Have I mentioned, I don’t like the sewing parts of knitting or crocheting? Ugh. But I feel it’s a good project for a gift or because it’s getting cold.
Look what I found in my piano bench! I’m sight-reading through the book figuring out what songs to concentrate on. Eleanor Rigby I can sing while playing. Most songs are too hard for me to do both.
I’ve skimmed through about a fourth of the book so far.Up, Up and away!
Finally! I think I’ve been working on these socks off and on for at least a year. I started off trying Crazy Sick Lady Vanilla Socks on Hiya Hiya Flyers then moved the project to Chiaogoo red-laced short cable needles. All that was too fiddly for me. I eventually transferred the socks to a long Chiaogoo red-laced cable of the same size. Finally, I felt I could finish.
Let me say, I don’t like working too down. I didn’t like how to do the heel. I certainly don’t like doing the Kitchener toe, though I think I did it okay for once.
See the yarn bits left? I was in a game of yarn chicken. But I made it with enough to patch little bits.
I do think I’ll try again on children’s socks. I think it is good to learn other techniques. And practice a few times.
Working on my series: Haven.
Doodler (zendoodle.com)
Music major: voice and piano
Mom of four great adults
Reiki II practitioner
I have been on disability/retired for 10 years now from depression, anxiety and fibromyalgia.
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