I LIKE Thursday ~ Happy New Year 2026

 

 I love this Little Bird and Ladybug. So sweet. No resolutions for me, just Intensions!

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions?  Are you successful at keeping them?  

It’s lovely and warm today. 42° F with a forecast of 48° F for a high. Our small amount of snow is nearly gone. 

Mr. Busy has been feeding the birds. This photo was taken Sunday. 

Most politely waiting their turn. 

Christmas Eve we opened gifts from close family. Mr. Busy received a new Tom Clancy book from our daughter. Here she, with the smiley face, is watching and listening to her grandson, our great grandson read the back of the novel. Pa thought he might be interested in reading this book this year. He’s 12, and is very interested in WW II history. 

 A few weeks ago I showed you the candle warmer I bought for myself.  It makes the whole house smell peppermint when I put a new gift candle under the light. 

Tonight is New Year’s Eve, we will be staying in. We are past the partying stage. We are going to do a steak on the stove top and finish in the oven, and baked potatoes in my new air fryer. Looking forward to that. I may pour myself a glass of wine and one for Mr. Busy too, if he wants one. 

Wishing you all Blessings and Good Things in the New Year. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful in the New Year. 

 

Slow Stitching Later

 

I’m joining Kathy this morning for Slow Sunday Stitching. Stitching will happen later today. This morning we will bid our daughter goodbye as she heads home to Colorado. She and our granddaughter did all the holiday cooking except for our ‘family Christmas salad’, which I did. What a great help she and her daughter’s family were. We will pack her car up with leftovers, and the extras as she heads back to her favorite place to be other than home, Colorado!

I’ve started to back stitch the octopus #2. I’ve found several missed stitches along the edges. So I stop and put them in and continue with the back stitch. This is an ongoing stitch. But I’m anxious for completion. 

Looks like I still have one coral piece to finish for the back of this biscornu pincushion. 

I had great expectations to complete another stitchery that was Christmas themed. But now it is on to the New Year. I do have a Snowman themed piece that I’ll start today as soon as our daughter gets on the road. I’m looking forward to this one too. 

 In 2026, I hope to better divide my time between stitching and quilting. I will still participate in the slow stitching event and Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  And maybe one or two other QALs or SALs . 

Happy New Year to all, see you next year!🥳🎉🎊🥳🥂!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

Slow Sunday Stitching

 There has only been slow stitching this week. So I’m linking up with Kathy at Slow Sunday Stitching. 

Gingerbread Saltbox  is finished 

The bow bothers me, so I’ll probably change it before I put Christmas decor away in January. 

The weather changed this week. Monday and Tuesday were unseasonably warm, Wednesday and Thursday it got cold and very windy. 

 I thought about Woven Wreaths from 2024. I thought I would give hand quilting a try. I pulled it out of its project bag and the stitching on the December design wasn’t complete. So I fixed that. Now it’s ready to do some quilting. 

The dark will be the backing. I purchased a FQ of the original Spoonflower fabric for the binding.

I do love it. And will work at the hand quilting in the new year. 

This week will be a bit busy. But I hope to get in a few stitches on some new starts. More about those in the coming weeks. Today, I’ll continue to add the corners on these small poinsettia stitches. I did them maybe 30 years ago and never fully finished them. I found, in my stash, some small ornament frames. But they look funny with the rounded design. So I’ll square them up. 

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Joyous Kwanzaa!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful

I LIKE Thursday on Friday

 

I really meant to post on Thursday. No sense in brooding over it. There were/are lots to like this week.

Our daughter lives in Loveland Co. She  is single and mostly that’s just how she likes it. Except at Christmas. Others in her “tribe” have family to gather with and are busy with grandchildren etc. so she took some PTO time and will be coming home for Christmas this year. Fingers crossed for good traveling weather. 

We got our tree up. 

A trove of miscellaneous ornaments. Multi colored lights and a new Red glittery star.  

We had good weather til midweek. Then we had horrendous wind. We are usually used to wind, but when they blow 60mph, that’s a bit much. One are on the border of Wyoming and Idaho had a gust of 144mph, like a category 4 hurricane. Much damage here and in surrounding states. It’s better today.

I’ve been interested in simmer pots lately. So I gathered supplies and made some to give away to my Thursday Stitchers friends.  Did intake a photo, no! Dang it. 

But here is my own simmer pots lately with all the same ingredients. Whole allspice, whole cloves, cranberries (fresh), an orange or lemon slices and cinnamon sticks and a sprig of fresh rosemary.  I bought myself one of those candle warmer lights. It smells so good. 

Mr Busy and I are sitting in the family room with the Christmas tree lights on and Christmas music playing on the Alexa. Love that part. It’s lovely.  The Christmas Song sung by Nat King Cole is playing right now. 🎵🎶🎶🎵

We’ve started watching a new (to us) series 61st Street on Netflix. It’s from 2022. So far it’s a pretty good story. Sad in a lot of ways. Hoping for a positive ending. 

 That’s all for this week. Except for  LeeAnna conversation starter. Do you like traditional red and green Christmas colors? The answer would be Yes. Do you remember the star on my tree? And my newest wall hanging:

And here is  favorite cup with Christmas Tea in it. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful. 

December 11~ I LIKE Thursday

 

From a favorite Facebook Creator.  Sweatpants and Coffee.

Last night we attended the Christmas Party of the place I used to work. It was an early night. Started at 5:30 and we were home by 8:30. Perfect for us old folks!  All the employees and they are all women this year, received a cute little Christmas decoration. 

Not the best photo, but it’s dark outside and lamplight is terrible. I like his cute wink and tongue sticking  out. 

It’s Christmas Bazaar and Craft Show season. Have you attended any? 

I worked on finishing this little Christmas stamp. I finished it last year and this year it’s fully finished. 

It’s a design from Melisa at Pinker n Punkin Quilting. If you scroll to the bottom of  Melisa’s post that this link takes you to, there is a myriad of links to Christmas beauties. 

Last Saturday was our quilting group’s Christmas gathering. The theme was Reindeer Gsmes. 

Table decorations and prizes for games. The little green bucket from Menards had candy in it. 

And the Camo Hoodie as a  bottle cozy is so cute!

I put up a tree!

There will be an actual Christmas tree in the family room. It is still in the box. Maybe tomorrow Mr Busy and I can get it set up. 🤞

Hop over to LeeAnna’s blog and check out the other participants. Not Afraid of Color. 

LeeAnna’s conversation starter for today is:

Dec 11 2025

The holidays can be stressful...

What always calms you down when you’re really stressed out and upset?

Music is a calming influence for me. I don’t have Sirius Radio in my car any more, but our Alexa Show has a good selection of Christmas music. Mr Busy always used to bring me a vinyl LP of Christmas music when he and the kids shopped for my Christmas gift. I’d kind of forgotten that memory. Thanks LeeAnna for helping me recall it. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful.