The week after...

So the Christmas holiday slipped on by.  When you last heard from me, we visited Uncle Don and Marjan, who had an open house.  We saw a few other rellies there, too, but went for the big visit with them on Boxing Day.  We spent the day there, exchanging gifts, eating turkey, and getting told to shove it...ah, happy memories!  The week following was spent kicking back, going to the movies, and working on some projects.

I don't really make resolutions anymore.  I usually break them within two days, so I make general guidelines for what I'd like to do this year.  My thought this year (not exactly a resolution) is to walk more and use more "whole" foods, especially for lunches.  I don't really like the little frozen meals, so I think I'll see if I can come up with a bunch of lunch recipes--fruit salads, chicken & feta salad, low-cal but filling sandwiches, etc.  More fruit and veggies, less crap.

On the business end of things, I got the new part for my long arm, a "roller encoder", part of the stitch regulator system, which was covered by the warranty (which I had to renew) but would have otherwise cost me...



...TWO HUNDRED FOURTEEN DOLLARS AND NINETY-NINE CENTS!  For a piece of plastic!  I was concerned because it's smaller and a different shape than the old one, but I was happy to see that it fits and works great!


To celebrate, or perhaps just to make sure it worked, I put this quilt on the frame and quilted it up.  This needs a binding on it and it's ready to pass on to its new owner, a young boy who isn't even hatched yet...whose name, according to rumor, is Malcolm.  "Mac."  I think I'll have to give him a nickname better than Mac.  Like Micky MacMaster.  My brother's name is Mike.  His wife's maiden name is Master.  Makes sense to me.

Here's the coat I finished a couple days ago.  It needs some button closures, and I need someone to help me fix the hem (the lining is longer than the outer part of the coat), but otherwise it's ready to wear!  I am happy with the pattern pieces, although I think I've proven that I need to adjust the length, so I'll have to put the muslin pattern back together again and have someone mark the length for me.

Today, Cammie and I went to a Geocache that I had visited once before.  We admired the frosty cobwebs on the greenery on the way.  She brought some swaps to trade for goodies in the bucket.  She chose a small kitty toy and left a yarn zombie behind.  There weren't many swaps in there.  Maybe next time I'll bring extra swaps to leave behind.

Two of the kids go back to school tomorrow--the older one doesn't go back until Monday--so after I drop them off, weather permitting, I'll see if I can find a couple more Geocaches.  I had gone to look before, but my GPS was so poor, it got me within 20 feet of it...not quite close enough to narrow it down.  I did find, however, if I enter the GPS coordinates into Googlemaps, it'll pinpoint it exactly on the map.  Or at least, I think so.  Tomorrow will be the test to see how close it really is!