tea_and_toast: (Colonial Cocoa)
tea_and_toast ([personal profile] tea_and_toast) wrote2016-01-22 07:18 pm
Entry tags:

Plans

Oh, 2016, I meant to talk more, really I did. But you're already marching along and I'm running to catch up as usual. I wanted to set out some ideas for the new year while I can still be timely about it. We're two thirds of the way through January already, but it's still January, so I reckon it's good enough. 2016 is going to be the year of lighting candles, trying minimalism, working toward hygge, and maybe, just maybe starting a compost bin/pile/heap. We'll see.




There's been cleaning and sorting going on. I have too many notebooks and sketchbooks. I washed the windows the other day, which for the kitchen meant climbing up on a ladder. I left it too long, hoping the rain would take care of it.

It did rain, though. We had one good storm, not that it washed the windows. The driveway flooded, of course, but the storm didn't last long enough for real trouble. (You hear that, weather? Yup, I'm daring you. Come rain again.) We're still under orders to water the yard no more than one day a week. Everything looks parched and wretched. I hate the drought.



I made a little blanket with some acrylic yarn I had left over from another afghan. This one is just the right size for a cat bed. Of course it also allowed me to try out the hexagon pattern and the bobbles. There were lots of ends to weave in, so I'm not sure I'm keen on the pattern after all.



My Christmas present was a skein of fancy yarn, which I'm using to knit myself a pair of socks. I read somewhere that knitting a more complex pattern makes the process feel faster than if you knit a plain stitch. It seems true so far.



The other night we had hamburgers and as we had no buns in the house, I made some from scratch. The recipe is from Taste of Home and I highly recommend it. Super simple and tasty--and quick! Faster even than pizza dough.

The little one is nearly walking. The other half is working too hard, not necessarily by choice. They made him work his birthday even though he had requested it off. I made a cheesecake for my husband's birthday, but it seems I forgot to take a picture. It was a good recipe, anyway. One thing I like about the internet is how I can pick a basic recipe and then compare a half dozen versions and read comments from people who've tried them. You get a better sense of ingredient portions and what works and what doesn't that way.