Post Christmas Recovery

The tree was taken down this afternoon, along with all the other decorations hung up inside our home.  Our family room has been restored to its normal state and that feels good.  We had a fabulous Christmas which passed by in a flash.  This project was the only one involving yarn that was finished in time.  The rest will be a bit late.

The boy child proclaimed this as THE best Christmas ever.  With the exception of not having all the grandparents in our home for this weekend, I will agree with him.

And the girl child continues to wonder about Santa bringing her a bicycle after how naughty she's been.  We talked about the fact that he likely took into consideration her behavior for the whole year and not just the week leading up to Christmas.  When there may or may not have been discussions of coal, stockings and naughty lists.

This was the first Christmas in over a decade where I didn't have a blackberry to check.  Can I tell you that in itself was wonderful?  Because it was.  It was fabulous being able to soak up time and crafts and more time with my kids and not feel pulled by work, even in the off hours.

My honeys is on vacation for the rest of the year and I am excited to be spending every day with him and our kids.  I'm not sure if there will be time spent on the torch before the new year.  But if there is, you all will be the first to know!

Latest on My Photography

This will be the last post on this blog about my photography.  I realize many of you are here for my beads (and some just for Little Horse pics) and do not want to chase you off with my interest in photography.  I wanted to share some of my latest pics in which I am really pleased and share with you my new facebook fan page.  If you like my photography, you can follow along here on my photography blog or here on facebook.

This past weekend, I drove the kids up to North Georgia to hang out with my girl Tabitha and her two boys.  She directed us to this wonderful park with winding railroad tracks, a big creek and a large pasture.

The kids had fun balancing and running on the railroad tracks.

And catching, releasing and re-catching grasshoppers.  My boy child named this one Jerry.

It has been well over a year since my boy child (who is 8) has taken naps.  But on Saturday, he fell asleep in the car driving up to Tabitha's after his soccer game (where he scored the one and only goal of the game and played the entire 50 minutes) and again driving home in the evening.  He was wiped out!

On Sunday afternoon, I had the pleasure of photographing a friend's two little girls.  I had an absolute blast!

In other news, I did not get any torch time over the weekend (hoping for some of that in the weeknights this week so that I can add some new sets to the shop this weekend).  I did get a little more crocheting done on my afghan, but not a lot.  I am about 1/3 of the way through that little project.  And I started ironing the fabric for making my quilt, but didn't get as far as I had hoped.

Happy Tuesday!  Wishing you all a wonderful week and some of the same gorgeous spring weather that has been blessing my family with temps in the 70s this past week!!!

Afghan in Progress

Here is what has been filling up my free time.  I was so shocked at how quickly crocheting came back to me after not touching a crochet hook in a good 20-25 years.  Now I'm addicted.  At least until this is done.

Right now, it is about five feet long (as far as my arms can reach out to my sides) and a foot wide.  I'm thinking it will probably take me a couple weeks before I finish this.  We'll see.  

I have a bunch of fabric in my dryer waiting to be pulled out and ironed so I can start cutting it up into squares and then piece it together to quilt.  I want to start in on that this week, too.  Just need to find the time.  And time for the torch.  My torch is getting lonely.  It shoots me dirty looks during the day while I'm working.