Happy New Year!

I know it's almost the end of January but was determined to get up here and start writing in January. I made it. We had signed up to start getting wireless over a month ago as it was finally available to us. They installed it and it worked for part of a day. Then there have only been a few more times when it has worked and that's when it's snowing out. It comes and goes on those days and this a.m. when Craig checked it and it was on again I decided I have to take time to do some writing. It's incredible how short a time it takes to open with wireless.

Where did the months of November and December go? I seem to be saying that often whether it's the days, weeks or months. At the end of October we closed the shop and now are in the process of tryng to decide what to do next. We want to have the freedom of not having to be here all the time during shop hours and have found that the number of people that come up this far north to seek us out has declined in the last two years. Right now we think we could be open by appointment. That would give us more time to work on projects. I really want to have a couple of big "events" up here that we would push toward to get lots of small furniture pieces ready to sell along with my textiles. I also would like to do a sale outside of Door County at some point and see what happens. My dream is to sell on line. I've been making some wool purses for friends as well as for myself and it's been interesting to see how often I'm being asked "Where did you buy that purse?" when I'm out and about.

In November we went to visit our son and his family in Michigan. Our little granddaughter was baptized so it was a big family event. That was the month that I realized how much I had let go over the summer so started cleaning out areas of the house and trying to get rid of magazines, clutter, etc. We have still been dealing with doctor appointments for Craig and often it means 2 hour drive to get to Green Bay and while we're there we do some grocery shopping, etc. He will have a permanent situation where he looses his balance and is somewhat uncoordinated. I'm thankful that he still goes out to the shop to work and is very careful when working with his power tools. He had decided not to build large pieces of furniture before any of this happened and has really found a love for refinishing and doing some folk painting on old furniture pieces and that's what he continues to do.

December was a busy month even in quiet Door County. I tried to make some gifts this year and have had fun starting doing some knitting for the grandkids. I've been trying to do things for myself along with taking time to read some good books. There's always a lot going on before Christmas and over the holidays our son was here with us. It's a quiet time compared to the large family gatherings we used to have back in Minneapolis but we enjoy the time with him and our friends. It wasn't that hard to adapt to the change!

I'm reading a wonderful book by Sarah Susanka, "The Not So Big Life". She was an architect living in Mpls. before we moved. We heard her speak and bought her book "The Not So Big House" before we planned our home. It was after reading her book about creating the kinds of spaces you like to have in your home and also being made aware that the whole house should be used that we planned our home.
In her new book she compares making changes in your life just as though you were remodeling your home. I'm reading through the book right now and then will go back and create a notebook and do the writing she suggests. Already I'm aware of some of my thought processes as things happen in my life and how I react to them.

I'm back to rug hooking. I didn't do any for a month and found I really missed it. I finally took out some of my books and looked at them last Sunday and my inspiration was fueled again. What a great way to spend the cold (it's been -25 wind chills at times) winter evenings while watching DVD's. We don't have television, except for PBS, so we are getting Net Flix for 2 months.

Craig gave me a good book for Christmas called "Hook Me a Story". It's the history and method of rug hooking in Atlantic Canada by Deanne Fitzpatrick. (Well, just lost my wireless again) I love some of her rugs with people in them.

I'm taking time for myself having coffee with friends, reading, knitting, rug hooking. Feeling very grateful that I've had these couple of months to do that. I'm going to work hard at the balance of continuing to do them along with starting to "work" meaning I need to get busy making purses and things to sell. The lst part of December I ended up going to the hospital by ambulance (it's an hour away, we hadn't been plowed out after a snow storm, the roads were icy and I do most of the driving now). I had the symptoms of a heart attack without the chest pain....just like they warn us to be aware of. I ended up staying overnight since we're so far away. Everything came out fine. A couple weeks later had the stress test and that showed no problems so feeling very grateful. The doctor said it was probably acidreflux which I now hear that so many friends have but went through the scare at first thinking it was a heart problem. It was telling me it was time to slow down a little as it was quite a year for us. I don't want to complain as it could have been so much worse.