Hard to believe it’s the end of 2025. Life seems to be passing quickly. Not much happening here. I have been keeping busy doing lots of crafts and even learning a few new hobbies. I have also been doing a lot of cooking and baking and trying new recipes. I make almost everything I eat from scratch. Besides being healthier and knowing what ingredients I am putting into my body it gives me things to do. I make extra and share it with a neighbor who doesn’t like to cook. So I have been experimenting with new things like making different pies, food dishes, etc. and it’s been fun. Not enthusiastic about all the extra dishes I have to wash after cooking but I try to wash as I go so they don’t all pile up but that still seems to happen. During the holidays I have been baking lots of cookies and sharing them with our local first responder departments, my mechanics, grocery staff, friends and others.
Other than going to Native Rhythms Flute Festival in November, it’s an event I got to every year, I have been home. About 3 years ago at that event I learned to do an old Native American weaving technique called Twining and I have been weaving lots of different size and colors of bags. Last year I entered the arts competition and won 4th place. This year I entered again with different bags and I won 3rd place. This year I took a few workshops again, one was on the constellations and we got to look through powerful telescopes and I saw Saturn and the ring around it and learned some Native American folk lore about the constellations. I also learned how to make tobacco prayer ties, and flat reed weaving. Because I have gone so many years many of the performers and vendors have become my friends so it’s nice to see them and catch up. This year the weather was beautiful and there was no rain thankfully. The past several years it has rained before and during the event which is not fun and I feel bad for everyone because the vendors didn’t have many people to buy their items or the food from the food vendors and I know the event committee members put a lot of work into the event so having beautiful weather was wonderful.
One of my neighbors has been assembling Lego sets since he was a little boy and he still puts sets together, he seems to like the large castles and sets and a couple of months ago he gave me some of the small gift with purchase sets he got. Well… It seems I love putting Lego sets together. I never did it as a child that I remember. We had Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, and other similar games. So, I bought lots of different Lego sets to assemble from small to large and also several sets of bricks to make my own designs. I also bought the BricQ Motion and Essential sets which seem to make things to play with like a basketball game, race track, and other similar motion things. It is so much fun to make and play with. It’s nice to have money and buy my own toys now. The end of September I was 75 years young. I never thought I would be alive at this age. I still feel young and my hair has gray but is not all gray yet.
As I am building the different Lego sets I am fascinated how they are designed and the way pieces fit together. Sometimes I get almost finished and add a piece and it comes apart and I have to start over or start back a bit so I am learning patience and to take my time. I just finished a Stem set that is like the evolution of physics, the DNA molecule, and space shuttle, etc. it is the most fun set I have done so far and I think I have assembled about 16 sets so far. Some are fun and make me smile like the Minecraft purple and turquoise supply burro, and the Moana rooster, and the UP House. I don’t watch TV or movies so these are just sets I like. I have a large Harry Potter Burrow House to put together which should be fun, the house is tall and sits at an angle. I also bought the Boutique Hotel which will be a challenge, and a Bugatti race car that will also be a challenge. I bought a Star Wars character in it’s basket too. I look forward to using the Classic bricks to make my own designs too. I wanted the Harry Potter Owl sitting on a book, it was expensive and then it sold out. I saw it on Ebay and thought it was a Lego set and ordered it. When it came I saw it was not a Lego set, and it was a set with small pieces and contacted the seller and we negotiated a lower price and I kept the set. It is going to be a big challenge since the pieces are small and there are about 4,000 of them.
The city library offered senior classes of watercolor, crocheting, and paper quilling recently. A few months ago they had watercolor, collage, and alcohol ink classes which I also took. I know how to crochet but this class was making a tote bag that looked interesting so I signed up for it. Other than the instructor I was the only one that knew how to crochet so I ended up helping people at the class which I was honored to do. I finished the bag but used YouTube to find a similar pattern since the one we got at class was too hard to follow and not for beginners. I liked the finished bag so it was worth the time to make it. I am still painting abstract watercolor paintings and cutting them into bookmarks and sharing them with friends all over the country.
In November the class was paper quilling which I have wanted to try doing for quite a while, so we had 2 classes and got the basic quilling kit. Since I like this craft project I bought lots of paper strips and tools to make quilled designs. I am still learning but it’s been fun trying new designs and making swirls, 3D items like snowmen and penguins. I also make a birthday card for a friend. When I am doing the quilling it seems I get into a time warp. I start and then look up at the clock and it’s several hours. It is a time consuming art and I find I can sort of meditate while doing it. Quilling is strips of paper 3mm which is about 1/8 of an inch wide and lengths of between 13 and 21 inches long. Some designs require many strips of paper being glued together before being coiled into a circle and then formed into different shapes. I’ve watched several YouTube videos to get ideas.
I am still doing my twining weaving a friend in Washington state gives them to her friends and students. I have lots of different colors and spools of macrame cord to make them and a friend made me a really good portable loon to use. I need to figure out something to make for the art competition in November, I have an idea but need to design something using twining and crocheting to figure out how to make a backpack from these two techniques.
The new classes in the spring are watercolor, quilling, and needle felting which I really want to learn but it seems the random lottery system the library uses did not select me for my first choice of the felting, so I may not learn that at this time. I guess I can but the kt and try it on my own if I really want to do it. However, I have so many projects now I don’t really need to learn more at this time. I am behind in things I usually do. Usually in October or November I write my calendar items for the next year. It is the end of December and I have not done it yet. was at my neighbors a few weeks ago and didn’t see a box on the floor and tripped over it and fell hard on his tile floor. Thankfully, I didn’t break anything but I did get bruised and so it slowed me down for a few weeks. Also a few months ago my phone crashed and I lost all info in it including several contacts I am not able to get again. I got a new phone and started over again. I am glad I still had most of my contacts even though I lost notes with things I read and liked and wanted to keep, passwords, photos, poems, etc. but it’s ok. I still have lots to be grateful for.
I guess that is about it for now. I wish everyone a peaceful end of 2025 and all the best for the upcoming year.
