well - that sucks!

I consider myself to be fairly low-maintenance

as women go.

I'm not terribly needy...

Or even wanty,

as a general rule.

And as we've made house building decisions

I've tried to make mostly modest choices

in keeping with the 

'Simply Gracious. Graciously Simple'

theme that we chose.

But.

I reeally wanted a central vac.

I didn't push and beg;

I just made my wishes known

and left it up to Tyler to decide.

He decided he really didn't want to

bother with one. more. thing.

But then,

he decided that

I really don't ask for much,

and it wouldn't be terribly expensive,

or too much work...

So one day,

waay back before the drywall went in,

he asked me to come out to the house and help him with something.

He unwound the hundred foot tape measure

to 30 feet

and had me hold it in the coat closet,

then he took the other end

and went all through the house

making vacuuming motions

(testing what size hose we'd need

 and where all we'd need outlets)

until I finally realized I was getting my vacuum after all!!

He and (I think) Josiah ran most of the pipe,

and that was that for awhile.

A few weeks ago,

he ordered the vacuum,

and installed it over the course of a weekend.

(He's been soo busy,

I honestly expected it to sit in the box for a few months

before he'd get to it)

And now,

I have a simply gracious central vac.

And I love it so much!

As added bonus,

it's Canadian made,

so I get a nice little reminder of my dear friend

(also Canadian 😊)

every time I use it.

in January

It's cold!!

But at least the sun is shining.

~

Tony and Andrina came to visit for a week!

😃

We celebrated Andrina's birthday,

and Lexi's, too.

 No more single digit kiddos!!

Tony and Tyler braved the frigid temperatures

and worked on the back porch railing.

I didn't pull out the camera,

but TJ and one of his boys came down on Sunday afternoon,

and brought Matt, Marin, and Milo with them.

💙

~

I didn't work on it while people were here, 

of course,

but here's a picture
(taken on one of the many not sunny days...)
of where I currently am

on Terry's Jeweled Butterfly.

It's going to be pretty dang amazing
if I say so myself.

I'm considering entering it in a quilt show in NWA,

but I'll need to discuss it with my client

before I make any decisions.

~

Brandon started a new internship on Monday.

It's pretty cool

and pretty top secret,

so I'm not sure if I can tell you where...

We're excited for the opportunity for him!

And thankful he got to spend a good bit of time here, too,

while Ton' was visiting.

It was so nice to have all of my boys in the house

at the same time!

~

Work continues to be absolutely crazy and rough

for Tyler

and we are sooo ready for this season to be over.

(Basically, he's been working 2 jobs

(for the price of 1)

for almost a year now)

~

I started a new crochet project.

This one will be much faster than the last one for sure!

I'd rather be English paper piecing,

but I just don't have the gumption

(or the space)

to collect fabrics for a new project just yet...

~

The males in the household
all have wild hair.

That
will be remedied
today.

Star Bright, a finished quilt

When I started this one

I thought I could maybe piece the top

in a day.

It's only about 50 x 60 or so,

so it seemed doable.

It wasn't.

(at least for me....)

ah well.

I basically copied a quilt that 

Melissa of Sew Shabby Quilting posted about a year ago,

except I added in feathers and onion peels and ribbon candy,

because I could.

(It wasn't all that long ago 

that I couldn't quilt any of those!)

The colored fabrics are all Kaleidoscope

by Allison Glass -

woven fabric

with different colored threads for the weft and weave.

To be honest,

I wasn't all that impressed.

I was expecting a much more shimmery and iridescent look,

but the two colors are only evident 

in a couple of them.

They'd probably be nice for bags,

but not worth the price for quilting.

Even though I'm not thrilled with the Kaleidoscope fabrics,

I'm quite thrilled with the quilt.

I think the quilting turned out pretty amazing,

if I do say so myself,

and it washed up quite nicely.

(I was pretty amazed when I pulled it out of the dryer.

I was like - I did this?!)

The wool batting 

with minky backing

(a throw size blanket that I bought on clearance 

for $5 a couple of years ago

for just this purpose)

make it extra scrumptious.

plus - the minky shows the quilting really well 

😊

My friend Karen

always says that thread matters,

and I repeated that to myself many times as I was quilting;

I really prefer a thread with a bit of shine to it.

I used a spool of Coats and Cotton quilting cotton thread

that I bought back when I started quilting,

and it's just dull.

 When I got to the border,

I switched to Aurifil 

 - still 100% cotton, 

but it has a tiny bit of sheen -

and I liked it much better.

Really, 

I think I like a 40 wt poly best.

But if I had a 50 wt poly,

that might be the very best.

It'd be thick enough to see,

but thin enough for travelling.

(do they make a 50 wt poly?)

Even with

dull thread 

and my displeasure with  kaleidoscope fabrics,

this one's a favorite.

calling all the messengers

We got this fun message board for Christmas.

It

(and the little felt box of letters and words)

 sits on the bar

and every day

(or even more often)

the 'message' changes.

We are a big awesome family.

💗

I get so weary I forget

sometimes.

the sun will come out tomorrow

It finally stopped raining this afternoon.

And the sun came out!

And I feel ever so much better.

I've toyed around with the idea of buying one of those lights

that are supposed to help with SAD

but I hate the thought of wasting money, you know?

I probably don't have actual

Seasonal Affective Disorder,

but man do I crave the light.

The instant,

and I mean

instant,

I walked through the kitchen 

and caught sight of the sunlight in my flowers on the table,

I could fully breathe again.

Or maybe I could let my breath out all of the way.

I don't know which;

all I know is

 I could feel the benefit of the sunshine in my chest....

~

In other light news - the tree is still up

and so far, 

I am in no hurry to take it down.

and --- that's a wrap

Well.

That's that.

Another year down.

Can't say I'm sad to see 2018 end,

though.

~

It's been gloomy and rainy for days,

so it's sort of hard to even think straight.

I have made no plans for the new year.

No 'word', or 'intention', either.

I can tell you though,

I'd really like to do more than just survive.

I've already had plenty of years of that.

~

 Looking back over December:

I sold the Razorback Quilt,

I'm so tickled with where it went, who bought it, and how the purchase came about.
And I am continually humbled that it isn't the wealthy
who partner with me, but ordinary people - with hearts bigger than their wallets 💝

made excellent progress on my current commissioned project

and

finished the circle centered granny square blanket

that I started in September of '17.

I'm pretty proud of myself - learning something new,

and having it turn out so beautifully.

But then I remember that I am 50

(Fifty!?!)

and I feel a bit silly about being proud 

that I learned a little bit of crochet.

~

House-wise:

We finally hung a mirror in the upstairs bathroom

(which sounds way easier than it was...)

but the island/bar received most of the attention.

It was a multi-phase project, and still not complete,

but it's completely usable already :-)

Some day, we'll put black walnut on the bar top,

but this pine should serve us well for many years.

One of the benefits of the bar

that came as a complete surprise,

is that it invites people

(my man, guests....)

to sit and visit with me as I work.

That makes me so happy!!

And, of course, 

I love working in the kitchen

while people I love

play games at the table

across the bar.

~

We also spent a bit of time

adding just a few things to the mudroom 

to help it function properly.

We did okay without a bench and coat hooks

spring thru fall,

but they became more important as the temperature dropped.

I know.
Y'all are so envious of both my 'styling'
and my photography skills.
When I tell you the picture of the other coat rack was too bad to post,
you know it's really bad.

We hosted (most of) Tyler's family 

a few days before Christmas

and it thrilled my heart to look in there

and see the coat racks loaded down

and 25+ pairs of shoes in a jumbled heap.

~

Interestingly,

there was exactly the same number of people

at my sister's house the next day,

when she hosted our side of the family.

I"m not going to do an end of the year round up post; 

there's just not enough energy for that.

But in scrolling through my blog and Instagram feed

I am reminded of just how much we accomplished this year,

in spite of what a long, and challenging year it's been.

I would've liked for the end of 2018

 to have felt more celebratory,

as there really was a lot to celebrate.

I mean -

we hadn't even moved into the house a year ago!

And when we did (all) get moved in

in February,

it was another couple of  months

 before we had a kitchen...

Instead,

I just feel worn out and weary.

The loss of my dad has just sort of made everything 

flat.

Don't misunderstand - I *do* feel blessed,

I just also feel very flat 

(it's really the only way I can describe it)

I find that, 

after almost 11 years

(can you even believe I've had the blog this long?!!)

I am still

pursuing joy.