I got back home last night from visiting my twin sister in NC. I know a lot of families have their problems, and ours wasn’t perfect (LOL – I’ve never run into one that was!), but whenever I was stressed out…. the one person I could always count on to understand was Mingo (ok, yeah, lots of nicknames on this blog… ).

She and her husband recently got themselves a beautiful 19-acre lot full of trees, a couple of creeks, and a few old buildings. It was good and very de-stressing to just ramble around with her and her dogs, and not think about work, any of the organizing/consolidating/”disencluttering” (Scruff’s made-up-but-appropriate word) that remains at home, and all the goals I have for the new year. It was good to let my mind just LET GO for a few days, and  let me subconscious do some processing. Now, I can focus on GOING WITH IT and getting the action plan into place.

One part, as usual, involves sewing. Already, Scruff and I have switched the bookcases between my office and the basement (not really that easy a feat), and I’m able to start unpacking my fabric stash! Such lovely-to-be-remembered fabrics, with so many fun clothes to be made! I love to see each fabric, and remember what I want to turn it into, and hope my skills hold up for the item. This year I plan to conquer pants – I’ve made quite a few dresses now, and thankfully gotten better with each one. While I am still learning fitting techniques, I have the basics of making a dress down, but have only made one pair of pants – I don’t count the sweats I made in 7th grade home ec! Although I often wear dresses for swing dancing, in my daily life I almost always wear pants (no girl shoes required!), and I’d really like to step it up a notch from the jeans I usually wear to work. So, since I will be repeating my minimal-clothing-purchased-change-most-of-my-closet-to-me-made-plans… pants conquering it is!

PS One of my habits is counting the hawks I see as I drive. On long trips I can sometimes make Traveling Hawk Blackjack – 21 sightings of various raptors. On the trip down, I saw 28 (woo hoo, blackjack+, baby! and one of them was a kestrel!), but with the foggy and rainy weather, only 13 roadside hawks on the return trip. On the (big) plus side, I did catch a pileated woodpecker just south of Roanoke!