New Year's Day

Here are the beginning stitches on Ellie May Melt. It is not the best photo, but the lighting in my house is a bit funky with with camera at night. She is an adorable mate to Willie. I am assuming that she and Willie are married since they have the same last name, "Melt." LOL The colors are so pretty on this piece and she is a joy to work on.

Today has been a beautiful day. I had to clean what my friend refers to as "The Palace," (in reference to the size of my 600 sq. foot house.) It felt so good to clean my kitchen, wash the floors, vacuum, and dust. Everything is so clean. I also took the opportunity to do those little things that I had been putting off, like tightening up the drawer knobs, and putting up a couple of pictures. After hearing a story on the news about a local family that died of carbon monoxide poisoning due to a wall heater, the folks that I rent from immediately purchased two carbon monoxide detectors for me (I have a wall heater.) I told them I could install them, so I got them up today. I even cleaned out my one and only closet.

Seeing as how I did not have to clean the moat to the palace today, I had time to take a nap and read my book. I am reading about Claude Monet and his wife Camille. I was not aware that he was so close to the other impressionist painters of his time like Renoir, Manet, end Degas. It is pretty fascinating stuff. In addition to all of this, I still had time to stitch. It was a full day, but one where I did not even leave the house. Sweet!

I did not make any resolutions this year. I thought though that perhaps I should have a theme for 2011. The theme that came to mind is "Beauty." I would really like to focus on beauty in music, art, books, and of course, my beautiful friends and Liesl. I really do not want to fritter away my time off from schoolwork, I really want to delight in all of the beauty that life has to offer.

May you find great beauty in 2011, too! May it be totally full of bliss for you!