Valerean

Last night I finished the embroidery on my January tote, which due to my diminished dexterity took a couple weeks. I think I'll have to be a little less ambitious with embroidering in the future. It's actually a little easier to see the stitching from the back. :) I'm quite happy with it, although I have only three days left for the beading. Hopefully I can wrap it up before February 1st, but if I go over a few days it's okay. I don't think the calendar project police will throw me in jail. :) Added on February 1st: Going right down to the wire, I finished beading, lining and assembling the tote at 11pm on January 31st. I am very happy I completed such am ambitious design, especially considering how messed up my hands have been with all the winter arthritis flares. I'll probably try something a bit simpler for February's tote. :)

I finally watched all 36 episodes of the Chinese office romance drama series Shine on Me , which really did teach me more than I ever wanted to know about the photovoltaics industry. It also does qualify as one of the slowest of slow-burn romances with one major misunderstanding, a bunch of minors, and a very odd secondary romantic plotline that still seems a bit enigmatic, and that is something the Chinese are definitely not known for at all, so there you go. Song Wei Long did a fantastic job as Lin Yu Sen, a former neurosurgeon and member of a high-powered family, who is haunted by the accident that ended his career. He blames Nie Xi Guang (Zhao Jin Mai), the beautiful daughter of another high-powered family, for the accident, as he was going to meet her when the crash happened. This is the major misunderstanding, btw, and it's kind-sorta plausible, although it casts Nie Xi Guang in an unfavorable light for rather too long. Meanwhile, Xi Guang has this whole other un...

Anyone who embroiders and loves history like me has heard of the Bayeux Tapestry. An embroidered length of linen that is 20 inches wide and nearly 230 feet long, the tapestry dates back to the 11th century, within a few years of when William, Duke of Normandy, invaded England and became king. Technically it's not a tapestry, but an embroidered cloth, but everyone just calls it that, so okay. Tubi has a free to watch documentary about the conservation and research being done on this marvelous and mysterious artifact, so of course I jumped right on that. The documentary is absolutely fascinating. I had no idea the French and other researchers were actively researching the tapestry, or what they've been able to accompish. Seeing the tapestry in its original colors was stunning. So was the fact that these folks have managed to save a cloth that is basically a thousand years old, and one of the oldest embroidered works still in existence and intact. The only down side for...

I seem to be in the mood for a mystery binge, as I thrifted a copy of Real Murders by Charlaine Harris (the author of the books that inspired HBO's True Blood .) I'm not a huge fan of mysteries, but I do like this author, who is a very accomplished and quite readable writer. The premise: a small town librarian, Aurora Teagarden belongs to a club of townspeople who study and discuss true crime, and as she's preparing to take her turn in presenting a case she discovers the body of one of their members, a victim of a copycat murder. One by one the members start dying, and Aurora must solve the mystery while being romanced by a handsome cop and a suspicious novelist and dodging at least one attempt on her life. My thoughts: it's a fairly generic mystery, but well-written enough to keep me engaged. I kept stumbling over the protagonist's overornate name in the text, so that didn't work for me (that's my problem; I am very picky about names.) I also tho...

To start off 2026 I finished the fifth and final project of 2025 for my day job almost exactly at midnight on New Year's Eve. I crocheted a big beautiful basket out of scrap variegated yarn to hold some thrifted skeins I want to work with in January. I crocheted a shelf liner basket out of thrifted bulky yarn to hold my blood glucose log and testing supplies. I completed my first big crochet project for 2026, this throw made from seven skeins of thrifted Mandala Ombre yarn in Serene, which really set the right tone for the year. Among other things during my annual spring cleaning I got my home office sorted, tidied up and reorganized. I discovered how many emotional support chickens I can crochet out of bulky and super bulky yarn in one night: three! I made a big beautiful crocheted basket out of variegated yarn in colors I'd likely never otherwise use plus some white to hold some yarn for Valentine's Day projects. Finally with one hour to sp...

My plan to have a no-spend year got off to a non-start when my health insurance premiums only increased $200.00 for January and February*. Hopefully that remains the case for the months that remain until I go on Medicare later in the year. Although I had no reason (yet) to curtail my spending, I still watched every penny, and did not spend as I usually do. Aside from the $418.23 I spent on food and medications, books for research for my day job (didn't think about that) pet supplies (ditto), and Sunpass funds for our car's transponder ($50.00 which was reimbursed by my guy), I spent $90.31 on yarn and fabric (I should note that half of that was paid in cash with money I'd saved from last Christmas.) Compare that ninety bucks to the nearly $2K I paid out in December for gifts, yarn bargains and other non-necessities, and I'd say I did a fair job in reducing my spending. What I discovered is that it's really difficult not to spend money. Even though by using c...