Simple joys and keeping things going

As you can see, I finished my Christmas sign painting on a drawer bottom. I learned that it is best to choose a single, short word, to use a wide brush to make a minimal number of careful strokes per letter, and then to leave it at that. (At least if you are lefthanded and terrible at hand lettering, as I am.) I'm not a big fan of the "words on walls and everything else too" trends of recent years, but I am happy with how this turned out.

Other projects include:

Cleaning and oiling my leather boots with neat's foot oil. Maintenance is very important and it is so often overlooked....I'm pretty sure the primary reason the previous owners of this house moved was that they didn't want to deal with the accumulating deterioration; they did some quick repairs and cosmetic upgrades to get the house sold, and left. Our landlord did some more updating, and has started working through the maintenance backlog, but there are still several expensive (non-urgent) projects that need to be done.

Knitting new dishcloths for myself and for gifts; my husband finally found the box of yarn that was "lost" in the move. These dishcloths will last several years, easily; it is washing our serrated knives that wears them out in the end.

Deciding how to assemble and finish the chair I'm building. I found some paint remnants at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, which I had a coupon for, and my husband brought home some free rope scraps that may be usable.

Re-reading my sewing machine's user manual and sewing guide. I found an older speed sewing book at the thrift store; the book was good, but half of it boiled down to "read your sewing machine's manuals!". So I did, and learned a lot more about what my machine can do, including some things that I had thoroughly forgotten. Still, I use straight stitch and zigzag stitch for almost everything, and I intend to keep on doing so.

Finishing my Christmas shopping. I am now moving on to the last sewing, cleaning, and baking projects before Christmas. I'm being more careful this year to set aside a little time and money for myself. For example, I bought a plain white thrift store vase and a blue permanent marker, because I want to try this...sometime.