Happy New years!

I hope 2024 will be full of hope and a lot of new joys.  I hope for improved health.  

2023 closed a chapter for me and now both of my parents are gone.  I hope to keep in touch with my siblings and other family better.  

I hope to read a lot more and focus more on books I enjoy.  I am going to try to remove some books that I probably will never read.  There are some books that were given to me just because I read and not because it's a genre I enjoy.  I need to just donate them and let someone else enjoy them.  

Reviewing my reading goals for 2023

This past year I didn't make as many reading goals.  I really only wanted to focus on reading more of my oldest books and especially hard covers.  Hard cover books are harder for me to hold because I get pain in my hands.  They also take up more room.  If I could get rid of most of those I could fit a lot more trade and mass market paperback books on my shelves.  I also wanted to end the year with less books than I started with.  I did go through and count them all (as best I could anyway).  I will be going back through all my books again soon but I'm not quite ready for that yet.  I did keep a spreadsheet of physical books in and out with a running total.  Books I read were entered as a negative and books coming in are positive.  I was doing pretty good until the last few weeks and then I got 9 books.  I am ending the year at -9 books.  

I read and moved out 25 books.

13 were hardcover books but I bought 5.  Those will be going out quickly.  

6 were MMPB and 2 were the new MMPB's that are taller.  I keep those new ones separate because they don't stack well if you mix them with the others.  I got 9 more MMPB books this year.  

4 were Trade paperbacks and I got 2 more trades.  

I read a lot of digital books this year so that's why I didn't read more paper books.  I'm getting ready to start working on goals for next year.  

Learning Mosaic Knitting and Crochet

I've recently been learning about Mosaic knitting and Mosaic crochet.  It is so fascinating to see how it is done.  I first saw a knit hat pattern that combined Mosaic knitting and small cables that travel over the surface.  I enjoyed making that.  It was really not difficult to do.  I did learn to do some simple cables this fall so this wasn't my first time doing cables.  These cables are only 2 stitches though - one each side.  This is Skenonto Hat by Mat Kladney.

I am going to start making another one soon.  My husband wants one in black and grey.  

The next thing I tried was mosaic crochet.  I saw this pattern called the Maka blanket on youtube.  There are 2 sizes and I made the small size.  I was just using yarn I already had on hand so I used red heart black and a stripes called fruity stripe.  I thought that stipe colorway looked like sunset colors and the black really set off those colors.  It really looks great.  Now I need to pick out another project.  

The Maka Blanket

Away with the Fairies

Definition of 'be away with the fairies'

be away with the fairies

to behave in a strange way that seems to be out of touch with reality

She acts in a style that makes her seem slightly away with the fairies.

Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers

New day, new blog.  I am trying something new.  I keep trying to figure out the best way to blog that will make me want to keep it up.  My last blog didn't keep me interested and I realized some reasons why.  I'm going to change those things with this one.  

It's almost new years but I didn't want to wait until Jan 1st.  I am really hoping to change a lot of things in the future and maybe make my life a little more interesting.  I want to get out and live more.  My health holds me back but I need to try harder.  I think I just gave up on being able to do anything like I used to.  I became housebound for the most part because it's easier.  If I'm out in the world I have to worry about what to do if I start feeling bad and how I'll get back home safely.  I will have to figure that out.  I want to work on myself and try to enjoy life more.  

I hope to make some local friends or reconnect with some old ones I haven't seen in a while.  I am still trying to lose weight and exercise more.  I was doing better but slid backwards again the last few months.  I need to lose the weight I gained from the holidays.  I can't believe I let myself mess up my progress.  I'm working on myself now so I'm hoping I can start making some real progress now.  

I want to read a bunch more books this year but I want to focus more on what I enjoy reading.  The last few years I've been focused on reading the books I've had the longest.  I have read a lot of them but I have a lot more.  I know there are some that are not getting read because I don't really want to read them.  Some of them were given to me and just aren't a good fit.  I am going to go through all my books and pull out any that don't really fit my interests.  I am sure I could make some space on my shelves to make room for new books that I am more interested in.  I have recently found some new series that I'm loving.  

2024 is going to be a good year!  Things are going to get better, at least in my world.  I may be "away with the fairies" but I'm having a good time.