a very belated happy new year

hello all.
i've finally returned from my long holiday break which was filled with all of my favorite things: family close by, good food, relaxed chatter, laughter, love and lots of quiet time. 

i've achieved a lot with the cleaning and organizing during the past few weeks even though i have had to take it at a continually slowing pace . . .
there will have to be a break from that for a while as i have another hip surgery scheduled for early in february. this time i get a new left hip and then, hopefully, i'll be as good as new. 
during my recovery time i'll be doing several small stitch projects and although blogging and internet contact will probably be sporadic i do hope to be around.

due to my slow start into the new year and the current issues to be gotten through i have decided not to challenge myself this year with anything more than enjoying the moment and healing.
that being said, i do hope to maintain my priority of stitching at least a little bit every day and will share the results of that as i have something to show. mostly i'm going to attempt to work steadily forward on small things that need finishing up and occasionally i may jump in now and then with a mini challenge.  i've begun a personal digital art journal using photoshop and i'll share pages from that on my blog from time to time. i do still have an interest in following along with the Photo Art Friday group but for now i'll be contributing only sometimes.
this week at Pixel Dust Photo Art the optional theme is to create a piece of photo art that is minimalist. i've cheated a bit and used a photo (and haiku) that i posted on my blog in january of 2010. the shot fit the theme very well so i will be linking up to share it.
this photo was used straight out of my digitalelph camera (the only one i had at the time) with only a slight crop.

 a white world revealed

bright cleanliness; a clean start

cold revelations
 

at the beginning of the year Photo Art Friday's optional theme was to share a piece that featured a word that i chose to guide or inspire me for the year 2013. i was so excited because i had already chosen a word (receive) and i had even just finished creating a digital art journal page using it~!~ but when i attempted to post it Blogger was having issues with photo uploads. dang it~! i tried some of their work-around suggestions but without any luck so i'll share that with you now.
btw: i'm really glad Blogger is working properly again. 

 

this digital art journal page was put together using only my own photographs and artwork.

i've chosen the word "receive" as my word of the year. i hope to learn to receive both the good, as well as the challenging, as gifts. it's all about learning to see that  what i've been given isn't always about the good. sometimes it's about learning something valuable from the challenging . . . or remembering that what may seem like a burden in the present moment may not seem that way in hindsight . . .
i will be open to what this word has to teach me in the year 2013.

since i couldn't do posts of my own (and apparently other bloggers could), i enjoyed lurking catching up on some of what was going on elsewhere. when i checked up on Lori at Humble Quilts i discovered that she was doing a mini doll quilt-along and decided to join in. i'm going to need a few small pieces for fundraiser donations this year so thought this would be a great way to get a start on those.

this is my first step of the "abundance" quilt-along all finished.
i didn't stick to the colors of the original antique doll quilt or those that Lori used. i just chose from scrap pieces that i had enough of for each part of the quilt.  



 

this is the postcard that i made for the wonderful daughter for the month of december. i have also finished with the january card and will be posting it soon.

 

 

i'm currently seven stitches behind with the TAST project/challenge from Sharon B's Pintangle blog, but have every intention of jumping back into  it soon.  okay, maybe not actually jumping but definitely sitting (nicely on a cold pack) with hands ready to stitch.

 

 

 

 

recent gifts include:

• watching my granddog Suki run spinnies (you know, when the dog runs around like her butts suddenly caught on fire) round and round the yard at full speed with a big lolling tongue sort of smile on her face.
• watching a flock of geese come (almost daily) and nibble on the golf course grass that is exposed under the trees . . . they seem to be making a habit of this.
• creating a pot of ham and mixed bean soup to enjoy on a cold winter night