Prepping

For a storm, Christmas, publication, a quilt, the new year....

We received half an inch of rain last night/this morning, but thankfully the predicted winds weren't as wild as forecasters considered. The basement is full of firewood, some in the carport not because it's tremendously cold but if we lose power. Our temps are currently mild. I'm grateful for it.

Preparing for Christmas includes some cooking (I made cranberry sauce today, will fix a candy cane ice cream pie tomorrow). Presents I'm responsible for are wrapped, lol. (Paper, tape, scissors, labels, and a few bows are out for my husband, hehehe.) When we lived in the UK we got a gammon (ham) from Marks & Spencers, and ham remains our tradition, alongside garlic/Gruyere cheese scalloped potatoes and peas (my husband LOVES peas). All those ingredients, save red potatoes, have been purchased.

Christmas prep also includes LAUNDRY. For some weird reason, I like doing all the laundry before Christmas, so that task is underway. Funny how odd notions seem vital as the twenty-fifth approaches. The weather will remain wet all week, give or take bright spots, and I'd prefer to skip being out in the showers. Since it's only the two of us this year, there isn't a ton to sort.

Which leaves time for my novels. Plural, because I have two series to consider, plus Splitting the Sky, as if I required another project. LOL! This morning I completed another round of edits for that tale, will incorporate them into the manuscript maybe tomorrow. Once that's done, then it's time to ponder a cover, synopses, tags, blurbs.... Polishing the story is merely one element of releasing a novel, and hopefully I can get this pulled together before mid-January.

I thought a shot of this had already been posted, but I can't locate it, so here it is. Kind of a circle, definitely a lot of fun.

But before I wax about the coming year, I've finished the pink/green round of Alexandria, and have started basting/stitching the next batch of hexagon blocks. I'm also thankful that other than tucking diamonds into slots on that large circle-ish gob of fabrics I am onto the next chapter of that quilt. I've loved putting it together, but am ready for something different, smaller blocks that will invariably lead to large sections that will eventually be tacked onto that circle; this is going to be a BIG QUILT. Yet I'm not apprehensive, merely curious how it will look once completed, sometime next year.

Next year.... Next year is a mystery, other than a few books I want to release, the Red Sky at Night quilt I want to sew, maybe a log cabin quilt too. I'm fine with unknowns, not everything needs to be nailed down precisely. I'm trying to be calm about the incoming administration; BIG DEEP BREATH TAKEN. I will do all I can to resist fear, insist on human rights, and persist in creative endeavors that feed my soul and ease my heart. Because what else is there to do?

Prepping for lots of events, hobbies, alterations. Meanwhile the laundry spins in both the washer and dryer, maybe it's time for a cuppa. I left Britain in 2007, yet that nation remains within me, just as California claims my native-born heart. One foot here, one in Yorkshire, while my soul floats between them as though heaven is only a mince pie away.

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