ING Things

I've reached a milestone today...it's the 10th anniversary of this joyful puttering blog. I continue to marvel at...and be grateful for those of you who follow along. Some of you have been here from the start...others have joined in somewhere along the way.  

I'm so grateful for the kind words of encouragement and support through email or blog comments. They mean the world to me and remind me why I show up here every day.

The very first post that Clarke helped me with back in 2015 was titled Dreaming Out Loud...and I've been doing a lot of ING things ever since. Here are just a few:

collecting, creating, and connecting

puttering, painting, and puzzling

looking, laughing, and listening

reflecting, refocusing, and wrapping

gardening, grieving, and giggling

decorating, doodling, and digitizing

crafting, collaging, and coloring

felting, fusing, and, finding

painting, pausing, and paying attention

stitching, storytelling, and celebrating

My life is full of joyful abundance!

I used to check out my stats on a regular basis...but I don't anymore because it just doesn't matter. But I did check out my numbers on this milestone anniversary and here are just some of my 10 year stats as reported by Blogspot:

3,637 posts

3,597 comments

565,649 visits from over 20 countries (most of these come from clicks from Pinterest)

132 followers by email 

96 Collages continues to be the most visited post (because of Pinterst) with over 18,000 views.

Rainbows and Swirls comes in second where I feature my Swirls of Color project and share my binding technique with over 8,000 views.

Thank you so much for making it to the end of this post...and for following along! It's not over till it's over! 

Spring in Winter

Christmas is put away and we're a few days into a new year. Other than making a few Christmas presents and creatively wrapping presents with Trader Joe's bags I haven't done much art. I feel a little disconnected from my projects and supplies and I'm not quite sure where to start. But I know I'll find my way....and I'm looking forward to getting back to a creative daily practice.

But for tonight....I'm doing a little puzzle catch up. Puzzles are always part of my daily transitions....and these two have been part of this moment in time transition. So if you're not into puzzles....feel free to move on.

Right after Christmas while I was still basking in the glow of it all...I squeezed in one more familiar Christmas puzzle...the Merry and Bright Christmas ornaments. I've done it several times...and enjoy it just as much each time I do it.

Here is it is almost done while I was in the middle of changing Christmas over to winter! We're going to keep Margie's little tree up in the corner of the living room for the rest of the winter. We're enjoying the lights in the evening.

I finished the ornaments several days ago...and started sorting the pieces in the fabulous puzzle Marita gifted me.

It's a spring puzzle...and it might take me till spring to finish it. And a little dose of spring in the winter seemed like a good idea. I had the measuring tape out because this is a vertical puzzle....and found out I only have 1 inch to spare on my table. 

There are 3 full boxes of the shades of background orange....that's just as many pieces that have flower color on them. Yikes! 

I'm going to approach this one in a whole different way....and I'm not going to do the border first like usual. It just doesn't make sense given the orientation and size.

I'm starting with the bouquet first....then I'll try and fill in the orange at the top as I push it up on the table adding the border as I go. Then I'll work my way down the sides and do the bottom last. Or as least that the plan for now. So far...the flowers have been challenging but fun. Each one with its unique color and texture. We'll see how it goes when I get to the background....I may be cursing a bit under my breath....but I'm going to enjoy a bit of spring in the winter! 

PEMDAS

Subtitle: Order of Operations

Do you remember PEMDAS?  Parentheses, exponents, multiplication and division, and addition and subtraction. I may never use it again...but I don't think I'll ever forget the order of operations for mathematics. 

I felt like I had an order of operations strategy for my Christmas undecorating making it less of a chore and more of a puttering project. We're still enjoying some lights and a few decorations...but I wanted to gradually tone it down and get most of the spaces back to ordinary time. So I created an order of operations of sorts.

I started several days ago putting away the Santas....then a few other things that were more Christmasy. The next day I transitioned my window sill and dining room hutch from Christmas to winter with some snowmen and trees.

Yesterday I took the ornaments off the tree leaving just the lights for New Year's Eve. And just today....the tree is down and all put away. It feels good!

Order of operations was the way to go this year! 

I'll enjoy the snowmen and trees for the month of January.

Happy New Year! Bring on 2025!