On New Years Eve 2009:

Here Lies 2009. Like any other year it had its highs and lows. It has its memories for all of us and we will try to remember it fondly, or for others not at all. May its passing bring about a better and more prosperous new year for us all.

I got my free paper toys from Raven Blight. Go there and take a look, a read, a listen, or play a video game. (I used a mix of both the Cemetery set and the Hearst set to make my death year setup. I also added the Grim Reaper this year.)
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Hi Friends and Readers,

I’m wishing all of you the best life has to offer on this night of endings and beginnings.

Have a fresh start tomorrow and a much better year ahead then the last.

Enjoy your observance of the holiday and keep out of trouble. Mountain Man and I will be having a Pizza Party and burying the old year.

See you next year.

Hugs, Lady Euphoria

On New Years Eve Prep:

Last year my New Years Eve plans fell through because of an ice storm.

Every year, whether it is just the two of us or a house full, we have a build your own pizza party and spend the afternoon making a few different sauces, chopping all kinds of veggies and shredding a variety of cheeses.

When the guests arrive we chop up their contributions and cook up what meat products that are being added. I make the dough and give each person their own personal pizza crust.

We talk and come up with different pizza topping combinations while sipping fruit punch or wine and remembering the fun we had in the last year.

When the pizzas are done cooking we eat and trade bites. We even write down the best combos and start planning new and even better combos for our next pizza party.

As a kid at midnight I’d bury a small box or jar with the year drawn in a coffin and sometimes a few trinkets inside it in the cemetery down the block from my house on New Years Eve.

I’d bury the old dead year and start the new year wondering why no one else I knew did the same thing.

So after the pizza party for two, on midnight last year I buried 2008 in a cemetery, something I hadn’t done for years. I down loaded and printed out some of Raven Blight's free paper toys last minute and made my own paper cemetery for burying the old year. (I wasn’t willing to brave the ice storm myself.)

We are not having guests this year. Mountain Man and I have been sick this last week and not up for cleaning the house for a party. But the pizza fixings are in the fridge and the paper cemetery is out on the table.

You know where I’ll be at midnight tomorrow. Burying 2009 and welcoming in 2010. Today I have to go to Raven’s Blight web site (He has games, stories and other stuff there too.) for a new coffin for this years death.

On Euphoria the Red Nosed:

For the last few days I’ve been shabby grubby sick.

You know the kind I mean. Propped up on pillows in bed, amongst piles of used tissues and depending on others to prepare food for you or just eating out of the can. Forget about proper hygiene.

I am showered and in a fresh flannel night gown at the moment, with a cup of tea and honey at my side.

So being on a more presentable level I decided to pop my head out of the covers and say ‘Hi’ while my hair dries.

Okay I am still wrapped in a blanket while I type with one finger, because one hand is holding the blanket on and closed around my shoulders. (Ignore the rapidly growing pile of tissues on the floor. The steam in the bathroom made my red nose run even more.)

Mountain Man brought Sir Laidback to the Vet for his recheck. The dog is still on his meds, but doing much better. He is not scratching near as much and playing with (Okay, hogging) the dog toys more. This is to Lady Long (the dashund)’s long suffering, eye rolling disgust.

The Vet thinks Sir Laidback is closer to seven years old rather than five as we were told at the SPCA.

No other new news at Deathwatch Manor. The world kept on turning while I slept. I’ll look in on you in a few days when I’m not feeling as dreadful.

Until then, Happy Holidays everybody.

On Under a Blanket:

We are under a blanket of snow here at Deathwatch Manor. And I went back to bed.

I should have known. Odd dreams, feeling uneasy about my craft projects, extra cranky about housework…

You guessed it… I woke up sick.

I’m miserable and tired, but for the moment pretending not to be.

The weather outside is frightful, but in here I’m playing seasonal music. And I don’t have no where to go, I’ll let Mountain Man move the snow.

Winter Solstice is tomorrow and I have to be ready to party. So I’m breaking out the box of extra soft tissues.

Have a great holiday season everyone!

On Mixed Up Dreams:

I woke up to a dream. In this dream, I was an early teenager in the house I grew up in and my son was there. He was about seven in the dream and having trouble finding his teddy bear so he could go to sleep.

There were many bears in the house to choose from, but his was not among them. We talked of other things like people do when looking for something. Games he liked and what his friend were up to, what we were having for dinner and how growing things like to face the sun.

I woke upset. Partly because we never did find that bear in the dream and partly because I didn’t tell him how much I loved him before it was over.

The house I grew up in is no longer standing. My son is dead and gone. But I have that teddy bear in a box with a few of his other things.

The thing that feels wrong is the mix of things. My being about thirteen and he was seven. This was my childhood home and not the house he grew up in. And although he kept the bear from his childhood he didn’t play with or use it after the age of five. In fact it was not his favorite toy by a long run.

I never remember him sleeping with it. He favored hard plastic action figures and wooden blocks as bed pals.

Did I feel the need for some comforting? Was I feeling child like and at loose ends or lost? Or was it just some random memories mixed together to make a story in my mind?

I don’t know what it was saying, but I do know it made me miss my son all over again like he was here just yesterday.

Some dreams help and other are upsetting. But this one left me feeling empty and lost.

I hope all your dreams make your world a better place.

On Un-Finished Objects or UFO’s:

My thumb is getting better and I’ve started knitting again. I started a simple striped, purple and gray scarf. Something strait and easy to get my hands in shape and loosened up for more strenuous knitting again.

But this leads to guilt. Yes guilt! Because, I have so many UFO around here.

Mittens, socks, the throw for my bed (Yes, it is still on the needles over a year later. Stop laughing at me.), sweaters, hats, and a toy or two. All taking up space, holding my knitting needles hostage.

And don’t get me started about my lace making, sewing, writing my stories, my dolls and their houses, and my other crafting projects.

I took stock of the situation and found I’m not a ‘finisher’ anymore. I’ve gotten lazy and unreliable in the last year or so. Things get left until last minute. The house looks like a herd of buffalo just came through. And I’ve gained back half the weight I worked so hard to loose these last few months.

Time to step up to the plate. I need more then just organization of UFO‘s, I need structure. I can’t get things done by the seat of my pants anymore. (Those pants are lost in the laundry pile and don’t fit me right now anyway.)

I want to just attack the knitting boxes and bags ticking off projects one by one, but that won’t help me get back on my weight loss schedule and leaves no time for writing or other things.

So, until the end of January I’m committing to clearing up most all of the different UFO’s around here. But I have to get a handle on the Unfinished things while not loosing ground on my life. A schedule to an end. No running around just mopping up messes, but a systematic time oriented attack on chaos.

I just can’t spend hours and hours a day on the internet trolling around or playing video games. If you need me I’ll be wading through the laundry pile and doing dishes, as well as finishing UFO’s and exercising. Taking care of my life as a whole while calming the chaos. And not adding to it with more new started projects. A good goal, don’t you think?

Make a schedule and keep to it. One hour and a half for internet a day… Check!

On Jigsaw Jungle:

I went to the barn yesterday and got out some of my stash of jigsaw puzzles for this winter. This is just what was in three of the large storage boxes of jigsaw puzzles I own. A pile as tall as me.

The smallest is a 240 pieces and makes a 3D orb puzzle. There are more than one 2000 piece puzzles in that pile, but by far most of them are 1000 pieces.

In the specialty puzzle category I have all edge piece puzzles, double sided puzzles, mystery puzzles (No picture to see what you are making), ‘Who done it’ puzzles (Where you solve the mystery when you put the puzzle together.) and maze puzzles.

Then there are the puzzles pictures of multiple repeat things like marbles, pins and needles, buttons, and the like. For me the harder the better. I’ve even made puzzles upside down, with the card board facing up, just for the challenge.

At one time I swapped puzzles with my father, but he doesn’t jigsaw like he used to. Mountain Man doesn’t share my enjoyment for jigsaw puzzles and has only ‘helped out’ with a few pieces in the twenty years we have been married.

I am also a jigsaw re-do-er. That is to say I have a group of puzzles I do yearly, because I like them that much, and the rest I store for five years or more before doing them over again. I just don’t have the money to keep myself in new puzzles when I can remake the ones I have.

I do add some new puzzles yearly. I am a 750 puzzle piece a day puzzler. If there isn’t a jigsaw on the table I do one on the computer each day.














I have even made jigsaw puzzles for my doll houses. Nutty I know, but why not do what you like to do if it doesn’t hurt anyone else. Then again, it could always be I’m missing some of the puzzle pieces in my head.

Now go find some fun to put into your day. I’ll be doing jigsaw puzzles.