the last post of the year

first off happy new year everyone
i wish you all happiness, health and peace

i wish you good food, good friends, and much laughter
preferably all at once

i'm sitting here in the studio listening to the budgies chirp happily. watching my woodstove struggling to stay lit (it's really warm out)

bernie is layering the ham potato and cheese casserole that i make a lot in the winter-
*** super simple....make a medium white sauce.....add a ton of extra sharp cheddar and some colby jack to it
chop a good ham up into cubes
wash and peel a few pounds of yukon golds
and layer it all like lasagna
then bake at 350 until it's all cooked and bubbly....and you can't stand it anymore!
then eat until you explode

yup it really is that good

i spent part of the day putting yarn in bins
yarn that i acquired this past year (think of it as a 401k for knitters)
i spent another part of the day out in town where i apparently made a new friend
as well as got a LIME GREEN (don't you all faint) 3'' binder for knitting patterns......
i may need to get another one
i have a LOT of knitting patterns

in knitting, i am doing annis 
i am doing it in a wonderful red berry plum purpley color with perfectly matching beads in place of nupps.....see it in the picture?
those beads match PERFECTLY...you should see them in person..so i had to order more as i ran out with only 10 more nupps to go...yup
i am missing 10 beads.....10 BEADS....!  i did order more but until they come i am sorta shit out of luck.... so while i was going to nupp instead, i am realizing that i would never be happy with the mix of nupp and beads in a shawlette that is the perfection of color that this one is........ so it's waiting and waiting for the beads....
oye
and it was such a fun knit!

meanwhile since i am doing stuffs ......... i am also going through stuff and seeing what i can toss
there isn't much since i been collecting for certain projects for years..
but there IS a lot of boxes and such..mainly cause they have our names on them
we plan on taking care of that this year.....we plan on a burn barrel as the shredder sure couldn't handle it all

now just to keep things interesting.... here are two pictures of my silly duck lillianna, taking a SHOWER in the rain.... now normally my ducks hate the rain but i have lilli in with falstaff and she doesn't want to go under the roofed area cause he is in there
so she sat in the rain feeling oh so sorry for herself and took a shower.....
i got weird ducks

ok folks..... this is it...happy new year
i'll talk to you in the new year
so until next year

be good
be safe and be healthy