Finishing Feels Good

Finishing feels almost as good as starting a new project, for me anyway. This afghan was started the week Jim was in the hospital and was finally finished yesterday. The long slog through the middle was tough but I have a new couch this needed to be on and so I continued a row or two an evening. It has been washed now too and I actually took a short nap under it yesterday afternoon. 

The pattern, which I change from lots of stripes to big blocks of color, came from the blog Clementine Knits and the pattern's name is Chevron Gradient Afghan.

In other random and barely useful news I change my Etsy shop name from plain jane Cozy to CozyAtoZ. This change means my blog, pinterest and twitter accounts as well as the newly renamed shop all use CozyAtoZ. I like it when things match.

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

March for Our Lives and a Resolution

I don't know how many of you may have watched coverage of the Washington DC event March for Our Lives yesterday but I saw some of it. Since I am a cord cutter I found my live stream on Twitter. I didn't get to see all of it since I was a bit late to the party. What I had a chance to see was inspiring, the music, the speeches, the messages, the 6+ minutes of silence, the young children and teens too.

I am confessing to some guilt as well. Why? Let me see if I can clarify for you and myself. Do you remember a saying that goes something like "If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem?" I do and if you do that's good and if it is new to you maybe you will find it useful. Anyway I figured out that by not voting on an issue I find important over these last many years makes me part of the problem. I believe that on a national, not state or local, we need to improve our gun laws. I have voted twice in my life, once at 18 and in 2008 for Barack Obama. All the other times I just figured the country would move along, taking care of what needed to be done and my vote wouldn't really matter.  My guilt comes from not making my stand with at the very least a simple vote. It does matter.

It matters because if more people like me voted maybe we wouldn't have our chaotic commander in chief. It matters because maybe the assault weapons ban of the 90's would have been strengthened rather that allowed to expire in 2004. It matters because maybe a healthcare system that was working for so many could have been improved rather that gutted. Even if a majority on a given issue doesn't agree with me my vote means I have a voice at the table. At the table is where compromise and progress can take place.

You can't complain if you don't vote. One of the speakers yesterday said it is time to REV up. Let's do this!

Register
Educate
Vote

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A Summer of Eagles

I have always like watching birds. It is a joy to see them in the yard, cooing doves, frantic hummingbirds and cheerful songbirds. I don't always know their names but that doesn't change my happiness when I get to sit and watch.

Last summer on the lake it seems like everytime we went out on the water we saw eagles, more that any other year before. I loved it. Jackson Lake is home to many birds, pelicans, ducks, Canadian geese and of course eagles. The picture below is just one of many. I wish the pictures were better but it is hard from a boat and birds are not real cooperative when it comes to posing. 

Isn't he handsome? I think "he" anyway.

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What I Read

 Another volume of my Reader's Digest collection has been finished. I had forgotten how enjoyable it is to breeze through the condensed stories in these volumes.

I think I read Prizes by Erich Segal years ago but liked reading it again.

Eyes of a Child was frightening and I had to be careful to end on a calm part so I could sleep at night after reading some of it.

Secret Missions was set in WWII Florida and it was interesting to learn how involved in the war that state was.

More Than Meets the Eye was okay. I felt like the story needed more depth but maybe in its full form I would have liked it better.

Since I am determined to be a more active reader I have gone back to GoodReads and listed my latest reads there. I am a list maker at heart and GoodReads makes it so darn easy, I'm hooked.

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All of the Above With Norman Lear

In the last couple months I have pretty much given up watching televisions with two exceptions, the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics. I use podcasts as background noise to my days and to inform and entertain me. I have blogged before about a couple of my favorites, HumaNature and Telemetry.

Another favorite among so very many is Wait Wait Don't Tell Me from NPR. The only way I heard that show before was on road trips when the only station on the radio was Public Radio. At other times Jim likes music too much for me to have a chance to listen to talk shows. Now with my little Podcast Addict app I can listen whenever I want.

Earlier this week I heard an episode of Wait Wait from 2016 that had Norman Lear as a guest. He was so much fun to listen to that I stopped what I was doing and did just that. He was 93 when this particular show aired and he was asked about what got him so far and what could he say to others hoping to live so long. His words have been in my mind all week and I want to save them here.

I heard those words as instructions for living a life with a sense of accomplishment and the joy of being able to look forward to new things. Sounds good to me, in fact, it makes me smile just to think about using this phrase myself. 

As for Mr. Lear who is now 95, he has a podcast of his own. I have listened to several episodes and been delighted. The show is "All of the Above with Norman Lear" and as of this writing there are 38 episodes ready to listen to. So far I have listened to episodes with writers, actors, musicians and other performers from Michael Angelakos to Rita Moreno to RuPaul.

From Yellowstone to Hollywood, my curious mind wants to hear about it all.

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Reflections on Jackson Lake

In organizing my photos recently I keep coming across images that bring back so many memories. I plan to blog about lots more of them here mostly to create a record for myself but you (any readers) are welcome to come along.

I took this picture on our last day on the lake last summer. It was such a lovely day without wind so the water was like a mirror. The mountain straight ahead it Mt Moran which is just to the north of Grand Teton. At the base of Mt Moran is a small bay that is peaceful and stunning.That is true especially in the fall when the slopes are blazing with gold, orange and red.

That day it was just Jim and I taking the boat out one last time before taking it from the buoy we kept it on and hauling it home to be stored for the winter. It was a day of gratitude for the weather and for Jim's great recovery from his heart attack. Jackson Lake is a place very dear to me and if you ever get a chance to explore it do so and I think you will find yourself falling in love like I did.

Jackson Lake, Grand Teton National Park 2017

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Art in Mazatlan

One thing I was enthralled by in Mazatlan during our single day there on the cruise was the amount of art everywhere you looked. It was on the sides of buildings, sculptures along sidewalks and of course in shops. I saw these figures in a parking area close to the cruise ship port. I found them fascinating.

Come on over to the blog and click on this picture to zoom in and see the details.

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 Once long ago I made a ladder yarn shawl. It was the first time I had ever made this pattern and it turned out big, very big. It would be the perfect size for and 8 foot tall person. So over time I found other things to do with it. It has, at one time or another, been a mantle scarf at a fireplace, a dining room curtain and currently it is a second layer over a shower curtain in a guest bath. If you click to enlarge the picture you can see that is has lots of pretty colors in it including a soft yellow along with pinks and orange and a frosty aqua.

Not wanting a pink bathroom or orange or aqua the aforementioned yellow led me to a search for yellow bath rugs. I already have some yellow towels so the search was on to complete the look in my head. I had no luck finding anything I liked. Being in need of more projects to get done or put off like I always do I decided to dig up my old puff stitch rug pattern. The problem? I couldn't find the pattern but I had made it before. So after buying some lemon yellow Red Heart yarn cause that stuff wears like iron and playing with a couple hook sizes and beginning a couple times and frogging I was on my way. I came up with a long rug to go in front of the sink and a hexagon to step onto getting out of the tub.

Next for this bathroom? I want some decor for the walls and I have some crafty ideas in mind. If I get them made I'll post here later.



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