Give it a Go
Ahhhh the solstice - the first day of winter. Though the true New Year doesn’t begin for another ten days, this is when the year starts for me. Simply knowing that the light will be growing instead of shrinking makes things feel fresh and new and reenergized, like anything is possible.
Also, I just love this season - so today is always cause for celebration.
Not that it feels particularly wintry at the moment, though. Today was in the sixties and WINDY - I think the biggest gusts I saw were around 55mph. This would seem like a crazy amount of wind except that last week, we were absolutely flattened by 80mph blasts. The windows visibly flexed on the west side of the house and I hid inside the whole day, worrying about the horses as we watched billows of dust race by outside, blocking our view of anything more than twenty feet out.
But we survived (somehow) and I keep telling myself we’ll survive the drought we’re in and the unseasonable temps and now that it’s really, properly, winter there must be a little cold on the horizon, right? I’ll keep hoping.
Because we’ve got so much more space in the new house, this year Eric and I decided to retire our little, fake Christmas tree and do something…different. He was opposed to getting a real one (he’d rather not cut down a tree) and I was opposed to getting a new, fake one (too many chemicals). SO - a couple weeks back we drove up the canyon and foraged for fallen aspen branches that we then tied together to make a tree just our style.
I believe this is a Scandinavian thing, making a tree from fallen branches - but wherever the idea originated, it’s so simple and sweet! Here and there I balanced a few pinecones, scented with pine, orange, and clove essential oils, and the paper star I made way back in California found its home perched right on top. As of now, we haven’t decided whether or not we’ll keep this one or go branch hunting again next year, but I think that this whole idea is a keeper.
As a new tradition, we decided that every year we’re each going to pick out a new ornament to commemorate what we’ve been up to - and, of course, for this inaugural year we both chose food themed baubles. Eric picked a baguette (to remember our trip, of course) and I picked a S’more - both because it made me laugh AND because one of the things I’ve loved best about living here is sitting out under the stars with a little fire (and my mouth full of marshmallow).
Tonight we’re making a few pomander oranges (basically just whole cloves poked into oranges in fun patterns) and tomorrow we’ll be fixing the wind-tousled lights on the outside of the house (again, for the hundredth time), but then I think we’ll be just about fully Christmased.
As for me, I don’t have new work to show - yet. Right now, I’m playing around with some designs for a quartet of seasonal, cut paper luminary lanterns (that will then be available for a cut-your-own experience) as well as my first official knitting pattern! That second one scares me a bit, as I’ve been toying with the idea of sharing some of my own knit creations for awhile but always seem to talk myself out of it…but it’s (sort of) a new year, right? No time like the present to just give it a go!