A Pretty E-Card and Other Things

Hello Ladies,

I received this Jacquie Lawson animated email and wanted to share it. It is an advent calendar that goes automatically on your desktop, when you buy it ($4.99) so you don't have to download anything and it features a city in Scotland.  I didn't buy the calendar but I thought it was pretty and wanted to share it with you all here, as it is a picture of a living room, a timely subject for my blog. The fire is flickering, out the window you see the snow falling and the tree likes are blinking!  Isn't that the nicest thing?  Are not those plaid stockings so wonderful? (You stitchers will understand, because of the fabric) Click it for a larger view. It's just such lovely art!

I am so glad to be here this morning and greet everyone. As I am still working on the podcast aspect, I haven't posted much, but I hope to get a podcast finished to post here. It will be the same format as the Housewife Radio program I did last year, and I hope it can download easily on your phones if you need something to listen to while working. I know some of you are alone during the day at home and its nice to have someone talking in the background. I used to have my children and grandchildren talk to me or read something to me while I was working in the kitchen.

My mother and her friends turned the radio on, (although even as a child I recognized that some of the popular songs of the time were not in keeping with our values!) but now, with podcasts, we can broadcast our own things in accordance to our Victorian tastes.  Please leave me a comment and try to list some subjects you would like to listen to, so I have something to consider talking about. It is hard to come up with things, after blogging for about 20 years.

In the mean time I'm working on some "hot spots" in my house --the messes and piles I throw sheets over--to get things in order. I don't want to go missing in the laundry room or the storage room or the library--three of my hot spots. 

Also I am hoping to get a dress sewn, with fabric sent to my by one of my viewers (I am so sorry its been a year since I got that fabric in the mail!!).

As you know I am ignoring winter this year and celebrating the Australian season of summer, which occurs at the same time.  That way I don't put away all my sewing for the next season and get further behind. In spite of it being blazing hot in Australia, they have the nicest Christmas ornaments I have ever seen. Some of them are tropical themes, sea themes, and many other things.  I was looking at some of their videos from their Target, K-Mart , Costco,  Big W stores (similar to Wal-Mart)  and their Native Australian ornaments, and  have seen such gorgeous ornaments.

One of the goals I have is to get the house in good condition so that I can be more leisurely when summer comes.

I hope all is well with you and that you figure out how to tackle the season on a zero or low income. Its hard to squeeze out that extra expense, isn't it?  Homemade things are fine, but they take a lot of time!!

 To make it easy on my children, who bear the expenses of raising families,  I've asked for some particular "gifts of help" to have them fix things or organize things for me---get into places I can't reach, clean out a book shelf, and that spice/cooking supply shelf I haven't cleaned out in about 10 years. I hope I get my requests!  They could use their creativity to make it seem more "gifty".  Author and teacher Emily Barnes used to finish her refrigerator cleaning by placing a small bottle of fresh flowers inside. When you opened the door, what a soft sensation it was.  So maybe putting down the baseboards and crown moulding and cleaning out bookshelves could be turned into something creative like that. What do you think about some of this?

Also, I have added a couple of new-to-me blogs on my blog roll. I realize not all the blogs I include meet everyone's approval or preferences but they make it interesting to some of us.



Lydia