Winter Day at Home

Today was a very wintery feeling day.  It wasn't snowing, but the day was so dim and cloudy and cold, I was glad I didn't have to run to town or be outside very long in it. 

 I was feeling pretty inspired looking around Etsy today and decided to make a treasury:

It's somehow comforting, yet unbelievable that it's already December.  I did a lot of processing today about the change of course my life has taken this past year. 

The change of course has been for the better.  I feel like I've gotten back in touch with what's important to me and it's hard to look back and not get emotional at how far I've come from where I was last year around this time.

Last year on this day I was running my first craft booth at my local holiday arts and crafts fair, selling my knit and crochet things, and hand drawn holiday cards.  I was in a pretty stressed out mental place.  I had just ended a long and dysfunctional relationship and was struggling to find myself again. 

Then

Now

I had a lot of hard work to do on myself and it's really paid off.  I'm so thankful that I have a close family who have really supported me this past year.

I am proud of the new person I'm becoming as I continue to make wise choices and not beat myself up about my past decisions.  I'm excited about my plans for my future. 

I hope your year is ending on a thoughtful and glad note, like mine is.  I know we have a whole month yet until the new year is here, but I'm already feeling the fact that this year is coming to a close.

My new venture into making sweet things for pets is well on its way.  I recently opened a new Etsy shop called Janey in the Meadow.  I named it after my dear cat Janey, who is almost 10 years old now. 

She is a special companion to me and has been through a lot.  I adopted her as a kitten from the humane society in 2004.  She has a very feisty and bold personality and will not think twice about biting if she doesn't like what's going on.  She's a tough girl and she loves to run around outside and take walks with my dog Gilbert and me.  She likes to hunt field mice out here in the country, and her favorite flavor of canned cat food is turkey with cheese.

I was petting her one day, about two weeks ago, as she was curled up on my bed and I thought how cute she would look with a little winter scarf on.  I immediately went to work knitting her a sparkly royal blue tiny scarf and just couldn't stop smiling when I finished it and put it on her.  Let me be clear, Janey was not smiling...just me.  My sister thought it was a cool idea and militantly encouraged me to make more of them and put them up for sale so other people could love them too.  So I did.  I worked very hard to knit up a quick inventory and open a new shop devoted to pets, and on November 15th I opened for business.  It's been nonstop ever since.

I'm so glad to be making these cute things.  I somehow don't get tired of knitting these precious little scarves for cats.  Janey has been my faithful model, for all the new color designs.  And my mom's cats, Lynxy and Molly, have helped out too. 

I have a dog scarf design in the works... and Gilbert will be modeling that for me soon.  Yesterday a customer sent me a picture of her cat wearing one of my scarves and I was so giddy I couldn't contain it.  It is so cool to be able to make things I love and share that with other people who love them too!

I'm already brainstorming some future designs for Valentine's Day and spring that I can't wait to get started on.  I wonder how long Janey is going to tolerate this?