In an effort to be more crafty and resolve one of the myths of retirement, I concocted these Halloween decorations. I think Martha has no worries about competition from me!
These decorations were made from sticks the neighbor's oak tree spits out in my yard. I love these sticks and spend way too much time admiring them and gathering them for my projects. Unfortunately my gardener sees them for what they are-sticks and yard trash. He throws away my weekly collection before I can begin my Christmas decorations. I have no Christmas projects to show. The following is one of my precious stick collections that the gardener tossed:
I did make a couple of table runners using my Mother's long arm quilting machine. These runners are intended for Christmas gifts. Even as I was making them, I couldn't help but wonder about who uses such a thing and why? Ann wanted a flannel one because her cats sleep on her dining room table. That's the only reason for a table runner that makes sense to me. It's all about a spoiled pet dog in my house. He doesn't sleep on the table or even on the bed, but just about his every other whim is catered to and painstakingly dealt with. Sigh!
The above are pictures of the runners and details of the quilting. Do you see the kitty in the quilting?
Well, my hobbies are not launching me into retirement. I think learning to cook was not such a good idea either. My house is still 'fragrant' (stinks!) from my Indian pizza experiment. That line at the bottom of the recipe about how your house will stink for a week if you make this dish was more than correct. My house still smells several weeks later! Next time,if there ever is a next time, I will do a better job of reading the recipe BEFORE I begin cooking.
Bottom line: developing hobbies and learning to cook is definately a myth of retirement.
I sorta failed at the never going back to work resolution, too. I am working 12 to 16 hours a week to help complete a project at my old place of employment. This project has an end date, so I'm not willing to concede that never going back to work Is actually a myth. I did find out that this working some in retirement is called 'active retirement'. That sounds a whole lot better than 'failed at retirement, loser!'
Onward!
