Happy New Year!

Though today is the first day of the new calendar year, it is not a significant new beginning in my mind.  My emotional new year starts with my birthday, which was four days ago.  So, last night, New Year’s Eve, was more or less a non-event.  I spent the night knitting and drawing and avoiding the crazies who were out and about in the world…until my daughter called.

She had a very distraught four-year-old.  They suffered a very teary bedtime because big brother has a stuffed snake that he got as a souvenir on our family trip to Ireland, a stuffed snake that was being coveted…and not shared.  My daughter asked if I could make grandson number 2 his own snake.  My mouth said “yes” before my brain had time to join the conversation.  In that moment, my New Year’s Eve activities turned from relaxing knitting to figuring out how to make a snake.

To knit or to sew…that is the question.

I decided that sewing would get the job done sooner.  But, I had to find a pattern; I could handle the snake’s body without a pattern, but I was not going to freehand its head.  It is amazing what you can find on the Internet at 10pm on New Years Eve!  A downloadable pattern for a five foot scrap fabric snake was available with a click of the PAY NOW button!  Next was to go through my fabric stash and determine whether I had enough fabric in colors that would work.  I often feel guilty about the fabric stash that I’ve acquired because sewing is not my first choice when it comes to creating.  Last night, however, I felt justified in my “preemptive” fabric buying.  Not only did I have enough for a snake,  I had choices to offer!  I put together a couple color combinations and sent pictures for the snake’s recipient to approve when he woke up this morning.  His only request was that his snake have “some greens.”

I don’t have as much green fabric as I do other colors (*Note to self: buy more green fabric.), but I had some and some multi-colored from which I could pull the green sections.  At this point, the pattern was secured, the fabrics were “approved” and it was time to get to work.

My friend, Joni, is here visiting to help celebrate my birthday, to ring in new year, and for our annual end of year craft-cation.  She volunteered to be a part of bringing the snake to life.  While I cut and sewed the body, she worked on the head.  We joined our pieces and at that point had what looked like the skin left behind by a molting snake.  With a little, or maybe a lot, of Poly-fil and a bit of hand sewing, the snake was ready to slither its way into a little boy’s heart.

My grandson lives forty-five minutes away so he did not get his snake today.  The best I could do was send him a photo.  I immediately got this sweet message from him via Talk to Text on his mama’s phone.  

She is coming over tomorrow to pick up the snake.

I am not one who makes New Year’s resolutions.  I did that in the past and the best I got from doing so was a lot of anxiety that I didn’t need.  However, on my birthday, I did think about the things that I want to leave behind as I begin another year, the things that I want to carry on with me, and new things that I want to extend an invitation to join me on my journey in the coming year.  Usually I write these things down, but I haven’t done that for 2026.  I think I was hoping for some clarification.  That came to me over the past twenty-four hours in the form of a crafting friend, a silly scrappy snake, and a sad little boy turned happy.

I’m now ready to write down the farewells, the let’s keep goings, and the will-you-join mes for 2026.

• Love big.
• Laugh hard
• Hug often
• No excuses
• Be the best that you can be today
• Make stuff
• Write stuff
• Buy green fabric

Let’s do this, 2026!