December - Hopes for the new year!

Let's see some photos depicting what you hope to see in the new year! Trips? New dolls? Time outside? Be creative!

Some photos will be used in the January banner!

Happy New Year! by TrueFan, on Flickr

Fun and adventure around every corner sounds great. And that is an amazingly cute photo.

For more things to go right than go wrong. 2023 has felt like a whirlwind of a year. This last year mu resolution was to unpack my dolls and give them some TLC. I've mostly achieved this with only one pullip left in the box to unpack. I have not however had much time to document and share my progress. I often feel like I come here, read all your posts, think of a long thoughtful reply and then by the time I get a chance to actually reply, I'm tired and all I type is goop. So I guess my aim is to post a bit more and achieve more thoughtful articulate replies. (As I post this I'm having a nappy flung at me so I guess that identifies one of the problems )

I hope I get some rest. The last two months have been stressful and have come with physical challenges. My eyes are physically strained from cataract surgery and from waiting for new glasses.

So 2024 - plenty of rest!

Valancy gets some rest by TrueFan, on Flickr

I hope your eyes feel better soon, it sounds like you've really had a lot on your plate! This time of year is busy enough with out all the added extras. Valancy's bed looks lovely and soft, i really like her soft pastel crocheted blanket. I have new found respect for a good crochet after trying it myself. (I'm hopeless)

Thanks! I can assure you that I did not make the blanket and pillow. The last time I crocheted was in junior high.

TrueFan wrote: My eyes are physically strained from cataract surgery and from waiting for new glasses.

Cataract surgery! But... now you can see again!

Nearly everyone I've known who has had cataracts removed has said some variation of the same thing: once they can see again, they are appalled by how dirty everything is!

[quote="davidd"]

TrueFan wrote:

Nearly everyone I've known who has had cataracts removed has said some variation of the same thing: once they can see again, they are appalled by how dirty everything is!

I'm appalled by how dirty everything is... I thought I just cleaned in here!

It's true, OMG it is true. I already knew my house was dusty but not HOW dusty. I spent yesterday cleaning ONE ROOM. Why do I own so many things?

TrueFan wrote:It's true, OMG it is true. I already knew my house was dusty but not HOW dusty. I spent yesterday cleaning ONE ROOM. Why do I own so many things?

Why do I keep buying more things when I know I've got so many things to get rid of?
I watched a video by oomocha crush on YouTube where she talked about how long it took her to dust around her pullip collection and that was the point I decided to slow my own down!

CatDragonStorm wrote:...how long it took her to dust around her pullip collection and that was the point I decided to slow my own down!

Haha. But if you put them in a cabinet, you wouldn't have to dust them...!
Alas, I can't find a buyer for my unused piano to make room for a cabinet...

Alliecat wrote:
Alas, I can't find a buyer for my unused piano to make room for a cabinet...

I was looking at pianos for sale a few months ago on some online site or another - Craigslist, is that still a thing? FaceBook Marketplace? Anyway, there were quite a few "free" pianos! People literally can't even give a piano away, because moving a piano is very expensive if you have to pay to have it done, or moderately expensive if you have to rent a trailer and a dolly, and you need at least two very strong people to lift a piano down steps or on to a trailer.

So what can you do? Take it apart and burn it for firewood? I did that once, with a piano that got termite infested in Hawaii. It still hurts me to the core of my soul that I dismantled an upright piano built in 1912, but there was no saving it. The rust on the metal parts from salt air, the termites in the wood. Anyway, it was a job and a half to take that thing apart.

The "sea air" might be a factor in why you cannot find anyone interested in your piano. It does a number on the strings and mechanism.

So, another 2024 hope: Alliecat can resolve her piano / space issue.

If I could afford all of the above and wasn't currently about to surrender my bedroom to a teenager to go sleep in my living room and I had the space AND we lived closer- I would take your piano but alas everything David says is true. Nothing calms my mental health more than playing a real piano, plastic keys don't quite cut it. That's a hauntingly sad picture of a broken piano.

I agree that a real piano sounds much better.
It used to be a huge thing here. The kids’ club telethon every year was an interminable series of little kids playing their exercises.  Now they are spending all their time staring at screens.
That is a really sad picture of what looks like it was a very nice piano.

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Sadly, this was the “New Year’s hope” last year. A year ago I had begun what has turned into 3000 km of driving so far in a search of different areas. I cannot believe another year has passed. Don’t know what else I have to do. Happy New Year, wheee.  

I hope you can find a better place to live. You and the crew deserve better.

Is there anything better than your island paradise?

You just need to find a better location on your island!

Maybe it'll happen this year! If you really want it to.

(In the meantime - I shall keep "visualizing" a meteorite strike next door.)

I hope this year goes well for all of you. I've shared in your various adventures and struggles this year, so my hope for 2024 is that we all have more adventures than struggles and in AllieCats case to somewhere with better neighbours!

CatDragonStorm wrote: my hope for 2024 is that we all have more adventures than struggles

hear, hear!