No need to be as specific as this if members want to join in. On Jan. 1 I looked over the 2026 calendars I had received and placed my favorite on my refrigerator. No wall space that works out for me here so I just put the calendar up that way with magnets. Jan. 2 was a day to go somewhere I hadn't been and wanted to visit. I went on a tour of the Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral in Raleigh - still decorated for Christmas so it was beautiful. Lots of poinsettias and lights in the Christmas trees behind the altar. The building is massive. I think we were told it was the 5th largest cathedral in the United States. It extends much higher than what you see in the picture. The largest organ pipes (which you don't see in the picture) are over 30 feet tall. Very happy to have taken the tour.

Happy new year everyone 🥳🎉 I would like to join in on the January list of events. Love the theme!

Jeanne, your cathedral visit sounded nice! Not far from us down in New Orleans is the Saint Louis Cathedral. It's been many years since I visited that cathedral. It's fun to go sight seeing.

I have a few ideas of seeds I would like to start in small containers inside in January to transplant into the garden later, maybe mid March if the weather is right. I was able to start two different seeds yesterday from my list. I sowed seeds of Muncher cucumbers and Thai Long Green Eggplant. The eggplant seeds are from 2021 so crossing fingers on those! I still have more on my list for later.

We are having a mild winter so far. The coldest it's been so far is a few low thirties nights. We still have some Fall tomatoes growing and many are getting ripe at once. On my list is to dehydrate some of my tomatoes for later use in cooking. This is my first time dehydrating tomatoes and excited to see how they come out. Gonna let it run overnight.

Happy to see some members posting. I didn't complete anything on my list today but got a start on some of them. I went through a box of really old photos (from when I was a baby through to before I started grade school) and tossed the really bad ones. It was easy to get bad pictures when you didn't see what you got before you had the roll of film developed and no settings at all on the camera to guide you.

I will miss doing any winter sowing but once it gets close to when I can plant in containers on the balcony I'll once again start some seeds in my Aerograden. Did great with them last year but it was too late in the year once I got them outside. The tomato plants were loaded with tomatoes, but they didn't have enough sun and warm weather to ripen.

Happy New Year! January is a challenging month for me because of the lack of sunlight, but I'm happy whenever anything is crossed off my list.

I actually did my nails for the first time in months. Yeah, they are the sticker kind, but fun!

Happy New Year FOTESSERS!!

I must confess, I do not do the New Year Resolution thing. I do resolutions through out the year...haha! That seems to work better for me....

I love to clean "stuff"out in my house and then donate it....so I have started early in the month of January. My first pick up for the year 2026 will be next week. I really try to have a substantial pick up of goods at least one day a month.

I have been doing something everyday but lately it's boring like rescheduling appointments and changing the shelf that certain dishes are on and the bed linens. Perhaps later today I'll start undecorating from Christmas. I always hate to take it down. I will likely still have my tree up until the weekend. I enjoy having the lights on while I watch TV in the evening. Wondering if the flu is surging in your areas. The news shows NC (and most states) as having a particularly bad year with the flu. I've actually worn my mask a few times when in larger groups. Sure don't want to get it. A beautiful sunny day here today. I looked and it was 63 degrees. We're very much up and down temperatures this winter.

Good to hear everyone getting tasks done! 😄 Today I got one of my task completed. I made a small batch of tomato sauce from the extra tomatoes we had from the garden. I was able to can two pints for later use in cooking. 🥳

I got Christmas down completely......early for me. I usually get it down the second week of January.

Do I dare start pruning my roses???? Maybe later today I will start.

Good morning everyone 😊

This Fall was my first time growing the Dwarf Sweet Sue tomato. The tomatoes grew to small to medium sizes for me and are a nice yellow color. Today I was able to ferment some of the tomato seeds for Sweet Sue to save for a later planting. Taste was a mild tomato flavor and enjoyed adding a little burst of color to the homemade salsa! I would grow again. Anyone else tried Sweet Sue or another dwarf tomato?

Sorry not to have checked in sooner. I stated taking down my Christmas things about 4 days ago and it's a big project and right now I'm in that messy stage where things I want to keep are mostly packed up but I have to sort through the remainder and get everyday things back in place. The apartment kind of looks like an explosion happened even though maybe 8 large plastic tubs have been nicely packed and are now in my storage area. I still have to take the tree apart and pack it. Anyway, that whole process was on my list and will take a few more days to complete. I listed "Read a Book" and completed that. I read No Ordinary Dog by Will Chesney who worked as a U.S. Navy Seal with his dog Cairo. I was very interested in reading about their training and the missions they went on and really enjoyed the book. Anyway, I have 9 things completed which isn't too bad since today is the 12th.

Our temperatures are still so different every few days. Two days ago it was in the 70s and I actually had the AC on for awhile. Now the daytime highs are around 40 and we'll have some overnight temperatures in the low 20s.

How is everyone doing? Anyone winter sowing?

I just wanted to check in and say Hello and Happy New Year to all of you.

I love your theme this month. You come up with some really creative ideas.

I started making my list of 30, but realized I was not going to be able to do it.

After 8 days on antibiotics, then another 8 days of having medicine sealed inside two teeth, I finally got two side by side root canals this morning. Hopefully the healing process will be fast.

So needless to say, I haven't done anything that I didn't have to do so far this month.

It looks like Houzz has messed with my page, but I was able to get on and this should post okay.

Ruth, so sorry to hear about your dental issues. Hope your healing is fast. It seems like anything that hurts in the face area is especially painful. At least it has been for me.

Ruth, hope you feel better soon! Hubby had to go to the dentist today to get a very loose tooth pulled. He's healing up also. 💝

In the Fall I started a big handful of older cabbage seeds, thinking only a few would sprout. To my surprise, a large amount of sprouts came up and I have cabbage plants everywhere I could plant them AND extras I have been giving to friends I know who garden or who would like to learn/start to garden. We do eat alot of cabbage but I have a small garden area so only can plant so much. I have some in small dip containers that I could not put in the garden. Will see how it goes with those! 😄

I was able to start more indoor seeds for my spring garden later. I started seeds for honeynut butternut (first time trying this variety), Jimmy Nardello peppers (first too), rosemary, Contender green beans and another eggplant variety in case the other seeds don't sprout since old seeds.

The weather has been hot then cold, then hot again then cold over here. Wacky weather for us! So far a very usual mild winter. Maybe February will be colder, usually our coldest month of the year. Will see how the seeds do.

Happy Friday everyone! 🥳

Last year I mentioned I was having a hard time getting my Thyme seeds to sprout. Out of the seeds I planted I had one successful plant that I had put into the garden. It's been a slow process for it but it has grown a little bit. Today's task was to repot my Thyme plant from the garden and bring it inside in case the weather got too cold for it. I will replant it when the weather gets warm again in the Spring. Here's a pic of my repotted Thyme plant. It's coming along!

Another week has just about ended. The months seem to go by so quickly. Maybe you've heard, we are supposed to get some snow tomorrow. We'll see what happens. It took me so long to get most of the Christmas decorations down and packed up that I have not accomplished a lot more than that this week - well, I did teach an arts & craft class here where I live so that took some planning. I'm going to teach another one the week after next.

I probably never mentioned it but there was a quilt top that I was working on at my house. After I moved here I couldn't find it. Really bothered me because most of my unfinished quilts are in plastic tubs and I at least know where there are. Today I found the missing quilt top so I was excited - has been missing for a year!

Good luck, winter sowers. It seems I grew Muncher cucumbers when I was in South Carolina. Let's hear what others are growing or planning to grow.

We're buried in snow now. Perfect time to finish a crochet project - a hat. I'm still very new to crochet.

@l1oness your crochet hat came out nice! Love the different colors. Definitely a good pass time during the snow season.

Jeanne, good to hear you finished with the Christmas decorations.

I repotted five of my Pigmy micro tomato plants to bigger size pots that hubby recently bought for me. They should do a lot better in these pots.

I love those teeny tomato plants! Adorable!

Such a pretty hat and what cute little tomato plants!

I didn't even put selling my house on my January list but I got a few offers and took the last one that I received so it's in the process of being sold. Hope it all goes smoothly and that they love the house since it's a great house and such nice neighbors.

Meanwhile I have another "outing" that I had on my January list. It's tomorrow - a tour of the NC Art Museum. I was there once before and it's a wonderful museum and massive so I am happy to go again. I'll follow up and give you a report about what we see at the museum and hopefully have a photo to share. (It's good this happens before the massive storm shows up.)

Apologies. for not checking in...I have been out of town....wine tripping with my friends in Central California and the coast. I do this trip every January, so one could say I have knocked off a January task...LOL!

Before I left on my little trip, I did clean fairly well two of my bedrooms. That has been on my list of "clear it out, get it done".

Jeanne, so happy you sold your home. I would suspect that is a relief for you. I hope there are no problems in closing escrow.

Mandy you remind me to get back in to crochet. I really enjoy it.

I have a few projects in progress....let's see if I can complete them during the month of January.

Happy Friday....Happy weekend!

Letting everyone know that the terrible ice storm and severe cold are on their way to me. Not sure I will have power so I'll "see you" when things improve. I did go to the NC Art Museum on Thursday which was one of the items on my January list. I don't expect to be out other than to walk my dog for several days to come. Any others impacted by the storm, stay safe and warm.

We are ready to hunker down ourselves for the cold snap rolling in tomorrow. Today and yesterday I have been getting ready for it. I picked the last of the tomatoes and cut down the tomato plants. I dug up my heatless jalapeno pepper plant to bring inside to replant in spring. Any sensitive plants have been brought inside and I setup the chicken pet cages inside today for them tomorrow. The night temperatures are suppose to be in the low 20s Monday and Tuesday night. We did the last of the grocery shopping today too. Everyone stay safe and warm!

Annie here...be safe FOTESSERS!

Just a quick report. I still have power today but another storm is rolling in later today and from what I hear that will be freezing rain and if so, that's bad news for the power lines. I think a lot of what we already got was sleet. Not pleasant and it sure made it hard to take the dog out since any paved surfaces are super icy. In fact the accumulation made it so I couldn't even go out one of the doors. I added a clothesline to my dog's leash so she could walk quite a bit farther than I did. My cat woke us up at 4:30 am. I think the sound of the sleet worried her. I have a few plants on my balcony and I put those up against the interior wall and covered them with a sheet. Not sure it will help much, but there is no room to put them inside. We'll see what the week ahead throws at us.

I guess many are following the weather. We still had icy sidewalks from the storm a week ago and here is another storm. We were supposed to get up to 6-8" of snow but only a little fell so far. We were in a "dry gap" so the air was too dry to form snow for much of the time. (Had not heard of that before.) However, tiny flakes have fallen for awhile later in the day and it is so COLD. If you are also in the cold, I hope you stay warm throughout the stormy time. I have to go out to walk my dog so I sure get to feel it. It was especially bad trying to walk on the ice for several days.

Tomorrow is FEBRUARY! How have you done with your list for Plan It. Love It, Do It? I got 17 items completed. Dealing with the bad weather impacted me some - everything takes so much long to do when there are storms and some of the things I listed involved going somewhere and I spent a whole week not even going anywhere in my car. I listed reading one book and actually read two since I was inside so much.

Even if you just got one item completed, you made progress! Mandy signed up to be hostess in February. I'm having trouble with my computer so hopefully she will see this. It's mostly an issue getting into my email.

I'm currently trying to figure out how to start a thread for February. Things seem to have changed since the last time I hosted. I'm sure I'll figure it out!

Mandy, It confused me as well the last two times I posted. I hope you get it figured out. If you want you can email me and I'll look back and see what steps I followed.

Thanks Jeanne for the month of January.

I only got 9 of the 22 to do's done.....I tried!! Thanks for the challenge!