Weird weather

I was able to finish the frame for the daily temperature SAL on Christmas night. Since there were 13 open spaces I decided to indicate the start of each month and the year at the end:

So far I've been stitching one square each day; I though the year would start out with a lot of white and blue, but we've had some temps that are 15-20 degrees above average so it looks like this so far:

Watching the temps has been interesting because on a couple of the days the high reached 43-45F, but only for an hour or two and then dropped back down into the 30s. I check two sites, so I know they are correct readings, but it just seems strange. Yesterday we hit 45F, and today I found this little guy on our sidewalk (he must be pretty confused!):

For Christmas my husband got me this book from Lakeside Needlecraft:

It has a design by Nora Corbett in it, so I knew I wanted it and it made a good present, but there aren't many other designs in it that I would stitch--a few, but not many. You can find info about it here, and if you're on Instagram you can check both Lakeside Needlecraft and #lnwinter19 to see some pictures. I did start Nora's design the day after Christmas, and finished it on the 28th:

I took a few liberties with the colors and used beads for the berries instead of the called-for floss; hopefully I'll find some time this year to finish it into an ornament for the tree next Christmas.

In other news we took in a new dog on New Year's Eve, an approximately 8-year-old beagle named Roxie. She is a very sweet girl, but is obese and has problems with house training; she knows the basics, but in her previous home she would often go more than 12-18 hours without being taken out so she is not as well-trained as she should be. It has been a problem and I'm really hoping she improves in that area with some hard work because I just don't know if I can deal with it on a permanent basis. She's also very time-consuming right now, which isn't good for my model stitching schedule.

When we got her we took her straight to our vet as she hadn't seen one in several years, and found she had an ear infection and low thyroid function, both of which are now being treated with meds. She weighed 58lbs so we have a weight loss goal of 30lbs, which is probably going to take at least 15-18 months with diet, exercise and thyroid medication. Here are a couple of pictures on her first day with us:

Murphy is not thrilled with the addition to our household, but aside from a couple of minor dust-ups they seem to have agreed to ignore each other. I plan to take a picture of Roxie on the last day of each month, and hope to be able to see some weight loss results in several months; wish us luck!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!