My Mom Got A Dog, or How We Got Here

If you follow me and Madeline on Instagram, perhaps you have noticed that I've been tagging my posts with a new location.  I left Chicago in December for the Hamptons of the Midwest.  Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, about eighty miles away.  Forty miles from Milwaukee.  I've been working in both locations over the last month.  Why did I do it?  Because the struggle to afford to live in Chicago became too much.  It was hard as two people sharing an apartment, but then the Man decided to leave us.  It was misery all around.  The apartment, unlivable, became unaffordable, and I couldn't afford to move.  So, I had to let go of some possessions, and some moved into storage.  I'm in a small temporary space while I lick my wounds.  I've done my best to try to make a furnished space home.  It's hard for a collector to be seperated from her collections.
I have said for years that I wished I could live in Wisconsin, it's beautiful.  It's the place of happy memories for me (although many are from road trips with the Man), and my mother lives here.  I see my mom almost every day, and Madeline stays with her when I'm working.  No longer do I have anxiety about the amount of hours I left her in a space that didn't feel safe (the Chicago apartment).  She now spends much of her time in a beautiful space.  I do miss the Man, he was my best friend besides Mad, and we had been together for twenty years.  We still talk from time to time.
I'm trying to view all this change as a new opportunity to be creative.  In my little safe place, I'm knitting more, and finally working on the Doggie Knits revival after wanting to for years.
As miserable as 2018 was, I did make the sweater(s) and quilt of my life.  The sweaters are The Twigs, and a Madeline version.  Those sweaters are just perfection for me. The quilt is one I started for my niece maybe ten years ago when she got her first apartment.  I set all the blocks aside, and put it together to be her wedding gift when she got married last May.   I don't know if I'll ever make a quilt that I think is as beautiful.
So that's the story.  I'm going to do my best to make a real home here.