Knitting the Blues

Speaking of Collecting.......Or Obsessive Behavior, It's a Fine Line, Right?

I thought of adding this to my list yesterday, but it didn't, in my mind, fall into the category of collecting for hobby or sport or whatever you collect things for. I will admit that this falls into the hoarding category in that I do feel some responsibility (both environmental and fiscal) and satisfaction in the collection and may or may not have trouble getting rid of the content. I once posted this to facebook:

There is no piece of bubble wrap too small for me to save.

It is true. What it doesn't reveal is that there is also no piece of styrofoam popcorn that will be thrown out, no shipping box that won't be broken down and placed in the mountain of shipping boxes in the basement, every bubble lined envelope (and can we talk here? I am sick TO DEATH of packaging that is purposely crafted to be used only once. Like, the only way to get in is to pull a tab and thus wreck the chance of re-use. Irresponsible and I will do everything I can to thwart your attempts to get me to purchase packing materials you box and envelope makers. Trust me, I'm a master) and (this one is controversial in our house, trust me) I keep every carton that any appliance or teapot or cell phone or electronic or item of almost any kind is packaged in.

And let's talk styrofoam popcorn. A nuisance to the environment and have you priced it out? I'd never throw that stuff away. I'll lug it house to house to house to grave if necessary.

We'll just let that sit for a minute because when I type it all out loud like that it sounds like someone should call one of the therapists on Hoarders and have them come for a visit.

I'm thinking I might not even publish this post.

Pete sometimes tries to get the boxes, break them down and put them in recycling before I get to them, and sometimes I let them go, but if the box is a good one....... I'm a recycle bin diver. I also put signs on boxes that I want to be sure to find when I go looking. SAVE THIS BOX!

This is getting embarrassing.

Still, the boxes that things come in, aren't they good to have so you can pack them up again if you need to? Like to send them back if something goes wrong or to safely pack them to move! This makes sense to me, although a recent acquisitions has me wondering. Last spring for Mother's Day I ditched the old dishes and had my family pitch in on a great Macy's sale and get me all new Fiesta Ware dishes. I have 12 place settings and the boxes are all neatly tucked into a corner of the basement. I'm thinking that it might not be the best way to move them some day. Like, maybe they would be better packed all together with all of my bubble wrap and styrofoam popcorn. It amazed me that they made it safely the way they were packed, but I guess FRAGILE means something. Sometimes. Not always. And in the boxes they will take up so. MUCH. ROOM! I'll have to rethink that one.

These photos? Just a tip of the iceburg.

Because I know there is at least one of you who will have totally stopped thinking obsessive-compulsive disorder and skip immediately to this:

Thirty. Yes, I know! I mentioned it earlier, there are reality tv shows about people like me. I GET IT!

Ten on TuesdayThe Clutter Collection Edition

Collect. Collecting. Collections. Those are dirty words in my house. I fight a tendency or a genetic compulsion to keep things. Or another way of looking at it, I try to avoid getting too attached to things (my success or failure in that endeavor is for another post). I don't like to keep too many things and with a couple of exeptions I think I do pretty well. I don't love cluttered shelves and if I can't keep it organized or tamed I let it go.

Sounds easy, right? Wrong. I have collections, some have come and gone and others have taken over and then been culled as I matured or ran out of room or just plain got sick of them.

I have a lot of thoughts about the things that people collect and collectibles (not the same thing). The main thing is this. Once it is known that you 'collect' something you get inundated with so many of that thing. Some of the gifts will be great and others will not. Some will weigh you down. Even when you have as much as you want of a thing, some people won't get the message and you will continue to collect, like it or not. There is at least one person in my life who believes if to have one is good, ten is better and all of them is best and that philosophy is shared, like it or not.  I cannot even.

I also see collections, or most things for that matter as STUFF! Stuff that has to be organized, stored, packed, moved. Ugh. It stops me from buying a lot of stuff. I just imagine it at home (Where will I put it? Do I have a specific idea in mind? Do I need the stress of it hanging around?) and then packing it if and when I someday move. It keeps a lot from coming home with me.

The other thing about collections, people tend to collect for future value or as an investment and depending on what it is, the market for things varies. When you are ready to sell, it could be that nobody is wanting to buy. So I only collect because I want the thing, that is all.

So collections have come and gone, some remain, some are diminished and some are in this list, thanks, Carole!:

1. Nancy Drew and Bobsey Twin books. I have some really old ones, but these days I don't think anyone actually collects those any more. Anybody? I have a bunch and they can go for the pick up.
   
   
   
   
2. Campbell's Soup stuff. I had so. much! STUFF! Old stuff, new stuff, Christmas stuff, ornament stuff-like all of them. I kept buying and buying them. I gave up the memorabilia years ago, it was cute at first and when the kids were little, but after a while I outgrew it. I wish I had a photo, though. It was impressive. The ornaments? I've put them up in their own spot for years and last year I decided I'd had enough. I didn't store them with the rest of the Christmas stuff, but they are still in the basement. I thought I'd have that yard sale...Anybody collect them? ;)
3. Match books. I don't even know why. I don't collect them anymore.
4. Blue Sheep stuff. That's what I call it, but I think the pottery company calls it Spongeware Sheep. It is very difficult to get and I'd love to add pieces, but I've rarely gotten a piece that hasn't had to be shipped from England and it gets very expensive. I have teapots, mugs, bowls, cannisters, and assorted other items. Because I do use them, I try to double and triple (or more) up because I've been known to chip or crack a piece. I like to have back up. If I could get a set of dishes! OH! I'd be so happy.
   
   
   
   
5. Golding Drop Spindles. I love using them, I love looking at them. I don't have as many as some, but my collection slowly grows.
   
   
   
   
   I even manage to cross-over some of my collections:
   
   
   
   
6. Let It Snow by Mary Engelbreit. The great thing about seasonal collections is that you can clear the space, put them up and then they go away. It makes them seem fresh and I look forward to bringing them out. I used to have a lot more snowman stuff, I love them, but decided to pare down that collection to. I have a lot more than is in this photo, but a lot less than I used to have.
   
   
   
   
   
7. I have a collection of sheep stuff, figurenes, some stuffed things. Some arent' cutesie, but nice. I'm culling the herd though.
   
   
   
   
8. Another seasonal collection is my choir of Byers Carolers. I'm picky about those, there are certain ones I like, mostly dressed in blue. I also like the Christmas Carol series, but that hasn't turned to serious collecting.
9. Seasonal and crafty, I collect cross-stitch and felt ornament kits. My intention is to actually put them together and I have started some, but something always gets in the way, so it turned into a collection. Hmmm..(Kind of like the yarn and the fabric.......)
   
   
   
   
10. Kisses and hugs and cuddles with this little munchkin. Now there is something I can never have enough of.
    
    
    She is always moving! Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.
    
    

Twenty-nine.  I kept it to ten! Well, I could've added the teapots. I'm very selective and have given a bunch of those away, but I still have a fair collection.

Meditative? Relaxing?

You know that joke about the policeman who pulls over the speeding woman and her excuse for driving so fast is that she is trying to get to the gas station before she runs out of gas?

Yeah, that.

It's one of those perpendicular borders that takes more yarn than most of the rest of the shawl and I'm sweating it. Many ravelers ran out of yarn, so I eliminated two rows near the end of the shawl just in case.

Knitting as relaxation? Knitting as oxidative stress? You decide.

You also see my first 'red cup' beverage in years. I always want one. I love the idea of one. I even sometimes love the taste of one. It's just the crappy feeling after I drink it that I don't love. I get the dairy (the soy is gross and I don't feel any better getting it) and I get half the 'pumps' that those baristas usually add to bring on your diabetic coma. Still. And YUM. Then ick. I got it for free with a reward, so I don't feel so badly if I only drink half. In case you are wondering, Salted Caramel Mocha. Just the name makes my teeth hurt.

So usually I am off all sugar, grains and dairy. That drink is a HUGE luxury off the plan and I'll suffer. I don't know how you people drink this stuff all the time. I don't usually do this, because one treat can lead to a weeks long binge leaving me with, among other things, lots of joint pain and inflammation. This is the end of one of those binges, my swan song. I hope.

 

Twenty-one. This NaBloPoMo thing feels like the old blogging days! So many of my blogging friends are signed on for this one. Next up: NaKniSweMo. Yep, I've decide to do that, too!

Books and Stuff.

I apologize in advance for what will likely be the rambling and lengthy nature of this post. I'll try to edit, but the facts are these. I'm probably not really sorry and I don't feel too much like editing. I feel like typing and hitting publish. It's a crossover from my journaling this morning. I just kept going on and on and on and never feeling like I finished saying what I had to say. Cathartic. At least it feels like it sometimes.

This post has been germinating for a little while and I had a post for Ten on Tuesday that, while it included red, it wouldn't be ten things. I'll probably write that post as well, maybe tomorrow.

It's snowing today.

So, I try to incorporate meditation practices into my daily life. There are long stretches of time when I let it go and the unfortunate by-product of that is obvious to those close to me and especially TO me. There are lots of things can be considered meditative and many ways to practice them and usually one leads to another and then another and all of the practices seem to intertwine and have some impact on each other. There are reasons that this is true and it is at the same time complicated and not so complicated to explain or understand and this post would get reeeaaalllly long if I attempted to do all of that now. Let's just say in the shortest and simplest way possible that meditation works on the brain. Neural pathways are opened and in some practices you can become aware of underlying beliefs and patterns that do not serve you and in a way, shut them down. There is a ton of science and writing about this, I've read a bit, but that is a different post that I'm not sure I am qualified to write, although I love talking about it.

Some of the things I practice each day: In the morning I have a devotional that I read with some bible reading followed by journaling and prayer and then quiet meditation. I don't find focusing my mind all that easy in the morning, but it does set me up for the rest of the daily practices if I do it, so I sit there watching my mind wander and bringing it back to focus over and over and over again. If the only thing I get from this is the ability to recognize my mind wandering to places it shouldn't go during the day and bringing it back to mindfulness of the moment I'm in, then that practice alone is worth it. (An aside:not all meditation is necessarily 'emptying the mind', but a practice of awareness and focus. Once you embrace that and practice it in quiet time you can apply this to other moments in your day. We have been gifted with free will and we can choose where the mind is at any time, so why not keep it out of trouble? Why not practice observing thoughts and the places your unmonitored mind goes, noticing without judgement and letting them go? You don't have to relive that argument or experience you had this morning or last week or ten years ago, our bodies experience all of it exactly as if it is happening in the moment which releases a torrent of stress hormones into the blood stream and the resulting negative stress reactions on inflammation and makes platelets sticky which leads to plaque build up...... WHOA! see what I mean? Rambling. You can do the research, but let me say that you can decide where your mind is and even if that memory is stubborn and it takes 567 tries to get rid of it, practice makes perfect. Or at least better. Instead of lingering in stress that you were not intended to relive for hours or years, choose a different thought, focus on your hands in the soapy dishwater or on each draft of the fiber at the spinning wheel or each foot fall on your run. Every moment has the potential for meditative practice if you are mindful of what you are doing and where your mind is) (That was a big aside, wasn't it?) Anyway, then there is the mindfulness practice of awareness, which I just went on and on about. I also try to stop and take 10-20 deep breaths about once an hour. This practice works great on its own, you become aware of any tension in your body, if you are breathing deeply enough or if any stress is causing shallow breathing and if only in those breaths you relax, your body gets a break which has both physical and mental benefits. If you are practicing other relaxation techniques (yoga, meditation, body scans), then this practice becomes even more beneficial because your body responds even more quickly to the break. On most days I get a second sitting meditation in and at the end of the day I quickly journal some appreciations or gratitudes or thanksgivings, whatever works.

The thing about that last one is not just to write them down. It is a start, but big payoff comes in what you do with it and it can put you in a great place right before bed. It is part of the choosing thing. Jot the things down, you don't need a lot of words, you are the only one who needs to know the details, but this is the money shot: Spend about 30 seconds reliving one or more of the things you wrote. They can be personal things about your day or global things or observations, just something in your day that was worth appreciating or thanking someone for. I have heard that studies show it takes about 17 seconds for a relaxation response when you relive positive emotions. To add to that, imagine going to sleep after releasing the good hormones into your blood stream. I'll bet you dream better and sleep easier. Just think of how great it could be to send yourself off to sleep while reliving that moment when you got home from wherever and were greeted by a super happy dog and you were hugging your dog, and his tail was wagging, and he was drowning you in slobbery kisses, and giving you unconditional love...... (Well, that is just an example that maybe you get, I don't have a dog and slobbery kisses-from dogs-don't really do anything for ME, but you need to pick your thing).

Remember: this all takes practice, but your body will respond and it won't take long.

Anyway, that is the long way around saying that each of these practices is enhanced by and builds on each other and opens the neural pathways in your brain, the ones that living in a stress response closes up.

Which brings me to one night last week when I wrote that I was thankful that I could read. It was on a list of other things about my day and the world at large and I didn't really think much of it except that I had read some good stuff that day, but when I went to meditate for a minute on what reading meant to me my mind opened up in a torrent of memories and emotion that brought me to tears and had me grabbing my pen and journal to get it all down. In that moment of open receptivity I saw my mother reading to us as kids. That memory was so strong, it was Peter Pan out of a collection of books with Disney stories in them. There were four books, each binding was a different color. (I found it!) When she got to the end of the chapter and started to close the book we begged for her to continue, but she wisely turned out the light. It is probable that she just wanted out, but learning to love stories and have patience and anticipation came from those moments. The rest of that I'll put in list form because that is how I journaled them:

• Phonics workbooks
• learning to write and read
• SRA. Remember SRA? The Reading Laboratory. Did public schools have it? Those cards that you took out of the box and read and then the comprehension quiz you took after and there was a personal chart that you marked off your progress? And they built on your skills? I loved the order of it. I loved those SRA cards.
• Picture books.
• Story time on mats in kindergarten.
• The Scholastic book order. Oh how I LOVED that thing! Remember how it came all stapled up and the teacher would sometimes let a student take them apart and pass them out? They haven't changed much. I would just spend hours with it, circling the books I was interested in and culling my list because my parents (also a very wise lesson to learn) would limit how many books I could get in one order.
• The stack of books on my desk, elastic around it with my order form on the top. Best.school day.EVER!
• The wonderfully high pile of books that Santa left every year. I'm sure that my mother thought they would last me a while, how irritating it must have been to find that I had read them all by the end of Christmas break
• Bookshelves. We had them in nearly every room in our house (maybe not the dining room). There were books everywhere and the bookshelves in all the rooms gave them significance. We were to gather them, collect them (Nancy Drew, Bobsey Twins, Cherry Ames....),take care of them, re-use them and honor what reading is.
• The memory of the books on those shelves that I couldn't wait to read when I grew up.
• The library and the Book Mobile. We didn't live near the library in my city and over the summer the librarian in the Book Mobile was my connection to more stories. That woman was so good to me! She would recommend novels and authors and I could pick up books, leave her a list and she would come again the next week with my requests and new worlds to explore.
• Magazines everywhere. And book clubs. My mom belonged to a Time-Life cook book club, each set of volumes were of cooking around the world and I loved reading about other cultures. The magazines! Time, National Geographic, Family Circle, Reader's Digest, Seventeen, the knitting and sewing magazines, the newspapers....
• My parents who read always. I remember sitting in their laps and hearing stories and seeing them with books and magazines. The connection was made. This was important and something to enjoy.
• The teachers who, through their training, were able to guide me as a student and teach me the basics.
• Losing myself in books as I grew up. My attachment and absorption in stories was legend. My mom would call and call and call and I wouldn't hear a thing. That ability to become completely engrossed followed me into adulthood and while some brain injury has made reading a little more difficult, I am so lucky that I have audio books and wonderful narrators to keep me connected.
• Crying at the end of a book only because it was over. I had become part of that imaginary world and missed it and my new friends as soon as I read the last word.
• Learning. Everything I can do is because I can read. Words taught me to knit. Words taught me to sew. Words taught me to cook. Words gave me new ways of parenting, having babies, opened up a world of choices.
• Reading has enhanced every single part of my life. There just aren't words to quantify and there is not space for the list of things that has been impacted by books or articles or adding to my experience of them.
• New worlds, real and imagined. If you read, you get it.

I love my Let It Snow collection!

Fast forward in my mind (and this all happened much faster that you can read it) to only one of the ways I've paid it forward, so to speak:

• The books read to my girls starting as infants. I mean, Gillian probably had more adult books read as she was nestled at the breast or in my arms, but the warm connection was being made and then as I read to her while I nursed and cuddled her sisters, they all learned that books and reading equaled love, a positive connection.
• Jim Trelease's The Read Aloud Handbook.
• "Another?!" from the toddler who has realized that I have just sat down to nurse her sister and I'm captive to the stack of books she is dragging over.
• Becoming the one that is being begged for "ONE MORE CHAPTER!" and making them wait (partly because I needed the break and in turn teaching them patience and positive anticipation...) (Oh, and Harry Potter came along at a perfect time for my girls, I coudn't have planned it better, they each grew up with Harry, Hermione and Ron and as the books became more complicated and the stories more intense my girls had each matured enough to handle them.)
• Intuitively passing on the habits, having books everywhere, magazine subscriptions for the girls (did any of you get Ladybug and the others? We loved those!)
• Finding someone who was supposed to be sleeping hiding under the covers with a flashlight. And a book.
• The joy in watching and encouraging emergent readers.
• The celebration when they read their first book to me. "Your world has opened up! You can do anything and everything if you can read!"
• Watching the olders read to the youngers. Or their dolls or stuffed animals.
• Introducing the girls to the books I loved as a child.
• Scholastic Book Order! Limiting what they could order and seeing those shiny new books come out of the book bags.
• Sharing books with the young women the girls have become. Looking forward to the next book in a series or discussing the themes in a book we have both (or all) read.

And as it happens I was reminded also of what my life would not have been if not for those teachers and wonderful examples I was so fortunate to have. There are many people who are certainly smarter than I am who weren't given the gift of reading. I cannot imagine growing up without words and I am entirely appreciative and grateful for the having them.

To bring it back to the beginning of this post: Had I not been practicing meditation, which changes our malleable brains for the better and opening the positive neural pathways and building the skills of quiet attention and relaxation I am pretty sure that all of those memories and connections would not have been made. I'm not saying this happens every night, but the possibility is always there.

And now! I am looking forward to being a part of the reading legacy of my grandchildren! I'm quite sure I've passed on a passionate love for books and stories and it will be natural for my girls to do the same, but I look forward to reading with them and gifting them with books and stories and love. Reading is love.

To that end, there is one book that my girls responded to as they were learning language and I would so love to have for the baby on the way. It is out of print and I have been checking every used book store and ebay hoping that I come across it, but it has been a long time. It is The Little Red Car (Chunky Tales) by K. K. Ross, illustrated by R.W. Alley

Have you seen it? Will you look for it? I'll knit for you, trade yarn, buy it from you, whatever, but we have such good memories connected to this book that I would love to have continue to another generation.

Nine. The memory of books can also take you right back to the child that is still alive and well and living in your soul. Last night Gillian went to see the Broadway show Matilda and shared this today on facebook:

Last night at Matilda, Mr. Wormwood asked all of the grown ups in the audience to raise their hand if they had ever read a book. I sat there watching all of those "grown ups" around me raising their hands -- until about 20 seconds later, I remembered I am part of the "grown ups" group.

Imagine sitting there with the memories of the book as you read it and the movie as you saw it, all as NOT an adult and being so totally immersed in that experience that you forget!!! you are one of the adults. What a wonderful experience! Bring up one of those memories before you fall asleep tonight and dream as you did when you were a child!

Ten On TuesdayI'm Not a Grown-up....Wait! Am I?

Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise. - Margaret Atwood

Ten things that make me feel like a grown up. Another 'let's be real!' category. While I hide it well (I think) and am really careful about letting anyone know the real reality of it: I'm masquerading as a grown up. For real. I have snatches of being a grown up when I get all the things done and what it looks like to the world is happening actually IS happening, but they don't last for long. Then I'm back to creating the illusion that I'm a grown up. This post had me laughing my *ss off because I could have written it. Probably not as well, though.

I wonder though. I can't be only me that never quite feels like I have the grown up thing down, can it? Most days I look around and think that everyone else has their sh*t together and that I'm the only one that still feels like that second grader that should have gone to the bathroom before she left the house (and I mean that as a metaphor, but as I age it becomes more and more literal. TMI? THAT makes me feel like less like a grown up and more like an old lady!)

1. Travelling. The whole of it, planning, packing, getting myself to the airport with my suitcase, my carry on (filled appropriately with knitting, audiobook, snacks, etc), my license (except for that time when I realized the night before we were leaving for Maui that mine had expired and I was so afraid to tell Pete and then I remembered that I HAVE A PASSPORT!!! so I kept it a secret until we were in line at the airport and they did let me use my passport to get on the plane and WHEW!), getting on a plane, landing and getting off, renting a car, finding my lodging and doing what I went to do there. ALL WITHOUT MY DAD TO HELP ME THROUGH IT!!!!
2. Driving far away by myself. GPS has made this so much easier it hardly counts. Oh, and related, staying in a hotel by myself. I love going away with Pete and the girls, but I love going away by myself as well.
3. Drinking coffee. I don't really drink coffee, but when I was young, even in high school, coffee was a 'grown-up' drink. My kids? Thanks to their father they became caffeine addicts in middle school. Might not have happened if Dunkin' Donuts weren't on every corner these days. (Really, we live in a small town in New Hampshire and we have 5 of them within a mile or two from our house. Add to that the Heavenly and Starbucks....)
4. Helping my family through things, like hard stuff. Like illness and cancer. Sitting in doctor' offices and hearing bad news and good. Helping to get them well or to move on to the next life. Planning for their futures or their funerals.
5. Going to the funerals. I am totally not trying to be morbid or sad, but here is the truth. We have had so many more funerals over the last year and I guess that is what happens when you are grown up. The generation that brought us here is aging and along with that more of our friends are getting sick or dying and it feels not only like I'm a grown up, but maybe aging as well. BUT! I also feel the resilience of the human spirit in me and see how we all go on to happy things and times.
6. Keeping people alive. By that I mean the ones I gave birth to. And not even just alive, they thrived and were healthy and when they weren't healthy I did things to get them healthy again. I made choices about parenting and nurturing and stuck with them. I taught them things. I helped them to grow up to be lovers of books and music and the arts and sports and each other and their dad (he helped by being awesome, but I have seen what a mother can do to make her kids not like their dads. Making sure my girls saw love and respect from their mom to their dad was part of my philosophy of child raising) and respect themselves and because of or in spite of my shoddy parenting they are pretty decent, every single one of them. I'd like to say I'm proud, but on my best day I'm not sure I really had anything to do with it. At least one of them was pushed into this world nearly fully formed and practically an adult herself. Anyway, I'm still a kid, so looking it over, maybe we raised each other, this family of mine.
7. Keeping a plant alive which comically enough, I find much harder than a kid. The kids do have an advantage, they cry when they are hungry and learn to talk and nag. Now that I that I examine it, I was just trying to shut them up! Plants need to be louder.
8. When I DON'T buy the yarn because I remember all of the yarn I already have and suddenly the future doesn't seem as limitless as it did when I bought all the other yarn and I still have to knit that, right? and it seems like just yesterday I had all the time in the world and now I look at it all neatly organized in containers next to the dresser and containers filled with fabric next to the needlepoint canvases next to the ornament kits next to the cross stitch........ I'm running out of time.
9. When I order a drink or buy alcohol and I don't get asked for my i.d. Remember when you ordered that first legal drink and you smugly produced your I.D. for the server because, 'hell yeah! I am so grown up and legal!' Yeah, that? That wasn't grown up. NOT having to pull your wallet out and prove how old you really are? THAT! is grown up.
10. Knitting for my little grand-baby, growing and yet to be born. If that doesn't inspire grown up feelings, I don't know what will.

Four. There is a difference between 'grown-up' and 'responsible', right? I feel responsible a lot of the time, yet at the same time maybe not grown-up and the other way around. Everybody is faking their way through it, right? Even you people who have big important jobs and heal people or run big corporations or whatever..... DON'T LET ME DOWN, PEOPLE!

Might This Turn Into A VLOG?

Some facts:

• This country is HOT, HOT, HOT! right now.
• I'm a fan of hot summers.
• I have a pool and central air conditioning,
• Which is why I can be a fan so easily
• And why you can call me all kinds of names for being a fan of hot weather.
• I like winter, too.
• Spring?
• The only good thing about spring is that summer comes right after it.
• It's a New Hampshire thing.
• Blogging is hard.
• If you blog, you know that.
• If you don't blog then you may think it takes as much time to get a post up as it takes for you to read it.
• You are wrong!
• A blog post can take me hours to get out there.
• Photo editing can be a pain in the butt.
• Reading and re-reading the post to be sure I am saying what I want to say and not sounding like an complete idiot takes time.
• Uploading the photos takes me forever.
• And every time I think I get the hang of things, Typepad changes something.
• I notice that more when I haven't posted in a while and come back to an entirely revamped format.
• Part of the issue is my perfectionism that I strive for excellence.
• I've heard that striving for excellence is healthier for you than perfectionism.
• I'm working on that.
• Fact.
• This post is going places I didn't expect it to go already.
• Which is another reason it takes me so long to write a post.
• Stream of consciousness works for me.
• I hate the spell checker in Typepad.
• I had only intended to post this:

  

Here is one that I did earlier when I was only considering putting the drawing for the shawl on video.

 

It's true! It took me over an hour to figure out how to get the video from my laptop onto YouTube. Shorter videos I can upload directly from my phone, but longer ones go to my laptop and then wouldn't upload to YouTube. I stumbled upon a solution by accident and it was the EASIEST THING EVER! Isn't it always?

Here I am interrupted when I thought I was alone. Ugh! And it wasn't even Meg. Really, it was at least one of my own kids, but not Meg.

 

2013. Five. I may have just unleashed my own monster.

 

Ain't It NiftyLook Who's Fifty!

 

knittingtheblues, circa December 1963, age 1
And she hasn't changed a bit!
knittingtheblues, circa today, age FIFTY!
Although, she may have started her day off brewing a nice hot cup of tea.......
Aaaaand.....
She might be finishing it with a nice cold vodka martini. Maybe. It could happen.

2012. Just take a look at that HUGE CREEPY BABY SANTA! Family story forthcoming! In the meantime, check out these Creepy Baby Santas. One of them looks like mine!

Hello, My Name is Teresa and I Love Brussel SproutsThirty-two

These Brussel sprouts were harvested from my garden just yesterday! I hadn't been out there in a while and had forgotten about them, but since I was told not to harvest them until after the first frost and since that frost took a while to get there, the Brussel sprouts slipped my mind. This was the first attempt growing this plant and I'm not so sure we were successful. We got a lot of Brussel sprouts on the plant, but they are about marble sized on the average. Not that it takes anything away from them, I've been popping them raw, like candy, they are tender and tasty. I can't wait to cook up what I have left.

There was still kale, chard, and lots of parsley as well. I'm thinking that might just be it, though.

I've not kept up with the Christmas music sharing this week. This is more nostalgia for you. I wonder, is it too late to plan a trip for this year? Mmmm, maybe if I have a sudden cash windfall I can make it work.... 

2011. Fifty-four. $2.70. I have always taught my kids that it is rude to tell others that the food they like is yucky or gross or you hate it or whatever. ;)

I've Been Known To Say That I Like Kids,My Own.

A restaurant in Pennsylvania has banned children under the age of six.  Hoorah! 

Now, I am really the first to defend a parent's right to take their kidlet out to eat.  It happens on vacations and on rough nights when dinner can't be made or for all kinds of occasions.  I did it myself, plenty of times.  Somehow though, some parents just don't.get.it.  There should be rules or something.  The only thing is, some parents refuse to know or read their children.  Over-tired and over-hungry children cannot self-regulate.  Heck, I know some adults who can't self-regulate in the same physical distress, at times I am one of them.  Those are good kids, too.  If you want to dine out with your kid you should plan it for when they aren't tired and aren't too hungry.  Don't depend on the establishment you are visiting to entertain your kid, bring quiet activities for them.  Choose your destination wisely.  I love kids, but if I am spending anything over $14.95 for my entree then I don't want your kid kicking the back of my seat or to be honest, to have dad pacing and bouncing to keep the baby quiet.  It is really up to the parent to be the adaptable, resilient member of the party.  Have a back up plan.  When it looks like your child is not going to make it, and I mean at the first sign of it, pack your food up and eat it at home.  Over stimulated, tired and hungry kids are not easy to negotiate with and it is a little stressful for them to be out of their home environment at any time.

Now, I am guilty of having taken my young children out to eat.  Many times.  It must have been rarely to "nicer" places, but we did go out.  My children left an impression of being well behaved and polite little girls most of the time.  That isn't because they actually were that all of the time, I just knew when it was a good time to go out and when it would be disastrous.  If things started to go wrong there was one warning, they had one chance to shape up or we would leave.  On the rare occasions I had to threaten, I followed through.  It was less about giving into their bratty nature and more about knowing that an over-tired or hungry child is not to be tolerated out, and they will not be able to bring themselves back from a point of no return, even a silly one, and other patrons shouldn't have to have their night out ruined by my loud kid. 

There are some places suited to kids, even sit down places, like chain restaurants that encourage families, but if it is late and your kid is tired, well.  Just order take-out.

Don't mistake me, I have so much compassion for that tired mom who, having just picked up her toddler from daycare and needs something for a quick supper is in the market with said toddler over-tired and cranky as well.  I never think badly of her, it is a hard life and sometimes stuff just has to get done.  It just comes down to knowing yourself and your child and knowing that just because you enjoy your child at all times, not everybody else does.  Heh, especially when you've hired a babysitter for a nice evening out with your husband without having to listen to kid noises.  Ugh!  I'd hate that!

I have to admit, now that my kids are grown I have less tolerance for kids around me and I think a lot of kids are not controlled will at.all.  I would definitely spend my money at a place that caters to adults.

2011.  Twenty. $8.44. I have another theory about all of this, but it would likely piss some people off so for now I'll keep it to myself.  There you go, treated to Terry's views of life and parenting.  I've got pleny of them!  I just usually don't speak out.  Norma must be rubbing off on me........ 

 

I'm Losing My Mind, Won't You Join Me?Or I've Been Punked.

So....  It is pretty obvious that I like blue a little bit.  I tried to keep it a secret, but it turns out that is a secret I can't keep. I can't keep the secret about tea, teapots, sheepy things, knitting, spinning.....  Well, that list goes on, but for now that is all that is pertinent to this installment of I'm Losing My Mind, Won't You Join Me?  I'll be brief.

Over the last many years I have collected blue stuff, sheep things and teapots.  Then one day I ran across this:

So many of my loves in one little teapot.  I felt it was made for me and I have collected many pieces over the years.  It isn't as easy as it once was, and frankly, it was never easy, but now it is almost impossible to find new pieces and I would love new pieces. 

But that is a digression.  That teapot led me to commission a custom drop-spindle:

Gorgeous, no?  It is not a light weight by any stretch so I primarily use it for plying.  The yarn on it is the beginning of a spinning project that I recently decided must be completed, so I spun the remainder of the fiber over the weekend and on Monday went to grab this spindle and ply the singles. 

Only, I couldn't find the spindle.  It wasn't in the crock where I keep my spindles, decoratively arranged in the game room my studio.  This was not good.  I am not in the habit of casually laying spindles around, they have a home.  I had dropped a bag with this spindle in it once before and had to have it repaired, I try to be really careful with it now.   I would have put it in that crock.

A little back story or a little about me.  I get it into my head sometimes that in my sporadic attempts at home decorating I should incorporate a little of my fiber life in every room.  Some rooms have sheep, some have sheep on teapots, some have baskets of yarn or fiber or whatever.  You get a little of the picture.  Along that line I at some point think I had the spindle on the hutch in my dining room with the collection of blue sheep teapots/mugs/canisters/plates/bowls etc.  I'm pretty sure that is the last time I remember seeing it.  Then Christmas came and at Christmas all of the blue sheep stuff gets replaced with holiday teapots and decorations.  I know that happened this year, but I don't think I actually did it.  Not one of my family members produced illuminating information.  Nobody remembered seeing it or doing anything with it.  By this time I am going a little crazy.  I start searching in every nook, cranny, bag and bin that I can find.  I literally would recheck the same bags and containers of fiber and yarn and then go back and recheck it again, because when you empty a bin three times and a thing isn't there, it is likely to magically appear the FOURTH TIME!

I heard this story once about the scenes in our life being set up by, I don't know, a stage or prop crew or something like it, and they set up the scenes every minute or so and sometimes they forget an object or prop like keys for example.  So you look for your keys where you know you put them and they aren't there, so you keep looking around for them and coming back to the spot where you know you put them and they still aren't there until finally the fifth, tenth, fiftieth, definitely the last time you look and WHAT?!  They are THERE!?  Well, the prop crew finally got their act together and remembered all of the props.  That is why I keep checking the same places over and over again. 

You never know.

I checked that crock a billion times, moving spindles around, taking some out, putting them back, counting them.  Seriously.  I counted them because I was talking to someone about how many spindles I had and I counted them.  No blue sheep spindle.

I started to threaten my family.  "If you know anything about this and you are afraid to tell me and you let me go crazy and waste hours and days obsessing and looking because you know how I get and I won't be able to think of anything else until I know what happened to......."  Nobody 'fesses up.  Nobody helps either.  At that point it is difficult to discern which is making me angrier.

Exhausted, I quit for the day and Pete says he will take a look around on the morrow.  He is a good looker he says.  I'm just wondering if he is a good finder.

He didnt' get to it right away on the next day so that evening when I was headed out to the knitting class I teach I reminded him.  I texted him and asked him if he found it, no answer.  I came home and while he wasn't here I didn't see the spindle anywhere so I figured he didn't find it.  Bummer.  When he got home I asked him if he looked and he asked me what the spindle looked like.  I was bringing him in to look at the teapots and he said, "just tell me, what does it look like?" and I made a circle with my hands and pointed to the teapots and he said, "you're kidding me." 

What?

Pete:  You're kidding me, right?
Me: Did you find it?
Pete: Where did you look?
Me: Everywhere, you saw me, I looked everywhere! Where did you find it?
Pete (leading me into the game room fiber studio): I spent thirty seconds looking for it.
Me: YOU FOUND IT! Where? Where did you find it?
Pete: (picking spindle off of pool table cutting table) Right here.

And he carries it over to the spindle crock and puts it in with the other spindles.

Where it definitely WAS NOT before.

It wasn't.

Not during any of the one biiillllllion times I looked or the hours I spent searching.

Or I've been punked.  Nobody is owning up to it.  Not even the invisible prop crew, those practical jokers!

2011.  Twelve.  $16.88.  Punked! I tell you!  I've been PUNKED!!!! 

 

Getting My Money's WorthOr How I Justify Spending Every DollarOr Delude Myself Into Thinking I AmIt's a Slippery Slope

I have a minute, well to tell the truth, I don't.  I am a tad behind on a contract knitting job and my boss mom just called asking when I would be in, "this job needs to finished and go out now!!!!"  So I don't have a minute, I'm procrastinating giving my hands a little break from the knitting to type a quick post. 

Right on schedule, Typepad helped itself to its yearly fee over the weekend.  Seeing that deficit makes me think I really should post to the blog, so I have set a goal for myself.  I don't usually share these little goals, it is one thing to fail miserably in my own little mind, but to do it in a public way just annoys me.  I'll let you all in on it anyway, my plan is to post enough so that each post costs me under $1.00 per post.  That isn't really a lot of posting, but it is almost twice the number of posts on this blog in 2010.  Last year each post cost about $1.80.  I know there are free blogging options out there, but I have been mostly happy with Typepad, but probably more important, I am resistant to change.  That is a blog post or series of them (or sessions with a therapist) all alone, maybe I'll tackle it someday.  Not today.

I tend to justify many purchases or services this way, a dollar per use analysis, to decide if something is worth it.  It is useful in deciding if something is worth the daily or hourly cost before I spend the money.  Previously this blog has cost me around $0.28 per post.  The blender I want to buy?  Well, seeing as I have begun having a smoothie every day for breakfast and sometimes replacing a solid lunch or supper with a smoothie, I estimate that over a year each smoothie would average about $0.50-$0.75 per use in one year.  After two years that cost halves itself.  Suddenly a good blender doesn't sound so pricey.  Add to that the added sanity that I gain not fighting with my current blender (that thing has almost been thrown against a wall more than once), there is no way to put a price on it.  I am constantly making these calculations as I shop, and while it sounds like a good way to put a price on purchases (and for the most part it really works for me), I can subdivide down to justificaton if there is something I really want.  You know, not the number of days I am going to wear those boots, but hours.  I mean, I am not usually unreasonable.......

With all of the busyness of work and work and the third work thing going on, taking time to post is tough.  In procrastination of all of those I spent all of Sunday organizing the crap audiobooks and music and stuff on my laptop and backing it up to an external hard drive.  This freed up more than half of my hard drive and now the text I enter anywhere on the computer or internet keeps up with the speed my fingers types it at.  And I am NOT a fast typist.  To type at the speed I do and have to stop and wait for my computer to catch up, watching the spinning rainbow wheel of panic turn round and round in front of me makes me a little crazy.  Deep.Breaths.  Anyway, wasted day work-wise, but with all of the time I am not waiting for text to catch up and pages to load I can be knitting.  

I was recently introduced to Angry Birds Rio for my droid phone.  Should.Be.WORKING!!!!

This post needs a photo:

All things good:  Sand, blue beach towel, blue pedicure, blue Woolen Rabbit knitting bag, blue knitting.

Last August I was knitting on the beach in Fort Lauderdale.  I was under an umbrella because it was something like 105 degrees that day.  Loved.It.  There is a story behind the knitting as well, but until I get a photo of the finished shawl I will save the story, but this post needed a photo and I needed a reminder of summer.  I'm willing to bet that I was probably one of one or maybe two people knitting on that beach on that day.

2011. Five.  Basing calculations on the billing cycle, this post cost $134.95.  And it isn't even a good post, just me blabbering on about stupid stuff.  Well, even if I do that 134 more times, that brings me down to bad blogging for $1.00 per post.  Heh, you get what you pay for! 

Late on a Wednesday, A Little Bit of RandomOnly Because It Has Been A While....

• I've thought a lot about blogging lately.
• It just has seemed like so.much.effort to get a post up.
• But.  Six Apart just sucked the yearly fee out of my checking account.
• In honor of that (and to make me feel it is worth it) I decided to put some rambling stuff here.
• One of my favorite British humor movies is Death At A Funeral.
• Chris Rock has remade it and I am not sure how I feel about that.
• I'm hoping that I will like it for its own merit, even though it will surely lack the accent and stiff upper lip-ness of the original.
• Which was perfect.
• If American Idol is giving us the best that the country has to offer then the future of music in our country is not looking good.
• We have had a little bit of rain here recently.
• By a little bit, I mean gallons of it have come through a leak in our ceiling.
• If we don't empty the bucket catching the drips often enough we have to clean up those gallons because the grandkitten thinks it is great fun to push it over.
• These problems are preferable to what thousands of people are going through with flooding and erosion.
• Speaking of weather, this is an early Easter year, the kind that most people have been talking about being cold and very unspring-like.
• In typical New England Fashion, the forecast has us expecting summer to visit with the Easter Bunny.
• In preparation, we have had the annual "time to put the screens on the three season porch" discussion.
• I lost.
• Which means there are screens in place of windows right now.
• Because a typical New Englander believes that summer has come on the first warm day of the year, even if that day is in January.
• Like they haven't lived here their whole lives and don't know that it will snow again.  Really.
• I have been knitting.  Recent knitting includes:
• A sweater that is blocked, almost completely seamed, but still needs buttons.
• A shawl, waiting for blocking.
• A shawl, about 50% complete.
• I joined 10 in 2010. 
• Shawls that is.
• I don't really care if I make it, I mean all 10 shawls, but I have a lot of shawl yarn in the stash and would like to get through some of it.
• Ditto the shawl patterns in my Ravelry queue.
• Another reality TV observation:  The Amazing Race is having an excellent season.
• Did you read A Girl Named Zippy? 
• There is a sequel, She Got Up Off The Couch.
• I LOVED them both and I recommend the audio versions read by the author.
• I usually think it is unwise for authors to read their books, but Haven Kimmel and David Sedaris are definitely exceptions to that rule.
• The following may come as a shock to some, so you might want to make sure you are sitting down and have swallowed.
• For various personal and health related issues (and to shut my nurse practitioner up already!) I have decided to complete my "cleanse" and have.......
• wait for it.......
• given up tea.
• I KNOW IT!
• I cannot explain what these last few weeks have been like.
• You know those ads that talk about smoking and doing all the things you used to to, but getting used to doing them without a cigarette?
• That is my life, except without a mug of tea in my hand, in the car, on the table while I am knitting, sewing, reading, internet surfing....
• Breathing.
• While some things seem unaffected, others might be responding to this change.
• I don't really want to talk about it.
• It makes me cranky.
• I am drinking a TON of water now.
• Water is boring.
• And makes me pee a lot.
• But so does tea.
• I probably have a photo I could decorate this post with, but I'm too lazy to do it.
• Naw, every post needs a photo, right?  Here is one from my childhood.
  
  
• Let's just say that bicycles and I don't have a great history.
• After that I did ride again, the next accident left me with shin bones sticking out of my leg.
• Probably why I prefer hiking to this day.
• I'll walk, thanks.

2010.  Forty-two.  I have more to say.  Who knew?  I'll tell the story of my face battering later this week.  It seems that without an explanation to convince you otherwise you might assume I was the victim of a beating and I'd better not let that thought live in your mind.  I promise, I wasn't.

Thankful Thursday and a Meme.Because I am a Lemming.

Thankful things for this week:

• I found two bathing suits that I can actually live with.  And be seen in.  (But not until I've tanned up a little bit).
• The sun outside my window at home, it has been a while.
• The ocean view outside my window at hotel.  Even better. (no, I am not at Hampton Beach).
• Erin got good news that made her happy.  Excited even.  It is good to see that.
• An empty seat next to us on our flights. 
• Blue fibers and yarn and the people that dye it.  It made my stash diving for vacation projects so much fun!

And the meme.  I answered these questions on Wednesday evening, so they will seem a little outdated considering the ocean view I am currently thankful for.

1. Explain what ended your last relationship.
   Let's just leave it at me, and that can mean so many different things depending on the relationship.  Just ask that last cookie I ate!
2. When was the last time you shaved?
   Today, because you can't be hairy when you hit the beach!
3. What were you doing at 8 a.m. this morning?
   Sipping a hot beverage whilst deciding what knitting should accompany me to the BE-each!
4. What were you doing 15 minutes ago?
   Packing. (for the beach.)
5. Some things you are excited about?
   Sand, salt water, sun, temps in the 70's, the knitting projects I'll be trying to keep sand out of......
6. What is your favorite flavor of JELL-O?
   I like 'em all, I just don't actually EAT them. I miss them.
7. Your prom night, what do you remember about it?
   That I went to the movies with a small group of friends that included the guy that I turned down when he asked me to go with him.
8. Do you have any famous ancestors?
   I'll get back to you on that one. I'm sure to find one once I research my family tree.
9. Last thing you received in the mail?
   Netflix.
10. How many different beverages have you had today?
    One. Unless you count Metamucil!
11. Do you ever leave messages on people's answering machines?
    Yes. And I am surprised at how unusual that seems to be.
12. Do you draw your name in the sand when you go to the beach?
    I have no memory of doing it. Yet.
13. Any plans for Friday night?
    If Pete has his way, Cuban food. Near the beach.
14. Do you like what the ocean does to your hair?
    Well, overall I prefer getting beach hair to ski hat hair. Just sayin'.
15. Have you ever received one of those big tins of 3 different popcorns?
    Who hasn't? Between you and me, I would eat the caramel even if it isn't as good as Poppycock. That was back when I ate sugar. Ah, the good ol' days.
16. Do you re-use your towels after you shower?
    For what? (That is just my jab at the question. What you really want to know, I'm assuming, is if I use my towel for more than one shower. I do. So does Pete. We are mostly a three adult household with a LOT of towels. In one week Pete and I will use two towels and Erin will use ALL OF THE REST OF THEM! I think I am going to throw them all out and force her to re-use hers.)
17. Describe your keychain.
    Just the tag that came on the key when I got it, describing how to use the remote starter.
18. Where do you keep your change?
    If I told you.... just kidding. Two tea tins in the closet in the t.v. room. I seperate the pennies, and I am not sure why because I usually use one of those change machines when I turn it in for bills.
19. When was the last time you spoke in front of a large group of people?
    Does it count when they are all under 18 and I am kicking off a fundraiser? Then November.
20. What kind of winter coat do you own?
    I have a few, but my favorite is a down parka by Ralph Lauren. It has a hood with a faux fur trim and a light blue lining. I love this jacket and have had it for years. I am starting to lose the fight when it comes to the stains though. Bummer, that is a really warm jacket. I won't need it tomorrow......

2010.  Forty.  Tired.  But at the beach!  yay!

This Is Where I Decided To Begin

Snowmen.

Big and fluffy ones.

Teapots and tealights.

Salt and pepper shakers and teeny, teeny tiny snowmen.

And teapots and tealights, which is sort of funny when you think about it.  Lighting a candle or filling one with hot tea, but I like it.

This is a Mary Engelbreit set, a salt and pepper, teapot and sugar/creamer.  I'll bet you didn't think I was a Mary Engelbreit girl, did you?  All those dots and flowers and checks.  Well, here's the deal.  She is a little busy for me.  I have a couple of things around, but in my usual decorating you won't find a lot of it dripping off the shelves.  Except at Christmastime.  That is when my inner Mary gets realeased.  You'll love how I share that over the next week or so, but today is snowmen.  They come out with the Christmas decorations, but stay out for the duration of the winter, along with my snowflake stuff.  As collections go, mine is pretty modest, I mean, there are a few more than what are shown here, but not a lot. I haven't gone all hoarders with it.  Not with these.  The Mary Engelbreit set is my favorite.  There was a set of mugs that went with it, the Let It Snow mugs, and I don't have them yet (yes, I said yet).  I always thought I would be able to get them on ebay someday, but it appears the availability has dried up.  I will keep looking, though.

 

This old snowman is the most precious of the collection and lives out year-round.  My mom-mom, my mother's mom, had a snowman like this one that she gave to my mom.  It was a treasured holiday decoration that I remember her taking out every year.  I don't know the history of it, but I think it was some sort of "bonus with purchase" gift that she got, but that is just a guess.  It is a sugar/creamer, the bottom being the bowl that holds sugar and the top section is the creamer that is filled and dispensed through the top-hat.  It is extremely rare to find one with the shovel, which acts as a spoon, still intact, and this snowman is in excellent condition.  How do I know the comparative condition of these old snowmen?  I have owned a few since my mom made it her mission to find one for each of her kids.  And her sibs.  And her grandkids.  And any future progeny.  Or not, because I think she has made it her mission to own every one of these that still exist.  Woe to you if you are bidding against her on ebay.  You.Will.Lose.  The upside to this is I have been able to trade up to a snowman in great condition with a shovel.  Who knows how many snowmen are out there, and at this point, who knows how many are at my mom's house.  The last count I heard was a number over twenty.  That does not include the ones she has given to us kids and her sibs.  Yes, I know.  There is a television show about people like her and don't think I haven't been taking a critical look at how the crazy has been passed down.

Do you have a snowman collection?  Check this out.  Who knew?  I'm off to read..... 

So it began today and this is where I decided to start.  This is going to be fun.

2010, five.  There is a fine line between collecting and crazy and it might be a tight-rope walk I balance. Or not, we'll see. 

Continuing the Attitude of Gratitude.

While I try to make it a habit of reminding myself of things to be thankful for, both big and small, it always seems to have a greater effect when there is a formal commitment to it.  I started a blog at the beginning of the year that was to be dedicated to a daily recognition of gratitude, but like many things in my life, distraction took me away from the practice.  Today I read this blog (I love this blog-a woman after my own heart.  She had better hope I never find out where she lives or she might find a lot of her stuff goes missing.) which linked to this article and then to this blog.  A gentle nudge to continue looking for the great and small ways that God or the universe lets you know that there is more to be thankful for than not, especially for things we take for granted.  Everything changes and any or all of those things could be very impermanent.  While I won't bore you (or myself) with the details, it is a little something I need lately.

I've decided to go for the thousand things.  I'll keep track on that other blog, hopefully on a daily basis and probably continue a Thankful Thursday theme on this one.   I was going to wait until the new year, but then remembered that life rolls on, regardless of the human imposition of time markers and that today is as good a day as any.  So, here is a list.

1. Holiday music
2. wonderful memories of childhood
3. hot showers
4. indoor plumbing
5. finishing a knit-for-hire
6. good high school band and orchestra concerts
7. the movie White Christmas
8. I didn't have to go out in the frigid cold today

Well, a start of eight.  Not bad.

One hundred forty.  Oh, Jason Mraz.  Make that nine.

Ten On Tuesday

I'm straying from the topic today because.......

It's my BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!

and 

it's all about 

ME!

Me, me, just me! At least for me it is all about me. If I don't make it all about me, who will? Right?  So, ten things about me.  And yes, I do realize that this could be the most boring post ev.er!

1. I was born in 1962.  I am not afraid to say it.  47.  It does seem very strange to see it written out like that.  Forty-seven.  Four.  Seven.  I don't have any feeling about it at all.  Just numb.  Almost like it isn't really my age at all.
2. Atlantic City is my place of birth.  We lived right outside of AC, and moved when I was little, but when we would visit relatives each summer it was a huge treat to go to the boardwalk and get a birch beer.
3. When I was eight I fell off my bike and broke both bones in my left leg.  A man getting out of his car picked me up and carried me to my parents, telling me not to look down, which of course I did.  Bones coming through skin.  Not something you want to see.  I found out later that the man had a heart condition and wasn't supposed to lift anything.  
4. I am obsessing over tinsel Christmas trees.  I really want one.  
5. Not as my main tree, just a fun one.
6. I love presents.  I think I should get one every day in December.
7. I love Christmas, but find it harder and harder to find the spirit each year.  I listen to the music, decorate, do the gift thing......  "Where are you Christmas?  Why can't I find you?"  HEH.
8. I have decided to be nice to the cats that live in my house.  Let me be clear:  I have always been a better mother to them than anybody else, I just don't care for them and am probably allergic to them and sort of wish they lived someplace else.  I thought if I was nice to them that I might start to love them.  It isn't working, but they like me a lot more for whatever that is worth.
9. I love jigsaw puzzles and if one is in progress I will stay up too late and ignore everything else I have to do to find "just one" more piece.  I love to have a holiday puzzle going and have completed one, but I am leaving it out so that I don't start another one just yet.  Things to do, dontcha know.
10. I plan on spending my day with at least most of these:

One hundred thirty-six.  Okay, so the running shoes, not so much today.  I have been using them regularly, though and will hit the gym tomorrow.  The teapot is hot again and the fabric (LOVE!) is turning into a little something special.  I got a little bit of money for my birthday and I think more of that fabric will be making its way to my house.

Ten On Tuesday, But First.....

Happy Birthday, Meagan!

Twenty-two years of Meagan.  The world wouldn't be the same place without her.  There is a contagious light and sparkle that Meg brings to everything she throws herself into.  Our family is better having her to love and be loved by.  Have a fun birthday week, Meg!

Speaking of birthdays, it is a great day for celebrating even more wonderful people, so go wish Claudia the happiest of days as well!

So, the Ten:  Ten Things You Want, But Wouldn't Buy For Yourself.  This sounds a little like a gimme list.  Just in time for Christmas.  Or my birthday.  Truth is, there is nothing I want that I wouldn't just buy for myself if money was no object.  But seeing as it is, it would be the same object for anybody (ahem) that might buy them for me.  And if there was someone who might buy something for me (ahem), he doesn't read this blog anyway.  And if he did, I don't think I would want him to buy me this stuff unless money wasn't an object.  And I don't think I can come up with ten.  But I'll try.  AND, I believe this is the most poorly written paragraph to come off my keyboard in a while.

1. An iPhone.  The iPhone itself isn't the problem, heck, you can get a refurbished 3G for $49 on the AT&T website.  It's the monthly fees and the activation charges and blah, blah.....  It's the commitment.
2. An iPod Nano.  There is nothing wrong with the one I have.  It just isn't this one.  Of course I'll also need this.  It is a must, I never have an unprotected iPod.  Never.
3. One of these Harney teas.  I'd really love to try this one and this one. These are all Harney Teas, I love them.
4. I love this teapot, which I posted to my other blog last week.  I like this one, too.  In blue, of course, which is available in the store.
5. Bleu.  I really want this book. A lot.
6. I have been longing for this quilt kit for a while.  Truth be told, I can't believe I haven't gotten it for myself yet.  I really want it.
7. I'd really love a Bose Speaker thing for my iPod, but I'd be thrilled with this Altec Lansing iM600 .  Thrilled.  It gets good reviews and the price is a bit better than the Bose.  Someone needs to tell the someone that I think might be getting me one.........
8. I'd love a watch and would buy one for myself, or someone probably would have given me one by now, but I can't decide what I like.  So I just don't get one.  Maybe I'll go shopping.  I am very picky about these things.
9. Then there is this sewing machine.  Wow.  No really.  Wow!  Huge bobbins, really fast, huge working area for those big quilts..... I'd love that machine, BUT.  Realistically it may be too much machine for me, the upgrade I'd love to have is this Bernina.  I would be very happy with it.
10. And this drop-spindle.  Isn't it gorgeous?
    
    via goldingfibertools.com

One hundred thirty-three. Well, I came up with ten after all. It was a little bit hard, but not much. And some of them are almost realistic!

Leftovers, Day Two orThe Tipping Point.

It is just the way I work.  You know those things that even way into adulthood, those things about your personality that you just can't face as truth or keep trying to change?  Well, this is one of mine and I have learned (pretty recently, actually) that it is just best to go with it.  You see, with me there is usually a tipping point.  That one moment in time that in the reflecting on things can be identified as the point when it all tips.  Some little trigger sets something off in my brain and if I don't just run with it I will only be thinking of it constantly until I give in and go with that particular flow.  Probably not the best way to get things accomplished that actually need to be accomplished, but at least something gets done.

The catalyst for this tip was a skein of yarn and some fall colored felts.  I received as a little gift a skein of yarn from Barb Parry.  I can't find the tag, but it was one of her plyed yarns, probably the Wool & Alpaca Twist and the color was a dark orange, possibly the Sweet Potato?  Anyway, it isn't a color I would normally use so I thought it would be great as a gift of fingerless gloves or something for someone.  It sat around for a while and in moving things I placed it on top of a collection of wool felts that I got to make a little coin rug.  It rested there until....... The Tipping Point.  I was walking by one day and out of the corner of my eye I saw just how great it looked with those fall fabrics and that is when it hit me.  That yarn would make a great felted, stuffed pumpkin.

 

Or maybe two.

Then maybe another.

Run out of yarn?  No problem.  Shop the stash.

Shop the LYS.

Shop the stash for vines and stems, the dark green was left from my Witch's Hat and the light green was a swatch that I made when I recently knitted a sample sweater for Barb, I pulled that out and re-knit it.

I made eight before I ran out of yarn and vowed to purchase no.more.yarn.for.pumpkins! 

• Patterns:  Heavily modified versions of Pumpkins by Jordaina Paige, a free Knitty pattern and Munckin Pumpkins by Vikki Harding (ravelry link).
• Yarns: Foxfire Fiber Wool & Alpaca Twist (1 large, 1 small, 1 munchkin), Reynolds Lopi Lite (1 large, 2 small), Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted, color M280 (1 large and 1 small) and Foxfire Fiber Upland Wool & Mohair (for stems and vines).
• Needles:  Sizes 9 & 10?  I think?  I can't really remember
• Cast On:  Sometime in October, 2009
• Bound Off, Felted, Stuffed and Finished by November 25, 2009

I made a lot of modifications to the Jordaina Paige pattern.  It is written to be knit in separate wedges, sewn together and then felted.  I adapted the pattern to be knit in the round taking into account the stitches that would be lost in the seams and reworking the cast on and bind off to cinch in the edges a little bit more.  The Munchkin Pumpkin was knitted as written, but I used a stem and vine from the other pattern, which I worked as written.  The Foxfire Fiber and Brown Sheep yarns felted fabulously, the Lopi Lite felted well enough, but more stitch definition was left in the fabric than the others.  It is a great color though.

The patterns call for you to felt the pumpkins, stuff with plastic bags and tie them up tightly along the ridges (which I made by working purl stitches) to dry, creating the sections of the pumpkin.  While that worked, I wanted more definition so I wove a nylon thread along the ridges and tied them off at the top where they are hidden under the stems.  That is a step that might have been unnecessary, but didn't take long and I prefer the finished result.  Here is a photo of one pumpkin before I tied up on the left, you can compare it to the one it pulled up on the right.

The stems and vines were sewn on with the nylon thread and there might have been some glue gun action in there as well.  Whatever it takes, right?

I made eight of these in all, one went off in October to live with Gillian and the one pictured with the teapot above spends it days with a favorite Woolen Rabbit as part of a much belated birthday gift.

As I was working these up some people expressed some shocked surprise that I made these, and truth be told, it isn't my usual m.o. at all.  It was so much fun though, and I love the finished outcome.  These pumpkins looked great scattered around my house this Thanksgiving and I can't rule out the possibility of more pumpkins in the future.

 

I'll write out my modifications in detail on ravelry sometime this week.  I imagine there isn't a rush for felted pumpkins right now, but they will be there for next year, when I know you all will be felting a pumpkin patch of your own.

One hundred thirty-one.  Or day TWENTY-NINE!  So photogenic, that pumpkin patch of mine!

A Not So Random Thought for Thanksgiving Eve

Only you probably won't read it until Thanksgiving which will be sort of a bonus because I will post a Thanksgiving post as well.  I hope.

Not surprisingly my Thanksgiving decorations lean heavily toward the turkey and pumpkin theme.  Throw in a pilgrim and indian and some fall leaves and you get the picture.  I love stuffed pumpkins and have them around the house all through the fall.  Among the things I look forward to the most is pumpkin pie.  I love it.  Leave it on the counter with a fork at breakfast and by lunch I've devoured it.  Yummy.

I have several turkeys, some cute and some kind of strange, some are candles.  My mom always went all out in the decorating department and I have vivid memories of the paper accordian turkey.  I loved that thing, to this day I love taking it out of the envelope and carefully opening the folded tissue, hearing the crinkling of the paper as it stretches and yawns after its year long nap.  When we were kids there were little metal clips that held the pieces together, now they have it all tricked out with tabs in the card stock body and feathers.  Our turkey lasted for years, mom always folding it up tight and keeping it in the envelope between thin cardboard.  I have gone through a few in my adult years, a fact that disappoints me a little. 

Growing up, we had a small army of these in all sizes and if memory serves we had pilgrims and indians that unfolded as well.  With the exception of the turkey I never see those anymore.

Now look what I found the other day, a YouTube video that is totally up my alley.

With all of this talk of Thanksgiving loves I got hungry for pumpkin pie while writing this post and got up to get myself a piece......

One hundred twenty-seven.  Or day TWENTY-FIVE!  Enjoy your pumpkin pie!

Okay! I'm baaack!

So, I went for the small border as a frame for the blocks. 

Amazing what a half inch can do!  While I really preferred the cranberry border I didn't like the way a couple of the blocks sort of faded into it.  The orange is really a contrast the entire way around, and I didn't go with the darker orange that I went out and got, I think this brightens things up a bit.

Next dilemma?  Sandwich it now and put a binding on it?  Or add the border, not a lot of work, just a little bit more quilting area........  I think I have made up my mind, but what do you think?

One hundred twenty-twenty-five, yet still day TWENTY-THREE!  Whaddya think?  Time for a little wall hanging before Thanksgiving?

Quilting is Kicking My.....

But I'm gonna kick it's ask! Honestly! I usually feel moderately competent when I attempt anything with a needle and some kind of thread or fiber. But just when I think I have it together the fractions of fractions of inches come around and kick my ass. I'll probably have more to show later today, but I finally gave it up and went to bed before I pulled out a seam that, in the light of day and a good night's sleep, may be workable after all.

One hundred twenty-four.  Or day TWENTY-THREE!  They say that challenging the brain helps prevent dementia and that the brain is elastic and maleable and that learning new things keeps it all going.  That's what I keep telling myself, this is all good for my brain.

Random Wednesday

1. Salzman Shoe Repair blue neon sign, Greeley Colorado , 2. Lay off'a my blue suedes..., 3. blue, 4. blue shoes, 5. a blue place for a shoe shine, 6. Not available, 7. Blue suede shoes..., 8. Zinke's Drive-In Shoe Repair, 9. blue doll shoes, 10. Blue Star Kimono Shoes - Sole view, 11. Royal Blue shoes mural Nephi, 12. King Neptune's shoe locker. You can have any color as long as its blue, 13. Blue Shoe, 14. Selz Royal Blue Shoes "The Sole of Honor", (restored advertisement) Illinois, Chenoa (7,631), 15. Shoes!

• It's that time of year again!
• The most wonderful time of the year......
• For totally lame jewelry commercials with equally untalented actors.
• Yeah, I totally feel the connection between those two in the lodge in the forest during the storm.
• Give me a break.
• And perfume and alcohol.
• Well, bring on the alcohol.
• Especially if I have to watch those ads.
• Radio stations start playing Christmas music earlier and earlier every year.
• You won't hear me complaining.
• You probably won't catch me listening to them yet, either.
• I might be listening to some of my own holiday music though.
• I'll wait to come out of the closet on that one until Thanksgiving.
• Week.
• During my years of blogging I have not ever categorized my posts.
• About 18 months or two years ago I thought it would be a great idea.
• This is one of those places a sarcasm font would be just.right.
• I told myself I would just start with the post I was currently writing and go from there.
• But then I knew that I wouldn't be able to leave it at that and the thought of going through every post would have me putting it off.
• And off
• And off.
• Then I sort of thought I wouldn't do it at all.
• But that nagged at the part of me that loves to be all organized with lists and all that.
• Of course the longer I put it off, the more posts to categorize.
• Including that 15 months of daily blogging.
• Ugh.
• That is my way of saying I have started.
• That has always felt like an unfurnished room to me. 
• Now I am furnishing it up.
• And I can never remember to categorize the post as I publish it.
• Some people do Wordless Wednesday.
• I thought it would be funny if I used that as my title and hit publish.
• But I didn't.
• Maybe next week.
• While I am listening to Christmas music.
• Speaking of which, I always buy the new Christmas music.
• But.  As much as I am a fan I don't think I can bring myself to add the Bob Dylan cd to my collection.
• It just doesn't sound, well, right somehow.
• It might be just me, but lately when I want to listen to music on my iPod I scroll through by artist and album and genre and think, "Nah, not in the mood for that, there is nothing I like here," to every.thing.
• But if I put it on Genius and let the iPod pick the music for me it is like a radio station playing all of my favorite songs that I forgot I knew.
• Even though I just scrolled through them.
• Genius.

One hundred sixteen.  Or day EIGHTEEN!  Every day, when I type this postscript, I type One hunderd.  I think I'll start leaving it.

Ten on Tuesday orI don't drink, or swear.....

I don't rat my hair, I get ill from one cigarette (cough, cough, cough).

Okay, maybe I swear.

Ten Bad Habits You Can't Break

1. The effing internet.
2. Perfectionism.  In itself it can be good and mostly I am okay with it, but sometimes it just does not serve me.
3. Procrastination.  Usually related to perfectionism actually, but that is a story for another day.
4. I am horrible at putting off responding to emails, comments and phone calls until I just don't do it at all.  With the Typepad changes I don't anticipate that improving.
5. Staying up too late.  I just like some alone time and living in a household of adults (or more appropriately, people of voting age) I have to stay up late to get any.
6. Driving while talking on my cell phone.  But I do.not.text!
7. I used to be late for everything.  I have improved so that I am only late about 40% of the time.  Still, too much.
8. I take long showers, but that has gotten better recently as well.
9. I really do swear.  Too much. 
10. I am addicted to the sun.  I know it is a bad habit, probably the equivalent of somebody else's smoking.  I have no excuse for myself and like a smoker I know! And I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT.

Eighty-seven.  Is it me?  Or is that list just pretty tame.  I am such a goody-two-shoes I can hardly stand it.  Any habits I should take up? I need to shake up my image.

Random

First things first:  If you haven't heard yet, Margene is suddenly facing surgery.  Send prayers, good thoughts, healing energy her way and to the hands, hearts and alert brains of her surgeons and everyone else that is involved in her care.  She is one of my first and closest blog friends, I love her dearly, as do so many, and know that all of that love sent her way can only help.  Heck, it worked with Claudia and her brief extension, right?

It's Wednesday and since I am on a short little roll that could quit at any moment, I thought I would try and come up with some random thoughts.

1. I miss my 90 degree days.  Don't mistake me, the weather we are experiencing right now is about as perfect as you can get, but I didn't get enough heat this summer. 
2. So I am counting down until the days start to get longer again.
3. That always bothers me, talking about the days getting longer.  The days stay twenty-four hours long no matter what, it is the hours of daylight (or minutes really) that does the changing.
4. I notice all of those little details of language, it is hard to be me sometimes.
5. And yes, I could get into daylight savings and blah, blah.....  I did think of that.  See?  I just can't stop.
6. I almost typed in 365 days per year, but then got hung up on leap year and decided to let that go.
7. Then I mentioned it anyway.
8. I'm always surprised how an application of topcoat can spit-shine and add a week or two to the life of a pedicure.
9. I hate that no matter what I do, after I do my own nails without benefit of the nifty drying lamp/fans at the nail place, I get sheet marks on my manicure. 
10. And I thought I slept with my hands out of the covers all night.
11. It is not bugging me enough to change it yet.
12. I've been saving a little bit of money by not going in for a weekly polish change and painting my nails myself. 
13. It is agonizing for me.  I like to wait forever between coats, so it takes almost a whole morning, and then for the rest of the day I walk around like a hand model petrified of a scratch that might impede my work.
14. And today I stuck a seam ripper right into the polish on my thumb.  I don't want to fix it. Yet.
15. The photo above marks my re-entry into the world of quilting.
16. So I swore off yarn buying this summer, which went pretty well.
17. I replaced it with fabric stashing.
18. Not exactly the point.
19. The quilt above is pretty much finished.
20. I gifted it on Sunday to Cheryl, pinned to the back and unquilted.
21. Then I snatched it off her pregnant self and took the borders off to fix them.
22. Then it will get quilted.
23. But not by me.
24. Wait until you see what I decided to do with this sheep idea.
25. Think blue, think tea, think teapots.

Eighty-five.  I went to try and do some things to my blog last night and blast it all!  Typepad is all different and I cannot figure out a friggin' thing.  And I don't want to.  But I want to do the things I want to do.  I know, RTFM and all that, but I don't waaaaaannnnnnnnaaaaaa!

Ten On Tuesday

Whoa!  Been a long time since I participated in Ten on Tuesday, and I almost passed on it today, not so much because the topic doesn't get the juices flowing, but just because.  Then I decided that since I am trying to get in the habit of a post now and then that I would go ahead with the ready made topic.  Easy-peasy, right?  Hmmmm.....  I'll let you know.

Ten Things I Hate About Vacation.

1. Decision.  What to bring, what to wear, what to knit, what to knit after that, where to hide more yarn in the bag, how to transport the tea and the water heater.....  And of course, no matter how I plan it I always overpack.  I mean, you never know what you will be in the mood to wear, right?  So then I get there and not wanting to use up something I might want to wear later I end up wearing the same couple of things most of the time and bring home unworn garments.  All that space that could have held tea.
2. Packing, different than deciding.  How many bags to bring, how to fit it all in.  Thank goodness I have moved past the years when I was packing for four.  Now it is just me (although I am constantly being asked if I have room for one extra thing).
3. Leaving.  Oy!  I cannot sleep the night before leaving for fear that I will oversleep and miss the plane, ride, bus, train, whatever.  Then I am in a cranky mood to start.
4. That time spent between home and there.  I don't exactly hate it, but it isn't usually easy, and for me, with my health issues, it can be downright uncomfortable and agonizing.  That can sometimes be enough to keep me home altogether.
5. Getting there.  Moving in, checking it out, unpacking and just getting used to the new surroundings and energy of a place.
6. OKAY:  This is not HATE exactly, or at all, but Pete.  We are different travelers.  I like a day or two to get acclimated to a place, he hits the ground running.  Case in point:  We arrive in Maui in the evening, tired after 20 hours of travel, bodies still in a different time zone, and he has scheduled a snorkeling/boat trip for the morning of the next day, while the beach and the pool sound really good.  The third day would have been better for me, but I try to go along.
7. You can almost never get a decent cup of tea anywhere.
8. Leaving.  Just when I get used to a place.....
9. Coming home.  But I like that part, too.  Back to the familiar stuff.  Feels like a new place.
10. I guess I just don't hate vacation enough to come up with ten thing.  Sorry.

Eighty-four.  There you have it.  Is this a habit yet?  Don't know.

Ten On Tuesday

Ten Favorite Songs of the 80s.  ONLY TEN!?  This will be hard.

1. Walking On Sunshine.  (Embedding disabled)  So upbeat!  So happy!
6. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (embedding disabled :().

Seventy-nine. I could have gone on forever, oh the agony of limiting to ten! I may be sharing more throughout the summer......

Insert Random Haven't Blogged In Ages Title Here.Make It A Good One, They Bug the Crap Out Of Me.

No offense.

Something is off a little with Typepad.  That is my first impression as I begin to compose.  It must really have been a while since I logged in.  To have forgotten that, I mean.

Anyway, I had totally intended to at least join Susan in the "Five Things on Friday" posting, and in my mind I really did.  You mean you can't read my mind?  Hmmm....

Alright, now Typepad is just bugging the sh*t out of me.  Why do I have to double enter to get to a new paragraph?  I didn't used to have to.  (Yes.....I am in the Rich Text compose screen, because I know one of you will assume that I haven't figured that out.)

Yawn.  I'm bored.  Bored, bored, bored.  Aren't you?  The thoughts in my head bore me, the internet bores me, my knitting bores me (okay, not my knitting), Facebook:  yawn, blog:  yawn.   Ravelry:  Yawn.  I'm in  a bit of a lull with the internets these days, it has happened before and as it has before, a spark of interest will return to my cold heart and I'll be all back into it.  Of course, I have still managed to waste a.lot.of.time on the boring internets.  There was the day last week when I could have gone to work, but instead I spent hours (really HOURS! people) looking for sea glass earrings and beads on Etsy.  Etsy doesn't seem to bore me as much as the rest of it all.  All I got for that day, in the end, was a feeling of a wasted life and no sea glass earrings.  I liked too many and couldn't decide so I shut the computer down and wasted time on something else I am quite sure.  I can't remember what, but I'm darned sure it didn't involve planning a meal for my family.  Yawn.

All this boredom also doesn't mean that I haven't been reading your blog.  Yours, too!  And yours, yours, sometimes yours.....nope, not yours, probably yours, over there in the corner.  If not yours, it is only because I probably don't know about it yet.  I might have even left a comment on.......no, not you, or you.  Maybe you.  Definitely yours!  All of this maybe reading and rarely commenting means that on the rare occasion that I post I am pretty sure the rest of you are either a)probably not reading anymore.  Can't blame you, I bore myself, b)not commenting because even though you find me almost read-worthy you can't find a single thing worth saying about what I have written or c)treating me as I treat others.  Mind you, this is not a whine or a tactic to weedle out a comment, I am right with you on all of those things and they are all legitimate.  I haven't a feeling about them one way or the other.  It is what it is.  Nobody knows that better than me.  I.am.so.bored. 

Thankfully my boredom comes when there are plenty of reasons to be doing other things.  Sometimes (when I am not spending too much time on the internet-which I really have been-and I can only blame the weather some of the time) I am doing other things.  Knitting, spinning, sewing or sunning being chief among them.  I have a shawl (!) to show, but I haven't photographed it yet.  I'd show you my tan, but I wouldn't want to make y'all jealous, although it isn't much of one considering the weather.  (Yes, I know, I promise that my face never sees the sun, and while I use sunscreen on the rest of me at the start of the day.......)  How about some interior, hmmm, design seems to supercilious a word to describe what I have been doing, but there has been a teeny bit of sprucing up to the game fiber room.

We have a large room at the back of our house that leads out to a three season porch and the backyard.  It's main attraction is a pool cutting table, there is a cat-hair covered couch, some book shelves filled with knitting, quilting, sewing, needlepoint and spinning books, containers with fiber and yarn and my sewing cabinet.  One corner houses a computer table which for a lot of years held the desktop computer that the girls and I shared for a long time.  For one reason or another (leaving for college, the continual crashing of the desktop computer) we have all ended up with laptops.  Now, that corner of the room never seemed to feel organized, no matter what I did.  When it was being used on a regular basis as the computer spot there was always a mess there.  Computer paraphanelia, printers, multiple towers, manuals, software discs, hundreds of miscellaneous disks, cartridges, paper for the printer, wires and cables (in use and not) homework messes, spills, plates left, fast food debris, you name it, it could get really disgusting there.  As soon as I had my own laptop I pretty much ignored it until we might be hosting company and then would flip out in an attempt to organize it all and, organization not being one of my natural talents, it just never would be neat.  Even after we all had laptops, the printer was there so homework would still be done there with all of above messes piling atop another atop another. 

The room had been pretty much closed up for the winter unless I went in there to sew or retrieve something, so this spring when we started leaving the door open and using it again that corner sent me over the edge.  I threw almost everything away because I was pretty sure that software for a computer that we hadn't owned in years and manuals for ancient programs had decided their new mission in life was to send me over the brink of sanity.  I cleared and dusted and scrubbed and vaccuumed and transformed that corner to a corner of nothingness.  All that was left was the internet box, a router and a printer along with that computer table.  While it was clean it still was icky and Pete was set to destroy the computer table and I was set on destroying the printer etc. when it struck me that I could make it look nice!  I do that!  It is easy for me.

Of course, what started out as two quick little table cloths......  I found a crappy little end table in the basement, made a tablecloth for that to hide the internet cables and router and put the printer there.  While Pete really thought dumping the computer table was the best idea, I had in short order crammed sewing junk under there, interfacings, patterns, cotton batting and fabric scraps.  Not prepared to lose the new storage space OR purchase furniture to replace it at this time, I went on a fabric dive at work and found these.  The original plan?  The check for a tablecloth on the small table, the stripe would be skirts with velcroed bands to stick to the computer table.  I can never do anything that easy.

First I thought a contrast welt would be so.cute. on the tablecloth which, by the way, has only three sides to make it simple work to run all the cables and crap behind it.  Then I thought, "wouldn't it be just adorable to have a bias band on the bottom of the skirt for the computer table?"

 

If there is a way to turn a quick and dirty project into a full scale production I will find it.  But man, it tickles me to no end, every time I go in there, to see the transition in that corner.

Formerly a scene of chaos and disaster, it is now neat and organized and a little sewing/quilting center.  Well, there may be a little bit of chaos left underneath. At least it is hidden, right?  In case you are wondering: sticky velcro .  It is sort of doing the job it claims it should (super sticky, holds all of your decorating jobs!), but I think we may be stapling the velcro to the table for security.  There are a couple of other cute spots in that room, I'll have to get photos of them as well.  All the better to bore YOU with, right?

THIS IS YOUR WARNING TO AVERT YOUR EYES OR MOVE ALONG TO ANOTHER BLOG IF YOU ARE BURN SQUEAMISH!

In the category of Lessons I Cannot Learn The First Several Times They Are Taught let this serve as a lesson to STAY AWAY FROM THE PIPES ON A MOTORCYCLE!!!!!!!

That blister measures about an inch and a quarter across, but funnily (because there has to be something funny, right?) doesn't hurt all that much.  There is the occasional sharp pang of pain, and I do not look forward to the inevitable....  The bruise is fairly spectacular as well, but that lesson never learned is the DON'T WALK INTO THE DOOR TO THE DISHWASHER or QUIT LEAVING IT OPEN TO BEGIN WITH, THEY WILL NEVER GET THAT IT HAPPENS TO BE THEIR INVITATION TO PUT THEIR STUFF IN IT ANYWAY!

In happier news, I went with pink polish and white polka dots.  Of course the lesson unlearned and showcased in this photo is TAKE BOTH SANDALS OFF WHEN SITTING IN THE SUN SO YOUR FOOT LOOKS TAN INSTEAD OF JUST DIRTY. 

Seventy-eight.  The unlearned lessons.  I'm rich with them.  I wonder how many I've brought from past lives, never learned yet.  And then, just how many will follow me on into future lives.  It is a scary thought.

This post is filled with sarcasm and maybe to some, whit.  I am not in a bad mood or cranky or anything, so don't be taking me the wrong way.  Just, ho-hum, yawn........

Ten on Tuesday

Ten Things You'd Bring To A Deserted Island.  Keep in mind, my vision of a deserted island is less Cast Away and more Gilligan's Island.  Just so you know.

1. Tea.  Lots of tea.  A boatload of tea.
2. My iPod and laptop, with a card thing so I can download books and music and other audio from the satellite internet.  (Remember.  Gilligan's Island)
3. The professor (see #2).
4. That crate with my spinning wheel, drop spindles and lots of fiber.
5. Maybe a sheep or two, in case I run out of the fiber.
6. Another crate with yarn, needles, stitch dictionaries, some patterns.
7. Sewing machine with lots of fabric to make quilts and clothes and stuff. (See, the professor will really come in handy on my deserted island.  They should have brought him along on Oceanic Air.  Or at least when they returned to the island.  Didn't anybody watch Gilligan?)
8. Books.  Fiction, history, lace knitting, other knitting.
9. The crate containing olive oils, flax seed oils, oatmeal, cooking utensils, fishing equipment (I love my seafood) and some seeds and stuff for veggies.
10. Pete, for obvious reasons.  I need somebody to carry and fish and plant all that stuff, don't I? (wink, wink)

Seventy-five.  I was going to bring the girls, because you know I would miss them terribly, but then I realized they would bring their ten things and I heard myself, "Would you people pick up your stuff!  What is somebody dropped by unannounced to rescue us!?  All they would see is what slobs we are!  This beach is NOT YOUR PERSONAL CLOSET!" or "Didn't I just pick up this lagoon?  For once I would love it if five minutes later I could walk into a nice clean lagoon!"  Or the arguing, or demands at dinner time.  Forget that!

Now, Summer Can Begin

The warm weather was just waiting for my sandal ready toes!  While it is rarely worth the time and effort to do my fingernails, I just couldn't resist. 

Yep, they are chipping already.

Sandal Ready!  Bring on the HEAT!

Seventy-four.  Why do my photos look all washed out in comparison to the way they look in my photo editing program?

A Great Weekend In NYC With The Daughter orIt Says A Lot About A Bus Company That Sends A Tow Truck To Get Their Bus Off The Side Of The Highway Before It Sends A Bus To Pick Up Their Passengers and Ten On Tuesday

In a spontaneous move for me I hopped on a bus on Saturday and spent the weekend in NYC with Gillian.  It was mostly low-key, I was pretty tired by Saturday night so I stayed in and slept while she headed out to a party.  The day was a perfect day to be in the city, warm, but not too.  Sunny, but not too.  Breezy, but not too.  Crowded, but not too.  We hit the garment district and a little bit of fabric was purchased, but I did not find a copy of the most recent Burda World of Fashion Magazine (June 2009), which I have been searching high and low for.  (Anybody?)  It seems everywhere I went they had just sold out or had it, but in languages I don't read or speak.  The search continues. (Update:  I found it on ebay.  Yay.)

On Sunday I took a brrr cold shower (the super was on it, but not early enough to start my day) and we headed out to run some errands (I got a great canvas bag at Target-I'd not really shopped at Target before!  That place is great) and then back into Manhattan to just walk around, have lunch and watch people.  Some of the people gave us more to look at than others. 

What is this? Fantasy Fest?

After that it was dinner and the Tony Awards!  There is so much I could say, but really, it was so.much.fun.  It is a black tie event and to be in a theatre where, with few exceptions (umm, Carrie Fisher?  Hello!) everyone is dressed in their best is a blast.  And rare.  Who dresses up anymore?  Remember when you dressed up just to go out to eat?  Or to a show?  Or church?  Or school?  Or work? (I know it, another day another post.)  Even after it was all over, walking around the city after it was fun to see so many people in gowns and tuxes.

  

See?  There is Radio City Music Hall (a theatre with the most comfortable seats ever!) up ahead.  Gillian is the pretty poser in that photo.  I have to learn to pose.

 

When we arrived the line wrapped around the block and back again, walking through it gave the opportunity to see everyone's dresses and hair and botox jobs, cosmetic enhancements.  The people?  Hmmm, let's just say they like to see and be seen and talk about it the whole time.  A far cry from my real life, but fun to peak in at.

  

That photo makes the stage look a lot farther away than it was.  We had great seats on the second balcony and could see everything really well.  Even Bret Michaels almost losing his head.  Whew, that was a close one for the lip syncer.

Highlights for me?  Oh wow.  I don't even know how to narrow that down.  The opening number was so energizing and ignited the excitement for the night.  Angela Lansbury won her 5th Tony Award, standing ovation well earned.  The cast of Hair took me back to my elementary school days.  Neil Patrick Harris, who couldn't just love him?  Liza Minelli brought the house down.  The entertainment moved on and off the stage flawlessly.  It was amazing to me that everything was on time and so well executed.  Even the audience was reined in and corralled like kindergarteners at nap time.  As if it isn't enough to get what happened on tv promptly performed, moved, cleaned and moving on and off, there was entertainment for the theatre audience during the commercial breaks.  I always thought that the audience was left to mill around and chat, but no.  We were treated to film clips about some theatre history, former actors and actresses, live entertainment from upcoming shows, other previews and a glimpse into some fundraising events.  That is one way to keep the kindergarteners on their mats audience in their seats.  You know you can't just tell them to stay there.  You should have seen what it really took to get people to sit.down.the.show.is.starting!   I always thought the cameras must get in the way at these things and I hardly noticed them at all.  It never ocurred to me that I would go to any award show, I didn't really have the interest it making it happen, but I'm so glad Gillian invited me and that I went.  Only down side?  This is the first year that I had not seen most of the shows and one or two of the plays nominated.  Weird.  I had a blast.

Monday morning:  I've been wondering just how to blog this, and I think I can do it without much of the emotion, the anger, discomfort or fatigue.  You'll.Just.Know:

• 9 am.  Leave Gillian's and take the short bus ride to Port Authority to catch my bus home.  Looking forward to listening to my book and knitting my shawl.  Perfect end to a perfect weekend.
• 9:45ish:  After grabbing some fruit and an iced tea for the ride (had I only skipped that iced tea run!) I get in line for the 10 am Peter Pan/Greyhound bus to Boston, I should be there by 2:30 (this is important to remember).  No bus, long line.  At this point I had the fleeting thought on that gorgeous day to just stay in the city and take a later bus home. 
• 10:15ish:  Busses arrive and load.  I hand over my ticket to the driver and get on the bus.  No place for me to sit.  Off the bus with the assurance that another bus is being sent for the 15-20 people that have been sold tickets for seats that don't exist.  This is the first of many false assurances the PETER PAN/GREYHOUND employees gave this day.  That must be their main training.
• 11:00:  No bus.
• 11:30:  No bus.
• 12:00:  No bus, not even the 12:00 scheduled bus.
• 12:20ish:  After seriously considering just skipping the ride altogether (why, oh why don't I listen to that inner voice?!) and standing (you only get to stand in a bus station and don't abandon your place in line to complain, go to the bathroom, or get another drink because that iced tea you got for the ride? Long gone!  You will lose any chance of getting on a bus if you leave your spot in line) I finally board a bus and think I may still make it home for my ride (Pete has a flight to catch after he picks me up).
• 1:30-2:00ish:  Bus pulls over on the side of a very busy US95 in Connecticut.  This does not look good.  We are assured by the driver that this is a few minute fix, some computer code thing, and we will be on our way. 
• 2:15-2:30ish:  Okay, waiting for someone to call with correct code, none of the codes the driver has works.  A little longer on the wait.
• 2:30:  No go.  PETER PAN/GREYHOUND is sending a bus to pick us up.  From NYC.  Ninety minutes away.  (Alright, at that moment I totally understood that there was not a driver and a bus sitting there just waiting to come and help us out.  I knew that right then, but I still had hopes that I might be home by six or seven.)  We are to stay on the bus for safety reasons.  HA!  Did I say busy highway?  On the bus, off the bus, we are not safe and we are hot and cranky.
• 2:30-3:00:  People are getting off the bus.
• The exact timing of the following is sketchy in my memory (at some point isn't everything a blur?):  CT State Trooper arrives and says that we really have to stay on the bus.  About 30 minutes or so later he relents and lets us sit outside, reminding us that we are near a big city and we should be careful to not sit on hypodermic needles that may have been thrown from cars.  And I don't think I need to tell you just how bad the "rest room" on the bus is getting with no circulation or air moving around in it.  There is a rest area in our sight with a McDonald's and bathrooms.  We are not to walk there, the state trooper says no (we hear stories of pedestrian deaths on this highway happening every seven something. Seconds? Minutes? Hours?  Our driver is getting no information about the bus that has been dispatched to pick us up, so the state trooper takes over.  Long story short (?) he cannot get any info out of PETER PAN/GREYHOUND (at this point it is important to say that the driver cannot get through to them either) so he calls the emergency number at the Port Authority to get through.  He threatens (and follows through) to call a tow truck for the bus himself to get the bus off the highway, which will cost PETER PAN/GREYHOUND money and that gets them on the ball.  Sort of.
• 4:30ish:  We learn from our favorite CT State Trooper that no bus has left NYC to get us.  Wait.  I haven't maybe given that the proper emphasis:  NO BUS HAS LEFT NYC TO GET US!!!
• Sometime after that:  Tow truck arrives and tows bus with passengers up the road to the rest area, offering us if not any hope of getting home, safety, a bathroom and food.  We sit outside and wait.
• 5:30-6:00:  A tow truck arrives from PETER PAN/GREYHOUND to get the bus (being held captive by the first tow truck driver who I am sure is charging for every second he sits there) because THAT would be costing them money.  Meanwhile, we watch many PETER PAN/GREYHOUND busses drive by.  One stops and can take five passengers. (WHAT!?)
• 6:30ish:  After a day of lies and misrepresentations from the PETER PAN/GREYHOUND company and employees (two actually laughed at us in NYC when we inquired about the bus they were sending for us), a bus arrives and we are on our way. 
• 9:30ish:  We arrive in Boston.  We are safe.  We are sound.  Sort of.
• There was another blogger on the bus and she posted about our day as well.

You know, stuff happens.  I get that.  But how a customer is treated says a lot.  Sending the tow truck before the bus, leaving us in harm's way?  And had it not been for the state trooper's involvement, I can't even think of how the day might have gone.  The driver was getting nowhere with the company he drives for.  Twice Gillian offered to come get me, and twice I told her no because I thought the bus would be there before she would.  I was so.wrong.   

It feels good to be home and I cannot wait to get back to spend another weekend with Gillian, we had a blast.  I think I'll be driving though.

Ten On Tuesday.  Ten Favorite Things To Do During "ME" Time.

1. Beach.  I know, you are surprised.
2. Fiber festivals.
3. Mani/Pedi.
4. Massage.
5. Workout.
6. When I have the house to myself (ahhh) just enjoy the quiet and:
7. Sew, knit, spin, listen to books.  Especially on my back porch with iced tea or martinis.
8. I love checking into a B&B for a weekend, preferably at the beach, and just hanging out. 
9. Visit with friends.
10. Hang with my peeps, like Gillian this weekend.  My family makes "me" time fun.

Seventy-three.  Yes, I brought knitting.  You'll be surprised to know it involves yarn overs and ssk.  Really!

YouTube Saturday

The Tony Awards are tomorrow night.  In my house I am the only one that really gets into them now that Gillian has moved to New York, and this year I have been looking forward to instant messaging her through the whole show while we watched together across the miles.  Here is last year's award for Best Musical going to In The Heights. 

This year, when the award for Best Musical is announced, actually as they announce every award and perform every song and dance and all of it, Gillian and I have something really special planned. We.Will.BE THERE!!!! In PERSON!!!!!! So in a last second twist I am on a bus this morning headed to NYC to spend the weekend and go to the TONY AWARDS!!!! (Wish me luck, I am not such a great spontaneous traveler-send good thoughts for calm and relaxation.)

Seventy-two. ACK! I'M GOING TO THE TONY AWARDS!!!