I'll cave

I will cave and do the look back thing. My main crafting goal was to organize and finish projects I'd been dragging around with my from as many as three home moves.

Strawberry swirls gifted to Mrs. Miller, the wife of a coworker. Oldest WIP

Pastel Windows gifted to Jenn, baby A's mama

Troubled Waters gifted to T-Bob

Window cushion for the boys

Shawl given to Blueman's friend Aggie

Gifted to baby A's g-ma

Christmas gift for bff's mama.

Gifted to a former co-worker who has lost her memory of me.

These are some of the give aways this year.

Due to website issues, I'll finish the made but not gifted items separately. I will say it was a joy to share these gifts with others. I hope they feel the same.

Last day

Late wake up, late start, late first meal....wonderful! Now I just have a half day to fill with hundreds of ideas.  No major projects will get started. That's okay, I have many things in progress and that's ok.

I'm going to unpack my new sewing machine. I'm so silly. It feels disloyal to use or attempt to learn how to use a new one. My Singer has been good to me mostly. Even though it somehow managed to drop a needle yesterday. That was new. I just feel like we've been through a lot together and if I put a new machine on the table, then will I ever create with my old friend again?

In the meantime, this is what's on one set of needles.  Odds and ends for this one. I had or was given some pretty lavender and broken with the rainbow pastel yarn, I was afraid it would look too "baby shower" but the bigger it gets, the more I like it.

Happy Boxing Day!

Half way....half full or half empty?

Merry Christmas!  We spent a few hours with the sib and ate too much and exchanged presents. Then it was off to church where the choir sand three anthems as well as the five or six carols with the congregation and we did this twice!

The sub wins the award for best present given as the one Blueman opened made half of us cry. It makes up for ill fitting or just odd picks!

The gift I'm giving to myself is an easy day, maybe some sewing ( no maybe involved ) and a drive tonight to look at Christmas lights.

A dying tree but still prettier than my Cookie Monster!

Four one one

so my four days of break from work started off with a bang.
I got the maternal units laundry done and to her, I managed to get a few gifts for Blueman as all I had were gift cards (which he likes) but I thought of something late Friday and so, stupidly, went out yesterday to get it. Knitted more on project three, and finished another late present.
I moved the Un-dancing Santa and replaced it with the mutant blue tree.

So FOUR days, ONE is gone and I made ONE last gift.

Sib likes purple, so I tweaked a couple of hand towels. Wanted to do a piecework strip, but...maybe next time.

If Cookie Monster threw up on my Charlie Brown tree... It would be this little blue "monstrosity"!

Merry Christmas Eve! Family brunch ahead with two church services tonight. I'm hoping for a nap in between!

Four days

I have four days off work and my goal is to make them count! I haven't gone crazy with the lists of things I could do but I do have some ideas.
Sew
Knit
Laundry
Walks
Sing at church
Obligatory family time
Sew
Crochet
Nap
Errands
Sew and so forth.

Before. The ornaments are about an inch in size and the silly package only came with half as many hanging strings as was required. 

During. I forgot how annoying it can be when the ornament doesn't want to hang where you want it to hang!  The red at the bottom is the price tag. I'll probably cut it off. Eventually. Maybe.

New plan

A good chat happened on Friday and it was such an unexpected source for such a deep discussion.  It got me to thinking and I didn't like the results. Old habits have came back to haunt me and I am not interested in repeating that particular history.  So this weekend was a time to figure out a new plan.

I have some crafts I want to finish so that needs to be priority instead of guilty pleasure
I have certain chores that need to start getting done and stop being a guilty failure.
Eating habits, exercise routines and exterior tasks are all getting looked at.
Tis the season to be jolly....I've got a plan for that.

I made another set of pot holders as a gift. This time for a family member who likes purple.

The edge is off white, not yellow.

I'm also making some progress on the scrappy blue quilt. I have a friend/former coworker who is retiring at the end of January. 

Then there is the quilt I'm making for me and Blueman. I'm allowing a year for completion of that.

Several yarns projects working too. 

I'm truly a work in progress.

Not there yet, but close.

I managed to get the presents wrapped this afternoon. I sang some Christmas Carols as I wrapped and penned notes and just had an enjoyable time.  It's the first bit of holiday spirit that I've found. I think we might do some decorating and I might finish some last minute family gifts.  The sibling situation is not great. There is little communication and what there is...is strained. Awkward.  Hard to share the love so prevalent in the season when there is little common ground between us anymore.

It was too good an angle to pass up. Poor Griffin appears to have a headdress on when in fact it's just a cute blue Christmas tree I bought for decoration. Doesn't everyone need a blue Christmas tree? I'll decorate it this week. Perhaps leach some more spirit out of the decorations!

A difficult task done. Yay for me.

I hate hate hate trying on clothes. It's just proof that I should have re-gifted the two pound box of chocolates and I really should make time to get back to the gym.

For some reason I decided to try on some work clothes I hadn't had on since last winter or before.  I must have been high on choral music (choir had just ended).  A couple garments could still work with a little modification but a few just weren't going to work and normally I hold on to my clothes like a small child with the last piece of Halloween candy.  Tonight it seemed deceptively simple to try on, model for Blueman and then decide whether to keep or discard.

So just that quickly, I freed up some hangers, discarded some things I was never going to wear, and all without completely losing it or ruining my self esteem.

Yay for me!

Never too late

my oldest project found its forever home today.

Strawberry swirls went home with a coworker as a gift for his wife. She has medical needs and as we dip into some cooler weather, I figured this was as good an excuse as any to gift it. I'd been considering it for awhile but something kept holding me back.

Today was the day though so I did it!  So much fun to give them away, so nerve wracking beforehand to worry about how it will be received. Prayer shawls are fun to make and a nice break from sewing. I like the idea of giving a reusable hug to someone who might need it.

And? I only have four left in my stash and that's very nice.  Woohoo!

Cleaning people

I hate housework. I can ignore dust motes like nobody's business. On my eight months of utopia, paradise, non working experience, I was responsible for keeping our house from falling into an episode of hoarders. I was moderately successful. Visits from the in laws did much to spur the cleaning frenzy along.

Fast forward to my new life where I'm a working drudge again and those 45-50 hours working/commuting plus the additional "get ready" time has dwindled my cleaning time significantly. So Blueman tweaked the finances and we are going to try a cleaning person every other week. Floors and potties to start. Of course I've spent an hour putting thing away before they get here. It's as bad as the threat of an in law visit. That's what it takes to de clutter my house apparently. Heck, imagine what I'd do if it were someone really important!