Aaaaaaaaa!

I have a job!!!!!!! It's little but it's good and if I work it right, it'll take care of what I need to do and I'll be able to have some fun too, in the process. But I'm going to have to behave if I want to be able to take care of myself. I think it's doable. I've been practicing saving money on my Facebook games that I play. Laugh if you want but, you can learn a lot about your spending habits when it's something you think doesn't matter. And probably doesn't. So I've been practicing. I've found that if you spend it once in a while and mostly save it, then you can have a REALLY big blow-out later. And that's fun to look forward to. So I will try. And it will be good. Though, I will say, the first time I got paid, I went strait to the store and almost giggled at the thought that I could buy what ever I wanted with my little bit of money. Just because I felt like it. I was giddy. I also found that ice cream does not like me, even if it is non dairy. This pains me. But I will prevail and come out triumphant. I will not loose my pop (which I don't drink a lot of anyway- it's just the idea), my cold cereal, or- most especially- my ice cream eating capabilities, to some nervous stomach that, apparently, can't handle stress. Anyway, that is the update. I keep knitting. And stuff a good book in between.

Until later,

Michele

Oops-

Blog? What blog? MY blog? Oh...right. Well, I seemed to have missed June. That may be due to my having been buried up to my armpits in stuff. I have been going through everything I own and getting rid of all that I will never ever use mostly because, at one time, I got really excited about yet ANOTHER hobby. Let me just say, I have a lot of stuff! At times I found myself just groaning and saying, "Oh no, no, no. I'm not even sorting through this," And just dumping the lot of it. Much of it has gone but, there is still a lot to do. How did this happen?! Oh well, deeper I go, under the crunch of my own expectations of my new "I am organized...or as close as I'll ever get" motto. Being organized is hard! This is going to take some work.

I am proud to say, all my ufo's (unfinished knitting objects) are all officially done. Everything left are those that will take a while, and therefore, will be ongoing. So this means I get to start new stuff. I'm so excited I can't stand it. I started a Tiny Tot Helmet in some Red Heart Super Saver yarn I have called Sherbert Print. It looks like a box of neon crayons threw up but it will be bright and colorful and fun and hopefully very cute.

My garden is making its way along slowly but surely with the seasons being all weird this year. Pretty poppies all over, Guara, Zinnias, Penstemons, raspberries, alpine strawberries, peas, herbs, and pumpkins. Bugs, insects, bees, butterflies, and even a hummingbird found me this year and I love it. I love to enjoy them and check their progress and think about next year and how far they've come on their not-so-obvious-at-times progress.

I have picked up looking for a job again. It is much like I think wading through cold mud in the dead of winter might be but, it will be done and it will be good. Come what may.

That is all for now. Until later then,

Michele

Weather

Ok, really...Boise needs to pick a season. I'm all for cooler weather but, this continual flip-flopping as late as the first week in May is making seed starting a bit rough. Just when I think things are evening themselves out. We have thirty-nine mile and hour winds and night temperatures in the thirties. Goody. As much as I dislike hot weather, I love the growing season. And most things just won't do well without the warmth summer brings. Maybe I am just getting impatient. I know something wonderful is going to happen when summer finally gets here and things are taking their sweet time....tick, tick, tick, tick...I need to wait a little longer and they will fall right in line, right on schedule just like they are supposed to. I'm just getting antsy. It is so close that I can feel it. *head dropping mellow dramatically on the table* Ugh and groan. I hate waiting. But it is a necessary part of life isn't it? Because somethings just need to happen in their own time. And they will happen but time has a way of dragging and reaching warp ten at the same time. So I try to keep busy. Helping a friend, helping a woman at church who cannot drive herself anywhere, finishing projects started too long back, starting new projects, and concentrating on what I can do right now. Like hoping my larger-by-the-day raspberry brambles are still upright and wondering if I could find a worm hole that could shoot me to the second week in June so I can plant my garden. Anyway. I must wait. My blue cable sweater needs one more sleeve and the cap and the finishing and then done. And that is something I can do right now that I feel great about.

Spring?

It is April...or so the calendar says. I haven't actually come to a firm belief in this yet. Proven by the fact that it has been snowing. In April. In Boise. I will admit that weather can be a bit fickle in Boise in the spring. It flip flops for a while until there is finally no choice but to realize that it can no longer be winter. But snow? Really? On top of it all, lately, every time I plan to work in the garden the next day, the next day it rains...or snows. I didn't plan on working outside today, and it was gorgeous. It's becoming slightly odd. My raspberries are coming up though. They remind me of the small child peeking up over the edge of the kitchen counter, to see what things are up there. I think smoothies or freezer jam. Or maybe I'll find a tall can of RediWhip and a nice dirt-ish spot in the middle of the bramble patch and have a bit of yummy me time with a wooly scarf tied around my neck because the chill of Autumn has found my garden once again. That sounds nice...

I have a secret to tell. I have fallen prey to the enticing draw of New Project Syndrome. Sitting here listening to Turn, Turn, Turn by The Byrds, I realize that this is something that I cannot avoid. Sort of like the common cold. Every knitter faces it regularly. It sits on top of their stash looking terribly innocent. It is a temptation. Planning and starting new projects is exciting even when I keep telling myself that there is a time to start and a time to finish. A few days ago I found myself wanting to take a project with me somewhere to work on but, all the ones I have going were too involved. I needed something simpler. So I did it. I started another project. When I swore I wouldn't until I finished my ufo pile. It is a blanket. Frankie's Ten Stitch Twist. I am using a yellow, blue, and green yarn. And have to admit, that I feel it is going to look wonderful when it is done. Maybe I can somehow justify this after all...

This is my life right now. Gardening (or wishing to garden), knitting, and reading. I started a book called The Strange Days of Daniel X by James Patterson. I haven't gotten very far because I'm having a hard time finding the feel of the writing and getting into the style. Some books, it is easy, some it is not. I'm hoping, with a chance to read it without stopping for a while, that I will find its groove. I also got distracted reading gardening books. I've read one about some of the garden's old wive's tales. Now I'm working on one where the author tells the stories and history of some of his favorite garden plants. The photography is beautiful. It is called Planthropology by Ken Druse.

I feel scattered. Like I want to do everything all at once but can't make up my mind because all of the things are so wonderful. It really IS spring isn't it?

Until Later,

Michele

Update

After fussing and fuming and stewing over the gloves that are supposed to be for my brother's Christmas gift for LAST year, I ripped it all out and- frustrated- started making him some giant cushy socks out of some huge wool-acrylic yarn. It was the Cottage Socks from Lion Brand Yarn's web site. I finished the first one in record time, for a sock. One afternoon and part of an evening. I amazed even myself! The really great part was when my brother loved the sock so much that he wore it around the house by itself for the rest of the evening and part of the next day too : ) I was quite tickled. I finished the other sock and his only request was a little taller next time and some elastic at the top edge to counter-act his skinny legs. I really need to make myself some now. Dang it.

I am now working on getting rid of, or at least, whittling down my stack of knitting projects that I started at one time, and never finished. In the knitting world these are called ufo's or unfinished objects. My pile is surprisingly small but that just gives me hope that it can easily get smaller. I have finished a small kimono style sweater in green cotton and am now working on a berry blue cable sweater. Now, I learned to knit for two reasons. Cable sweaters and Nordic sweaters. Love at first site forever more. The problem is that those two particular styles are very time consuming, labor intensive, and all that. This is a pretty small sweater but it tasks my brain power and energy just the same. I think it will be beautiful when it is finished, with its little cap, but it will also be accompanied by a sigh of relief. And then it will be on to the next unfinished object.

I have been feeling the pull of the book arts lately. I have many unfinished objects there too. I have a set of covers I made a while back. The front cover is a small puzzle I put together of a train rumbling along the tracks in the country. I carved out a notch on the back for a silver concho applied to the front and found some wonderful paper that reminded me of old fashioned wall paper for the back. I decided to try double book blocks bound coptic style. One at each edge of the back cover. Facing each other. They would open away from each other. We will see how that works out.

That is all for now. Until later,

Michele

PS: There will be no more photos here until I find my camera cord. I am sad : ( My camera is sad too. Especially since the batteries are dead. Double poop.

Whoa!?

It is the middle of February and I am not sure how I got here. One stiff cold breeze and a sigh... and suddenly one fourth of the new year is almost over. Or, at least, it feels that way. Well- Christmas came and went and my youngest sister liked her aqua colored cable purse that I knit her. Thank heaven. My dad liked his hat and mom liked her dishcloths. Although one of them produced a nice little hole after one use. Poop. That still leaves gloves for my brother and cable mittens for my sister. My goal is to have them done before I panic in November of this year and start knitting furiously for Christmas.

It being warmer lately, I have spotted splashes of green among the dead of last season. For me, my love has been given to fall and winter. I love the bite in the air, dashing colors, the soft light, with all the full and comforting flavors of the season- spiced to perfection. But in final moments of winter when spring is peaking around the corner, it is exciting! After months of silence and stillness, everything is new and fresh and energy abounds. I was out in our garden the second of February cleaning out the left over material and finding that the Flax, Coral Bells, Hosta, and Hyacinths, too, have felt the rush of the growing season. I know, already, what will be in my garden this year. Fresh, sweet-tart fall raspberries in red and gold along with rich winter squash waiting to be roasted and made into pie, soup, and bread. I simply cannot wait!

I have read more for pleasure lately than I have in a very long time. I had almost lost faith in reading after nearly nothing but text books for the last five years. It is exhilarating and thrilling and I have become reacquainted with the power of a wonderful story. It keeps my mind active and distracts me from worrying too much about...everything. A great story reminds me that in the midst of all the junk in life, it is okay to live. To find a little joy and happiness. My most recent journeys in to story book world have included:

• The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L Frank Baum (which I would love to either knit or sew a doll for)
• the Heck series by Dale E Basye (fyi, just a LITTLE warped and slightly to the left of center for a kids book but, I enjoyed them a lot)
  
• the Pure Dead series by Debi Gliori (again, a little odd. The author is Scottish and the style and humor shows. Too too funny though!)
• the Pendragon series by DJ McHale (an adventure series)
  
• Skellig by David Almond (a last minute choice I happen to spot on the shelf. I liked the cover art. A marvelous book.)
• the Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy (if you like the newer Dr. Who, there is a good chance you would like these. Smart mouth one-liners in inappropriate places like in the middle of a battle to the death against demons from another dimension. )
• at the moment I'm reading the Percy Jackson series. I have a sister and a dear friend who won't leave me alone about them. Lucky for them they are fun to read. The last book I read because I was being constantly reminded about it was Twilight. While it was very well written with wonderful detail and descriptions, I got frustrated with Bella's whining and Edward's mellow-drama. Someday, I will read the rest of them though. Right now I am loving Percy Jackson.

I want to post photos of the Christmas gifts soon. Until then,

Michele