Tuesday, October 09, 2007

336

I've been stalking my Ravelry invite. There's only 336 people in front of me so I should have my invite today or tomorrow. Yay!!

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Shhhh! Don't tell the "boss"!

Confession: I'm at work but I'm not working.

I have completely hit the wall today. The boss has a huge stack of things I ABSOLUTELY MUST GET DONE. I swear the stack grows when I look away. So what do I do about this? I read knitting blogs. I look at things I want to knit. I think about my second Monkey sock just started on my needles this morning and sigh wishing I was knitting them. I would love to skip out of work today and have some time off.

I mean, really! It's finally fall!!!! My favorite time of year. The air is cooler, the kids are in school, the days are getting shorter and there is finally starting to be the faintest hint of color or the leaves. It's time for casseroles and crock-pot meals for dinner. Apple cider and pumpkin bread. Yummmm, pumpkin bread.

My birthday was a few weeks ago but I've been so swamped with all of the work that it wasn't as relaxing as I would have preferred. There is just still soooooooooo much work to get done. August was insane with all of the shooting I did so I have absolutely got to get the post-processing work on everything done to get it out the door.

Really now, you'd think my boss would be a little more understanding wouldn't you? Especially since that slave driver is myself. Ahhh the peaks and valleys of being self-employed. The old saying is true, you absolutely do work harder than you ever have in your life when you're working for yourself as opposed to working for someone else.

I swear I'm going to have a little party all by myself when I get the last of these summer weddings finished up. Memo to self: do not work yourself to death next summer.

At least dinner is already finished and ready to go for tonight. I put a London broil in the crock pot and covered with a diced onion and two cans each of golden mushroom soup and cream of mushroom soup. I even made a batch of mashed potatoes to serve it on. I made this recipe a couple of weeks ago but didn't care for the combination of soups they used. And it was too salty with the onion soup mix. It was ok but I know this combination will be better. The meat however was amazing, super tender. Even the kids were asking for more! I threw it all in the crock pot at about 8:00 this morning so it should be perfect tonight before church. Love those crock-pot meals in the fall. Especially on days I'm "working." (or reading knitting blogs. whatever.)

Friday, September 28, 2007

Take 2

::sniff::

No Grey's last night for me :-( My sitting ran late and by the time I got home it was time to scramble the kids through the bed time routine and get them to bed. Then I let dh watch his shows and it was time for bed.

The good news? DH is out of town for the next couple of days so I get complete and uninterrupted control of the remote and will enjoy several hours of tv/knitting time after the little ones are in bed for the next several nights.

I'm now on the bedtime countdown...

Thursday, September 27, 2007

TGIT (Thank Goodness it's Thursday)

So Excited!

Tonight should be a great knitting night. I have a sitting to shoot very early in the evening but then it should be nothin' but knittin' as soon as the kiddies are in bed. I feel I should take this time and say a special prayer of thanks for the amazing Tivo. God bless the person who invented Tivo. Love you Tivo!!! I remember attending an advertising luncheon in the late nineties and hearing the speaker tell us about a new device that would be like a vcr only enable you to watch any show whenever you wanted without vcr tapes. Sounded crazy futuristic and yet I've had one for many years now and can't imagine not having it.

I'll definitely be watching Grey's and probably ER. Usually wait to watch The Office when dh gets home.

Anyway, time to run but looking forward to knitting tonight!

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Feast or Famine (a.k.a. Picture Paloooza!)

Unbelievable though it may be, it's finally happened. I've managed to FINALLY take some pictures of my recent knitting. Whoa! Take a deep breath! Lean back in your chair! Don't fall over on me! I know it's hard to believe but below these next few lines will be ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPHS. Knitting in pixels!

First here are pictures of my Monkey socks:








And check out the needles--Sox Stix in size 2 that I picked up from Twist. Which is where incidentally I bought the yarn, the stitch marker and the bag that I carry it all in. Are you seeing a theme here? Love you Twist!

It may not be "The" Great Pumpkin, but I still think it's pretty great :-) This one is a birthday gift for a friend but I think I'll have to make another one for myself.
Pattern is 12:01 by Nathania Apple.





My blue-eyed beauty in her Drive-Thru sweater. Although I'm thinking of re-naming it Sunday School since she has been wearing it every Sunday to church.




And finally Twinkletoes slippers for my girls. I'm going to buy some suede slipper bottoms for them so they will hopefully last a little longer.




And now I'm signing off to go knit! It's been a super busy weekend, yesterday I had an 8 hour wedding shoot a couple of hours away which made for a 12 hour day. I had another wedding this afternoon although thankfully it was only two hours and was very close to home. However with all of the work it seems like the weekend positively slipped through my fingers. In order to remedy that to a small degree I'm going to go sit, knit and watch a movie with the husband.

So I hope you enjoyed the pictures, heaven knows when I'll manage to get more things photographed again :-)

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

::peeking back in::

Yarn Harlot!! I went and saw the Yarn Harlot! To be completely honest I hadn't read anything more than a couple of her posts a day or two prior to her speaking engagement here in Wichita. Despite that I went and picked up a free ticket to attend her "lecture." It was another "stepping out of the box" activity for myself. For years, (ok, most of my life) I have felt the need to drag friends and/or family with me to activities I want to go to on my own. In last couple of years I have tried to grow up and be a big girl and just go by myself. Sounds completely ridiculous but it's been something I've had to work on. I don't know what I thought would happen if I attended an activity or event by myself. Maybe I thought everyone else would turn and stare at the poor girl with no friends. Or that I'd have no one to make small talk with. Truthfully I think it had more to do with the thought of having to talk to strangers out of politeness (is that even a word?). No, I'm not painfully shy I just can't be rude to other. Was raised better than that. Even if I think a person is creepy or scary I'm still polite. Sad but true. But in an effort to be a big girl I've been venturing out a little more on my own and I'm loving it. Turns out I'm pretty good company for myself. And I haven't been forced into conversations with weird people. Either everyone else is afraid of getting into conversations with strangers as I am or I'm really effective at giving off the DON'T TALK TO ME vibe. Either way, it works for me :-)

So I went to see the Yarn Harlot and had a great time. I had no idea there were that many knitters in Wichita! I'm sure quite a few traveled in for the event but it was still a surprisingly large number. She was a delightful speaker and her sense of humor was right up my alley. It was a lovely little event. And I didn't speak to a soul for two hours. Ahhh, bliss.

I do have much progress to report. I have about eight weddings that I need to photoshop so I don't have time for a picture taking session. Ironic, isn't it? I will get those done in the next few days so I can share all of my progress.

I have completely finished the Drive-Thru sweater for Sabrina. She's already worn it to church once and received quite a few compliments. Being my first sweater and that it's for a five year old I used ultra cheap acrylic yarn on it in hopes that laundering the inevitable dirt will be easier. If I had it to do again I'd use something a little nicer but it was perfect for the first sweater project. I think the yarn is Caron Simply Soft. Could be worse I suppose. Not much worse, but there you go. The body of the cardigan is Soft Yellow, the "fair isle" portion is Orchid, Sage Green and Soft Pink. I used lavender buttons that match the orchid color as well. Very bright and sunny just like our little Sabrina.

After finishing that I dove into 12:01. I've had the yarn and pattern for over a year but I just can't work on things out of order or before I've finished an existing project. So after the Drive-Thru sweater was complete I could finally start it. I had purchased the yarn last year so I could make it as a gift for my best friend. That obviously didn't happen so it will be this year's birthday gift instead. Of course I love it so much I think I'll have to go buy more yarn and make another one for myself. It was my first experience with that particular increase and felting. All in all it went very well. It's sitting on my dresser stuffed full of plastic Wal-Mart bags hoping to form it into a permanent pumpkin shape. I think I'll probably have to purchase something stiff to kind of line it with but that's ok. It's really cute! I was surprised at how long it took to felt it. Perhaps it's my washing machine but the felting process took at least 10 trips through my washing machine. I think next time I might try felting by hand, might work out better.

During the knitting of 12:01 I discovered that we have a new knitting store here in town!!!! I was soooo excited. Twist Yarn Shop recently opened in the same area as my own business. It was so exciting to go into a local store and see all the things I usually have to order off of the internet. I've been in several times and have even taken a class. She has great supplies and it's a darling little shop. I have gone to the other yarn store in town but her needle selection was limited and she just didn't carry many of the contemporary, modern knitting items that I've been eyeing. I feel bad for the old yarn store as it looks like Twist is really taking off. Of course I'm thrilled for Twist that it looks like it's going so well. Maybe I'll stop by the old yarn store and buy something to temper my guilt. The old yarn shop is just dated and she wouldn't help folks that came in for help with a project unless they had purchased the materials and supplies from her. She did have open classes that you could come to for help and it was inexpensive ($1-$2) as I recall but it just wasn't convenient for me. I think it all boils down to they each serve a completely different clientele. Unfortunately it looks like one is on the rise and one is on the decline and it makes me sad. I don't like to see anyone's business suffer.

Anyway! I love Twist! I decided I wanted to learn how to knit socks so I signed up for a sock knitting class. Imagine my surprise when looking over the pattern that I had basically made my first sock when I made the girls Twinkle-Toes slippers. I am, perhaps, not the sharpest crayon in the box. It was very worthwhile and re-assuring though as I felt like I finally had permission to tackle a real honest to goodness sock. I was a little behind everyone else in the class progress wise during the first class due to my own cluelessness. I thought I had the right size needles in my bag when I left the house but I didn't so I had to buy some at the shop which put my start time behind everyone else. They were all flying through the pattern and ahead of me. I kept working at it and just worked on it throughout the rest of the week as I had free time. We used a larger yarn and bigger needles so the socks worked up very quickly. Plus they had a very short ribbed section at the ankle so they were quick. I figured I would be the only loser in the class if I came with out having at least one if not both finished. I was a little embarrassed to show up for the second class as the only over-achieving geek who finished not one but both socks. Doh! Oh well, I bought supplies for my next two projects and started on my first pair of Monkey socks! I'm loving this pattern and having a great time with it. I'm not entirely sure about my yarn choice but we'll see how it works. It was a rainy dreary day that morning which I'm sure influenced my choice of a very mellow blue/green yarn. They aren't as bright and over the top as many of the Monkey socks I've seen but I think I'll actually wear these on a regular basis as they'll match more things in my wardrobe and will look great with jeans and loafers.

So, next time I'll see if I can get pictures in. It's been busy at work. I've redone out website, made a business blog and had my busiest month yet for shooting. Thank heaven school finally started!

Monday, April 09, 2007

Introspection and Gadget Admiration

Goodness, time does fly when you're having fun--or you've lost your sanity :-) Just kidding! Thanks to everyone who posted kind words of encouragement after my last post. I think it's fair to say that I'm not the ideal blogger as I seem to vent everything out in the blog and then abandon it until the next time I feel that need to let some of the pent up issues and emotions out. Needless to say that although my last post was a bit gloomy and depressed I've been slugging through life and things have been fine. All of the typical ups and downs but I did have a much needed mini-vacation which helped the old mental stability out.

I had a photography seminar in March which was out of state that I attended all by myself! This was quite a step out of the box for me as I used to feel compelled to always have someone go someplace with me. Anytime I wanted to take a class or go to an event I'd always talk a friend into going with me. Don't get me wrong, we always had fun, but there are times in life when you have to be the big girl and go it alone. But this time I flew out by myself and went to a place where I didn't know a soul and everything was just fine. A little intimidating at first, but just fine. It was a break that was much needed from all the mommy and business responsibilities and although I didn't indulge in any pampering, it was great. Well come to think of it, not having to make my own bed, cook or do any laundry for six days was pampering in and of itself. I was so busy during the seminar that I didn't even have time to go sight-seeing or shopping but I had a great time. It was fun hanging out with other photo-geeks who get excited about new gear and lighting like me.

I'm still struggling with some things but I imagine there will always be struggles with some of these things. I'm usually pretty good about rolling with the punches and dealing with things but I think last month it was got to be too much. I was so overwhelmed with all of the mommy/wife responsibilities and the business responsibilities that I felt as though I was just drowning from it all. Thankfully I think we're at least on the road to getting things back under control. One huge aspect of the stress was the book keeping for my businesses. I had been doing everything (appointments, photography, book keeping, photoshopping, lab drop off/pick up, order delivery, etc.) and the book keeping end just fell by the way side as I tried to keep all the customers happy. At least there's light at the end of the tunnel for that since my husband will be helping me out now.

It was reassuring to read from other mom's who feel the same frustrations. I love my kids and I love my job, I just never realized how overwhelming everything could be. Then to throw in some other issues of my own I just needed a little place in the world where I could let it all out. Perhaps one of the better aspects of all the introspection I've been prone to lately is re-discovering all of the promise of each new day and the unwritten future. If I spent all of my time lamenting the mistakes I've made and what I should have done I wouldn't be able to appreciate what I've learned and how to use that experience to shape the direction I want my future to take.

I need to learn to cut myself some slack in some areas and be stricter with myself in others. It's been a crazy year but I'm so glad that God has blessed us with all of the craziness. It's led me to some discoveries about myself and realizations that I'm capable of more than I had thought. I've also learned that I'm not superwoman and no matter how capable I am, I can't do it all and I really can't do it all on my own.

I think I remember reading once that changing careers can be as stressful to a person as having a loved one pass away. And if there's one thing I know about myself is that I'm very good at stuffing all the stress down and trudging on. I obviously need to work on that as well and thankfully this blog seems to be playing a nice little role in that.

But hey, this started out as a knitting blog, right?! Well there has been some knitting, there just hasn't been any pictures taken of the knitting. You'd expect nothing less right? I'll just wait and get pictures after it's finished. I have no idea how people have the energy to stop their knitting and take pictures of what they're doing. I sure appreciate it when I'm reading their blogs, it's really interesting. But when I'm knitting the last thing I want to do is stop, find the camera, get a empty cf card out and take some pictures that I'll then have to download, fiddle with and resize to upload to the internet. No way, when I'm knitting I'm *relaxing*! And I compulsively want to finish that row so I can turn and go to the next line in the pattern.

What is it I'm knitting you ask? (Because really, if I did post what I started it was probably months ago and I'm sure I didn't take any pictures of it). I'm working on the Drive-Thru cardigan for my youngest daughter. I've actually made good progress on it and should finish it this week if things go well. I have the body done, the sleeves done and attached as well as all of the color changes at the top. I'm now finishing up the yoke and will do the button bands last. Yay!

I'm wanting to delve into sock knitting soon so I may check some books out of the library and read up on that. And now for a small techie review, here are my two latest, favorite gadgets:

Sennheiser Wireless Headphones
I received these for Christmas and love them! When I was a kid I had one of my eardrums rupture from an ear infection. Between that and the constant fluid that seems to be built up on it I have a hard time hearing all the mumbling that happens on tv. So, my sweet husband bought these for me for Christmas. I usually only wear them when the kids (or husband) is in bed and I can't listen to the tv loud enough to hear what the heck is going on. It's great because the volume on the tv can be completely off but the headphone volume can be adjusted as needed. And they're wireless! Although how I, Queen of Deep Sleep, ended up with a family of incredibly light sleepers is beyond me. At least now we're all happy with the tv volume :-)

Neat Receipts Scanalizer
This is so cool! Makes tracking my debit receipts enjoyable. As mentioned previously my book keeping had fallen behind in epic proportions. With this slick little device I can scan the receipt in and categorize it by tax expense. It keeps a scanned copy of the image and I can then throw the paper receipt away. Yay! No more faded receipts or piles and piles of ones I need to keep on until I balance my checkbook. I can categorize them according to business or personal use and print out some very nice expense reports for tax time next year. And yes, I am backing it up after every use to a Rev disc along with my quickbooks data so I don't lose it all in case of electronic disaster.

That's all for now!

Friday, February 16, 2007

where did i go?

When I was pregnant with my first child I remember thinking that now was the time for the happily ever after to start. I would have the baby and life would cruise happily along and everything after that point was just the fun details of life. I don't know why I thought that exactly but that was my mind set. My mom stayed home with my sister and I and was a great stay at home mom. I was looking forward to doing all the same things and being the perfect mom. The first hint that things weren't going perfectly was the six weeks of colic we went through with her. Eventually that cleared up and things went fairly smoothly until we tried to get pregnant with a sibling for her. It took two years, some mild fertility medicine and one miscarriage before we finally became pregnant with her. She was an easy baby and things were going well. I was from a family with two children, both girls so I felt like I had everything under control. I knew what to expect, I was comfortable with this. Then we were surprised with our little boy, a surprise pregnancy. I love him dearly but my life has not been the same since the day I found out I was pregnant with him.

Everything has become more complicated. More busy. More crazy. More noisy. All of those details that I thought would work themselves out after we were in happily ever after mode have arrived. And they aren't working themselves out. Things aren't falling into place. There is a ton of work to do. No matter what I'm working on I feel like I'm neglecting someone or something because they aren't getting the attention they need while I'm doing this.

I'm frustrated and angry. I feel like I'm being swallowed up by life. I feel like a complete failure. I feel guilty. I feel like running away, not from my family but from all of the demands. No matter how hard I work the amount of work never seems to lighten or be finished. Not only that but I feel like I'm starting to become a little invisible. I'm disappearing but I don't know that anyone will notice until a bill isn't paid or everything else has ground to a halt. I'm living a life I never would have predicted. I feel lost without a map to navigate what to do or how to do it. I don't know what to do to be seen again. Maybe I do know but I'm too afraid to try it. It's always failed before, why would it work now? Do I have a choice? Are all of us broken somewhere and have a crutch that we lean on? If I give up that crutch will I just find a new one to replace it? Can I have a good crutch instead of a bad one?

I think I need to do some work. I need to learn to stand up with out the crutch. I need to do some rehab work on myself and learn to live without it. I'm scared of not having it, I'm scared of failing again. The failure seems inevitable. I'm not a fatalist except when it comes to this. I think it's something I'm going to battle every day for the rest of my life and that overwhelms me. I feel like not bothering with it since I'm doomed to fight it forever. But then I look at my life and where I'm at. I need to do this. Not for anyone else but for me. And maybe that's the first time I've finally reached that conclusion. Maybe that's what it will take.

I have a feeling this is going to be a year of change for me. And I don't know if I should feel scared, happy or even more overwhelmed than before because right now that's how I feel.

I have to make myself re-appear because I deserve better.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

no more apologies

Peer pressure. Blog pressure. Bleer Pressure?

I always feel guilty that I don't have tons of pictures to accompany my posts. Truth be told I love to take pictures but I don't have a little point and shoot to capture some of the day to day stuff. All of the blogs that I always visit have lots of pictures of the dinner they made, the latest knitting/craft project they're working on, kids, etc. I'd love to do the same but I'm just flat out exhausted, and the thought of having to do more photo related work stresses me out. I started the blog to write about what was going on in my life and knitting that I've done. But I feel guilty about not having pictures to post so I don't write. It's a vicious little circle.

Today we finally had the birthday party for my daughter. Poor thing was born in the middle of January which just isn't conducive to get-togethers. Inevitably someone is sick or there is a snow/ice storm and this year was no exception. We had planned to have her party last Sunday but we had about 8" of snow last weekend so we post-postponed it to today. She wanted to have a tea party (which she had last year too). The girl is nothing if not consistent :-) However it was a tea party with a Cinderella theme since my girl is positively obsessed with Cinderella. For the last two Halloweens she has gone as Cinderella. We have not one, not two, but three Cinderella costumes. And every single day she carefully brushes her hair and wears the exact same Cinderella headband which came with her first costume.

We invited five other little preschoolers over to the studio for the party. After everyone was there they had the option of changing into dress up clothes and then we proceeded with the glamour girl make-over. We painted fingernails, put on make-up and curled their hair. After a brief fashion show I then took pictures of each of the girls.

Then it was on to tea time. My wonderful husband had helped me prepare the tea sandwiches ahead of time. We made chicken salad sandwiches cut into little triangles, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut into heart shapes and cream cheese and jelly sandwiches cut into circles. We also served a veggie tray to get in something at least a little nutritious. The tea was actually Arnold Palmers (1 part lemonade 1 part iced tea), requested by the birthday girl herself.

While the girls munched on the goodies I quickly downloaded all the pictures and did a quick Photoshop job on them and then printed them out on our little Epson PhotoMate. Then I slipped each 4x6 into a little clear acrylic frame I got at Wal-Mart.

For cake I made a Cinderella cake of course! I have a special pan I bought a number of years ago to make all of the Barbie-style cakes that the girls always want. It's taller than the Wilton pan, and makes the perfect size cake. I did do something new this year though and used fondant for the skirt over the butter cream.

Sabrina had a great time at her party as did all of the other little princesses :-) It was a super busy day but fun. Now we're at home recovering from all the non-stop running of the weekend.

Last night I did manage to do my gauge swatch for the Drive-Thru sweater (I did finish the ballet slippers but I still need to buy the soles to sew on the bottom. But knitting-wise, they're done!). I had started to cast-on and then remembered I hadn't done the gauge swatch yet. So I reluctantly tore out the cast-on and then started the gauge swatch. Good thing I did, I ended up having to go up a needle size to get gauge. Can not imagine how frustrated I would have been if I had started working on it without having gauge!

Tonight I'm going to finally get down to work on it. I've decided to make the cardigan version and will be knitting it in her favorite color, sunshine (a.k.a. yellow). The contrasting stripes of the yoke will be lavender, light green and light pink. And since I've decided not to pressure myself any more I'm not going to promise photos. Knitting is suppose to be relaxing and enjoyable and I refuse to turn it into another obligation or job by giving myself one more thing to do on my to do list. If I feel like taking pictures I will but I'm not going to apologize about it any more.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

I am so cold...

Brrrr. I. Am. So. Cold. I haven't felt my toes for most of the day. We had a sleet storm set in on Friday and it settled in for the weekend accompanied by snow and wind. Good times! Normally I would have enjoyed the pretty look of everything blanketed by snow but we had a big bridal fair that our company participated in this weekend. This meant I was walking around in dress shoes in the snow and muck. Today I walked across the street to get some lunch and my shoes swallowed about a quart of snow each. My poor little toes still haven't recovered. Even with the terrible weather attendance wasn't too bad at the show.

It's been a busy week getting ready for the show but I did manage to get some knitting done. I finished the second yellow ballet slipper and started on a hot pink pair for my older daughter. I just have the two by two ribbing to do on it and it will be finished. Then I'll just have the second pink one to make and I'll be done with the ballet slippers. I think I've decided to knit some Sweet Mary Jane slippers for Christmas for some of my aunts. After whipping up several of the ballet slippers I think I'm in the swing of the knitted shoe thing. I'm even thinking of adding some beads to the slippers for a change of pace to glitz things up too. And like every good knitter my list of projects I want to knit seems to be getting longer and longer. I've also ordered the pattern for the Drive-Thru sweater. I'm looking forward to making one for one of my daughters.

And as usual, I haven't had a spare second to snap any pictures at all. I'll have to get some after I finish the second ballet slippers and they can model them together. Did I mention we got a dog? He is so cute but I fear he'll be full grown before I can manage to get some pictures of him as well.

Off to dish up dinner. My sweet husband made a batch of chili in the crock-pot while I was trudging through the snow around the bridal fair today. I'm going to curl up on the couch with a warm bowl...

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Finally, a few pictures...




I tried the finished ballerina slipper on Sabrina this morning. Although a little big it does fit and she's very excited about it. I think I'm going to look into getting some slipper bottoms to sew onto the bottom. Now it's on to the second slipper!

Monday, January 01, 2007

Happy New Year!

Wow. Did I really last post in September? No wonder I have been banished from some if not all of the webrings I belong to. To say that things have been busy is an understatement. We moved the studio to a new location which needed lots of work. We pulled up the old carpet, painted the ceiling and walls, built a wall and put down new flooring (not necessarily all in that order). Between that, the kids, work, etc. there has been no time!

Now that we're pretty much settled in though things are getting a little less crazy. I did manage to get a little bit of knitting done but didn't get any pictures. I made a little hat and baby bootie set for my business partner. However, in my usual procastinating self I literally finished the booties minutes before I left the house for the baby shower. I'll try to get pictures of the items actually on the baby after he arrives :-)

In other knitting news, I made lots of progress today! I knitted the first half of a pair of the Twinkletoes ballet slippers for one of my daughters. It was a learning experience for me, I had never done short rows or the cable cast-on before. Felt good to learn a little something new and get a little more knitting experience under my belt. Tomorrow I'll cast on for the second half of the set and hopefully finish it up before this weekend. Then I'll be doing another pair in a different color for my oldest daughter. I'll try to get pictures as well. I find that I usually post to the blog (usual? Did I just say usual? Who am I kidding, I haven't posted since September?!) after my entire family is asleep and getting out all of the camera gear, etc. would wake everyone up. Going to have to try to do better on that....

Let's see, what else has happened since I posted last.... Oh! My darling husband built a big wooden barrier to the huge, dirt-filled planter that had been the source of much grief and vacuming. I'm happy to say that we no longer have a fine layer of dirt all of the front of the house now. My son has now moved on to much more interesting pursuits since his indoor dirt pit was taken away. He is now busy trying to reprogram the heat/ac control pad whenever we aren't watching. There's nothing like waking up to a house that is 68 degrees in December! Or noticing that instead of just turning the heat off he is now going the extra step and turning the AC on. Good times!! We may have to buy a little plastic lock box to go over the heat/ac controls. That should be a charming addition to the decor, always looks so delightful in every school or office I've ever been in. Maybe my husband and I could even leave each other notes taped to it like you see in every church, "Do NOT set below 71! (also please take out the trash)." I always read all of the hand written notes in the churches, they do amuse me so. I'm always hunting around for the electrical outlets and light switches to take the wedding photos and frequently run across the notes. It always strikes me as funny just how angry the notes can be in a House of God. I came across one on Saturday that was quite lengthy and detailed about not leaving the lights on after a week night event as the lights don't turn off automatically and "WILL STAY ON UNTIL I COME IN THE NEXT DAY AND TURN THEM OFF MYSELF." (the all caps were actually written over twice to make them that much more bold for the reader or the inconsiderate, irresponsible, electricity-wasting church member going to the panel to make a lighting adjustment)

In holiday news I'm trying to decide what to do for Christmas next year. This year I was so busy that I bailed on making some of the things I had planned and went with gift cards instead. I'm thinking of starting the holiday stuff right off the bat, working as quickly as I can and then moving on to more of the things I want to make. We'll see, knowing me I'll just meander through the year and then start getting anxious about Christmas in August...