birthdays

another birthday has come and gone and i'm not sure how i feel about it.

i feel that i have not done much with the time that i have already had.

and who knows how much time we have left.

yes i have a home a kids, but what have i REALLY done?

i'm feeling some changes are coming and i'm thinking

that i may be ready this time.

am planning on starting the artists way, kinda did two weeks ago but didn't really give it my all.

am hoping now that volunteer work has calmed down somewhat

i may start to feel a little less overwhelmed all the time.

i'm beginning to feel that maybe my lack of success in finding a job

is due to the universe telling me that i need to get off my butt and do what i love

for a change. 

i'm thinking i may be going back to school and following my dreams a little more.

and a little less of the martyr syndrome and trying to be all things to everyone.

there comes a time when you have to stand back and say enough, i can do no more

right now.

hmmm.......

squirrels! okay squirrel as the case may be...

my oldest dd has an amigurumi book that she bought a couple  of

years ago with her b-day money. but she has yet to get past the basic chain

stitch in crochet. so while all the patterns use single crochet (sc) she has not

mastered it.

so she sat down next to me the other day with her book and asked nicely if i would

make the squirrel for her. so i agreed, she went and rummaged through my

yarn stash and came back with a fuzzy blue (that i have had for years, i once

made a bunny out of it as a baby shower gift), and some tan.

so i whipped up the pieces and she attached the eyes and nose, then stuffed it.

i put all the pieces together, which was a little more difficult than i had anticipated.

i am in no way new to crochet, but trying to attach those little arms, and then not

being entirely sure what to do about the tail, as the instructions gave no

instructions for that part, i finally got it all together.

i ended up tacking the tail to the mid back of the thing with a few stitches so that it would

stay in the full upright position. so without further ado here it is:

tada!

as a side note on the tan, she originally brought me some yarn that came

with a plant hanging kit i bought at a flea market close to 10 years ago.

it is in no way a soft type of yarn. the only other tan that i had

 i was/am making my first ever sweater out of, so i used that skein

starting with the other end that i wasn't working off of.

now i'm going to have to try and hunt down that color

if i ever want to finish the sweater.

 so now that i have made one amigurumi i'm already starting on another

one from the book. i'm using the same blue yarn to make a bird.

after of course i finish a baby blanket for a friend who is having a baby

tomorrow. the yarn that i am using for that i got 7 years ago to make a

blanket for my ds when he was born. but it just frustrated the heck out me

(being 8 months pregnant will do that) and i never used it. it is red heart

cloud. i'm not sure if they make it anymore or not. but i figured why go out and buy more

baby yarn when i have 5 skeins of it in my stash.

so when i finish it i will post picks of it as well. the blanket not the yarn.



CANDY CANES

at the grocery store today i bought candy canes for $.37! these ones to be exact

but but you say it is to early or to late for candy canes, did i mention that they were

$.37! the cashier asked if i was going to eat them and i assured her

that i was not, that i was in fact putting them away

for next year. she then wanted to know if they would

keep that long, and i assured her once again that indeed yes they

would, as long as they were not kept in an attic or somewhere

hot they would be fine.

so i got the bright colored ones to go on the family room tree which is white.

the pale red and green ones are for the tree in the

dining room. and the blue ones may go on the tree in the living

room, though i'm not sure about that one yet. not

totally sure how i feel about candy canes on that tree. that is the one tree

that i am kinda particular about. all the ornaments are white, silver, robins egg blue and

a few are a pale apple green. we shall see next year how i

feel about it.

speaking of xmas, i almost have all the xmas stuff put away. just a few more things

to pack away, and the totes need to be stored away and two trees need

to be taken down. that's it i swear, the ornaments are

already off the trees but the trees are still standing.

it is my husbands job to take those bad boys down and put them in their

bags.

project life

i'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my project life kit. hoping that it will get here soon.

if you are not familiar with this it is ab fab. here is a link to the website.

www.beckyhiggens.com/products/

you can also read about it on ali edwards blog, she finished one this past year and is starting a new one this year.  2011 will be my first year attempting it.

in a nutshell it is a big 3 ring binder that comes with lots of notecards, clear pages with

pockets, and lots of other goodies. there is room for you to document each week

of the year. with traditional scrapbooks you are only capturing a moment here and a moment there usually. this captures all those little moments each week that normaly go undocumented. 

i've got lots of big plans for my family this year and i'm hoping that this well be a way for them to look back and remember all those little moments that we had together that made life what it is and special to us.

i encourage you to check out the website and get a taste of what it is all about. 

hello it's me again

i found a book today that i thought i had lost, it's called

listography your life in lists.

if you are a list maker you need this book!

i admit to not caring for all of the subjects so i intend to

alter it and make subjects of myown.

there is also a listography website. which just happens to be

http://www.listography.com/ . you can make tons of lists with either thier premade titles

or titles of your own. here is mine www.listography.com/solarray .

you can also read and comment on other peoples

public lists. will post pic of book later this

evening, just wanted to jump on and tell you

about it before i forgot.

another book that seems to have disappeared to

somewhere in my home is this book will change your life.

when i find it i will tell you more about it

as well.

ta ta i promise a pic or two in an hour or so or two! lol

day 5 of holidays

#4 was the top of  my china cabinet so i thought #5 would be another

part. so here it is..ta, da!  lol

if you notice there are lights inside of the china cabinet, this is the first 

year i've done that as well. the strand is a blinking strand

which i normally don't like, but these were my grandmothers, 

every other one blinks. another post i'll show you the shape of the lights.

i love, love, love putz houses. i do not own any actual

putz ones, but i do have a few putz style houses. 

believe it or not the snowman, house and girl all came from 

my local grocery store a couple of years ago.

this year they have a bottle brush tree that matches i'm going to look today and see if (a.)

they have any left, and (b) they are on sale.  i'm off

to finish my grocery list and hit the store. 

show and tell #4

i know i said i was going to try and post every day this month

but i just haven't gotten in the habit yet i suppose.

hopefully i can catch up somehow!

this is top of my china cabinet

due to where the chandelier is its hard to get a pic of it all at once.

i love most things vintage and old.

most of the items in this pic come from my family.

when my grandmother passed i got all her xmas stuff.

all the reindeer, the sleigh, all of the trees, boot and some of the santa's were hers,

as well as the snowman. the silver platter was my dh's grandmothers.

here is a closer look at the center of the arrangement. the little snow globes are

actually place card holders, the card goes in the little bird on top.

this is the left side. the snowman in back is a blow mold, he has a place for

a light but i have never put one in. he used to sit on my front porch, but he's

getting a little cracked and weather worn in his old age so

i decided to move him indoors this year.

the red boot in back i am never sure what to do with.

one year i made it into a lamp another year i stuck faux vintage

xmas flowers in it. it is an old paper mache one.

here is the right side. not as much going on over here. i do love the red reindeer.

here is a better pick of him.

and one of him and his friend as well. i'm guessing that my

grandmother loved the little reindeer as well,

cause she had a whole herd of them.

i love that everything up here has a history to it, the only

things i bought are the cake plates that i have stacked.

the only other things that are remotely new are the big cream

colored snowmen. my mother gave them to me last year for xmas.

everything else came from our grandparents or my parents.

i think the holiday season should have a healthy mix of old and new.