Don't Wish Your Life Away.....

as my Grandmother admonished me many times!!

When I was a young child, I wished to be 13; when I was 13, I wished to be 16; when I was 16, I wished to be 21. I expressed these wishes to my Grandmother, and her reply, as always, was:

"Don't wish your life away!! It will be over soon enough, and you'll have missed these special times wishing for future times!!"

Yes, Grandmother was very wise, even though she had practically no formal education having left school at the age of 9 to pursue full-time employment in a chocolate dipping factory. She was self-taught in the basics of math, reading and writing.....and I loved her dearly. She taught me the good of "hard-work ethics". Having worked for years in the hand-dipped chocolate industry, she never ate chocolate that I can remember. She just absolutely refused to eat chocolate--even expensive chocolate!!

So, I'm not wishing my life away, Grandma....but I do wish that the time on this computer said 5:38 p.m. instead of 5:38 a.m.!!

My long awaited surprise is arriving early this evening, and I am telling you--I can hardly wait much longer!! I realized this morning that I will need some books to go along with this, so I spent a little time searching Amazon for the best available. I haven't definitely decided, so I'll need to go back and research some more.

Let's say, I hope my long awaited surprise comes this evening....I talked with the person who is bringing said surprise yesterday. Yes, he remembers me. Yes, he knows the town where I live. But, he did not receive any of my emails with the pick up and delivery instructions (and they were very explicit). He told me that he does have my phone number, he will call if there are any problems, and would I please email him the instructions again?

I did this yesterday when I arrived home from work, and to quiet my mind that he had received this, I requested a "read receipt" from my email. I checked this morning....none has arrived. I can only, at this point, rest assured that this will all go off as planned.

Moving forward--this is a much needed three day weekend. I'm not planning on doing much picnic-wise as some are. I will be meeting up with a friend for some time together on Monday. Other than that, I plan on relaxing, enjoying the surprise, finishing Lydia's Star Afghan, and then moving on to her CHRISTmas stocking. Lindsay reminded me how long this is going to take, and if nothing else gets accomplished for CHRISTmas, this project will.

These stockings are important to my children. Each child had their own handmade stocking for their first CHRISTmas. I didn't realize how important they were to them until the year we couldn't find them. Apparently, they were packed away with "non-CHRISTmas" items (how that happened, I'll never know), and they were not happy with this situation at all. There was a mass undertaking of looking through boxes in the attic until they were found. Of however many presents there are under the tree (and some years there weren't too many), they always went to their stockings first--to find the small, wrapped and especially picked "just for them" items.

Lydia didn't have one last year, being born on Thanksgiving Day and only a small infant. Cara picked this particular one especially for Lydia, and it WILL be finished by CHRISTmas.

I'm going to be posting some pictures over the weekend--what the finished project will look like and how far I've progressed (which isn't too far!!). Then, I'm thinking that each weekend I'll post a "progress photo". This will help to keep me accountable and working on this. This stocking is complicated, time-consuming, and somewhat tedious...but it is for Lydia which makes it all worthwhile--something that she can have forever--and hopefully learn to do herself (lessons from Grandma--or whatever I will be called) someday.

Now--off to get ready for work--which will at the very least occupy my mind and restlessness until this evening!!

Beth

"To Do" Progression, Another Surprise and Best Wishes!!

I've finally finished my "to do" list from the weekend!! Actually, I finished on Sunday and just haven't had the time to post that I did!! I still do need to update my "Love Dare". I'll do that when I'm finished here!!

I've added my list of Christmas projects to my sidebar. Now, the problem with these is that they all are started and none are completed!! Everything is a WIP!! So, I've got to get organized about this and finish one project at a time.

So, here's what I'm going to do--I'm going to pick one project, and as I finish it I'll mark it completed. Seeing this list almost every day will give me some incentive to finish everything before Christmas Eve!!

I wanted to share with you something that the mailman brought me on Saturday. I just love it when the mailman brings a surprise! These are 6 bookmarks that Nancie sent me. They are just beautiful, and I really needed some bookmarks. I have a tendency to just tear off little pieces of paper and place them where I want to mark a spot, so these will really come to good use!!


Nancie also has cards, calendars for 2009 and more styles of bookmarks. I know that I'm going to be ordering some for some special people in my life.

My friend, Aunt Kathy, is going to be having her surgery tomorrow. So, please stop by and wish her good luck with her surgery and a speedy recovery. She is so excited, and she has worked so hard to accomplish her goals!! Way to go, Kathy!! BRING IT ON!!!

I'll be off now to post my "Love Dare" which is going along very well!! I'm so happy that I decided to do this!!

K--that's all for a while!!

Beth

Christmas on the Way!!

I meant to post this last night after I had finished blocking it, but another migraine put me under for the evening.

Here's the Mid-month KAL from the Knitting Dishcloth Group. It was designed by Noreen and called Ribbed Diamonds. I like the way it looks--kind of elegant in the purple, I think. She has three patterns on her blog that she has designed. I have finished two of the three, and I really like what she's done.



I can see these being a nice Christmas gift for my daughters. I've planned on several things for each of them, and I was thinking of adding progress bars to see how far I've gotten with my Christmas projects. I'll just have to figure out how to do this.

I know that I'm making an Irish Hiking Scarf, a cable hat, a cable knitted purse and a Miter Square Rug for Cara. Since Lindsay lives in Texas, she has no use for winter scarves or hats. But, she is also going to receive a Miter Square Rug and some market bags. I haven't decided which ones yet, but she is starting to go green, so these will be a good gift for her. Any ideas or suggestions on good market bags, I'd love to hear them! I know that she wants something sturdy and not to open weave or mesh.

Both of the girls picked out the colors for their rugs, the Peaches & Creme is here, just have to get started and get these finished. If you look at the link for these rugs, the picture is the whole way at the bottom--after the instructions.

I'm off to work on that baby blanket some more--this is the top priority project right now. The baby shower is on October 25th, so it MUST be completed by then!

K--that's all for now!

Beth