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

May KAL

Here's a picture of my beginning of May KAL. For those of you who don't know what a KAL is, I'll try to explain. KAL stands for "knit a long". In the beginning of May, I received (via e-mail, of course!) about 10 rows of instructions for about 5-6 days. I have no idea what I'm going to be knitting (except that it is a dishcloth). At the end of the 5-6 days, I have a completed project.

This occurs again on the 15th of May--5 to 6 days of instruction, and again another dishcloth. But, it's all a mystery until it's completed. And one of the really cool things--the second KAL of the month--I always learn a new stitch or a new technique that I can carry over onto other projects--love that--learning new things!!

I can see the heart in the bottom of this one and the beginnings of something else--maybe a butterfly? Any quesses??

I'll post another picture when it's completed and then we can all see what it really is. I was sure I was knitting a dishcloth with an Easter egg on it in April. But, I was wrong--it turned out to be a bunny!!

Right now, I'm TRYING to teach myself to knit socks. I'm almost finished the first part of the first one, and I have this beautiful new yarn staring me in the face just calling to me to make it into a pair of socks. Well, just stop calling to me, please!! I have to finish two socks because I have two feet, and you'll just have to wait!!

Pay It Forward

Pay It Forward Exchange I'm SO EXCITED to be a involved in the Pay It Forward Exchange! I found out about it from _!
Let me tell you about it, these are the instructions: "It’s the Pay It Forward Exchange. It’s based of the concept of the movie “Pay it Forward” where acts or deeds of kindness are done without expecting something in return, just passing it on, with hope that the recipients of the acts of kindness are passed on. So here’s how it works. I will make and send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment to this post on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I do not know what that gift will be yet, and it won’t be sent this month, probably not next month, but it will be sent (within 6 months) and that’s a promise! What YOU have to do in return, then, is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.
I will now Pay It Forward to you THREE, I wonder who you will be?! Please, be a PIF! You will enjoy it just as much as we do!"
And, remember...you have 6 months to get your gifts done! Come on, you know you would love to be one of my angels. Then, one day, but you don't know when....you will get a gift that I have made especially for YOU!
Please remember, you don't have to knit or crochet to participate, anyone who can make a nice handmade gift is welcome to join :)