Quietish

Hey, thanks for checking in for my Friday Snapshot.

Here I go again. Not only do I insist on taking lots of pictures of my cats but I insist on posting them too, as though people do not know what a cat looks like. I must (although sheepishly) confirm that that will not likely to cease happening.

Now traditionally I’m a dog person. Always have been. When I began apartment life at college though, keeping dogs was not exactly the easiest thing to do. So we got cats. Callie, pictured above, is one I’ve had the longest. Although she spent a year with my brother and mom while I “got settled” in Oklahoma, she’s my first cat. And she’s *my* cat. Sure, she is friendly with Justin and actually tolerates the kids better than our other two cats. Still, she is mine. Or I am hers. Something to that effect.

No matter what I do, Callie is there. Well, as long as she hasn’t gotten herself closed in a bedroom, closet, or cabinet, but you know. When I work on scrapbook stuff, she’s there taking up 1/2 my table. When we stitch on the couch, she crams her squishy body between Justin and me. When I knit, she’s somewhere nearby keeping a close eye on that yarn for me. And when I am here at the computer, she is under the desk at my feet. She gets kicked in the head often.

I don’t tend to be someone that enjoys being alone for long stretches of time. I do like alone time, but I am uneasy if it is for longish periods. Another presence–even a cat– is a comfort. If I need reassurance at any point in my day, I can reach down and Callie will be there. I can’t say how much I appreciate that.

So there it is. I am a weird cat lady. I just happen to have a husband and kids too. Oddly enough, while I was writing this my weekly email from

popped up. This week’s theme is cats. Maybe I’ll draw one today.

Today is crafty progress day! Oh, how it thrills me! I’m not being sarcastic either. I just love my craftiness.

This week, I managed to bring out some cross stitching to work on as well as my knitting. I have completed my monthly goal of making at least one ornament:

The pattern is a freebie from The Drawn Thread. I couldn’t quite bring myself to stitch a Christmas ornament yet.

Amazingly I also brought out my poor neglected Fortunate Traveller WIP and put 2 evenings worth of work on it.

I have missed it and hope to keep working on it steadily for awhile. I am a little shocked to realize that I now have a WIP that is pushing a year and a 1/2 old.

Slow and steady work continues on sock1 of Justin’s pair.

Boy, if I didn’t have him and his slender calves to try this sock on, I would be worried that it is too small. It certainly won’t fit me. I really like how it’s come out though, even if I did snap a DPN in the process. I have gotten lots of suggestions for its name and currently have Justin considering which he likes best.

Ok, so now that Kelly has gotten her scarf, I shall post what I included with it. I had/have plenty of Ravenclaw colored yarn, so I decided to make a soft home for her iPod.

iPod Cosy

For instructions, (more…)

It is Wednesday, so I will share some of the internet wealth. I have noticed that a lot of my bookmarked links are just sites about things I come across in real-life so maybe it should be more like “general wealth as represented on the internet,” but whatever right? Either way, let’s get to it.

1. Evil Wizard Rock Website of Draco and the Malfoys, a band that my fellow Harry and the Potters fans can appreciate.

2. Fangirlish. Because apparently we need motivation to get writing and if I point out the link (that is also in my sidebar), my guilt and motivation may increase some.

3. The Strokes. I checked out their new album this weekend. I like their sound.

4. Cast-On. A podcast for knitters. My favorite so far. Good sound quality, well produced, and great to listen to. Brenda Dayne has accompanied me to the workout room a few times recently.

5. Band-Aid Liquid Bandage. I’ve had this in my cabinet for a little while but haven’t had an opportunity to try it out properly until yesterday. You see, I recently bought a new kitchen knife… I should warn you that if you don’t do well with bloody pictures, you probably don’t want to keep reading.
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Thanks, Amy. I hadn’t been tagged for this yet and I was beginning to think no one loved me.

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It is mind-boggling and I’m not sure where the notion has come from, but I think I have found myself in the middle of a conversion to morning-personhood.

At some point last year I finally got the kids going to bed at a decent time (to me anyway) and of course that meant that they began getting up earlier in the morning as well. I have always said that I would not mind getting up insanely early even, if that meant they would go to bed at night and stay there through it. So that made me happy.

The truly amazing thing is the change in me. Nowadays, I don’t even experience that first hour of haze while I stumble around getting things for the kids and hoping I don’t step on or run into something. My usually strong desire to sleep in on the weekends is now basically non-existent. Lately, I’ve been plotting what productive use could I put the wee hours to. Yes my friends, I’ve lost my mind I’ve even been thinking I might just get up *before* the kids so I can get more stuff done.

Right now my schedule is such that I get up when the kids get up, get them going for the day, do the blog thing, then maybe find food for myself before doing whatever it is I want to do. My proposed schedule, if I can get Justin to remember to wake me up in the morning (I am immune to his alarm clocks), is exercise and breakfast with Justin before the kids get up, then blog and chores within the first hour or two after that. I suppose the speed in which I do those things depends on whether the kids will actually let me.

Yes, you heard me right. We’re looking at the re-introduction of formal chores. Housework really has fallen to the back burner here on our agenda. Not that our home gets bad. I would just like to test the theories that 1. keeping up with the cleaning is easier than picking a day and spending the whole time catching up, and 2. I may actually function well with a schedule and straightforward goals.

As soon as I find my copy, I will be reinstalling Excel and creating a weekly and a daily chore chart. There is something about a whole row or column of check marks denoting finished tasks that boost the self-esteem and lessen the guilt of working on something crafty or reading a good book.

Surely you’re not shocked to realize that all of my planning is indeed to further the quality of my own free time?

With Justin home today I keep forgetting, remembering, and re-forgetting that it is Monday. In my mind it is just another weekend day, so I will be treating it as such. More attempts to just sit, read, knit, or stitch for me. Although, I need to run out and pick up some fresh coffee very soon.

So, a construction update. Because it is oh, so exciting.

Is it just me or has nothing changed? There is a new truck out there today, so at least that is something to look at. I think at some point I’m going to try to get closer and find out what exactly the layout will be. I’ve been suspecting for awhile that we’ll be getting a lovely view of the rear of this thing. And maybe their dumpsters.

I have been very social this weekend, and a lot of that socializing has been knitting related. Yay! Thursday I sat with about a dozen or so other knitters at the Borders in Norman. Then yesterday I checked out a local knitting guild meeting. Not to mention that I’m sure Katie and I brought up knitting a time or two on Friday.

All I’ve been knitting on has been Justin’s Jaywalker sock, and it has been at a casual pace while I am fitting reading and other things into my days. I like no-pressure knitting like this; It is very nice. However by the time I get to this point in socks, usually I have thought of a name for them. This one has yet to be named.

Care to help? Socks for Justin will be named after Disney characters (or maybe places?), as I wouldn’t dare waste a Harry Potter name on him. I’ll send a little something fun to the person whose suggestion I like best.

So, anyone posting Sunday Self-Portraits? I noticed that Amy posted hers early. That’s ok; I’m glad to see it. Tripods are indeed good, btw, but one can find ways to get by without them.

Edit:
Ok I’ll just make a list.
Kelly
Amy
Roberta
Cindy
Julie

I intended to spend the whole weekend reading. I envisioned pages and volumes on fire from the sheer speed and vigor in which I read them. I always mean well anyway. I finished The Last Battle in a short few hours on Wednesday, but didn’t get to pick up Eragon until Friday.

Despite the fact that they never go how I expect, I seem to insist on viewing weekends as easy-going regular days that happen be ones with Justin home. By the time we do what usually is much-needed shopping, clean up some, go to church, do something fun with the kids, and find something to eat, I have not found a comfortable, quiet stretch of time to just sit and read or knit or whatever I planned to.

So maybe I’ll finish my book sometime during the week…

It is Snapshot Friday! You know, I am not exactly one to neglect the camera but while I take quite a few pictures, the numbers dwarf in comparison to Justin’s. Between a trip this week up to Guthrie and another to Norman, I think he’s taken oh, about… 3.6 million. Perhaps he’ll start sharing too and I won’t have to feel like I’m leaving out the cooler parts of the my or the kids’ week.

Anywho, here is my contribution: a moment from a normal day at home.

Now, don’t let this sweet boy fool you; He’s not always so quiet, focused, happy. Lately I spend most of my time chasing the kids off of the furniture, breaking up fights, confiscating toys-turned-weapons, and reminding them that people do in fact live downstairs so pleasestoprunningthankyouverymuch!

But recently I am sometimes warmed and glad to find my boy quietly working a puzzle, taking it apart, and working it again for fairly long periods of time during the day. Just sitting at the table (given to us by Amy, woohoo!, thanks Amy!), fitting pieces and singing to himself. Ah, it is so nice.

Not many plans here for the weekend. Going to hang with Rick and Katie tonight, maybe a retirement dinner for a coworker of Justin’s Saturday. I want to read some more. That will be good.

Yay, it is crafty progress day! Though, it is easy to be excited when I have something to show.

You may have suspected that I finished the Ravenclaw scarf. Well, you would be right!

Pattern: Modified version of the atypically.knit PoA scarf.
Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Wool in colors 22 (”Ink”) and 13 (”Curry”); Less than 6 skeins of MC, and Less than 1 skein CC.
Comments: I knit this scarf in 1×1 rib, as Kelly figured a tube would be too hot for her. When I got further along in the knitting I decided that lengthwise I’d only need 12 of the 14 suggested repeats, and I’m glad I did. While this thing was drying the other other day, I measured it and it turned out to be 115 inches. The pattern says it may be up to 85! Love the yarn, love my color choices. I can’t wait to get this in the mail.

I also finished these on Monday:

Pattern: Voodoo Wristwarmers by Bonne Marie Burns
Yarn: Classic Elite Provence, in black. This was a stash buster choice and happily, black was just what I wanted for these.
Comments: I worked my first buttonholes! And they really were quite easy. This makes me happy. The pattern calls for wool, but as I don’t live in Chicago, I think the cotton will keep the “cold” air off my wrists well enough.

So tonight I am going to a “Sit n Stitch” in Norman, and because I didn’t want to show up empty handed (or be distracted by counting and recounting stitches as I cast on) I started another sock.

This is another Jaywalker and this time they will be for Justin. I had told Justin that my next pair would be for him, and intended to knit him something fancy out of Knitting Vintage Socks. Turns out that I didn’t have enough of one colourway to make the ones I wanted, so for now he thinks Jaywalkers will be ok. And they’re Koigu! It is some colourway I can’t seem to find on their website, so maybe it is discontinued.

Because this is crafty/knitting day on the blog, I shall share with you my newest acquisition.

It is “Firefly” 100% Merino sock yarn from Sweet Georgia, and I took a picture when it came in the mail yesterday. Just because. I love the colors. I’m thinking it might be fun to share all of the sock yarns I have in my stash next week. It isn’t many (especially considering what others have) but everyone enjoys a little yarn-porn right?

Now that my needles are all blissfully bare (except for a stupid cotton dishcloth that I have no intention of picking up anytime soon), I believe I shall spend some time this week communing with my inner booknerd.

While I’m not quite the super reader that Kelly, who is working on reading the entire Western Canon is, I have always fancied myself a bookish person. In recent years though, mothering small children + obsession with hand-monopolizing crafts has made it hard to live up to that image.

The list of things I really MUST read or reread before another year expires is as such:

• The Last Battle. I read the other Narnia books last year but have yet to take any more reading time since The Silver Chair.
• Christopher Paolini’s Eragon, and Eldest. A couple of dear friends went out of their way to get Eragon for me on my birthday, and I have still yet to get to it.
• All the Harry Potter books. Again. I mostly want to reread Half-Blood Prince, but I’m anal and I need to reread them all in sequence to do so.
• The Lord of the Rings

And, of course, I’ll add more to the list as I go along.

So, I’ll go get started. I could easily have The Last Battle read by lunch if I focus. That’ll leave me time to work on my art journal entry.