Random Happy Thoughts

Hello out there and welcome to the Positivi-Tuesday Post today.  I have to admit, I'm a bit stumped today.  I guess I've got writer's block, but that's not what you want to hear, so I'll try to get something going, please bear with me. 

In the news this week, there has been a family lost and found and I think that's pretty good reason to celebrate.  A family of three in southwest of Portland, Oregon was lost in a forest for 6 days surviving on only stream water when they went out mushroom hunting.   Search parties went after them when they hadn't returned to their campsite.  They were finally found and airlifted to a nearby hospital, and after the entire ordeal only suffered a sprained ankle, minor frost bite, and a back injury between all three of them.  They were certainly lucky to be found, especially since it is said that they would not have been able to survive for more than two more days out there.  I don't know them, but I'm thankful they are safe. 

I have to say that this week I've definitely had my mood ups and downs, but I have been enjoying a number of things.  One of them is All Wound Up: The Yarn Harlot Writes for a Spin  by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee that I just finished.  Can I just say that I would like to be her friend?  Stephanie, if you're out there, let me know.  For those of you familiar with Big Bang Theory, I think Stephanie could play the Penny to my Amy Farrah Fowler.  Stephanie lives in Toronto, I live close enough.  Stephanie likes knitting, I like knitting.  Stephanie needs closets, I have spares.  I'm just sayin'....we could make it work.  This book was so entertaining, I even began reading a chapter here and there to the Mister and we shared a giggle.  Each chapter stands independantly of the rest of the book which makes it great for reading in fits and starts as I tend to do each lunch hour.  I wholly recomend this book, it is light and funny, touching and sincere and it certainly resonated with me. 

And when I'm on lunch reading the Yarn Harlot and the like, what else am I doing?  Eating?  Yeah I guess, but more imporatantly, knitting!  I've been ploughing through Mr. Frogged's socks (but that means on size 11 feet that I'm about half way to the heel turn.  I really like working on them though.  So much so that I'm fairly sure it's safe to say that they were calling to me over the weekend.  I make a point of only working on them when I am out of the house because they are my portable knit project, and I have other things on the go around here that don't travel as easily.  Lately I've been thinking about knitting on them all the time.  I was at three different parties this past weekend, and at all of the parties I couldn't help but think,  "Would it be inappropriate to knit here?"  Unfortunately, the answer was pretty resoundingly yes it would be inappropriate to knit here.  Here's my progress. 

What a cosy toe?

I've also been taking some time to be with my pets this week.  Tonka has been going to daycare three days a week since I began my new job and it leaves him equal parts cuddly and exhausted. 

 

 We gave our hedgehog, Penny (Penelope Pricklesworth), a bath tonight and some TLC.  Penny is a conundrum of creatures because by nature she quite frankly does not care to be doted on.  She's nocturnal and perfectly happy to not be bothered by us, but today we just had to brave her prickly temper and soap her up.  I think she's the happier for it, even though she totally bit the Mister - hehehe.

This is going to seem quite abrupt, but frankly, I had homework due at midnight yesterday and I am so tired, I'm falling asleep while I type.  So on that note, Happy Crafting one and all, and I will try to complete this post tomorrow. 

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting. 

Patina

With every new adventure, new knitting, new relationships, new jobs, there comes a point where a patina begins to develops. At the very start its all bright and shiny but that wears a little with time. There's nothing wrong with that exactly. It doesn't mean there's anything the matter with that drop stitch cowl you've been belaboring, or that you should run out on some kind of errant love affair, or that you should quit your new job and go into hiding in the back of a cube van and knit socks for a living - it just denotes the natural progression of time.

It actually is a realization of imperfection. Everything is absolutely perfect until the moment it isn't. As humans we tend to be a little overambitious in our expectations of just about everything, never cutting ourselves any slack for fear others will notice that we are living imperfect lives too. The fact that I'm now a little worried you all think I'm ungrateful and depressed for using the words imperfect and life in the same sentence is a testament to the negative connotations we give to the admission of imperfection (come on, this cannot just be me). Imperfect isn't bad though. Perfection, as in Stepford wife / Leave it to Beaver lifestyles would be immensely, and wholly boring. Challenge is the fuel to life's fire, we just all bitch about it anyway because, well, if we didn't we would quickly run out of things to talk about.

While I'm still very in love with Mr. Frogged I may not spend the same two hours getting ready for a date and giggling that I did when I was 18. After living with someone and having them see you lying on the couch for a week solid with a cold, frankly two hours seems excessive. This is probably a good thing since it leaves more time for the actual date and, as a bonus, results in more intelligible speech than that of a twitterpated teenage girl.

And though I'm still plugging away on those loose ends for my ripple blanket, I'm still excited to finish it. I think that project may have slipped below patina and into a slightly tarnished state of being, to be honest. I mean really, the amount of ends to weave is both obscene and masochistic. It doesn't help that I am seeking perfection and am a little paranoid about random ends wiggling loose so I split my yarn before weaving it, resulting in double the work.

And lastly, while I'm still enjoying my new job most of the time, there are days where it occurs to me that no matter how fast I learn on the job, I'm still learning. This is arguably a good thing. Surely switching careers entirely at this point in my life in combination with my knitting will provide sufficient brain exercise to cure all worry of dementia and Alzheimer's in my golden years. But when I've been a fairly competent person for a good 4 years I now feel like I'm playing the intellectual equivalent to pin the tail on the donkey. I know I'll get it eventually but in the process I end up feeling a bit of an ass.

What I'm really getting at is when the going gets tough, and the tough go knitting we should all remember that perfection is elusive, perfection is often impossible and frankly, perfection is overrated! Embrace the challenge. The results will be better for it.

Happy crafting!

Happy Birthday, 2012!

Welcome to the new year everyone!   Did you enjoy it?  I certainly did.

Firstly, apologies for being a whole day late on my New Year's post, but I was battling a migraine from New Year's eve until half way through this morning.

Despite all that, I have had a brilliant New Year.  We decided to ring in 2012 at home this year with good friends, good food and good fun had by all.  A potluck and a few cheesy dollar store decorations put everyone in the mood without too much stress.  In a moment of carelessness that has made me the laughing stock of the family I sent my first rapid fire text of 2012 as Happy Birthday instead of Happy New Year.  I was only distracted, I swear, but apparently that wasn't the first excuse that popped into their heads.  Even though my head cold decided to relocate to my chest just in time for the party, it was one of the best New Years Eves I've had in a long time. 

Now I know that many bloggers spend their inaugural post of the year reminiscing over the last 12 months with stories and photos galore, but given that I haven't yet hit my blog-iversary I don't think it's quite fair to do a year in review.  I will take this moment to thank you for reading and to let you know that December was my record high for pageviews!  I'm so happy to know that that number grows each month, and I hope that I can keep you all coming back this year. 

On that note, I want to turn my sights to the other direction.  Forwards: to 2012 and all the promise this year can hold.  I have always been the kid who looked forward to the beginning of the school year, and the beginning of the new year for the clean slate it brought and the opportunity it gave to me to do better than the year before.  Some things never change, as I find myself full of goals and resolutions this year.  I know as well as the next girl that resolutions "never last," "rules are made to be broken" and so on but if my resolutions last just one month, then that's one month longer than they would last otherwise.  So here in front of one and all I will declare what I hope to accomplish, if only for a little while. 

Firstly, with this blog I am hoping to post at least once a week.  I know I've been a bit dodgy with the dates of my posts up until now, but inspired by Knit Nicole Knit's Awesome Thursday posts I've decided to post once a week with a Positivi-Tuesday report listing good things.  They may be in my life, they may be in the news, they may be only one sentence, but hopefully this will work two-fold to help the blog and help me to remember all I've got to be thankful for when my anxiety starts up as it has done this past little while.  Of course I will be posting with all the wool-brained antics you're used to as well.

Next, in the knit and crochet world I am planning to take January to finish all of my Works in Progress.  Now that doesn't include UFO's, because that would be crazy.  The hope is that January will see the ripple blanket off the hook and the thrummed mittens off the needles.  This will give me leave to continue on with the UFO's and bring them up to WIP status.  Ideally I would like to finish one project a month...we shall see.  In spinning, my goal is to hand spin a three-ply yarn before the year's end. 

Now resolutions wouldn't be complete if I didn't try to better myself as well.  Naturally, I am plannning on attempting to meditate and work out every week and to eat more healthily.  As well as cleaning up my act health-wise, I'm going to work on cleaning up my house.  Once a week I will focus on either upstairs or downstairs and have a good clean and tidy. 

Lastly, I realized yet again over this holiday just how much fun I have when I hang out with my Mr. Frogged.  Life so easily gets bogged down with social obligations and other responsibilities, but over the holidays, partly thanks to the colds we've been combatting, we spent hours watching movies or playing games together and it was SO MUCH FUN!!  So, once a month I want to harness that spirit of the holidays and have a games night where we can cuddle up at home with some two-player console games.  And to get us out of the house too, I think a date night each month is in order.
Do you make resolutions too?  How do they usually go for you?  Let me know and maybe we can encourage each other.  Until then, cling to the promise of the new year and happy crafting one and all!