February is a bad month for me.

February is a bad month for me. I was born in February and every year I feel so depressed. I am happy that I am not dead, but I spend most of my time wondering what purpose I am serving. I have not spent any time crocheting or knitting the entire month. I have spent time reading. I have read The Itch, by Benilde Little and I am reading Who Does She Think She Is? by Benilde Little since my last post. A lot has happened since my last post. A very dear friend of my had what I think was a stroke. This was very upsetting because less than two hours before this we were together and did not seem to have any problems. I get a call from my daughter and she told me I needed to go to the hospital. Life is a fragile thing. I need to knit or crochet. If I could push myself to knit or crochet I think I would feel better. It is very hard to do the things you enjoy when you feel like your very life is being sucked away almost seven days a week. My mother and I went to Costco and Harris Teeter this weekend. I love both stores. I paid a visit to Borders too. The Borders in Greensboro is closing. When the store closes the closes store to me will be in Winston Salem. I brought the book Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders. I feel so sad that at 47 I am not in a better place. I feel bad that I don't know how to move into a better place and be satisfied with my life. I still can't help but wonder how things would have been for me if I had been born smart enough to go to college. I got rid of my gray today. I put a semi permanent dye on my hair. I am trying to go natural and I am afraid to go ahead and do the big chop. This means cut all the relaxed hair out and just leave the natural unrelaxed hair. My plan is to make myself knit or crochet next week. I need out of this funk.

Birthday Girl!

It's her birthday! Her first birthday one year old! She is such a big girl now. She weights 3 pounds! Cece is the birthday girl! I finally finished A Holiday Yarn, by Sally Goldenbaum it was a great read and I could not believe who the killers was it took my by surprise. I feel lost now with no book to read. I received a postcard about a book in the mail last week, The postcard states it is a new series from Lorraine Bartlett, it is according to the postcard A Victoria Square Mystery A Crafty Killing as stated it is the first in the new series. Watching American Idol and I love the show. I plan to knit a few rows on my scarf tonight. It is almost done.

A lot of Rain

We have had a lot of rain this weekend. My daughter modeled brides maids dresses today. It was during the Carolina Bride Show. We had a great time at the show. I thought my daughter looked great all the brides maid dresses. A lot of the people at the show had samples of food you could have at your wedding. So after the show I came home and knit a few rows on a scarf I started a few weeks ago. I am still reading A Holiday Yarn, by Sally Goldenbaum. I finished reading Spun by Sorcery , by Barbara Bretton. It was a great read. I loved the end of the book. I think another book in the series is coming. If you have not read the series you should read it. Start with Casting Spells, then Laced With Magic, the third is Spun by Sorcery . This is a picture of my cousin Meaghan Ayala she is holding a Gingerbread Man Rice Krispies Treat my daughter made over the holiday's. Meaghan is my Aunt's Granddaughter. She loves to spend time with her Great Aunt Peggy, my Mother.

Quick post !

My knitting and crochet have shut down. Over the last almost 2 weeks. I have spent most of my time reading and watching tv. I am reading my copy of Spun by Sorcery, by Barbara Bretton. It is a great book and I am really enjoying the read. I need to get back to my knitting. When you have to work you can't spend a much time as you would like on things you really care about. I have a job because if I did not I would be homeless. I need to start buying lottery tickets and maybe one day I will win big.

A Cold Day

We had a very sunny but cold day in our area of North Carolina. We got up got dressed to and made a trip to Costco. On the drive to Costoco we listened to CarTalk. I love the car guys and love to listen to them on Saturday they are so funny. The samples did not seem as good today. Still I enjoyed the trip, had to get more chicken stock and garlic powder. We decided to try out the Kirkland brand dish washing liquid. Brought a great looking pork roast and cornbeef brisket. After the mail ran today I received a wonderful surprise the book I have been waiting for Spun by Sorcery, by Barbara Bretton. I have read the first 2 books in the series and love them. Who could resist a witch that knits and owns a yarn shop. Tonight we made sausage and kale soup. I found the recipe in Woman's Day the November issue. It is a great recipe and we enjoyed it. Added a few rows to a Feather and Fan Dishcloth, I started last night. My plan is to knit a lot of dishcloths through this year and stock up and then I will have a ready made supply for my sister and mother in case they want to give them out as Christmas presents this year.

A Night Out

I was very lazy today and spent most of the day in bed. I did not go to bed today until 3:00 am and then I woke up at 10:00 turned on the tv and watched an old movie after the movie was over, I cut the tv off and went back to sleep. I got up in time to shower and get ready to go out to eat with some of my fellow co-worker and some of their family. We went to Synder Farms restaurant. I had never been to this restaurant and to tell the truth I had never heard of the place until a few weeks ago and I have lived in Randolph County for 24 years in July. The food was good just simple home cooking, the salad bar was very good. I had a good time talking and visiting with my co workers and their family. How I am at home knitting,watching 48 hours A Mystery. Last night I cast on another Grandmother's Favorite Dishcloth in the Christmas mix yarn, and I tried to knit a Bias Scarf out of the Pomp-a-Doodle yarn my daughter brought me for Christmas. I might try again tonight. I think it is possible if I concentrate. Still reading A Holiday Yarn, by Sally Goldenbaum. I called Books-A-Million to check on the book I ordered and found out they did not have my order on file so the book was not ordered. I had to reorder and will have to wait almost 2 weeks to get my book. It is Spun By Sorcery, by Barbara Bretton. This is a long weekend our office is closed on Monday for the Martin Luther King Holiday. I am not very sleepy so I need to find a good movie.

I am ready for a warm up!

It is cold here and I am ready for things to warm up and thaw out. We had snow early Monday morning and on and off through out the day, ending with a little sleet and freezing rain very early Tuesday morning. It was not a lot but just enough to make driving hard and getting into my drive way very hard, my driveway is not paved so this makes it hard to get back in the driveway after I get out. So I am ready for the temperature's to stay above freezing at night so the snow and ice that melts during the day will not refreeze. Had the chance at lunchtime today to knit and talk with my fellow coworkers. A woman that use to work at social services died Sunday, she was only 42 and had a lot of health problems. I wanted to go to her visitation tonight but since I had such a hard time on my icy driveway and worrying about black ice on the roads I did not attend. I really liked her a lot. She was to me a very warm friendly person, and funny. I always enjoyed talking to her in the hallways and during lunch breaks. She was a pretty woman with a great smile. She will be missed. This is the scarf I cast on Monday during my snow day. It is coming along nicely and I want to finish it this weekend. It has grown since this picture. Even with the knit two edge it is curling just a little but it is all good. I am on my way to bed to do a little reading. I am still reading A Holiday Yarn, by Sally Goldenbaum it is a great read. If I could spend all my time reading I am sure I would have finished the book by now. I need to check on my book I order at Books a Million. I think I will stop by after work tomorrow.

A Wonderful Snow Day!

Early this morning it started to snow. When I woke up around 6:00 am the street in front of my house was covered with snow, so I turned on the TV and watched to see if our office was under a delay I could not believe it when our agency was closed.So I went online to our website and all offices were closed. We are under a 2 hour delay tomorrow. The day was great because after finding out the office was closed I went back to bed watched the new, listened to the radio, I went back to sleep. When I finally got out of bed for the day I had the house to myself. My day was spent watching it snow, watching old movies, on the Internet, and knitting. I really needed a day to myself. My Mother left yesterday to stay with her Sister for the week. While she is in Montgomery County she will visit with her Mother, My Grandmother. So I will have the house to myself all week. I really enjoy time by myself. My knitting was nothing major, I finished another dishcloth and I wanted to cast on a scarf but a friend called and spent some time on the phone. All of my Monday night show turned out to be re runs so I watched another old movie. Well off to spend a few minutes reading before going to bed.

A Very Cold and Windy Saturday

Today has been a very cold and windy day. Today was sort of grocery shopping day. We needed to pick up a few things we started at Walmart, then on to Bottom Dollar, Lowe's Food, and Food Lion. When you live in a small town it is hard to do one stop shopping. We decided to do a stir fry of sorts for dinner tonight and I wanted bean sprouts well Walmart, Bottom Dollar, Food Lion out of luck they do not have bean sprouts only Lowe's Food in this area. The winter mix missed us yesterday so no snow flurries. I am not so sure we are going to be as lucky on Monday! Finished up the Pomp A Doodle Scarf last night and I think it is to short. The pattern on the band only calls for 1 skein of yarn and on the RedHeart website the pattern calls for 2 skeins. I plan to use it anyway. I brought Cece a snuggy sack for Christmas, so I am posting a picture of puppy cuteness.

Pomp-a-Doddle Part 2

It is Friday Eve and I am very happy about this fact. It has been a long week at work. My Pomp-a-Doodle scarf is progressing. It is so cute. I know it is knit out of a novelty yarn but who cares. This is North Carolina and it is only a few weeks out of the year that we have seriously cold weather and need true natural fiber heavy duty scarves and hats. The plan is to finish this scarf and try a crochet scarf out of the same yarn just a different color. Still reading A Holiday Yarn. Updated picture of my scarf. Still trying to get over my disappointment about not becoming a millionaire. My daughter brought two Mega Millions lottery tickets and we planned to share the winnings, but no such luck. Well we plan to try again later.

Pomp-A-Doodle

Cast on for the first time this year. My daughter gave me four skeins of Red Heart Pomp-A-Doodle yarn in different colors, I already had one skein that I had purchased. So when I purchased my skein I could not figure out how to get started and was about to lose hope when the thought came to me to go to YouTube, found a video on how to knit with Pomp-A-Doodle. I watched the video over and over again, but I did not start a scarf because I had a big dishcloth project going. Well tonight I watched the video and cast on using a skein that my daughter gave me for Christmas. It took several attempts but I think I have figured it out and have added a few rows. I am using the Red Velvet, so far so good. The pattern for the scarf was on the back of the band. You cast on twelve so the scarf is not very wide, the picture on the band looks a lot wider than my scarf. It does not matter I think the scarf will turn out great. I am trying to decided if I will keep the scarf or give it to my co-worker she wears a lot of scarves to work. The video was a lot of help. It took a few viewing before things came together. Still reading A Holiday Yarn.

So Not Ready

I am not ready to go back to work. We have had a nice long weekend the office was closed on Friday. Now it's back to work on Monday. Slept late today talked to my daughter around 1:00 pm and then got up got dressed went to Walmart and to get the Sunday papers. Not much in either one that was interesting. The only thing was a woman gave birth to twins one born at 11:58 and the other 2 minutes later. So she has one new years baby and on tax deduction. How cool is that. I cooked dinner tonight nothing serious just Manhattan Catfish Chowder it is an old recipe that I have done several times. No knitting or crochet today. I did read a few pages of A Holiday Yarn. I will read for a while later tonight. I am watching OWN the new network that Oprah started. So far so good. I want to have a better year this year. So I want to work very hard to figure out what to do to have a better. If I could find a part time or a work at home job to get a few of my bills paid that would help. if I became healthier that would help, lose some weight , cut down on my wine intake, knit and crochet more, exercise more. So tomorrow after work the plan is to go to the gym and renew my contract. Then make myself go and exercise weather I want to or not and I hate exercise. Tomorrow in your department we are planning to try something different to get all the new and ongoing cases processed. We are hoping for this plan will work. My plan is to knit or crochet with all the yarn I currently have in my stash and not spend any extra money so that I can get out of debt. We shall see how things go.

Happy New Year

It's the New Year!!! and I am trying to stay positive and not get depressed on the first day of the year. We just finished the traditional New Years Day meal. My sister, her husband and their children. It is also my sister and her husbands anniversary, they have been married 26 years today. So no reading crochet or knitting today. My sister and the the girls just left. We had a champagne. It turned out to be a pretty good day. I did not get anything done in my bedroom, my plan was to clean my room. I did get some of the recycling out of the room and most of my towels washed. I think I will settle down and read tonight.

Only A Few Hours Left

It seems so strange to my that we have only a few hours left before 2010 comes to an end. Every year I like to look back and see how things went for the year. One good thing I still have my job, and I am not homeless. The first half of the year I was very good about going to the gym but after June things went down hill and I did not go as much. I did not make it at all this month. I received my letter about renewing my membership this week. I think I will renew and make myself go I need to lose weight and get healthy. I have lost some weight I think? If I have my calculations correct I have read 22 books and 11 have been yarn, knit, or crochet related. My knit and crochet remain about the same. Could be better than I think. If I have my totals correct I have knit 34 dishcloths, 11 baby washcloths, 4 scarves. On the crochet front half a scarf, 2 star afghan, 1 shell afghan. Sadly the socks that I have been attempting to finish since I took a sock class in 2009 did not make it off the UFO list. Well it could happen next year. A few road trips. 1 two see a waterfall, a great flea market/vegetable market. 2 open barns. I got the chance to pet an Alpaca and a llama. So not a bad year still no more money than I had last year, we will see what happens in the new year. A bottle of champagne in the refrigerator waiting for the ball to drop.

Another Wonderful Long Weekend

Today was a very long day and it marked the end of my working year. You know a person can get use to a three day work week and get paid for five. This week and last week. My daughter thinks I should keep the scarf the same. This is just a quick post to tell everybody to have a great weekend and a happy New Year. Tomorrow I will post my crafting year in review.

Last Tuesday of The Year

Well we had a 2 hour delay due to the weather and the office opened at 10:00 am. Even with the late start it was a very long day. I had afternoon inquiry, this means any client with questions about their case can come in and ask and it is your job as the inquiry person to try and answer the question. It was a very steady stream of people this afternoon. So I was very busy and I did not get a case processed. So tomorrow morning and for the rest of the day I have to try and get cases opened and some cases processed. Only two processing day's left in the year. Still working on the new scarf but I am thinking about ripping it out. I have four row's per color and the pattern only has two. I think maybe the scarf would look better with two rows of each color. Maybe I'll wait until my Daughter comes through if she does over the weekend to ask her what she thinks. This is what I love about North Carolina weather snow this past weekend and almost 60 degrees this coming weekend! I finally finished and gave Karen her scarf a few weeks ago. Karen my friend at work gave Cece to Kendra. I wanted to give her a scarf an because I am lazy it took a while for me to finish the scarf. I am posting a picture of Karen modeling the scarf. The picture really does not show the details of the scarf very well, but it is the best I could get. The pattern is from Crazy Aunt Purls Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair by Lori Perry. It is the Magic Scarf. The yarn is Patons Classic Wool the color Gray.

The long weekend is over.

I have had a nice long weekend. It is coming to a close. It is back to work tomorrow but only for 3 days. I dread tomorrow because the office was closed on Friday and on Monday so people will come into the office tomorrow in large number's I am trying to prepare myself. Most of the time I get these days off. This year I lost my mind and did not ask in time to get the days off. Next year I won't let this happen again. Slept late today then made my way to Sally's Beauty Supply to get a new blow dryer, and hair roller. I am trying to go natural, note the word try. Maybe I should say semi natural . This means I am trying to grow out my relaxer, I have not had a relaxer since I think May or June? This means my hair has not been straighten with chemicals since then. I did start letting my Mother straighten my hair with a pressing comb in October this is why I say I am going semi natural. Natural would mean leaving my hair kinky. the ease of care depends on how easy it is to take care of your hair. So after I washed my hair I gave my self a deep conditioning treatment then my Mother blow dried and pressed my hair. This is a form of straighting the hair. This means you use a pressing oil and a hot comb to straighten the hair. If you are interested in the process you might be able to look it up on YouTube I am not sure. I added a few rows to my scarf today and I plan to read a little tonight right before bed. I am posting a picture of my Daughter trying to knit a dishcloth. She would not look up so I could get a good shoot of her face. Only 5 days left until the new year.

The Day After Christmas

Well it was a lovely day after Christmas. Last night we watched it snow late into the morning. Around 2:30 we went to bed. I think later on it started to snow again. I received a 5:00am call from my daughter she was coming back from taking her boyfriend to work we had a conversation about her drive and then off the phone. Slept late got up and made my way to the store. I could tell that it had continued to snow during the night. So all the grass was covered with snow when I got up this morning, that is good for my little corner of North Carolina. It was the first time in a very long time that it has snowed in NC on Christmas Day. Today the snow continued for a few hours after 12:00 the roads are clear and I don't think people will have any problems traveling. I am so happy that our office is closed tomorrow. So only a 3 day work week ahead. Our office is closed on Friday for New Years Day. I cast on a scarf yesterday. My Daughter gave me some yarn from Lionbrand Hometown USA the pattern is on the back to the yarn band. It is a ribbed scarf. She gave me 2 skeins of Monterey Lime and 2 Detroit Blue. I think this will make a great scarf! . I am posting a picture of the Christmas Snow. It is the first Christmas Snow in a very long time.

Merry Christmas

It is Christmas Day! I hope everyone has a great day. Christmas Eve was great I got up early and my Daughter, Mother, and I went to the nursing home to visit my Grandmother, she is of course my Daughter's Great Grandmother,and of course my Mother's Mother. She is 94 and seemed to be in a pretty good mood. After this we came back home and started cooking the double bash of Chili. I did all my chopping onions, peppers and garlic the day before. I don't have an original recipe. I love a recipe for chili that I found in a cookbook years ago. The cookbook is 365 Ways To Cook Hamburger And Other Ground Meats, Rick Rodgers, the recipe is # Red's Secret Ingredient Chili. The secret ingredient is a tall bottle of Mexican dark beer. The family loves it! My Daughter's boyfriend came and we all had a great time. We got up this morning opened presents and then my Daughter and her Boyfriend went to his parents house. My Mother and I have spent a quite day at home trying to find something to watch of tv. I am not sure why I pay for cable I can never find a good movie. I wanted to watch some of the old school Christmas movies but I can't find any to watch. We are under a winter storm advisory. So I hope we get the chance to see snow. I lost my dishcloth war. I did not get all the dishcloths my Mother wanted done. I did get enough done so that she can give each one two cloths apiece.

It is vacation time.

So I am off work until next Tuesday. I love it! I worked very hard this week to get as many case as I can processed. A nice long weekend is enough for me. I keep trying to get all my dishcloths knit but I think it is to late my Mother needs to settle for one or two dishcloths per person. No reading no scarf knitting. Trip to Siler City planned for tomorrow, So that we can go to the Piggly Wiggly. We are hoping to find some pig parts that are very important to our New Year's day dinner. The plan for tomorrow is to get up and start chopping the onions, garlic, red bell pepper, and jalapeno for the chili. I still need to pick up the hamburger and chili powder. I should be able to pick these up at the Pig. The family get together on Christmas Eve needs a good pot of chili.