Bunnies and Lent

This post is a stop on the Hershey’s Bunny Trail. Thank you for hopping by.

We are getting to the end of Lent season and I wanted to do a little review of how things went for me.

Going into Lent, there were a few things I wanted to work/meditate on. There were also a few things I picked up along that way that needed to be tackled.

• My marriage—I am a new wife, struggling at times to understand and please me husband. The husband doesn’t know that I’ve been working on this but I hope he has enjoyed our extra dates and outings.
• My job—I am an engineer that is trying to find that happy medium that will keep me motivated and productive without getting burned out. This is an ongoing battle.  I’m in the process of determining what my next career step will be.  I’ve learned a lot through the years and I really want to take all those lessons and apply them to my next phase of career life.
• My blog—This has become my outlet for all of the creative things in my life and I am hoping to put more time and effort into it and see what opportunities it can bring my way. I love to write. I love to craft and I love sharing it with you all, mostly because my immediate family and friends could care less. Sharing with you brings a little more fun back into it.
• Prayer—I do pray quite often, but I need to focus my prayers more and really learn to ask for what is needed and stop doing drive by prayers that don’t hit the heart of the issue. I am also journaling my prayers to focus myself.  Writing them down forces me to take time and block out everything else.
• Gratitude—There are some beautiful people in my life that have really been helpful in getting through the last year.  Some are still helping in various ways as the hubby and I continue our relocation. And I really do have to say thank you to all of you who post comments or sent messages through Facebook during my unemployment.  It was nice to hear from you.
• Minimizing distractions—I am a procrastinator and I have too many things (thinking of all my electronics!) that are distracting me to the point of self-destruction. I’m getting better, but getting rid of the smart phone is up for consideration at this point.  This is serious, people!
• Controlling my language—I stress out and I get potty mouth. This is so not lady-like and my husband is less than thrilled with it. My best solution in the past has been to shut up and keep away from people when I’m stressed, but my current work situation is making that tough. And when I do manage to keep it bottled in, I find it slipping out when I’m alone with the hubby.  Not good. No intervention needed. I’m on it.
• Debt—I would love to snap my fingers and have all the debt from unemployment and wedding and moving just disappear, but it takes work and I need a solid plan. I am fortunate to have been working a lot of overtime in February and March, which has helped me get a very good start on debt reduction, but I have a long way to go. Wish me luck and discipline.
• Food—Despite my efforts to increase my fruit and veggie intake and eat healthier overall, I still manage to shove some atrocious calories into my mouth. My recent hypertension wake up call has helped me to drastically cut the salt in my diet, but there are many cuts still to come.

I cannot lie like the 40 days of Lent are a cakewalk.  If you are serious about your goals, it should not be. I try to really challenge myself during Lent and this Lent was especially important to me. I am (I hope) on the tail end of what has been a very stressful year. Layoff, six months of unemployment, a new job in a new state, a marriage and so many other smaller things have put me through the ringer this past year and I needed a refresh and a reset.

Although I am off to a good start, this list has become not simply a Lent checklist, but a list of goals that I will be tackling throughout the year.

But, just so I don’t loose sight of the fun that hops along this time of year, Hershey’s was kind of enough to invite me to the bunny trail with a basket o’ goodies!

As much as I love chocolate bunnies, I still have to say jellybeans are the best part of Easter.

Leave a comment below and let me know how your Lent season went this year. Even if you are not a Lent participator, what goals will you be following up on throughout the year? And which candy, chocolate goodness is your Easter weakness?

And if you want to see the other bloggers participating in the trail this year, hop over to  the site and take a look around.

Merry Christmas

…from my new family to yours.

A Different Kind of Easter

I have been trying for days to write a post about Easter but I hit such an incredible wall and I can’t figure out why. I have nothing but happy memories of Easter. The new dresses, the speeches, the egg hunts and baskets. Easter and the start of spring have always held a special place in my life. It was such a time of excitement. It still is but things are different now that I am an adult. It’s different because I am an adult without any children. You forget exactly how much of this holiday has centered around the children.

As an adult, my Easter is more a time of reflection. Instead of just a day or two of learning of Jesus’ death and sacrifice, I spend the entire Lenten season learning, reflecting and attempting to make sacrifices of my own. It’s a different kind of Easter but it’s the perfect way to really know and absorb what this season is all about.

In my house, there are no new outfits, no speech practice, no fancy Sunday dinner. But thanks to Hershey’s, this year my Easter does include a very beautiful basket of goodies.



This is the first basket I have had in years and it wasn’t until this showed up on my doorstep that I realized how much this season has changed for me. Who knew I had so many smiles and fond memories tied up in the taste of a jelly bean.

No matter how you are spending this weekend, I pray that you know and understand the sacrifice that was made for us all.

Merry Christmas

This will be an uneventful Christmas for me as I am in the middle of a major transition of life and living. I am blessed to be spending this Christmas with my fiancé but as he is sound asleep and I am nowhere close to tired, I am watching my favorite holiday movie (The Holiday) and packing. And I shouldn’t leave out the 20 games of Words With Friends that I have going and the blog reading that I’m catching up on.

So, even though this Christmas is uneventful, it will definitely be productive and enjoyable.

I wish you all a very blessed and joyful Christmas.

Finishing?

The countdown is done. I am officially on holiday!!! I am officially done with my temporary 6 month assignment that turned into two years. And even though its not done, I am officially done with 2011. That may change tomorrow, but it’s how I feel today. 2011 was not a bad year by any means but it was a tough year, the worst of it being three trees hitting my house during spring storms. How I hate tornado season!

But 2012 will be here soon and although I expect it to be tough as well, I’m hoping for the kind of tough that strengthens me and not the kind that wipes me out. 2011 has wiped me out! So, what am I looking forward to in 2012???

• Making a family cookbook with my grandma
• Wedding planning with my mom
• Our wedding in September
• Becoming a wife, gaining a husband
• New job?
• Finishing a book
• Buying into a business
• Launching a new endeavor for engineers
• Becoming a MacArthur fellow or winning one of their grants or at least putting in a proposal for something
• Make the donation that will get me on the wall!!--more on this later.

There are so many other things on my list for the new year. Needless to say it will be a busy, busy, busy year and I’m praying for so many things for myself and for those around me. This is truly going to be a year of action. I can’t let 2012 see me as tired as 2011 saw me. I have to break through.

What’s on your Goal TO-DO list for 2012?

Travel Safe

For all of you hitting the road again today, please be careful and enjoy the ride. I bought a few new hair products yesterday that I will be reviewing in the coming weeks. I’ll just leave you with a picture of today’s hair.

A Little Sadness Has Fallen

It’s my last night in front of the fire for a little while. I’m sad to be back on the road for work. I’m sad to be leaving my mom and grandma. I’m sad to be leaving my friends. But I will be back soon.

I’m happy to say my grandma loves the fiancé so I guess I have no choice now but to keep him.

Now that my favorite holiday has passed, I will be working on planning the wedding, planning my career and planning for great things to happen in my life. I almost feel like its time to make new years resolutions. Thanksgiving always feels like a natural end of the year for me anyway. While everyone else is shopping away and anticipating Christmas, I will be making resolutions and goals and stepping into so many new things.

What does Thanksgiving mean for you? Are you getting wrapped up in the shopping and craziness of Christmas?

Happy Thanksgiving Haze

I know the haze has fully set in from the Thanksgiving meal. I hope you all had a great time with your friends and family. And even if Thanksgiving is not your thing, I hope you took a moment to think on the things that you are thankful for. I am so very thankful for my family, friends and neighbors who have helped me through this last year of hard work and travel.

In other news, I finally found a Carol’s Daughter product that I can use and so far I really, really like it. My mother had bought one of the CD starter kits from a department store and in it there was a little sample jar of the Mimosa Hair Honey. I had never personally handled this product so my interest was piqued.

Immediately, this product passed the smell test. This is always my biggest issue with CD products. They are usually just too heavily perfumed for me. This product has a really light scent that I could tell wouldn’t last long. I’m happy to say I was right about that.

I had washed my hair that morning and just let it dry with no product. My curly fro was impressive but definitely not the look I wanted to have on Thanksgiving day. I decided to try the Hair Honey to see how it worked. I parted for flat twists and sprayed with water before applying the Hair Honey. There is no hold to the product so it was a little iffy only applying this with no gel. But after getting a couple of flat twists done, I could immediately see the shine the hair honey gave. And although the twists had no hold, there was a look to the twists that I really liked. This would be perfect for the naturals that wear two strand twists as styles. Because the Hair Honey is not a styler, I didn’t have to worry about my hair not drying during the night.

I side parted my hair and flat twisted down, away from my face. Since I didn’t know how greasy my hair would feel, I didn’t want to have the hair falling into my face.

I couldn’t be more happy with the results. My hair had a beautiful shine, the smell was completely gone and because I didn’t add any gel, I had really nice touchable hair that had very good definition. My hair was a little oily in the beginning but that quickly soaked in. Now, this would not work in the summer humidity but I will be buying this product to use as light styler for the winter.

Getting Ready

I have completely lazy today. My grandma and I have been talking for hours in front of the fire. I’m enjoying the time with my mom and my grandma.

But now we must put the laziness aside and start prepping for tomorrow’s meal. yay!

Thinking Ahead

Today, I am thinking ahead and getting my post out before I hit the road. I wish you all safe travels and the happiest of family/friend fellowship. Thanksgiving is my holiday and I’m looking forward to spending this time with my mom and grandma. I have another unfinished project that will be going along with me (with the socks of course)..more on that tomorrow.

For now, I’m going to pack up the computer for travel. Until tomorrow...

The Best Laid Plans

November didn’t go as well as I had hoped in terms of Nanowrimo. I did really well the first couple of weeks and then life got in the way. I was unable to continue but I am really happy with the quality of the writing so everything will get expanded over the next couple of months and hopefully turned into some solid projects. One of the things that I hope to do during this last month of the year is to share a little bit more with you all in blog land. Life seems to be running away with me and I need to force myself to sit down and focus and evaluate all that has come to be in this last year. What better place than to do that here with you.

I’ve been spending a lot of time watching YouTube videos and reading the numerous blogs in my RSS feed. There are so many great people out there saying interesting things and I want to share some of that with you all. Hopefully what I say or link to can help you through what you are going through in life. Times are tough my friends, but with a little help we can all make it through.

I’m excited to share with you all the crocheting that I have been doing. I’m thrilled to be able to crochet for long periods of time and not have to worry about my hands hurting. yay! As a result, I cranked out a lot of towels over the Thanksgiving week. I don’t know what I will do with them all.



But more on that later. I have tons more cotton left over and many more towels to make. I will be on the road this weekend with the future husband and his mother so I will continue making these to get me through the slow times down in the country.

Have a great Friday and a great weekend. Congratulations to all of you that were successful in Nanowrimo. Congratulations to those of you that tried but just couldn’t make it for whatever reason. The important thing is to have written something.

Take care all.

Updating You

Hello all!

Nanowrimo is going well. I now have 14,512 words. Two years ago my ending word count was a little over 13,000 so I am thrilled beyond belief that things are going so well. I slowed down a bit this weekend but I’m hoping to get back in gear during the week. The Nano revolution has spawned all kinds of spin-offs. While I can’t see myself ever doing the knit a sweater in a month challenge, I just may have to try to blog everyday for a month. One of the bloggers in my reader feed is doing this for the month. It’s too late for me to do it this month but I just may do this in December. This will give me the platform to share a little bit of what I wrote during Nano and let you see what I am going to do this year to get ready for Christmas. I have no idea what’s in store for Christmas but I’m looking forward to planning it considering it’s the first Christmas for me and my fiance. Hopefully I won’t bore you all to death. Please come back and join me and add me to your favorite rss reader so you don’t miss a word.

Hope your month is shaping up well. Temperatures are dropping and Thanksgiving is around the corner.

Merry Christmas To YOU!

Merry Christmas To YOU!
Originally uploaded by aldorris105

It has become a tradition for me and my grandmother to put up and decorate the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving when the rest of the family is out shopping. I love having little traditions to keep with my family members. My mother, grandmother and I also spent some time sewing together the night before thanksgiving. They made aprons from the Lotta Jansdotter Simple Sewing book. I had to buy them a copy to share before they headed back home to Mississippi. I'm so thrilled that they have been sewing together quite regularly and my mother had her sewing machine repaired after many, many years of collecting dust. I encourage you all to find a connection with your family to share. These are the times I will never forget.

Creativity Blooming

Creativity Blooming
Originally uploaded by aldorris105

I've not been feeling well today so I have been camped out on my sofa with a few crafts and books. I've been embroidering and appliquéing and sketching up new projects for the coming year. I also have a little bit of knitting and my Nintendo DS on the table.

For a look at some of my recent projects, follow the picture over to my Flickr page. I'm going to take the week after Christmas to do more crafting. I am developing new projects to teach at the quilt shop and I am so excited about the ideas that I'm coming up with.

I don't like being sick but I don't mind not going out in the cold at all. Hope you all are staying warm. I'm trying hard.

Reverse Applique

Reverse Applique
Originally uploaded by aldorris105

I'm trying a little reverse applique inspired by the book Alabama Stitch Book. Let's see how this turn out. The fabric underneath is a pink stripe. The purple paint will go away for the most part.

I've been doing a little bit of Christmas knitting for someone else but I am not motivated to get it finished right now. I'll really concentrate on it this weekend. For now, I am trying to make this little onesie into something cute for a special little newborn girl.

Knitting and Books

I did a lot of knitting this weekend while listening to an audiobook.  The book was The Mistress' Daughter. I first heard about this book some time ago and was really interested in the story. It is a memoir of the author's life and deal with finding out that her birth mother was the mistress of a married man.  The book starts off very good but just past the middle of the book she starts repeating things as it's five to seven years later and her character is flashing back to things that happened in the beginning of the book. If I were reading the book rather than listening to it, I may not have been so annoyed with it but when you are dealing with audio you tend to remember more and not need to be reminded of the past that just happened two hours ago.  Part of the book discusses people she found during the search of her genealogy. It got really bad as she was discussing dead people that really didn't add any interest or purpose to the story.  And some of these dead people weren't even related to her.  She just wanted someone to remember them so she threw them in.  Towards the end of the book, she lists a bunch of questions that she would ask her father if she had him sitting down for a deposition.  Those questions went on for more than half an hour.  Just question after question.  No conversation.  Just questions.  I fast forwarded through this as once again as this added nothing to the story and repeated things in question form that had happened in the book.  Sadly, I would not recommend this book to anyone.  If you read it, the first and last bits are lovely.  The bit in the middle, not so much.  I considered reading more books from the author (A. M. Homes) when I was enjoying the book but I'll have to really think about that considering the outcome.

Okay, on to the knitting.  

Using some leftover wool yarn, I made the coaster that I need for my bedside table.  I had a little bit of three colors left so I striped them.  I very happy with how it turned out.  Now I can set a glass of ice by the bed at night and not have to worry about a puddle forming during the night.  And since I still have some of the purple yarn left (this stuff refuses to die!), I will probably do a smaller one for my desk.

I managed to finish another one of the burp cloths for my friend Ching Sia.  I still need to get the applique sewn on.  So this makes six of the seven.  I will cast the last on some time this week and hopefully be ready to mail this weekend.  It took over a month to finish this one.  Let this be a sign to all of you.  If you think it's a good idea to knit a whole week of something, it's not. You will get bored long before you finish.

The procrastination scarf is finished.  I decided not to do a super long scarf because I think this is the perfect scarf for wearing with a blazer.  I'm not entirely happy with this as that means I'm left with one ball of the gray Geode and quite a bit left of the red Cascade 220 which may become another coaster.  For close up pictures of the scarf, check out my Ravely project page or my Flickr pictures.

I saw some really miserable looking people out Christmas shopping in Kohls this weekend.  The holiday season has barely started and already the unhappiness is surfacing.  I'm wishing all of you a very happy holiday season.  I don't want to see you looking unhappy walking through the mall spending way too much money for a bunch of people that may not appreciate it anyway.  Just my thought.  Be blessed.

Nanowrimo

No, I didn't finish or win Nanowrimo by writing a 50,000 word novel, but I made a good stab at it.  It was my first year participating and between the business travel, Stitiches, and Thanksgiving, I was lucky to get out as many words as I did.  I finished with a total of 14,443 words.  I didn't do the standard novel.  Instead I decided to do a memoir and it was the best thing I could have done for myself.  It really does help to write things out even if you never intend anyone to read it.  And who knows, my secrets just may become public one day.  But the experience has gotten me off to a good start on my writing and I hope to get some personal, fictional and professional writing published in the next year.

To that end, I will be participating in National Novel Writing Year (www.wriye.co.nr).  Since it started, they have dropped the national as it is more like international and also dropped the novel since people are interested in writing all sorts of things.  So, you set a goal and work on it throughout the year.  I will be working on a series of short stories and engineering/project management papers.  I have no idea just yet what my word count goal will be for the year, but I will not be waiting until next year to start as I've already got plenty of ideas.

And just to give you a bit of visual stimulation, I am including a picture of my niece and nephew who I adore greatly when they are not being bratty as both are prone to being at times. :)  She is 17 and he is 1.  Also by different siblings.

Thanksgiving 2008

Hello all.  I know it's been quite some time (a month!) since I've blogged.  November was a very busy month.  I was on business travel in the Pittsburgh area for the first half of the month and I attended Stitches East in Baltimore and I participated in Nanowrimo and I hosted the family at my home for Thanksgiving.  That was a lot people!

Stitches East was fabulous but I didn't take any pictures so I can't show you any of the greatness.  I took two classes--one on I-cord edging and one on color/texture combining of yarns.  I enjoyed them a lot.  I went with my friend Mandy and we have already reserved our hotel room for Stitches South 2009 in Atlanta.  And because I have so many points from all the business travel I've been doing, I was able to get our room free so we have more budget for classes and yarn, although I'm looking to spend on the classes.  I bought way too much yarn during Stitches, but most of it was spent at 2 of the local shops rather than at Stitches itself.  But there was one vendor at Stitches that had a $15 bag special.  You are given a paper bag of good size--it was by no means a small bag.  You could fill the bag up with as much yarn as you wanted and it was only $15.  I got so much yarn in that bag!  And nothing was single skeins.  I was on a mission to get 2+ skeins of anything I purchased and for the most part I stuck with that.  I did buy single skeins of two colors of Valley Yarns Northhampton from Webs but that was just because there is so much yardage in a ball.

A lot of the knitting I've been doing during November was swatches of stuff I learned during Stitches but I did manage to get some felted boxes done.  They are more bowl shaped because I left them in the washer for a full cycle and just threw them in the dryer to dry.  I didn't bother trying to shape them.  And actually I like them better this way.  The fabric is much more stiff than if I had shaped it like I did a box I made some time back.

I did a three box/bowl set and will take two to work to contain all my paper and binder clips. The goal was to get rid of the 100% felting wool in my stash.  For the most part I achieved that.  I still have a little bit left from which I'll probably knit and felt a coaster for my bed side table.  I hate putting a glass of ice next to my bed at night and waking up to a puddle of water under the glass.

Before the family arrived, I spent some time knitting up some chenille hand towels.  Mandy had given me four skeins of Lion Brand Chenille and having no idea what to do with it, I went on a search in Ravelry and found a pattern for washcloths that I

thought would work well since I had two contrasting colors.  I've done three of them so far and I'm working on the fourth but I still have enough yarn left over to do at least 1 to 2 more.  

Upon seeing the felted boxes/bowls, hand towels and all the burp and wash cloths I knitted up for my friend Ching Sia's baby, my mother decided she wanted to re-learn to knit.  Now she is the one that taught me to knit so it was a bit of an adjustment to teach the teacher.  I gave her a set of needles and some cotton and walked her through the pattern and she picked it up rather quickly, finishing two wash cloths before leaving.  I'm so proud as I've been pushing her to pick back up a hobby in her old age (okay she's not that old but I want her to have something better to do in her free time than shopping).  She's off to a running start.  

I sent her home with another skein of cotton and some 100% Vintage Fisherman's wool all of which I got at Stitches East.  She is going to do more wash cloths and also the Felted Boxes from the first Mason Dixon book.  She wrote the pattern down but I went and bought her a copy of it at the fabulous Thanksgiving sale at Krazy Knitz in Dalton, GA.  I just need to get the book in the mail to her.  Okay more to come later.  This post is already long enough.

Too Much Going On

There has been a lot going on in my world the last couple of weeks. The main thing is that I am gearing up for Nanowrimo 2008. I will be attempting to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. It's going to be a push considering I'm starting the month off with Stitches 2008 and ending with hosting the family for Thanksgiving. But I will be writing and I will be striving for that goal. You'll see additional changes to the blog as we approach the start so check back often.

Dismantling Christmas

Today, I removed the Christmas and fall decorations from the house and neatly packed them away. It was a little sad. The holidays, especially Thanksgiving, are very precious to me. And for another year I've packed away the decor but there is still is a hole left where some experience that I've not yet been allowed to have will reside. I don't know what's missing. All I can say is this still was not it. Even with the new that has come into my life, that old longing is still looming. I hope the holidays brought you everything you were looking for. If not, I pray next year brings that magic.