Moody Monday - week 7

Gah – the last week really slipped away from me!  Sorry to have disappeared a bit….I had been doing so well the first few weeks of 2014.  Between getting over being sick, catching up from being sick, and transitioning into a new role at work; I can’t seem to recall any free time had to blog, or crochet!

2/10: PRODUCTIVE – as I mentioned last Monday, I was a little ahead of schedule in my posting.  I spent Monday recovering from the last of the flu, but this was the perfect opportunity for some seriously hexagon crocheting in between naps, allowing me to catch up on all my days to date in 2014, picking a joining method, and I mapped out the size of my blanket (how many hexs in each row by how many rows to make sure the size come Dec 31^st will be proportionate with the correct number of finished hexagons for the year!)

2/11: HAPPY/PRODUCTIVE – Tuesday was my last day in my old position.  I had a busy day of wrapping up what I’d been working on, and leaving notes for the woman coming back into the roll.  I also got all of the final details on my new role, which was exciting and made me happy to start anew on Wednesday morning!

2/12: FREEZING – holy moly was it coooooooooooold on Wednesday morning!!!!  I was driving to work and started hearing this creaking and bending noise on the top of my Jeep.  I couldn’t figure out what was going on, but looked up at my temperature gauge and saw THIS!:

If you were wondering, this is 10 degrees colder than it was here during the first Polar Vortex back in January.  The creaking and [almost] snapping of plastic sounds reminding me of the movie “The Day After Tomorrow” when everything turns to ice.  I think it goes without saying that I had a hard time warming up most of the day.

2/13: SAD/FRUSTRATED – day 2 in my new position proved to be a challenging one.  I don’t like to be idle at work, and I had a day of forgetting that it takes time to get adjusted into something new, especially when it’s a newly created position with no previous job description and duties to follow!  I spent most of Thursday having a pity party for myself in this respect.  Completely illogical, but who said there’s logic behind our feelings??

2/14: VALENTINE’S DAY – we had a bit of a low key Valentine’s Day.  We’ve never gone crazy with this holiday, just small gifts and a nice evening together, which is a-okay with me.  I came home to red roses and a heart shaped gluten-free brownie.  There was wine, a lovely dinner, and an evening in front of the fire watching the Olympics.

Friday was also the day we celebrated Copper’s 1^st Birthday!  Since he was a rescue, who was found in a field, we’ll never know his exact birthday.  When he came to live with us this summer, they told us that his birthday was February 13^th.  The more I thought about it, I decided this situation had some wiggle room, and I made his birthday Valentine’s Day – cause he’s definitely my little LOVE BUG!  

This picture was taken yesterday evening; clearly his birthday weekend was exhausting business!

2/15: DREAMING OF DISNEY/THINKING OF GRANNIE – Jamestown High School’s music department left Friday afternoon for Walt Disney World.  Since then my Facebook feed has exploded with status updates and pictures from within the Resorts.  There’s student’s family members, and the fact that my in-laws are also currently in Walt Disney World, on a totally unrelated trip (my Valentine’s Day present will even be coming home with them this spring as it was purchased at the Polynesian resort!).  All these images of people that I know at the Happiest Place on Earth just makes me want to put on a Disney t-shirt, flip through photos from our previous trips, and listen to this (or watch these….)

or THIS!

Over the past day or two, my mind keeps wandering to my Grannie.  Just little things like something happens that I want to share with her, and I think to tell her on my way home from work….then I remember that I can’t.

2/16: LOVED – Last night we were sitting watching the Olympics while I crocheted up my hexagons for this week, and I said to Jonathan: “I don’t know what mood I’m feeling today!!  What is my mood??”  I spent the day out shopping/running errands, having a phone date with my best friend, finishing up laundry, playing with the puppies and crocheting.  Being productive and/or crafty was not really sticking out as my mood for the day, and I don’t have a color for ‘shopping fun’, ‘snuggling puppies’, ‘best friends’ or ‘excitement for pizza for dinner’ (yes, I have a color for excited, but it seems a little ridiculous to use this for the day just over the evening dinner selection…..)  Jon’s response was: “don’t you feel loved today?”, and I said: “I always feel loved”. 

Everything else with my blanket is still piles of hexagons that need the ends woven in on and to be crocheted together….as always, there are never enough hours in the day/week

I planned to start crocheting things together this evening, at least week 7's work....but in a brief moment of exhaustion; this happened:

Of course, the one that weighs around 70 pounds thinks she's a lap dog...

Moody Monday - week 6

Another week has come and gone, and I've made great progress on my Mood Blanket!

For starters:

I have finally caught up!  Everything to date (through today) has been crocheted!  As you can see, no ends have been dealt with (well, some have) and I still haven't started putting my blanket together, but progress has been made there as well!

I did all the math, many many times to figure out how I wanted to put my blanket together, and tested out Lucy's joining for Granny Squares.  Still not 110% on my joining decision, and wanted to just look things over one more time in the light of day (AKA: Saturday).

Here's what I crocheted for week 6:

2/3: NOT FEELING WELL - woke up last Monday morning not feeling well at all.  Hopeful that I'm not getting sick and/or catching whatever it is going around my office.

2/4: FREEZING / THINKING OF GRANNIE - the sunrise on my drive to work Tuesday morning made me feel as though Grannie was looking down on me

It was, again, freezing cold but I immediately thought of my colors for freezing and thinking of Grannie, and they really match this sunrise perfectly.

2/5: SNOWY DAY / EXCITED - more snow in WNY and some exciting possibilities arose at work.

2/6: EXCITED - Wednesday's excitement continued into Thursday with good meetings at work, in additional to a few meetings I had outside of the office.

2/7: SICK - ugh....drove home Thursday night with a migraine, woke up with it on Friday morning.  Started to cough while getting ready for work, and definitely had a nasty sore throat.  Everything went downhill throughout the day on Friday, but I made it through my day in the office, came home and just C.R.A.S.H.E.D.  sore throat, fever, body aches, and cough

*BONUS HEX* refused to miss the Opening Ceremonies for the Winter Olympics, even if I did have a flu.  I had to make a TEAM USA hex for the day as well!

2/8: TIRED / SICK - didn't feel as terrible Saturday as I did on Friday, I even made it to my 10 a.m. nail appointment.  Came home and took a 4 hour nap, slept through most of the Olympic events that night, and still slept a solid 8 hours.  I clearly needed all that rest to get over whatever it is/was infecting my system.

2/9: FEELING CRAFTY / SICK - woke yesterday feeling around 75%.  Spent most of my day crocheting and watching Dawson's Creek on Netflix.  Slowly getting better (even if my voice isn't fully back)

2/10: PRODUCTIVE - "technically" this hex belongs on next week's post.  But it was already in my picture before I realized this.  So, you're getting it tonight.  You may see it again next week, if I remember.  We'll call today's productivity a variation on overachieving!

Speaking of today's productivity, I've gotta show off my favorite hex to date:

TOO CUTE, right??  Jonathan asked me if the owl was because I was feeling crafty.  I told him it was because I bought an Owl [decoration] that day!  I'm just realizing now that the owl was supposed to be happy / feeling crafty, but that I crocheted it happy / thinking of Grannie.  Maybe she wanted to be part of today's crocheting - or she was a part of my crafty shopping trip with Mom back on January 18th.

Two on Tuesday

Things making me happy as I head to bed this evening:

1.  time to crochet after work this evening, allowing me to catch up on Mood Blanket!

Here's my hexagons from week 5

 Still not fully caught up for January, but here's where I now am!  Totally having some anxiety over the order when it comes time to start connecting these - between similar colors and patterns that I don't want next to each other, I'm not sure what I'll end up doing!

2.  Our puppies are just the BEST

Osa and Copper were both very interested in hanging out with me while I crocheted this evening

Clearly, they were exhausted after a day of playing in the snow

Can't imagine he was chilly when laying that close to the fire, but Copper found himself the warmest location he could! LOL he cracks me up

Wouldn't it be great if there were enough hours in the day that I could work, crochet and still be able to take pictures when it's daylight vs. everything being dark, fuzzy and not quite the right color overall?  #agirlcandream

Moody Monday - week 5

 what.a.week

As you can see below, MOODY is a pretty darn good word for how I have been feeling over the past 7 days!!!

1/27: ANXIOUS - due to some totally unexpected, and unforeseen news at work, I spent most of last Monday evening in a state of shock, disbelief, anger and sadness.  As of today, things still aren't totally straightened out, but I am trying to keep a "things happen for a reason" attitude, and I am overwhelmingly thankful for my amazingly supportive and loving husband and family.

1/28: ANGRY/LOVED - Monday's news spilled right into Tuesday, but in the form of anger that I haven't experienced in quite some time.  I have to say that Jonathan has been just amazing all week long.  I mean, he is ALWAYS amazing and ALWAYS makes me feel loved, but he's managed to go above and beyond as we deal with all the emotions of the past week.  He truly is the biggest blessing of my life.  And the best.

1/29: *FREEZING - I'm not convinced this winter will ever end, and I'm pretty sure most of you would agree with me on this!  The cold on Wednesday just seeped into my bones and I never really warmed up in the office all day.

*Freezing is one of my new "weather related" moods that I added in when I found the perfect shade of ice blue in my stash this weekend.  I'm saving this for days when the space heater has to be on at work all day, or I'm sitting in the house in 5 layers and still can't warm up!

1/30: STRESSED/ANXIOUS - Sometimes I think I take on too much.  Most would definitely say that I do, but I'm rarely willing to admit this.  Thursday was one of those days.  I was panicking about work that I needed to complete for my newest job (I technically count 4 jobs these days - one of these days I should maybe break that down for you....).  I spent Thursday's lunch hour from my full-time job doing work for that night, just to find out around 5:30 p.m. that it was a total waste of my time!  Okay; not a total waste, but I could have more productively used my day if I'd know how the evening was going to pan out.  

Vague yes....but there's so much to share that's not necessary for the subject of today's post.  soon, perhaps?  Yes, I'll try for soon.

1/31: NOT FEELING WELL/TIRED - I suppose it's not surprise after the level of stress I was under last week, that I woke up feeling pretty poopy on Friday morning.  Yes, poopy is the technical/clinical term for "I kinda feel sick, but I'm not so sick that I can't go to work, but if I did stay home and sleep all day I'd probably get over this faster than going to work, but I don't feel bad enough that if I did take a sick day I wouldn't spend the entire day feeling guilty that I'm not 'sick enough' to have taken said sick day".  Did you not know that this type of sickness is called "to feel poopy" by medical professionals all over the world?  No?  Well, that's what I call it!

I'm exhausted by the repetitiveness of this past week just in typing this recap.  I'm going back to what I said initially - what.a.week.

2/1: STRESSED - I try to do the heavy lifting of my weekend "chores" on Saturday (errands, laundry, cleaning, unpacking/organizing), leaving me with Sunday to relax, enjoy and crochet as much as possible!  There's almost always too much that I try to pack into Saturdays, and this past one was no different.  We started our day getting up early, going to Wegmans to Super Bowl grocery shop, met my Dad at Home Depot to buy the final fully assembled cabinet for my Craft Room, then I parted ways as Jonathan and Dad went back to the house I continued with the errands that needed to be run by going to Sam's Club and Walmart.  We left that house that morning a little after 9, and it was 2:30 before I was driving home in the rain with a full Jeep of bags that needed to get into the house.  I got everything inside, and I had no more dried off, and started the past week's laundry when my Dad asked if I wanted to drive back into town with he and Jonathan to look at some tool at Sears.  I agreed as I needed to make a return at the mall anyway (and figured this would save me the trip into town the following day).  Back into town we drove, they went to Sears, I did my return, Jonathan purchased his new tool and then the two of us headed over to Office Max - the last stop on my weekend errand list (I needed index tabs for my pattern organization project).  Needless to say, by the time we got home (around 4:30), I wouldn't have done any laundry if the dryer didn't have a new mattress cover in it and the washer wasn't full of wet bedding.  I made the executive decision to not do any additional laundry that night but was left feeling frustrated that every weekend is the same, and I never have the time I want/need to crochet!!

2/2: HAPPY - Sunday morning my Momma came to hang out!  It's been an interesting transition with our moving home how little I really get to see her.  Between her taking care of Grannie over the summer, her work schedule, my work schedule(s) and the "distance" between our houses, we definitely don't see each other as much as either of us thought we would once I moved back home.  Yes, I'm now 17 miles away, not 400 miles away, but it's not the quick trip down the road either - even if I were to "swing by" on my way home from work, I still have 25 minutes to get home after.  I work about 8 miles away from my parents house, so I do make a point to go have lunch there on the weekdays that my Mom is either off from work, or doesn't go in until later in the day.  When a rare weekend day comes up that she's off, we definitely try to meet up.  This time it involved her coming to our house and while we didn't do much more than finish my laundry and talk with my Dad and Jonathan about design stuff for my Craft Room it was nice to have her there, and I look forward to the next weekend day she has off where she can come up and we can just watch movies and do crafts together!

So you're all excited to see what my blanket looks like now that we're into the 2nd month of 2014, right!?!  

At the moment it's basically a stack of could-be coasters waiting for their ends to be taken care of!

I'm struggling to take the time daily to find the right color of yarn and just make one hexagon, so moving forward I am going to set aside the time on Sunday to make the previous week's hexagons per my notes that I take throughout the week.  Of course, I waited until the last minute to do everything for last week, and I ran out of time!  I still have 3 to finish for last week, not to mention most of January that still hasn't been crocheted!  Plus there are ends to weave in, and I need to make a final decision on how I want.

 

This is week 5 as of 10:30 p.m. Monday evening.  Hopeful I will have 7 hexagons by my Two-on-Tuesday post...

I know I'm not the only one out there who feels there are NEVER enough hours in the day/week/their lifetime to crochet everything they want to make, so for all of us, I'll like to put in a request for a few more hours added to each day to give us our rightful time to crochet!!

And yes, one of these weeks I will accurately hit PUBLISH at the end of the night, not SAVE

Moody Monday - still catching up

First, let's just pretend that I remembered to hit "Publish" last night and that it's not already Tuesday, okay?

Okay.

I'm still working to catch up on my January days for my mood blanket.  I posted to the Facebook group last week how I have caught up on remembering all my moods from earlier this month.  I do continue to add to this journal daily, but with all of the other projects that I've been working on, I just don't have enough time to get everything done I wanna/have to do (nothing new there!)

Here are my "moods" from this past week:

1/20:  EXCITED - got to see some great friends for a final Christmas get-together of the season.

1/21:  TIRED - out too late the night before enjoying the company of previously mentioned friends!

1/22:  THINKING OF GRANNIE/SAD - watched a beautiful, pink sunrise on my way to work, which always makes me feel like Grannie is looking down on me.  I also had very odd dreams the night before that involved Mom and I going through things in Grannie's house and finding these hidden "gifts" with notes addressed to us from Grannie.  I put gifts in quotes as they weren't large gifts - but things like beautiful pieces of wood that had naturally occurring designs in them, and the notes explaining to us why she'd picked them specifically for each of us.  Like my Mom's had a pattern in it that almost looked like a flower so Grannie had mentioned in the note how it was like a Brown Eyed Susan for her (my Mom's name is Susan, and she has brown eyes, so Grannie really cherished the Brown Eyed Susan's that she had planted in her gardens).

1/23:  EXCITED - Mom and I went to see Kellie Pickler in concert at our local Ice Arena

1/24:  FRUSTRATED - all of last week had an underlying theme of being a bit frustrating for me.  Both personal and work situations had me ready to crawl out of my skin in frustration and everything collided and reared it's ugly head by Friday.

1/25: SNOWY DAY - no, not exactly mood or feeling.  But don't you ever have days where the sun shining makes you smile?  Or you love looking out windows that make you feel like you're inside a snow globe all day?  Or the rain puts you in such a funk that you feel like screaming?  Well, the weather does this to me, so it's almost like the weather is a mood; it definitely can have an affect on mine!  Most of Saturday, I spent inside the house working around - mostly in our bedroom, which has 5 windows on 3 walls so it was the ideal opportunity for me to enjoy the snowing and blowing that was happening all around me!

1/26: CRAFTY/PRODUCTIVE - while I did have to spend a little bit of time yesterday getting our laundry finished for the week, we also had our first official Panama Rocks meeting of 2014 and I set myself up to be VERY productive with custom orders- like my SNEAK PEAK SUNDAY photo! 

Osa's contribution to our meeting was snuggling my foot to keep me warm :-)

By Sunday we also had enough snow that we had to send Jonathan out to snow plow before more snow came.....and while Sunday was our "warmest" day for the foreseeable forecast, I sent him out with nothing but his EYES showing!

 So really, it was a productive day for him too ;-)

He came in looking like a "Alla-ka-zanie" snow monster!  (sorry, I know only 3 people are going to get that, but I HAD to say it LOL)

So WHERE does my 2014 Mood Blanket stand at this point?

No, these aren't the hexagons for the past week based on the moods listed above - it's just all the furthest I've gotten so far...period.  I can't figure out how I messed up the pattern on a third purple hex on Saturday morning and I honestly haven't picked it up again since.

Here's to having more real-time progress to share next Monday - you know, ON time!

Two on Tuesday

Happy Tuesday everyone!  I hope that your week has been off to a great start!

 Things that are making me happy today:

1.  Hair tutorials, like THESE, from Kate over at The Small Things Blog.  I woke up this morning in no mood to go through the process of doing my hair for work.  Typically I am terrible at any sort of "styling" when it comes to my hair, so I'm usually a bit of a "hot mess" after these types of mornings.  I've kinda, sorta, half-@ssed tried this Mid-Knot style before but it went all kinds of wrong.  Today though?  Well, it must be my lucky day, because I think I [almost] got it!

And yes, after about 10 photos, I've also realized that my "skill" for taking back of my head #selfies in the bathroom mirror rivals my standard inability to style my own hair.  Either way - this was over my late lunch hour so not only did my hair go up on the first try and look decent, it still looks decent this far into my day!  (yeah me!)

This will likely never happen again, and the next time I think I'm going to sleep in the extra 15 min and put my hair up all "cute" I'll show up 15 min late to work, overly frustrated with my hair in a nasty little knot/bun/thing.  So for now, I'll enjoying having hair that looks like I'm capable of doing something with it.

2.  Getting to crochet over my lunch hour.  While my commute to work is about 35 min on dry roads (to go 32 miles - such an improvement over DC traffic!),  my parents live 8ish min from my office so I frequently head over there on my lunch hour.  Always on the days my Mom is off from work, and on the other days (like today) it just depends on my work load, the weather, if I remembered to bring anything to do while I'm there, general mood, if I'm in need of food (and too cheap to buy something), etc.  I headed over today so that I could finish crocheting up my mock-ups of the three patterns I was deciding between yesterday for my 2014 Mood Blanket.  

That's right - WAS deciding between - I've totally made my decision, and I'm so excited to get going on my blanket!

Here are the 2 that I crocheted up last night.  I'd already made my decision by the time I'd finished the 2nd one, but continued on to the third, just to be sure.  I messed up #3 as I was trying to beat the clock to my final Christmas dinner of the holiday season..  I tried #3 again today, and while I was doing it right this go-around, I still didn't like how it looked compared to the one I was already in love with:

That's right.  I shoulda just trusted my gut!  I'm using THIS pattern, and to get three rows of color before my border, I'm adding a 4th row of single crochet.  Each corner space is a sc ch1 sc.  I'm using a G hook and my finished hex is about 3.5" across.  I just love this little "peanut" and they only take me 10 min to crochet, 15 max with weaving in ends!  Perfect for me to get caught up on January, not over look on a busy night, and/or catch up again when life gets too busy!  I also really like the narrow border of sc so that when everything is joined together you'll primarily see my "mood colors" with a little connecting border throughout.

Still a little unsure of my connecting method and how I'm going to lay everything out, but I'm certain that by my next "Moody Monday" post I'll have so much more to share!

So what did I decide to do with my other mock ups?  Well, the one I didn't finish I will frog this evening so I can reuse the yarn on my blanket.  The other one?

I've been in need of a new Spring-time coaster in my office.  This works perfectly! (I'm not a big fan of how this pattern is written, but the finished product definitely makes adorable coasters with ENDLESS color possibilities.  One day when I have some free time (ha-ha) I may have to try and adjust the pattern a bit for my liking)

Moody Mondays - the set up

Everyone is a little bit "moody" on a Monday, right?  Well, I typically am knowing that I have 5 full work days ahead of me.  This also seems like the perfect 2014 tie-in for an update post on my Mood Blanket!

As I mentioned last week, I had been really looking forward to picking out colors for my Mood Blanket.  Then I joined the Facebook Group and rapidly became overwhelmed with the number of options I had in regards to colors, yarn choice, pattern, design, frequently of completed square, etc etc.  By Friday morning I thought I had made my yarn choice (Caron Simply Soft) and I'd picked out my HEXAGON pattern from Lucy at Attic 24.

So, after work on Friday night I stopped by Walmart to pick up my yarn...only to find their yarn stock had not been replenished since Christmastime!  I left, and headed to Michaels, thinking to myself how much easier it is to bounce from one store with craft items to the next in a small town vs. Maryland.  During my 3 min drive from the Walmart parking lot to Michaels, I had a thought of using a shade of Vanna's Choice for the days that Grannie's presence is extra strong, or I just can't stop thinking about her* (I made her this lapghan with matching slippers in the same pink for Christmas back in 2010 and since then the "Rose Mist" shade has made me think of her).  Anyway, as I walk through Michaels I find their supply as pitiful as Walmarts; so I leave.  As I make a quick side stop to Petsmart for kitty food (since it's in the same plaza) I start sputtering to myself about how ANNOYING it is to live in such a small town where my yarn options are this limited!  I wanted to wiggle my nose, blink my eyes, or click my heels 3 times to find myself back in Maryland where I would have many more options for yarn!!!  Instead, I drove across the street to JoAnn Fabrics and HOORAY! they had [almost all] the yarn shades I was looking for in Vanna's Choice!  I left happy, with a big bag of yarn, hoping that I could supplement in yarn from my stash where needed.

Exhausting, right?

The weekend was spent working around the house so it wasn't until last night that I was finally able to line up all these beautiful colors of yarn, pluck out the ones that totally clashed, and worked with my color consultant (a.k.a. Jonathan) to assign moods and feelings to the colors I was unsure about.  Here's what we came up with (and yes, I had final say when I didn't agree with him LOL):

 

I do have to take just one side moment to mention our window framing that Jonathan and my Dad installed in our Master bedroom.  It's AMAZING, right?  One of these days you'll get the full breakdown on the 7 months to finish the room and a full picture tour!

All yarn colors are Vanna's Choice, except where noted:

Dreaming of Disney - mid-blue (Red Heart With Love)

Thinking of Grannie - speckle pink

Stressed / Angry - green

Angry / Irritated - dark purple (if I hadn't spent so much of Friday thinking about Grannie, green and dark purple should have definitely been my colors for Friday's square after my yarn shopping adventure debockle!) 

Love - light pink

Special Holiday - kelly green (Loops & Threads Impeccable)

Happy / Excited - speckle purple

Tired - dark grey

Sunny Day - yellow

Feeling Productive - royal blue

Feeling Crafty - berry pink

Rainy Day - navy blue

Special Holiday - red

Sick / Not Feeling Well - speckle green

Sad / Lonely - brown

Dreaming of the beach - aqua blue

Special Holiday - hot pink (Deborah Norville Everyday)

BORDER - cream

If anyone is interested in more details regarding the specific name to a shade of yarn listed above, leave me a comment and I'll be sure to check at home and get back to you!

Now, it's just to get started with my hexagon pattern right?  Well, as I read through Lucy's pattern I started to feel like it may be a bit too complicated; especially when I have so much catching up to do while the pattern is new....so I got on Ravelry and did some searching for free patterns and I've narrowed it down to these three:

Granny-Style Hexagon - I like that with 3 rounds before my border, I would have the option to "mix-up" colors if I'm having a extra moody day of extra strong feelings, or if I just want to express something with more than one color (sunrise/sunset, the beach, seasons, holidays, etc)

Hexagon Pattern - Once narrowed down to 3 options, I'd totally planned to use this one as it's 3 rounds, nice and quick and at approx 3.5" across, I will get a nice size afghan by New Year's Eve.

'Granny Stitch' Hexagon - of course, I was immediately down to the "Granny" title, but a 7" hexagon times 360ish of them?  yikes, that's a BIG BLANKET!

I'm still completely torn, and unless someone would like to point in my the right direction, and make a suggestion I can't refuse, I'm probably going to mock up one of each pattern tonight and see which one I like best....anyone interested in making my crafty-life a little easier??!? anyone?

So for now, I've made a few decisions and still have some to make.  Plus it's the 20th of January already and I have LOTS of catching up to do:

Happy Moody Monday to you all!  Here's hoping for some actual crocheting to share my next Monday!

* On October 12, 2013 we lost my Grannie.  Shirley Louise Raymond was the most outstanding woman I've ever known, and as you can see, she has influenced my passion for crafting more than anyone else in my life.  To call her family is an honor.  She was also the toughest woman I've ever met.  After an inconclusive diagnosis in the spring where the doctors were not comfortable performing necessary testing due to her age, she took things into her own hands.  My Mom moved in with her full time, and she all but killed herself during PT and OT to make herself stronger again after spending almost 2 weeks in the hospital in May.  She got so strong that Medicare would no longer pay for her to have therapists come to the house.  She truly was amazing in her desire to live her life to it's fullest, even when things hurt, and were hard, and what lay ahead was totally unknown.  This summer she was walking again unassisted, with no cane or walker (except maybe in the middle of the night, etc), was back to cooking and baking and doing what gardening she could from her patio.  Things were so good, my Mom had returned to work in August and was ready to move home.  Due to long standing issues with her stomach, her potassium level was a struggle to  keep up, and in September she passed out in the bathroom.  Thankfully my Mom was walking with her, and she was wearing her medical alert.  There was concern that her heart was weak at first, but after much testing the doctors said "no way" and that her heart was great for her age (would have been 90 this past December) - turns out the entire episode was due to her potassium level being too low and after about 5 days in the hospital, she returned home, thankfully no broken bones either, but weak.  I started my new job on Monday, October 7th and I went to see her and Mom, every night that week before rehearsal.  She'd been very tired that week, and really didn't get off the couch too much but we attributed it to a recent procedure having made her weak, and the September hospital stay.  On Friday, October 11th I got a call from Mom around 11 a.m. that Grannie had pushed her Medical Alert while home alone and they were taking her to the hospital.  I spent most of the afternoon and evening in the ER, and eventually ICU with her, my Mom and Aunt as we waited for answers.  Turns out the recent procedure (biliary drain replacement) had nicked her gall bladder causing an infection, which was causing her all the pain she was in.  They gave her some pretty heavy pain meds once she was in the ICU, we met the overnight nurse who was extremely kind in giving us her phone number if we wanted to call during the night, or the next day (my Mom had planned to go into work at least half of Saturday at this point as they felt we were really just waiting for the antibiotics to kick in).  Saturday morning Mom got the call from the ICU nurse that we needed to gather family as her kidney (she only had one) had shut down.  We all spent the day at her bedside, and while she never fully woke again due to all the pain medication in her system, she seemed to no longer be in pain, and I pray that she went in peace.  Her death certificate listed Pancreatic Cancer as cause of death (though the biopsy was the testing they never did due to risk of bleeding).  She's now with my Grandpa Freddie and Uncle Warren, out walking the beach or on the lake on ECHO, traveling the world and doing all the things she always loved.

I continue to miss her terribly every day.  Each time the sun peaks out, I watch a beautiful sunrise on my way to work, or a see a full moon shining, I KNOW that she is watching over me.  Grannie I hope that I continue to make you proud, and I'll be sure to pass along all the crafty wisdom you taught me to my children and grandchildren one day.

Sorry for the long winded story - I have a hard time just telling a small portion of this one.  I almost deleted in all before posting, but for now, I'm going to leave it as she was and still is very important to me, and LOVED reading my blog!

Two on Tuesday

How do Tuesdays continue to sneak up on me so quickly?  I mean, Mondays always sneak up too quickly, so I suppose it makes sense with Tuesday to follow ;-) 

Things making me happy this week:

1.  Fun adventures on the weekend with Jonathan.  On Sunday night we both found ourselves reflecting on how enjoyable these "quick" trips can be, and we treasure these memories just as much as the bigger vacations.  I owe you all a post with pictures from our weekend trip to Buffalo, which extended into a day trip to the US side of Niagara Falls for my first time in, at least, 2 decades.  I'll try to post pictures before this weekend's "adventures" begin!

2. New crochet projects.  I know right?  Like I need to start something new...

Anyway, I came across this Crochet Mood Blanket 2014 while catching up on some blogs earlier, and as I dug a little deeper, it seems there are thousands who have joined in!!  I've read about and looked at photos for inspirations here, and here, and here, and here, and here.  I'm still toying around with what design I want to use.  Right now I like this and this, but my "research" hasn't been too extensive just yet.  I'm always looking at so many gorgeous square patterns and never know just what to do with them; finally a fun opportunity to use one!!  I, of course, need to pick one that's going to be easy to pick up every night and make a square with.  I don't foresee myself being able to get a good start on this until this weekend as I'll need to brainstorm a bit on colors and dig through the old stash.  I also need to do some math on the final blanket size to see how much "catch up" I have to do (how is it already the middle of January!!?!)

As always, so little time for so many crafty ideas!