Sunny Sunday Morning!

Finally, after over a week of dreary rainy dismal weather the sun is shining this moring. It's still rather cool out, but that's ok. . . the sun is shining again! WOOHOO!

So my simple thing for today is the sunshine.

I had decided that I was going to try to make this year less stressful, try to eliminate as much as possible the things that stress me out. Well, nice thought, I don't seem to be doing very well on that so far. I did however realize something this morning and have made decision I began doing this year of simple things in an attempt to become more aware of the simple pleasures in my life, to be grateful for them and to fully realize the joy in them. Nice thought, except that some days I forget or don't have time to post, then I get stressed about not posting or recognizing my simple thing for that day, so I have made the decision that I will do it as it comes. I will not force anything and I will not stress over not doing it. I want this to be a pleasurable experience, not just another thing I feel like I "have" to do. And with that one small decision I feel liberated and feel that now I can have more enjoyment with this.

On the crochet frontier, I worked on my Seraphina Shawl yesterday and it is coming along quite nicely (Finally!). It has been a struggle, but I believe that the end result will be worth it. It is a very lovely shawl.

All of my plants look like death warmed over. I hope that with a little extra pampering that they will rally around. I lost almost all of my Streps, but it was my own fault. I got too busy and my plants got neglected. It happens. Oh well live and learn.

Simple Thing for Yesterday and Today & Crochet Progress

I got a little sidetracked yesterday and didn't post my Simple thing . But I knew what it was. . .
Chocolate. You can't beat rich creamy luscious chocolate melting in your mouth. Definitely one of life's simple pleasures.

And for today, well it snowed today in Texas, not something that we get too often in this neck of the woods. Now I have to admit that I don't care for the cold at all, but there's just something about the ground covered in white. I love to sit and watch out the window as the snowflakes fall to the ground to create a gorgeous winter wonderland. Snow definitely makes the cold easier to take. So my simple pleasure for today is snow!

I was supposed to attend a knitting class today. I tried to call to see if it was being postponed or whar and I assume that it is postponed as nobody answered the phone at the shop. I was a little disappointed about not getting to have the class today because of the weather but on the flip side it was also ok. Now I still have it to look forward to.

On the crochet frontier I have completed all of the 12" squares that I needed to make for the January Exchanges I am participating in. Yay!
I still have an angel item to make and some 10" Snowflake squares for the rest of my January Exchanges. Things are moving along quite nicely.

A Year of Simple Things

I saw this on the internet, in someone's blog and thought I would give it a go. My silent vow to myself for this year was to distance myself from the things that stress me, and so far I don't seem to be doing too well on that.

Anyway I came across the Year of Simple Things idea and figure perhaps it might help in some way, even if only in s small way, it would be something. I vow to post more often and make an attempt to find the simple things or simple pleasures in each day.

So for today my simple thing that I am grateful for and find pleasure in is my dog, Jasmine. Here's a picture of her in her favorite spot.

As far as my crochet goes, well, I have made some squares for some exchanges that I am in, a couple of scrunchies, a potholder, and I am working on a Seraphina Shawl. I thought I was making progress, but I was wrong. I discovered a mistake and now have to frog it back about 8 to 10 rows and start over from there. I feel as if I am never going to get that blasted shawl completed. I was hihgly frustrated and put it away for the moment. I just need to step back, take a deep breath, and then after some time away from it start work on it again.

BAH HUMBUG!!!

OK, I am so sick of all this holiday crap. I just want it over with and gone. The family tradition Christmas crap is today, whoopdeedoo! I am not in the mood for this, it is not possible for me to care any less about this than I do. Yes, I have an acute case of Scroogitis (sp?) this year.

And the pentacle shawl I was making I had had to rip out, not completely, but still severely last night. And I actually thought I was making progress on the thing until I held it up for a closer look and noticed that the pentacle design was wider on one side than on the other. Arrruuuuugggghhhhhh!!!! All I wanted was to make a nice gift for my friend, it shouldn't be this friggin' difficult! The stitch is super easy, but obviously I got the count off in a big way. *Sigh*
I am so frustrated with this that I don't even want to look at it right now and there's no way I can have it finished in time. (Orignally we were supposed to exchange gifts on Yule (last Thursday), but postponed it until after Christmas, but with that after all the froggin' I did on it last night, there's just no way. I will put it aside for now, pick it up again after all this holiday mess is over and work on it for my friend's birthday. That will give me more time to figure out where I went wrong, plus allow some cool-off time so I don't throw the thing down and stomp on it! LOL! Hey, I like that thought!

Anyway, now I need to come up with another present. Oh the thrill of it all. I have no idea what to get. Ugh! Ok, deep breath and keep reminding self that this stupid holiday crap will pass.

Froggin' it!!!

I discovered that all my work while waiting for my car the other day was all in vain. somewhere I made a big enough boo-boo to have to frog not only everything that I got accomplished on the shawl that day but all the way back down to the second row. Arrruuugggghhhh!!! And the real butt kicker is that I still am not for sure what it was that I did wrong!! I made a minor adjustment and am crocheting on it again. We shall see how it goes. I feel as if I will never get this completed. It is to be Yule gift and I need to have it completed for our Yule Celebration on Dec. 21st. Can you spell S-T-R-E-S-S?!!!!

Ok now I am really grateful that it is something that can be taken apart and re-done. There the screw-up was not permanent.

OK, taking a deep breath, going off to meditate and de-stress for a while.

Takin' it with me when I go

I got a little extra time today to work on the Pentacle Shawl while I was sitting for almost 5 hours in the waiting room at the Dodge Dealership while they attempted to locate the place where my beloved Intrepid was leaking coolant from.

Well, while the news on the car was not so good. I did bring along the Pentacle Shawl to work on and got quite a bit done on it. I am really anxious to get it finished, I can't wait to see the finished product.

Fortunately , I don't often have to go places where I have to sit and wait, but it does happen occasionally and I will be certain in the future to always have my crochet along to keep me occupied while waiting.

I had to smile, I was sitting there crocheting and this older gentleman entered the waiting room, looked at me and said. "So you decided to knit while you're waiting, huh?"
I just smiled and said "Yes, it beats just sitting here." I didn't bother to mention that I wasn't knitting.

Other than that bit of crochet I didn't get much else done today. Ah well, there's always tomorrow.

Happy Crocheting!

Holiday Gift Crochet

I finally started on the Pentacle Shawl. It is an interesting pattern and initially I thought I was doing something as the ends of the rows were turning out uneven giving it a stair step effect. I contacted the person that wrote the pattern (a really sweet lady) and she verified that it was supposed to have the stair step effect. Ok, well, that's good, but I still had to rip out 3 rows as one ove end of the rows had the stair steps. Ooops! So I did mess up, but now I have it under control at least for the moment. LOL!

My next hurdle with this pattern will be the Pentacle design in the middle of the shawl. I've never done a pattern like this. It is done in filet. Looks somewhat simple, the main thing being keeping track of the number of blocks made for the pattern.

I will post a pic when I get it completed.

I also have several bookmarks, dishcloths, potholders, and hotpads to crochet. Oh, yeah and another shawl to finish. I am a little over halfway done with that one. But, I am beginning to wonder if I will get it all finished in time. Yikes!!

One of these days I will get organized and not wait until almost the last minute to do things. Yeah right, like that's gonna happen!! LOL! Well, it's a nice thought, anyway.

Happy Crocheting!!