It’s been a really long time coming, but look who has a finished project!
A friend suggested I try a hat to reconnect with my knitting mojo, and it worked.
Pattern: Felicity (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Berroco Jasper
Needles : Addi Clicks, 8 & 6. Pattern calls for 7 &5, but from the first version I made, I knew I wanted a slightly looser hat to accommodate my top mini-bun.
Sorry to be debbie downer. Hopefully, I’m making a turn. I had a great time tonight with the incoming leadership team for the League, and I’m grateful that our incoming historian made us pose for a dozen photos. (No, none were taken with my camera.) I was having a bad hair day, but given the turns life has made this week already, I smiled and cooperated anyway.
Friend is on the far right
It’s really sad to realize I don’t have photos with my recently departed friend. This is the closest I can get, and only then, because my darling ‘Nita insisted upon a group-ish photo. My friend was a photographer, and like most of us, she didn’t want a photo taken when her hair wasn’t perfect, or because she wasn’t appropriately attired, etc. Heck, I’m cringing at this version of me, but I’m glad Anita was persistent and the photo exists.
So to all of you who, like the Knight and sometimes myself, try to hide from the camera, remember that a day will come when someone will wish they had a photo of you – maybe plural – and try to cooperate for just a moment.
And yeah, I’m going to try to remember to TAKE photos too. Because life is short and you just never know when there will be no more chances for a photo.
I’m also very thankful for sweet ladies who care, who aren’t being polite when they ask how I am and what they can do to help. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fabulous dessert table we were all enjoying… I am blessed to be surrounded by kind, supportive people. It makes it much easier for me to keep on giving and being supportive too. A wise woman often reminds me that I can’t give from empty, but thanks to you and my local network of friends, there’s no chance I’ll even see a low fuel light.
Miss Ellie
And it hurts none at all when Miss Ellie recognizes my car when I turn in her parents’ driveway and begins excusing herself from her other guests to come greet me personally and assure I remember the way to the champagne punch. I wish I’d gotten a black-footed photo this evening, proving that the lovely hostess does her own gardening, even when she has company. The wonderful thing about doggy therapists is there’s no appointment or co-pay required.
Dogs, chocolate, salted caramel, champagne and friends. These are a few of my favorite things.
Right off the bat, I disagree. Do you?
Given current events, I’d argue that Flowers in the Attic is the most famous book set in Virginia, but certainly the ones that resonate most with me are the books by Marguerite Henry about the ponies of Chincoteague.
What about your state(s)?
So I stumbled across the fact that it’s National Stress Awareness Month. That’s almost funny, given that it seems nearly everyone I talk to is under more stress than usual.
Here’s my take on it… Stress is inevitable. Life is going to continue to throw us curve balls, so the only thing we can do is have a plan for how to handle it. I used to worry constantly, but at some point I realized that Mary Engelbreit knew what she was talking about.
I’m a woman of action. Despite being a philosophy student, somewhere along the line, I decided that if I can’t do something about it, there’s no point in worrying about it. That changed my stress level significantly.
As for stress management, I have the two best stress busters in the world. It’s hard to stay wound up when the furgirls greet me so enthusiastically and want nothing more than for me to pay attention to them and to lace up my running shoes and head out with them for still more stress reduction in the form of a walk or a run.
What stresses you? How to do you relieve that stress?
For the second time, a post I set to publish later didn’t. Last time, I found the draft when I got home and hit publish. This time though, I’ve looked in drafts, trash… everywhere, and can’t find it. Time wasted. Thoughts lost. Pout.
I’ll try again after the taxes.
We wish you joy, love and good cheer now and into the New Year.
Some of you may be getting a copy of this in the mail. Thankfully, in my beach-stupor, I ordered not-holiday-specific cards, because while a few locals received it today, I know some places it is going won’t see it much before 2014 arrives… or maybe even after. It’s just been that kind of fall around here. Please know that though I blog infrequently, miss birthdays and other important events/holidays and generally am just a bad friend, I’m thinking of you and wishing you only the best.
Merry Christmas! I’ll be scarce for another week or so, but I am hopeful that the new year will bring more regular blogging.
The Girl Scouts posted this on Facebook. I love everything about this quote from the colors and fonts to the thought – and action – behind it. Marian Wright Edelman walks the walk.
Ironically, I saw this just before I left for the JLC’s strategic planning retreat. I’m so honored to lead with the talented, dedicated women who are changing our community and making our League a healthier, more functional non-profit!
What are you changing today?
Happy Thorsday, little friday and Thankful Thursday! Don’t miss sweet little Gg’s post about Sissy’s upcoming birthday… and her not so subtle mention of her own gotcha’ day the day before.
Big Kids Boots
Thanks for all the kind words of support during my first week with the new job. It’s going well, but I’ve been busy with that whole learning curve thing. One happy coincidence though came in the size 7 feet of my trainer today… the first “other female” co-worker I’ve met in person since I started. She was able to confirm that there is no standard for converting women’s shoes to youth sizes or vice versa, but she has some experience wearing a formerly growing daughter’s youth shoes after said kiddo outgrew them, and she too is eager to hear how my experiment goes. She says she thinks youth shoes are 1.5 – 2 sizes smaller than ladies footwear, so the rare 5+ youth boots/shoes I’ve found just might work for me.
I’m happy to report that neither rain, nor meetings, nor new job, nor a muddy, supposed to have been outdoors wedding kept me from logging our regular weekly miles. The only problem is Gg has become a runner. I’m having trouble convincing her that we aren’t going to run every single day, and of course when anyone runs, Sissy falls into her funky little canter. I’ve never water skied, but I’ve watched the Knight and others, and I’m pretty sure I look like I’m trying to water ski on a paved when both dogs take off with me in tow…
How’s your week going?
I heard something last week I’ve been meaning to run past you, my sage, diverse readers.
We have a League tradition called the Champagne Toast, to welcome our newest members to the JLC at the end of August. Last year, I was confused by the attired comment on the invitation… “festive sundress” or something of the sort, but now I’m *REALLY* confused.
This year’s invitation said “cocktail attire.” Oh good! I know what THAT means. Phew. Then, while chatting with the “hostess” and another member of the new member committee, I learned that “Cocktail attire no longer means what it used to. It now means anything you’d wear to go out on the town FOR cocktails.”
What I’m going to wear – regardless!
Cue the crickets. I’m not a “go out for drinks” kind of girl, unless meeting for coffee before or after work counts. I’ve never been clubbing, never have gone out on the town just to drink or dance or whatever all the cool kids do (were doing).
Luckily, anything goes almost anywhere in this town. At any given event, no matter what dress code was specified, you’ll see everything from “dressy jeans” to a long dress, whether it’s a backyard barbeque or an evening wedding at a hotel downtown.
Fortunately, I’m the President and I’m going to wear what I planned to wear all along and it will have to be okay. (But yes, I did run it past my friend the hostess, because that’s how I am.) But have you ever heard of such!? I’m still adjusting to knee-length being “formal” too.
Something like that… if it’s really big?
Can someone PLEASE explain how a hair clip – large barrette if you prefer – was able to hold my wild mop this morning when I left the house, but when I went to re-adjust, it refused to clasp again? It won’t hold all of the tresses, but when I just pull the front bit out of my face, it doesn’t grip and I soon have loose ends flying and a wad of slippery plastic heading down my neck.
It’s hot and humid. I wanted my hair off of my neck today, but I wanted something a little less casual than a good ol’ “ponytail holder” as I know them. (A hair-friendly “rubber band”??)
Do tell what you use to use, especially if you have longer, unruly hair.
Chan Knits 