Monday Moment with Minou

One glass of wine you said, what can it hurt you said.

Ding Dong the Christmas Trees are gone

Yes, yes, at long last the trees are back in the basement for another year. I always marvel at how I can at times take a reasonably small uncomplicated process and turn it into to a monumental production. However the trees are no longer in the kitchen, I can shut up about it and move on to something else. Nothing like the prospect of a group of women coming to visit for an evening to get you motivated to do what should have been done long ago.

Moving on, I am off to finish the last of the Winter Festival puppets, then a production of The Music of Patsy Cline with E, rounded of with an evening of mending pants for people at work. Oh who's a wild and crazy girl then????????????

I hope you all are having a lovely Sunday.

Toodles,

Linda

Saturday Stuff

Ok so according to the television the reason my Christmas trees are still in the kitchen is that I am not eating the right kin of yogurt. Who knew????????? Actually I have promised myself that this weekend they are getting to the basement no matter what. Yogurt was not involved, the fact that my book club is coming here on Wednesday is the catalyst that will shoot those trees to their proper place. Nothing like the idea of company to kick your housecleaning butt.

So its Saturday, groceries have been bought, errands have been run, thrift stores have been perused, lunch has been made and eaten, now I am dawdling before tackling the house and returning it to its clean and tidy state. I have an evening of knitting for a reward when I have the housework done. I have some mending and some puppets to finish as well today.

Is a rather grey and gloomy day today, perfect to be puttering around the house and getting the place spiffed up. So enough with the chit chat, its time to get at it.  I may be back later when I have completed my goals for the day!! Turn up the Beach Boys I am going in!!!

Toodles

Linda

Where did my mojo go??

I am just not motivated to do anything lately, no Monday Moment with Minou, no regular blog posts, the puppets aren't done, the poncho is not knit, my house is a mess and yes the blasted Christmas trees are still in residence in the freakin' kitchen. ARRRRRGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! I am annoying myself. Yet I sit here, blogging when I should be crocheting, or making a decent supper. The last two nights its been crackers and lemon honey, not so much a balanced healthy diet.

Last night I had a good excuse, I was in the dark, literally. A local business burnt to the ground, thankfully no one was hurt. The hydro pole that services my area was right beside the building so for the entire evening, from 7:00 pm to the wee hours of the morning there was no power at the old homestead. I went to bed around 9:30 as it was getting a little chilly and I was bored. I tried to crochet but I did not have enough candle light to really be able to see well. Gave my self a head ache so I gave up, crawled into bed and had a long uninterrupted snooze. Bliss.

Tonight I have no excuse, seriously I cannot keep avoiding doing what needs to be done. I need an imaginary kick in the pants. I need a tonic, I need......................to smarten up is what I need. It strange, because on the whole once I get going at something, I am happy to putter away at it. I seem to be having trouble getting going. I can pop out a puppet in a couple of hours once I pick up the hook, so far picking up the hook has been almost 4 hours in the thinking stage and still I have not done it. What is up with me???

I have no idea. All I know is that if I eat any more lemon honey I am going to throw up. Well maybe not throw up but its not going to be pretty. Me thinks I should go make some real food, then see if I can't wrap myself around the crochet hook and get hookin'. Mama needs her new stove and the puppets are a means to an end.

Toodles
Linda

Saturday Stuff

Where has the week gone? I haven't done anything so I can't say that it flew by in a flurry of activity. It just seemed to slither by silently, swiftly leaving little to no impact. I blinked and suddenly it was Friday again. I have been knitting on the poncho I have been commissioned to make but that is about all I have done.  Somehow I managed to miss going to see the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The movie has moved on now, I will have to catch it when it comes out on DVD. I enjoyed the book inspite of myself and I really want to see the movie. apparently not enough to actually get myself to the theater in the freezing cold.

Saturday is my usual chore/errand/housework day. Today I have managed to accomplish something. I have so far managed to clean up the living room and then totally make a mess of it again. I finally got the last of the cleaning stuff for my donation basket to the local women's shelter.  (This is my year of giving back and the Women's Shelter is first on the donation list). J and I will make our delivery on Monday. I got the kitchen cleaned, the dishes put away, soup made, two puppets crocheted and a ham baked so I can have sandwiches for lunch next week. (They will go nicely with my homemade chicken noodle soup).

My puppets are going to be raffle prizes at our local Winter Festival, I have a week to get 7 of them made so having two done today is a good start. The University is organizing some books to go with the puppets and they will be up for grabs at the Festival. They acknowledged that it was somewhat short notice but I could hardly say no. I am rather pleased they thought of me. SO I have been crocheting up a storm this afternoon. I had thought I was finished with the puppets for the university but they have ordered a total of 23 more so I am not as finished as I thought I was. I am starting dare to day dream about that new stove again.

I am hanging my head in shame. The Christmas trees, oh the Christmas trees are still not put away. I have decided they want to be a permanent part of the kitchen decor. I cannot seem to  get them to the basement. I had high hopes for it happening today but since I did my face plant outside the elevator at work this week, and yanked a muscle in my considerable butt that connects down the back of my good leg, going up and down stairs is a tad painful. My basement is not really easy access and I just could not make my self face the prospect. So I am starting a new style, fake pine trees in the kitchen, tres trendy, no? It will be showin up in all the decor magazines next year, you just watch.

Oh oh oh I have a picture to share. Its the afghan I made over Christmas: Taa Daa....................

The yarn I used to make it was all given to me by friends who felt I could make use the stuff they had laying around the house. Its so very 70's I love it. I have not need for another afghan in my house so I have decided that it will be our first donation blanket. Most of the yarn came from J's daughter.  I have another one in the works, using all those little yarn leftovers that are not really big enough to make something out of but too big to throw away in good conscience. Scrap afghans are like scrap quilts, they use up little bits and bobs and make something useful. The second one will just be straight stripes but this brown one just begged to be a ripple afghan.

It was the pursuit of this scrap afghan and the puppets that my living room is a total mess again. I have come to the conclusion that my yarn stash is in sad need of some organization. I have baskets and containers of yarn all over the place. It has gotten out of control and will take over if I do not beat it back into submission. Right now its mostly spilled all over the living room. By tomorrow it will be under control again. I need to deal with it. 2012 is the year of paying it foreward and getting it under control.

I am off to start the laundry, then knit the poncho. I hope you are having a good weekend.

Toodles,
Linda

Monday Moment with Minou

Monday....... No Thank You

Bye Bye Christmas

FINALLY I have had some time to be at home and the energy to tackle putting away the Christmas things. Its so sad to see it all being tucked away for another year. I have to admit that its so much more fun getting out the Christmas stuff than it is putting it away. And as per my usual attitude about these things when the house looked like this:

I was more that willing to give up and let it stay this way. Tidiness and order are over rated. I say embrace the mess and mayhem. It can be lived with,
look at all those folks on those hoarder shows. They live for years in this sort of environment







Mid project always overwhelms me and so I pause, have some tea and talk myself out of ignoring the disaster I have created. I also had a nice long chat with my only living aunt. She called just as I was working myself up to being overwhelmed. She was a welcome distraction even if I was gently berated for not being in touch with her over the holidays. Rightly so, she is the last Aunt I have and there is no excuse for not keeping in touch with her.  So after tea and family gossip, I forged on and eventually the chaos started to clear and the house is settling  back to normal. (Or as close to normal as my house gets. )

It has taken most of the afternoon but the Christmas things are almost back in there place under the stairs. I still have the big main tree and the Pig tree to dismantle. Then the trees need to be hauled to the basement, the lights and garland taken off the veranda an its all done for another year.

I don't have any lovely after pictures to post for you because the place is still in a state of flux. Its getting there, slowly. By tomorrow things should be back under control. Happenings around the homestead today have been quiet and routine. I did the usual errands this morning, groceries, shopping, errands and I am happy to say I managed to stay on budget which pleases me greatly. I was out most of the morning, had lunch and the rest of the day has been dismantling the house.

Tomorrow I have things to haul to the basement, the kitchen to clean, laundry and some more shopping to do and then I am off  see a movie with a friend. Tonight I am going to start knitting a caplet/poncho for a co-worker. No pattern of course that would be too simple. I do have a sample to go by loaned by another friend. Its a knitting challenge. I am looking foreward to it.  First I need to sort out some supper.

What I need is a cook. How fancy would that be???

Toodles,

Linda


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