Dream a little dream.....

It's been a roller coaster ride here and I'll spare details to the public.

I've been trying to focus on my passions, knitting and spinning, and while doing so I thought about why I turn to them when I'm stressed. For me, it's the soothing sound of the needles, click, click click. The feel of the soft wool through my fingers. The whirl of the wheel and how amazing it is (even in this day and age) to produce a lovely skein of yarn no matter how imperfect.

In the meantime when life hands me lemons I will turn to dreamsicle ice cream ;).

What do you focus on when stressed? Why?

Grounded!

It's been a rough week. So what is a disabled knitter to do when she finds a beautiful pattern on ravelry and the yarn is downstairs in the stash room?
Answer: Find a way to get down there to get what I obviously needed.
Hubby was on the computer in the living room totally oblivious and the youngest daughter was at work. Those two are like prison guards, trust me, so if they're busy I'm F-R-E-E!

Charlie and Chuckie crutch and I went for a nonchalant stroll down the hall and quietly opened the basement door. Took me a moment to figure out how I was going to get down there but my little mind quickly had a solution, sit and scoot on the steps. Woo-Hoo! I had a plan.

I made it to the stash room, grabbing an empty yarn tote I quickly filled it. Suddenly I heard the youngest daughter upstairs talking. WHAT? She wasn't to be home for another hour!
I hobbled over to the stairs in a bit of a panic. Seriously? Why was I in a panic? I'm an adult and can do what I want. hrmph!

Now here's where I didn't think my plan through from beginning to end. How do I get up the stairs? If I exit the back door and come into the kitchen I'm doomed. The family will know I've been downstairs. I hung the bag of yarn on Charlie (or was it Chuckie?) and leaned on the two of them to climb the 14 steps. Took a bit of maneuvering but we made it to the top. Just as I opened the door who was standing there?
The college daughter. Hands on her hips and asking the inevitable question, "just what do you think you're doing? Da-a-ad? Mom was downstairs."
Tattletale!


So I'm grounded. I think there's been a bit of a role reversal around here and that will be corrected immediately :).
At least I have the yarn I wanted, various colors of wool to knit this scarf. I'm making great progress but you should see my knitting corner in the living room.
In the meantime, I'm content with this project....well...at least for awhile ;).




Tonite I'm indulging in a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Mint chocolate chip and just plain ole chocolate chip ice cream are my favorite flavors.
What's your favorite ice cream flavor?

Christmas in July

There's more than one way to beat the heat. Since the a/c is on the blink and I'm water logged from the swimming pool, the college DD and I came up with a plan to celebrate Christmas in July.
We dug out the Christmas DVDs and our favorite movie White Christmas was first on the list.
Instead of homemade cookies and hot chocolate we had mint chocolate chip ice cream and fresh squeezed lemonade.




Christmas certainly cannot commence without a tree and decorations so the silver tinsel tree and colored ornaments came out of the box. There weren't any lights since no one volunteered to go to the attic in this heat to get them.
Of course there must be presents and we agreed they had to be homemade.








DD played Santa and distributed the gifts.
She made a print of the lyrics of a favorite song from Celtic Thunder for her dad.












For me, she made this plaque. It spells family in Cherokee. She embroidered the letters and flowers on the fabric background and it's mounted on an old picture frame.










I knitted a hat for her and here she is playing a goof with it. She also received a red and silver glitzy handsewn scarf.

Our eldest DD was at work but there's a handmade gift under the tree for her.

Instead of ending the day with a sled ride we'll end with a midnite dip in the swimming pool.
I think this 'holiday' will become a tradition in this household. It certainly helped to take our minds off the oppressing heat and humidity for a little while.