Monday Magic | 11.2.20

Monday Magic | 11.2.20

If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath. — Amit Ray, Om Chanting and Meditation

Greetings Gentle Readers! How are you all doing today?

For me, it feels like I have reached the Apex of Stress, sans the downhill portion…amirite? My focus as I start this week is to remember to breathe, which is not always as easy as it sounds!

But!! There is help! Perhaps this 5-Minute Meditation will become your friend this week!

Something else to remember… drink lots of water to stay hydrated! (not tea, coffee, or something stronger, lol)

I don’t know if any of you follow the Sarcastic Lutheran on IG…she has some “spiritual Xanax” for us all tomorrow (and perhaps a reminder or two to breathe!

I don’t know if I will have time at all tomorrow, I am figuring I will be pretty busy at the polls. Stay calm and breathe, Gentle Readers!

See you all back here on Wednesday… albeit a little later than usual!

Unraveled Wednesday | 10.28.20

Unraveled Wednesday | 10.28.20

Greetings Unravelers!

First, a bit of housekeeping for next week! There will be an Unraveled post, but it won’t be up super early. I will be working the polls next Tuesday and I am planning that it will be a LONG day. However, I do hope to have the post up by 9 AM EST. (and have you made your plan to vote?? lol)

This week’s making revolved around spinning and a wee bit of sewing preparation! The spinning though! Every week, Sarah posts the most gorgeous photos of fiber, spinning, and finished yarn… she is nothing but inspiring! So when HipStrings posted this on IG there was no way at all to not buy some! I have one braid spun up! (I am stressing a little about the plying… but I have lots of spinning to finish before I get to that!)

As for my sewing… I have taken some lovely black linen and a bit of left over blue linen and have all the parts cut out to begin sewing a bag from my Lotta Acquisition!

It was another slow week for my reading, but the book I finished was enjoyable.

This Is HappinessThis Is Happiness by Niall Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Everybody carries a world. But certain people change the air about them.

This book. Oh boy, where to begin. I have never been to Ireland, but this book took me on a journey! The writing is simply beautiful, I highlighted so many bits. This book was so full of yin and yang… happiness, tempered by sadness… new life, tempered by death… of life so lived it is epic!

The truth turns into a story when it grows old. We all become stories in the end. So, though the narrative was flawed, the sense was of a life so lived it was epic.

I highly recommend this book!


As always, if you wrote a post to share – leave your link below and thank you! I will be back next week! Have a lovely remainder of your week everyone!


Intentional Avoidance | 10.27.20

Intentional Avoidance | 10.27.20

I am joining Honoré again this month to share an update on my word.

Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen Hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is. — Mary Anne Radmacher

October taught me that sometimes in order to practice wellness, one must become adept at diligently avoiding some things. Most days the avoidance list included the internet, cable news, and the some topics of conversation!

October refined my ability to be silent and if that was not possible…well I am honing my change the topic of conversation skills!

Sometimes the thing I was trying to avoid was me…Okay, maybe not me so much as avoiding living in my head too much. Too much time over-thinking and worrying are not things to do if you are trying to practice wellness! Thank goodness for meditation which really helps me break the chain of worry. My typical practice has been to meditate in the morning while I sip my coffee but September showed me that once a day was really not enough so I have added more meditation time in my day, which has been tremendously helpful. I am also finding that the process of writing my worries/struggles/heartaches down means I don’t have to dwell on them. It is a learning process and as the month progressed, I found it easier to do. And while it is not perfect, it is helping.

What about you? How did your word show up for you?

You can see all of my Intentional Journey here.

 

 

Monday Magic | 11.2.20

Monday Magic | 10.26.20

We are the ones we have been waiting for. — The Elders, Oraibi, Arizona Hopi Nation

I have been in dire need of a shake up here at my blog and late last week some inspiration struck. It started with a quote by a some unknown genius: It’s just another Magic Monday and those simple words led me down the most glorious of rabbit holes on the internet. Such. Fun. Inspirational. Things!

One of the things I discovered was the Hopi Elder Statement and it really moved me. There is so much wisdom contained in this simple statement. The analogies are just so perfect for our Pandemic Lives right now… which most days does indeed feel like a very fast flowing river and here I am desperately trying to cling to the shore and find some normalcy in the abnormal. Maybe I do need to push away from the shore and look around at all of you here with me… and do a little more celebrating!! We started that celebrating with the successful installation (in less than an hour!!) of a new and no longer leaking kitchen faucet! While we feel accomplished in our plumbing debut…Steve is not quitting his day job! But it was infinitely worth the time we spent on Saturday morning.

You might have heard that Pandemic Winter is coming! Did you, like me, miss this really uplifting Life Kit episode…which is made even more brilliant by the comic by La Johnson! This for me was the best motivation: “There is something so satisfying about doing something for future you!” Why, yes there is. So this week, I have added an absolute must-have to my list… refill the LP gas canister for our patio heater. My future self will thank me when we are a wee bit warmer outside as the days get much cooler!

The other thing on my list this week is to figure out Google Meet so that our knit night is less of a hassle (free Zoom is awesome, but 40 minutes is just not enough time!)

So this week… let’s “Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.”

Who’s with me?

TGIF | 10.23.20

TGIF | 10.23.20

It is me, or do the weeks somehow seem longer. I don’t know why that is, but boy… this week felt so.darned.long! I am chalking this up to the fact that COVID-emic-ELECTION days are some of the longest days ever, amirite? Anyways, this week felt like the perfect time to do a little TGIFing.

Takedown

Obama was in Philly on Wednesday and his speech was exactly what I needed this week! In case you missed it, or you need another dose of glorious Obama Eloquence, here you go!

Grieving

One of the best parts of my morning routine is listening to Tracy K. Smith share some beautiful thoughts and a poem. Sadly, this week she announced that she is leaving The Slowdown and at the end of the month it will go on hiatus until they find a new host. I will miss Tracy’s voice in my morning. I love her perspective, how she expanded my horizons, the poets she introduced me to, and especially how she made me think! I am trying to wrap my head around this change and how it will alter my mornings and mourning this loss.

Installing

Some months ago, the kitchen faucet was dripping. Okay. It was a the tiniest drip which was fixed with a firm shut off to the handle. Enter this the past couple of weeks and that is no longer working. Because, of course…right? End result…Steve is off today, and we are going to pretend we are plumbers and attempt to install a new faucet. Why us? Well, I called around to plumbers to get prices… and about had a coronary. Ummm, for those prices you’d think they were replacing the faucet, sink, and countertop!! Keep your fingers crossed that this goes well (and we don’t kill each other, lol) AND that by the end of the day I have a working kitchen sink with minimal extra trips to the hardware store! Ha!

all the FEELS

I know some of you are seeing your families on the regular, and I am happy for you… most days. The hardest thing I have ever done is this separation from my kids and grandkids. My kids are stressed, which makes me even more stressed. It sucks. But!! I know that I am not alone, there are many in blogland who are in the exact same boat I am and I want you to know I see you, I think about you, and I think about your kids scattered far and wide. My fervent hope is that things will stop being so damned urgent with more rising cases, and that a vaccine will become available that will be safe and effective…soon. Sooner than soon actually. I am not sure how much more I can take.

And that is a wrap for this week! I will be back on Tuesday to join Honoré to share my update on my word.

Unraveled Wednesday | 10.21.20

Unraveled Wednesday | 10.21.20

Dear Unravelers,

Do you ever feel like you are in a “making” rut? I am in a huge making rut and it really sucks! I have things to knit that I want to finish, but boy… there is just no joy in the making right now. (FYI, the following links are to projects on Ravelry) I should be knitting sleeves… but they are languishing in a basket next to the living room sofa. Or perhaps I should be knitting the body of this, but that is languishing in a knitting bag next to my bed.

Instead, I am knitting a heel (on a pair of socks that are screaming AUTUMN to me!) and pondering why I am so disinterested in things that should be bringing me joy. In an attempt to really break things up, I am going to pull out the sewing machine this week to see if that gets me back on the path of happy making! Thanks to Carolyn, a new-to-me Lotta Jansdotter book  arrived at my house this week and I think a bag test run is the perfect thing before attempting this beauty from the latest Making! (Because, I am just enamored with this bag!)

On Monday, several people asked about the Acorn Pattern… you will find Hunter Hammersen’s Hoard here on Ravelry.

I did manage to finish two books this week! (and I have started Summer and so far, so very good!)

All the Devils Are Here (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #16)All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Armand and friends in Paris, what’s not to love? An interesting city, a curious mystery, and familiar characters make for a can’t-put-it-down novel. I love how Penny keeps revealing more and more depth to her characters, and in doing so – makes them more lovable! I highly recommend!

 

The Women of Brewster PlaceThe Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

At first I struggled to find a rhythm with this book, and perhaps reading just a page or two at night made that even more difficult. And once I found myself immersed in the stories of the women of Brewster Place, the ending left me struggling to find closure and I went back and re-read it several times to see if I was missing something. I don’t think I missed anything, and this book just did not seem to work for me.


And that is all I have for today. If you wrote a post to share (and I  sincerely hope you did!!) please leave your link below!


Sometimes Monday | 10.19.20

Sometimes Monday | 10.19.20

Weeks that feel unending makes for a fly-by weekend…or at least that is how it seemed here. The weekend was over before it began.

But maybe not… because I got so much done! My planner set up is working wonderfully and it feels good to have everything together. (sorry, I had planned on getting a photo this morning but it is dark and dreary and pouring down rain…sigh)

Yes, I am much farther along than this currently, but the light is not conducive to photography this morning!

In a scrolling of Twitter last week, I noticed that Kate Atherley was doing an impromptu sock KAL. I found some yarn and cast on Thursday night while we caught up on Big Brother and I managed to find time over the weekend to almost complete the leg of the first sock! Good thing because the heel is out sometime today!

But the most fun was beginning the process of knitting acorn caps, which I did while watching The Trial of the Chicago 7 on Netflix. It was so good (and perfect for cranking out several little caps!)

Acorns are so much fun, but even more so with special handspun! Thank you, Sarah!

Finally, I want to share my meditation for the week. I saw this late last week on Facebook and have used this meditation many times over the weekend…it is just exactly what I needed so I thought I’d share it with you. I hope you find it a help for your week ahead!

Happy Monday, everyone! See you all back here on Wednesday!

Friday Things | 10.16.20

Friday Things | 10.16.20

Overnight, the weather has changed…dramatically. Yesterday it was windy and mild… today grey, rainy, and much cooler. It seems that this prediction is spot on, lol… I am shocked because that rarely happens! Oh, and it seems that there is some *snow* in the forecast as well. Sigh.

There are bits of color popping up all around me and I maximized the Fall Feeling by baking Apple Slab Pie this week. My freezer is now stocked with a bunch of “bites” of a little something sweet.

Earlier this week Steve told me there are just six Friday’s left in the year. Wait…wut?!? Ummm, no Steve… including today, there are 10 errr, 11(thanks Karen, lol). Not much better but, my panic level receded a bit! lol

Isabell Kraemer has a new sweater pattern out… oh my it is lovely! I have color work on the brain right now!

Finally, this interview from last Friday really hit home with me. I am on the very short waitlist at my library for Maggie Smith’s new book and I can’t wait!

I hope you all have a great weekend! See you all back here on Monday!

Unraveled Wednesday | 10.14.20

Unraveled Wednesday | 10.14.20

This week, knitting for Olivia has consumed me! I working on the sweetest little layette set that I hope to have winging its way to her in CA soon! The evolution of my knitting has astounded me though… especially in this iteration of the timeless BSJ. I must have been channeling EZ because I thought about how the applied I-cord would flow into the other areas (even thought they are all knit separately!) So I had little clusters of 3 stitches on pins waiting to be joined. And I have to say… I LOVE how this one turned out! And that perfection was just calling for a pair of Saartje’s Booties and an Easy Peasy Newborn Hat! (and I hope have leftover yarn to make an acorn or two!) I just have some fiddly bits on the second bootie to finish up and sew on some buttons… oh and finish the hat! But I think the hat should be done today as I don’t have lots on my plate!

It almost looks like one continuous applied i-cord!

Those little fiddly button holes… but they really make the booties!

The reading has absolutely slowed down a bit… not sure what’s up with that, but I only have one finish this week.

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What an interesting way to tell a story! Do memories have a taste? Do they smell? It was something I thought about as this story unfolded…and are those memories the door to pain and heartache? I loved the little “intermezzo” chapters where you got to know Leila’s friends more closely. And the ending… yes! It was exactly what I did not know I was hoping for. The only thing from keeping this book from a 5-star rating… at times the chapters dragged on a bit. However, I do highly recommend this beautiful story!


And, what about you? What is occupying your making and reading hours this week?

As always, if you wrote a post to share, please leave you link below and thank you!


Oh, Monday | 10.12.20

Oh, Monday | 10.12.20

Last week ended on a stressful note… and then some. Oy.

Friday I had a doctors appointment…a stressful thing in itself…and after making it through the “COVID Screening” to get to my doctors office, I thought it would be smooth sailing from there, HA! Sadly, all my fears intensified when I walked into a very packed waiting room – like WAY too many people in a VERY small waiting room. I had arrived about 15 minutes early for my appointment and still had to wait about 45 minutes… gah! I have COVID fears right now… bad. But, the funniest thing happened in the exam room! My doctor is very soft spoken and wearing a mask does not inspire him to speak louder. I was feeling my age when I kept having to ask what he said over and over and over… yes, in hindsight, it was comical. At the time tho…oy.

From there, it was Flu Shot time! (Slightly shorter wait and, thankfully, way less people)

And if all that was not enough, somehow I thought hitting the grocery store would be a genius idea. HA! Grocery shopping at lunch time on a Friday… not so smart. But at least there is some food in the house now!

Our mail delivery has been sketchy at best, most days we get no mail. No bills, no junk mail, no mail period. I have long been signed up for “informed delivery” and you would think the PO would get sick of me telling them things were not delivered, but nope… it does not matter… I think we have Newman “delivering” our mail. Ha!

So mailing our ballots back to the county was not something I was willing to risk. Saturday morning we headed off to drop off our ballots. Yes, there were long lines! But it was like a well oiled machine! Want to vote? Enter Here! Want to drop off your ballot? Enter Here! So we excitedly, HAPPILY!! cast our ballots on Saturday! And let me tell you how amazing it felt to be voting with lots and lots of Biden Voters!! Hope springs eternal in the voting line!! (but again, LOTS OF PEOPLE!!)

After all that excitement, I was happy to return home and stay there for the remainder of the weekend!

I spent a good bit of time Sunday setting up my new calendar insert…and I am so excited to start this week with it! I have set up through the start of next year and it feels good! Now that laundry is underway I am going to spend some time organizing my inserts! Then I will feel ready to attack the week! I hope to share with you all next week how the new calendar set up is working!

Oh, and I have clean and fill some pens with autumn-y inks on my list today too!

How about you? How was your weekend?

 

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