Feeling Tuckered Out Today

I spent a great portion of the day yesterday hanging out with my friend, Andrea, and her two daughters Allisa and Elise.  Allisa had a class on the OSU campus so I rode with Andrea to help her find the place and also to offer her company.  Waiting for Allisa we hung out at the Panera on campus. That was a treat!  I hadn't been to that location before and it offered us the opportunity to see a little bit of campus.  It was weird seeing the college students.  I thought that most of them looked like kids which was so funny to me considering when I was in college I felt so grown up.  Leaving campus we headed downtown to peruse the Main Library.  That was an event.  Lots and Lots of people downtown!  We cruised High Street of course!  I couldn't fingure out why it was so busy.  We were literally sitting though traffic lights.  There were people everywhere not only in cars but walking up and down High Street.  After passing the Convention Center, it dawned on me that the Arnold Classic was in town this week.  No wonder why there were so many guys with "Guns!"  

We made it to the Main Library after I couldn't remember exactly how to get there.  I have only been twice and I've never driven there.  Anyway, Andrea happened to turn down the right street!  Whew!  We went in and looked around.  I went to the little kids section with her and Elise.  Elise is 5 and super energetic.  She wanted to see the Tree House and ran for it first!  I was so impressed with the kids section.  I would love to go and sit and hang out for a day.  The kids had so much fun.  But the one thing about the Main Library that impresses me is that they display a lot of artwork.  This is something that all the Art and Crafty people around the area should look into.

After leaving the library.  We headed over to Grandview to Noodles and Company.  I had never been before but had always heard that their food was Delish!  Andrea treated me to lunch for hanging out with her all day and I must say for myself, the food was Delicious!  I didn't know what to expect but the flavors were fabulous!

Andrea dropped me off at home and I then came in and waited for my Mom to eat and get cleaned up so that we could go to Andrea's house and hang out for a little while.  We wanted to share with her our treasures from Knit Camp this year.  We showed her our favors, our gifts from the welcoming committee as well as the projects we either started at camp or want to do as a result of getting patterns from camp.  So all was well and we had a great time!

With all that said, I'm a bit tuckered out from hanging out all day yesterday.  However, I am in need of doing some cleaning today because we might have a Senior Knitting Guest coming to visit us next weekend!  I won't mention her name because she is so Elusive she only does guest star appearances once or twice a year!

MY BUCKET LIST

I've recently been talking to my Mom and some of my friends about things I want to do.  What could be a better time than for me to start a Bucket List.  After all, I'm not getting any younger...just wiser!

These are all the things that I can think of right now that I want to do but not necessarily in any order:

1.) Meet my Pen Pal, Trish, in person.  (Yes, I have a pen pal!  We became Pen Pals in the 5th grade and have been in touch ever since.  Now we mostly correspond via e-mail)
2.) Meet Jon Bon Jovi!  ( I say that with an exclamation point because I've been to enough of his concerts, read enough articles on him and have seen almost every show that has featured him to feel like I know him.)
3.) Go to New Orleans.  I've always known my Paternal Grandmother was born in Louisiana but I didn't know that she was actually born in New Orleans and that she had other brothers and sisters.  I would like to research if not meet my family.
4.) Go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras!  Yeah, did you think that I could go to New Orleans and not go their for Mardi Gras!
5.) Go to Rio De Janiero for Carnival.
6.) There are a whole bunch of cities/towns (pueblos) in Mexico and South America I would like to visit.  I would list them but I don't even know that I could spell them correctly right now.
7.) Go to Spain.
8.) Go to Italy.
9.) Go to Greece.
10.) Go to France.
11.) Go to the UK to hit all the yarn shops!
12.) Go to Australia.  Since I know a little more about it now from watching Oprah's adventures there, sad but true, I've been thinking about going.
13.) Write a book.  Preferrably more than one but I'll start with one.
14.) Open my own Book/Yarn/Coffee/Pastry shop. 
15.) Use up all of my current yarn stash (I know, like that will ever happen!)
16.) Tour the Egyptian Pyramids.
17.) Eat at the Lady and Son's Restaurant.

That's all that I can think of for now.  Let's see how long it takes me to do any of the things I have on my list!

Starting the New Year Off Right

I have decided that I want to do more reading.  I do read but not as much as I would like.  I think I got away from it with knitting.  Most of my spare time is spent on Knitting or crocheting or any other Artistic hobby that I have.  Its not that I like those hobbies better I think it is just that I feel more productive when I have an object at the end of my "session".  I want to get back into reading as I also want to get back into writing. 

Whatever I'm into at the time I seem to have ideas flow like there is no tomorrow.  When I was reading a lot of Shakespeare and watching a lot of Shakespeare I would get story ideas and hear Shakespearian voices in my head.  Yes, I'm a nerd...........Anyway, when I read novels I get ideas based on the "voice" of the characters I am reading. 

I want to finally sit down and put my ideas to paper.  They may be great or they may just be good but I know that I won't be satisfied until I finally write my story. 

PS I know they won't be bad........Now how is that for positive thinking!

So much to do and so little time

One of my dilemmas are that I'm trying to fit reading into my daily activities. Reading was going well.  I was reading during my break at work but I had quit taking my break or when I did take it I used the time to make phone calls.  So other than listening to books on CD/Tape I wasn't physically reading anything.  Not all good books are available to listen to.  I have since found that out.  Also, no craft books are on CD and if they were would they really be any good.

My time at home should, right now, be designated on cleaning and getting my house in order for the holidays.  I don't have time to read at home at all and I have been working on making scarves for the craft shows that my mom and I are going to be in.  I was also going to make some Christmas presents this year.

I'm still making those scarves for the craft shows.  We just had a craft show a couple weekends ago and we just had two craft shows come up for us to attend! 

I started one of my Christmas presents when we first started meeting at my friend, Andrea's house for knitting but I haven't worked on that since that 2nd time we got together and I'm far from being done with it.

Oh and did I mention that I also joined NaNoWriMo.  What in the heck was I thinking!  This is the Month of November!  It is the middle of the month, just a little over the middle of the month and I have two holidays to get through.   Also, the job that I have...........yeah, I work full-time in corporate America......................Has end of month and end of year close.  So I'm going to be working my booty off!

Wow I can't believe I haven't posted since July!

I really thought that I've posted more recently than July.  Maybe I just think up things and think about posting it and then never getting around to it.  Tonight I'm on-line perusing (I hope I spelled that right!).  I had a sell on Etsy and decided to look around and see what was out there.  You know, finding stuff I would love to buy if I were a little bit richer....Okay, just a couple dollars richer would do!  Anyway, I found this Cowl that was $118.00.  I couldn't believe it.  Don't get me wrong.  This lady is a hand crafter.  She knits and crochets.  So I'm more than sure she deserves to get that amount for her product.  I guess I was just shell shocked because I'm a knitter and a crocheter and I have hand crocheted throws that I haven't asked that much for.  I need to get in gear!  I know what product she used to make her cowl so that was the more shocking.  I guess what I'm trying to say here is I'M NOT CHARGING ENOUGH! 

Okay,  now that I have gotten that out of my system...

What I've been up to:  I'm still knitting and crocheting.  More crocheting now than anything.  I have found that crocheting doesn't hurt my shoulder as much as knitting does and I can sit down and crochet for two hours straight without feeling pain whereas knitting I have to quit and rest after a half hour.  I've even tried holding my needles a different way and it still doesn't help. 

I've been crocheting/knitting at home, with  my friend Kristie when I can and with my Etsy girls.  I say that because so far only females have joined the knitting group and they have been only Etsy Team Columbus members.  We try to get together every two weeks but sometimes with everyone having something going on we try to get together when we can.

I have also been reading a lot.  Physical reading.  I listen to books on CD all the time at work and in the car but I have found some books (lots of books) aren't necessarily on CD so I've also been reading at home.  I've most recently finished reading a couple of books by Nora Roberts - which I need to update my Goodreads account.  I've also read some books about UFOs - Hello tonight, new season, Ancient Aliens on the History Channel, 10 PM. {I love to promote things I love!}

My house is still a work in progress.  I'm working between my bedroom and my craft room.  It's hard to say which room needs the most cleaning and organizing but they both affect me a lot so I want them both done NOW!

Oh, and I walked in the Strides Against Breast Cancer walk on Sunday.  It was a beautiful day and I was able to walk with friends so what more can I say!

I'm trying to dream up new products to make.  I've been looking through magazines to get my next project.  I have vowed to make one nice thing for myself every 6 months or so.  You can't knit, crochet and even sew all the time without doing something for yourself. 

That's all for now.  I need to save something to post for tomorrow, or Saturday or Sunday.......  :-)

Updating my Websites - Ravelry, Goodreads and LibraryThing

Last night and today I've been updating some of my websites.  On Ravelry (CrafterbyNight) I barely had anything on there, from projects to books to really anything. This is how it all started: I met up with some of my friends on Friday night and Cath (BeanCountKnitter) asked me if a book I was trying to tell them about was in my library on Ravelry.  Well to my dismay it was not and my fleeting memory could not remember the book's name.  I have a Goodreads account but I don't have a lot of my craft books on there.  So I got the idea to start tracking all of my books.  First I went to Ravelry and uploaded a few of the books that I had available at my fingertips.  One of the books that I was trying to upload couldn't be found so in the description of Add Books it said I could go to Librarything.com/export and upload their thingy to import books into my account.  Since I already had Goodreads I thought that I could use Librarything to keep track of just the books that I own, not including the books that I want to read.  I uploaded about 20 books and tried to upload the importer from Librarything and I got the message that it was either not working or the site was no longer available.  That really got my goat but I felt that I could still use Librarything for keeping track of my books.  So I went ahead and uploaded some more books on it last night and today just a few minutes ago.  I added more books to Ravelry and even finished reading a book a little earlier, I updated my Goodreads account and added more books that I wish to read to my account.  I say that's a lot for a good day of rest and relaxation!

Now I'm going to have a bowl of chili and watch a movie.  Happy Sunday!

Ashley's Wedding Present

I was finally able to give my "Little Sister", Ashley her wedding present.   Susi Soler made this wallhanging.  It is made in the Log Cabin Quilt fashion.  Hearth and Home!  It was made in Ashley's wedding colors.

Ashley and Chris, wishing you a very happy life together!

http://www.susiartquilts.etsy.com/