Today, on our street...

there was a little parade, and all the neighbors came out to watch!

Getting back to normal?

Long story short (never thought I'd say that here!), I have not wanted to blog much, lately.  Sometimes I wanted to and I couldn't get to it.  I like my blog to be full of light and joy, and in the moments I could see the light and joy, I was too busy to blog.  Face it, I slog through January and February, and parts of March, to get to Spring. 

So here I am, getting back to normal.  The past year, I have done a lot of things I didn't expect, like going to all the Stitches conventions and finally making some good money as a knitter or / and photographer.  When I have late night calls to my hotel room from tearful little hearts, it makes me reexamine what's driving me.  I know in my heart that the number one job I have is wife / mother.  (They are not the same job, but they are pretty hard to separate, most of the time.)  I also know that having something new to learn, to contribute to, to be proud of, outside of my family unite, gives me more to give back to my family.  Anyway, it's been an interesting year.  I've become a better traveler, and since my family has not traveled much, I hope to push them all out into the world more, and I know my experiences will allow me to be a better guide!  I like to think I am also contributing more to my LYS.  

Around here, I am recovering from a week that included travel, a broken washing machine, a computer virus, and more dental work.  Not to mention tons of snow and gray skies, and all the tragedies we've had (like Boston and Texas.)  Today, it has been mostly warm and sunny, and we went out and took stock of the yard and garden.  Those lovely heralds of spring I love, the marsh marigold, the chives, the allium, were all peeking out.  Looking back through my pictures from last year, I realized that a year ago, I had armloads of lilacs.  They are not out yet this year, I guess Someone told them it was not time yet.  

I have tons of things I could tell you, about my most recent trip, my most recent projects, etc., but I will save them for another post (hopefully soon!) 

spring

I have a lot of things to say, as always, just not always time to sit and sort it out.

tuesday

 
I keep waiting for life to get simpler, but it doesn't.  I'm also waiting for spring. Hopefully, that's right around the corner. 

We watch food tv.

My middle child just made dinner (pizza burgers) and then asked me, "We're all done except for the plating, right?"

Snow

 

If you've never been to Colorado, you might think it's mostly cold and snowy.  It's not; we have one of the highest percentages of sunny days in a year.  You might think everyone drives a four-wheel-drive vehicle.  We don't.  Most of us have one 4x4, but many people with only one car don't, and never need that feature.   This year, our January has been really warm and dry; in fact, yesterday my little family all went to the park without coats, though I wished I'd brought my hat!  Today, it's snowing.  I'm home with no where to go, and nothing that must get done except dinner, and I think I'll have time to knit.  And possibly crochet. 

My favorite thing about snow is the sound.  Yes, snow has a sound.  Sometimes you can hear it landing on things, but mostly it sounds like the opposite of noise.  Does that make sense?  It's the best I can do to describe it.  Snow and Solitude are friends. 

Crochet: "a new domestic skill."

So, I've started a new hobby, or as my friend Jeni calls it, a new domestic skill. 

I actually learned to crochet as a teen, somewhere around the 12 - 14 year mark in my life, and crocheted a bunch of granny squares.  Then I put them in a box and gave them to my granny for Christmas, of course.  And haven't given it much thought for 20+ years.  But enjoying craft blogs as I do, I've been thinking about it, and every now and then I have had the opportunity to use this skill, if only I had it.  As an adult, I could crochet a chain, if necessary, but that's about it.  Until today!  Today, I learned single crochet, double crochet, and half-double crochet.  Jeni and I are taking the Beginning Crochet class at our LYS, and I picked some crazy colors that I would never normally choose, just for fun.  If there are errors in my work, I'm blissfully unaware.  I've got a handful of patterns bookmarked for future projects.  I'll let you know how it goes!

This is my "something new" photo for the 113 in 2013 list.