All my blessings

My wonderful family, posing as I requested for our first family portrait - ever!

Yesterday was simply amazing.  I found all of my blessings in life under one roof.  I have amazing parents, a wonderful brother who married a sweet woman, an awesome husband, and fabulous kids.  The time we are able to all get together is precious.  I enjoyed yesterday so much and I hope that we won't have to let six and a half years pass by again before we are able to get back together.

We truly are a silly lot.  God, I love my family so much.  Thank you for making them mine!

Happy Thanksgiving

glitter-graphics.com 

I pray that you are surrounded by those you hold most dear. When I give my list of thankful things, y'all are definitely at the top!  I hope that you have a blessed day and stay safe.

Tell-tale sign

Gratuitous puppy shot - he's so cute!  I love his snores.

It's such a tell-tale sign that things are out of sorts around me when my blog gets quiet.  I don't mean for it go quiet like it does but it's just one of those things that happens.  It's like something has got to give and this is where it goes.

I've been sick recently.  Nothing to alarm anyone about - I'm not alarmed anyway but I'll let you know if that changes Monday afternoon after my appointment.  I doubt it though so don't worry.  Anyway, this thingamajig has worn me slap out so I've not done much of anything besides go to work. I get up early, go to work, do what housework I can during my breaks, get off work, cook supper, help with homework, get Hobbit in bed, and then I'm a zombie on the sofa for a good hour before I just kind of doze off and Pokey sweetly toddles me off to bed.  Then I get up the next day and do it all over again.

This new doctor has had me keep a food journal.  It's rather pathetic on the entries but I've kept up with it.  Still feel crummy but hey, I'm doing my 'homework' like a good girl.  I keep looking over it for a something, anything, that looks like a common thread that would have me feeling horrible but I come up empty.  She was trying to tell me it was either food allergies, appendix, or ovaries.  Now how those three things would cause me to feel constantly nauseous, cramped up, and exhausted (along with other details that we'll just smile and nod over) I just don't know.  I would have thought at the ripe ol' age of 41 that if I had a food allergy, I would have known about it well before now.  I'm no doctor but I took Health Education back in 10th grade and my ovaries have nothing to do with my belly.  The only one that makes sense would be my appendix but honestly, I saw my husband go through it all six years ago and it's nothing like what he was going through.  I'm just lost.

I think it is coming along nicely.

So that's why it's been quiet around these parts.  I'm just basically a Petri dish it seems.  Hopefully there will be some kind of answer or direction on Monday because I am completely over it already.  It has been cropping up every few months for years now but since it was getting more severe and more common, I thought it best to have it checked out.  Y'all know I'm stubborn and don't like going to the doctor but sometimes, it just reaches the point where you have to go and get poked.

On the upside, I did start a shawl yesterday.  Pokey wants to gift it to a coworker for Christmas so I thought it best to get started now so I can have it done in time.  I really like how this heathered hunter green is working up.  I have some darker rainbow variegated to use as well.

Sunday Snaps

We started the week helping Butch feel like he was a part of the family and his world was once again secure...

I failed my Order of the Phoenix Mission but I started it super late due to change of pattern so it's my own fault...

By mid-week, things were starting to get into a groove with everyone, even our newest family member...

I finished an epic shawl in a week thanks to Quidditch motivation...

We chaperoned Hobbit's first ever school dance.  She had a wonderful time.

It's been cold enough that I periodically get to rock my awesome new hat and cloak...

and we ended the week with someone finally feeling right at home.

Let the dust settle already

My word, it has been crazy around here.  Deadlines, projects, things I can't tell you about yet, family, illness and unexpected surprises have been running rampant around here.  What to share first, oh, I know...

My assistant, hard at work today.

Allow me to introduce you to Butch.  He is a 6-year-old Bagle Hound... Beagle and Basset Hound mix... and the newest member of our family.  You see, our dog sitter called to take me up on an offer I made about a year ago.  Butch's original owner was in poor health, in and out of hospital care, which resulted in Butch being at our sitter's a great deal.  I had said last year that if he ever needed a home, to please give me a call.

Last week, his owner passed away.  That fact is sad enough but the heartbreaking part is that Butch was left with the body for several days before anyone bothered to check on him.  It breaks my heart on so many levels.  Our sitter received the call and she went to get him, with the next of kin's permission, so Animal Control would not put him down.  When she had him, she called me to let me know what happened and asked if the offer still held true.  After hearing the story, there was no way we could refuse to let Butch into our home.  We all agreed that since he knew our dog sitter fairly well that it would be best if he grieved for a few days at her place before transitioning him again.

We picked him up on Saturday night after I got off work.  He smelled like death, literally, but he got along well with Buddy and Hobbit.  He let me take him out in the yard on his lead and he even wagged his tail by the end of our visit.  When we went to get in the car, he jumped right in and sat down with his head on Pokey's lap.  We gave him an oatmeal bath straight away to help with the smell and he's been settling in nicely.

Now, I had a severe allergic reaction to supper on Sunday night, early Monday morning, which has had me down for the count for the past few days.  Today is the first day where I can be vertical and not feel like I'm going to toss my cookies.  Me being me, I went in to work because I felt bad for not making it in on Tuesday.  Thankfully, my days off this month are Sunday and Monday so I only missed one day.  I'm doing all I can to make it through today.  I have managed to eat 3/4 of a Cinnamon and Sugar pop tart.  Granted, it's taken me the better part of two hours to get to this point but the fact still remains, I'm doing it.

Sneak peek at the color scheme on my shawl

I'm on the final rows of a shawl that I started on the 6th for Quidditch.  I am crossing my fingers that I have enough yarn to do all her repeats for the edge but either way, I've managed to pull out about 1.100 yards when it's all said and done.  I really love how it's coming along.  The colors are just so happy.  Initially I wasn't sure if I would like it but now that it's about done, I really do.  I hope that I will be done with it by tonight but those are some super long rows I'm working with now so we'll see how it goes.  I think I will make it but thankfully the edging is set so that you can stop wherever you need to and it will still look wonderful.  I would love to have the full ten rows but I'm on row four now and just connected my fifth and final skein of Rose Garden.  I have enough of the green left to do a final row so wherever I get with this last skein, that's where the end will be before I do the last row in green.  I'll share it with you when I'm all done.  I promise.

I ordered some yarn from the UK to make myself a sweater.  I hope it arrives in time so I can get the sweater done to wear to Pokey's annual Christmas party that his company throws.  It was a nice enough event last year and this year it will be early in the season instead of on my birthday.  I can wear the cute dress that I wore last year but I need a new top/sweater to wear over it.  Everyone there was so intoxicated that they will never know it's the same dress.  Needless to say, we didn't stay long after supper was over.

There are other things bubbling in the background that I wish I could share with you but I just can't at the moment.  I will soon though, I'm sure.  Okay, it's time to get back to the grind, though I am surely feeling a lot worse for wear the longer I am upright.  Fingers crossed that I can make it through today... that's my goal, anyway.  How about a song to get things in a good direction for the rest of the day...

The realization of a little goal

Back in 2011, I took a tiny step towards one of my big dreams.  I don't know if I've ever shared my particular dream of getting my own pattern book published but it is one of my big dreams.  It has a timeline too so it will become a reality.  This is one little step towards that big dream - and it is just as exciting as I thought it would be, maybe even more.

Three years ago this past August, I submitted a pattern for a book that was going to be published regarding gift knitting in America.  I did it for the experience, fully expecting to be rejected but I was going to use the feedback as a learning tool to improve going forward.  Today, all these years later, what I got was not a rejection but the book that has my original design published pattern in it...

American Gift Knitting by Beth Moriarty of Planet Purl

Yep, my pattern is in there.  That book is in bookstores, on the shelves, waiting for purchase.  I will admit, I giggled and cried and jumped for joy when this package arrived.  I couldn't believe it.  I am now an officially published knitwear designer.  My silly little pattern was chosen from the hundreds of other entries and they said, "Hey, I really like this.  It has such potential.  Let's run with it".  It is such an honor that I am having a difficult time putting it into words.

It's hard to believe that what started out as this has now become something so amazing.

So to all of my fantastically creative friends and family, if you have a dream of becoming bigger than what you fear you can be I am here to tell you that you can absolutely do it.  My daddy was right when he said that the worst they can tell you is no which will leave you no worse off than you were before you started - and that is philosophy that I use to this very day.

Never be afraid to do what you think is impossible or that others have told you is impractical.  Never be afraid to try because you only fail when you fail to try.  Even a lack of success is beneficial because you learn from it and move forward for the next time.  My next step?  Well, it's already being sketched out... and by my deadline of 2017, I hope to have some even more exciting news to share - possibly sooner, you just never know.

"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." - Walt Disney