All set

I don't normally carry a ton of WIPs so I'm doing a Detention OWL this term to clear them out!

I may be crazy for proposing all of these but I can't handle having them hanging around any longer so I am going to do the once a year offering of a Detention OWL over at The Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup on Ravelry.  It doesn't count towards my OWL Mistress badge or for being able to do a NEWT but it will clean out all of my old projects that are just hanging about and making me twitchy.  I have three months to get them done... and here is where they each stand, as of right now...

My Hitchhiker that I started in November.  I am so painfully slow when it comes to knitting, I swear.

This was supposed to a Christmas present for one of Pokey's coworkers - obviously I didn't make it.

This was the first knit project I started after several years of not touching my needles.

Another awesome MADDesign shawl that I love working on but it is just so flipping big, I got burnt out.

I figured with two crochet shawls and two knit shawls, it will give me a nice mix of things to work on.  I am proposing my 50% mark to be when I have completed both crochet shawls, made it to 30 teeth on the Hitchhiker and completed up to x” on the cabled edge shawl.  I really need to figure out what that "x" will be... it's sitting at 18" right now so I think if I can get it to 22" that will be a good indication of halfway... though I'll probably propose it to be 20" and if I go over, then it's all the better but I don't make it, then that's a challenge.  Yeah, I'm going to make it 20", thanks for helping me work through that last bit.

How many WIPs do you have hanging around?  Do you have a point that you reach where you get twitchy too?  Here, enjoy one of my favorite songs while you pull out your pile of WIPs and figure out whether to finish or frog...

Hi there!

It was a low key but very festive season here.

Well, it appears that I needed to take a bit of a break.  I didn't know I needed a break, or I refused to acknowledge it, but any way you look at it, a break was had.  I would like to thank each and every one of you who took the time to write me a message.  It was so very sweet of you to take the time to reach out to me and I appreciated each and every letter that I received.  I promise, I am doing well and did not mean to scare y'all in any way.  I guess I forget sometimes that this is more than just an online diary of my silly life... but it was sure comforting and heartwarming to know that friends here were concerned.  I'm sorry I made you worry.  Please, forgive me.

So, how was your holiday?  Our Christmas was fabulous.  We are looking for a new tradition to start with Hobbit so that she'll have a special memory associated to the holidays.  We have some for the time leading up to Christmas - cookie baking, etc - and we have one for Christmas Eve - light looking, cocoa, Pokey reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas", and Santa tracking - but we were looking for one for Christmas Day... so we went to Walt Disney World after the presents were opened.  By 9:45 am - because Hobbit had us up at 4:30 am! - we were driving through the gates of Disney's Hollywood Studios.  Even though it was crazy busy and full of people, it wasn't too bad.  We chose this particular park because of the Osbourne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights - and because, historically speaking, the Magic Kingdom and Epcot reach capacity and turn people away.  That's just too crazy for me so we went for the smaller park and a slow, relaxing day.

We were greeted by one of the largest Christmas trees I have ever seen in my entire life!

Our first stop, The Great Movie Ride.  This is one of my most favorite attractions in the whole park.

Then we went to Oaken's so Hobbit could build her first ever snowman!

Afterwards, it was off to watch "Lights, Motors, Action!" where we got to watch Lightening McQueen!

After lunch we went on Star Tours to resist the temptation of the dark side - and their cookies.

After a cocoa break, we went to get our pixie dust topped off at my favorite attraction - One Man's Dream.

We ended the night with some magical snow flurries that only Disney could do on Christmas Day.

A stroll through the Osbourne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights was the perfect end to the day.

I don't know if we'll make it a tradition but we certainly made it a most memorable Christmas for her.

I do hope that your holiday - however you celebrate - was filled with the love of family and friends, as well as every blessing of the season.  I know mine was - and you were such a big part of it.

Did I keep my promises?

Every year I write a list of things I promise to try and accomplish during the year.  I don't make resolutions, just promises to try.  This past year, I had some different kinds of promises so I thought I would take inventory to see if I was able to keep them.

My first promise was attempting to pay off all outstanding debt, with the exception of the car.  I am pleased to announce that by January of this coming year, that will have been completed!  It wasn't easy and some weeks, I just wanted to give up but I reminded myself that once those bills are done - they are done and not coming back.  I would think of all the fun things we could do with that money instead and it helped get me through.

My second promise was about crochet colorwork charts.  Yeah, I so didn't even touch it.  I did, however, pick back up my knitting needles after several years and have been attempting to make peace with them.  So while I didn't keep that particular promise, I'm not upset about the reason as to why.

The third promise is a little tricky.  While I continually put funds into savings this year, I also had to continually use the funds I had put up.  I could look at it as in being blessed enough to have the monies available when I needed it instead of how I am practically back to square one on the savings front.  I think I'll choose the latter and just try again next year.  We'll focus it more towards savings and less towards "emergency funds"... maybe I'll set up both and see how it goes.

Fourth spot on the list was dedicated to reading six books this year.  I checked my Goodreads listing and learned that I actually read six books and I am in the middle of my seventh!  I have a few other books in progress but they seem to continually get back-burned for something new.

So for this past year, I think I did a pretty good keeping up with my promises.  I'll be pondering my 2015 list over the next few weeks.  I've got a few things in mind already but I've not ironed out all the particulars just yet.

How have you done with your promises this year?  As long as you gave it an honest try, then you can be proud of what you've accomplished.  Like Albert Einstein always said - "You never fail until you stop trying."

More of everything

More tests.  More waiting.  More crafting.  More working.  More more more more.  I wish I had less some days.  At least the one 'more' that I've been really enjoying is taking more pictures...

The little tree from last year is now in Hobbit's room for the holidays.

I've got everything out for Christmas so we started December all ate up with the spirit.

Even the animals have their stockings up and are waiting for Santa.

I started the week like this... stay tuned, it's grown and I'm tickled over it.

I spend the nights admiring my tree.  I do love all the ornaments and their special meanings.

From the new ones we just picked up within the last five years...

All the way to the ones my mother made when I four years old.  These are my treasures.

Certain ones make me cry - like this one because it reminds me of Peanut and I miss her at Christmas.

To the silly things that Hobbit does to make up for Christmases long past.

I love my tree and all the memories that it holds and shares each year.

This photo is now out of date because I've got a few rows of green on it past the variegated!

I told you it grew!  Who would have something so simple would be such fun.

So here is hoping for a week of less.  A quiet, simple week with the only thing in the "more" category is rest.