Sapphires today

If I were an anniversary, that is what I should get... but I'm not an anniversary. It is, however, my birthday and I am 45 years old today. I don't feel 45 at all but that is what the math comes to when you take away my birth year from this year so that is what I am.

It has been a nice day so far. I should have cleaned up but I didn't. My folks came down and I showed off my present - a new 4K smart television. I played a bit of "Rogue One" for them because the picture is awesome and that movie is epic from a cinegraphic standpoint. Is cinegraphic even a word? Oh well, it is now. After that, we went downtown to have some lunch. A cute place with the best French fries. It's called "A Matter of Taste". The sweet tea is heavenly and the fries can't be beat, I swear. I have never gotten a bad meal there, ever. Once we finished, Mama and I went down to "Quilts on Plum Lane" to wander around and Daddy went up to his favorite antique shoppe. My downtown is 90% antique establishments. It is what we are known for, I think. Oh, but between lunch and shops, I hopped into Olga's and got an assorted dozen donuts! That bakery makes the best donuts, I swear.

I'm home now, waiting on Hobbit to pop in from school. Since it's my birthday, I get a free drink from Starbucks. I need to get a card for my Secret Santa at work and see if I can't find one or two more things for Pokey to open on Christmas morning. I'll have Hobbit with me so that should make things easier. He is just not an easy man to buy for because all he does is go to work and play Elder Scrolls. Limits the possibilities.

I think I'll play my recorder for a bit while the house is my own. Nice way to unwind before the second half of my birthday begins.

Wow, almost a month

Working 60 hours a week will do that to a person. I have my core hours of just 40 but then I pick up 20 hours a week of overtime... all but 5 of that is mandatory right now so with the way the schedules are done, it's just easier to tack it on to three days and be done with it. I've revamped my thoughts and instead of worrying about my weekends, I try to not have OT on the actual weekends when my family is home. At least this way I can remember what they look like now. Needless to say, I am constantly exhausted... and this isn't looking like it will change before Spring since we are fast approaching "Peak Season".

I have still be crafting though, so that's a good thing. Here are some of the things I have been up to lately...

Can you guess what is easiest to work with while you are on the phone? Some of those hats only took me a single shift to work... then again, when you are working 15 hour days, that is a nice chunk of knitting time because if you are talking, there is no reason why your hands can't be moving as well as your mouth. It was all mindless knitting... well, that cowl took a little bit of thought process and the tam in the upper right corner was not easy so that one was mostly on breaks and lunch. Let me rephrase that - the pattern was easy, if you can give it your full attention. It has a nice repeat but if you have someone yelling at you in your ear, you can't do it.

I have been crocheting too - and I have been teaching a friend from work how to do it! If you follow me on Instagram then you saw how awesomely I peopled yesterday. SO proud of me for that - and her for picking it up so quickly. She sent me a text later last night with a total of four grannies on it! She's going to have a blanket for Christmas if she keeps up that pace... and that is her goal. I have been working a Christmas present so I can show you bits of it but not the whole thing... well, I could show you the whole thing it isn't even a thing yet. Hang on, I'll snap a quick shot of it...

The top two and bottom left are all completed. I am almost done with the fourth set, the bottom right. I have 3.5 more to do on those which I hope to have done today. The fifth set is only 6 squares so that is my goal by Sunday night. The sixth set has 10 squares so I am giving myself until the next weekend to get those done - I will lose a crafting day on Friday because the recipient will be with me on my birthday and I can't work on it while she is here. Once the squares are all done, I'll need a few days to seam them together in the proper charted order and then it is on to the cuffs, button band, and collar! I have until the day after Christmas to finish it. I will need every second of it too.

Time to have some coffee before I toddle off to get service done on my SUV. Regular maintenance stuff but still takes time out of my day that I wish it didn't. Once I'm done, I need to come back here and clean, do laundry, etc because that is apparently what my weekends are for now. Not getting into that at the moment... that's a whole different post if I ever decided to go there.

Hope all of your Christmas crafting is going well. Do you have any super large projects that you are rushing to get done?