Endlessly Fascinated

Full Moon - Second Month

2012-02-09T00:23:00.001-06:00

As I drove to work this morning under the light of the full moon I thought of all I accomplished this month. I'm happy about the progress I made this month. So here is my WIPocalypse update.

Finished
1. Swirly Sampler
Yes, it's done - the HD post is here but to summarize
Last month

This month

I have the frame picked out and am just waiting for the framer to assemble it. I took advantage of a annual sale offered by one of the local framers so it'll be at least 2 weeks until I see the frame and get all the parts put together.

2. On Grandmother's Quilt
I haven't done a Happy Dance post for this, but it is complete and framed
Last Month

This Month

3. Rosebud Lullaby
Yep - same scenario as On Grandmother's Quilt, complete and framed, but have to do the Happy Dance post.
Last Month

This Month

In Progress
1. Newborn Joy
I'm happy with the progress on this one. I would love for this to be done this month, but that might be ambitious.
Last month

This Month

2. Blackwork Sampler
Also pleased with the progress on this one. I started to work on it February 2nd so in a little less than a week this is the progress I've made.
Last Month

This Month

Ideally I would like to complete the stitching by March 7th. At this time this looks doable.

No Progress
1. My Way Canvas Work
2. Once Upon A Time

New Starts
1. "M" is for Mother - I have now purchased the pattern and the accessory pack and still need to pick and buy fabric.
2. Fairy Moon - no news
3. Lost in the Garden - no news
4. Victorian Garden - no news
5. Nothing new has caught my eye and demanded to be started this month. However this is a new month.

I'm quite pleased with the progress I've made this month and hope to continue it. I've been thinking about why I think this is working for me. Creating the list has given me focus. Having no expectations means that I'm not rebelling. Then I also like the fact that I'm reaching my goals so hopefully that will be a high that will spur me on the continue with the progress I've been making.

Cue the Machines!

2012-01-30T11:35:00.000-06:00

I'm doing it again, writing blog entries in my head instead of, you know, on my blog. Here's one that has been simmering since Tuesday.

I'm well known in my lack of affection for housewrok. If I have to scrub something I tend to get bored and wander off. I do like the whole putting things away aspect - I can putz away at that for quite sometime. It's just the actual scrubbing of surfaces that I do not enjoy.

On Tuesday I did the kind of housework that I enjoy - 3 loads of laundry and 1 dishwasher run. At the end of the evening I had clean clothes, clean towels, clean dishes and a nice chunk of stitching done. It reminded me of the other machines I would like in order to take over more of the housecleaning responsibilities.

First of all is the Roomba - a vacuuming robot. I don't actually mind vacuuming, but it's possible that this thing could go under my furniture more than once a year which is my current rate.

But the one that has me really excited is the Scooba which WASHES floors. That is the task that needs to be done way more often than I have a desire to do so. My floors are old and crappy in the bathroom and kitchen and my really poor mopping skills and motivation are not helping them at all.

(The best part of the product description is where it says "all you have to do is sweep" and all I can think is "not if I also have a Roomba.)

So CUE THE MACHINES and let them clean!

Somewhat an Obsession

2012-01-22T00:12:00.001-06:00

So I started with Pioneer Woman and the perfect iced coffee and last summer I made my own.

Oh Wow! was it ever good. But now I know why I don't drink coffee - if I added as much sugar and cream/milk to regular coffee as I do to my iced coffee, the results would not be good. So this stays as a special treat.

I turn this

into this

(In the tupperware container is sweetened condensed milk and the glass jar holds simple syrup)

A lovely treat!

(Oh, I will have an occasional cup of coffee, but only if my sister-in-law doctors it - she is a fellow sugar addict.)

Swirly Sampler Happy Dance

2012-01-16T23:05:00.000-06:00

I actually finished the stitching last Tuesday (10th) but only got it washed and ironed last night. The only reason I own an iron and ironing board is for my stitching.

Swirly Sampler designed by Bent Creek. I stitched it on 32 Count Belfast Linen in Vintage Country Mocha with the recommended floss. I haven't added the charm 'cause I don't have it and haven't decided if I'm going to get it.

I bought the pattern, fabric and thread probably more than five years ago at Stitchers' Heaven in Edmonton AB.

At the beginning of October I was going through my stash looking for some old working copies to see if I had written myself any notes so that I could match with some projects I'm currently working on. I never did find the old working copies, but I did run across the Swirly Sampler all kitted up.

I threw it into my stitching bag since I was heading to my weekly stitch in night with other members of the needlearts guild I belong to. I asked them if I should work on a piece already in progress or start this one that I had found in my stash.

Everyone agreed, start the new project.

This marks the first finish of my WIPocalypse list.

Solution to Your Problems

2012-01-15T18:00:00.000-06:00

In Stinker's quest to understand why unlike most adults in his life, some don't come in pairs (like the question about the uncle that should be traveling life's path with me) he questioned Grandma (Gma) about the Grandpa that should be with her. My grandpa died several years ago and this was explained to Stinker.

He thought that Gma should go out and get another one and when that one died, she could get another, and then another if that one died too.

If only all of our problems could be solved that easily.

Uncle

2012-01-11T17:00:00.000-06:00

I love my nephew, Stinker, he's funny, smart and good looking. Since I've last spoke of him he's been joined by twin brothers (now 20 months old) Easy and Down Low (or Curly, haven't yet decided what his Internet nickname will be). But back to Stinker -

The one thing you need to know about him is he pays attention and he wants to know and understand what is going on. We just spent close to a week with him over Christmas so there were lots of opportunities for us to talk. At one point we were doing something together (probably playing with all of his new Lego) and he asks me "Where is the uncle that comes with you?"

He really makes me laugh. Also, just to prove that the good looking part isn't just a bias on my part...

Full Moon - Month One

2012-01-09T23:12:00.002-06:00

It's time for WIPocalypse check in and since it's also the first time I've posted pictures, these will serve as my "beginning" post as well. I've only worked on one piece since the New Year so it truly is where these pieces were at the beginning of the year.

In Progress
1. Swirly Sampler
This one is the closest to completion and just may be done this week.

2. On Grandmother's Quilt
All I have to do is stitch my nephew's name and birth date on it, wash it, iron it and sew on the crystals, buttons and ribbon.

3. Rosebud Lullaby
I'm proud of this one since I changed the colour of the roses from pink to purple. All that is left is the same list as for On Grandmother's Quilt.

4. Newborn Joy
It's hard to see the progress on this one since it's mostly the white on white stitching. This is for my CSB's youngest son - must remember to e-mail her and ask if she wants the colour of the roses changed on this one. I believe they are yellow.

5. Blackwork Pansy
Am teaching this as a workshop in April, would like it done by the beginning of March.

6. My Way Canvas Work
This is from the workshop in November 2010. I was told by my guild mates I may be the last person to complete it. But I can think of at least 3 other people who aren't done either. I can't start on any of my other kitted up canvas work pieces until this one is done.

7. Once Upon A Time
The oldest one on the list. Also very close to completion, but keeps being pushed aside for "obligation" pieces.

New Starts
1. "M" is for Mother - it's a surprise for the recipient.
2. Fairy Moon - I have had this kitted up since I started Once Upon a Time
3. Lost in the Garden - canvas work
4. Victorian Garden - canvas work
5. Whatever else catches my eye - oh look, shiny!

Test, testy, testing, test

2012-01-08T17:25:00.001-06:00

Let's see how posting from my phone works. Including a picture now.
The picture is of Easy on Christmas Day. At some point he didn't want to wear his shirt anymore.
edit: hmm not sure I'm happy with the picture quality. Maybe I won't be posting that many pics from my phone.

New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-07T19:28:00.000-06:00

Yes, this year I'm declaring what they are - resolutions, not just intentions. I only have two.

1. Do something about the needlework drawer in my coffee table.

My coffee table is fabulous, I designed it and my dad built it. It's a large chest on wheels and it has four large drawers. The upper right drawer is where I keep my stitching stuff and in the last year I've only added stuff to it and not taken anything out. So my intention is to finish things this year and have that drawer be neat and tidy - not a dumping ground when company comes.

This has been brewing for a while - I've already refused to do the fall workshop last November from my guild or sign up for a correspondence course for this winter/spring with my guild. These two activities took a lot of my stitching time the last 18 months so I'm trying to redirect my focus.

The plan at the moment is to finish three pieces quickly that are really close to being done. Then focus on the piece I'm stitching for my CSB's youngest son - he'll be one in a few days so I'm seriously late with this one. After that I'm hoping to finish the large canvaswork piece that was my guild's workshop piece from November 2010.

I'm sure there will be interruptions along the way, but that's okay as long as something is done about the needlework drawer in my coffee table.

2. "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing twice expecting a different result." What am I doing where I don't like the outcome?

I play a lot of Angry Birds and quite often I find myself doing the same thing over and over again - using the birds the same way and the outcome doesn't change. So I remind myself that I'd repeating myself expecting a different result. What else am I doing the same thing?

So this resolution is about being aware of when I'm unhappy with the results I'm getting and asking myself what I need to change to get a different result. I hope with this one what will happen is that at the end of the year I will be doing things where I'm happy with the result I get.

A bit of a side bar to this one - I sometime get into the thought pattern of when I get all these ducks in a row I can do/have what I want. Once again I want to rethink some of these. Is there another way to accomplish my goal?

There you go - actual resolutions even if they don't meet the SMART objective rule. (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) However I think this will work better for me. Let's see.

Bandwagon Hopping

2012-01-07T17:34:00.001-06:00

So there is a movement online called the WIPocalypse started by Measi at Measi Blog and I've known about it since she started talking about it, but kept filing in the back of my mind as interesting. The momentum built and built and I was still thinking about it. I would have to post regularly for an entire year and for those who have followed this blog faithfully (why would you, when I don't faithfully blog) know that I wander off frequently for long periods of time.

But now, the deadline is days away and I think about it more and more. I hate "pressure" with my stitching - it seems to make me stitch less. However the rules for this one is simple - 1. Make a list 2. Post what you've done each month. Okay that sounds doable especially since you don't even have to stitch what's on the list in order to post.

The potentially challenging part is posting pictures since I've been taking most of my pictures with my phone lately. My phone and my computer are currently not talking to each other. So I have a few options to deal with this 1. Convince my phone and computer to talk to each other - I need to do this for more than this. 2. Post directly from my phone. Maybe this would be the secret to getting me to post more often.

So in conclusion, there is nothing stopping me from doing this other than me. So I guess I'm jumping on the bandwagon. Watch for a post, hopefully soon of my current WIPs and the LIST.

Return from the dead

2011-02-04T14:13:00.000-06:00

With a post of what made me laugh.

Namely a comment from this article: How the Canadian Provinces and Territories Got Their Names

There was talk of changing the name, possibly to a term from a native language. Among the popular proposals were “Denendeh,” an Athabaskan word meaning “our land,” and “Bob.”

Failure and Accomplishment

2010-03-05T17:35:00.006-06:00

Failure is the result of experimentation. Failure happens when the results don't meet the expectations. Failure is when you try something new and it doesn't work. I made ganache today and instead of getting a nice smooth chocolate sauce, I got lumpy stuff with oil on top (now that's it's in the fridge, the oil looks like butter). I'm pretty sure it's because of the chocolate I used, but have no idea. If anyone out there has any suggestions I'm all ears.

I also experimented with the cheesecake I made today. Basically I looked at the recipes I had for cheesecake and said none of them will do, so I'll try something else. I have no idea if the cheesecake turned out, but I know it won't be covered in ganache. (I really hope I'm spelling that right - Firefox doesn't think so, but it's suggestions aren't what I want either.) I'm going to have to try the cheesecake in the next couple of days because I'm planning on serving it to other people on Tuesday and if it didn't work, I'll need to move to plan B.

The accomplishment part of the title up there is one of my good intentions. I wanted to clean up my RSS subscriptions this year. In the process of catching up on my blog reading after being gone for 2 weeks (which incidentally is taking me 2 weeks) I've been working on this. I've done a first pass and any blogs that changed location, I made sure I was subscribed to the new location and then unsubscribed to the old one. I also put all the blogs that haven't been updated in a couple of months in an archive folder. Sometime in the next few weeks I want to go through the archive folder and any blogs that I don't know why I subscribed and am pretty sure I wouldn't miss reading them if new material showed up.

The trip to Mexico was great. Here's one of my favourite pictures.

The little boy is my nephew, who I've decided his Internet name will be Stinker. He pays more attention when I call him that then his real name. There may be more stories about Mexico in the next few days, but don't put money on it. Stories that could include the fact that one of my closest friends was only miles away one day when we were there and we should have completely hooked up, but neither one of us knew how close we would be to each other. Of course there is another story about how difficult it is for my family to get home from Mexico. Second year in a row we spent a night in a hotel in a city we had no intention of going to. But for now - good night all.

I'm Not a Vegetarian

2010-01-30T21:57:00.007-06:00

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

My line used to be I eat more vegetables than vegetarians eat meat. I have since then added more vegetables to my regular diet. Tonight's supper was meat-free. Strange.

I made Burgundy Mushrooms from The Pio neer Woman Cooks today. I was going to make them on Wednesday, so Tuesday evening I pulled out the cookbook to check out what I needed to get for groceries to make it. I wasn't even reading the instructions when my eye caught the words "cover with lid and simmer for 6 hours." I read it again and then the next step which was "uncover and simmer for 3 hours." I knew then that it wasn't a weekday supper recipe. I would have to save it for the weekend. This morning I got up and put everything together and on the stove.

Nine hours later I was having supper. It is recommended to serve with crusty bread to sop up the juices. I served it over couscous. The mushrooms are really yummy and I can see making them again. This serves as my good intention to cook from a different cookbook each month. Now I know the internet rule - if there is no picture, it didn't happen.

For the most part I'm happy with how I did with my good intentions this month. One craft project completed, one new recipe tried and some Christmas ornaments made. The photography good intentions didn't work out as well, but there is always room to improve. Next month I won't worry too much about my intentions, with the intention of trying again in March.

Two Things

2010-01-30T10:36:00.003-06:00

First of all, supper is already simmering on the stove (it's before 11 a.m. here) and the smell is fabulous. However, the side effect is that I'm going to want to eat all day so probably won't be hungry by the time it's ready.

Secondly, I'm having a fantastic hair day, but am not leaving my house all day so no one else will see it.

That is all.

Old Laugh

2010-01-26T15:12:00.002-06:00

I've been reading It Made My Day, and yes, it's making me laugh.

It also reminded me of one of my favourite stories. I was at my friend's house and her younger sister who was about 13 at the time was watching TV. After listening to J sing along with a commercial I said, "J you watch too much TV." She spun around to face me and with a deadpan face said "And I eat too much candy." And spun around to watch TV again.

Accomplish

2010-01-24T17:38:00.004-06:00

So what's been going on since the last post? Not much, hence the lack of posts. I've made some more of the Christmas balls I showed in the post. I've now used up all the appropriate cards I had saved from last year. I've made 18 so far. I still don't know where I've stashed previous years cards, so I'm not going to worry about making more for now. I may make more if the cards show up in the great craft supply organization planned for later this year.

I did not consider the Christmas card balls as my intention to complete a craft project a month. I did complete my planned project this evening. Using the instructions from here I made a zippered pouch. You can see my results on the left. The most difficult step for me was the stapling of the second side of the zipper. However the material was quite forgiving in the matter of removing the staples and trying again.

So my criteria for a successful project include how easy was it to accomplish, did the results match my expectations and will I make it again. Like I said, I had trouble with one step, but other than that everything went well. I am pleased with the result - I did not choose fabric that I'm completely in love with (the colour is more burgundy that the picture is showing). The result is quite satisfactory and met my expectation. I will be making more of these. First of all I bought a remnant of fabric from WalMart to do this and I have lots left over, so might as well use it all up. I also have an entire roll of Duct Tape to use. So the cost of future pouches will be more zippers.

I still intend to cook something out of my cookbooks this week. I've decided on making a recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook (website). I was going to try to do it this evening, but the snowstorm has kept me really close to home so haven't had the opportunity to buy all the necessary ingredients.

As for my other good intentions, I haven't been taking a picture a day, maybe I'll do better next week. In fact all my photography intentions have not been successful. But there is still time this year. I've kind have decided to not sweat some of this until after getting back from my holidays in late February. I'm also waiting for some research materials so I'm allowing myself all year to meet my intentions.

My vacation in February will also be a vacation from my good intentions. Since I will be gone for three weekends and the last weekend of the month is already booked with other obligations I will not be pressuring myself to accomplish stuff, especially when it concerns my hobbies. Hobbies are supposed to be fun, not add additional stress to ones life.

Now it's time to decide what to make for supper and then settle in for an evening of stitching, TV and a few chores.

A Little Bit of Christmas

2010-01-13T22:07:00.004-06:00

I think the best time to make Christmas decorations is in January. There is no pressure to complete them now, since Christmas isn't for another 12 months. You are not busy with other Christmas prep like decorating, shopping, baking and finishing projects that are to serve as gifts. The only downside is that you can't display your cool new Christmas decorations for 12 months. I get bonus points since the main material I'm using are old Christmas cards - using, not storing - huge bonus points.

These are the ones I made over the weekend. I'm not very fast, mostly because I'll do some and then I'll get up and check my computer or get distracted by the TV show (or have to change the channel).

They are quite simple to make. Cut your cards into strips. I cut my strips anywhere from 1 cm to 1" and came out to 8 to 20 strips. Punch holes in the top and bottom. I've been using Martha Stewart's hole punch and it works well. It might be the reason these have been slower. I hurt my wrist putting away my trees on Saturday and it's still twinging a bit today. The punch isn't super wrist friendly. The put a couple of fasteners (brads) through the holes, making sure they are thick enough to go through all the sheets. The longest ones I've found were at an office supply store, but only in brass. I picked up a bunch of others at Michaels, but I have to be careful how many strips I have for those because they are not as long. All that's left is bowing the strips of paper and spreading them out to create the ball.
These are the four I made today. I only have 3 cards left to do then I have to find where I stored the previous years cards (in anticipation of doing this project).

These qualify for mention in the good intentions category. Specifically the intention to make more Christmas decorations. It does not count as doing one craft project a month. I have another craft in mind for that intention.

A Good Friday

2010-01-08T23:06:00.007-06:00

Not The Good Friday.

Today was my first earned day off (EDO) of the calendar year and I've had a very good day. It actually started last night. I washed my car and headed grocery shopping. There I parked my car underground so it would dry and not freeze up too badly. After I finished grocery shopping I went to my weekly stitch - in. (It's held in the community room at the grocery store, so it makes sense to do both concurrently.) After thawing out my car thoroughly (3 hours above freezing) the weird clunking sound from the back of my car is gone. Yay! It was also great stitching for the first time in a month.

This morning I got up, showered and started to de-Christmas my house. Boy it takes a long time to take down the decorations on a tree when there are well over 50 ornaments and 4 different types of garlands. I sure glad I leave my lights on year to year and don't use tinsel. I also took the Christmas decorations off the white tree, the mantle and the shelf unit. All that's left is getting the trees actually taken down and put away and packing up the ceramic ornaments. By the way, we have tree decorating parties, we should have tree un-decorating parties since un-decorating is a lot less fun than decoration.

After lunch I headed out running errands. I was 66% successful. I cannot find tree bags in this city. I think I waited a week too long. So it's time to get creative with storing my trees. I also went to my parents for a few minutes before heading home for a nap.

This evening has been great. The curling game was top notch. While watching I worked on the sock I'm knitting. I also made a couple of paper Christmas ornaments. More on these in another post.

So the game plan for tomorrow is a visit to Michaels, breakfast with the gang, spending some time doing stuff at mom & dad's and then working with Photoshop. That will meet my intention to work with Photoshop once a week.

Now a picture and story. The picture is quite simply of my bead garland that goes on my tree every year. I like it a lot - the creamy colour and the fact that there's a lot so it loops around my large tree. The first couple years it was a huge pain to deal with. It would tangle on it's self it you looked at it funny. It took hours to detangle. I think one year it took over 4 hours to get it straightened out and then it had to go on the tree without tangling again. There was a bad chemical smell to them too. Not that your could smell it in the air, but your hands would reek after working with it. Mom came up with the simple solution you see here. We made a bobbin out of some cardboard. Now it goes on and off the tree easily. The chemical smell has also gone away with years of use. I really love it on my tree.

Cross Stitched Humour

2010-01-06T20:00:00.005-06:00

Reminder: need to take picture tonight, especially since I didn't to do it last night. I should be at my needlearts guild meeting tonight, but I'm not feeling 100% so I decided to stay home and save my energy for work tomorrow.

Meanwhile, let's see if any of my readers share my sense of humour.

Here's the information of the design. I have this one on my desktop wallpaper on rotation at work and it makes me laugh every time I see it.

Made Me Laugh

2010-01-01T17:23:00.003-06:00

Last post of the day - I promise. Here's hoping I post again sometime in the future.

One of the reasons I wanted to start a blog is occasionally I live in the moment a little too much. Something happens and I let it slip away - how I felt about it, what I learned, etc. Maybe if I record some of these moments, I won't lose them.

This is a first in what I hope will be a recurring type of post - things that made me laugh, especially out loud. I'm usually alone when it happens, so I want to shore my joy. And the strangeness of my mind.

Today when I drove into my parking lot, I saw a vehicle with personalized Alberta plates that read "HABSRULE"

I won't explain the joke here, but if someone asks, I'll post it in the comments.

Good Intentions

2010-01-01T16:40:00.004-06:00

So New Year's Day (Official Day of Good Intentions) and some people make resolutions and some people resolve not to make resolutions. I'm not that fond of making resolutions since I suck at self-discipline and I don't want to feel bad about myself. I'm also not good with plans, but they are necessary at times.

For the past 6 years while doing school part time I would have summers off at least from the school part of my schedule. This last June when I knew I wasn't going back to school in the fall, I didn't make plans for what I wanted to do during the summer. (Please note, the last time I attempted to blog was early summer, obviously a summer plan that year.) That meant that anything rattling around my brain didn't really get articulated with a deadline and nothing got accomplished. The thing to note about self-inflicted deadlines - I mostly ignore them. However some time after the deadline, I get what I want done. So I need the deadline to make my plan feel more real to me.

Don't worry if the previous paragraph makes no sense. I said I was endlessly fascinated with my mind. It doesn't mean the rest of the world is.

So these aren't goals or resolutions, but what I'm calling good intentions. Sort of like a plan. With a timetable. Subject to change on whim. I am female after all. But there are categories.

Computer
1. Blog. Part of my reason to blog is to record progress on the rest of my good intentions. Hopefully all the posts won't start with "Well I didn't get a done or b done and forget about c, that's never going to happen ..."
2. Weed through the music on my computer. I have picked up stuff from various places over the years and some of it I never listen to, have never listened to, don't know why I have it. So it needs to go.
3. Load all my CD's onto my computer. I know, most people did this about 4 years ago. I know about the trends, but the last thing anyone would call me is trendy. These two intentions have a reward attached to them. I want an iPod Classic to load all my music on.
4. Go through my RSS feed list. Google Reader tells me I have 331 subscriptions. Some I never read the new posts and others that are completely dead. So I need to get rid of the deadwood. (Yeah, yeah, I know this used to be one of the completely dead blogs.)
5. Learn enough about web pages so my blog template doesn't look so dorky.

Photography
I'd like to get good at photography, but that's not going to happen without some effort, so...
1. Learn something new about photography once a month. Potential topics here include camera settings like aperture, or styles/techniques like macro photography. I really would like to take wonderful pictures of my projects and the children in my life.
2. Learn more about photoshop by doing a photoshop tutorial a week or fixing a photo a week.
3. Post pictures related to last 2 intentions on blog.
4. Take more pictures. I'm think this means to trying to do Project 365 which means taking a picture every day. I took one today, if I don't forget I'll post it at the bottom of this really long post. (Incentive to keep reading.)

Cooking
1. I have a lot of cookbooks that I've never made anything out of. So my plan is to cook something from a different cookbook at least once a month. Maybe bake something once a month as well. So then I will try something new every other week.
2. Post results on blog.
3. Invite people over so as to cook for more than just myself all the time.

Crafty
1. Lots of ideas for craft project, very little follow through. I intend to plan/complete a different craft project each month. I have hundreds of ideas stored, so I just need to start trying different stuff.
2. Organize craft supplies. I have just about everything I need, except for the work table. Which since my craft room is also my living room will be the coffee table. My dad is building my coffee table, so once that is done there is no excuse left for not organizing the craft supplies. (Coffee table includes storage.)
3. I love Christmas trees but I haven't made ornaments for several years. I want to make some this year. Especially the idea I have for using old Christmas cards. I'm not making any goals for how many need to be completed, just that I want to work on this.
4. Needless to say I'll be posting the results to my blog, hopefully.

Thus ends the thesis, let's see how this year turns out.

Here's how it started:This is where I slept last night. Grandma spent the night so I gave her my bed and was too lazy to blow up the air mattress.

About me updated

2010-01-01T16:04:00.004-06:00

So I was reading the post that started this all in 2006 that was all about me and decided a few updates were in order.

1. I'm no longer working for the VP of Manufacturing. I know work as a Project Coordinator in Operations. I still don't know what that means, but I still don't answer the phone or type. It's actually a great job with fabulous co-workers/bosses and I really think that we are on the cusp of greatness.

2. School wise I've completed the courses for the Accounting Certificate through the local technical school. I'm taking time off school right now since I've been doing work full-time and school part-time for the last 6 years. Right now I don't have any intentions of pursuing further study unless my career warrants it.

3. My brother and sister-in-law no longer have a dog, but do have a son. I love being an auntie. There may be a lot of Linc stories (or at least pics when I don't have anything better to go with a post, he's so cute). They are also expecting twins in spring. I'm so excited.

4. Megan has 2 sons and Mel has a husband.

5. I have a digital camera and no excuse not to post pictures.

That should catch you up.

Blue Moon

2010-01-01T15:44:00.006-06:00

So it's New Year's Day, or as I like to call it the Official Day of Good Intentions. One of my good intentions is to reactivate this really old blog to record my other good intentions. This time, I'm going to be really brave and tell people about my blog. And I won't lose it again - hopefully.

Last night was a blue moon. The picture was taken by my grandma. We went looking for the moon when I picked her up last night. She spent the night since she didn't want to hang out at my parents while they were having a party. We had a quiet evening. I made a simple supper, we played Mexican Railroad (in which I slaughtered her, the game was close twice - before we started playing and after the 6th round where I got within 30 points of her), watched the end of the exciting Canada/US World Juniors hockey game and went to bed before midnight.

So my hope is that I will post more frequently than once in a blue moon. (Since a blue moon occurs about every 2 1/2 years, I haven't even managed that type of frequency yet.)

Manifesto

2006-07-08T10:29:00.001-06:00

So, now that you know who I am, it's time to discover what this blog is all about. First of all, I make no promises. I hope to post to this regularly, but I'm notorious for starting journals (paper) and dropping them after a couple of days or weeks. I have a lot of essays that drop off in the middle of a sentence or paragraph. Discpline in writing is not my forte.

As to the topics that will be discussed, I make no promises. Somethings that will show up - my friends and family, my hobbies, but mostly the hot topic of my mind. Maybe a link every now and again, possibly some pictures. I have been clipping comics from the newspaper since I was a kid, maybe I'll share some of them with you. Hopefully I'll share some of my works in progress (WIP) for my craft projects, as well as the finished products. I don't have a digital camera, so no guarentees there either.

As to writing style and lengths of articles, well whatever seems appropiate and I have patience for at that moment. I don't promise to always spell check, but I'll try. I tend to like doing asides and will probably be following rabbit trails everywhere. Not to mention parentheses (I love them). While I like writing, I have no desire (or disclipline) at this time to be a professional writer so this is not to perfect my writing style etc.

So far I've told you a lot of what this blog isn't going to be, I think it's time to say what it will be (but no promises - I reserve the right to change this at any time). My goal for this blog is to give me a space to disgorge the contents of my brain. So it could be anything from what's happening in my life, to my thoughts on books, TV, current affairs, to links to what else looks good out there in the world of the internets.

So there you go - what this blog is all about, but no promises.

Introduction

2006-06-25T20:58:00.001-06:00

Well after months of contemplating and weeks of writing this entry in my mind, I guess it's time to get it out there. Let's start with the basics of who I am and go from there. My name is Rachel, and I am a 30 something single woman living in a Western Canadian city. I live close to my parents, whom I'm very close too. I have one brother, younger, but at our age it no longer matters who is married, has one dog and lives about 7-8 hours away. Some of my favourite people in my life includes my only grandmother, my best friend Mel, my cousin Megan, and several other friends you'll probably meet as we go along. I work as an admin assistant for a publicly traded company that designs and manufactures electronic equipment. I report to the Vice-President of Manufacturing and my day consists of anything but answering the phones and typing. My preference is to play with large amounts of data in spreadsheets. I go to school as well, working on getting my Accounting designation. The exact route of how I get there is up in the air right now, but I'm still committed to pursuing it. My hobbies include cross stitching, reading, puttering on the computer, watching TV (too much of it for my own good), knitting and other crafts. Given a choice I would rather indulge in my hobbies than do anything else. Well, that's a start. Next up a manifesto of what this blog is. See you all then.