Pumpkin Sunrise

  How are you? Are you living your best life? Well, around here I'm trying my best while I navigate feeling a bit under the weather earlier this week and a myriad of things to do. My ideas and tasks are like buzzing little gnats around my face. I write down those thoughts hoping to swat away their annoyance but then more pop up. Isn't that life? Each morning I ask myself 'how present are you going to be today?'. The answers vary but I do try. I haven't done a Happy list for awhile so here it goes: - for May arriving tomorrow - y a y -for apple blossoms and rhododendron blossoms and dogwood blossoms - breath-taking beautiful -for SIMPLE dinners so I don't have to spent much time in the kitchen -for every single belonging that we donate and get out of the house - it is freeing -for Frodo snuggles and his complete devotion -for Holly's antics and playing fetch with me each morning -for morning coffee -for notebooks and pens and watercolors -for being okay with ...

  My knitting news isn't much since I've been exclusively knitting the same project for the past couple of weeks. That is what happens when a shawl is lace weight and on size four needles.  I love working on this shawl so much and I'm seriously contemplating another one in lace weight right after this one. This might be too much of a good thing and I might change my mind. What I like about doing another one is using up more lace weight wool in my stash and not thinking too deeply upon following a pattern since the stitch design is permanently memorized.  What are you working on this week?

 My goodness did I just have a difficult time aligning these photos, so goes a Monday morning.  How are you? How was your weekend? Spring is here! Look at my dogwood trees, although the blossoms are a bit tiny this year, still they are beautiful. We started the Big Declutter this weekend. I went through all of my clothes and will donate what is in the photo below. My husband is half way through his clothing. The problem with big closets is that you can stuff them with tons of things you don't need. I probably could get rid of more clothes but for now I'm satisfied with the progress. Baby steps with letting go.  Even though we are busy with the decluttering, I am managing to sit and knit each evening on the same two projects. I also squeeze in some sketching time. How was your weekend?

  Good morning! How are all of you? How has your week been?  Spring took a nose dive for a few days with temperatures in the forties. Good grief. I am thankful that my rhododendron blossoms survived. Within days, my flowering apple tree should be showing off. The older I get the more I like spring. I don't mind the cold blitzes all that much either. I'm hoping today we get out for a daily walk in sunshine. Frodo had a 'beauty' appointment and is looking ever so dapper. He shivers for two-three days from the conservative hair cut. He's such an old man, we just blanket him up and love him as his body adjusts. The knitting continues to be only at night time. I have officially started the Great Declutter this week. I worked mainly on thinning out the filing cabinet and the overflow of documents into SIX shoeboxes. I've made great progress and finished the last drawer yesterday. I'm now contemplating going through my clothing. I know once I start I will create a ...

  This past week I've been working on the same projects. As you can see in the above photo, I finished the first Christmas stocking and have started the second stocking. This is my zoom knitting because I do not have to think for most of it, just stockinette stitch around and around. The second project is the triangle shawl . I work on this mostly in the evenings, overall I love the pattern but the hand dyed wool tends to pool once in a while, I'm hoping that the pooling looks like a design feature. Unfortunately I was mid-row when I snapped the photo so you cannot see the triangle shape, trust me it is a triangle. What are you working on this week?

  How was your weekend? My Saturday was wonderful and my Sunday was 'okay'. Saturday I spent the afternoon reading The Outsider by Stephen King (it is really good).  Whenever I have an afternoon reading it reminds me of my childhood and teenage years when I would marathon read. I highly recommend. I finished the first Christmas stocking out of three to be made and cast on the second one. I'm pleased with my progress and now I know exactly how much red yarn I need. I will write some notes to my future self. Sunday is my chore day and I was delayed to do any of them because my husband has been doing some drywall mudding and painting in the laundry room and the master bathroom. I cleaned up all of that 'drywall mud dust' in the laundry room and that set off an allergic reaction. I wasn't wearing a mask and I should have known better. Being a human that can learn, I wore a mask in the master bathroom and thus avoided an allergic reaction. I was super grumpy over the...

  I just love the mood of the above photo, I snapped it yesterday morning to capture the green sheen of spring arriving and afterwards noticed the sunrise trying its best to break through the clouds. Isn't it funny how you focus on one thing and one thing only and there are so many other elements when you expand your awareness. As you can probably tell, I've been diligently living in the now and ignoring the 'what ifs' of the future, well, I am trying my best to live in the now. Witnessing nature definitely places me in the here and now and I find it soothing to embrace the change of seasons. I'm grateful I live in the northeast where there are four seasons to enjoy. I took an eight month break from sketching daily and now that I am doing it once more, I am loving it. I see so much progress from when I first started the practice. I'm confident as I continue showing up and sketching, my skills will continue to improve.  Now onto the Christmas stocking, I had eno...

  Good morning! Even though I have the mildest case of ennui with my knitting, I have been knitting faithfully on two projects and enjoying them both AND I am mulling over a third cast on in the near future just haven't decided on a pattern as of yet.  First up is the pink shawl in the above photo. This pattern is super easy to memorize (for me) and I just truck along row after row after row. There are two ways to knit the shawl - bottom up triangle (the one I chose) or an edge to edge construction.  Now about the Christmas stocking below, I wish the Past Me would have made better notes when I made these 5 years ago for my daughter and her husband and documented how much yarn I used. Sadly, the Past Me wasn't diligent. The Current Me is just hoping this takes one skein of red.  It's not a big deal at all, just something I am mulling about. I have two skeins of this red and would be pleased to get two stockings out of it. Somehow the unknown is thrilling and gives l...

  Good morning! How was your weekend? This weekend was the perfect mix of everything. The knitting, the painting, the writing and the chores around the house. Yesterday it rained all day and while it was dismal looking outside and dampened my mood, I loved the sound of the drizzle and the singing birds mixed together. I'm assured that the greening up of the landscaping is going to happen this week. I am ready! We picked up a pizza on Friday night, a rare treat since we cook nearly every day or eat the leftovers from cooking. What a treat! Saturday was left over pizza. Yesterday my husband cooked a curry. I'm making slow but steady progress on the pink shawl as every other row adds a few more stitches. The stitch pattern is easily memorizable so I'm in knitting heaven.  After I publish this post, I have to sketch out what needs to be done this week. Plus I am focusing again on tweaking the menus and increasing the exercise schedule. Last week was an off week due to minor ach...

  Hello to: daffodils and endless sunshine (for now) - to lunch salads and lighter meals - to sitting outside - to birds singing at the break of dawn - to spring cleaning (well sort of..) - to freshness and newness - to lighter knitting projects - to sketching something daily Goodbye to: winter coats - wool wearings - darkness - winter days - writing a haiku a day (phew!) - to expectations and same old same old -sitting inside the house - snow (fingers crossed on that one) How are you?  This past week I've been bit with the spring time bug. I am soaking up these warm temps and even switched the fall/winter bedding to the spring/summer bedding. I had a window opened and the fresh smell permeated the entire room. Early spring is a good time. I've been working exclusively on the above lace project. To be honest, my knitting mojo is minimal right now and I am completely at peace with that feeling. You and I both know that it's temporary.  I was behind on so many tasks that th...

  Hello! How are you? I took a mini break from the blog posting and now I'm here to tell you all about the finished sweater. As you and I both predicted, the sweater is finished. Just in time for the  upcoming fall season. I love knowing that when that cool crisp air blows, I'll have a brand new sweater to wear. I really don't want to wear a heavy wool sweater right now. I'm pleased with how this turned out and how the color work makes the sweater's statement. Honestly I could knit this again for a third time, but after a break. I've got lots of other knitting projects that are swirling in the back of my mind. Now that the weather is warming up and spring is in the air, I'll be switching to shawl knitting and maybe more sock knitting. Ravelry notes   What are you working on this week?

  Wasn't this week a rollercoaster with what the weather would be! We has sun, we had warm, we had cold we had a bit of a dusting of snow. I think Mother Nature is feeling all the feels this week. It doesn't matter to me, each day we are one day closer to warmer days. I'll take the occasional blast of snow in stride. There's been lots of journaling as always. I find it soothing and therapeutic. So that is where I need to be right now in this moment.  For April I am suspending my 'haiku a day' challenge. I might be haiku-ed out with thinking up my poems. I did that challenge both for February and March. I'm switching back to sketching daily with a sketching prompt from Doodlewash , they are great for some quick sketching ideas. This is supposed to be fun so my perfectionism is being set aside. If we were living in a perfect knitting world, I would be telling you all about how I finished the sweater. Well, I have 10 rows to go and then it will be reality.  I...