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The Countdown is ON.

From 52 sleeps to now 13 sleeps until I leave for Jordan.  It sort of snuck up on me to be honest.  I found myself looking at my schedule last week and thinking that I needed to move my arse and start getting my things ready.  Between work and the rest of my life, I don’t have too much time left to get ready.

As soon as I finish this blog post, I’m going to dig up my suitcase.  Yeah!

It’s gearing up to be a very busy couple of months.  Right after my trip, I’ll be moving back home.  Yahoo!  My tenants bought a house and will be gone by the time I get back – a month early.  Even though it hit me a bit below the financial belt, I can’t wait to go back home.  This means I get to enjoy the whole summer.  I’m so excited.

BUT, I will admit that the thought of not having money to travel anymore, once I’m back home, really lets the air out of my balloon in a big way.  I’m giving myself until October, after Peru, and then I will decide if I’ll put the house up for sale.  I LOVE my house.  But if it costs me my freedom to travel, I don’t know if I can sacrifice that.

This is what I’ve been up to:

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Dying silk hankies for Bonnie’s workshop.

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IMG_6891IMG_6893Working on my quilt.

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Finishing and sending off Susie’s Annis Shawl.

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Teaching my sock knitting workshop.

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Going to the spa with the girls.

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Our fourth annual guild spinning retreat.

Now I’m off to pack.

Rambling on a Sunday Morning…

52 sleeps until I leave for Jordan!  I’m so excited.  I’m also a bit nervous.  It is a completely different world than we’re used to here in Canada and the US.  I’ll have to read my little manual again – I need to remember not to shake a man’s hand until he presents his first.  Never go out alone as a woman.  Wear clothes that cover most of your body.  Yikes.  BUT, I can’t imagine how amazing this trip will be.

To all those who helped me out with donations, thank you.  You guys ROCK!

On another note, I’ve been busy.  I always say that don’t I?  It’s true though.  I’m not making excuses.  🙂

Since the end of March, I finished up a few orders.

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Finally got my paperwork sorted so I could have Jacob and my taxes done.20140427-082543.jpg

I went from wearing boots to wearing my flip-flops.  This makes me very happy.  It is, however, evident that I need a pedicure in a big way.

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I’m teaching a sock knitting class in May.  I went on the site and got really excited when I saw my name there as an instructor.  I’ve been working on my class materials every since.

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I finally finished my Annis for Susie.  This was supposed to be a birthday/thank you gift but October has come and gone.  I missed the boat.  Now it gets to just be a thank you gift.20140427-082712.jpg20140427-082730.jpg

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I’ve also adopted a new craft, I think.  Last weekend, I went up north to visit my good friend Christine, who is a quilter.  Long ago, when we met, I asked her if she would help me make my first quilt.  She accepted and off we went.  She even got all my fabric.  She had sent me some fabric options and I was just completely overwhelmed.  I don’t know how people pick so many fabrics and make such beautiful quilts.  I would probably have just picked a bunch of fabrics that I liked and they would have made a really UGLY quilt.  Hahaha.  In come Jelly Rolls!  I love those.

Thank you Chris for taking care of all the overwhelming stuff.

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The top is done.  The bottom is done.  I’m heading back up there next weekend to put the pieces together, get them on the rack and start quilting – by hand.  We’re doing it old-school!  I can’t wait.

Lastly (for today), I got word from my tenants that they’ve purchased a house.  They’ll be leaving a month early.  Which is starting to look like the month I’ll be using to fix up the house before I move back in.  Since I’ve been gone, so many things have gone wrong over there.  It feels like the house is falling apart.  I’ve never had any major problems when I was there.  Apparently, all these little things decided to wait until I was gone to crap out.  I just can’t wait to get in there and take care of my beloved house.

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Today is going to be a great day!  I’m going to hang out with some of the spinning guild girls to dye sink hankies for Bonnie’s workshop on the 24th.  How about that!?

Have a lovely week everyone.

Oh, and if anyone is interested in the workshops mentioned above, go sign up!

Twistle Guild of Glengarry – here’s the link.  You can have a look at all the workshops.  Registration has been extended.

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I Might be Obsessed…

With YOGA!

I started practicing yoga in October/November of 2012.  I never thought it would become such a huge part of my life.  At first, I was doing it as a form of exercise.  I immediately realized that as well as making my body feel good, it was the only time in a day that my mind stayed quiet (ok… mostly quiet).  That’s when I fell in love with it.  A quiet mind, even if it’s only for an hour a couple of times a week, is a little slice of heaven.

A year and a half later, I find myself making time each day for yoga.  It always makes me feel wonderful.  At the end of class on Monday night, the teacher looked at me and said “You looks blissed-out” and giggled a bit.

Here are the reasons I love yoga:

  • It forces me to slow down.
  • It helps me ground.
  • My mind gets calm.  (This used to be very rare.)
  • Yoga is ME time.
  • I listen to my body more, on and off the mat.
  • I feel a lot more positive about life and deal with things more calmly.
  • It has taught me patience for myself and others.
  • I feel more love.  🙂
  • Breathing!  So awesome.

When I talk to people about yoga, I tell them that it’s probably the only time/place I feel graceful, strong, able, un-judged, happy, centred, peaceful and BEAUTIFUL.  Who doesn’t want to feel like that???  Even if it’s just for a little slice of time in your day or week.

It wasn’t always that way though.  I struggled with poses, balance and ease for a while.  Like everything else:  you have to have the patience to suck at first.  But then one day, things just started to click.  Poses got easier, I was breathing into some good stretches and things just started to feel really good.

I hope to be able to get my teacher certification next year.  In the meantime, this is what my reading list looks like:

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I follow this wonderful Yogi named Adrien Mishler.  I just love her.  She’s quirky and funny and goofy and sometimes she swears, which cracks me up.  I’m doing her Reboot right now and am loving it.  She posted a book list with many of the above books a few weeks ago and mentioned starting a book club.  Man, was I excited!  I want to learn as much as I can.  It’s so fun.

On a completely different note, I haven’t had much time recently to knit/crochet.  Strange, but the urge is not as strong lately.  These are a few of the little projects I’ve managed to churn out in the past month or so.

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I guess I’ve been a BIT busy travelling.  I know I haven’t posted any pictures of Vegas but we’re waiting to get all our pictures together.   Then… watch out!

That’s it for me for today.

(Blogging has become difficult for some reason.  I feel a bit like I don’t have anything to say.  Or sometimes, that the words just don’t flow.  Maybe I’ll get over it.  Or maybe I’m just having too much fun.  :))

Kicking 2014’s Ass.

Sheesh!  A lot has happened since mid-December.  I don’t know where to start really.  Again.  I’ve been writing this post for a few weeks actually, and I keep getting distracted or the words just don’t flow.

Lake Placid was awesome and crappy all at the same time.  I mean, Lake Placid is always wonderful because it’s beautiful and I got to spend a tone of time with my family.  I hadn’t spent that much time with Jacob since July.  That made my heart very happy.  It was a little less fun than usual because my mom’s husband didn’t come because of health issues so my brother-in-law didn’t come because he didn’t want to be stuck with a bunch of chicks.  He was afraid we would watch girly movies and knit and yack all weekend.  I can’t blame the poor guy.  We made the best of it though.

When we came back from Lake Placid, I had designed a new hat.  I love it.  I used Madelinetosh Pashmina.  This is some seriously awesome yarn.  I called the hat Addi as in Adirondacks.  Thought it was fitting because the yarn was purchased in Lake Placid and I thought up my pattern over there.

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I feel like I knit about 100 of these easy cowls over the holidays.  Every time I finished one, someone would see and ask me to make one for a friend or family member so that they could give it to the for Christmas.

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Here’s a picture of baby Abigail and her Christmas stocking (that I designed and made for her).  How cute is she???

Abby's Sock

January was really quiet. For some reason, in December and January, things seemed to be… less than flow-y.  Tones of road-blocks I called them.  I was getting really frustrated that things weren’t working out the way I had planned for this year.  Doesn’t it suck when that happens?  It was a valuable lesson for me.  Adaptability.  So I shifted my thinking a bit and something wonderful happened: a co-worker asked me if I wanted to stay at his place while he was gone on course – for 20 days!  His place reminded me of being home, out in the country where the snow stays white, the night is dark and you don’t hear the music of the cars driving by when you’re trying to sleep after a night shift.  It was bliss.  I re-charged my battery while I was there, which was much needed.  I’m pretty sure I was in the red zone.  This is when things started to open up – time off was granted, travel plans started to materialize, and as if nothing, all was flowing again.

February has been stupendous so far.  I got to cross New Orleans off my Bucket List.  There are some seriously awesome things to see in NOLA.

Pontalba

The buildings.

Food

The food.  Yum!

Night Life

Burbon Street at night.

Plantation

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The plantations.  They were my absolute favourite things.

Awesome photos

Creepy Pics in the Swamp

Love these creepy pictures.

Drinking in the streets

You can drink on the streets of New Orleans and no one gives you a fine.  🙂

Famous Beignets

The famous beignets at Cafe du Monde.  Yum.

Mardi Gras World

Behind the scenes of the Mardi Gras floats.

The Cold

The cold.

The Yarn Shops

The yarn shops.

Now I’m home for a few weeks and off to Las Vegas.  That’s what I mean by things are finally starting to work out the way they were supposed to this year, minus a few things I’m still sorting out.

That’s all I have today.  I’m too busy living life to blog.  I’m still knitting but don’t have pics to post right now.

Have an awesome rest of the month.  Surely spring is around the corner… 🙂