Domestic Geek

I've caught my stitching bug again. I haven't been very crafty at all the last 2 years, but lately I've dug out the cross stitch stuff and when I can tear myself away from the Facebook groups and Ravelry Cross Stitch group, I have been getting some stitching done.

I have been going more frequently to a cute shop in Littleton called Fancimats & More. The owner, Cindy, is such a doll. I love that I can request something from her on Facebook and if she can get it in, she'll give me a call to come get it when it arrives. I really try to support her locally if I can because I really want her to be around a long time. I was so bummed when the needlework shop I went to in Aurora went out of business. I found her one day when I was still in my knitting obsession as her shop in located right next door to a yarn shop.

I've become hooked on Lizzie Kate charts at the moment. I've got several in my queue to do. I finished the one called "Dogs Leave Paw Prints" twice. The first time, I stitched on it off and on for over a year. When I went to wash the blue disappearing ink pen out of it that I had used to grid the fabric, they turned into dark brown lines. I was so bummed as nothing I did would make them disappear. Lesson learned - I'm only gridding with fishing line or some kind of threat (metallics work well). The second one worked up more quickly. Anyway, there are always cute little boxes done up all over Fancimats and I kept asking the owner if she was going to have a class on them, but one never happened. I finally asked someone on a Facebook group for instructions on how she finished hers and combined with a couple of other tutorials I finally found online - I came up with this. Mr. T was not particularly happy that I made him pose with it, though.



I'm currently finishing up a crafting Santa from Prairie Schooler's Santa series. Here's my progress as of 10/26. I had planned to finish it up this weekend while we were home, but alas, such was not meant to be. I got this week's Team Housewares tournament poster done instead, so that's cool. Maybe by next weekend it will be finished.



I'm also about halfway done with my ruffled scarf I've been knitting. I was really hoping that would be done before winter set in, but I have totally lost my knitting bug.

OK, that's it for an update on my current crafting projects. I'm going to go try to read in bed for a bit before I conk out. Time changes always kick my butt. Sadly, we have to go back to Denver tomorrow. Really not looking forward to that.

I haven't accomplished much today and it felt wonderful!

We got into Keystone after 2 am last night. I really tired to get out of work by 3 so we could hit the road at the start of rush hour, but of course that didn't happen. I got off a little after 4, then forgot it was rent day, so I had to go to the bank to deposit my check. Then there was a couple of things I needed from the store as well as a Chipotle stop for dinner. Fortunately, we had packed almost everything the night before, so we got on the road a little before 7, but traffic still sucked. Between coffee, 80s on Eight on Marcus' Sirius radio and my Kindle app, I did manage to stay awake for the whole trip (I usually zonk out between Cheyenne and Wheatland). We rolled in a half an hour later than expected due to the large amounts of deer on the sides of the road between Edgemont and home. The last thing you want to ruin your vacation is hitting a stupid deer. After getting all our gear into the house and unpacking the cooler, I think I conked out about 3:30.

It was no surprise then, that I didn't wake up until 11 this morning. It is so quiet here that I sleep amazingly well. Since it is not tourist season, there wasn't even an 1880s Train to wake me up. I fixed some coffee and bagels for us to eat for breakfast while Marcus took T out.

I puttered around for a bit and sometime around 1 (I think), I took the Kindle to bed to read and next thing I know, it's 4. I've been battling something viral for the last 3 weeks and my typical insomnia and I think my poor body just needed rest.

I had grand plans of doing some design work for Marcus and getting some stuff here unpacked, but none of it happened. I did make a pot of potato leek soup for dinner and baked Marcus some oatmeal raisin cookies, but that's about it for the day. Oh, I've read a bit more of book 3 of the Game of Thrones series.

We were visited by some deer this afternoon while I was making the soup:

I don't know why it is so hard to get back on the blogging bandwagon. I used to live to post on this thing, spending countless hours making it pretty, reaching out to other bloggers. I saw a friend on Facebook writing that she was trying to get back into blogging via NaBlogPoMo and I thought about how I tired that last year and lasted a whole 2 days before something happened (no idea what as I didn't blog about it). Well, let's try this thing yet again, shall we?

The first post is short and sweet as I am posting from the car as we are on our way up to the homestead in South Dakota for the weekend.

I was doing a little blog-surfing a couple of days ago and saw one of those sidebar scripts that said somebody's Blogiversary was in XX days and I checked to see when I started on my own blogging adventure. 12 years ago today I joined blogger and started up on the freeservers site that I set up to host the rudimentary web sites I was scripting in my html class at CollegeAmerica. Wow, time flies! Thanks to the Wayback Machine, I can even see what it looked like back then. LaDonnaBlog - that was original, huh? I didn't really intend for it to be anything more than a place to keep friends/family up to date on what was going on with me while I was so busy with school and work and I certainly didn't think I'd still have it online over a decade later.

Sadly, I've been neglecting the old place because of Facebook - must remedy that. I'd hate for Facebook to go away and not have a record of the major milestones in my life. I often refer to my archives to determine when an important life event took place. Looking back, I haven't documented anything about Mr. T (our Jack Russell Terrier) or anything about the process of moving the house to South Dakota.

I'm hoping there will be many exciting and life-changing events in the near future. I can't wait to be able to share them as the happen as I set off on year 13.

Wow, a whole 5 posts in the past year. I rock. 2013 will be better in the blog posting department.

2012 wasn't a bad year. It's not like the year I lost my mother or the year I had to go on unemployment or the year I messed up my knee delivering pizzas in the snow. I have a job (albeit one I really don't like). I'm fortunate that Marcus still loves me and we still enjoy each others company after 20 years. Our house moved to South Dakota. We finally got a dog.

The biggest problem with 2012 is that it was stagnant - a big waiting game. I'm really itching to get moved up to South Dakota and start a new chapter in my life. It just can't quite happen just yet. Anybody that knows me knows I have very little patience. When Marcus bought the land last December, contractors kept telling us it wouldn't take that long. Our current one said he'd have us up there in six weeks. Man, that was months ago. The project is over budget and on hold for the moment. We're really hoping I can get up there in the Spring. I want to find a new job, but finding one in Denver is pointless when I have no plans of being here long term. We thought for sure I'd be able to move up there before Thanksgiving. All of our stuff is in storage and we're in an overpriced apartment. Marcus and I both hate being around so many people and it is frustrating not having access to our things (like our washer and dryer). I hate this limbo we're in.

I did very little crafting/creating in 2012. I finished a whopping 2 (yes, two) knitting projects. Even the hat I am making for Nina's Christmas present is 18 rows from being completed. I've spent entirely too much unproductive time on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest & Ravelry. My poor blog is still broken and my web skills are getting rustier. I haven't tried any new recipes lately and in this apartment, I can't really bake or cook anything other than very basic things.

I know I've spent a good part of the last year depressed. Society doesn't help. The ugly politics. The mass shootings. The ever-increasing amount of stupidity among the general public. The non-apocalypse. Now this fiscal cliff bullshit. I just get so sick of all the nonsense around me.

Anyway, that's why I'm itching to move on. I know I can accomplish really cool things when I set my mind to it. Right now, my mind is too cluttered with other crap. Astrologically, 2013 is supposed to be a year when we can move forward. I'm really hoping this applies to me, as well.