While you were sleeping...

Breaking the Silence - and a contest!

I am here! I am here!

I was in Anaheim for the Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) show, and boy was it amazing. TONS of scrapbooking stuff (see my ScrapHappy blog for more about that aspect of things). But there were also a bunch of booths that were fiber-related.

I hate to report, though, that manufacturers like Caron and Lion, despite their protestations to the contrary, still seem to believe we want to crochet garbage-bag-like tents made of shiny, squeakly acrylic wool. At least, that was what was on display. Very disappointing!

I didn't spend a ton of time on the knitting side of the floor, as I was there in my capacity as a writer/designer for Simple Scrapbooks. But I did sneak away to visit the F+W Publications booth where I met two very crafty, very knitty ladies.

The first person to correctly identify the woman with me in this picture gets a prize!

Anyone?

No one considers himself or herself a villain in their own life.
Jeannette Walls, author of The Glass Castle

If you love books and hearing the story-behind-the-story in the author's own words, check out this podcast: Writers on Writing.

The host, Barbara DeMarco Barrett, is a knitter, too. (That means she has to be cool, right?)

Buh-bye

Two more bags to the Goodwill.

WHERE does all this stuff come from????

I cleaned out my "white shirt drawer," and Kinsey went through the toy bin. I said "so long" to some of my favorite baby toys. That Whatzit thingy that I wish now I'd kept and hung in my office, but no one except me ever really played with... the mini Elmo and Big Bird stuffies (again, I'm the only one who ever even looked at them)... and more.

I feel kind of sad.

If my two-year-old doesn't stop whining...

If she doesn't stop whining 24/7 very soon, I may have to do something drastic. Like shoving a Barbie shoe into my ear and purposely rupturing my own eardrum.

I'm just sayin'.

I am procrastinating.

I wish I had something witty and wonderful to share with you right now, but the truth of the matter is that I am simply looking for a way to keep from finishing the article I'm writing for Selling Power. I am sitting at Starbucks, surrounded by chatting folks. I am dying to finish this article as it is my last one (!!!) for Selling Power, but instead, I find myself dwelling on random thoughts like:

*Why doesn't Starbucks have more electrical outlets?
*Why is the littles size called a "tall" and the "grande" isn't the biggest?
*Why is it that the people who DON'T have a computer always take the tables closest to the outlets?
*Why is it that the people with the biggest cars always have the smallest cell phones?

If you have answers to these, or any other mysteries of life, please let me know.

Lookie What I Did Today!

It's been quite a while since we've had any sort of knitting talk around here. And seeing as the web addy of this blog is KnitandPurlGrrl, I figured I'd better get with it before someone takes my domain name!

Here's what I learned how to do today:

Look closely and you will see that there are CABLES on them thar needles! I took a class in basic cables with the incomparable Marie at Knitting Arts today, and I tell you, I'm sure I don't know why I've been avoiding cables for so long! They were totally fun and while not exactly easy, ADDICTIVE.

Be looking for these little loopy-de-loops to appear on everything now. Heehee. I am tickled pink at this!

What have you learned to do lately? Leave me a comment and I'll send some sort of little something to everyone who responds!!!

I balanced my checkbook.

Okay, something must really be in the air.

I HATE doing this. And I hadn't taken a good look at it since November. But I did it. Reconciled the last few statements against my checkbook register. The good news: I still have money left. Hehehe.

Someone please tell me why it is that if I forget to record something, it's never a deposit or a return? It's always a purchase or a withdrawal. Hmmm. I had about a dozen entries I hadn't recorded, and every single one of them was a negative, not a positive.

Something worth thinking about.

I've tried to make it a habit of doing one "procrastination" item a week... you know, those things that have been hanging around, sucking up energy, moving from "To Do" list to "To Do" list... So far, I

-Made a couple of phone calls I'd been putting off (for no good reason other than I don't like calling people I don't know!)

-Balanced ye olde checkbook

-Took five pairs of pants in to be hemmed

-Called in the handyman to fix a bunch of little things around the house that I am incapable of doing myself

How 'bout you?

Enough towels, enough cookbooks

My goals for this week were to go through my towel basket and my cookbooks.

I said goodbye to about four or five bath towels that were past their prime, along with two bags of cookbooks that I will never use.

What's tough about getting rid of the cookbooks is admitting that I WON'T ever have the time or inclination to cook all those fabulous meals. I have this vision of me being the kind of mom and wife and entertainer who is willing to spend hours in the kitchen, whipping up fabu gourmet meals for flocks of people, constantly churning out treats and tidbits to delight the tastebuds. I've taken several cooking classes (Italian, knife skills, Chinese, and more), and I used to belong to a gourmet cooking club where we met once a month and prepared an awesome dinner together. But now?? With this schedule and these kids?

Ain't gonna happen.

I actually am quite a good cook. I enjoy cooking when A. I have the time and B. I have an audience that is going to appreciate my efforts. But I'm coming to understand that my family is just as happy with tuna casserole and a mom who plays Uno with them (actually happier!) than with a mom who just prepared Duck A L'Orange with wild rice. Our palates aren't that sophisticated, and if I have time to be creative, I'd rather spend it on creating something that's going to last a bit longer.

I still have those dreams of gourmet heaven. I may return to it one day. But in the meantime, the cookbooks I'm holding onto are along the lines of "Fix It and Forget It" and "The Working Mother Cookbook" and "Desperation Dinners."

But I'm holding onto Ruth Reichl's Gourmet Cookbook and Nigella's Domestic Goddess, just in case. Someday.

I'm It

I've been tagged by the inspiring and incredible Jennifer Louden, whom I'm so proud to be able to call a friend!

Five little-known things about me:
1. I have a degree in public policy from Stanford...
2. ...and an MPA from Syracuse.
3. We don't have TV reception at our house. None. Zip. (Except an occasional ghostly sighting of the Sci Fi Channel, which, if you think about it, is very apropros).
4. My husband is 14 years older than I am.
5. In our family, we eat ice cream with a fork.

I think that'll do it! You're up:
-Ragan
-Dawn
-Erin
-Shannon
-HollYarn

Enough.

AH, the power of words!

If you are a scrapbooker, you've probably already heard about the challenge Ali Edwards set forth for 2007 -- to come up with a theme word for the next twelve months.

After playing with a number of different words (explore, finish, dare, complete, clean, order, etc.) I finally came up with one that buzzed that little buzzer in my brain...

ENOUGH.

I plan to explore this word in all its different senses this coming year... I have enough, I am enough, I've HAD enough (as in not tolerating certain things anymore).

What about you? What's your word for the next 12 months? Do tell.