Hay's Handcrafted

25 Random Things About Me

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:10:16 -0500

I got tagged by a bunch of folks over on Facebook for this, and I figure it'll make some sort of a blog post. Plus, it'll mean I don't have to come up with anything original for my 3rd blog post of the month... ;)

1. According to many folks I know, this list could go wwaaayyyy longer than only 25 "random things". (To paraphrase Mark: Really? Only 25? About YOU???)

2. It seems that I have a congenital lack of tact. (That's why *certain* friends call me "Queen of Blunt".)

3. As a child, I was so shy that I hid under the bed from relatives.

4. I think that now I over-compensate for #3.

5. Most people intimidate me, however.

6. Today, I am, literally, twice the woman I was when I was in college.

7. I'm not real proud of #6.

8. Dark chocolate is my friend.

9. I like to audition for plays, but prefer working tech to actually performing.

10. I *hate* to cry in public.

11. I used to think that I wanted to work with kids. Then I reproduced. (But I do love my kids, even though they make me crazy most days! :) )

12. My Nana taught me to crochet when I was 4.

13. I probably watch too much TV, but it helps me to be aware of the time when I'm on the computer or knitting or crocheting.

14. When I listen to music, THAT is what I'm doing - *listening*. I don't do well with "background" music because I pay too much attention to it, so it doesn't stay in the background.

15. I taught myself to knit when my sister was pregnant with her first child. I gave her a bunch of pattern books full of baby things and told her I'd make what ever she wanted for the baby. Turns out she choose a knitted bootie pattern. (98% crochet patterns in the pile, and she picks the knit...)

16. I wish I could make a decent wage by knitting &/or crocheting.

17. I'm currently crocheting 65 (or so) kippot (yarmulkes) for my friend's second son's bar mitzvah. (I sewed the kippot for the first son.) And I'll do it again in a few years for her third son and for her daughter's bat mitzvah. It's my gift for them.

18. I hate weaving in the ends when I knit &/or crochet.

19. I love animals, but I'm *very* allergic to anything with fur, feathers, or fuzz. So my kids had sea moneys for almost 2 years.

20. I love to cook.

21. I HATE to clean up afterwards.

22. Come to think of it, I'm not so fond of any sort of cleaning.

23. But when I have the time to "do it right", I find laundry to be relaxing.

24. I absolutely LOVE food. (Hmmm..maybe that's what led to #6.) I'll try *almost* any kind of food.

25. I have a collection of collections: Keychains, Elephants, Baskets, Yarn....

If you'd like to play along, feel free...

“I” is for Itinerary (Answering the Unasked Question: Just what DO you do all day?!)

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:57:49 -0500

A “typical” day in my life – Thursday, January 15, 2009

4:53 am: Hit snooze button for the third time. (I have no recollection of the first two times, but having done the math – much later in the day! – I can only assume this to be true.

5:00 am: Get out of bed, get dressed, stumble toward kitchen, remember that glasses are in the bedroom…

5:20 am: Make “travel tea”, take medicine, set out meds for the kids

5:23 am: Head out to truck to drive hubby to train station.

5:35 am: Arrive at train station and wait for train – convince hubby to check his Blackberry to be sure there are no delays (because, you know, it’s minus two degrees Fahrenheit and I used to experience all sorts of commuter train delays in the cold).

6:01 am: Since the train was due to depart at 5:44 am, hubby decides checking the Blackberry might be a good idea. There are delays of at least 30 minutes, so decision is made to go to other train station.

6:18 am: Arrive at other train station, drop hubby off.

6:24 am: Arrive at home and attempt to wake teenager. (This step really should have been started at least half an hour ago) – bribe with promise of pancakes WITH chocolate chips.

6:26 am: Start mixing pancakes and preheating griddle.

6:33 am: First batch of pancakes plated. Additional pancakes poured. Teenager notified of breakfast status.

6:41 am: Holler in general direction of teenager’s bedroom, “You up yet?”

6:45 am: More pancakes… Check on younger child – start poking him to get him upright. Continue with pancakes…

7: 03 am: Drive teenager to school.

7:22 am: Arrive back home and attempt to wake younger child – mention the ready-made pancakes WITH chocolate chips.

7:27 am: Fight with younger child about getting out of bed – oh, and he never did finish his homework…

7:40 am: Pack lunch (mine and his), round up saxophone, write note to have him dismissed early from school, supervise taking of meds.

7:55 am: Attempt to convince younger child to “get a move on”…

8:12 am: Drive younger child to school.

8:32 am: Arrive at parking lot down the road from work. Gather up what-all I need and walk the slippery sidewalk to the office.

8:43 am: Arrive at work.

8:45 am: Work – this is the easy part! Sure, half an hour before I’m due to walk out the door there’s a teensy bit of a “crisis” situation that involves a trip to the emergency room and the cancellation of 7 appointments, and yet, work is my refuge today.

2:00 pm: Leave office.

2:06 pm: Arrive at parking lot.

2:14 pm: Arrive at school to dismiss younger son.

2:19 pm: Depart school for 2:30 pm appointment – son begs for a pit stop at home to grab the DS.

2:23 pm: Relent, since I’m driving right be our street, anyway.

2:25 pm: Run into the house to retrieve DS.

2:29:47 pm: Arrive for appointment with the “med doc”.

3:17 pm: Depart doctor’s office, and decide that since its nasty cold, will be nice (for a change) and pick up teenager at school after his drum club practice.

3:24 pm: Purse falls on floor of truck as we go round a corner.

3:25 pm: Cell phone rings. Cell phone is, of course, located in purse. I’m driving and firmly seatbelted into place, so I’ve not got a prayer of reaching the thing until I park.

3:27 pm: Cell phone finally stops ringing.

3:28 pm: “Direct Connect” feature of cell phone starts chirping.

3:29 pm: Park in front of school and wait for teenager; retrieve purse and cell phone – hubby wants to know: if he takes an earlier train, can I come to the train station and pick him up? (This will be my third train station of the day.)

3:30 pm: Teenager slinks into car.

3:36 pm: Arrive at home; call dibs on the potty.

3:38 pm: Head out to the train station for hubby.

3:57 pm: Arrive at train station and wait for hubby.

4:06 pm: Hubby arrives at truck.

4:23: Arrive at CVS to drop off prescriptions (meanwhile, hubby popped to the auto parts store for a little something for the car)

4:36 pm: Arrive at home; spend a few moments scarfing down some cheese and crackers.

4:49 pm: Head out with younger son for cooking class. (Hubby has kindly offered to take elder child to swimming, which starts at 7. That way, I don’t have to either take him with me now, or make a gazillion trips back and forth.)

4:59 pm: Arrive at the Y for cooking class, which starts at 5:00 pm. I have the honor of assisting in the class. Goodie.

6:00 pm: Karate for the kid, while I help clean up after cooking.

6:37 pm: Receive phone call from hubby that car is dead, and that I’ll have to come get other son for swimming.

6:45 pm: Karate ends – urge younger son to quickly get his socks & sneakers on.

6:57 pm: Out the door of the Y to go back home to pick up teenager.

7:00 pm: Call home to make sure he’s waiting to jump into the car the very second I pull into the driveway.

7:07 pm: We make NASCAR pit crews proud as he boards the vehicle. I’m not entirely certain I came to a complete stop.

7:16 pm: Back at the Y, where elder child races into swimming practice.

7:17 pm: Younger son and I head to the grocery store (not for the first time this week) to pick up food for the weekend visit that daddy and the boys will have up in NH with daddy’s friend, who lives in a log cabin that he built himself – with some assistance from daddy – from trees he’d chopped down right there on his property.

7:27 pm: Arrive at discount grocery store. With no electricity in “Uncle Bill’s cabin”, it’s hard to convince the child that microwave popcorn probably isn’t the best choice for this trip. (However, if anyone knows of a wood-fired microwave, I’m sure hubby’s friend would find it amusing. And, yes, I know how to do popcorn the “old fashioned” way, but if the store I was in had any plain popcorn, I couldn’t find it, and I didn’t really have the time to mess around.) Purchase bottle of soda to drink while driving – this, combined with the cheese and crackers from earlier, will have to do for “supper”.

8:21 pm: Depart grocery store.

8:30 pm: Arrive at Y to pick up elder child – no sign of him waiting for us, so I circle the parking lot once or twice. Decide to live park right in front of the door, so he won’t have far to travel in 7 degrees with wet hair.

8:40 pm: Still no sign of the boy. Sure, swimming ends around 8-ish, and he can be a fan of the leisurely shower, but he’s usually done by now, so I send in his brother to see what’s keeping him.

8:41 pm: Brother has located missing sibling “relaxing” in a chair in the lobby. Claims he “didn’t see” us…?!?!!?

8:58 pm: Arrive at home, calling SuperDibs on the potty as we back in.

9:01 pm: Suddenly remember that I forgot to go to CVS to pick up the prescriptions I’d dropped off hours earlier – panic only slightly (we ABSOLUTELY NEED one of those RIGHT AWAY), and holler for hubby to call the pharmacy to see what time they close. Am thankful that they’re open until 10.

9:05 pm: Hubby offers to make trip to CVS – how grateful am I??

9:10 pm: Supervise “getting ready for bed”.

9:47 pm: Finally get downstairs to the computer to check email.

10:39 pm: Start writing rough draft of this post.

11:16 pm: Blog is hating me, so decide it’s best to rough it out on Word, then transfer it to the Blog later.

11:43 pm: Puke…younger son has puked, so guess what I get to do now…

12:28 am: Come downstairs to find the kid some clean sleepwear. See that the computer is still on. Make final note before going back upstairs to finish dealing with pukey-boy..

Will I ever get to get some rest?

"H" is for Hiatus

Thu, 1 Jan 2009 16:17:29 -0500

"Sorry I'm not available right now, but leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible".

"G" is for Gavin, Give-Aways, and Growing a Garden (but that's Connor's thing)

Fri, 9 May 2008 22:30:12 -0500

This is Gavin, somberly watching a small skirmish between Union and Confederate troops at Frank Harlow Day on Saturday. (See Carole's blog for additional details.) He and I went to check it out. He heard that there might be soldiers involved, so he could hardly wait! And he also took a bunch of pictures. As a matter of fact, the best shots were his.

Give-Aways: I actually had people participate in my contest!! Woot!! Winner #1 is Kathleen, and #2 is Beth! Thank you both for entering! Just email me with your snail-mail address and choice of prizes, and they'll be on their way. (ETA: It would help if I emailed you, wouldn't it? Check now... I just did...) And thank you, too, to all the other folks who had nice things to say on my pseudoblogiversary: Britt, Karen, and Carole.

Connor has been eating LOTS of veggies lately, so he decided that Growing a Garden might be fun. He chose some seeds ("salad seeds", I believe he called them) and planted them in some cut down milk jugs. He's determined to do this himself... this could get interesting.

(ETA: Hey, dummy! If you don't PUBLISH the post, no one can read it! LOL Can you see me now?)

Oopsie! I Missed My Blog-O-Versary!

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:34:09 -0500

Well, it seems I was so caught up in the Madness that I missed my First Blog-O-Versary! What's the appropriate thing to celebrate, then? :) I've seen that many folks have a contest, but the last time I tried that, no one actually entered. SO, this time, I'm going to make it REALLY EASY: Just post a comment - any sort of a comment - to this post before midnight Eastern Time on April 27, which is the date of the second-ever post I'd made here. (eta: Winner will be chosen by random drawing. Heck, I might even choose 2 winners, if I get enough interest... )

The Prizes (Choose Any 2) :

Dream In Color Baby Lace Weight Yarn in "Blue Lagoon" (#VB160) - 100% Superfine Australian Merino Superwash (Spun & Hand-dyed in the USA) - 4oz., approx. 700 yards

Connor's Cookies And Confections - Choose cookies, fugde, or shortbread (you may choose this twice for your prize, if you'd like)

Hay's Handcrafted Stretchy Bracelet or Earrings or Keychain, each made by Connor.

In other news... I threw in the needles on the Slippin' Stripin' Sock - the yarn and the pattern were not tremendously compatible. I really tried to gut it out to the end, but by the time I started the toe, I was near-to-cussing. That's my cue that it's time to give it up and start fresh with a clear head and finer yarn at some point in the future.

More Madness, Round 3

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:09:51 -0500

Well, I didn't make it through Round 2 of Sock Madness 2, but I'm still trying to "knit along at home", but I seem to be falling further and further behind. LOL. Everyone else has knit up these beautiful socks, all soft and yarnilicious, and I'm constantly amazed at the speed with which folks whip them up.

I’m not-so-much loving my socks, however. By itself, the yarn’s ok (Dream In Color Baby Lace Weight in “Blue Lagoon” and “Ruby River”). Doubled, not so much ok. And the pattern and my yarn just are NOT playing nice together. While I’ve got gauge (on my size 2 Addi Turbos), the fabric is stiff - not as soft & squooshy as I’d hoped. Not to mention that I’ve never been very fond of working with two strands together. I’m still only this far on sock #1:

So, I guess I’m “Slippin’ Away”…

I was thinking of something with apologies to Paul Simon, but then I thought better of it…LOL… Now, I’m thinking more of just how slippery a frog can be…::sigh::….

Oh, and I'd like to thank all who voted for me during the Round 2 Creativity Awards. It seems I've won! Woo Hoo! Thank you all! (Pics of the prize when it arrives!)

Please Vote...

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:18:00 -0500

...For Me. My little poem with photo (below) ahs been selected as a finalist for one of the creative awards for Round 2 of Sock Madness 2. If you're so inclined, please visit the SM2 site and vote for me (or, really, for any of the great shots of great socks). I'm #10. To vote, look below #11, where it says "Which Reversai picture from Round 2 is your favorite? ". Click on that then indicate your favorite.

Thanks!

I've Been "Reversai'd"

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:24:25 -0500

Night after night, huddled under the light,
I knit and I purled and I sighed.

I did what I could, with the time that I had.
Oh, I tried and I tried and I tried.

Am I coming or going? What row am I on?
Gartered soles, they can’t be denied.

A creative shot, then, though I’m not quite done.
(Thanks to “Zombies” my brain is quite fried!)

I tried right over left , then left over right ,
Until I’d gone quite cross-eyed.

Is it right side up, or inside out?
I can’t tell, for I’ve been “Reversai’d”!!

Sock Madness 2, Second Round Pattern, "Reversai"

Trekking pro natura
color #1607
addi Turbos size 1

For the Sock Madness Crowd

Tue, 8 Apr 2008 22:37:31 -0500

This is for y'all:

Reversai #1

Sat, 5 Apr 2008 22:37:00 -0500

Now to cast on the second one! Later, folks!