It's Thursday night, and I'm just totally pooped! lol
The new job is going along nicely, but I'm finding it very tiring to get up at 5, be on the road by 6, and then keep going for the evening, once I'm home... every night this week, I've fallen asleep in the armchair!
I am convinced that when I've totally settled into this new position, that I won't be nearly so exhausted though...

Today I realized that I mislaid my pen somewhere on one of the units... So I went into the supply cupboard in our office, to get a new one.. The other 'girls' laughed at that, and have agreed that I'm now one of them! So, that's good... I think it'll work out okay. They're teasing me... and I confess that on Monday I didn't realize that, so I was telling them that there was NO WAY I was going to do what they were saying... not that I want them to think I am difficult or anything, but there was JUST NO WAY!!!!!! lol I've got a feeling that they're getting used to me too.. and I also have a feeling that they know that I'm not a monster to work with!

Right now though, I must go to bed, and get rested for another day....

:o)

I dunno... it just didn't occur to me to add anything to the blog for some time.. but I am still around, and this site isn't dying yet.

Been busy at work, and at home I've been reading, and doing the knitting, of course. Sometimes the days just seem to blend into each other, and then.. POW.. another week has gone by in what seems like just a blink of the eye.

The big news since I last wrote is that I begin a new job on Monday. It's a good move for me.. one which will give me some financial stability, and also it will enable me, because of some "grants" from the employers, to hopefully get my nursing license transferred from the UK to the US much more quickly than if I were trying to do it unaided.

I shall miss the children at the school, yes... but I can always take some personal days, and go and help out on occasions, such as Special Olympics Day, or Field Day, or whatever.

It's starting to feel more springlike here over the past few days, in my opinion, anyway.. it seems like I'm always warm, when other people are still bundled up! lol Maybe I'm having more "power surges" than I really want to admit! :o) I bought some seeds from the dollar store, and am thinking of starting them off.... need to get some flats or something to put them in... I have this feeling that if they all grow, my kitchen will resemble more of a greenhouse than anything!

xoxo

A Quote for the Day

May every stitch you knit bring you a little closer
to that calm, clear space in the center of your soul.

So, with the knitting theme of the quote, I'd thought I'd post a couple of pictures.. one of them is the basket where I've put the balls of yarn I wound up .....and then the second picture is from the other day, actually - it's from when I first cast on this project, which will be a sweater for me...

There's a whole bunch more on the needle now.. oh, maybe about 6 inches! I'll have to do another picture.... soon

2/3/08

Last week, at school, there was a baby shower for one of the teachers. The teddy bear and the blanket are the two items which I made to give to her... the bear was knitted, and the blanket was crocheted...

I was pretty pleased with how they turned out... and I think she enjoyed the gift too...

Now, these last two pictures are pretty bad.. I think partly because the glue was still a bit wet... and most of the problem is operator-based! :o) Just a fit I took in my head, to clip out pictures which I liked from a couple of magazines before I threw them out.. and I made some collage type pictures for myself... kept me occupied for a little while, and it was something just a bit different from stitching for me....

2/2/08

Last week, the class had a trip to the pet store. Which made me wistful, because I would just love to have a house full of pets!

I hope, someday, to be able to have some fish, and birds, and a dog... I'd have a cat too, if I weren't so allergic to them. Maybe I'll grow out of that allergy? (And maybe pigs will fly, huh?)

Usually, I am a knitter.... but I'm going to do something a little different....
I was going through some of my 'stash' and found this cross stitch kit... so I think I may have a go at this... as well as doing the knitting... and the "whatever fit takes me" ...

Just not enough hours in the day... :o)





Will be wonderful if my stitching ends up looking this good, huh?

I'm really pleased to have had my first comment here.. :o) Quite made my day! And, it seemed that the easiest way to answer the question Rebekah asked, was to post!

This is a picture of part of the classroom where I work.

I work in an elementary school, with the special needs children. Not as a 'degree-d' teacher, but as an aide. I love the work... wish it paid more, but that's life, huh?

I help to 'design' bulletin boards.. file.. die cut various things, and laminate.. fax stuff to wherever it has to go... type letters to parents for the teacher... accompany the kids to mainstream classes, and to therapy sessions.. work with the kids on their goals in our room.. lots of things keep me and the others busy.

On Saturdays and when school is closed, I work at the store just a mile or so up the road from where I live... now, that job I'm not so keen on, but, if what I hear from another woman who is trying to find a part time job is true, I should be very thankful for the second job at all.

In another lifetime, in another country, I was an RN. I'm working on getting my license transferred, so that I'll be able to nurse over here.. it's a long process, with lots of brick walls seemingly popping up all over the place, but I will get there eventually, and then I'll be "home" in a professional way... lots of studying to do, to get the exams done for this state.. and that's inbetween the laundry, and all that other fun stuff.

I think 'fun' tonight will now be going off to make a pot of tea! :o)

1st January 2008

I just downloaded the pictures from Christmas onto the computer tonight... and thought I'd share a few of them....

This one was from Christmas Eve. I had an invitation to go to my cousin's home for the evening..well, the whole family was there too, not just me, of course.. but it was nice. A very loaded table of food.. good company... and even carollers.. I thought that going carolling was a tradition which was dying out, but obviously not for the people who went around the town on Christmas Eve. I'm so pleased with how this picture turned out... :o)

The kids got a nice lot of presents.. and I also received some nice gifts. Although this *isn't* a good picture, this is the pig keyring my sister sent to me..


This picture of the tree on Christmas Eve, was taken in a dark room.. with just the twinkle lights on the tree on... can you believe it? It looks so light, doesn't it? I loved having the tree up this year.. I'm always just a tiny bit sad to take down the decorations at the end of the holiday season, but it's time... tomorrow I will do it.. take it down, and pack everything away safely for another year...
And this last picture was just taken today. I was washing dishes in the kitchen, and looked up at the sky, just as the sun was starting to peek out a tad.. it just grabbed me, so I went and grabbed the camera, turned off the flash, and "pointed and clicked" out of the kitchen window... surprisingly, I didn't get a glare off the glass.. I suppose because I turned off the flash, d'oh! :o)

I think it was amazing to see this.. the trees are just so stark and empty right now.. and the sky was so grey and full of clouds.. but then with the sun peeking through, and the clouds were shifting a little.. all of a sudden there was a little bit of blue there to see... just like life really. The "rubbish" of life are the clouds... and in some ways the people/person who leaves "rubbish" in your path are/is the stark trees... but there's always some blue sky ahead..

I'm not very clever at putting what I am thinking into words sometimes.. but maybe you know what I mean? :o)

I'm thinking that this year will be the year for me to have a garden again.. or at least flower beds... and it's funny how things go, isn't it? I had just thought that earlier on.. then tonight I was just doing a search on knitting patterns and ended up finding a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye ...

Sewing, Knitting, Crocheting...

A small striped sleeve in her lap,

navy and white,

needles carefully whipping in yarn from two sides.

She reminds me of the wide-angled women

filled with calm

I pretended I was related to

in crowds.

In the next seat

a yellow burst of wool

grows into a hat with a tassel.

She looks young to crochet.

I'm glad history isn't totally lost.

Her silver hook dips gracefuly.

And when's the last time you saw

anyone sew a pocket onto a gray linen shirt

in public?

Her stitches must be invisible.

A bevelled thimble glitters in the light.

On Mother's Day

three women who aren't together

conduct delicate operations

in adjoining seats

between La Guardia and Dallas.

Miraculously, they never speak.

Three different kinds of needles,

three snippy scissors,

everybody else on the plane

snoozing with The Times.

When the flight attendant

offers free wine to celebrate,

you'd think they'd sit back,

chat a minute,

tell who they're making it for,

trade patterns,yes?

But a grave separateness

has invaded the world.

They sip with eyes shut

and never say

Amazing

or

Look at us

or

May your thread

never break.

And then I found another poem by the same woman... this one struck a chord with me too....

My Friend's Divorce

I want her to dig up

every plant in her garden

The pansies,

the pentae,

roses,

renunculas,

thyme, and lilies,

the thing nobody knows

the name of

Unwind the morning glories

from the wire windows

of the fence

Take the blooming

and the almost-blooming

and the dormant,

especially the dormant

And then,

and then,

plant them in her new yard

on the other side

of town

and see how

they breathe.

Some Christmas Craftiness

As the gifts have been given now.. and also I did sell a few of these little ornaments I made... well, anyway, I feel okay about putting some pictures up of what I've been up to in the week before Christmas!
I suppose just about every child has made salt dough ornaments at some point.. but it seemed like a brilliant idea for me to revisit those times.. so here is the dough, all ready to roll out.. (4 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, and hot water, just enough to make a good dough)...


I used cookie cutters.. actually I gave up on the little gingerbread man shapes.. wasn't very fond of them, and then they kept curling up and breaking too easily... but I made loads of stockings, stars and trees...
Popped them into the oven on a really low temperature until they were totally dried out... and then came the really fun part..
Painting and varnishing... except this is a lousy picture.. /sigh...
I think I may do more next Christmas... maybe sell a few more, who knows? The stockings I did put names on.. I did three with my own children's names on them... three to sell, with the buyers' childrens names.. and a couple with 2007 on them.. in gold paint.. very pretty really... and fun to do.

20/12/07

Not this past Sunday, because the weather was so bad, but the Sunday before, I took my kids, and one of my neighbour's kids to see the Putz in one of the local towns around here. Everything in it was made by hand... the place where they have the putz used to be an orphanage, and it was the superintendent's wife who made everything.. I think she was the matron.
So, I took a whole bunch of pictures while we were there... the tree was up in one corner of the display..


This church was on the opposite side... inside there were lots of dolls, all dressed beautifully, as though a wedding was being held...
The rounded building is a replica of Radio City Music Hall.. at least, that's what they say. I couldn't tell you for sure, as I haven't seen RCMH!
What the pictures don't show, is that all the merry go rounds and fountains etc actually work. It's lovely.. really.
And the nativity scene part of the putz was splendid...look, the woman even hung the angels who appeared to the shepherds from 'clouds' in the sky... just amazing...
And she didn't just do the stable scene.. she made the entire town of Bethlehem.
Such an artistic woman.. makes me want to go out and do something like this. One day maybe I'll "play" with doll houses, and see what I can create...

The putz is displayed in what was once the chapel of the orphanage.. and I just love stained glass windows, so that is why I took this picture.

19/12/07

I've been knitting like a maniac really for the past few weeks.. 3 of the 4 scarves I needed to get done are finished now.. one more to go, and I've got about 4 inches of it done today, while I sat in the doctor's office, waiting to be seen. (Not sick.. just a routine thing)
Anyway... here's "Valerie" modelling the turquoise scarf I made for one of my daughters... it's done with 2 balls of Lion Brand Fun Fur - in fact, all of them except for the dark coloured one are the same pattern... very simple pattern, but they are always the best, huh?

This two tone scarf is for my neighbour's youngest daughter...
Now, this one I admit I don't like quite so much. It'd be fine for a young child, I think.. so I'm not going to 'frog it' .. but I won't do this one again... it was one ball of Fancy Fur.. again by Lion Brand...
This one is part white, and the stripey half.. well, it wasn't me changing yarns all the time.. it was just how the yarn knit up.. one of those nice multi-colour yarns, you know? This scarf is for the neighbour's eldest girl...
It all keeps me busy, which is good, I suppose.. although it'll be nice to do something other than a scarf soon! :o)

I'm sitting here watching The Nutcracker on television tonight.... love the ballet. I've always wished to be able to see the Nutcracker in "real life" ... one day, I'll do it.

Tuesday now....

It makes you look at life, and the things around you a bit differently, when you're looking for something to take a picture of! :o) So, this may be a bit different.. but... it's a part of life here...

Clean Sheets Day!

I do enjoy getting into bed, when the sheets are fresh... and I keep (as much as possible) to the routine of changing them on a Monday.. so that's something else I did last night...



I wonder if I'm the only 40 something person who names her "cuddlies"? I've got Betty Bunny, Barbara Bear, Sebastian, Leo, Charles and Scrapple sitting on my bed... they have to move when it's time to..but don't you think they look cute? :o)
And this is just a picture of some of the mince pies I made last night... I was up way too late making them, but I'm glad to have them done. My eldest loves them.. I do too.. a few years back, my girl asked for them instead of a birthday cake! :o)
Oh, I did take a tester.. a "cooks' perk" .. and it went down really well, with a cup of hot tea!

Monday

So, today was a different sort of Monday in some ways. First of all, we had a two hour delay at school.. which was a nice, relaxed start to the morning! I didn't have to clean any ice off of the car at all, which was wonderful.. I think the wind last night kept it all away. And the roads weren't too bad at all.. well, not the main roads at least. I kept off the side roads as much as possible.. but the road leading up to the school was a bit nasty still.. had to go slowly..but I'd rather that and be safe, than the other alternative.

After work, I went to the laundromat, and also went to my appointment.. which was interesting, because of some validation I received. I'm not the only woman who is seeing the ugly side of someone..

And then home... where I found a Christmas gift in the mailbox from my sister. The envelope says not to open until 25th December.. now, I won't do it.. but it's teasing the life out of me! :o)

I've taken time to do some more painting on something which I will post pictures of at a later date....when you've seen what I'm up to. And soon, I will go into the kitchen and do some baking... maybe I'm overstretching my time and energy some, but it'll be worth it to have the goodies for next week.

These pictures are of my latest "treasures". You know, I've got a thing for china thimbles, huh? Well, I was wandering around a second hand shop the other week, and saw the thimble holder which is on top there, for just a dollar. So I got it, knowing that one day I'd have some 'goodies' to put in it. And then, last week, when I was at the Dollar Store, I saw a pack of 6 thimbles.. so I've put it up on the wall, and I'm quite pleased! :o)

You can even see my jar of knitting needles there!

I tried a closer picture too.. the thimbles are all flowers.. very pretty. :o)

Sunday 16th

This is the weather we woke up to this morning. Snapped this picture from the porch. It looks very pretty.. but I wish really that it had just been all snow, and not also the ice. The main road, which you can see there, isn't too bad... the ploughs have been through a few times... but I still had no desire to go out in the car today.
So, I skipped church, and stayed in bed till after 10... listening to the radio, and being lazy! The old car belongs to the landlord.. it has been there for quite some time now, with a "for sale" sign on it.. I'm sure one day a car enthusiast will buy it.

This was the view from the back door.. no activity in the little shops here today. I bet the malls are still crowded with people daft enough to go out in this weather though, huh?
The tree branches looked so pretty, with their ice coats on... the picture doesn't do them any justice really. I'm a little surprised that some of the smaller branches don't fall in this sort of weather..
especially with the wind blowing.... if there is any doubt that there is some wind here today, just look at the sock moving!
It wasn't too freezing out there while I cleaned off the car... I started it up, and had the heaters going while I cleaned it off. Should've taken before and after pictures, I suppose. But I didn't think of that! :o)

Back indoors now.. and going to stay pretty much put for the rest of the day! :o)

The Cottage is Open!

It was while I was at work today that I decided to begin this blog. I thought it would be a nice way, perhaps, to share some pictures with you... and record some parts of my life here in this little cottage - show what I get up to when you're not around! :o)

I chose "Cricket" as my screen name.. for no particular reason really, except that I like it. :o) And it keeps my real name a secret on here.. which is how I would like it.

Just a little bit of fun....