Do you believe in the power of prayer?

It should be obvious from the title, but if you have no religious belief, move along!

I received some bad financial news last week. And then a few days later received even worse financial news. Cancelled a Woolgirl subscription (Alice in Wonderland series), evaluated a few things, etc. Got info on where to go to sell blood plasma, evaluated things around here that might be sold.

And I prayed. A lot. Asked God for a Christmas miracle. And today that miracle was delivered by the USPS. It doesn't completely solve Problem #1, but it solves even worse Problem 2 and makes #1 easier to handle. I've been in tears ever since.

That light at the end of the tunnel?

Nope, not the rescue team. Fully loaded train barreling into me. For the first time in my life I'm having to remind myself that buying a lottery ticket is not a wise investment of a dollar. I've never been tempted to buy lottery tickets before. The odds of winning are so terribly bad, I've figured that my odds of winning without a ticket were just slightly lower than if I had a ticket. Sitting down and crying won't help. Maybe I'll go scrub something. It doesn't cost me anything and has good results.

If someone wanted to share the winning numbers I wouldn't turn them down.

RIP Norwegian Woods Shawl

Let's all have a moment of silence in respect for Felicia's Norwegian Woods shawl. NW met her demise this evening due to a severe run-in with a drunken frog. NW was completely ripped while in the frog pond and her remains have been rewound into a fresh clean center pull ball. No beads were sacrificed but were carefully scooped up and put back into the altoids tin to rest with their friends until knitting recommences.

After becoming suspicious about the size of the remaining ball of yarn, Felicia realized that her shawl plus beads and needles weighed over 160 gms and the remaining yarn was under 50 gms. While NW was in the stages of Chart B, Felicia knew there would not be enough yarn remaining. In an act of supreme self sacrifice, Felicia pulled the plug/needle out so that NW would not have to suffer.

Felicia does not have exact plans at this moment. She has been knitting for months without any finished objects - or at this point, any knitting to show for her efforts. She is currently torn between the idea of casting on the current Embrace the Lace club shipment of a cowl for some quick and easy gratification or resuming NW. NW II could be reincarnated in the current fingering weight yarn and the smaller size or in the correct lace weight yarn in the desired large size.

Please send wine. Cheese, crackers and maybe a tissue or two would also be appreciated.

First Snow

We had our first winter snowfall today. Well, technically, it was yesterday. But I just got home from work, so to me, it's still today. If that makes any sense at all! Anyway......on Saturday we had our first snowfall.

I will be the first one to tell you that I am not a big winter fan. I don't participate in any winter sports. I don't ski or snowmobile or even snowshoe. So for me snow is just something to shovel and it makes a mess.

But the first snowfall? Magical. We're not far from the full moon and combine that with everything covered in white and it is very bright out there! I really enjoyed my drive home from work tonight. It was a fairly wet snow so everything is covered with an edge of white. Tree branches are no longer invisible in the night but are instead beautifully covered in snow. They stand out in ghostly silhouette against the night sky. Pine and hemlock needles are gently bowed under the weight of the snow. Fence lines and electric poles have this magical white glow about them. This is the time to take a professional camera outside and set it to the slowest shutter speed possible to capture the magic and beauty of the night.

There isn't enough snow to break brances or down power lines. Depending upon the temperature, we might even lose all the snow tomorrow. The ground isn't really cold enough for the snow to stick around. Next time? It won't be too long before it is cold enough for the snow to stick around until spring. It gets dirty and dingy and we all become sick and tired of shoveling this blasted stuff.

But for now? Magic.

Two Weeks? Really?

I was awfully busy at work, but I also know I'm not the only one. How on earth does everyone else manage? Or is it that I've never made blogging a habit? That is probably it. I can't guarantee daily posting (ha!) but I'll make an effort towards more reliable posting.

1. Bob is home. Which threw my whole schedule cattywampus. Still recovering from that!

2. My dryer broke as soon as I got home in Oct and I still haven't been able to replace it. If you can't count on Lowe's to run a fork lift into a dryer, what can you count on!

3. Turning wood is lots of fun. New stuff coming soon.

4. Pictures too.

5. I am very thankful - that I really don't have holiday knitting to do!

No Knitting Going on Around here!

I haven't knit a stitch in weeks! Which is really unusual. Usually I have my knitting always with me. And I'll confess to getting tons of knitting done while sitting in the passenger seat of the car. Obviously with Bob gone, I'm doing all my own driving. But I'm also still sorta working both jobs - which hasn't left much free time. I came home from Quilt Festival, Houston with several new cross stitch charts I bought from The Silver Needle. If you like cross stitch at all, you really need to go check out their website. I can't imagine how, but one of these days, I will be in Tulsa, OK and be able to spend the day in the store. Actually, one of these years, I'd love to attend Camp Wannasew, but we'll see about that.

I haven't even been working on anything new either! The Silver Needle has a monthly mailing I subscribed to for awhile called Secret Needle Night. (Bet you don't see what's coming.....oh. You figured it out?) Because the whole thing is ..... a secret! Fun fibers, cute designs stitched on 10 count so they don't take long. Well, when I became a "collector" instead of a stitcher, I stopped the subscription. I knew I had other cross stitch kits laying around besides these.

Well, this week I bought a small tote with a lid. It's only a 12 quart and slightly larger than a sheet of paper. I've spent odd bits of time finding all(?) my cross stitch kits and putting them all together in this little tote. Actually, I liked this so much, I bought another one today to put all my needlepunch stuff into.

So I finished a Bent Creek design and I've been working on a Christmas Secret Needle Night kit from 2003! The idea is that I'll get to spend a bit of time each week working on a cross stitch design. It may take quite awhile to finish anything, but at least there will be progress!

What's Your Weekend Like?

What are your plans for the weekend? I read other people's posts and am amazed at the things people do, places they go, and events they attend. They have a much busier life than I do, that's for darn sure! But I'll admit that there usually isn't a whole lot going on around here. Without school age children, that also cuts out a lot of activities.

And when is your weekend? With this new job of mine, my "weekend" is actually Monday and Tuesday. My minister always said that his sabbath day was Monday. Sunday was (obviously) a heavy work day for him. And at the time, he was minister to three churches each Sunday. But this job is also a second job for me. So Mon & Tues are spent pretty heavy working in the basement in the woodshop. I've decided to declare Wed my "day off." Which is odd since I do go to work - but usually I only work Wed from 5-9 (pm). I did little bits of nothing this past Wed and it was wonderfully refreshing.

I've been fairly busy while Bob is gone cleaning up stuff around here. I live in a very small house with a full basement. The basement is where we do all our work stuff and unfortunately too much of it migrates upstairs into the living room. So I have been cleaning up, organizing, and carting things back where they belong. I know that it won't last too long once he is home again - we will have a bunch of orders for stuff that will need packaged and shipped out and that will happen in the living room.

But I'm hoping it will be a bit easier this time. I haven't had a kitchen table since I bought this house. And while I regretted the lack, it wasn't as if there was a lot of room around here anyway. I went to the local Salvation Army the other day looking for new work shirts. And they had a nice (small) kitchen table and two chairs! I went home to measure - taking the chance the table would still be there the next day. And it was! Picture a table and chairs from probably the 50's and you've got a good idea what mine looks like. But it is in wonderful shape! I cleaned it up good when I got the set home. Stopped at the store and bought new rubber feet for all the metal legs. And some rustoleum primer and new paint for all the legs. I'm really hoping that the weather will stay decent so I can paint everything before Bob gets home. Especially since he doesn't know anything about it!