More for Stitches From the Heart

More items from the wonderful members of Crochetlist arrived today as donations for Stitches From the Heat. Thank you so much for the beautiful things you are sending. I know that a little one will be blessed by your efforts.

Thank you Anne!

Anne has been emailing me to assist in my being able to make this sweater. Having seen hers, mine doesn't look quite as nice as I was thinking, LOL! Beautiful outfit Anne!

Thank you Melanie!

What an adorable outfit and I just love matching hats and booties :)

Thank you Joan!

Isn't this sweater just cute as can be?

Comfort Women

Do you know that during WWII between 1932 and 1945 thousands of women were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Military? These women are still fighting for an apology. They are between the ages of 70 and 90 years old and are dying off. They deserve justice before there are none of them left to speak. To let this atrocity go unpunished sets an appalling precedent especially in light of all the military conflict in the world at this time. Please, learn more and join their fight for justice.

If this makes you uncomfortable, it is your conscience telling you how wrong what happened is. Ignoring it will not make it go away. It will not make it less horrifying and it will not help women around the world have a voice and be heard. Have the strength to be uncomfortable and stand up for what is right.

Comfort-Women.org
The Comfort Women Project
V-Day 2006

Nothing

No news is good news, right? Nothing yet on the design team, but I have not given up hope. I know I will hear one way or another, but the waiting is getting to me!!! I do have other things to worry about and guess I should get on with those!!

Little Nervous Here

I am going to fess up and tell you that I submitted both layouts and cards for consideration for a position on a local scrapbook store's Design Team. I submitted these a week or so ago and have been anxious, but ok. Right now, I am just anxious. The decisions are to be made and notifications in the next couple of days.
I have a few things running through my head. First and foremost WHAT WAS I THINKING!?! Beyond that are things such as just wanting to know so I can quit thinking about it :). I could use the peace, Ha Ha! Anyway, cat is out of the bag and now you all know so I guess I will have to let you know if I am selected to participate. You will know as soon as I do ;).

Thank you!

I am part of aYahoo group called Crochetlist. It is composed of many wonderful men and women. We all have a love of crochet in common. It is a very friendly and helpful group and I can't begin to list all that I have learned from them.
One thing the group does is ten times a year they have what they call a Crochet-A-Thon (CAT). For each CAT there are different designated charities if someone chooses to make an item or so to contribute. The month of February, one of the charities is Stitches From the Heart. Many people have pledged items to donate and I am very grateful. The first donation arrived today from Linda and I am overwhelmed with her generosity. Thank you so much Linda! Aren't these items just amazing?

"W"ild

I am participating in a swap that is all about monograms. I am part of a group of 5 that was themed around boys. I selected to do the letter "W" for the word wild. I figure that with my boys it is one I know I will use in the scrapbooks at some point, LOL! This one really was fun to make. The stripes are actual strips of cardstock adhered to the background cardstock. I did not have a letter stencil that was the correct style for the smaller letters so I printed a set out from Word at something like 130 font size and then cut them out, traced around them and then cut out the cardstock versions. The colors are very bright yellow, red and a deep royal blue.

Mascara anyone?

So, is there a mascara out there that DOESN'T leave dark rings under a person's eyes at the end of the day? If so, please, please tell me what it is!! I know I have oily skin (knew it by the time I was 10 years old) and I know that when I am 85 years old and my skin is not as wrinkled as the lady next to me who had dry skin I will be glad. However, as a teenager, I was not glad. As a person trying to present a professional and groomed image with dark circles from slipping makeup, I am not glad. Fighting wrinkles and acne at the same time, does not make me glad. So, I guess that when I am 80 and no longer give a rats *** what anyone thinks or the image I present, then I can be glad.

New Toys

I received my order from Stamp Diva. This store is AWESOME! I would highly recommend them to anyone. The items available are great and the service is fantastic! I am super excited to play with her. Isn't she beautiful? I have so many plans for her! In fact, everything they have from this line is pretty amazing. I so hope I get time to create soon. Right now I am rather buried in homework. Tonight I have a presentation that I am not happy with how it is, but time is up so I must go with what I have. It is not my usual procrastination this time. It seriously has been had to get it pulled together in a manner with which I am happy. This is 10% of my grade so I hope the instructor likes it better than I do (doubtful!). Wish me luck!!

Another Completed Comfortghan

This one is going to a gentleman located in Canada. I hope it finds the way quickly so it can provide him comfort. Thank you to all those who sent squares. These projects would never happen without your help!!!

Super Mom

This Super Mom thing is really overrated. I have reached a point where I no longer believe that any one person can truly "have it all". There are choices to be made and priorities to put in line. There is no real life Martha Stewart. Anyone who pays attention knows she has a ton of people who do the real work. She doesn't personally take out all her spring bulbs each fall and replant then in January as she is telling us to do. She may wander around as someone she has paid is doing it and perhaps handle a few, but really, she is too busy running her business and being in front of the camera reminding all of us about our own deficiencies to even begin to do the behind the camera work. Please do not misunderstand me. There are many, many people who are able to juggle a career, family and personal time and I am not in any way trying to say they don't or to even put down Martha Stewart (she is just an example people).
I believe that the problem arises when we no longer set our own standards of success and begin to measure ourselves by someone else's standards. That is a ridciculous thing to do. We are each different. We have different talents, abilities, dreams, priorities, family demands, work demands and allocations of time and interests. What is relaxing for me may not be relaxing for you. What I struggle with daily, may be a breeze for someone else. This is why it is so very important to only work to improve against your own measure.
How do you create this measure and are you already struggling? Well, if you are struggling, then perhaps the bar is set to high. I know mine is on a fairly regular basis and I often have to step back and look at it. Not that you will never reach the high bar, but for now, bring it down a bit and have a success or two to celebrate. As people, especially women and mothers, we really do put too much on ourselves. There are only so many hours in the day. I can NOT get everything done that I want to. I am fortunate on the days that I complete everything I NEED to. I work toward an ever changing goal and have only recently realized how much I had cut myself and my own needs out of the equation. It is difficult to include myself without guilt or feeling selfish. I am working on it though and it is now part of my own personal measure of success.
Just remember, you may never know what goes on "behind the camera" so don't judge yourself against what you are able to see of another's life.

Not so easy

This finish 5 goal is not so easy to meet! It isn't that I don't have enough things, especially since I have decided to include procrastinated items, but that many of them are not quick to finish. That said, I am pleased when I at least plug away at them since progress is progress~!

Finished item

As part of my finish things I've started I have gotten the pictures of the most recent comfortghan and the denim quilt I made my DS for Christmas off the video camera and onto the computer. I am now doing the next step and posting here as originally planned. The denim quilt finished size is 66 x 100. Yes, that is HUGE! I made it big enough to hang over the side on a twin bed and long enough to hang over the end if the twin happens to be dorm length. Guess I have big plans both for my son and the quilt, LOL!
Now, can I count this as two items?

THIS I can do!

I recently read the New Year Resolution musing on another BLOG and I am REALLY liking this idea. The basics are that the only resolution is to finish 5 things every day that you started earlier in your lifetime. Sounds pretty easy doesn't it? Well guess what? IT ISN'T!!! So, as a form of self motivation and accountability I will occasionally post my list here.

Today
1. Cards for swap - group 1
2. Cards for swap - group 2 (I know this might be stretching the count, but give me a break people!)
3. Got my crochet bookmark exchange (the bookmark has been finished since mid December) packaged and by my purse to drop at the Post Office on the way to work tomorrow.
4. Can't think of any more

See what I mean? I did quite a bit today, but as far as finishing things that were stared before today, it is a little more difficult. It is not that I am lacking for things to finish. In fact, I could never start anything new and still have things for this resolution for years to come. The problem is in the completion. This is the reason I think this challenge is absolutely perfect for me! Thank you so much Rockster for putting it out there were I was able to read it!

Craziness

So, things have been pretty insane here. After the craziness of visiting my Mom's and then New Years here with company (although WONDERFUL company) there was a slight thought of a couple days of normal routine. On Thursday my youngest sister and Mother were in town for some various doctor appointments. I was disappointed to not get the opportunity to see them due to work, but had resigned myself to such and figured it would be an early night of diner, cleaning the house in preparation for my brother and his family. Well, WRONG! My sister, poor thing, broke, we think, her foot while she was in town. What this means is that my Mom and sister headed to the emergency room at about 3:30 and at approx. 9 pm they arrived at my house. It was too late after a very long day to start an 1 1/2 hour drive home. This wasn't the end of the evening though as my sister needed some medication that she didn't have with her, no plan to stay overnight, and the phone calls to doctors and pharmacies began. Everything worked out well in the end, but the night was not a restful or uneventful one for any involved!

The next day my brother and his family arrived to spend the next couple of days with us. I am sooooooooooooo glad to have them here. My niece is BEAUTIFUL and my brother and his wife are great fun to have around. I will be sad to see them go tomorrow, but I am pretty sure that they are really looking forward to being in their own home. They have been traveling around between different family for 4 weeks. ACK! I would want my own home!

So, as you can tell, it has been both exciting and eventful in my house. Now, off to fill the chocolate twinkies we are making with the twinkie baking set my boys received for Christmas.

Happy New Year!

Perhaps one of my New Year's intentions, as opposed to resolutions, is to better schedule and prioritize the use of my time. I know that if I just got a bit more organized and motivated to actually do the things I want and need to there really are plenty of hours in the day. Guess posting here should be on the top of that list :).

My New Years this year was absolutely wonderful!! I had the unexpected opportunity to catch up with a cousin of mine that I have not seen in 10 years. This is the cousin that I am closest to in age and one who's company I have always greatly enjoyed. We all stayed up past midnight, but would have done that regardless of the day because we were enjoying visiting so very much. What a great way to ring in the new year!!

Post Office after the holidays

I certainly hope the Post Office is less crazy after the holidays than before. I have several things I need to mail and I really don't want a 45 minute line, nor do my kids :). One of the things I have ready to send is another completed comfortghan for HMB. This is for a request that came via the website. We got absolutely flooded with requests this month. The only reason we can figure out is that it all happened at the same time the Better Homes & Gardens Simply Creative Crochet hit the stands and there is a reference to HMB on page 8. We received over 100 requests in less than 2 weeks time. I am so very impressed with the members of HMB. They have really rallied around and taken on assembly assignments and been making and mailing squares like crazy. WTG!!!

Tickled PINK!!

I recently had a birthday and I must share what DH got for me. He got me the new Pink Squeeze from Quickutz and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it~!!! It also has an alpha, Olivia, with it that is wonderful. I was, and still am, super surprised. I had no idea my hubby even knew what Quickutz is let alone how fantastic a present this would be!!

A great big THANK YOU to my DH!!