Pumpkin Sunrise

  Good morning! How was your weekend? On Saturday we all went up to my dad's place to celebrate his 81st birthday. We had a lovely lunch that was like a dinner - grilled salmon and roasted vegetables along with a bean salad and watermelon - yum. We ended up having beautiful weather (not hot). My cold is mostly gone but I'm still tired. I have high hopes that this week I will be back to my exercising routines. I've been walking daily with Frodo and that is pushing it! On Sunday, I worked in my art journal creating some spreads and tinkering around with my endless supply of stickers. On the right hand page on my art journal, the teeny tiny paper pocket was made by my sister, isn't she talented? After a dry spell, Mother Nature has gifted us with drizzly rain - what a delightful change!! How was your glorious weekend?

  Good morning! How has your week been? Can you believe it's the last week of June? After some brutally hot temperatures we were graced yesterday with a beautiful day of low humidity - truly refreshing.  My backyard is quiet now that we stopped feeding the birds (raccoon raiding during the day, ugh). I will put the feeder out again in the fall and hope that Ms. Raccoon has forgotten all about the free ride.  We are knee deep in home improvements. Last week the insulators finished doing the attic, this week we have chimney/brick pointers removing bricks that are 'spalled'. What a NOISY day yesterday! Frodo, bless him, slept through the chaos, but Holly didn't know where to hide. She usually is under our bed but the jackhammering was on an outside wall to our bedroom. Poor Holly.  She is amazing though, once they leave she is out and about - resilient! Wish us luck! Next week or the week after is a  new roof and gutter installation.  While home improvements occur, I'm

How are you all doing? How's your June month unfolding?  I've been pondering about creativity and how it ebbs and flows. Honestly last week was spectacular, I was casting on new knitting projects and completing art journaling pages one after the other. I basked in my creative pursuits. However, I wondered about when there is NOT a drop of creativity to be found, what do you do?  The number one action I always take with a non-creative state of mind is to just let it be. I've been a creative for so long that I know that it is temporary. I know that eventually I will be doing something creative eventually. Sometimes, I move towards new creative ideas or projects or I marathon read a bunch of novels while waiting for that creative spark. I've found that it's okay to not want to knit, or draw, or write.  To be honest, I sometimes do not feel like writing my blog (what!!). I wonder if there is anything else to say in the space that I haven't already said before. I won

  I've written about my morning routine many times but I thought why not touch upon it once more. I love to get up early in the morning, drink my tea and journal about the day before. Mostly it's about events, thoughts and feelings. Sometimes I rant but try not to very much. At the end of each entry I write my gratitude list. Frequently it's about family and friends, coffee and tea, quiet pockets in my day. The more ordinary the gratitude the more I feel peace. The past two to three weeks have been wonky here. I've been having health symptom issues that I thought were medication changes for my blood pressure. An EKG was slightly abnormal which referred me to a cardiologist. While waiting for that appointment I visited ER to make sure I wasn't having a heart attack (I was NOT). I met the cardiologist last week and he thought I was 'fine' but ordered a stress test anyways. I did the stress test on Monday and thought I passed! But then I got a call from the off

  This week I've been working on 'being present' in what I do. When I'm on a walk with Frodo I notice what I see, hear and feel. The wind, the neighborhood dogs barking to say 'hello' to Frodo, the birds singing and feeling my cold hands and face while Mother Nature dips into wintry weather (I am not complaining!).  I've noticed that mornings are favorite times to notice the here and now.  I am a part-time dabbler in the 'what if' scenario thought process. "What if this happens?"  "What if that happens?" These thoughts are not being present. And so I work hard at my mindfulness techniques, a constant work in progress.  Guess what is NOT a constant work in progress...I finished that blanket! Oh boy what a labor of love. I hope to have some photos of the blanket for you next week. I'm excited that I can now do some casting on of short term projects while I mull about what long term project I want to do in the future (not a blank

  Oh boy was it hot this weekend.  Saturday I was all 'yay, it feels so nice' and by Sunday afternoon I had to put the AC on due to my hands and wrists swelling and aching. (The arthritis symptoms I experience are terrible in hot weather). Isn't it crazy that it was so hot? Isn't it crazy that too much of a good thing could be wrong? The dogwood trees in our backyard are about to bloom, for that I am truly grateful. I had many at our old house and am quite pleased we have them here as well. I also have a resident Mr and Mrs brown headed cowbird couple that are adorable. Sometimes they eat at the bird feeder and sometimes they are standing on the ground eating stray seeds that have fallen down from the bird feeder. I did a bit of watercoloring and sketching over the weekend. It was good to be returning to art in some form or another. My husband did major gardening work on Saturday then was achy on Sunday! I did my weekly laundry chores and cleaning the house.  I'm re

  Yesterday it rained all day and most of the snow melted and today I woke up to intense 'flurries' that could or could not accumulate, that's to be determined. I know why it's snowing, I put the heavy coats and the winter boots in a different closet. I jinxed the warm up!  This week has been 'busy' with a splattering of random appointments strategically placed nearly every day breaking up the rhythm I enjoy. We met our new dentist earlier this week (and passed the exam!) and now I think we are done with establishing care with new medical providers. Phew!  I enjoyed reading your comments from last Friday's post about saving things for special occasions and the special occasions never come. I have plans for my deep stash with yarns that are over 20 years old. In my defense, I inherited much of my mother's yarn stash when she died in 1998. I have yarn that I bought in 1990 that I have yet to knit up! Right now I'm thinking I should always have some kin

  Lately I've been thinking about what brings me joy. I revisit this theme over and over throughout the year and try to tweak my days so they reflect what fills my bucket. My challenge is that I have many many things that bring me joy and trying to fit all of them into my days is nearly impossible. I keep a track of the following in my planner: knitting, journaling, sketching/watercoloring, reading and cross stitching. I'm not strict at what I do each day I just like to see how I end up allocating my time. Anyways, when I eat well and exercise daily I feel fantastic and that brings me joy. I keep track of those activities as well as daily meditation and yoga. Good health is a top priority for have a good day. Keeping my creative pursuits revolving in and out during my days makes for a delightful existence! Since moving here I've been managing any perceived stresses (usually self generated!). I want to sit down at the end of the day and feel like I enjoyed the day, lived it

  Right now I'm sitting in my family room with Frodo writing this post. The weather is freezing cold out there, brr. I like winter and snow - now I have to remember to bundle up and bundle Frodo up. I don't think there'll be a daily walk today. How are you? How are your wintry days going along?  My husband and I have been huddled up in the house. I am a homebody and loving it! Right now, I've been squeezing in more reading during the day which squeezes out other creative pursuits. My long list of what I want to do can never be accomplished in a given day and I'm okay with that. I'm being realistic.  I came across an interesting saying that I thought I'd share with you: You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can stop them from building nests in your hair - Chinese Proverb I've been mulling this one over and over again. I plan to do a creative art journal spread with this quote in my big notebook sometime today or tomorr

  Hello! How is your first week of January? Mine has been delightful. I thought I'd share with you some of the new books and journalling stuff I received over the holidays. The above book pile is what I'll be reading in the next few weeks. My kindle has a ton of books and I like to have one of those always going so it's light in my purse when I'm out - I can guarantee you if I don't take a book with me I am waiting somewhere for a very long time so I try to keep it with me. (Emergency reading?) Last March, I switched to a Hobonichi Weeks planner and loved it so much. So I bought one for 2022. I use this for personal planning and keeping appointments. I also track my health, exercise, knitting ideas or projects, and all sorts of thoughts. This planner is a thought catcher. For my birthday, my daughter gave me the above pencil pouch that is delightful! She purchased it from JetPens   and along with the pouch,  there were lavender pens and markers and washi tape. Swoon

  How are you all doing? I'm doing great and am in the midst of the tail end of the Christmas knitting marathon. I might be down to one project.  I've been enjoying my bird feeder and identifying the birds that come to visit. And the new squirrel proof feeder does work! However it is not raccoon proof so we bring it in every single night. All I can say is at least it's not a BEAR. So far no bear sightings but never say never... The above photo is a snap of my Christmas junk journal that I whipped together with scrapbook paper and some Christmas cards. I'm joining in with Brie at Documented Journey on You Tube (she's on Instagram as well) with her Create December and daily prompts until the 25th.  The other evening, Miss Holly crept into the family room to sit by her beloved (aka not me) while Frodo was sleeping under the ottoman. Let me tell you this, she is one brave determined kitty. Luckily for us, Frodo is completely oblivious to her presence and it remained a

  Every single morning I write in my journal about the day before and anything else I'm pondering about. I've been doing this daily journal writing for years and love the ritual of picking up my Lamy fountain pen and Moleskine notebook and beginning my day in the very best possible way. I pour myself a cup of coffee into a 'current' favorite mug and sip away while writing. Sadly one of my favorite favorite mugs sprung a leak. So sad. However, that lets me shop to find new favorite mugs along the way. The sprung leak mug was over 30 years old so it served me well. art journal In my daily planner (not the writing journal), I write what I'd like to accomplish in that particular day. Sometimes I am really good at meeting these loose goals and sometimes I am not. I just move them onto the next day or the next week.  While sitting in darkness and silence sipping coffee, I play fetch with Holly. This particular fetch game really isn't a true fetch game. I throw a mouse

  Hello! How are you doing?  This past week I've been pondering about a mindfulness prompt in a book I'm reading throughout the year, A Year of Living Mindfully by Anna Black. It's a really nice book and I've enjoyed the prompts throughout this year. Anyways the prompt this week was to consider what you believe to be nourishing or draining. I've thought about this all week long. My obvious nourishing events are knitting and reading. But over the course of the week I've added some surprising concepts to the nourishing list and challenged my draining list. I had the opportunity to help my cousin at her house with her preparing for company this past week. I found helping her nourishing to me, an added bonus was making her very happy. I also initially considered walking 150 minutes draining because of the amount of time it takes to get that done and I'm not doing other 'things' but then I changed my mind because I am nourishing my physical health which i

  Finally, it is October! Are you celebrating? Are you excited? All through end of July, all of August and half way through September I've been pining for October. This is the secret sauce month of Autumn and we are finally finally here. In my planner I have set up some monthly pages, one of which is 'October Ideas'. This page will be the catchall brain dump of what I'd like to do, or investigate during the month. Usually I write each week what I want to do but I have to carry it over to another week (sometimes repeatedly). Maybe a monthly catchall place will work for me. Near where I live there are plenty of farmer's markets and there is one in particular that is a compound of buildings. They have a few animals for children to say 'hi' to and chat with, you can feed them some food as well. I snapped the photo of this sweet pig (hog??). I'll be missing the big fair that was close to my old home. I find it weird that the last time at the big fair I didn&#

  I've been reading a lot this week. I started 10% Happier by Dan Harris and it is really good. He writes about his personal journal into mindfulness and meditation, I've been captivated and squeezing in reading here and there during my day to gobble up the book. I highly recommend! I've been also reading a chapter a day/or every other day of Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn (revised edition), also a good book but jammed packed with lots of science and data so the reading is slow going - almost like a textbook but worth the read. The Madness of the Crowds by Louise Penny became available on my e-library loan request so I've set aside all the other novels to read this one in 21 days. Nothing like a deadline to make you rejigger your reading priorities. I love her writing and have read all of her books. I convinced myself that I did NOT need a Hobonichi Weeks planner until March 2022, then broke down and ordered the January start Hobonichi Weeks planner for 2022.