HPL Baby Blanket

I finally finished the baby blanket. Hannah's baby was born last Monday so I figured I had better go ahead and finish it before he was too old to use it.


Here is a close up:



I think it turned out quite nice. Here are the instructions I wrote up for the hairpin lace yahoo group:
I made this blanket by combining two different free patterns. The HPL
part came from a free pattern from the Hooked on Crochet! magazine
website the link to which was posted on this group last winter but is
not longer available. Fortunately, I had printed a copy. Basically you
make 1 inch strips with 141 loops on each side. You then finish the edge
by working a sc in each loop. Fasten off each edge. The pattern called
for 19 strips, I only did 16. Mostly because I ran out of time and it
seemed big enough.

To join the strips hold two strips together, matching sts, join with sc
on one side of first strip, ch1, sc in first st on one side of other
strip, (ch 1, skip next st on first strip, sc in next st, ch1, skip next
st on other strip, sc in next st) across. Fasten off.

The orignal pattern called for a fringe but I'm not sure I like fringes
for baby blankets so I used the edge off of this pattern:
http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/70263A.html, which is basically just a
shell stitch around all 4 sides of the blanket. I modified it by only
doing 2 rows of sc around the blanket before starting the shell stitches.

June update

Time for my monthly blog update. Can June have come and gone already? Yes, yes it has.

Had a great horse show last weekend. It only took 30 minutes or so to get Jolie on the trailer but get on she did and off we went to Poplar Place which is near Columbus, GA. On the way, Lawrence noticed that that alternator gauge was reading low. We turned off all the electrical stuff in the truck and managed to make it all the way on the battery. Once there, we were able to borrow a truck and go to the part store and get a new alternator. We had to make two trips because, of course, they gave us the wrong one first.
The horses did great. Lawrence got 2 firsts, a second and third at 2nd level. 3 scores were over 60%. He was very happy. Sam was apparently very light both days. Jolie did well too. We got a 1st, 2 seconds and an 8th. 3 scores over 63% is by far the best we've ever done. The 58% we got was my fault, I let her get heavy and rode poorly in that test.

Jolie outsmarted her self with the trailer loading thing. She decided on Saturday she wouldn't go on the wash rack. The wash racks at Poplar Place are framed with large timbers and are tall and narrow with mud around the cement base. Even though we had given her a bath without any trouble the day before, she decided that she would not cross the mud. Finally Lawrence went and got some carrots and a whip and kept tapping her with the whip until she finally jumped into the wash bay. We did it a couple of more times until she entered without stopping. When it came time to go home, we didn't have time to mess around because a storm was coming so we didn't give her anytime to decide not to load. As soon as it looked like she was thinking about stopping, Lawrence whacked her with the whip and she jumped right on that trailer. Whew. Hopefully her trailering problems are over. But for the next few times we load, we will be prepared.

The baby afghan that I'm working on is going well. I'm about half way done. It looks great. I'm very happy with it. I can't think of much else I've done craft wise. Oh, I did buy a jewelry making kit and made a couple of necklaces and bracelets.

I cut may hair off. It is quite short now. Everyone says they like it. I like it too.

I finally set up the genealogy web site I've been wanting to do for quite a while now. You can find it here: http://www.freil.com/~mlf/genealogy/index.php

I've not done well on the exercise front and have gained a few pounds.

Things to do next month:
Exercise
Finish afghan
Recover some chairs
Finish updating genealogy site (need to upload the census pictures)

That should do.

May Recap

Well, things didn't go much better in May. I am exercising more but still not enough. My weight has been steady around 127 or so. Still need more exercise.

I did finish the bolero, sort of. It is too small. I haven't figured out what to do about it yet. I made two purses, one in wool, the other cotton. They both need finishing though so I can't put a picture up yet. Not sure what my next project will be.

Riding has been going well, but if it isn't one thing with Jolie it is another. The lunging lessons have really paid off and I think I have finally figured out half-halts. I took Jolie to a clinic in early May. I thought it went horrible but no one else did. She just wasn't paying attention but near the end we just did transition after transition and things improved. Anyway, I decided I needed to take her more places so two weeks about I took her to Cindy's for a lesson. The lesson went great, she was listening. I was in a hurry to get home because the farrier was at home and I needed to get there before he left so of course, Jolie decided not to load on the trailer. After several hours of trying, we finally decided to try another trailer and we managed to stuff her into it and get her home. Now she won't load onto my trailer unless we use a ramp that Lawrence made and lots of carrots for bribes. She has loaded just fine for years, I don't know why all of a sudden she decided not to.

The biggest accomplishment for the month, however, was finally getting my genealogy stuff on the web. You can find it here: http://www.freil.com/~mlf/genealogy/index.php
I'm in the process of getting all the picture up. That will take a while.

In other news, Larry made Dean's list this quarter. A big difference from Fall quarter that's for sure. He is planning to move into a house with 4 other guys and a girl (Rachel) this fall. Ky made all A's this semester. She is very happy with that as are we. She is a senior now.

I didn't get much if anything done on transferring videos. So here is my list for June:

1. Genealogy stuff.
2. Crochet
3. videos
4. Ride
5. exercise.

That's probably enough. Hopefully I'll get some of it done.

April Recap

So, I've been a very bad girl this month. My diet has essentially stalled. I haven't really been exercising since mid March. I've been good about not eating too many snacks (baring birthday cake) so my weight has been steady at 129, though today it was down a little. I did get a little exercise this weekend though I'm not at the level I was in March. I think I was overdoing it then because I was hurting all over a lot. So I plan to take it slow.

As for horses, I've been riding a lot but the last show I went to was horrible. I'm going back to basics getting lunge lessons and working mostly on half halts. The major comment I got at the show which correlates to how my workouts have been is that Jollie is forward but the tempo is too fast. I need to slow her down without loosing the impulsion.

As for crafts, I'm working on a bolero in hpl. I have one more strip to make and join to the rest I've already joined and then crochet the ends together to make the sleeves. Soon, real soon now.

I'm talking 2 online courses on horse nutrition. I didn't work on it much in April but I finally caught up yesterday. I wrote a little web page/javascript to calculate IR in horses based on their Glucose and insulin tests. People seem to really appreciate it. That's nice.

I don't think I've done much of anything else on my list of things to accomplish this year. I've been awfully busy though, just not on things on the list.

So, lets set some goals for May.
1. More exercise, work up to 1 hour a day of walking or DDR.
2. Ride Chester
3. Finish bolero and start something else, not sure what yet.
4. Start converting videos.
5. Start on web page for equine diet balancing.

That is probably enough. I think blogging more might help keep me on track so I guess that is number 6.

Afghan finished

Well I finally finished the hairpin lace afghan I started a while back. Here is a picture:



I used a soy yarn which is easy to use but does make a rather holey afghan.

February recap

Well it has been a while since I posted last. Not much has been going on. I've thought about posting though.

It is the last day of the month and my weight is 129. So I guess I've lost about 5 pounds since Jan 1. I've had to really up the exercise though. I'm using www.sparkpeople.com to keep track of calories burned and www.nutritiondata.com to keep track of calories eaten. I could use sparkpeople to do both but I like nutritiondata's pantry better than sparkpeople's. It is a little easier to use. So this week I've managed to keep my calories eaten under 1500 each day and with riding, walking and dancing I'm burning an extra 600 calories or so. That should leave me with a calorie deficit of around 1000. There are 3500 calories in a pound of fat so I should be losing about 2 pounds a week. So far I haven't been losing at that rate but I've only been tracking calories for about a week now and I think that sparkpeople may be over estimating how many calories I burn riding. I'll probably blow the diet today though as I am eating out for lunch and dinner.

As for walking, I've started walking outside when the weather had cooperated. This has made it easier to walk for an hour. If I do it on the treadmill I get bored and tired and quit. I walked 65 minutes yesterday. Today I've too much to do so I won't get to walk but we are going dancing tonight so that will burn some calories.

I'm still working on an afghan in HPL. It is going slow. It takes a lot of strips to make an afghan. I made some grocery bags from t-shirts the other day. I need to find some more t-shirts (mostly I need to acknowledge that I probably won't wear a lot of the t-shirts I currently have in my closet, and I have a lot) so that I can make enough bags to make it worthwhile to take them to the store with me.

Most of my seeds didn't sprout. I need to replant some. If I wait too much longer, they won't be ready to plant when it is time.

Our anniversary was Wednesday. That is why we are going dancing tonight. 21 years.

I'm bored

I'm so glad that it looks like the writer's strike may be over. There is nothing on TV most nights. I guess I didn't realize just how much TV I watch. Not that there aren't plenty of other things to do I'm just not sure I want to do them. Actually I will be quite busy today. I need to go ride, then Equliates. Ky needs a flapper dress for school on Friday so we have to go shopping after school. Then the GDCTA meeting is a 7:00. So I better get off my but and go ride. I hope it has warmed up some.

I did get some exercise this weekend and rode both days. Got Larry and Ky's state taxes finished. They were really easy. My weight is still hovering around 131. It is being very stubborn. I've done good with eating and staying away from snacks I guess I need to push the exercise more. Getting old sucks because I seem to be sore all the time, especially the muscles around my right hip. Very tight and sore. Well, I've procrastinated enough, I have to go ride. Just a pasture ride today I think.

Gardening

Not much has been going on around here lately. I've misplaced my cell phone which is very annoying. The battery is dead so calling it doesn't help. I'm sure it must be around the house somewhere but who knows where.

Of the seeds I planted last weekend, 5 broccoli have come up.

I went to the dentist yesterday. Everything looked good. I have some periodontal disease and have to go get my teeth cleaned every 3 months. I've gotten where I sort of enjoy it now. I had to have a tooth pulled last spring and the tooth next to it is healing up which is the idea.

I'm pretty much done with federal taxes. I won't mail off ours until April since we owe. I mailed Larry's last week and I need to mail Kys though there isn't much point since she doesn't get anything back (nor did she have to pay anything). I still have to go to the library to get the state tax forms.

I finally installed Family Tree Maker last night and transfered all my genealogy stuff from Legacy. Unfortunately it seems to have lost all the pictures. It has some pretty neat features which will make updating things pretty easy, though. You can press a button and it will search ancestry.com for you and give a list of likely matches which are easy to merge into existing records. I've already found the ship immigration list for when Lawrence's grandmother came from Panama in 1927. Way cool. So I guess my next big project is to start working on genealogy stuff again. I have a lot of information from Lawrence's family that needs to be entered.

HPL Bookmark

Here is a picture of the HPL bookmark made from this pattern:




Instead of using a sport weight yarn I used size 10 cotton thread. It is kind of limp and wants to twist so I've put some stiffener on it to see if that will help. I'll report back here if it works.

Nothing much else is going on here. We've had a lot of rain lately so I haven't been able to ride but today was nice and warm and the ring is in pretty good shape so I was able to ride today. It is supposed to rain again tomorrow but then be warm and clear for a while. I also walked outside today instead of on the treadmill.

I started some seeds yesterday. I don't have a green thumb, but we do manage to get some vegies to grow in our garden every year. I planted 18 broccoli, 36 spinach, 9 lettuce and 9 cilantro seeds in a seed starter in the basement. I don't usually have good luck starting my own vegies from seed but Lawrence did really well with tomatoes last year so I thought I would try again.

Current weight was 130 this morning.

hat and scarf

I finished my latest HPL project, a hat and scarf.



The pattern is here.

My daughter actually liked this one and says she will wear it. It feels good to actually make something that she didn't think looked weird. I'll have to make some more to give away. They are really quick to make. The doubled thread makes the joins easier and less messy. I did make a few modifications because I didn't have enough yarn. The scarf is not doubled and only 3 strips wide instead of 4.

January recap

First a picture of the hairpin lace stole I recently finished:


Very colorful. I made it with the strips that came with my loom that I bought off of ebay.

Now for the recap even though there is one more day left in the month.

My current weight is 132. Since I started at 134 I guess that means I've lost 2 pounds this month. Not bad if I can keep it up. I've been really hungry the last few days but have managed to not snack this week so far.

I got all my records organized, I still need to get the wills and POAs signed and some of Lawrence's records organized, though they are the same as mine for the most part.

I've done quite a few craft things. My family has even commented on it though they don't seemed to impressed with what I've done.

I need to ride more but it has been wet and cold. I have ridden 3 times this week. Not sure I'll get to today as the vet is coming for their spring shots and coggins test. Hopefully I can get a lesson in tomorrow before the rain starts again.

I didn't exercise any last week but have done better this week.

Got started on organizing pictures having put the Italy pictures in albums. Still have some misc. pictures to put in albums and I need to start converting old videos to DVDs.

Awards Gala

Last night was the GDCTA awards gala. I got 5th at Training Level as expected. Lawrence was Reserve Champion as we hoped. There was no chance at Champion for him as the top horse had a median score of like 69% which is very, very good. Lawrence's average was around 66% which is also good but not good enough. We had a great time and the food was wonderful as always. They always serve a chicken with pecans and rice that is so good. I really want the recipe.

Rode Jolie today. We hope to do better this year at the shows. We will continue at Training Level until we can consistently get scores in the mid 60's. We hope to make it to First level by fall. But then that was our plan last year and didn't make it. She has been going much better lately so maybe this year.

I weighed in at 132 today.

Riding Lesson

Yeah, I had my first riding lesson since before Thanksgiving today. My riding instructor, Dennie, broke her clavicle in a bike riding accident of all things right after that and has been out of commission since. I felt like my horse was going really well since then but I always worry because typically if I'm comfortable on her that means we aren't putting enough into it. Oh, I ride Dressage and I have a little TB/Trakehner/Paint cross mare that tends to be tense and easily distracted and doesn't really have enough push from behind. Anyway, Dennie was very pleased with the way we went today so we've still on the right track. Jolie (the horse) was very good today considering it was cold and windy and we haven't worked in almost 2 weeks. I'm very happy. It is supposed to be very cold tomorrow but hopefully the weekend will be warmer and I can ride then.

Otherwise, I've been a bad girl. I haven't walked since Saturday and I ate a snack on Tuesday.

I made a sweat band for Lawrence on Tuesday. He wanted me to buy him one but for half the money I bought some wide elastic and used an old clean towel and made him one and I still have lots of elastic I can use for something else.

Hairpin Lace Crochet

I created my first hairpin lace crochet items yesterday and today. Here are pictures.
The head band:



The neckwarmer:
Both turned out ok. I'm not happy with the way things joined up in the back of the neckwarmer. You can see it here:

I did better with the head band. I may add a bit of crochet to the head band to make it a little wider to better cover my ears.

The scales said 130 this morning. It was toooooo cold to ride so it has been a week now since I've ridden and I didn't get around to walking either. I spent too much time on ebay looking at yarn.

Icy Saturday

Well ice is falling from the sky this morning. It isn't really that cold but it is supposed to do this all day. We'll see if anything sticks. Ky went to work and Larry is about to go to Robotics. Hopefully they will be able to get home ok and that we will be able to get Larry back to school ok.

The scale showed 129 this morning. I wonder if the temps have anything to do with it though it should always be the same temp in my bathroom. Did 30 minutes on the treadmill yesterday. With the snow, I should be able to do more today with the weather so bad, I'll just spread it out over the day.

I got my hairpin crochet loom yesterday. I've already started using it. I've already made one mistake with it. Seems that when joining the strips you have to make sure you have the same side up as you had when joining previous strips. I'm making another neckwarmer with some old yarn I had. It will be green and blue.

I'm a bad girl

Here it is Thursday and I haven't posted all week. Bad, Bad girl.
I was so tired Sunday after taking Larry to school, riding and then trying to do the treadmill. I don't remember how long I walked but I don't think it was more than about 30 minutes if that. I was just exhausted. I didn't walk Monday or Tuesday though I did go to Equilates and dancing Monday and Tuesday. I did walk yesterday for 30 minutes. It doesn't look like I'll get to walk today since I waited to long and Ky's friends are here playing games in the basement where the treadmill is. I think she would be very upset if I went down there and walked with them here. The good news it that I do feel better and the scales weighed me at 131.

I didn't get any crafting done this week until today. I finished up making two sets of rice therapy bags.I made these with scrap fabric. The purple and paisley came from a pant and shirt set I made for Ky about 5 years ago. The flower print is from a pillow case and the solid green (though I looks a little blueish in the picture) is from curtains I made for Larry's room when he was an infant. When we moved from that rental house I saved the curtains and have yet to have a use for the material. I plan to make another set of therapy bags from that and the print fabric that went with it.

We had snow last night and school was canceled today. Things are very wet and messy today at the barn. I haven't ridden all week. Maybe tomorrow.

I hate my scales

Ok, I got on the scales yesterday morning. 132. Today it was more like 133. I hate these scales. They do this all the time. Since I guess my goal is to loose a pound a month, I'm still on tract but it is still depressing.

I didn't get to walk yesterday because I didn't have time. We did practice some dancing last night so, besides riding, I did get some exercise. Jolie went very well. She was so light in the bridle yesterday and the canter work was great. It took a little while for my sitting trot to get comfortable, I think I was pinching too much with my thighs. I'm not sure I will have time to walk today but will certainly try. I have to take Larry back to school.

I started working on a rag rug made of plastic bags. I think it will work ok though Lawrence thinks that they will disintegrate quickly especially if left in the sun. They are supposedly biodegradable.

I'm so hungry

OK, I'm not hungry right now because I just had lunch but I was really hungry last night and went to bed hungry. I guess I'm at that point in my diet where it is real easy to succumb to the hunger and eat. If I can get over this hump, I'll be good for a short while. What I've found in the past is that my body gets used to eating at certain times and I'll get hungry or want to eat at that time even if I had a big meal earlier. Though eating a big meal does tend to dampen the hunger somewhat. When I get out of the habit then I don't get hungry at those times. I've also found that for me anyway, I cannot eat between meal snacks at all. I gain weight. I know that some diets will have you eat say 6 small meals a day to stave off the hunger but I can't keep myself to small meals and when I get hungry at non meal times I want junk food not meal food. And then once I start on the junk food, I can't stop. Or I'll have just a little to take the edge off but I'm starving again within 30 minutes or so, so I have to eat again. Anyway, I did 55 minutes on the treadmill today and 50 yesterday. Almost at an hour.

I won't get to ride today and didn't ride yesterday. I have to pick my son up from school this afternoon so he can help his high school robotics team with their robot this weekend. The weekend looks good for riding though.

I made a hot rice therapy bag yesterday. I didn't fill it because it will be a Christmas gift and I will wait until then so that the scents that I add won't fade before Christmas. I also need to decide what to fill it with. I might use corn instead of rice and lavender buds instead of essential oils. I have enough scrap fabric to make several sets of them and the one I made yesterday looks quite nice. One of these days I'll get pictures.

Lost 2 more pounds

Well I got a surprise when I got on the scale this morning. 130 I got on the scale twice to make sure. It will probably be higher tomorrow but hopefully not. Now I just have to keep it up. I was really hungry last night a couple of hours after dinner but I didn't succumb and by bed time I wasn't hungry anymore. I did 45 minutes again on the treadmill yesterday and rode Jolie for about 40 minutes. She was very good. It is important though that I don't get too excited about it and start thinking we might do well at the shows this spring. Invariably that happens and I start trying to force it to go well and then it doesn't. You can't force things with her, she just tenses up and tunes you out.

I finished the cap I was crocheting. Ky doesn't like it. I was planning to give it to her but she thinks it looks weird. She had the same reaction to the neck warmer I made. So I guess I will either keep it for myself or give it to someone else that will be more appreciative for Christmas. I like them because they are a little different than they usual knitted scarf and hat. A friend's mother knits plain ole scarfs and gave one to Ky at Christmas time and she likes that. I personally thought it was -- well not ugly, just plain. I like the neck warmer idea because I find it hard to keep a scarf wrapped around my neck especially when working outside with the horses. I'll probably give away the one I just made because it is pink and green. I have already bought some blue/black/white yarn to make me one.

I pretty much finished up organizing my records yesterday. I guess I need to do Lawrence's though they are pretty much the same. I then need to figure out where to get our wills and powers of attorney notarized.

Dancing

Got back late from dancing class last night so couldn't post then. This month we are continuing with silver level cha-cha. After 3 weeks off, it went very well. Some of the steps we had been having trouble with came much easier last night than the last time we tried them. The first class is bronze level waltz which we have done several times and since the silver level waltz is very different, we decided not to take that class this month. That turned out to be a good thing because that class was huge last night. Lawrence may go next week and help out as there were several women there without partners.

I worked some more on organizing records and on crocheting. I'm almost done with the cap I'm making. I should finish it this evening and I'll try and get some pictures up.

Jolie went quite nicely yesterday. The canter was very good, very balanced.

I did 45 minutes on the treadmill.

Overall a good day.

First Week Recap

Well, so far so good. Except for yesterday, which was Hubbies birthday, I've posted every day. Wooho.

Lets see what progress I've made on my todo list.
I've started blogging.
I've worked on organizing pictures. I still need to label the ones I've done and put the ones that weren't of our trip in albums and label them.
I've started organizing my records and made the wills. Still need to get them signed and to put everything in a binder.
I've made some stuff though nothing specifically a Christmas present or to sell.
I've ridden my horse though not both horses.
I've lost 1 pound and managed to get some exercise for 5 days in a row.

Pretty good progress so far.

The weather doesn't look good for the next few days so I better get out and ride this morning.

Titles

You know, it's really hard to come up with titles for these blogs, especially when they aren't about anything in particular. Like this one.

I rode Jolie, walked 40 minutes, worked on funeral plans and crocheted. Oh, and I took Larry back to school. He goes to Ga Tech, classes start tomorrow.

Ooh, and this is weird. I'm sitting here in the dark and the light from my monitor makes my hands look really old and wrinkly.

I added an atheist quote generator to the page today. I'm not fanatical about my atheism, in fact most people probably don't know for sure, but some of the quotes seem meaningful to me. I found the quote generator while looking for ideas about a secular funeral. While I don't want a religious funeral, I also know that the funeral is mostly for the living to help them move on and most of my husband's family is religious. My family are non practicing Christians (for the most part). I don't what something that will offend them or make them uncomfortable. Hopefully what I've come up with will satisfy everyone.

Oh, and I think I've lost a pound. My scale is not very accurate. I can get on, get off, and get right back on and it register differently and I also know that it weights at least 6 pounds less that actual weight. But, yesterday it was on 134 and this morning it was 132.

Watership Down

I just finished reading Watership Down today. I had never read it before and didn't have any thing else to read at the time so started it just before the New Year. Pretty good book. I was very glad that nothing bad happened to the bunnies. I'm sure there is lots of symbolism in the book but I have never been much good in figuring what books mean. I started reading one of the books I got from the library on funeral planning. The symbolism in it is more obvious.

Because I was near the end of Watership Down, it was easy to do 40 minutes on the treadmill today. I read while I walk. I don't think funeral planning will keep me interested enough to make walking enjoyable so I will start a new book tomorrow.

I was also able to ride today. Jolie (my horse) acted like it had been 2 years instead of 2 weeks since she had been ridden but we did finally end up with some good work. I attempt to do Dressage and have been working on canter transitions and sitting trot. Both are finally getting better and, in fact, I am starting to prefer the sitting trot. I still bounce a lot though.

I finished the neckwarmer I was crocheting for my daughter, she thinks it looked funny when I tried it on so maybe it will be for me instead. Started on a cap to go with it. I'll try and get a picture up tomorrow.

Crochet hook holder

Today I made a crochet hook holder. When I went to start a crochet project last week I couldn't find any of my crochet hooks. I had to go buy some. I decided to go ahead and make the holder to hold them all (I bought two sets) so I wouldn't loose these as well. I guess the others will show up someday. The holder was another great gift idea found on Sew Mama Sew. I plan to make a armchair organizer and hook holder for my sister for Christmas so these were good practice. I need to find some great fabric for them though. I've been using old sheets for these.

I managed to walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes again today and I checked the books on funeral planning out today.

Monday is Lawrence's birthday, we are taking him out for supper tonight since Larry has to go back to school Sunday.

Excercise

I finally managed to get on the treadmill today. 30 minutes with some equilates as well. Here's the thing, we went to Italy this summer. I ate and ate. They have great food there in case you didn't know. I didn't gain any weight while there (we were on a horseback riding tour) but I didn't stop eating when we got back home and then there were the holidays. All in all, I've gained 10 pounds since July. So it has to come off. I've done it before. All it takes is eating less and exercising more. But I have to actually do it. Tomorrow I hope it will be warm enough to ride.

I picked up the pictures I had printed of our vacation today and got them in their albums. I still need to go back and label them.

So far so good, I've done at least 2 things everyday from my list. Of course it is only the 3rd. 362 days to go.

Busy Day

Today was a very busy day and very cold. Temps didn't get above 29 degrees which is very cold for Georgia. But I did get a lot done. Took the pictures of our Italy vacation to Rite Aid to get them printed. I'll pick them up tomorrow. I've been taking digital pictures for years but never have had any of them printed because I was too cheap. Well Rite Aid is running a special - $.13 each. I took over 600 in today, some were pictures taken previously. So that counts as working on organizing pictures. I also bought albums to put them in.

I also finished my will and powers of attorney today. Will have to work on Lawrence's (my husband) tomorrow. Word of advice, don't work on those sorts of things late at night. I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep last night, not that I was worried about them but just couldn't stop thinking about them. My sister-in-law gave me a book on getting organized for Christmas. I've known I needed to do these things but just keep putting if off, now I have a plan for getting them done. Went to the library today to get some books on how to plan a funeral. Yuck.

Finished up my latest craft project. It is an arm chair caddy to hold my work. I'm always misplacing my hooks or needles, etc.
You can find the pattern here.
I also wanted to post a picture of my before Christmas project, a purse, checkbook cover and wallet.
I found the patterns for the purse and wallet through the SewMamaSew Handmade holidays blog.

Time to go watch Dr. Who.

Introduction

This is my first post to my new blog. I hope to use it to keep track of my many hobbies. This enterprise was inspired by the SewMamaSew blog and all the links to the other wonderful crafter blogs. Since I have a big todo list for 2008 it seemed appropriate to start on New Years Day. And here is the list in no particular order:

Start blogging
Set up a geneology web page.
Organize pictures, movies and videos (copy videos to DVD)
Redo the front garden
Paint Stairwell and upstairs hall
Ride 2 horses a day
Craft, craft, craft (make all of next years Christmas presents and perhaps make some stuff to sell)
Finish Ky's cross-stitch that I started years ago
Organize records
Make wills

Loose some weight

Most of these were on last years list too.
So I guess I've done the first one on my list. Just have to keep it up.