Christmas follow up

I think he liked them. They were a surprise for him. I mailed them to my dear friend Ruthanne, who snuck them to Kelly, who put them under the tree. I really wanted them to be a surprise.
I will post more pictures of the kids soon.


Todd and his socks.

I am not Martha Stewart!

Gordon Lightfoot is on the player, it's snowing outside and I am going nowhere. Portland is having a rare snowstorm and everything has shut down. They even canceled Church this morning for the half inch that was on the gound! This is a shot I took from my front door. It's darn cold out there though with the wind blowing. I think I will be home from work tomorrow.

That's fine. I made chili and turkey noodle soup this afternoon and can very happily hang out here tomorrow. I think they may close the city down tomorrow.



It's amazing to me, since we held church all the time in Minnesota in weather like this and thought nothing of it. Last January, we even held it the Sunday it was 40 below with the windchill and the wind was blowing.
I have been working on Christmas gifts and I am ready to pack them up and get them off the door. Things are pared down this year, but I still did a few things. Since I am so craft challenged, this is big stuff for me.
This is an apron for Jordyn. I will have you know I put the transfers on all by myself!

And of course, I have ones for Bre and Liam, too.




I only made three pairs of socks: Nancy's socks are almost identical. This is a specialty yarn that has a mind of its own, changing colors in sort of a pattern that I have yet to figure out.

















Jeremy's socks are fraternal, since the yarn colors went all over the place. Even though it was the same color way for both balls.

These socks are for a good friend back in Minnesota.

We are going to be home tomorrow, it seems. You need chains to get around. The temperature has gotten colder and we have lots of ice.

Denver

If I were doing this chronologically, I would have Denver come before the move, but I am not that organized. Anyway, I went to the Journaling Conference in Denver last month. I copied the home page for the conference to post here. It was great fun, and I got to meet so many of my Collective Journey friends:


Connie (my roomie at the Denver Sheraton)


Gina


Fran


Paula


Linda


Kay


Betsy (and Bob)


Elaine


Amy


Ellen


Debby T


Mari


Catherine E (and Sam)


We all hung out together and had a wonderful time. Lots of great journaling ideas. I actually have started writing in my journal again. I took apart my program and put the great parts in my paper journal.

Don't we look like we are having fun? Kay and Linda were not there, being so busy being the hostesses for the whole thing. I don't know where Gina and I were when this was being taken. I think Paula took this picture. Mari popped in an out, as she was busy with her music teacher. I would do it again in a heartbeat, if it meant I could meet so many CJ members in one place.

I only spent 50 dollars on books, and treated myself to a new journal. I realized I am such a word person, and visual journaling might be fun. I took classes in bodywork, writing my way through transitions, (not doing a good job of that), memoir writing (handling secrets), bibliotherapy for kids (Amy's class), and then we did a panel discussion on CJ and how we operated. It's amazing that we have been going for 10+ years now and are still as strong, if not stronger than ever.

My new home

I know, it's been forever since I wrote anything, but I have been busy. I packed everything up and moved to Portland this past month. The pictures above are from the online web page for the place, and does not show any of the apartments. They aren't too bad, but they are about 30 years old. I am sharing a place with Heber to save money. It is a challenge, but I think we are doing all right. After living with Heather, I am sure anyone would be a breeze. The weather has been right for walking and I am doing quite a bit of it. We walk in the evening and go out into the neighborhood. The trip out here was three long days of driving into the sun, which gave me a constant headache. We spent essentially one day going through North Dakota, and one day going through Montana. The last day was spent crossing Idaho, part of Washington, and then heading into Oregon.

I miss the Midwest big time. It's a lot more laid back here, and will take some getting used to. Of course, I miss all my friends. After all, I had lived there for 10 years, almost to the day. It will take some time to get things sorted out.

I am job hunting, which has taken a lot of time, and not resulted in any positions yet. I am hoping that will change this next week.

Isn't it nice to see me writing about something besides socks?

Latest Pictures of the Divas and More Socks

Socks for Soldiers Socks:
Lots of other knitting going on. I will post some other socks later when I have given them to their intended recipient.

These socks are probably on their way to Iraq or Afghanistan by now. I struggled with the Opal yarn for months. Glad to have them out th door.

Just a quick post here. These are the latest pictures of my grand daughters, the Divas. For their protection, I will not go into names or locations. The baby is growing so very fast, and her big sister is just being such a cutie!

I am not sure Alix likes being lugged around, but she seems to be a good sport about it.

She is a happy baby and has even learned to sleep through the night earlier than her big sister.

January Socks Finished and WIPs

WIP (Works in Progress)

Liam's Birthday socks. He turns 4 the first of February!

I finished a pair of socks for my daughter for her birthday (which is Saturday), using the gogeous Tofutsie that I got for finishing socks in October. I had never used the yarn before, and it made beautiful socks. I have enough left over to make a pair for my 2 year old grand daughter, who adores her aunt. They will love having matching socks.

I am knitting socks for Soldiers. It's an online group who knits socks to send to soldiers serving overseas. This is my 7th pair I have knit for them. I am trying two socks on one long Addi Turbo needle. I have no idea what I am doing, but it is slowly coming along. Mens socks with 12 inch cuffs take forever to finish, even when someone else does the cuffs on their machine. We can always use new members. For more information, go to sockforsoliders@yahoogroups.comIt's been a productive month!