~Pink + Orange~

Last week I went out in search of a sweater with a pop of color. I am getting tired of the reds and blacks in my closet! And winter is not over yet, in fact we're just getting started, so I'll definitely get a lot of use out of a new sweater. I used some gift money from Christmas to get a T-shirt and sweater from Old Navy. The sweater was on clearance, and the T-shirt on sale, so I got both for a good price. I've never done this color combo before but I decided to give it a go:


I think I like it!

On my return home, I was listening to the radio and the temperature was 13 degrees with a windchill of negative 3. Spring flowers may be {quite} a ways off, but I can have a little cheer now, by way of my wardrobe! :)

~Empty Needles~

I am very happy to have these:


Empty needles!

From what? you may ask. My Twilight Lace Wrap (Ravelry link).


Technically speaking this project is not finished yet because I still need to weave in the tails and block it. But the knitting is finished!

I do not have blocking wires for lace so I am going to do what another knitter on Ravelry talked about and use the plastic wire from a weed wacker. The only problem is that it is dead winter so I might not be able to find it in the store. We'll see!

So, so, so excited to finally have this done! I started it in May, 2008!

I'm linking up to Susan's UFO Progress Report, if you'd like to see more click here.

~Organizing~

Well, I haven't really made any resolutions this year, but a few friends and I are going through this calendar and keeping each other accountable. At first, I thought it was an awesome idea, and then I printed out the calendar and started looking through it.

It isn't my style.

But then I started considering what, exactly, constitutes "my style" of organizing. Hmmm. Rip a whole room apart from top to bottom. Put it back together over a week. And then be so exhausted that I don't do any organizing for quite a while.

So I decided to give it a go.

The first week went great. This week, ah, this week! I started in with great gusto on my bedroom. The first two tasks for this week are to clean out your nightstand drawer and clean under your bed.

Before I knew it, every stitch of bedding was off the bed, anything washable was thrown out of the room and...you guessed it...I was exhausted! But my room is CLEAN now!

I'm trying to slow myself down and do my organizing little by little so that I'll get more done in the long run. Before Christmas, I sold some things on Craigslist and took a carload of things to a local thrift store. I have a bin in my basement for donations, and it's almost full already! Finding things to get rid of is an adrenaline rush for me, so I'm pretty happy to have a bin full already! :D

~Nifty Gifties~

Some little things I got for Christmas that I'm really enjoying:

Sweater tights. It's like sweaters for your legs. LOL I wore them in 20-degree weather and I stayed nice and warm. Well, that's not exactly true. My nose and hands felt like they were going to freeze and fall off but that's because I wasn't wearing a scarf or gloves.

Smashbox lip gloss. So pretty and feels so nice.

Organic Honey Lip Balm from Whole Foods. My new favorite lip balm and we don't even have a Whole Foods within driving distance. This could be a problem when I run out!

OPI lotion. Apparently this wonderful stuff is not available to the general public, so if you know someone in cosmetology school see if they can get you some. :)

Chocolate. A whole drawerful of chocolate that even Brenda Leigh Johnson would be happy with. It was fun having a stash but *ahem* it didn't last as long as it should have. I'm not too disciplined when it comes to things like this.

~Boxes~

Kevin calls me an "anti-hoarder". Especially after we watch shows like "Hoarding: Buried Alive".

So yesterday when we were talking, somehow my storing-boxes-that-stuff-comes-in habit came up. I store them (the empty boxes) in our attic stairway, in case we need to return the item. Thinking back I have to say that I can't remember actually needing a box, ever. I admitted that I needed to go through them and put some in recycling. Then I said, "I should mark the date on them so I only keep them a year". And then it totally hit me and I cracked up laughing - this whole practice of keeping boxes is something that old folks would do, not someone in their mere 30's.

Kevin just thinks it is funny that I will hang on to empty boxes, yet toss out (or donate, or sell) perfectly good items, just because I'm not using them at the moment.

I'm currently in a clean out, organizing mood, and I'll address those boxes that are piling up in the attic stairwell. Soon. But only the ones that are older than a year. ;-)

~Naps~

I still need naps. Not me sleeping. My daughter sleeping. Only my daughter doesn't seem to think so! Yesterday afternoon she did get a nap (from about 2:30 to 4:30) and afterwards she was so happy. We went to the post office, and on the way there, she was saying cute things like:

"Mom? Target is a place for little girls to play."

But then, in spite of my attempts at running off her energy, and even though she got to bed on time, she didn't go to sleep till nearly 10. Yikes.

I'm just not ready to give up naps, but I need to figure out how to get her to sleep in the early afternoon so it doesn't wreck havoc with her night-time sleep.

Any ideas for an almost-3-year-old?

~Children's Books~

I wanted to highlight two books that I got for my daughter recently. They are older books which have been republished. The drawings are black and white and the wording is simple and fun - short enough for a toddler to listen to but still enjoyable for an older child to read too.

If Everybody Did - imagining the consequences of what would happen if everyone picked buds or went without hats or "mashed hash".


They Didn't Use Their Heads - what happens when you don't use your head - what you should do instead. For instance, "Ruthie liked to run, but she didn't use her head...so it wasn't any fun." (She ran into a tree!) And then the advice: "Your eyes go with your feet."


The first book is more silly than the second - mostly exaggerating to make a point.

I got these books before Thanksgiving, and my brother was here over Thanksgiving. He saw these books and got excited about them because these were books we had when he was little. As a result, he read them several times to my daughter. :) Since I had read them many times to my siblings, I knew I wanted them for my daughter.

Clicking the pictures above will take you to Amazon through my affiliate link.