Yarn Along

It is Wednesday again and that means it is time for the weekly Yarn Along.  I am joining with Ginny and everyone to share yarn and books.  This week saw no knitting rather a lot of time was spent on Ravelry for a new knit project.  I'm not sure why I wasted so much time.  I have two projects on the needles and one of them has been there FOREVER!  I am working on the back of Sylvi and it is not a talk at crafting or watch TV at night kind of knit.  But I am determined to finish it this summer so I can wear it next fall!

Today is Ginny's virtual baby shower.  I love baby knits because I feel like I have accomplished something.  I made a little washcloth out of very soft cotton.  Together Miss C and I picked out the kitty with the heart for the sweet new baby.

I have been reading a lot of travel books in the past week.  I had checked out books on Iceland, Croatia and Budapest.  I check out books from the library and then when we decide, I'll buy a travel book we can write in.  We are trying to decide where to go on vacation in October.  My list of places I want to visit is very, very, long.  But we have to consider places that are kid friendly and we've narrowed down our decision to Croatia.  In the next couple of months we'll make a basic plan of what we want to see and do while we are there.

Random Thoughts on Thursday

It's late, I realize, but it is still Thursday!

*  Bryan had knee surgery this morning.  It was a quick scope to clean up some torn meniscus.  In and out of surgery in about 30 minutes.  We were in the surgery center for just about 3 hours.  I knew he was going to be fine when he wanted to go to Starbucks on the way home.
Funny side story to this surgery...the back story... he had ankle surgery seven years ago.  That was his first experience with anesthesia and it was funny.  In the recovery room he kept telling every person who walked by his bed that he and his good friend had been out drinking the night before and he drank five bottles of wine all by himself.  It cracked me up.

So today the anesthesiologist was talking to Bryan about the procedure and what to expect when he was in the recovery room.  He made mention that he would feel like he had a couple of glasses of wine.  And that sent me into hysterics.

*  Spring in Colorado is coming.  Bushes and trees are flowering, tulips and daffodils are blooming.  And it is supposed to snow this weekend.  And depending on who you listen to, we can expect anywhere from 8-40" of snow.  The 40" may be more in the foothills.   My mom's birthday is April 17th and she was born in a blizzard.  So it's nothing new for us, except today it was 70 degrees and gorgeous.  Just wait a day and it will change!

Happy Thursday!

Yarn Along

It's Wednesday again and that means it is time for the weekly Yarn Along.  I am joining with Ginny and everyone to share yarn and books.  WooHoo!  I am so excited.  I finally finished the stitch block cowl!  I just looked at my ravelry page...I started this cowl as a KAL with the mamas at crafting on April 18, 2015!  I put this cowl aside so often to work on other projects.  First I had to finish my Hitofude for Rhinebeck.  Then I had to work on the sweater for the school fundraiser.  And I've made eleven (ELEVEN!!!) Colorado hats.
I was so excited to finish and photograph it that i didn't even weave in the ends.  I took some quick pictures before leaving for work yesterday.  There are three blocks and I"ll tell you, that second block kicked my butt!  I learned to use a lot of lifelines!  Every repeat I used a lifeline.  And there are still several mistakes that I think are quite noticeable.  I'm fairly certain though, that there will be one more snow this spring that will enable me to wear my coat and new cowl!   My stitch block cowl was made using Quince & Co Osprey in Bark, Nasturtium, and Egret.

Block one

Block two 

Block three

I have enough yarn left in the nasturtium and bark and a tiny bit left in egret, but it should all be enough to make a hat or maybe some mittens.

In the book department, I feel like my book reading is slow.  I finished a book by Lisa Jackson called Unspoken which I thought was just "meh" (although to be fair, I did put it down to finish two library books.  I also listened to the Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (or JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame).  I thought it was a great book and immediately checked out the second book, The Silkworm.  I am also reading The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown but have not made much progress.  

What projects are you working on?  Any books I need to put in my Goodreads queue?  

Happy Yarn Along Wednesday my yarny peeps!

Weekends



We spent our weekend in Steamboat for the last weekend of skiing.  The last day to ski Steamboat was today.  There are some areas here in Colorado that will be open longer, thanks to a lot of late season snow, but for us ski season has come to a close.  Bryan will have knee surgery on Thursday.  He chose to have it in between ski season and mountain bike season.  One must have their priorities.

Miss C had one last ski lesson for the season.  She has progressed so much this year.  Next year she'll be saying to me "Come on Mom, keep up."  She was skiing easy blue runs with us on Saturday.  Makes this mama very proud.  Watch for her in the Olympics.

Saturday after skiing there was a free concert at the base of the mountain.  Ozomatli played and we danced our tired legs for over an hour.  There was good food, abundant drink and great friends.  A new tradition has been born to celebrate the end of winter.

How was your weekend?

Mama's New Toy

Mama got a new toy this past weekend!
It's a dual barrel spinning compost bin! I've had a upright bin for many, many years.  It's warped from the sun so the lid no longer fits.  It is hard to stir the compost all the way through.  The bottom door no longer lifts up to get to the beautiful black gold at the bottom.

Costco had these bins last week so I jumped on it as soon as I saw them.  Bryan and I put it together.  We decided to put the bin in the garden.  I didn't want to lose the space, but it will be easier to just dump it onto the ground.  We put it so the latches can be opened from outside the fence so I can dump the mini bin from the kitchen without going into the garden.

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours transferring the compost from the old bin to the new bins.   Toward the bottom of the bin was this beautiful black gold.  I spread it in the garden and will turn it in later this week.  
I'm getting excited to start gardening.  I have begun to uncover the things I mulched last fall... The raspberries are peaking through and so are the strawberries.  It makes me nervous to start uncovering the mulch in case they get frozen in the next six weeks.  It's happened before.  

What are you going to plant in your garden?

My Path To Debt

My path to debt started when I was 20. It was my junior year at college and I had just bought textbooks for the spring semester. In each of those textbooks came credit card applications. I had never had a credit card before so I filled out an application. That credit card came about two weeks before spring break. 

So my boyfriend (at that time) and I did what any normal college students (who had been living in the snow and bitter cold for four months) would do. We road tripped to California.  And put the whole trip on my brand-new credit card. I was a little on the materialistic side in those days.  It was all about brand names and designers.  While we were in Southern California we made a side trip to Beverly Hills.  I just had to have a Louis Vuitton handbag. And while I still have the bag I don't carry it often. That is just about the only thing I can remember buying with that credit card. My brand-new credit card was maxed out fairly quickly. 

But because I made the payments on time every month I kept getting offers for new credit cards in the mail. I filled them out and send them in.   A couple of weeks later I would have a brand-new credit card in my hands. By the time I graduated I had three maxed out credit cards.  Now I was going to have student loan debt to pay off as well. It was all I could do to make the minimum payments for the credit cards and my student loans. But because I was still trying to keep up with the Joneses I applied for another credit card. I was denied. 

I worked my tail off to pay off those cards.  I worked my regular 8 to 5 job and babysat nights and weekends. It took several years but I did pay those credit cards off.  And I canceled them. But my behavior did not change. I got two more credit cards and quickly maxed them out as well. Again I had to work my butt off to pay them down. I got tired of working so much overtime that I felt like I was living at work. I paid those two credit cards off about seven years ago. 
I still have one credit card and it is not maxed out. I don't pay it off every month though. I don't use it often except to book a hotel or rent a car. My behavior is changing. I attended the Dave Ramsey financial peace University class and am determined to get out of debt. If you follow Dave Ramsey's principles you know to pay with cash for everything and use your debit card.  Dave says no credit cards. Now when I go shopping I hear Dave's voice in my head asking do you really need that.

If you think you really need a credit chard check out Credit Card Insider.  It is an unbiased look at which credit card option would be best for your circumstances.  But, please be smart about it.  Don't learn the hard way like I did! 


GoodReads

Featured Post

My Path To Debt

My path to debt started when I was 20. It was my junior year at college and I had just bought textbooks for the spring semester. In each ...