10 good deeds from the past week.

...I make it a point to not look at anyone else's post before I do mine. I'm really looking forward to seeing how much good we did in the world this past week! (thanks carole - this was an awesome topic...especially because it impacted others!)

here are 10 good things I did the past week:

1. voted in my county's primary election, which was today. there was one item about metro atlanta transportation improvements and a new 1% sales tax to support it. marc and I feel strongly about the issue...so we voted. (I'll also say that I felt very uninformed about nearly everything else...need to study up before november!)

2. volunteered at the foster care center.

3. dropped off two bags of men's and women's clothing at north fulton community charities for their thrift store.

4. washed all four loads of clothes, and folded them, and put them away. before marc had to step in.

5. remembered to bring my own bags for all three of the shopping trips I made last week.

6. volunteered with the knitting group at the roswell nursing home.

7. dropped off marc's shirts...and remembered to pick them up when they were ready (the very next day).

8. kept a smile on my face...and in my voice...for every one of the shop's customers (this is harder than it sounds).

9. way overtipped the starbucks team who always gets my "tall bold with a little non-fat milk, a stopper and a napkin" just right.

10. paid the toll for the car behind me.

a few of these are things I do most weeks, but a few are things I don't. but now will make a point of. it feels good to do good.

click here to join the ten on tuesday fun!

a fifth monday.

...back in april when I blogged about my mondays, the days were differentiated by cleaning, or not. I think about those posts every week when I go through my "monday routine". and I realize that things are a lot different now that it's summer. and today, it was especially different because this fifth monday in july means no class.


6:40 pm saw me at my computer (checking up on ravelry) with a glass of wine and popcorn (not dinner, just a snack :-), freshly showered but no makeup (sorry, marc!), and a clean house (yes it's that week).

...and time to blog. feels like it's been way too long.

I thought a lot today (cleaning is good for that!) about how much has changed since those april mondays. and since a fifth monday is an unusual occurence (the last time I didn't have class on a monday night was memorial day - but really, a holiday doesn't count right?), the time seems ripe to reflect on a few things new...or unusual:

first, summer means bible study is done - my monday morning is now a two-lap walk with holly, barre class, and needlepoint. I miss the study time, but I'm completely enjoying my classes...and monday mornings in the park.

holly has learned to jump. two weeks ago she figured out how to jump up onto my leather chair. the ottoman is 13" and the chair is a short 4" step up from that. it's her new favorite place to be. I'm still not used to finding her there. but yesterday, she made it 18" up into my tv-watching chair. she scratched a bit to make it the whole way (which could be bad - the chair is covered in fabric) but she was just as pleased as could be when she made it.

I measured - it really is just 18"!!

I took finally took a yoga class on saturday. enjoyed it immensely, but not as much as zumba. and it's a 75 minute class, so it cuts a bit more into my saturday. look forward to taking the class again, but not for a few weeks - my next six or so saturdays are booked!

starting to realize how great it's going to be that katie lives so close. we met for dinner thursday, and she came up for church and birthday knitting yesterday. still have to pinch myself that it's real!

my first needlepoint piece is nearly finished...and I've ordered canvases to stitch for holiday gifts. yes, this definitely means my holiday knitting will be low-key!

sara arrives back from oxford this weekend. and then moves into her apartment the following week. I'm wondering what I might do with another empty bedroom upstairs? (no, even I don't need two yarn rooms). suggestions welcome!

I've been watching sports! beach volleyball, diving, swimming, gymnastics... yeah, it's the olympics but still, it's the first weekend I can remember that we didn't watch golf on sunday afternoon. (and that I paid attention more than I knitted :-)

I burned (yes, #bakingfail) a batch of blueberry muffins yesterday morning. convinced I need to calibrate my oven. and really hoping this is an "unusual" and not a "new normal". ugh....

would love to know what's new and/or unusual with y'all....

project life week 18.

(but first, a quick response to the questions from yesterday's post. it's the chaperone.)

...and now to project life. here's week 18, which ran from july 15 to july 21.

click the photos to see them larger (and maybe clearer)

apparently this week was heavy on the booze. it certainly didn't seem like it, but I guess my ephemera and photos tell their own story! (one I didn't even notice until I sat down yesterday morning to pull it all together.) I did think about editing out one - or two - of those frames, but in the end, I kept them all.

here are close-ups of two of my favorite parts:

the beer story is especially "me". or maybe I'm not the only person who's not embarrassed to admit I drink "winter" beer on a hot july day, four months past the bottle's "best by" date?

and this good reminder to stay focused. the end of a fabulous book. and a free latte...mixed in with a bottle of red wine (first tried a few weeks back and a new favorite).

new project life lessons:
1. I can't figure out an efficient way to work with paislee press's journaling cards. they're all on one page and I only want to use one. and recolor it. and probably rotate it. spent an hour on the "story" and "photo"cards. ugh.

2. I like having different layouts on the two sides. most of the project life spreads I see online use layout A 99% of the time (layout A is the one on the left this week). that said, I might like having just the two layouts I used this week, as opposed to all the different ones they make.

3. even though I didn't start working on the pages until yesterday, I didn't feel stressed at all. I think because I knew I had planned time yesterday/today to do it...and that I could get it done in that time (well, except for that unplanned hour on the two journaling cards - which means I'm four rows behind where I wanted to be on my color affection :-)

wordless wednesday.

10 great things about a farmer's market.

...what a great topic for a summer tuesday - thanks, carole! this one got me thinking in all different directions, but my flickr stream helped me focus.

images from farmers markets I've visited in the past few years...in oregon, ny and georgia

fresh, local, variety, colorful, encouraging me to try new things, community, economical, healthy, fun...and great photo opportunities.

click here to join the ten on tuesday fun!

project life lessons.

...yesterday's post was a strong hint. I was about 45 minutes away from being caught up on project life. for only the 6th or 7th time since I started seventeen weeks ago! yep, most of my weeks have been documented in catch up mode and this past week, I documented five weeks (back to mid-june, when katie was here - and marc was not - and we had a wonderful time just being girlfriends).

here's a peek at those five spreads. you can click the images to make them bigger (and maybe clearer).

week 13

week 14

week 15

week 16

week 17

I'm still sticking to most of what I started with. a double spread for each week, running sunday to saturday. a mix of my handwriting and computer-generated text. but I'm now printing the weekly summary (and trying to include "just the highlights"), trying to incorporate more journaling and being a bit more lenient about documenting my cast-on projects. I keep telling myself "less photos is good". and I think I'm taking less photos so I hope that's true! I'm also trying to include more ephemera (of course it's thursday in week 18 and so far, I have none...)

I'm really happy with the pages I've got. but I am not at all happy with the process. getting behind and being stressed about catching up has never been my thing. but seeing what I accomplished in these seven days...I know I can do better. and get one spread documented each week. my "workweek" ends on wednesday afternoon. so I'm going to try to get my layout for the previous week completed by thursday. and here's the thing. I'm going to post it here. unfortunately I haven't been able to think of a cool "project life thursday" blog title. but if you see "project life" you'll know it's me...keeping up. and that's all I'm intending to do!

(and yes, this does take time away from knitting. and yes, it is definitely time well-spent!)

wordless wednesday.

10 everyday things that make me happy.

...carole's prompt this week is right up my alley - I love making happy lists!

yesterday morning at the park with holly (see #1)

1. an early morning walk in the park, seeing the sun shining through the trees.

2. waking up to the smell of just-brewed coffee.

3. the smile on a student's face when they "get it".

4. knitting.

5. a good hair day.

6. coming home.

7. answered prayers.

8. an empty laundry basket.

9. real mail.

10. laughing with my friends.

I feel so blessed that most of these things do happen "everyday". thank you, carole, for the reminder.

what's making you happy today?

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wordless wednesday.

on being a thunder blanket.

...flash back a week ago. holly is burrowed into my lap to hide from the thunder. forward to saturday. more storms. it takes both me and marc to somewhat calm her. sunday, another storm, but now just my lap. (at one point marc suggests I might need to stop knitting so I can hold her tight. I brush him off. he was probably right). monday, another storm, and it's just me & holly in the bed. I get a cramp in my arm from holding her and her shaking keeps me awake. now it's tuesday (again). another storm. holly (again) burrowed into my lap.

I think she saw it coming when the big raindrops started before we finished our walk. we made it up the driveway just as I heard the first clap of thunder (and tried to get her photo jumping up on my leg. please don't judge. I only tried once)...and just before I got this shot.

you can see the it on her face, "do you really need to stop right here right now to do this?"

sorry, holly, yes, I did. I want to remember this. I'm pretty sure I'm not a very good thunder blanket (although I'm sure if marc were here, we'd be fine), but I'm it for right now. my lap and my hugs are all yours.

it's a list thing.

...browsing my google reader on saturday morning, I came across xanthe's post.

um yeah, I love lists!

so I clicked over to the blog. and of course I was immediately drawn in. as much as I love making lists, I also love reading other people's lists.

yep, I'm in.

my first list is posted here (and shown on the left); love how pretty they made it from my simple email submission.

won't you consider playing along, too?

the knitting tale of the fourteenth journal.

...no it's not a page turner. and it's definitely not one of my coveted 5 star reads. but when I closed out my fourteenth journal this morning, I was certainly curious.

journal #14 ... the yarn story

back on february 12 when I started it, here's what I wrote:

I hope journal #14 tells a similar story about knitting for others. but maybe not knitting quite so much. and definitely getting back to sweaters. we'll see.

journal #14 ...the project story

today, I tallied the results.

*20 projects - one less than last time
*7 for others - three less...but this time didn't include the rogovin birthday cycle or christmas (but I do have five charity hats in that total - that's good!)
*7 "sweaters"... and I have two on the needles now. I think that slump is definitely behind me.
*9,912 yds = 5.63 mi ~ 1/2 mile more than last time - oops!...but it felt like less.

funny, I knit more yards but it felt like less. and I'm not really sure why (especially because those last few silk/linen projects did a number on my neck/shoulder..and my nails!)  I'd like to think it's balance. I've added a few more things to my schedule (good things, like lunches with katie, and pilates, and more volunteer work) ...but maybe it's really just that the 14th journal took me 146 days, and the 13th was just 131? a two week difference? yeah, I'd believe it. same pace. at a much different time of year. I still need to slow down.

and maybe I will. I started journal 15(!!!!) with a currents list. and of course it didn't fill up the whole page so I added...thoughts about hopes and dreams and all the good things I'll see before I turn 50 in november. know that I'm knitting because I love it. and not just because I don't have anything better to do!

wordless wednesday.

eight things.

...yep, eight! carole's busy this week :-). I just bought these journaling cards for project life. and I thought it would be good to blog something to help me get caught up (yep, nearly four weeks behind - yikes!). of course pre-PL I would've blogged about this sort of thing anyway, so here goes!

eight things making me really happy right now:

thanks, martha! (this is my bandit - #1)

1. martha was on hand this afternoon to photo my just-finished bandit (I do think it turned out great...and I love it!)

2. the +5 hour time difference with sara (now in oxford til early august) actually works ... she sends emails that I get "now" and can respond to...and we're skyping late afternoon my time on sundays. it's the perfect way to end the weekend.

3. it rained this evening. we need free water. (and it's thundering and holly's huddled in my lap...I'm glad I'm home!)

4. I had time in today's nearly nothing traffic to get my july charity hat started. the trip to and from the shop = 98 stitches cast on (and double counted :-)

5. chaleur (do I need to figure out the difference between a "love" and a "happy"?)

6. my sister and I have a long (8? 10? mile) training walk tomorrow. I hope I'm ready!

7. tomorrow is july 4th. I'm not working. marc's not working. .... right. smile!

8. marc made nachos for dinner. (and he's marinating fish for tacos tomorrow!)

...and now that it's this late in the day, I have to acknowledge one thing that's making me very sad...andy griffith's passing.

I firmly believe that in every situation, no matter how difficult, God extends grace greater than the hardship. - Andy Griffith

...peace...and grace.

june. in photos.

...I wrote to my mom on saturday that I couldn't believe the year was half over; 2012 is definitely going down in my books for being the fastest year. ever. and that's making me just a bit sad because so far it's been (mostly) filled with good stuff. the kind of stuff I'd like to last longer. but mostly I couldn't remember where june had gone. and then when I uploaded saturday's photo (#227 since I started last november 17), I caught a glimpse. and I remembered...

memories. captured. here's the whole set.

...one of the things I love most about taking a photo to capture each day.

here's june (slightly larger :-)

you can see all the photos here

a month I want to remember for the changes it brought - love our new deck, my new workout routines and having katie & rob back in atlanta - and the constancy of the seasons. we're full on into summer. complete with hot sunshine (and the occasional thunderstorm), bright blooms, sandals, cold cocktails and plenty of fresh vegetables.