Time flies faster than my knitting

I officially joined the ranks of 'unactive' blogger. How did so much time pass since the last post? Easily. Day by day, of doing something other than typing a blog post. It got to the point where I didn't even add 'post to blog' on my weekly to do list. And then it got past Thanksgiving, and then past Christmas, and then the New Year slips in there one week later.

When I am an active blogger, I am even vocal about it. Hubby says, why are you taking a picture of that...for my blog I reply. Whatcha doing on the computer, he asks...writing on my blog. I don't think he's ever seen my blog, but he knows it exists. He doesn't seem to mention anything about why I am not taking pictures anymore though...

So I am using the metaphor, swinging my leg up and am back in the saddle again. Hopefully this gets the muse flowing again.

I did do some serious thinking about some of the things that make it harder to actually do a blog post. First off, up until recently my photo editing software (the thing that makes a picture nicer and smaller for uploading) was only on my desktop computer. And I spend 90% of my computer time on my laptop. So I installed a photo editing software on the laptop, and hope that will encourage me to post from the laptop. Second reason, is lack of content to post. I simply did not spin at all until new years day, and knitting has been sparse until the last two weeks. That's all to do with personal deadlines, holidays and other time consuming life stuff, that also hopefully is gone away for another year. I intend to keep this blog about the creative side of my life, and frankly I do not consider painting the dining room, creative enough for this blog. Perhaps I should adjust my attitude on that, after all it was my daughter, when younger, who taught me that wonderful designs could be created with joint compound when covering cracks in the wall. However that may be, no creative painting happened in the dining room, so no blog post will either.

Here's a photo of the one thing I did get knitted before Christmas (just barely before):




This is Christmas stocking for the same customer that I have knit for before. I have now made four stockings for her grandchildren. I told her this year, that she must tell the child when she is older, that the lady that knit her stocking would always think of her as a baby girl, and so she got a rocking horse on her Christmas stocking.

I did have a blog post planned to go with this photo, before so much time past. It had to do with my conversation with this customer when I delivered the stocking. I told her that having worked for years in a teaching hospital, I lived by the motto, learn one, do one, teach one. I suggested to her that maybe it was time I teach her how to knit. I received a good 15 minute explaination from her as to just why she does not want to knit. The excuse even went back 30 years to when her oldest son, then a child, got the knitting she was doing and ripped it all out. I don't think I've ever seen such a negative response to knitting, based on one sad experience. But I eased my conscious about charging for the knitted stocking by offering to teach her, so from now on, if she wants another stocking, I will knit it for her.

I had one other creative endeavor for the holiday that I want to share in a photo:



These three silk flower candle wreaths were so much fun to make. They were intentionally made very similiar to each other, and were gifted to various in-laws for Christmas. The wreaths are full size (not candle ring size) fake pine, and all of the flowers are silk. The best part about the whole thing are the candles. They are flameless, battery operated, scented, and look just like a real candle burning when turned on because the LED light flickers so realistically. I had seen the candles online and had to hunt for them a bit, but finally found them at Target. I started the gift idea with this candle, but felt I wanted it to be more, and hit on the idea of the wreath around them to sit on a table. The wreath is wired to a piece of Christmas foil paper wrapped cardboard, so the whole thing is easy to pick up and move. But also the wreath can be unwired and used as a hanging wreath and the candle which is not attached to anything can be used year round.

I found out years ago that I love working with silk flowers. And that is of course because the silk flowers have become so beautiful, realistic and often inexpensive. Since I was doing this idea at the last moment (in terms of retail availability) I found all of the stuff I used for the wreaths at 50-70% off at a Michaels. It took about two hours to do a wreath, and by the third one I was bored with the concept, but otherwise I love how they looked and were received.

I often find myself thinking long before Christmas about making presents. Rarely though does that happen. And this project, so spur of the moment was satisfying in so many ways. I suppose making Christmas presents has turned out to be like this blog...when the creative muse finally hits, things get done.

CW