Rabbit Holes

I've fallen down several rabbit holes lately. As I've said before I'm not good about keeping this blog up to date! So I've decided to blog in chunks.

Today is about current inspirations.

As I said, I'm falling down a particular rabbit hole of traveler's notebooks. I don't currently have one, I don't bullet journal, I just don't journal at all! (lack of blog posts are a sure sign!) But I carried around a planner in the late 80's/90's (I'm old) and they went everywhere with me. I became a techie and I jumped on the Palm Pilot band wagon and transferred my planner stuff to the digital realm.

Eventually Palm was bought up and phased out. I jumped onto the Blackberry, things transferred easily and all was good in the tech world until I worked on my master's. APPLE!!! Oh how I love Thee! It took a few years and I was able to splurge on a laptop and down that rabbit hole I went!

Don't get me wrong, I'm typing on a macbook right now. But I have probably a dozen notebooks in my living room/bookcases. Unused! Used! and I'm just a cheap paper junky. I still love notebooks and planners. But the majority are unused.

I tried to go digital with my lesson planner but just couldn't make it work. I found a great planner by Miss Math Dork and fell in love with paper planners again.   Two years ago I found Blue Sky Planners and that is what I use today. Really use. Nice, simple, very straightforward and I love them.

So how does that get me to traveler's notebooks. 

1) Well, I've also fallen down the fountain pen rabbit hole and use them with my scripture writing. But I wanted to use pens more and I find myself out and about with no paper. I'm trying to become slightly more organized, but not to the point of creating a bullet journal.

2) I need to meal plan. I realized I buy the same basic groceries every week, I don't use part of them and that is wasteful. I've also found myself not cooking at all. I think doing some basic meal planning will help me with diet and the economics of grocery shopping. Keeping those plans in a notebook will help me shop. Yes I can add them to my phone memo list but I think writing things out will help me stay focused.

3) I knit and love making lists of knitting info. I also have knitting friends who use TN's and every time they whip one out to jot stuff down, I get envious. :)

I love notebooks!

I love Goulet Pens and follow them on instagram and YouTube. I use them for my fountain pens obsession. They have fantastic customer education videos. Goulet carries pens and paper. I've watched several of their videos on TN's and thanks to YouTube data miners up popped lots of other TN videos. I've spent the morning watching those and surfing Etsy for the right notebook cover. 

From there Pinterest called my name and away it went. Thankfully, I put on the brakes and decided to add this quick post before I reached the bottom of this rabbit hole. I've figured out the size needed, found a supplier that offered a totally me color and now just waiting a few days to make sure I really need to do this!

ps it will may if I jot down some blog post ideas!

New Year

2015 has rolled in and I remembered to write about it! Last year's blogging effort was a fail. I didn't do well journaling my days. I realize once again that I'm not a good journal keeper.

Four months have flown by since my last post. This school year has sped by and in a lot of ways I'm glad. I really enjoy my eighth grade classes. The others, not so much! But I'm determined it will be a good year.

Knitting is going well. I've spent Christmas break finishing WIPs before I allow myself to start on new projects with my Christmas gifts. Quilting has stopped while my machine is in the shop. It is ready to be picked up and I plan on making a few project bags as soon as my machine returns.

The pets are good although Asher gave me a scare during mid terms. He ate 20 inches of elastic ribbon and the result was extreme vomiting, dehydration and kidney failure. Thankfully, we have a fabulous vet who got him rehydrated which stopped the kidney failure. He passed the ribbon the evening he came home. It took almost a week before he got his bounce back. Still shaking my head over the entire situation.

I leave this post with a few pictures of projects and pets.
Stitch Markers
Fingerless Mittens
Baby Hat for Jaxon
Project Bags
Socks with a slightly bent needle, don't know how that happened.
Multnomah Shawl
One IV owie
Sister's Christmas Tree shirt
PomPom Hat minus the pompom to match my mittens
Lovely scarf that almost doubled when I blocked it!

Poor Little Blog

I've deserted you! Actually, no one really reads this blog and it's just for my pleasure. LOL

But I need to get back to blogging and posting pictures of my latest projects and my journalling. I have uploaded photos from my phone and will make this post very photo heavy.

These are some of the things I've worked on in the past few months. I'll post summer project updates later.

Checkbook Cover

This project was easy, I took apart a "purchased" fabric checkbook cover after it had seen it's better days. I used it as a pattern, following the stitching and folding lines and soon had a new cover!

I finished Suburbs quilt and it is at the longarm quilters!

 I started a toe-up sock, my first ever and I'm halfway to the heel.

I started a new applique quilt but ran out of the right color threads. I've purchased more colors and I hope to get back to this project soon. I've also been making little ditty drawstring bags for my knitting. While in the bag mood, I've taken apart a few older stitching projects that were in tuck pillows and some frames. I've begun making project bags for my needlework. I haven't finished those yet, so no pictures to show.

I made this little cutie for a dear friend's first birthday. My mom made lots of these when I was growing up and I found a freebie pattern online at Lil Blue Boo  and I love him. I left off the crown and quilted the frog. I got the idea from Fat Quarter Shop's video Baby girl loved the frog! He got cuter after I pinked the edges.

Last year at this time my hair was between my shoulder blades, very long and I didn't realize how aging it was until school pictures were taken. I started cutting it then and it kept getting shorter and shorter until you see what happened two weeks ago. Love it!

That's enough updating for now! Off to enjoy the day!

Journal - March 3

Snow day and I've spent it quilting.






I spent part of Sunday deciding on four patches and then making quilty snowballs. I've been watching YouTube Missouri Star Quilt Company's tutorials. This is one of their quick charm quilts.

Today, I've made blocks and sashed them. I had to purchase more fabric for the borders and I've decided on a pieced border as shown in the tutorial. I also cut the pieces for my next quilt - Suburb by Cluck Cluck Sew. Can't wait to start on it tomorrow!

Journal - March 1 & 2

This weekend I finally finished up two projects.






It felt like it took all day Saturday to get these borders pressed and measured. Very simple borders and I really need to work on more than slab-oh-border designs.

Sunday was church and cold drive home. The temp dropped 10 degrees on my thirty mile trip. Cold rain fell all afternoon. Icy roads cancelled school for Monday.

Journal - Feb 3

Snow day!! But no snow. :(  I really want some snow and a lot of it. Tennessee has had cold weather, but not much precipitation.

I spent the day in my sewing room working on a tshirt quilt. I've had the tshirts for 6 years and it is time to get this quilt finished and off to it's recipient.

I also did a little ripping on a hat and I'm going to do a couple of rows on sisters hat remake.

Good day!

Journal - Feb 2

Today the groundhog saw his shadow. More winter for us??

Typical Sunday with church and  a little grocery shopping. Watching movies for the afternoon.

Saturday Feb 1

Did the laundry and lots of reading. Watched a few John Wayne movies. :)

Texted with sister about her hat remake. Hope to finish it Monday. May have to mail it to her so that she can wear it while it's still cold. We really need to see one another face to face more often!!

Friday Jan 31

School and worked the ball game gate.

Journal - January 29 and 30

I'm so over the cold weather. We've gone extended days in the teens. I'm tired of leaving my water dripping constantly. I'm tired of fearing frozen pipes. I'm tired of the continuous running of my heater.

I'm very thankful for my warm home with a garage. I am very very thankful that I don't have to get into an extremely cold car first thing in the morning. 41 degrees seems to be the coldest my garage has been. It the coldest my thermostat has read when I start the car. Driving to work in 4 degree weather is a little startling. I was so shocked Tuesday when I got in the car and it was 16 degrees. I stayed cold on most of my drive to revival. Wednesday the sun was shining and even though it was cold, the sun had warmed the interior of the car.

I'm also thankful for warm coats, hats and scarves. I'm so happy I learned to knit and have been wearing my own creations. Now I just need to learn to make socks and gloves. Maybe by next winter.

Journal

Jan  25

Saturday a day of knitting and rest

Jan 26

Church and then a nice afternoon at K's with baby Katie Belle. Sewing and catching up on family!

Jan 27

School

Revival at The River - Code Blue with Dave Edwards

Jan 28

School

Revival at The River - I'm only doing two nights of revival. Wednesday is for the youth and it will be standing room only. I would rather a kiddo have my spot and hear the Good News.

Journal - January 24

Normal day - had great Chicken Delight for dinner.

Journal - Jan 22

Snow day 

Very cold. Had lunch with Jeff and Denise. Did a round at Walmart and came home to put a new closure on my desk. Used the good old DeWalt!!! Sewed a couple of rows on the tshirt quilt.

Journal Jan 21

Made cinnamon rolls with the extra dough. Very yummy. Back to school. But huge temp drop along with precipitation sent us home at 12. Spent the afternoon reading.

Journal - Jan 19 &20

Jan 19

Great morning at church, I wasn't working media and I sat in a different part of the worship area. I was closer to a speaker than I'd been in months. I could really hear the music and it was awesome! A quick lunch and I decided I was going for a Sunday drive. I really took the long way home and drove out to an area near the lake and I think I may have found a new "peaceful" getaway. It is only 25 minutes from the house and I used to make the drive all the time because is was near my parents farm. But yesterday was the first time I remember driving to the boat access area. The water was so quiet and green yesterday. I will have to go back again.

I spent the rest of the afternoon at my friends house and played with baby Claire. Nice day!

Jan 20 

I spent the day reading and trying to make bread. It hasn't done a lot of rising and I'm really thinking it won't turn out the greatest. I'm going to make a stomboli for dinner using the dough. I'm going to put a twist on it and use a tex-mex filling. We'll see how it turns out. I also did a little productive sewing today. I made a new ironing board cover for my pitiful ironing board. It is extra wide which is great for quilting but hard to find a new cover. I could have ordered one from Amazon but I decided to whip one up myself. I love it!

Journal - January 18

It was a stay at home day. I felt crafty and was ready for some instant gratification. So I made a quilt caddy which you can see in the post below. That took up the morning and after a quick lunch I spent the afternoon knitting on a scarf. I've been working on this scarf for a while. I keep putting it down to work on other projects. I want it to get really long for two reasons, one - I'm a large lady and really need extra length and two - I want to tie it or wear it looped. I've got a lot of knitting left to do, I want to double the length that it is right now. I've already knit a hat to match!

January 17

Oops, forgot to post this last night.

Two hour snow delay for school. That's great but my awesome worship leader and drummer were coming to FCA to give a devotion to the kiddos and do a little slammin' worship! Luckily, I caught Jimmy before he made it to Cookeville. Bless him, he was coming from Livingston - hour away, on his birthday! Again Awesomeness right there.

We had a surprise baby shower for a coworker after school and then the snow really started falling. But it was over by the time we all made it home. Supposed to be a cold, snow shower filled weekend. Which probably means just a lot of cold for us.

January 16

Work - busy day, proctored tests for a district competition. Took all day and then the internet went down and we have to wait until tomorrow to upload! A little stressful, but the kiddos did well.

I then went shopping for a baby shower present and home to watch American Idol!

Harry Rocks is all I can say!!!

Journal - January 14 & 15

I'm finding the journal is great when I've actually done something. But the days I go to work and come straight home, there really isn't anything for me to write about.

I did stay later at work today to administer the FBLA test. But that is really the most excitement I had.

Good days!

Journal - January 12 & 13

Sunday - church, lunch and quiet day

Monday - Quiet day at work as well, students were ready to get to work for the most part. We were notified of a coworkers death. Karen had been out almost all of the fall semester and passed away Saturday. We didn't know she was back in the hospital. Sad day. Funeral is Tuesday and visitation is just before the service.

Journal - January 11

Quiet Saturday. Watched a movie and did a little knitting. I kept dropping stitches and having to rip out. I am hoping I don't do it again.




Spent the evening working media at Rising Above's monthly worship service. I really love working with this ministry.

Journal - January 10

First day back from winter break was a good day.

Went out for dinner and ended up being joined by friends Mark and Kathy. They were being seated right by me and so we joined and had a nice chat with dinner. Came home and watched Donovan's Reef with John Wayne. Nice evening.