The Best Things in Life

I spent a lot of money over the years, trying to have roses like my parents had, a beautiful rose garden, with a huge variety of colors and sizes. I would do everything right, feeding, spraying, covering them with mulch in the winter, only to have very limited success in summer and all of them dying over the winter. I had given up until I saw some roses for sale a few springs ago at the hardware store. They were $1.99 each, so I bought three, thinking six bucks for a few roses that summer was a bargain. Here they are three summers later still alive and blooming for the third or four time this year! I do little more than dead head them and they have been spectacular.

This is one of the many sunflowers that pop up all over the garden, a gift from the birds that drop them randomly as they eat. This actually is growing in a huge pot by the pool. I have culled them back in the garden to a manageable amount and there are a couple of small plots that I fill with sunflowers from a few packages I bought in the spring. It makes for a sunny display at a time when the garden is shutting down as we race toward fall! (It is 59 degrees this morning, no pool again today. I'm having serious withdrawal.)

This is a spiderman afghan that I have started for Baby D's 2nd birthday. Not sure I will have it completed by the 6th of September, but I'm going to give it a try. I knew hanging on to all those skeins of Reynolds Utopia that I have had in my stash for years, would come in handy some day!

Cheap, free, stash diving, it's all good!

New Year's Resolution

What have I been doing since the last post?

I have been following the pre-election and post-election coverage on the Internet and doing little else. I now feel re-energized and full of hope (even though our comfortable retirement nest egg is more of a flattened pancake).
So now it's time for some resolutions, even though it's short of the new year.

#1) I have to limit my time on the Internet. DH is in Myrtle Beach the entire week golfing. I envisioned getting tons done while he was gone. However, I found I wasted more time. Have you ever gone on Ravelry just for a minute or two to check out your Groups, go from one link to another as you find great patterns, interesting Blogs, delicious yarns and find that two hours have gone by? Well me too. And without DH tapping his foot waiting for his time on the computer, I have no one to stop the insanity.

Solution: I will try to spend no more than one hour a day on the Internet. That includes reading the NYT and Post and checking out my favorite blogs.

#2) I have to stop buying yarn until I reduce my stash. (Confession: I stopped by Jo-Ann's on my way home from Weight Watchers this morning and spent $40.00 on more yarn.)

I have looked into some of the Ravelry groups that deal with people like me, but none of them seem like a good fit for me and that would interfer with my solution to #1.

Solution: I will only buy yarn for the kid's afghans and the "gloves, hats and mittens projects" for them or if I need a bit more yarn to complete a project.

#3) I have been on this knitting binge in a big way since I discovered all the great knitting resources on the internet and my LYS and have neglected all my other crafts. I haven't crossstitched or sewed, even my reading has suffered.

Solution: I think if I limit my Internet addiction, and consciously use my time more efficiently, I will be able to produce more. I should think of my crafting like a job and be more structured.

#4) Not blogging. I really wanted to use this blog as my on-line diary and I haven't been faithful to it.

Solution: I will try to post twice a week and use the blog as a tool to track family stuff and how I'm doing with keeping to my New Year's resolutions.