Things I do instead of blogging

It's been a crazy 3 months.  I feel like I've barely touched my projects at all, with exception of Good For Ewe projects, which I have 3 on my person at all times in case I have time for just one more row.  Good For Ewe had it's first trunk show this weekend in Greenwood, and I'm going to call it a fabulous success.  I only had about half the projects done that I wanted to have done, but those that were finished  were blocked with patterns written up and fairly well received.

I told myself that I could start adding a few personal projects back in to the WIP rotation once I finished  the trunk show.  And then...I was talked in to doing a craft fair in early November. At first I was like NO!  I want to finish all my Good For Ewe projects that I didn't finish for the trunk show and then personal projects and actually get some holiday knitting done in time so I don't have to wrap up partial hats and doilies.

But I thought about it, and all those cupcake hats and baby blankets made for a really nice Christmas bonus.  And I haven't had an actual paycheck since April.  I'll do it.  I already have a few blankets made up, a couple hats, and there's a few other things that I've made for myself and didn't love as much as I thought I would, so I'll stick those in there too.  I just bought $75 worth of cupcake yarn, so if I sell 3 I break even, if I sell more than 10 then I'm thrilled, but missing skin on my fingers.  Oh well, skin grows back and if it means I can go another few weeks without taking a paycheck from my little baby company, then I'll do it.

Other things I've been doing instead of knitting/blogging....

Working my butt off.  Good For Ewe isn't going to run itself.

Tracing back my dad's side of the family history.  Turns out I'm 1/8- 1/4 Jewish. Who knew?

Running a lot.  I signed up to do the Disney Princess Half Marathon in February.  My current "runs" are about 4.5 miles. I've got a lot of work to do.  Here's a picture from the Color Me Rad run.

Going to a lot of weddings.  And crocheting doilies for all the couples getting married.  I hope nobody with a long last name gets married anytime soon- I'm so doilied out.  I still have 7 more to go this year.

Playing rugby.  I even got initiated into the Hoydens family a couple weeks ago.  Our theme for this initiation was "Camelot".  Rob was my fair maiden for the day.  I also told my coach that this would be my last season.  Since I got really in to running, I've lost about 15 pounds, which is great and I feel really awesome about myself for the first time in a very long time.  But it also means that when I get tackled, I fly.  Backwards.  Into the ground.  With a thump.  It's taking me a little bit longer to get up after every tackle, and it's just not fun anymore.  I'm going to walk away from the sport while I can still walk.  Most of this season I've been a little limpy anyway from some really bad bone splintering above my right ankle.

Destashing.  More specifically, selling all of my alpaca yarn on eBay.  It's lovely stuff but it just made me mad to see it in my stash.  So I freed up a couple drawers and pocketed a couple hundred bucks.  Double-win.

And I have finished one tiny little personal project.  I finished it while enjoying my cup of tea this morning.  Here it was when I started working this morning... (instagram-style)

Here it is with all of the gaps filled in...

Here it is with the body outlined...

Here it is with a face outlined and beaded eyeballs...

Here it is after being trimmed down to fit in the frame and having the dirty spots where I held it bleached and scrubbed out...

And I'll show it framed when I get there!  But it's going to look lovely over my desk.

Lessons learned from this cross stitch project:

1.  My hands are never clean enough.
2.  If you make a change, write it down.  This is a recurring lesson that has yet to be learned.
3.  It's okay to improvise. Just because it's set in paper doesn't mean it's set in stone.
4.  50 shades of white are not nearly as fun as 50 shades of grey.
5.  Just because the project is small does not mean it will go quickly.
6.  Take your time outlining.  One little mis-stitch can make it look like your very girly sheep has some male anatomy.