Coming Home

I don't know if anyone still cares or not but I am finally coming back from my extended blog vacation. I don't quite know what happened this year to cause my first major blogger's block. But the longer I waited to post the less I seemed to have to say and the harder it was to break the silence. My old blog buddy Nancy from N. Fallon Design Studio sent me a very sweet card in the mail this week that made me realize it was time to come back home. I shot the above of the girls on the first weekend I had my brand new Lensbaby. I will be devoting an entire post to my new love later I'm sure.

It's been a pretty difficult year but I won't go into it all now. The short version is that I've been fighting the major D, which saps the will to interact with anyone right out of me. Also, one of our dearest friends is in the middle of chemo treatment. This has caused an incredible amount of stress and drama for Mike and I both, which honestly neither of us handles all that well.

I haven't been knitting much either so I don't have much to show for my time off. I finished a vest for myself that I'll post later this week. I have made some good changes too but I will go into those on another day.

I will try to check in with some of my old pals today. I really have missed the support and connections from the blog world. I know lots of you have taken breaks too. I was wondering how you got yourself back into the swing of things after an extended break? Was it just like getting back on the old bike, which ironically I actually never learned to ride in the first place...

Write On!

I'm very proud of my literary boys this week. Mike finished the second draft of his science fiction novel about accidental time travel. I read the first draft and was pleasantly surprised at how engrossing it was even for me, a non-sci fi nerd. He's sending copies out to friends and family now for input before he starts soliciting agents. He has started writing at least 3 novels since we've been together but this is the first that he has actually completed so I'm especially proud of him, even if it never gets published beyond the Kinko copy he is carrying around doing line by line edits as we speak.

A great inspiration for Mike's perseverance is one of his best buddies Brian Katcher. This shot is from our New Mexico Adventure last summer with he and his super sweet wife Sandy. Brian has had 2 Young Adult novels published with another on the way next year. He's also working on a sci fi series with another publisher but I'm not sure about that release date. Brian recently won the 2011 Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award, which is given to "works of exceptional merit for children or teens relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience."

“A young adult novel about a transgender girl—told from the perspective of the straight boy who falls for her—“Almost Perfect” is exceptional. The writing is sensitive, haunting and revelatory,” said Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Award committee chair Lisa Johnston.

He's been getting a ton of great press since the award including this write up in the St. Louis Post Dispatch and even a mention on the Onion AV club. It really couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Brian and Sandy are probably the most easy going and non-judgemental people I've ever been fortunate to know.

If you have teenagers I would highly recommend his first two books, including Playing with Matches, which is actually my favorite by a slim margin of the two so far. Kai lists Brian as his favorite author on Facebook and has actually read Playing with Matches multiple times which is unheard of for him.

Sets for everyone!

I have been having the worst blogging block I've ever experienced. Every time I sit down to my computer with a few minutes to blog I come up completely empty. The last few weeks have been really busy at work and I'm still coming out of my mid-winter blahs but hopefully I can find some inspiration soon. I need to visit my favorites and get caught up on all of your doings and that would probably get me motivated again but it's finding the time to do it. I'm hoping for another snow day tomorrow which would be the perfect time to do some blog hopping. We are supposed to get another 3-6 inches which should be enough for a day off.

So I'm posting pictures of all the sets I made for my girls for Christmas. Jess and Kate both wanted such drastically different colors that I made them each two sets, one for really cold days and one more for fun. In the top shot they are also playing with their crazy new toys I got them from Cranky Yellow which were a huge hit. Kate particularly loved her David Wolk doll with its Barby legs and bulging eye head. She said she couldn't wait to show it off (and freak her friends out).

The first adorable little girl is my niece Savannah looking all sweet in her funky new set. The second adorable little girl is Sophie, our good friend's Brian and Sandy Katcher's imp.

Snow Day!

I haven't dropped completely off the planet but thanks for those who expressed concerns for my well being. I am starting to come out of my funk (my code word for major depression). I've been to my doctor, had my meds adjusted, and I'm taking some positive steps toward changes that I hope will make for a happy new year.

Today is a snow day for both Mike and I so we got to sleep in late and I spent all morning/early afternoon going through my knitting books & magazines looking for the right vest pattern to make for myself. I found it in an old Vogue magazine. It even uses one of my absolute favorite stitch patterns, the Seafoam pattern. I used my gift card from my MIL to Webs to buy the yarn for the vest and a lace shawl I'm also going to make for myself. I usually spend my gift cards on yarn for the business but this year I decided I really wanted to knit myself some nice things to wear to craft shows and for fun.

These pics are from our last snow fall on Christmas Day with the girls on the farm. Kate is all bundled up in the wild scarf/hat set I made for her with pom pom yarn. I hope you are warm and cozy where ever you are today!

Favorite Gift Given

I've been pretty out of it lately and not feeling too up for being social either on-line or off. I just wanted to share my favorite gift that I was a part of this holiday. My uncle asked me to take pictures on the farm that spelled out LENOX for my Mom. I think it came out really well. It was funny how my niece Jess knew instantly where each of the letters came from. My Dad who has spent practically his entire life on the farm had to stop and think about a few of them.

I'm going to have one made for myself using the alternate fall color letters below. I will also try to spell out GEORGE here in St. Charles and hang them together. I'm planning on shooting all of the letters when I get back to the farm with plenty of time. It was fun but challenging. The L was actually the most tricky to get right for some reason.

Merry Christmas

I honestly have been far from jolly this holiday season. Today was my last day of work until Jan. 4 and I am really looking forward to the time off. I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and I hope you have a very safe holiday. We are getting snow on Christmas Eve which I hope doesn't completely disrupt our travel plans and day. I'll let you know what Santa brings my way next week.

I think the Elf me dance is pretty cute. I didn't get the heads situated just right. Who knew I could dance that good. Actually Kai is the only one of us who could actually do those moves and he's too cool now to dance he says.

Done Dropping

This shot is from the farm with a sign my Dad made. I thought it was funny and appropriate for this post. I'm sad to say that I'm done with Entrecard dropping. The network administrator has informed me that there has been suspicious activity from my computer which is causing problems with the network. He told me the times that it had happened and they all corresponded to my lunch hour or after work when I would do my EC drops.

I've been growing disgruntled with EC for awhile but had continued to participate albeit much less often than in the past. But clearly the system is so corrupt and buggy that I can't risk my home computer either. I'm going to leave the button up for the time being since I don't think it's hurting anything and if it brings a little traffic in that's fine too.

I will now have to really think about how I want to keep this little blog going. I will be following the blogs that I regularly dropped on and using Google Friend Connect to do my blog hopping from now on. Hopefully I can find other less risky ways to connect with bloggers. Perhaps this might be just the thing I need to get me out of my blogging rut I've been in.