It be like that sometimes

I've had a rough morning that started with sleeping through my alarm and missing Phoebe's bus.

Fortunately, we have a functioning car and her hair was fine enough from being braided the night before that I didn't bother with fixing it today and she got to school in time for breakfast.

Then I had a fight with Iris about whether or not she had to go to school. This is a complex problem involving forms and school officials and stuff and sometimes results in lots of emotional words between us.

This was all before coffee.

Fortunately, both the nurse and the attendance office at THIS school are super awesome, understanding, patient, and helpful. They were not at the other school. Iris is home and sleeping, which is honestly the best thing for her right now.

It's fine. It's all fine.

And I don't mean that in an "everything around me is literally on fire" sort of way, it really is fine. It was rough, but everything got handled and ended up okay.

Ultimately, this is my mental health goal right here: To be able to handle it when things go awry and to not ugly cry in the car at what a terrible parent/wife/person/friend I am. I'm not. I'm fine at these things, I just am a fallible human person and heck things up sometimes. For someone with OCD, that's a big statement.

This week, I replaced the side mirrors on our old car because literally all the mirrors fell off the car. I found a tutorial video, found the parts, bought the parts, installed the mirrors, and was able to run the errand I'd meant to run earlier in the week and get some fleece on mega sale.

I did not angrily sell the car for scrap and cry at our savings account. I handled it.

If this ain't a metaphor...

Being able to handle stuff when it goes awry doesn't come to me naturally. I take an antidepressant and I've practice mindfulness for yyyyeeeeaaarrrrrsssss. It's work. It's constant work. I'm working at it right now in this very second because there's a very big rut in my neural pathways that wants to react in an unhelpful way. There's no one fix and even when you find the best possible combination of things that help, you still have to work at your mental health, but that work has a huge payoff. I'm not as productive today as I'd be if my morning had gone more smoothly, but I'm also a thousand percent more productive than I would be if I were gross crying in a blanket fort, so there you have it.

Today hasn't been great, but it be like that sometimes.

Take care of yourself today. Get good sleep, eat a vegetable, take your meds and vitamins, do a meditate, pet something soft, look at pictures of kittens, do whatever you have to do to prioritize your mental and physical health.

Here are some pictures of Toast and Rufus to get you started:

Review: Nature's Recipe Grain-Free dog food

This is Rufus.

Rufus' favorite activities include:

• Sleeping
• Resting
• Relaxing
• Snurfling/ Snorting
• Digging and nosing around in blankets
• Getting loved on
• Eating dinner

Occasionally, he also likes to stretch out right next to where I'm sitting and have a nice fart. And by "nice," I mean "violates the Geneva Convention's prohibition against chemical weapons." It's not his fault; everybody farts. We received a free sample of Nature's Recipe Easy to Digest Grain-free dog food (small breed version, because he's a little dude) and, as it turns out, the "easy to digest" claim seems to be pretty accurate. His little doggie tum-tum bacteria seem to prefer whatever is (or isn't) in Nature's Recipe. 

It is more expensive than his regular kibble and doesn't come in a weight-loss formula, which are the only drawbacks. He seems to like it at least as well as his regular stuff and dinnertime is still his most favorite time in the whole wide day. 

🌞🌞🌞🌞☼ 4/5 sunshines; would go again

Year in Review

 This year has been wild ride and I'm really rather pleased with the amount of making that's happened in a mere 365 days.

I got some big projects done from start to finish. The Sheep of Unknown Provenance was one of my biggest spinning projects to date and I learned a lot about how to process fleece, dye wool, and spin with color.

 Some projects were abandoned entirely and I'm not a hundred percent sure why. It could be that they were too fiddly or that I was distracted by something shiny or that it just wasn't what I wanted to be doing.

 Simple, but well-made seems to make me happy. I loved the challenge of learning new things like matching plaids and incorporating that knowledge into something I could share.

I knit or crocheted over 7,600 yards this year, which is the most I've done since I started keeping track. I couldn't tell you how much I've spun, but I'd wager it's more than I've spun in the past. I feel productive... and warm.

My baby has gone from a toddler...

...to a little girl. (Cue sentimental Mama sobbing).

And my big one...

A beautiful young woman. (Cue more sentimental Mama sobbing).

I've learned a lot, made a lot, been lots of places, worked hard, hung out with friends, and generally have had a lovely time of it. Parts of this year were difficult, but I'm surrounded by a lot of love. 

I've changed my mind and moved toward more compassion and more love. Just when you think there couldn't possibly be more room for that, more room is just there. 

Thank you for making me better.  

In 2016, I look forward to more challenges, more beauty, more making, more love, more focus. I look forward to the new shape of Project Make and to learning more about what I can do and what I can be: Faster, higher, more betterer. 

It's gonna be great. See you in 2016.

P.S. The Etsy shop is open now, if you want to take a look. 

P.P.S. Just a reminder that January will be the Month of Mending for the new and improved Project Make: a year long -along of -alongs.

Cosy

Thanksgiving was nice. I rather enjoy "cooking" with my sister (by which I mean preparing most everything the few days before and making sure it's all warm by dinnertime) and we had plenty of chance to laugh together and hang out. It was pleasant. And then we had friendsgiving, which was just about perfect. We still have pie. 

I finished a tea cosy. Since I only finished it a few hours ago, I haven't yet updated the Ravelry page or anything like that, but there it is, keeping my teapot nice and warm. Bu has requested hot chocolate cosies, too, which I think is completely fair. We can't let the tea have all the fun, right?

 The bedscarf continues, poco a poco. Since it's in blocks, I'm not terribly worried about when it's finished. I just want to do a block when I feel like it and I'll eventually end up with a thing.

I don't really have that much other knitting or crochet going on. I've been a little scattered as far as crafting goes.

Rufus is settling in pretty well and there's no doubt that he's well-loved here. I'm getting used to being a dog owner and finding out that it's not so bad.

There aren't that many posts remaining until the end of the year and I've been rock-tumbling about what I want to do with Project Make (All the Things). I feel like I petered out in the middle of the year, but there's still something I can do with the idea. It seemed like most people were confused about what, exactly, I was trying to do and I think that I didn't do a very good job of defining it and/or that the scope was too broad.

Next year, I'm thinking of having a year long along of alongs, many of which will probably overlap with other alongs. If, say, I'm doing spinning in July (Tour de Fleece!), that's easier to along than "Umm... make some stuff." I might also steal from Bekah and start doing separate FO posts. This year, however, I've posted much more regularly than in previous years and that's a win. I've only missed a couple weeks and I'm darn proud of that. 

The year's not over yet, though. There's still a fair bit of making to be done in the next few weeks and hopefully plenty of finishing, too. 

SAFF Sweater and an Unexpected Dog

 So, in the car on the way to SAFF, I finished my sweater just as we got to Asheville. I immediately put it on and wore it about the delightfully Southern/hippie/artist town. I felt very much at home. We stopped at the awesome Tupelo Honey Cafe when we got there and afterward I got to toodle around town in my new, though unblocked digs. Here it is in it's washed and blocked glory.

I love the saddle shoulders and though it's a bit shortish, I think I will keep it that way. This is the Seamless Saddle Shoulder Pullover by the legendary EZ. I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Superwash in the Garnet Heather color, about 754yds.

The first batch of Delphi & Delos is done and I love how it turned out. The picture doesn't really do it justice. There's a richness to how the two colorways blend together that I can't quite capture. 

In other news, we have a new family member. This is Rufus, a sweet, chill, little pug. His former owner, Randy, was the person who introduced me to John. Randy passed away this week and this little snerfledog needed to go to a family who would love him and be his forever home.
It's a big adjustment for me, but the kids fell instantly in love and he seems to be settling in pretty well.

We also had a Nutcracker Tea this week. Bu dressed up for the occasion.

And so did Iris. (The lady to the right of Iris with the fascinator on is Bu's dance teacher.)

A good time was had by all. There were nutcracker-appropriate snacks and an abbreviated version of the ballet for the little dancers to watch. Iris did such a great job and Bu was totally into it once the dancing started.