Clean up your Clutter

March is just around the corner and is the official clutter cleaning beginning.  Although we want to clean out our unwanted things year round, it seems that March and April are the official spring cleaning months.  Typical.

I had a cleaning day a few weeks ago and it sure felt good to weed out some things I didn't need.  Was kind of looking to see if there were anymore items I didn't need, last night but kind of felt that there wasn't any for the moment.

I'm the type who as I see something I really don't need, I begin a small grocery bag that will either be a potential Goodwill bag or possibly something I could sell on Ebay.

What about the clutter on your tablets, Ipods, laptops or any other electronic you possess?  I've been doing this with my HTC and my ipod for the last week.  Last summer and fall, I went install happy on the Play Store getting tons of free photo apps, drawing apps, etc...  I paid for a few of them, but most were the countless freebies we can get.

I had three to five Majong tiles games and I hardly find myself playing them.  I ended up just going through my numerous apps and cleaning up the ones I don't really need.  Or also the apps that take up more space and I'm not using.

Also, the majority of the photo apps seem to do the similar thing, so hmm...  why have a ton of them?  I still have a lot, so should do some more weeding.  And the photos I take, use up a good amount of storage space, so I should weed those out some more.  We should upload pictures often to laptops and then be saving them to zip drives, etc...  so we have them in other places.  

Keep things clean.  Same with organizing your house or apt, is a constant battle of making sure everything has a place.  Not that we go to things all the time, but it's good to know where our things are when we need to use them.  I like to have a particular place for everything.

We've all been there, where we are looking for something, can't find it and we search until we are numb.  Like the car keys, the phone and a countless other things.  When the moment at hand arrives, where the hell is it????????????????????????????????????????

How about the email clutter?  By which, I should be going there later today and doing some clean up!!

Maintaining clutter can either be an easy task or one where you wish you could just drop everything, pick up a bag of snack food and leave the room to a comfy couch.  Right??  I think it's a good thing to practice good clean up on a daily basis and then when it comes time to really tackle something, you are not going to face that mountain of paper work or the sloping laundry pile.

Taking care of it in the moment will reduce the junk and your stress will be less.

Jennifer Jo. Fay

Copyrighted February 27, 2014

Weekends are Made to be fun

Another weekend is here and it seems like this month flew by so fast.  One more week to go and we can look forward to more Spring like weather.  My Dad always mentions Spring Training is coming.

It was sort of cool to see some rain to wash away the snow on the ground.  Not that it's flip flop weather yet, right!!  That will come up later on and will fast approach.  It seems like as the years fly by, it just goes so fast.

Anyway, the weekends are a fun time to relax and get things done if you need to.  I spent part of this morning kind of organizing some of my supplies.  Many of us can tend to have things scattered, a little bit of this here and there.

I'm slowly trying to get all my things in one spot.  Well, I've got more than several containers that hold certain supplies so it takes time to organize.

I was looking through my markers today, getting them all contained together while finding other assortments of things.  Like my swan swizzle-rs that belong in the kitchen in with my markers.  And I hunted down the rest of my regular pens.

I taped more celebrities and writers names to my pens and was searching for more of my regular writing pens to do this to.  That can be a fun thing and it's so simple to do.  All I was using was the paper from a sticky note pad, writing down my favorite names with a black fine tip marker, and then just taping them onto the pen.

That could also be a fun kid activity.  You don't have to stick to sticky note paper.  Maybe you have some cool scrap booking paper or you could have the kids use plain paper and then decorate with markers or colored pencils.

Another fun kid activity is decoupage.  Gather cool pictures your kids would like to use, other cool paper supplies, paper punches, glitter, markers, and some modge podge.  Today, I was doing some decoupage on a brown glass jar, a metal lid to a jelly jar for a magnet, and some other small thoughts on collage.

Kids love to do activities like that.  If you have boys, you could gather alligator pics, dump trucks, cool rocking cars, and lots of other things.  Have colored pencils, crayons and maybe kid friendly tempera paints that will wash off.  If they want to get real messy, don't forget to grab their favorite smock.  And if they want to do it on the floor, a drop cloth.

I cut a piece of a larger photography fabric for my drop cloth for projects and maybe eventually I will have a splotched up painted background for pictures.

Or maybe your child would like to draw on clothespins.  I used markers and just played around with it for a minute or too.  You could get your unused nail polish for this as well.  I just made two for hmm...  someday playing dolls with grand kids, we're gonna hang the laundry out to dry like the old days.

I don't care if I have girls or boys for grand children, we're playing dolls.  It will be all pretty things if they are girls and if they are boys, there will be boy doll clothing for boy dolls and cool match box cars and dump trucks.  Whatever any grand child turns out to be, we accept them with open arms.

I was singing with my Down Syndrome child yesterday and it was to a song from an Old Kids Bop 2.  Something about tomorrow in a verse and then next verse, I'll be there for you.  I kept singing that to Jake and he and I were having fun singing and laughing.  Of course Mom was doing funny movements with her head and her feet to make him laugh, adding to the fun.

I've got to get posting here more.  I tend to be offline doing things more lately and I get caught up in what I'm doing offline, whether knitting, writing, collage or another things that has me momentarily in process.

Last weekend, I had to set the knitting aside for a little bit and just write.  Whoops, I'm forgetting I already wrote about that!  Well, yesterday was writing day!  Again!  I've got to do it more often is the thing.  Just make myself.

As to which, later today, I've got to type up my new chapters.  It should take a while as I've got about 32 pages.  However, that's handwritten and it will of course be less typed up.

Managed a few pages this morning to the memoirs/writing process book.  I think that would be interesting for my kids to someday read their Mom's memoirs.  Not that I want to report every miniscule detail, but it would be cool to look back or even read it myself.

I could say, "Well, I guess I was more active on Tuesday than I was on Monday.  This last Monday was spent nursing a migraine and the possible 24 hour flu.  No fun.  Nothing got done that day.

I'm trying to get up earlier and like it.  Back to the 6AM schedule.  And a coffee cut back!!!  Me and my coffee with my sugar!

Don't we all hate it when we maybe happen to sleep an hour late and you feel like it's an hour wasted when we could have been doing something.

I'm going to spend a little time getting the gray shawl larger.  I've got the large cone of yarn I want to finish it off with this project which will make the shawl quite large when done.  I got thinking it's so soft cotton, it would also be a cool baby blanket for photographing my future grand kids.  Or if it possessed me, I could make the shawl like a wrap a round skirt and pin it with some cool pins and of course over leggings or pants.  Or an i-cord tie would do the trick too as I've got eyelet holes on the edging.

My edging is a garter stitch with an eyelet pattern.  Any knitters hate doing stockinette stitch for a pattern and have both the sides roll up on you?  It bugs me to no end depending on the project and I like a garter stitch border to keep it from doing that.

And yesterday, I found myself creating a knitting notebook out of an old high school notebook of my ex husband's brother's old girlfriend's.  Whoa....  let me say that tongue twister fast!  Not!

Then, I glued and collage the cover last night.  Partly thinking if my daughter discovered I claimed back a notebook she wasn't using, she may get mad if she recognizes Mom is using it.  May have been in the trash anyway, but you know kids even though they haven't used something in a while, they still want it.

Mom got crafty and covered part of it!  I'm thinking with some of the pretty notebooks my girls didn't want, they have lots of them as it is, I'm going to do cool things with them and someday down the road my girls will get their notebooks back with notes in them filled by Mom.  Along with collage pics with their pictures in it.
On the inside, I glued some Martha Stewart hearts from paper punches and wrote down each of their birthdays.

Another cool idea, not mine.  I was listening to my local radio station and one of the girls on the show mentioned a cool thing to give your kids.

What you do is set up an e-mail address for them.  Fill it with cool things.  Mementos, time lines, etc...  and when they turn 18, you give them the address with the password.  I'm not sure if I will do it, but I think it's a neat idea.

So, if you have extra time this weekend, that could be a fun project for yourself to begin.

Jennifer Jo. Fay

Copyrighted February 22, 2014

going, my thumb is getting numb from typing for some reason.

What's Your Right to Know Someone?

So, what are the grounds for getting to know someone?  In any given situation, what is your right to know someone?  We blog.  It's fun and we like to share a piece of ourselves on a nicely written blog.  Or we try our best to hope it's a good blog that will  gain any sort of audience.

Point blank though, if we don't put it on our blog, it's nobody's right to know a person.  Unless if we want to get to know someone and share a part of ourselves with the current person entering our lives, been in our lives for years or any other circumstance that brings someone into our path.

Ah, paths!!!  Don't ever wash the dishes while in a thunder storm!!  I did it once when it was just my husband at the time and my boys.  I felt a tremendous pain go up my leg to my chest, and let's just say, thank god I didn't get electrocuted.  I obviously wouldn't be here now if I had and I would have never had my girls!  Thank-god!  And that would have made my boys motherless and my ex a widower.  Funny how our lives get spared during stupidity.

I've got four beautiful kids!

But, seriously, if you don't know a person, what gives anyone the right to know someone inside out???  You don't have the right.  If I had that written proof, I'd have lots of asses in jail for violating and terrorizing the hell out of me.  And they have my stolen items.  Funny how other things get returned to someone and my stuff never got recovered.

Nobody has a right to share someone either.  It's like this too, if you have a good friend who tells you something and they don't want anyone else to know, please be the good friend and keep it to yourself.  Respect their privacy that they've shared something important with you and you have shared your private details with them, keep it to yourself to maintain your close friendship with that person.

If you don't know somebody that well, they're a neighbor or another person whom you don't have a close relationship with, you have no right whatsoever to pry into their private life.

Why do you think that they say nobody should live in a glass house?  It's because every person has a right to their privacy.  If we want to not talk about things, it's our right to our privacy and others should respect that.  How would you like it if people tried to figure out everything about you?  You wouldn't like it and you would feel invaded.

Why do you think there are closed doors, curtains shut on our houses and apartments?  It's because we either pay rent or own our places and when we come home at night or at any time and our doors are shut, we want our privacy!  Respect the privacy of others.

It's like people who always like to gossip too.  Keep the gossip to a minimum.  But, we all know we love to hear as soon as we find out someone is pregnant, that's usually good news.  Depending.  Respect the woman if she doesn't want people knowing yet.

Or if someone is getting married.  It's no fun getting divorced, but people find out about all those basic parts of life.  If you are friends and family to someone, it's safe to say you will get to know certain things.  But even family, you don't have a right to know everything about even your siblings, your wife or your husband.

True, you are going to know a lot about them, but every single person on earth has a right to keep some of the things about us to ourselves.

Some people want to lead very private lives, while others choose to speak out a little.  Both ways are good, but hey, if we don't want to be an open book to people we would not want to know very well, that's our right to not let others know us well if we don't want them to.

Point blank, if we don't choose to say everything we ever think about in our whole entire lives, that's our right as a human being.

That being said, What's your right to know someone?  If they don't know you, and don't want to talk to you.  Or if they know you and don't want to be that close, it's not your place to know and make it your point to find out.  That's mean.

And even a man and a woman, married, divorced, separated or friends or not friends anymore.  What's your right to know every single thing about someone?  And you shouldn't share with others.  Respect her whether you've been married for five years, ten, fifty or you've been separated or divorced.  It's nobody's right to tell all to others.

Respect what your marriage is or was.  Just realize, the other half has the right to lash out if you've done something to make the other angry.  Whether divorced or married, it's wrong.  Respect their privacy.

It's one thing if you want to privately vent to a few of your close family or some good friends who know not to spread like wildfire.  If you've been mean to the other, she's going to lash out.  Just saying.

It's in any relationship, keep some of the things that went down between you to yourselves or your close friends.  Don't invade.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted February 18, 2014

Valentines day!

Happy Valentines Day!  And here in Vermont we are into another Valentines Day Blizzard!  I walked out briefly and was surprised at all the snow.  There's still no comparison to the Valentines Day Blizzard Vermont had years ago.  My girls were little that year and we were out in the elements with Mom shoveling the driveway so their Dad could make it into the driveway say eight or nine years ago!

I ended up seeing my kids yesterday instead of today because of the storm but have talked to most of them.  I will catch the other one later as he was having a sliding day with friends.

I've got extra coffee brewing and am going to begin to do some more typing into The Glorious Money Tree.  I was able to push myself to write the next chapter into my Taylor Swift notebook yesterday, managing to get about five hand written pages in.  So, I've got the two hand written chapters that deserve to find their way into the typed manuscript today.

It was Balzac who supposedly drank 50 cups of coffee a day!  I guess I'm going for five, which isn't a good thing but I am treating myself today.  I may add some chocolate extract as well.  Just a dab of course as you do not need much of that stuff.

It makes me mad that I've got a witch breaking into my apt again.  Really maddening.  It's enough for me to know she's coming in again and I don't like it.  I wish she would get caught.  Since the old apt, I would easily say, that's a good amount of break ins!  I don't like coming home to seeing a really tiny picture flipped over when I know it's been face up and my cats would not be able to do that.  Really creepy black witch!  And there's been a bunch of other noticeable things moved on me as well to know she's taken advantage and breaking in while I am out visiting my kids.  Really mean!!!

And she's bothering me late at night while I am trying to sleep in the room underneath me.  Rattling her closet door late at night to scare me that someone is going to come out of my closet.  Very mean.

Anyway, she's got no right into my apt at all.  That's multiple felonies for which would probably get her life!

I've been knitting some today as usually and I really need to try and set it aside for a while and devote some good time to writing.  It's hard when I know that witch would like to get her hands on my unfinished new chapters to the novel.  It's not hers!!!

Meaning, I'm writing this post and then I'm offline immediately so she doesn't have much time to hack into my stuff.  It's not her business.

My daughter's scarf is done and I'm using her same colors to do the same Rosalie school scarf pattern in a smaller size for a headband.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted February 14, 2014

My most important thing about Valentine's Day is my kids.  I know this is Renesmee, but she's a kid just like my kids and I put my kids first.

This morning my local radio station married a couple and I heard the Twilight Thousand Days song as she walked down the stairs.  I love that song, and for me it means that I've loved my four kids for a thousand years and will love them for a thousand more and eternity.

Art is Good Therapy

I think art can be really good therapy.  Practically anything can be great therapy really as long as you look at everything in a positive way.  Trying to see the good in everything is perhaps the best way to look at our lives.

Don't you want to have peace and happiness in everything that you do?  I think just finding it and deciding it's good is great.

Today, I decided to do some collage work as I hadn't done it in a little bit.  I also came back to that sewing bench and worked a little more on the thing.  I had been meaning to stencil in either the flowers or a butterfly on the front of the bench where there was nothing.  I decided on some gold paint and ended up doing some stenciled leaves.  They came out pretty good.  Some better than others.

You've got to be careful and not lay on too much paint at once and take your time.  And now the handles are gold too.  Which means I'm going to have to Modge Podge to keep it there!

I had one of those writing lap desks from Goodwill sitting underneath my books for a while and finally decided to decoupage the top.  Ah, there's Twilight in it!!!  And some of my stuff and then I decided to just write my favorite authors, some cooks and Patsy Cline on it.  Just gluing lots of words in.  It took a while, but it was just a great thing just to sit there and get quietly busy doing some type of art.

Couldn't quite get away from it after this was done and started working on a fat 5 X 7 bookmark thinking of Maya Angelou, freedom and family.  It came out kind of cool.  I've got to try to perfect finding a certain type of sealer that's not going to warp my vellum paper.  I made some bookmarks a little while ago and they did get warped.  One was my Down Syndrome child and the other was my oldest child with a baby picture I had of him with my very first knitted boys sweater.  I still have it in my cedar chest.

They are my bookmarks for a while and someday my kids can have them.  I want to collect archaeology books of my own, the ones that would interest me and I've figured that someday it would be a very nice thing for my oldest to see that Mom took an interest in his career choice.  And I might learn something in the process.

I've got to make myself type more this next week.  I did get more handwriting in which felt good.  Anything feels very satisfying after we make ourselves do something we have been meaning to do but put it on the back burner.

Good lord, how many times can we count how often we leave some projects into a drawer and let it collect dust???  Yeah!!!  I went to Facebook to read some of Freedom with Writing's sayings and quotes.  I had to laugh and also agree with one.  Just write the damn book!  by Jane Yolen.

This one was good!  Your Muse called!  She threatened to quit if you don't start writing, right now.  Authors Publish.     I had to laugh on that one too and commented on the post.  I guess I better get going before she locks herself in the bathroom with all my pens!!!!

I've been handwriting, but been torn with the knitting of course.  I've got to love those darn knitting needles God Damn it!!!!!  I did finish the Rosalie school scarf for me and my daughter Julia wanted a shorter one.  Her's is done, and I'm on to making a darker black and red one for Mollyanne.  That's going to take longer as I'm going to make some mistakes and it's going to take more time to count the stitches as it's darker.  And I started a gray shawl out of some cotton cone yarn I had.  I'm just going to go until the cone is gone.

I'm not sure how big it will get and it's my own pattern this time.  I haven't made my own pattern in a while.  I guess I am due.

Anyway, I believe that anything we really want to do something, just do it.  Delight in the process it takes to get it done as I think that is primarily why we create what we create.  Do it for yourself first and foremost.

Just like writing.  I think we should write the novel for ourselves and then others will decide they want to read it because you've poured your heart into it and it bleeds out our strongest desires to create something so real and vivid.

Don't just write something with no depth into it.  Don't write something you have absolutely no interest into.  It's going to come across as a bland dish that nobody is going to want to eat.  Put some heart and soul into it.

Well, I'm going to get doing something else.  I told my daughter I would work some more on her scarf and then hmm....   maybe push in some writing time too.  There's hours left in the day so I guess we should all make the most of it and do the best we can to get things done or at least started.

After all, tomorrow is another day, said Scarlet.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted February 8, 2014

My fat bookmark.  To which I should try to finish reading her book too.  I'm almost halfway through it.  As you can see, it's warping a tiny bit.  I think I've used more of an archival sealer for this one.  The trick is not to put too much on at once and evenly spread it.  I'm even thinking maybe I will take my iron to it later on and see if that makes it even flatter around the edges.  To which I should sandwich a small layer of fabric in between so as not to wreck the artwork.

Here's the colors for Mollyanne's Rosalie School Scarf.   And the gray one below is my shawl for when I'm old and gray!!!

And the cats resting.  They're going to want some lap time in a little bit!!!

Donut Hole Recipe and other thoughts

I finally decided to try out my cake pop maker!!!  I got it beginning of last year and hadn't used it yet!!!  2 cool!

Here's the recipe I used.  I think I got it somewhere on the internet but forget where.

1 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar (I probably used 1/2 cup)
2 tsp. b.p.
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp melted butter
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp apple spice mix

Salted Caramel Glaze
2 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup salted caramel
tbsp milk

I didn't have the powdered sugar and used about 1 cup sugar to 1 tbsp orange juice and just rolled them in that.

It was so funny to see them so round within a few minutes.  Popped a few in my mouth and am going to make sure there's some to bring to my kids in a few days.  If I had thought, I should have made them closer to the day, but too late now!!!

I'm just minus the cake pop sticks.  It was maddening to purchase a set of 50 cake pop sticks, I had never even used them and it's one of the darn items that got stolen from my old apt.  I am inclined to also believe it was a woman coming in and taking my womanly things.  But a man came in to take my budgeting pads with the monthly budgeting on it.  And it was a man who came in and turned on my burner!  That I know for a fact as a woman went up to him and said to him that was a terrible thing he did.  She called him out on it.

Thank god I don't live at that apt anymore, they were the meanest people EVER!!!

I would think it would be a woman to take my 11 trousseau saucers, pieces of my mother's china, two sets of silverware, cake pop sticks, a movie and other things.  I would lean towards it was most likely a woman coming in taking those things.

Other stolen things could have just as easily been a man coming in to take my things and move my things around.  A man was coming in as well.

I'm going to pray that a witch isn't starting to come into my new place again.  I noticed a few things over the weekend that I didn't like and had to call one thing in particular to the local cops.  She better not be starting to come in again.  Whoever it is, has got to realize there may come a day when they will get caught for multiple breaking and entering my apts.  It's a multiple felony and my items never got recovered.

Well, I finished my Rosalie School scarf and am onto making another of the same color for my daughter and my older girl wants one too of different colors.  Possibly red and black.  I told her it will be what Mom has on hand.

I thought they may have a snow day today, but they ended up having school.

I'm thinking I am going to use the leftover sugar mixture for my coffee.  Then, I was checking all my old essential oils and made a salt bath mix.  Cleaned up them as well.  Those things can get so messy and they were drenched in spilled oil but in a bag thank god!

I finally made myself hand write another chapter to the book and I'm going to work on more of it later on this week.  I've got to get back to typing it and editing.  It was those darn chapters where I got stuck on and wasn't sure how to make them progress.

And in the back of my mind, the worry the girl underneath me whom I recognize from the old place, hacking my laptop and getting my unfinished novel just ticks me off to no end.  She had no business stalking me to a new place.

I can't control what she hacks, but I can make sure there's absolutely no contact between me and her.  I'm recognizing her from somewhere else as well, and she never had any right to bother me.

I had to talk to my girls about why guns are no good yesterday.  One of them made a gun finger at Mom yesterday and I've got to tell her if she ever does that again, she's in her room.  No child should be taught that's okay to do to your parents.  Maybe she thought she was being funny, but that's got to never be pointed at Mom ever again.

It can be uncomfortable talking to kids about certain things, we got on a very brief talk about why they aren't good.  Then, it went the completely opposite way when my Down Syndrome child was listening to Sesame Street videos on his ipad.  Mom got treated to Ernie's Rubber Duck song on a multiple repeat!!!  And the other one he sings about living on the Moon.

Now, that sent me back light years!!!  Back to when my boys were little and I tried to push Sesame Street on them.  I spent some quality time sitting on his bed knitting the scarf while he listened to his videos.

Any time with my kids is good quality time.  Nobody can take that away from me EVER.

I talked to one of my girls about everyone having flaws and that nobody is perfect.  Not even their dad.  NOBODY IS PERFECT!!!  We all come with some flaws.

I'm thinking soup of some sort may be my prediction into the near future.  I decided on a tuna fish sandwich earlier and came close to dragging out my Mom's sandwich maker!!  Ah, maybe tomorrow.  Sometimes it's the extra step in the kitchen we don't want to tackle and we end up doing the quick and easy just to save ourselves the time.

I guess I'm done here for a little bit.  Thinking of getting some more done on her scarf.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted February 5, 2014

And fitting some writing time in.  OFFLINE so a witch can't hack it temporarily.

Cute little bite size donuts!  I'm thinking I may have to try a chocolate one next and some glaze that will stick good to the donuts.  

The finished scarf and the beginning of Julia's scarf.  She said she has an ivory hat so this should match it.

The leftover sugar.  A little bit of orange juice flavoring in my next cup of coffee!!!  Yum!  My girls and I are going to get a caramel hot chocolate treat on Friday!  You know those little individual packets at the grocery store.  I've tried the mint ones before and those are good!

I had to tell my Dad today how fast that bag of Reese's peanut butter cups went.  Gone within a few hours!  It was an early Valentine's treat.  There's a Fay sweet tooth going on!!!

Not married anymore, but I still have the same name as my kids.  That's cool, plus I didn't want to change it back for my art and writing purposes.

I'm listening to that Superman song on the radio right now.  It's the one where it says, she's talking to angels, counting the stars, making a wish on a passing cloud.

A few times I heard it, I put my hand on a bible and claimed I'm waiting for my superman.  GOD!!!  Right!!!  He's the ultimate superman for us to believe in whether we go to church, read the bible all the way through or not.  We believe in God and that's what counts.

My salt scrub or bath soak.  I ended up just putting some of the leaking essential oils into this one to get them gone and it's actually purple!  You can't tell in this picture.  And, ah, there's my ripped up wedding photo.  I took some craft scissors to it a few days ago.

Another Month to start fresh

Here we are into February and I'm so glad we got the coldest month under our belt.  How many of us had to jump start our cars!!!  Pain in the neck, but I learned a lesson:  have more than half a tank of gas in the car during these coldest months!!

Ah, tomorrow is Ground Hog Day!  And this is a short month.  I've got my birthday towards the end of the month and I told my kids I will be happy with some handmade cards and that's just fine.  Handmade is the best.

Time to write today!  I've got to get back out of my writer's block rut.  I did hand write a chapter last week, but I need to get back to typing the novel offline.  Don't like my novel getting hacked by a witch below me.  It makes me mad and at the same time sort of uncomfortable to write the new chapters.

It's not published, witch!  Means, it's not available at your fingertips!  Or it shouldn't be.

As usual, I've been knitting up a storm of some headbands, a few small messenger bags and now am working on the Rosalie school scarf pattern I downloaded from Ravelry.  The Twilight Rosalie scarf!!!

I embarrassed my girls by singing a Patsy Cline song last week.  I brought my CD player and belted out a tune to Walking after Midnight.  My younger daughter turned around and I think she thought it was funny hearing Mom belting out a tune.  And the other one wanted me to stop singing.  Embarrassed.  I told her I would finish the song and then we would go to Janet Evancho music.

I told the girls they will someday look back, when I'm old and gray that they would remember their Mom singing to tunes.  I told them that I'm not the best singer, but it's the idea of if you want to sing to a song, sing it and do not care what others think.

If you have a voice and you want to use it, USE IT!  Don't feel insecure that your singing isn't good.  Just sing and be happy.  My aunt used to sing in the shower and we would laugh.  Good old camp days!  She didn't care what we thought.  Sometimes, I think she sang just to see us think it was funny.

Opera and Barbra Streisand was her forte.

Yesterday, I got watching a few Crazy Frog videos with my Down Syndrome child.  That frog needs to put some pants on.  What's America coming to these days, that the kids have to be subjected to a naked Crazy Frog on their favorite videos.

When my kids first started listening to Crazy Frog, he had outfits on.  One of Jake's old Crazy Frog toys has a shirt and pants on!!!  Get with the program and teach these kids right.  I don't like the fact my child is watching a naked frog strutting his stuff.  I don't like my kid looking at a little weiner on a frog.

Put PANTS ON THAT FROG!!!

My Dad is burning through his candles really fast, so I know what I'm looking for him at yard sales these coming yard sale season!!!  And I delighted in telling him I got him a Paula Deen candle!

Today or tomorrow will be a baking day!  I told my kids I would make some cranberry scones and bring them down in a few days.  That will be a treat.  It's been a long time since I've made scones.

Don't you love the smell of something sweet filling the air with the scent of spices!!!  I just hope I don't burn down the house!  I know I won't.  Just kidding!!!

I will say I've gotten my share of smoke detectors going on occasion when cooking something at this apt, the old one and at the kids house when I lived there.

In my very first apt light years ago, I smoked the house out burning macaroni and cheese.  Obviously it went straight to the trash!  Nothing like blackened bloated macaroni noodles!!!  Ick!!!

Another day under the sun.  Yesterday, my oldest daughter said that Daddy said I should talk to her about my Mom.  To which I said to her, I will talk about my Mom as long as my daughter knows I'm not going to my Mom in Heaven anytime soon.

Old and gray, 100!!!!!!  Minus those buttered onion rings I bought yesterday!!!  I had my fill of them then handed the bag to my kids!  Butter bombs!!!

The day is still young and there's plenty of time to get things done or at least get the projects further along.  Don't you hate it though when there are some days your projects don't speed along?  I have days when I feel I could have gotten more done, but didn't.

I'm a procrastinator sometimes, I will admit it.  But, anyway here's to a new month to accomplish new things.  I'm still not quite sure what that cover is going to look like.  I've started a few covers with my main character, Sally.  In one drawing she has freaky eyes and am leaning to one I did more recently.  I copied a drawing I had done of my Grammy a long time ago and put braids on the drawing.

I'm liking that one better, but am not sure what the whole cover will look like.  I also don't want it to be completely black and white.  I will keep playing around with the ideas.

I've got to get better at protecting my artwork too and put them straight into my protector folders.  I brought one I did of my Mom to the kids house and I ripped a part of the bottom by accident.  I can fix it, but I've got to be more careful in the future and protect them right away.

A knitting tip!  Have some tweezers nearby!  I've been tackling as I'm knitting, my hair gets tangled into the yarn and I"m constantly pulling the fallen strands out of the knitting.  Tweezers will come in handy!!!

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted February 1, 2014

 The beginning of the Rosalie Scarf.  It seems like a very easy pattern.  Just following a simple lace pattern.

One of the lace headbands that may be for my future grandchildren if I get girls!  If not, this is a good mannequin to sell the baby and girl headbands, etc...

The drawing above my kids is the one of my Mom.  I tend to like to spread the artwork out sometimes as if giving myself a critique.  We used to do this in college where we would tack all our artwork for the critique on the wall and our four teachers would come in and give the critique.  Always nerve wracking but we got good feedback, and took the criticism as well.  No artist is ever perfect.

Even the writer.  We all have some flaws that crop up in our artwork or writings.

The leaf cuddler pattern, to which I like better on my vine instead of the one for the coffee cup.  And I finally finished my tile project one for each of my kids.  This is my Down Syndrome child.  I won't have too many pics of my kids here, but I like how this pic is set up with him as a baby, then a young toe head and onto his darker brown hair.  I kept looking at the old stamps I had clipped from some old letters, so each tile with my kids and the stamps has Forever on it.  And one stamp has Justice on it!!!!

The other cabled headband I've got to sew up.  I did this one on my smaller needles so it is a little tighter weave.  And, I goofed on it, so it's Mine!!!