Forever In Search Of my Muse

~~~~ Yesterday was the last day of the incense store that i worked at. i have worked there off and on for the three years that it had been open and truly loved it there. They are still open as a business but only on line now http://www.tsrstore.com .

~~~~ my room mate and i drove out to the HIP (Harlem Irving Plaza) and got there at about 5:30pm and i started working on packing all the oils with one other person (Store Girl 1) while the owner and her husband worked on other things and we waited for the other store girl (Store Girl 2) to get there and for the mall to close so that Roommate could bring down his cargo van from the upper level parking to right outside the closest set of doors to the store. Everyone but Store Girl 1 busted there butts all night to get everything done. Store Girl 2 unfortunately had to go home early to relieve her babysitter but she busted her butt while she was there and really helped get a lot done. Store Girl 1 puttered around and pretended to be working but hardly did anything and WHINED and pouted like a little 2 year old. i really do not want to talk about Store Girl 1 though as it will just aggravate me more. Lets just leave it at saying that i told her twice what i thought about her act and behavior. By the end of the night i threw up because of the pain in my lower back and kept working while Store Girl 1 WHINED that she was tired and cried because i had given her a piece of my mind and i did not even yell at her. Believe you me she would have known if i had been yelling at her everyone would have known if i had been yelling at her.

~~~~ So, we worked on packing up the store and getting everything loaded into the cargo van. The first trip took the big stuff to the storage area and the second trip we packed the cargo van, mini van and car to the brim with merchandise and things that were needed in the office for the website. Then we all went to office and the owner, her husband, Roommate, and i unloaded all the vehicles and got the boxes and bins put neatly in the office. Can we guess what Store Girl 1 was doing? You got it whining and crying.

~~~~ We finished all of this at 3:30am and Roommate and i had to drive home still we got home at 4:51am and i had to eat something and take 2 of my Vicodin for my back so i got to bed at 5:40am and then was up at 6:45am to get my son off to school. i got back to bed at around 8am and slept until about 1:45pm. i just hope this does not mess up my sleep schedule. Plus today i have to be so very careful with my back and really can not do what i need to do around the house.

~~~~ The laundry will have to wait for another day i can not bend over to reach the bottom of the washer to get all the clothes out. i feel like a little old lady trying to walk around the house with my hips popping and knees snapping and toes cracking. Hey i am a rice crispy.... Snap Crackle Pop. All i really want to do is go back to bed and lay there sleeping or not just not moving but i can not do that. i have to spend time with my son and try to get somethings around the house done at a slow but steady pace. If i do not move around and do stuff today i am going to be SOOOO very sore tomorrow from all the lifting and everything that i did.

~~~~ i have been crocheting since i was about 13 years old. i remember when i learned to crochet too. i was visiting my great grandmother's trailer with my mom, grandma, and brothers and we were stuck inside because it was raining really hard and great grandma would not let us go outside and play in the rain even though there was no lightening or thunder. So we were all sitting in the living room playing Monopoly and i had lost so i was sitting back and waiting for a new game. i was looking around the room and saw that great grandma had been making these really cute little bags by crocheting them and i knew what crocheting was because i have seen my mom do it all my life. So i asked if someone could teach me how. Great Grandma said she would and got out a ball of variegated red, white, and green Christmas Yarn and started teaching me to do a simple chain stitch and every time my stitches were not just the way she wanted them... an even uniform size that was not too loose or too tight she would take it from me and pull them all out. Mom and Grandma were amazed that i did not get all upset every time she did this because it happened a lot after i would work so hard on it. By the time we left that day i could do a basic chain without a problem and was learning to build it up a single crochet to make a simple blanket, scarf, or something of that nature.

~~~~ i remember going home at the end of the day and my mom letting me go through all of her crochet hooks to find a few that i liked and wanted to work with and then letting me go through all her yarn as well. i found a variegated baby yarn that i really liked and since one of my old babysitters was pregnant with her first child i made her a baby blanket. ( i wish i had pictures of this blanket but i do not i just started taking pictures of all my work) This blanket was not perfect it had one section on the edge where i was still learning to build up the rows correctly and i kept losing a stitch so it came in a bit. When i gave the blanket to the person it was made for and told her it was the first thing i ever made she tried to give it back to me saying i should keep the first thing i ever made and that she was very honored that i would want to give it to her for her baby. i insisted that she keep it. She still has it too and keeps it packed in a her hope chest for her grandchildren to use.

~~~~ Since then i have made and given away many baby blankets in many different styles but never did i use a pattern i just made them up myself. i am just learning to fallow patterns and that is just to make baby hats to give to hospitals for the newborns and other babies there. i have taken that basic pattern and enlarged it to make hats for my son, brothers, and brothers' girlfriends.

~~~~ i love crocheting and find it very relaxing but if i am tired when i start crocheting i will fall asleep with the hook and yarn still in my hand. i have done this several times and my roommate laughs at me and takes the yarn and hook away from me then sends me to bed. It is really sweet of him to do this and he is always so careful when he moves my projects so that he dos not pull any of them out.

~~~~ Right now i am working on a blanket for my friends daughter rippled double stiches (twin bed size), one for my son patchwork granny squares (twin bed size), one for my roommate large two color granny square (queen bed size), and one for myself alternating stitches pattern (queen bed size). Then i have two friends that want me to make blankets for their children so that is 5 more blankets that i need to make i have no idea what size or style yet. Not to mention any of my friends or family that decide to get pregnant and i will have baby blakets to make for them.

~~~~ i have to say though it is a cheap gift to give because the yarn does not cost much and i can make the blanket while i am sitting on the train, watching tv, listening to my son read, or just about anything else. Even though it is a cheap gift in cost most people love the handmade blankets because the time was taken to make the blanket, they are personalized and no two are ever the same so it is always a unique gift.

~~~~ i love to read. i can not get enough of it, it is like an addiction for me i have to buy books and i have to read them. i own hundreds of books myself and have read most of them at least once if not more and have have many that i have bought and want to read. i swear i have to build a new house just for my books and live forever just to read all the books that i want to. i have such an eclectic taste in books that it surprises some to see me go from reading a Young Adult (YA) novel like Evermore by Alyson Noel to reading Le Miserables by Victor Hugo to reading a Historical Fiction (HF) on the Tudor Era to reading Jane Austin. i just do not read horror books just like i do not watch horror movies. Steven King, Dean Koontz, and authors that write in that genre are just not for me. Though i admit i love Dan Brown's books and can not wait for his new one to come out September 15th. i also can not stand the modern classics like Of Mice and Men, Lord of the Flies, The Great Gatsby, Tuck Everlasting, or Catcher in the Rye. Give me Shakespear or Victor Hugo or The Bronte Sisters any day.

~~~~ i swear i would read all day long if i could. MMMM a good candle or some incense burning with music playing in the background, a cup of hot tea and a comfy place to sit or lay down with a light blanket to cuddle under and i am in heaven and could just stay lost there forever in a good book. There have been days when i have been so caught up in a great book that my house works goes undone until my book is finished then i have to play catch up around the house and get everything that i let fall to the wayside done. i just love escaping into a good book and getting lost in the pages until i do not know how much time has passed. i take a book with me everywhere i go and always try to find even a few minutes to read it whenever i can... sitting in the car while it is being gassed up, waiting at a doctor's office, on the train or bus to work, on my breaks, at a resturaunt waiting for my food, while Son is playing at the beach or the playgournd (then it is always something light so i can watch him too), before i go to bed, and best of all with Son.

~~~~ i am trying to instill in Son a love of reading like i have. You can go so many places in books and do so many wonderful things. i want him to love it as much as i do. Right now he and i are reading the Harry Potter books together. He has seen the movies and keeps asking about what is going to happen and why this or that happened in the movie and i keep telling him he needs to read the books to find out but the books were just to daunting of an idea for him so to make it seem like less of a huge deal we read them together each taking a chapter and reading outloud. We have just started this and are on the first book but we will get through all of them eventually and maybe this will encourage him to read other books plus i get to spend quality time with him reading two things i love most. We use the website http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/books/pronunciation.htm to pronounce the names and spells correctly. He loves going to that website and hearing how the names are pronounced and even yells at the movies when they say the names wrong. It is so cute. (Don't tell him i said that though he is 10 and boys are not supposed to be cute at that age.)

~~~~ Roommate loves to read as much as i do and has about as many books as i do and a lot of his are for YA or children's books because he loves the stories in them. He has offered to let Son read any of his books that he wants to. Which is really awesome. Roommate and i also lend books to his sister and niece and nephews they love coming over here and going through all our books and seeing what they want to barrow to read. We have been given the nick names of The King and Queen of Books. It is just great to see teenagers and other adults that love to read. More people should do it and watch less TV. if you ask me.

~~~~ i would much rather buy my books from the bookstore or even a garage sale or thrift store then barrow them from a library. Yes, i know it would be much cheaper to barrow them but i do not always want to read them right away when i get them or i want to read them many times like To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee which i have read probably about 75 time so far or The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett which i have probably read just as many times. Not to mention i love the smell and feel of a new book and the sound it makes when you open the cover for the first time. Plus when i buy them i can say they are mine and i can keep them forever or pass them on if i wish.