Tag: Thanksgiving

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Black Friday and Beyond

Black Friday and Beyond

There is so much that is happening in the next 10 days; surgery, Black Friday and beyond.  I really wanted to do the Christmas shopping season up big this year, however, surgery is looming for me and I am only offering sales in the Etsy shop. Thanksgiving weekend has different sales almost every day in the Etsy shop. Please come back frequently to shop for patterns. If it isn’t on sale the first day you look it probably will be the next day!

Ready to Wear and Afghans

Any ready to wear or afghans need to be bought this week. They need to be wrapped prior to surgery so that they get shipped out quickly.

Happy Thanksgiving

May you have a Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. May your Christmas be merry and bright.

Black Friday and Beyond

We were driving past this sunset on our way to church Sunday night. The leaves and bright sunshine just called for a photograph. It is blurred and imperfect but that is so much like our lives these days. Beauty that is blurred and imperfect. I’ve been looking for the beauty in life everyday, as life has been a little tougher around the edges lately. This sunset just made me thankful for life and family. Beauty no matter how blurred is still beauty. It still brings a deep and abiding peace as it reminds me who is in charge of life.

Talk to you later,

Karen

P.S. The surgery is clean up work on a foot that doesn’t work properly and will leave me crutch bound for all of the Christmas season. I’ll pop in once in awhile closer to Christmas. See you then. You will see me more on Instagram as I crochet tons while I am recovering from surgery. Look for new patterns in the January and February.

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Happy Thanksgiving

thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

There is so much to be thankful for this year. Family, friends, food, a roof over our heads. I can’t even begin to list all of the things I am thankful for.

I am praying that you and yours are having a wonderful Thanksgiving this year.

It is too easy to get caught up in all the things to do. I am writing this a week ahead, because, like you, I have too much to do and too little time. Just this morning I was writing on the legal pad where I write my to-do lists…

The Giant Pre-Thanksgiving List

It had all the regular things on it, like:

Cleaning

  • Bedrooms
  • Kitchen
  • Refrigerator
  • Bathrooms
  • Attic storage room (“Huh?” you say. Well, this room was the studio at one point and needs a deep clean)
  • Living room, sunroom, etc…

thanksgiving cleanup

I take before and afters so I can tell that I am actually doing some good. This is the before of our coffee table. It is usually buried in yarn, books, and papers. One of the hazards of being a creative person.

Planning

  • Make a menu for Thanksgiving weekend
  • Plan a menu for next week
  • Figure out the food for the weekend (because there are food allergies involved)
  • Figure out when my brother and his family are coming

Shopping

  • Go Christmas shopping with Mom
  • Go get the cookie ingredients
  • Get the Thanksgiving food bought

The List Seems Endless

It also had things like:

  • Finish the week strong with Angie’s schooling
  • Do the Dogs need their shots? Schedule vet appointment
  • Fill the holes in the yard the dogs dug
  • Mow the yard (yes, I know it is November, but this is Oklahoma and it’s 80 degrees today)
  • Rearrange the furniture in the den (guests are coming; need the floor space)

thanksgiving

I did get one of our dogs in to the vet for her check up and she is doing fine. Here she is relaxing while waiting for the vet. We will take the other after Thanksgiving.

If I get really OCD, I will rewrite the huge list into an even bigger list with the smallest possible job increments and color code it with the most important stuff first. I will also portion out the work over the week so no one is completely overwhelmed. This is also when I delegate all the jobs from stuffing the turkey and mopping the floors to changing the towels. I know this is all crazy when you add in the Chocolate Dog Studio business stuff. I feel totally overwhelmed, yet thankful…

Very, Very Thankful…

  • We can get all of these things done
  • We are so blessed to have each other
  • To have friends and family come and visit us in our introvertedness (we overdose on Thanksgiving weekend and spend the next month getting over it–not really, but it does feel like we have overdosed. :0) )
  • For our grandchildren
  • To be able to cook, clean and go where we want to go
  • To sleep each night in safety
  • For dogs that bark in the night and keep us up (at least we can hear them!)
  • For kids that leave dirty clothes on the floor (I mean– we have clothes, and a floor to leave them on, and a way to get them clean)

Wow, that list is amazing! I am sure you have your own list of Thankfulness. I am not really usually this cheerful but being thankful is something I am working on daily.

Talk to you later,

Karen

P.S. I am taking some time off– I’ll see you back here December 1st. Have a great holiday weekend!

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Crochet Planning Worksheets

The past several weeks have passed in a blur of activity. I really feel this Lord of the Rings meme is accurate because I want to say…

LOTR meme

This is really how I usually feel around this time of year. Christmas is looming, and those of us who have small retail businesses are run right off our feet.

Thanksgiving means family gatherings and creating good food–tons of good food. The past four years have seen an influx of people to my home as my brother and his family come down to visit, and my college-age daughter’s friends come to stay for the weekend (they are too far away to go home for the weekend). Toss in Black Friday, managing an Etsy shop with after-Thanksgiving sales, cold weather, house cleaning, and cooking for everyone and life just gets really busy and really interesting.

Who am I kidding? It’s not just me — we are all run off our feet with time commitments: school, church, family, friends, decorating, grocery shopping, gift buying. I have to work hard at staying organized; I have forgotten about people during Christmas: family, small children in my home, {gasp!} my dear daughter. It was awful! I stayed up until after 3 AM sewing and beading a small denim dress for her “Santa gift” and scrounging through my stash of cool mini-gifts that I kept at the time. I decided then-and-there that I will never again forget anyone — and then I did it again. Twice. So now I work really hard to make lists, and I make sure my family sends me emails with their gift lists.

This year is no different. I am procrastinating instead of getting the housework  (or anything) done. Instead, I’m thinking of post-Thanksgiving when I will get to sit around and crochet. I’m also thinking about how some of you may be just like me. So, I created a couple of organizers to help you keep your crochet organized. These worksheets are my Christmas gift to you. They are yours free when you join my email list. If you are already a member don’t worry about it, they are coming to you in the next newsletter!

Crochet Planning Worksheets for you

The first one helps you figure out if you have enough yarn in your stash for your next project. The second one helps you create a shopping list for what you still need to buy after shopping your stash.

I finally put down on paper what I do when I plan an afghan using my stash yarn! I wish I had started doing this years ago. This worksheet will be an incredible help as you plan out your future projects.

Talk to you later,

Karen