452: All night long.

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Hey y'all.

I've been up all night, crocheting, Facebooking, and watching telly. Should have been sleep hours ago but it's the weekend right?

My eyes are tired and my saline is no wher near. *sigh*

Gotta get up to get it very soon.

More later...


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450: Saturday.

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Hey y'all.

It's a beautiful sunny day in our neighborhood. What's it like in yours?

Baby Bliss and I are indoors today, listening to folk frolic at the pool. She's not feeling well so we're gonna stay in to watch movies.

We started watching "Jesus, Mary and Joey" last night but I nodded off. It's good but kinda slow.

Lunch for me will be leftover Japanese from last night's dinner.

Baby Bliss is refusing food and drink right now. After last night's "tummy incident", I'm sure it's for the best. She'll eat when she feels better.

I'm working on several projects, as usual. In addition, I still haven't finished rounding up my receipts so we can file our taxes. *sigh*

Labor Day weekend finds me laboring very much.

Such is life...

Amen.



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449: Friday funshine.

Hey y'all.

Friday has been good to me!

Warm sunshine tickled me awake after 8 hours of much-needed snoring.

My day started with a relaxing plop into my patio perch so my day's work could commence.

A few hours later I realized I should be out running my Friday errands.

But Mr. Bliss was already out and about, running his errands, in prep for a weekend trip to his family reunion.

So I waited for his return, to say good bye. Also, Baby Bliss said he was bringing breakfast.

By the time I made my escape it was 1 p.m.

I had to make my bank run, needed to return a few defective items, return and pick up library materials, gas up my ride, and drop a Mr. Bliss special (home made apple pie) at my grandma's.

I hoped to be done before the school buses hit the roads but no such luck.

Being forced to wait for one dad to have a long conversation with the driver as he retrieved his kid from the bus wasn't a total waste of time. He didn't appear too anxious to start his holiday weekend. I jammed to my music while I waited.

The clock was rolling past the 4 o'clock hour when I returned home.

Traipsing the streets for three hours was actually good timing considering all the traffic I'd run into.

Watching the news later made me thankful I'd made it home alive after. Apparently there was a bad pile up on the route I would have taken home had I not taken the long way so I could fill up at my favorite cheap gas station.


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448: Dinner.

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Family dinner at Olive Garden. We hadn't eaten there in quite a while.


(*sigh* This is the highest cost...)



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447: It feels like today is Monday.

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Hey y'all.

I know it's Thursday but only because I looked at the calendar. Emotionally, I'm in a Monday state of mind.

Billie Holiday's "Good Morning Heartache" has been on my mind since early a.m. Maybe because I've been trying to outsmart a headache for the past few days.

It's not a killer but is has been annoying. Thank God the migraines remain outsourced to someone else's brain space. Not that I'm wishing the pain on anyone but I know someone out there is having issues with that particular nasty.

School starts soon so we will return to regular sleeping hours here at Bliss Abode. Yay. *dry mouth*

Poor Baby Bliss wanted to go to the playground with a friend. I said yes but had to retract when I heard the helicopter flying overhead.

It reminded me that there had been an attempted bank robbery this morning, several miles away. As far as I know, the suspect has not yet been apprehended.

Wouldn't do to have Baby Bliss caught in any crossfire or snatched from a swing and held hostage.

___________________________________


Feeling kinda Monday...

It's been a melancholy day and I don't know why. I first noticed when I realized I was getting weepy at weird moments while watching telly.

Still feeling emotional about my trip home... I may never fully recover. Frightening.

Feeling overwhelmed with thoughts of serious to-do items that I just don't feel like doing. But they must be done. Or else.

Feeling the need to escape this day with a smoothie and a good trashy novel...



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446: Life is...

...blissful.

Because I say so.

Despite the less than positive, I am happy...

Thankful that my buoyantly resilient self remains intact and surfaces at exactly the right moment(s).

Amen.




soundtrack: Golden - Jill Scott

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442: What the...?

Um, I think someone is throwing rocks at my office window.

I've been hearing objects of various size pelt the glass for an hour or so. Not steadily or continuously but I know what I'm hearing.

Here's the thing: we're on the third floor.

Unless they're hiding on my downstairs neighbor's patio, there's no one down on the ground. (I checked. )

I don't think the missiles are coming from the pool because that's too far. (Unless someone is using a slingshot.)

I believe the children in the townhouse on the end might be the culprits but that's a bit of a stretch. Their door is open but the angle is off.

So I called the office to report it, was told they would send maintenance to stroll the grounds back there.

*Shrug*

I just wanted to let them know in case the window gets broken. Some of those missiles sounded rather sizable.



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441: It's been toooooooooooo long!

Howdy folks!

I can't believe it's June already and I haven't posted since March.

Wow.

We certainly have been busy here Chez Bliss but that's no excuse. I have had some free time but I have to tell y'all, Facebook eats most of it.

Add my regular to-do list:

1. homeschooling Baby Bliss
2. laundry
3. cleaning
4. running errands
5. taking grandma to run her errands
6. monitoring bank accounts
7. paying bills
8. arranging services
9. taking care of my work-related stuff
10. taking care of my personal stuff
11. taking care of Mr. Bliss's stuff
12. checking e-mail
    
13. a gazillion other duties as they arise
    

and it's a wonder I have time to eat.

Baby Bliss says I'm a Facebook-a-holic.

I fear she's right...

_________________________

Currently Baby Bliss and I are gearing up for an extended trip to my home town. We were supposed to attend a family reunion during that time but it's been cancelled.

But we're still making the trip.

I have business there: a filmmaker is interested in one of my short stories. So I'll be attending at least one meeting while I'm home.

Hurray for me! (^o^)

We'll also be seeing bunches of friends and family while there. At some point...

Hurray.

Mr. Bliss is heading home too. He's going on a different day though.

While our visits will overlap, I don't plan to see him while we're there.

I'm trying to get a lil vacation time while I'm home. That means no husbands allowed. 'o)

In fact, as soon as we hit town, I'm dropping Baby Bliss at my mama's for the duration. Or most of it any way. She also wants to spend time with her BFF.

Which I'm happy to oblige cuz I'm gonna spend time with my BFF too while I'm there.



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440: Coupons for Organic Foods and More.

Hey folks.

I found a cool blog that has a great post on links to coupons for organic foods.

The blog is Affluent Pauper and the post for the coupons is here.

Affluent Pauper also has other cool ways to save money, get free stuff, etc.

Go check 'em out.

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439: Paying the Piper.

Hey y'all.

Mr. Bliss and I have been having way too much fun playing around over the past several months.

Now I'm feeling like we might be paying for our good times for the next 18 years or so.

Yeah.

Stay tuned...

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438: So I went to the yarn shop.

Hey y'all.

I went to the yarn shop.

And I bought yarn.

Expensive yarn.

I tried to fight the urge and it was a long fight. (I was in there for at least two hours.) But in the end, the beautifully bountiful and softly squishy yarns lured me into their knitted and crocheted webs and I was unable to leave the store without some of them.

A few of the fibers I bought were very nice yarn and on the pricey side. But every ounce I bought was on sale so even the expensive stuff wasn't super expensive.

And I used the remains of my Christmas money so I didn't put even a small dent in the family budget.

That yarn store is going out of business soon and I'm sure I'll make another trek out there just to have the pleasure of mingling 'mongst the Malabrigo and nestling 'midst the Noro.

Everything is on sale because everything must go before they shutter the doors and windows one last time. There were silk fibers in the back room that were $72 a hank. I can't help but wonder how low the prices will go on the final day of sales.

However, rest assured that never again will I buy a ball of fluff that costs more than a few bucks. Our local dollar store gets a wide variety of fibers and I've found incredible balls of stuff I just couldn't leave without.

I have several shoebox-sized bins in my craft closet, stuffed with tens of thousands of yards of... pretties, to testify to this truth. There they sit, waiting for Divine Inspiration to strike.

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437: Hard to believe this month is almost over.

Hey y'all.

In three minutes, January will be no more in my time zone. I can't believe how fast 31 days have flown by.

Seems we were just screaming "Happy New Year" and now everyone is gearing up for the Big Game.

I don't know what plans Mr. Bliss has for Big S Day but my Sunday will be full.

Church starts at 10:30 which means I'll be getting up at 9. I'm scheduled to teach my first Religious Education class tomorrow, a task I look forward to with a mixture of apprehension and glee.

Just my luck that I'm teaching the combined middle and high school groups, which includes Baby Bliss and her crew. Hooray.

Thankfully I will share the job with another mom.

Tomorrow is also 1st Sunday Potluck and our Fiber Arts group will meet after lunch.

I don't know what we're contributing to potluck as I didn't buy anything specifically for it and I'm not sure what we have in here that's suitable.

My favorite part of the day will be our Fiber Arts group. We've planned a visit to a LYS (local yarn shop) and I am soooooo excited. I've been crocheting for at least 30 years but this will be my first visit to a yarn store.

Yarn comes in so many yummy colors and textures. The small stash in my office in no way compares to the stashes that some of my friends are hoarding. But I don't have very many "good" yarns.

Before I joined the CPs needlework group, I never paid attention to a yarn's fiber content, just the feel of the yarn. And even that has been a recent preference of only a year or so. Usually I just picked up the colors (and prices) I liked.

For years I picked up bag of mixed yarns at thrift stores. A bag of yarn from the thrift usually had four to six skeins. If I was lucky, two of them would be the same color.

Then we moved several hundred miles away and finding yarn at thrift stores became a chore akin to looking for the haystack needle. But I began to find yarn at the dollar store and Big Lots. Then I began buying yarn at WalMart and sometimes Hobby Lobby.

One day I found huge balls of cotton thread at the dollar store. I fell in love with it and began buying several each time I made a dollar store run. Eventually the same thing happened with ribbon yarn and I still have a ton of both in my stash.

Eventually I began putting more effort into my crochet hobby and voila! Reasons to crochet more (meaning people to crochet for) appeared from every crack and crevice. Then I began to be more discriminating about the feel of the yarns I bought.

Anything soft and reasonably priced came home with me.

But I still didn't know about the "good" yarns. That is my most recent acquired yarn knowledge, courtesy of the CPs.

The "Good" yarns are the natural fibers and their blends: cotton, wool, silk, angora, etc.

Good yarns usually come from mysterious places called Local Yarn Shops, another news item for me because I'd never heard of them or been to one. They have names like Noro and Malabrigo, are often handspun, and come in dreamy colors that make them appear edible.

Initially I felt like a dork, coming in with my acrylic yarns. Then I joined Ravelry.com at the suggestion of some of the ladies. And I began stashing my yarn online. (Stashing is a process where you add all the yarn you own to an online database that's stored in your personal Ravelry notebook as well as one that's for the site in general.)

Stashing online was how I discovered that I too owned some "good" yarns. Aside from the cotton thread I'd been buying from the dollar store (and eventually Hobby Lobby too, when it was on deep, deep clearance), the cottons and wools I had must be leftovers from those mixed bags I'd gotten from my thrift store runs.

It's not very much of it. Just three small skeins of locally made wool and three skeins of cotton made in NY. Don't know what I'll use any of it for as I'm not fond of wool next to my skin and the cotton looks like it will be hard to work with as it's "splitty".

But I'm lookng forward to our LYS fieldtrip after potluck.

One of the Fiber Arts group members got a sales e-mail from the store. It said some yarns are 60% off. The question is 60% off of what?

As much as I would love to crochet something special for myself using a nice Noro silk and mohair blend or eco-friendly organically grown cotton blended with cashmere, I am not paying four or five bucks for a hank of yarn.

My prayer: I will find a baby soft yarn in colors I love and a price I'll be happy to pay.

And so it is.


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436: Pssst... Pass it on! a.k.a. The Small Things Challenge

Hey y'all.

I know I'm late but Happy New Year everyone. Here's to a life of healing and abundance for this new year!

And speaking of health and abundance, wouldn't you like to take a few minutes to help someone else achieve those same ideals?

It's quick and painless and the more of us who do it, the faster we can help others come closer to achieving their goals.

Here's the deal: We can help Intel help raise funds for Kiva and Save the Children by taking the Small Things Challenge and clicking on the link of your choice.

If you want to help for just a few minutes of your time, it's the "We'll Donate 5 cents For You" button. If you have more to give, then please choose one or more of the others as well.

So get clicking folks and remember, pass it on!



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435: My name is not Oprah.

And no, I don't play her on t.v.

But like Oprah, I also have a list of favorite things.

Some of them are new things, some are old favorites. All are good and wonderful. :o)

My current favorite things are:

1. my glass teapot - How did I ever get along without it?
2. my toasty warm and super soft knit slipper socks from WalMart.com - Mmm... like walking on cashmere.
3. glass fish bowls in varying sizes from the dollar store - I'm using mine to re-pot all my plants.
4. Tazo's "Passion" tea.
5. body butter in "Ginger & White Tea" and "Ginger Lime" by Habeebah's Herbals - This woman has managed to put magical bliss in a jar! The scent is divine and the creamy texture of the butter banishes the driest of dry skin. (Mine!)
6. yarn: Bernat Baby, TLC Amore - Ahhhhh... Soooooo soft.
7. Baby Bee Dusting Powder by Burt's Bees - Silky soft and yummy smelling too.
8. two black, semi-sexy, "maternity" dresses I bought at Goodwill - I absolutely love them. They're wash-and-wear, air dry over night, and can be accessorized for day or evening events. Wish I had several in a few shades.
9. sweet potato chips - I have no need for chips from white potatoes ever again.
10. lemon-flavored Perrier - Always on my list.

What about you? What are some of your favorite things? I'd love to know. :o)


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