It has certainly been a long strange trip this 2008..

A lot of this all started with a group of us who decided to post a picture every day for a year in 2008.  I didn't put any requirements on mine, I used old and new and whatever came to mind, but I generally did accomplish it.. or I will have done it on the 7th of January.  I got a late start.  

That photo blog led to a "real" blog, since I found that I often had something to say that had no relationship to the picture of the day.  

There are a couple of zillion blogs and bloggers out there talking about their New Year's Resolutions, so I will not add to them.  HOWEVER.... Leah over at Creative Every Day has decided to have a word to focus on for the year.  That led me to thinking what my word would be were I to join in.. 

Because everything I ponder like that has pluses and minuses - multiples of each - and shoulds and should nots and maybes and perhapses attached to it I think that my word for the coming year is Simplicity.  Just give over and simply be, simply do, simplicity.

We shall see how that resonates, it isn't midnight yet..

I wandered around for a while in my photoblog for the past year and picked one picture from each month as a favorite.  Some months were harder than others, June was a real banner month for possibilities, as was May.  April, on the other hand didn't have the same depth.  I wonder if there is a study of the reasons for that?    What follows is a collage of 12 of my favorites, with one extra thrown in because it was impossible to leave out the bridge and maybe it deserves a collage of its own.

Happy 2009 to all of you, and if you decide to follow Leah and do a word, let me know what it is.. I am curious about the complexity of choosing...(grin)

ok, I have succumbed to a meme

Things you've already done: bold
Things you want to do: italicize
Things you haven't done and don't want to - leave in plain font

1. Started your own blog.   Though I certainly had inspiration and, overachiever that I am, I now have two!

2. Slept under the stars.  I might have, as a kid, but now.. not in the plan unless there are no other choices.

3. Played in a band.

4. Visited Hawaii.  Loved it, but the trip back was a deal breaker, both times.

5. Watched a meteor shower.

6. Given more than you can afford to charity.  Animals in distress always get to me… A Place to Bark is my weakness.

 7. Been to Disneyland/world. 

 8. Climbed a mountain.   (Unless you count the ungodly hill up to the subway).

9. Held a praying mantis.

10. Sang a solo.  But only when no one can hear me. 

11. Bungee jumped.   Oh not a chance

12. Visited Paris.  Love it, done it several times, would go back any time… anyone want to take me?

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.    From the beach only….seasick at the drop of a …wave.

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch.  Crochet..and I do it "wrong". 

15.  Adopted a child. Unless the dogs and cats in my old age count.

16. Had food poisoning.  

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty.  I was about 9, but did it once.  Now you can’t anymore…not the REAL top.

18. Grown your own vegetables.  I still yearn for those tomatoes

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France.  

20. Slept on an overnight train.  

21. Had a pillow fight.  

22. Hitchhiked.  

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill. If you say you haven’t done this you are lying!

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb.  

26. Gone skinny dipping.

27. Run a marathon.  Surely you jest! Sweat and I are NOT friends.

28. Ridden a gondola in Venice.   

29. Seen a total eclipse.

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.  Sunrise, not so often, but sunsets all the time.  See     for      example 

31. Hit a home run.  Again with the sweat!

32. Been on a cruise.  Once was absolutely enough.  Even on a BIG ship I get seasick and I Really don’t do well when heavily scheduled by other people.

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person and rode the Maid of the Mist in one of those sweaty raincoats they pass out.

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors.  Germany, Ireland, England

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language.  I know French, I NEED Spanish

37.Had enough money to be truly satisfied.   Not sure what that is, I haven’t ever been starving, so I can account for the other end of the scale.  

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing.   More sweat, unless we are talking the rocks in Central Park.

40. Seen Michelangelo's David in person.

41. Sung Karaoke.  Quantity, yes, Quality NO!

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt.   

43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant.  I am assuming fast food counts.  I prefer that to giving cash.

44. Visited Africa.  

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight.

46. Been transported in an ambulance.  I have, however, come down a ski hill in a sled pulled by the ski patrol with a bad kneecap.  You don’t sweat much while skiing the way I used to ski.

47. Had your portrait painted.

48. Gone deep sea fishing. Water going up and down.

49. Seen the Sistene chapel in person.  

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. 

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling.  Both, and snorkeling makes me……..wait for it…..seasick.

52. Kissed in the rain.

53. Played in the mud.

54. Gone to a drive-in theatre. It was in a drive-in on April 15th in 1970 that my then-husband remembered he hadn't yet filed his taxes.  Didn't get to see the end of the movie.

55. Been in a movie.  

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business I don’t think consulting counts exactly. That’s working for yourself, a business, to me, means hiring others.

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout cookies..

62. Gone whale watching. Whoever devised this list originally lived on the beach..

63. Gotten flowers for no reason.  There is ALWAYS a reason, good, bad, spur of the moment.

64. Donated blood.

65. Gone sky diving.

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp. 

67. Bounced a cheque. And a check too!

68. Flown in a helicopter.  Over Dallas TX.

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy. My dollhouse is still sort of in my possession, though someone else is storing it.

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt.   Not a whole one, but bits and pieces of things.

73. Stood in Times Square.  

74. Toured the Everglades.  

75. Been fired from a job.   Laid off, but not fired.

76. Seen the Changing of the Guard in London.  

77. Broken a bone.  

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person.

80. Published a book.  

81. Visited the Vatican.  

82. Bought a brand new car.  

83. Walked in Jerusalem.  

84. Had your picture in the newspaper.

85. Read the entire Bible.

86. Visited the White House.

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating.  Fish yes, animal no

88. Had chickenpox.

89. Saved someone’s life. 

90. Sat on a jury. 

91. Met someone famous.  

92. Joined a book club. 

93. Lost a loved one.

94. Had a baby. 

95. Seen the Alamo in person. 

96. Swum in the Great Salt Lake. 

97. Been involved in a law suit.  

98. Owned a cell phone. 

99. Been stung by a bee.

lest you worry...

Seems some of you were worried about why Clementine was not available to model the nearly finished afghan... well, she was holding down the computer so it would not escape.  But even more importantly, she had just finished watching this video
It is by the wonderfully zany Mason Dixon and so she wasn't interested in warshcloth afghans.  She was being really well entertained. 

We are REALLY close to done here

I couldn't get the usual cat to pose for a size comparison, so I drafted Nadine's postcard to give you an idea of size.  It is as big as it is going to get but I think it will block out larger and also a bit smoother.  The weather has been raining for the last ......forever....days, and since I needed to stop and start building the ark, I took the pictures and declared myself nearly done.  Colors, however, are a little off due to the total lack of light.

Blocking however will wait til the hundreds of inches of applied i-cord are ....... applied, I guess.

Inches and inches.  Since I always do these things by the seat of my pants, I did a test and ripped it out using 2 strands, a different one using different size needles, yet another using 2 strands and a third needle size and a FOURTH try using one strand and bigger needles.  I finally settled on 2.75 mm needles and one strand of the cotton it was knitted with.  I am happy with it at last!!

Now all I have to do is make it all the way around and weave in a couple of ends that I didn't knit in as I went or didn't get all the way tucked in. 

The next pictures will be when it is blocked.  It has been an obsession and I am happy it is done.  I probably could have kept going but it works and I decided it was going to last forever if I didn't just STOP!!

Thanks again to Mason Dixon for the washcloth idea that started this madness!!

Can't keep making creative excuses

for long silences because thinking up the creative excuse makes the silence even longer!

Sometimes I just spend some time wandering and thinking.  

If you check out the photo blog you will see I spent time on trains lately.  The images of the A train 81st Street Stop - Museum of Natural History  are different from the series I did a while ago on the same stop  

The first set of photos are from the uptown station, which is actually located above the downtown station.  The uptown is all tiles and pictures, 

the downtown 

 

is all about fossils and bones embedded into the walls.  The glowing doorway is the one that links the two stations.  These are the kind of stations that make New York so amazing.  There are some old stations that are barely hanging in there and then 5 stops away there is something like this.