Kaleidoscope

Joining in with Ginny and Chrissie  Tami and Crochet Addict UK

I finally finished up my Kaleidoscope blanket.
 This was another project I started around Christmas,

 my go to when I needed simple stitching.
I love working on granny stripes, they work up so fast 

and satisfy my need for lots of color with out all the tedious weaving in!

11 repeats of 9 colors...these bright, sunshiney colors.
They are always in my basket of yarn.

  I randomly grabbed a few and got started.

Random border:  hdc, single, double, single, hdc, picot edging.

Spread out...love all the happy, stripey stripes!

Love it!!

I started on a Spring picnic blanket.

(The first one i made ended up being used for her baby dolls.)

very simple squares, repeated over and over and over.
I love the simplicity.

I love seeing neat little stacks of such pretty colors.
Spring has just got to be on its way!

Reading:

  "Untying the Knot" by Linda Gillard:

"Mistakes once made are rarely reversible. The holes they leave in the fabric of life aren’t tiny and they can’t be scratched away. You have to live with them as best you can. Work round them. That’s why you have to come to terms with memory. You can’t obliterate the past or eradicate it from the mind, even when, for our own good, memory enfolds us in a blanket of forgetfulness. There are always traces left, marks where time gripped us and left its telltale fingerprint."

Grandma...

October 27, 1925-February 11, 2013

“I believe you did not have a happy life.  I believe you were cheated.  I believe your best friends were loneliness and misery.  I believe your busiest enemies were anger and depression.  I believe joy was a game you could never play without stumbling. I believe comfort, though you craved it, was forever a stranger. I believe music had to be melancholy or not at all. I believe no trinket, no precious metal, shone so bright as your bitterness. I believe you lay down at last in your coffin none the wiser and unassuaged.

Oh, cold and dreamless under the wild, amoral, reckless, peaceful flowers of the hillsides.” 

― Mary Oliver

Even though I never got to spend any time with you, I have learned from what I believe to be true about you.  Through no fault of your own, illness deprived you.  I live differently because of your suffering.  My life is full, I refuse to be cheated.  I see joy and happiness. I am grateful everyday for small joys, small victories and even defeats.  My children and grandchildren will know me...my thoughts, my dreams, my hopes. I will allow all to come in and stay, for as long as they need to. No judgments, no guilt, only allowances and grace.  

Gratitude Sunday

Joining in with Taryn for Gratitude Sunday

Sunday's heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes.

Thinking I am just too busy to write down my gratitudes this week...realizing how silly that is!

Constant change...we have several new situations popping up..opening up new conversations, building more trust in one another.  It is good and scary and usually ends with me in tears and him standing right beside me, as always.

Safety for family when we were hit with a freak snow/ice storm on Tuesday.

We got 2 days off due to the storm.  We filled it with snow walks, snowmen building, watching the birds attack the feeders we made for them.  Laughing at the crazy dogs of ours who DID.NOT.UNDERSTAND. what all the white cold stuff was.

Seeing rabbit tracks in the snow.

Calls, texts and lots of pics from my daughter of the grandkids playing in the snow.  So glad the difficult years are behind us and we are able to be friends.

A sweet "thank you" where no thanks was needed.

Being able to take them to the park on Saturday.

Bulbs that had started poking through last week, still growing strong!

Noticing longer days