The Monday List

I once again had a wonderfully productive week! Yay Me!

To review: Last week I set forth a fairly ambitious, yet open Monday List. Rather than go point by point through the entire thing, I'll just talk about the important things.

You might remember the scary item - overhauling the girls' rooms - that led the list. The interesting thing is that my eldest has actually been quite proactive. She worked on it all week, a little bit at a time, and I can't even begin to tell you how happy and proud I am of all that she accomplished! (To be fair, a couple of times she traded work for computer time - her idea - but it was worth it.) One of the most important things she did was to start pulling things that she no longer wanted - including probably 2/3 of her stuffed animals. She's beginning to learn the lesson that so many of us struggle with as adults - that all the extra stuff is just taking up space, cluttering our hearts along with our rooms.

I did start my embroidery project, but it's on temporary hold until I can get a better marking pen for the pattern. It was VERY difficult to see on the brown background I had chosen, and so I'm afraid I didn't make it very far before I realized I needed to fix that. I also should probably locate my old hoop - which is much bigger than the one I was trying to use. You've already seen that I did some plying on my spinning wheel this week - all the better to jump into a new project - and I quite happily knit only fun things this last week. Specifically, I worked on my beaded lace shawl, got moving on a new cardigan and also began work on a new shawl that I'm doing as an 'along' with a friend. You've also seen the posts on all of my finished items, and those of you on Ravelry may have also seen the updated photos in my notebook.

Nope, I didn't work on my Christmas list or finish the costumes. Whoops!

As often happens, I really didn't touch the Wants and Wishes. Although, as part of my room cleaning ritual on Saturday I did take care of one item. I managed to find homes for all of my knitting books on the bookshelf. Of course, in order to do that I had to (ahem) take all of my magazines and stack them on the shelves in my closet. Amazing how much space 7 years of knitting magazines will eat up....

Now, on to the fun stuff...this week's list!

The NEEDS:

1. Obviously, finish the Halloween costumes.
2. Clean the Pixie's room, and box up all of the items in both rooms that need to go to charity.
3. Finish my beaded stole for Saturday. This may or may not happen, but I would really like it to! Edited in the afternoon to add - THIS IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! I'm not crazy, and given time constraints and the amount of work still left to do I've decided to just let it go.
4. It's not at all fun - but I need to work up our family budget. We had to replace our hot water heater a couple of weeks ago (My first reaction to hearing there was water on the floor in our storage area - "ARE MY BOOKS OK!?!?!?!" My husband's reaction was more appropriate...along the lines of "Where is it coming from, and how do we fix it."), and with the holidays coming we need to make some plans.

The WANTS:

1. I have a basket full of items that need to be fixed - mostly through needles and thread - and I would love to start clearing that basket out!
2. Christmas list! Moved down this week because we have two other holidays to enjoy this week.
3. Prepare the Sandalwood Merino for spinning.
4. Redo the pattern for my embroidery project and start again.
5. Keep working on current knitting projects as the mood hits.
6. With the sewing machine set up, start working on either the quilt or the project bags.

The WISHES: Well, because of the two holidays and because my husband will be taking a bit of vacation time this week, I'm not even going to think about my wishes! You just never know what's going to happen!

Have a great week everyone!