Clutter

I am a person who always ends up with bits of clutter here & there around the house. I've been trying the last 3-4 months to really declutter up my stuff. I've gotten rid of so much stuff & yet there still seems to be clutter. It's amazing how much junk the average house holds!

One of the things I have that takes up space is yarn leftovers, I'd no clue what to do withe them, they aren't enough for most other projects so I've decided all the ones that aren't worsted/aran weight I'm going to just knit up in to squares or rectangles & then fill with batting & catnip to take down to the shelter for the kitties. The worsted/aran stuff I'm going to try to knit in to squares & maybe someday I'll have enough to make a patchwork quilt.

Feeling Blue

The blue sweater only needs 20 more rows before the ribbing; then of course it will need sleeves of some sort. (The photo is really blown out, sorry.)

I've got a sock on the needles that I had hoped to work on this month & get half a pair done, but my wrist has been cranky so I've gotten ever little knitting done this month.

On the sad news front this hat I knit got up in the washer & dryer & now is tiny.

Kindle

When Kindles first came on the market I thought they were stupid & that they only people that would buy them were the same people who though having a calculator watch in the 80s was the coolest thing ever. How could you not love the feel of a real book in your hand, he weight of it, the texture of the paper, those are all part of reading a book & no machine could give you that feeling.

And then I moved, with boxes & boxes, bags & bags of books. Once we got settled in I decided the books needed a bit of a cull. I got rid of over 70 books & you couldn't tell I'd gotten rid of any.

Then I had to buy another copy of a book I'd owned; one I'd bought at least 3 times in my life. First time it was $5, second time it was $6-7, this time it'd be $9, plus I knew I'd read it to tatters again & have to buy it again. I'd be $20 in to this book & a Kindle copy would be $8 & I wouldn't wear the book out. That's a pretty good idea I thought.

I have a bunch of authors who put out a new book each year & while I always wait for paperback those books take up a lot of space & wear out. That's what won me over. Yeah there are some books I'll never be without a real copy of, but there are plenty of authors that a copy on the Kindle is plenty good for. Plus I realized I could always have a good book that exactly what I was in the mood to read with me. Add to that it plays music & that it has a free web browser (it's as slow as when we were all stuck working the net on Windows 3.11) & I was sold. My parents went halves on it & got it for me for Giftmas, best gift I've gotten in years.

The only downside to it is that when you get it you instantly want to buy 500 books, but that's not usually in ones budget. So each month I buy 3-4 books. It's more than I usually spend since I'm a used book junkie, but slowly I will be replacing the books that I love to re-read so that after 6 months or so I expect that I will be down to 1-2 a month & since I won't be replacing so many that will end up being a savings.

(Case from BluebirdMountain on Etsy)

So in the end I became a pretty big fan of the Kindle & I think a lot of bibliophiles will be swayed for the same reasons. The fact it holds a whole library in a tiny little device, that you can have that whole library no matter where you are, the fact you never have to re-buy. The only thing that will piss off the bibliophiles is that you can't sell or give away books. That part eats & I am glad that they did decide to allow sharing of books & wish that all the publishers would allow it, I think they will & I think in the end you'll be allowed to give books away too, but it'll be a while before they do.

Types of Blogs

There really are 4 types of blogs. Type one is the most common & it's the ones that are selling you something, maybe it's contests, maybe it's reviews, maybe it's your favorite author, but all in all they are marketing to you so you'll spend money. Type 2 is also pretty common, but no one out side of a small circle give a shit about it, that the family blog. The ones that are written so grandma on the other side of the country doesn't feel like she's missing out on her grandson's first steps & stuff like that. The 3rd type is the information blog, the one that is educating you & broadening your mind. The 4th type is what I think mine falls in to, it the craft/twee/photo/hobby blog. It's the one that wants to talk about & show off something they've made. Sometimes when I talk about the medical issues my daughter & I have we scoot over in to the information blog & that's the type I meant to write when I started at this. Then I learned to knit & starting play around at photography (while I am getting to be a damn good knitter, I do still kinda suck a photography).

I don't know that there was a point to this post, but it was just bumbling around in my head that no matter how many different flavors of blogs I read they really all boil down in to 4 categories.

Depression

In the past few weeks I've gotten my ass handed to me by depression. I normally have low level depression at all times, but every 1-3 years I'll get a few weeks (1-8 weeks) of really bad depression.

I was looking stuff up on the internet about how best to self treat your depression &, as long as you aren't about to hurt yourself or others, one of the best things to do is to drag yourself around & kinda fake it. You should acknowledge that you feel like shit, yes, but then go about your day doing all the stuff that needs to get done. Do that in touch with your feeling bullshit, but then suck it up.

So I'm trying. I'm writing this useless post & I'm knitting a little everyday, I'm not canceling every appointment under the sun. I know in a few weeks no matter what I do I'll feel better, but maybe since I won't have let so any tasks & chores build up it'll pass sooner. I wonder if by letting so much not get done I'm creating an extra stressor that keep the depression here long. Who knows & by dragging my ass around this year instead of wallowing won't really be anything conclusive, but it beats crying in the corner.

Blue Sweater & Holiday Gifts

Still knitting on my blue sweater & while it's going slow it is still going.

I finished the last of my holiday gifts

I might still put some fringe on this, not sure.

Does this need a pom-pom or tassel on top? I just don't know.

365

I decided to do one of those 365 dealies, not one that does just 1 thing for each shot; like the people who do a photo of themselves every day or a certain thing everyday, but rather to do just random shots of my world everyday. I've got the photos over on my flickr & I'm not going to put all of them over here, but I thought every week-ten days I'd put up 2-4 photos in a single post that had been my favorites. So without further ado here are the favorites so far:

This is my aloe plant, his name is Spud (yes, I do name my plants)

The crabapple tree in my front yard