Category: Day to Day Thoughts and Ramblings

Well, it’s more than coming, it’s actually HERE.  When we woke up this morning, it wasn’t snowing yet – but it was pretty cold, grey, and dismal.  The news was reporting that we should stay off the roads if at all possible – so I decided to stay at home.  Turns out, that was a good choice, because the roads got really bad after the snow started mid morning.

It’s 7pm here at home, and it’s still snowing.  The weather reports say it should be stopping soon – but I’ve also seen random comments that it may last until midnight.  I don’t know if we’ll get much more – but right now we have about 5 inches on the ground from what I can tell – I didn’t head out with a ruler – maybe I should have. (All the snow inches are important!)

It’s been nice to look out the window from time to time and see the snow building up on the branches of the pine tree outside. The snow is wet and heavy, so it really looks nice, but I’m seeing reports of branches being broken and people are starting to lose power – which – well is scary – seeing that it’s so freaking cold and so many of us need electricity for heat!  (The temptation to fire up the fire place just in case is there!)

Got a fair bit done today – I have a lot more to do – but I’ve been waiting for a few things I need to get it done – I’m in a good place – so I’m not stressed out about it, and I also still have time for the project that I’m working on for our new QA Test repository.  It’s a challenge, but keeps me busy.  And keeping busy keeps me out of trouble. (Well, for the most part).   It was a day of silly – that’s for certain.  We have been goofing around in our team chat and throwing random ‘digital’ snowballs at each other ===============(((O))).  Can’t be a bad thing when we have fun while we’re doing what we need to.

Spent some time last night looking at YouTube videos from watercolor artists.  There’s a new trend of doing what looks like nebulas using color washes, and I’m intrigued.  I’m not a pro at watercolors by any stretch of the imagination – but I’d like to try these out.  One of the videos I watched was a person who did the same thing using Crayola Supertips – so I want to check those out too (seeing that I have them!)   I was going to do it tonight, but I know me – and that I’ll get all distracted and not want to do my deployment stuff tonight (and well, I gotta!)   If I do it, I’ll definitely take pictures and post them, as well as link the videos I use as reference.

Next week is our next planner meetup.  I’m really excited about it.  Not only because I’ll get to see my favorite local planer peeps – but because it’s also my birthday weekend – and I’m celebrating with Fondue and Tiaras with the girls!  It will be a lot of fun, laughs, and of course – yummy fondue!  I am thinking about getting a cake for the meetup itself from Nothing Bundt Cakes – being a grownup – it’s not about a ‘party’ – it’s about spending time with your friends and laughing.

Going to get busy with some non keyboard type stuff until work starts in an hour or so.    Will write more later!

The weather report is predicting 2-4 inches of snow in the area today – and people are already starting to panic.  Charles and I went out to dinner tonight at our favorite Mexican place (Torrero’s) and afterwards, stopped at the grocery store for some things for dinner tomorrow night (We’re making beef stroganoff in the crock pot).  It was PACKED!  Like the day before Thanksgiving, Super Bowl and Christmas packed.  Thankfully we didn’t need a lot, so we were in and out pretty quickly.

It’s cold, and you can smell the snow in the air – so I’m expecting tomorrow to wake up to ice/snow on the ground.  I’m already prepped to work from home – laptop’s in the car, and I have plenty of stuff that I can do from here at home.  So, it will all work out the way it’s supposed to.

Found out this week, that the entire 15 seasons of ER is now on Hulu to watch.  I haven’t seen these shows in FOREVER, and it used to be my favorite way to spend Thursday night.  So, while I’m working on stuff here at my desk, I’ll be watching – man – these folks are SO YOUNG.  Noah Wyle and George Clooney – their first big roles – I swear, they look like they’re 12.  But then again, this was when I was in college and shortly afterwards – so it was the 90s!

My project for January has been to letter a single word and post it on my Instagram and Facebook Page for Phynpenni Designs.  It’s been a lot of fun, and 16 days in, I haven’t missed one!  (This means I’ll jinx myself now).  I am going to continue doing it, because I like the challenge of it, and I really enjoy having a little bit of creativity in my life every day.

My instagram link is here:  Kellieb71

My Facebook page is here:  Phynpenni Designs 

I don’t have a lot of a following, and that’s not really the point of it – I’m sharing the things that make me happy – and if folks notice it – that’s a good thing.   Eventually I’d like to be confident enough to teach people how to do what I do – so starting off slow is juuuust fine 🙂

Am going to figure out a way to do a video of all my words for January and post it here – and try to do some live videos of some of the stuff I am working on – lots of stuff toddling around in my brain!

More later 🙂

Here’s to hoping that your holiday is filled with love and laughter, family and friends.

Charles and I had a quiet morning – we exchanged our gifts, and then puttered around a little bit.  I’m setting up my new fitness watch, and he’s playing with his new lens.  (He actually took the new header image for the blog – I just love how winter-y it is – without being snowy and cold!)  I’ll be making dinner here in a little bit, and otherwise, it’s a quiet family day at home.

After dinner is started, I’ll be doing some lettering practice, so there may be some highlights posted if I like what I turn out.

Otherwise, have a wonderful holiday, and I’ll post again tomorrow!

Today, I was looking around at some of the crafty blogs that are still out there, and I got the idea to use some of my own lettering as my header, rather than using fonts and stock i mages.  That will make my site ‘my’ site, rather than my words decorated with someone else’s art.  And seeing that the goal of this site is to share my own artwork, I think it’s a good approach.

Last night, I finished the knitting and edging on the sweater that I’ve been working on.  I like it – but if I ever do it again, I’m going to use a more ‘upscale’ yarn than the craft store yarn that I used.  It’s nice, but it doesn’t drape and hang quite like I want it to – so I’ll use a superwash type yarn to make it again if I decide to.  I ordered some buttons from Amazon and they should be here early next week, so once I put them on, and stitch things together – it will be all done and ready to wear.  I’ll take a picture when it’s all done and wearable.  I have to figure out what my next yarn project will be – I have a list of patterns on Ravelry that I have set aside for 2018 – I just need to figure out what it will be.  (And of course, get it to all fit in with my word of the year).

As this blog grows, and through the weeks and months, I’ll be creating the categories that I need to keep things organized.  I don’t want to create a bunch now, and not have anything in them – I only want to make the ones that I need and use.   So,  keep an eye out for that 🙂

Since the end of the year is right around the corner (really  – 9 days away!)  I’m going to posts about my planner plan for 2018.  Both my bullet journal and my mini Happy Planner and how I have it all set up.  A few friends have asked for an overview and instructions on how I use my day to day tools – so I think that’s going to be the focus for a while.   Individual posts for the overall setup – and then monthly recaps and flip throughs seem like the best way to do it.  I also want to try and figure out how to incorporate video into it – because some folks learn and understand better when they have images to look at.

We’ll see where inspiration leads me!

Wow, it sure has been quiet in these parts! Almost a year since I posted last. I think I’ve been doing more on Facebook and in my paper journals – than I’ve obviously been doing here – but I’m getting the itch to write again – so write I shall!

One thing I have been doing lately is spending some time in the evening doodling and drawing and practicing my lettering. It’s turning out well, so, I’ve got the itch to start sharing it with people. While I do share it on Facebook, I think doing it here will be beneficial as well. So, I’m laying out some ideas on getting things lined up to do here as well as link it to FB, Instagram, and some other social media sites. It’s part of my focus for 2018.

It is that time of year to determine what word is going to guide the upcoming year. It’s kind of a silly project – but I enjoy thinking through what I want to do, what I have done, and what’s keeping me held back from doing the things I think about. This year, the word for 2017 was ‘act’ – and I really didn’t do a lot of acting on the things that I wanted to do. I’m not 100% sure why – but I do know that I am struggling with the follow through on things. (For example, posting on my blog more than once a year).

I’ve been considering that my word for 2018 is intention. What are my intentions for the things I want to do? Are the things I AM doing falling into those things I intend to accomplish. For example – is making so many lists and plans, keeping me from actually DOING the things that I want to do? (Hint: For me, yes, yes it is). So, 2018 is going to be a year of intention for me. On top of living intentionally, I’m going to be focusing on individual mini-projects each month – and work on those throughout the year. I think that will help me ‘eat the elephant’ one bite at a time, rather than feeling so overwhelmed by everything I need to and want to do, that I get completely overwhelmed by it all. It seems manageable, and I’ve got a small group of friends from a local group I help run that are all wanting to do similar things, so we will helpfully keep each other honest.

One thing I do want to do – is keep my blog more for my creative things – my fiber stuff, paper stuff, cooking stuff, and other things that are creative. While the years and years of posts here are mostly about my life, and some of the harder things I’ve had to go through – I really don’t want to dwell on that stuff. Yes, it made me who I am, and it is all in the past, but it’s time to just let it stay there, hide it from folks who weren’t there with me when I went through it all, and do what I can here to start fresh. So, I’ll be looking into that – should be some fairly easy database switches – so I may need to ask Charles for help on that – but I’m sure it can be done.

I’m debating a new name for the blog, new categories, a new template, and a redesign of the whole site all together – but I’m going to do it slow and deliberately – so it’s exactly what I want, and not slapped together in an effort to check something off my list.

So, here’s to new beginnings!