2009 - Here's Hoping it Will be a Great Year!

Well I'm having a hard time even believing Christmas is over let alone it's 2009 - where oh where did 2008 go? In a way - I'm glad it's gone - I hate to wish away time as it goes too fast as it is (remember when we were 10 and the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas felt like 4 years - not 4 minutes?). Through the years I have had really good years and really bad years - this year definitely wasn't in the top ten - yet it wasn't the worst yet!

Let's see January 2008 - Started out with my Dad back in the hospital - this was a series of him being in (again) 4 times in a period of 3 months, and I was looking forward to going on my first cruise (rug hooking cruise) Two weeks before I left I got layed off from my job that I had been working at for over 10 years - it was a very weird feeling for me as I have never not worked full time since I was 17 except for the normal vacation time off and a two week period where i had surgery on my arm and couldn't work! But I spent a lot of time at the hospital sitting with my Pop. He finally found a doctor that figured out a plan of action for him and so far so good (knock on wood) he hasn't been in again since February. Cruise time came around and I enjoyed two firsts (First cruise and first time in Florida) Had a wonderful time and would do another cruise in a heartbeat!


Here's our ship - this was at the Princess Cay Island in Bermuda and it turned out to not be a very nice day - but still - a day in the Caribbean has to beat being home in the cold! We also went to St. Thomas and St. Martin's. When we were at St. Thomas we took a catamaran to St. John's to snorkel and swim - Wow what fun - I was with my friends so I was taking pics with my camera phone and sending them to my husband at work - I called him and he told me I wasn't very funny as he had to shovel snow that morning! And there I am sitting in a bathing suit and diving off the boat to swim in the Caribbean! LOL Apparently he wasn't very amused as I believe one time he hung up on me!

February thru April - Hmmm - can't really remember much during that time as I was really sick almost that whole time - It was almost a good thing I was layed off of work because I can just image the sick days I would have had to take. In March a friend and I went to New York and saw two Broadway shows, did a lot of walking and shopping, and eating out at good restaurants - I love to visit New York. The days passed very fast even though I wasn't working - i did get a lot of hooking done during that time - here's a rug i made - it's 7'-2" x 26" - it's a runner that i put in my hall when you walk in my front door - It started out just being all hit and miss and then i got about 25" in with the hit and miss and decided to add the cats - so each end has approx. 25" of hit and miss and then around the edges. Thought I would have to cut wool from my worm stash - but no i still had some left! I also helped teach punch needle to kids at one of the heritage centers in the area - it was a lot of fun - these kids were mostly home schooled kids and so open to learning - We had them make little coasters and punching with yarn.

May - Finally got to meet two of my online buddies - Kathy and Cheryl - out in Chambersburg at a fabric stash sale. Cheryl is from Indiana and she and her mother and sister were up visiting an Aunt - So that was a fun day!. May also brought damage to our house from a storm - so it was a huge expense (of course when I'm layed off!) so I had to come up with some ways to make some extra money!

June - I started interviewing since my unemployment compensation was gone and my old job wasn't back on track yet - even though I was going in to help out every couple of weeks all year - Everyone in the company was layed off but we all still helped out. End of June I started working again at a temp job - It was supposed to be for 12 weeks but I'm still there.

July - August - Work, work work

September - My husband finally got to go to England - he went with a friend and met up with some friends he's been corresponding with for over 10 years and never met - His Dad was born and raised in England and he has always wanted to go - Finally he did - He loved it - They actually went over to see a reunion tour of a band as his friend worked for this band s o he got to do a lot of interesting things. His time of course went by too quick - some day he and I will get back (i was there in my teens). September also started a busy time doing rug demonstrating at several heritage centers and also a couple of workshops i taught.

October - more rug demonstrating and more workshops - no free weekends at all!

November - Got to go to Vermont to the Hooked in the Mountains rug show, and also to rug camp - and taught more workshops.

December - End of year! More workshops and of course getting ready for Christmas.

So basically it was a good year and a bad year - even with the cut in money situation we got by - thank goodness for budgeting all these years and spending wisely, otherwise it would have been back to paycheck to paycheck - a feeling i really really never want to experience again like I did in my 20's and early 30's! Had a few ups and downs and have to say - it could have been worse!

New Year's Eve brought a really dreary day! It was cold and windy - went out grocery shopping and came home and curled up with the kitties for a while to warm up. Then I got up and got a bee in my bonnet - I so wanted to sit and hook but my hooking room is/was a disaster so I started tearing the closet and everything apart - man oh man did i make a mess - a big royal mess! I started at around 1:30-2:00 and didn't stop until 11:45 - I had even bought scallops and lobster tails to make for dinner - never happened! LOL

That's some of the "wreck" I made trying to get organized! Well I forgot to take pics of the after as I was tired, and sore (how come we find out we have muscles we never know we had) and just wanted to go to bed! But if felt good to walk in there the next morning and start the New Year.

And speaking of that - here's a pic of my little tiger enjoying the sunbeams that the New Year brought! He ate his breakfast and spent the morning there moving around following the sunbeams - nothing like a toasty tiger!

Spent the afternoon playing Bingo at the local Fire company and came home -finally made that lobster and scallop dinner - then sat at started a new rug - finally got to sit and pull some loops. Today I got up and it was dreary again and then started snowing so it was a good day to do nothing - so I did. I hooked all day and actually finished my rug! So here's the rug - still have to finish the edge - the pattern itself is based on a drawing by Kelley Belfast which she got the inspiration from an antique rug. Enjoyed hooking this one. I used only scraps on this..

Here's 4 rugs I did last year that were similiar - I decided to hook the above rug in the same style.

So looking forward to seeing what the New Year will bring - I refuse to make resolutions - that makes me feel restricted and then disappointed or a failure if I break them - so instead I'll just try to stay positive and be happy.

Have a wonderful New Year!