Welcome 2024!

 In my last post I mentioned I am going to begin blogging more often, so here I am. I mean how can I start the new year out without working on my goals.

I hope you all had a fabulous New Year, mine was nice and quiet, just like I wanted it to be...well except for the fireworks, that was awful. I hate that part and don't know why people find such joy in it. I think the real reason I hate it is because it scares little Chorizo to death!

She's not scared in this picture, but she is modeling the new sweater that I crocheted for her. I started this sweater a bit after Thanksgiving and while it was a super easy pattern to make I had to keep "frogging" it. Frogging is a crocheters term which means you have to "rip it, rip it" out and start over from where you messed up. I didn't really mess it up, but it was hard getting the sizing correct and she did not cooperate, she's a bit of a Diva!

I'm having a really great time crocheting though. I had promised myself that I would only do one project at a time and not start a new one until that one was done. I lied to myself big time! Right now I have at least 8 WIP's (works in progress). Even the sweater above is still not done because I have to make the sleeves for her little arm holes, but I'll finish that tonight.

Would you like to see some of the projects that's I've finished for 2023? Yes? Well thank you, cause I'd love to show you.

So I did this crocheted pumpkin pie for my table at Thanksgiving, everyone raved about it. I used a tutorial from Bag O Day Crochet, but she didn't have the whipped cream around the top, she only had the dollop. My son said I should put whip cream around the top so I had to figure out how to do that, I think it came out pretty good and now I have something I can display every year. I'm thinking of trying a strawberry pie next.

I also did several pumpkins for Halloween and Thanksgiving, but I gave two to my sister and one to my sister in law and I didn't take pictures of them, but here is my lovely mom modeling a shawl I made for my cousin Lydia who is battling Stage 4 Cancer and I was hoping this would keep her warm and cozy while she goes through Chemo. In the background, you can see some of the pumpkins I crocheted. 

This yard was so soft! I bought the same yarn in a different color to crochet a shawl for me but I haven't had time yet, but it's on my to-do list for 2024.

Back of the shawl. It's pretty big, more like a triangular blanket.

And here's my lovely model after she got into the swing of things. My mom is really a character. Can you believe she turned 87 last month???

Two more things, one is a beanie that I crocheted for my son. This one was a challenge because I worked with an all cotton yard, but he loved it and I think it looks great on him.

Last but not least, I crocheted these two sweet little birds as Christmas ornaments to go along with the gift cards I purchased for my two coworkers, I love these birds and plan to make many more.  Aren't they so flipping cute!!!

So I'm gonna go now, need to finish that armhole in Chorizo's sweater and I want to relax and watch TV since I've been on the run all day.

Again...Happy New Year, may we all have all our dreams and needs fulfilled in the coming year!

Technical Difficulties, Birds in the Chimney, Buck through the Window

How is that for a title?
I've had a busy week and I've had more than one odd thing either happen to me or happen to someone I've known or been told about it happening to someone. I know, that sentence made no sense....sorry...let me explain.

Ok, so first the technical difficulties part. It didn't actually happen to me, this technical difficulty thing...but it affected me. Today, a client asked me to fax to him the application he needed to review and sign in order to renew his policy. He asked how many pages I would be faxing, and I said 15, so he says, "Ok, that's fine, but I need you to fax them one at a time other wise my fax machine won't print them properly." Ummm, what? What kind of person has a fax machine so antiquated or decrepit that you can only fax them one page at a time??? But, being the wonderful customer service person that I am and not one of those "it's not my job" kinda people, I did it. I faxed one page at a time. It took me over an hour, but I did it. *patting myself on the back*

Then yesterday I had to take a continuing education class. It was a day long class taught by an experienced instructor named Lynn. I've had the pleasure of taking classes from Lynn several times now. Lynn is a wonderful instructor as she interweaves interesting stories that help you to understand the topic she's teaching about.

Yesterday she was talking about insurance claims and what types of things are excluded and why. She told us this great story about a lovely little old man and his equally lovely wife who had a lovely little house and Mrs. Lovely would tell Mr. Lovely that she heard some type of noise in the chimney of their fireplace. Did you know that women and men hear different frequencies differently? Just a random fact explaining why it is that the man in your life can never hear the odd things you hear squeaking or buzzing around the house or in your car while you can!

So anyway, Mr. Lovely would just blow off Mrs. Lovely's complaints of noise as he heard nothing. Until one day when it was a tad chilly and Mr. Lovely decided he would open up the flue and light a fire. When he opened up the flue apparently there was a whole community of birds that had built nests in the fireplace chimney. Smart birds huh? They found a nice, dry, warm place to build their nest, out of the elements.

The birds were quite startled and were all aflutter. Some of them flew up out of the chimney then came back. Well you know what birds do when they see other birds doing something? Birds of a feather, flock together...so other birds saw these birds flying into the chimney so they did so as well and all the birds had no where to go except down the chimney and into Mr. and Mrs. Lovely's living room!!!!

Now you've got all these frightened birds flying around the Lovely's living room trying to figure out how to get outta there! They're flying into windows, curtains, lamps, vases, plants and Mrs. Lovely's hair! Mr. Lovely grabs a broom and starts swatting and trying to shoo these birds out of the door which Mrs. Lovely has opened. Mrs. Lovely runs outside screaming and neighbors come to see what all he ruckus is about and they all go get their own brooms and try desperately to help Mr. Lovely shoo the birds away. Can you just picture this? I mean seriously??? Can you?

Eventually they get all the birds shooed away. The living room is a mess, bird feathers, bird poop and broken things everywhere! There was $15,000 in damages which they reported to their insurance company. Was this covered by their insurance policy? No...because their policy had an exclusion for bats, rats, birds, and vermin. Can you believe that? They had to pay for the damages out of pocket!

I used to work in a funeral home...and I have lots of stories about funeral and death too! I should dig some of those stories out of the trunks packed with mothballs and memories in my head.

But for now, let me share another story that Lynn told us about another claim. This next one is as sad and gruesome as it is interesting. So this client of Lynn's built a beautiful cabin in the mountains for himself and his wife. In the living room of this cabin was a beautiful big picture window, like this one, which looked out onto land owned by the Bureau of Land Management.

 This couple loved to sit and just gaze at the beautiful scenery. They enjoyed watching nature. Many times they would see deer and antelope and various other wild creatures.

One day a big, beautiful Buck catches his reflection in the big picture window. The sun must have touched the window just so and the Buck probably thought it was another Buck and charged at it, at himself, at the window.

You can imagine what happens next. The couple watches in horror as the Buck comes running at full speed towards the window...towards them. Then he leaps and crashes through the window. Somehow the shattering glass catches and cuts right through the Bucks Carotid Artery! Blood is flowing out of the animals neck.

The poor Buck is now terrified and hurt. It's running around their living room, blood spurting everywhere, crashing into their furniture, television, drapes. Knocking down pictures and vases and shelves filled with books and knick-knacks. And there is nothing they can do but protect themselves by staying out of the way until finally the poor animal, exhausted by the loss of blood falls and finishes bleeding to death.

I know...it's a horrible story. Imagine if that happened to you? Your living room is ruined, blood and debris everywhere, plus there is a huge animal carcass there. Can you imagine the clean up involved? Would this be covered by your homeowners insurance policy? She didn't have an answer for us as when this happened she didn't keep abreast of it and didn't know how it was finally settled.

Oh...and the girl sitting next to me in this class whistled through her nose when she breathed! I know that doesn't seem like such a big deal, but remember earlier when I said that women hear things differently from men? Well if I were to be a Super Hero, my Super Power would be my Sense of Hearing...coming in as a close second would be my Super Powerful Sense of Smell! I guess I would either be a super hero or just a bat-eared bloodhound! Anyway, it drove me crazy and made it really difficult to concentrate, plus she spent the entire day texting away on her cell phone which was very distracting. There was a test after the class...so I hope I passed it. Even if I didn't I came away with some pretty good stories for this post, don't you think?