knitting, painting, lampwork, welding, ...all the best things in life!

I've been managing to stay off allergy meds so far this season, though the mornings are brutal.  My symptoms seem to mellow out by lunch time though, so I'm still not wanting to take my meds and endure the craptastic side-effects.

It's been a rough week or so though.  Allergies, hormonal issues, sleeping problems ...all likely related.  There have been a few terrifying health crises in the family.  There was a yelling match with my dad.  (Well, really, he pushed the buttons and I did all the yelling.)  My brain has been quite scrambled which makes every minute of work a constant uphill battle.  I've had my moments of losing my cool (yelling at Dad, blowing up in my blog, pouting, etc.), but for the most part I've been pretty good about riding out everything going on.  What can you do?  Life has these cycles.  I believe you can choose how you feel about things.  I may react in the heat of it all, but when my senses return I choose to believe that everything will work out in the end, and the bigger picture is still sunny and full of opportunities and blessings.

Life has had it's rough spots the past several days, but there's still a lot of good going on.

I spent some time online shopping for warmer weather clothes, and my purchases have started arriving.  I have a fun trench coat that I need to exchange for a smaller size, but the dress I fell in love with when I saw it online fits like it was tailor-made for me, *and* the materials and construction are of excellent quality!  I *LOVE* my new dress!  I don't know if we'll be dressing up for easter visiting, but you'd better bet I'm finding as many reasons as possible to wear my new dress in the coming months!

My interchangeable knitting needles came in the mail today!  Just in the nick of time too.  The project I'm working on has just about outgrown the circulars I have it on.  I love these needles!  This was a very good investment!  I have to get out my label maker today and label and arrange the storage case.  (Organizational lust!)  I'm also at a point where I need to make a new set of stitch markers for this project.  ...Which brings me to:

BEADS!  It's torching weather again!  I've got a little cleaning and organizing to do in the mudroom today, and then I'm setting up my torch!!!  *SQUEE!*  I will be ordering an exhaust fan before next week is over too (FINALLY!) so I can get my kiln fired up here soon!  I'm so excited to get back to hot glass though!  I've been daydreaming about making ribbon cane and hollow beads for weeks.  :)

Craig and I only have two weeks left of art class, and we've been talking about what comes next.  We'd discussed taking a break from classes and just practicing what we've learned so far, mostly for the financial reasons, but then the new course catalog came in the mail!  heh.  I'm 99.99% sure we're signing up for beginning welding!  It's not terribly expensive and it's one of the few crafts that neither of us has any experience in.  There's an initial five week course, with a continuing second five weeks you can register separately for.  It's looking like we're going to sign up for the first five and just try it to see if we want to continue with the second five.  ...I can almost guarantee we would though, what with the way we collect hobbies.  :)

It's almost noon and my nose has finally stopped running!  YAY!!!!!!   Now, I've got some work to do if I'm going to set up my torch today.  I love weekends!!!!!!!!!!