Week 1 - Happy New Year

With only 3 days until I had to go back to work and my annual knitters' tea on Wednesday to prepare for, Monday was the only day I could dedicate to a project so that's what I did. And what did I work on? Yarn, of course.

I had had a bit of a yarn fiasco before break where I couldn't find some yarn someone had bought and then couldn't find the replacement yarn she asked for either. I ended up having to ship her 3 lots of yarn in 2 separate packages and vowed then and there to get my yarn organized. So right after breakfast on Monday, I headed to the basement to deal with my oldest yarn. What did I find exactly where it was supposed to be? The missing yarn. I'd gone through that bin twice and hadn't seen it. See? My yarn was a mess. So I sorted all the basement yarn and then went upstairs to go through the bins in spare room. By the end of the day, I had it all sorted into bins based on whether it was listed for sale or was a keeper. I had bags and bins of yarn all over the front room so would have to deal with that before my tea but it felt like a good start. I headed to knitting at the library happy with my progress.

Tuesday started with more yarn work. I got the yarn all put away and started with the pricing and adding the bin location to my online stash. I picked up the entire house and made lemon bars before heading to bed. I moved furniture and got the teapots and cups out and washed on Wednesday morning. The only other thing I was making was cranberry brie bites but those went together quickly. I took a fast shower and threw them in the oven so they'd be ready at 1:00 when people would arrive. 

The tea was fun, as always, and it was a gorgeous sunny day so the weather cooperated. Anne came for the first time and she and Donna spend most of the afternoon untangling a skein of yarn that Erica had brought, which they volunteered to do. When the light started fading, people started leaving. I had the furniture moved back and the leftovers put away before full dark. Unfortunately, I had a stomach ache. I'd made the mistake of not eating lunch and so ate too many sweets because I was hungry. I felt like crap and wasn't sure what to do. I took some pepto, ate some crackers and sucked a tums before bed. I will not make that mistake next year.

My stomach was fine when my alarm went off Thursday morning. I wasn't dreading getting back to work and my normal routine. In an effort to eat something healthy, I ordered a salad from Panera and picked it up on the way to work. It was monthly reports day so I had plenty to do, which is always good after coming back from break. I went home and made the first decent meal I'd cooked since getting home - steak, mashed potatoes and green beans. Delicious! I saved some of the steak to eat on a salad on Friday night. I had scheduled lunch with Darla on Friday since Layton was still in Europe. Friday went quickly enough and it was the weekend again. Gotta love a 2 day work week.

On the knitting front, I went to Goodwill on Thursday (hadn't thrifted in what felt like a long time) and scored some gorgeous sock yarn. I've committed to cold sheeping (not buying yarn) in 2020 but have exempted thift and travel yarn. Clearly the gods are with me if I scored 4 skeins of sock yarn in my first thrift foray of the new year. Nice. I came home Friday to find a box of sock yarn I'd bought off ebay (late in 2019 so not breaking my vow) and had fun sorting that all. Then on Saturday I got a package of sock yarn from a trade I made with someone on Ravelry. I'll be looking to trade anytime someone wants some of my yarn this year.

Being the first Saturday of the month, I had errands to run. I picked up money at the library and did a deposit before heading to Dollar General for a stock up. After grabbing Burger King, I headed home to finish the laundry I'd started. It was above freezing and I'd washed 2 loads of linens, including all the valances in the house, and hung them out to dry. I had picked up the Downton Abbey movie for Andrea and we'd be watching it at my house Sunday afternoon so it was a good thing I had started chores on Saturday.

I still had plenty to do Sunday morning. The cleaning lady had come on Thursday so the house was as good as it gets then but somehow in 2 days it was a mess again. It took an hour to get it back into shape before Andrea and Mike arrived at 1:00 - sheesh! I had seen the movie in the theatre but it was good to see it again. Andrea and Mike liked it too. 

I'm making an effort to finish up some old projects in January while my Socks from Stash group is having a WIP (work in progress) challenge. I had finished one pair on Saturday and had started working on an even older pair (started in 2018) during the movie. When they left for church, I finished up my chores and ate some leftover pasta. I went to Dairy Queen for a peanut butter sundae, which would be my last treat for awhile. I will happily be starting to diet, rotating again, on Monday. Not only have I gained a bunch of weight this year but topped it off with another 5 pounds gained over the holidays. Time to get healthy!

Reading: I finished Jodi Taylor's latest book - Doing Time. It's a spin off from my fave Chronicles of St. Mary's series and is about the time police. Entertaining but I prefer the St. Mary's books. I then started Found by Jennifer Lauck, which is the book club book for this month. So far, so good.

Streaming: I started World War II in Colour on Netflix. I feel like I don't know enough about WWII and had considered watching the VHS set I bought for my dad one Christmas but that would have required hooking up a VCR. Netflix to the rescue! It's British so that's a bonus.

Knitting: I finished these socks, which will go into my to be gifted pile.