Frozen Nowhere

As I have mentioned previously, I have been feeling the pull of craftiness a little more with the supposed changing of the seasons (although, it seems to be changing from the Spring-from-Hell-that-Took-Over-Summer to Summer-that-forgot-Us) so i thought I would detail the different little ideas that have been percolating in the back of my head lately:

(in no particular order, of course)

1. Mason jar cookie kits. I love making cookies. My kids love making cookies. But because I don’t always know if I have the necessary ingredients on hand (and I hate making a trip to the store to get one thing here and there) I don’t often do it. Of course, there are some cookies (like gingerbread) that have proven too much for me (and my unreliable oven)… but “regular” types like chocolate chip or cowboy cookies should be relatively easy to have on hand. My thought was that I get a bunch of canning jars and make “mixes” to store in my cupboard so that I had cookies on hand to make on cold fall and winter evenings. I am hoping to get together different recipes (there are tons of recipes for decorated gift jars of this nature) and make up a bunch. Save on the cost of prepackaged cookies, the jars are reusable, and it provides a good bonding activity for the kids and I.
2. Knitting kids’ socks. I am lucky enough to have 4 small sets of feet to knit socks for — BoyChild, GirlChild and Reg’s daughters (Kid1 and Kid2)… so that project is likely to keep me going for at least a month. Right now I am about 1/3 of the way through sock #2 for Kid1… then I have a request from Kid2 for pink… then GirlChild wants another set of pink and purple (having “lost” the first pair I made for her when she took them, fresh from the needles, to her father’s house)… and last but not least, BoyChild needs a second pair. 
3. Knitting! Legwarmers, mittens, fingerless gloves… 
4. Sewing. Since I have a sewing machine, and I have always wanted to learn how to sew… and the kids regularly outgrow their clothes on me, I figured that I would LOVE to put the sewing machine to some use (good, bad or otherwise)… I know the basics… and I figure with a bit of work I can develop a few more sewing skills. I used to sew BoyChild’s Halloween costumes until GirlChild came along — for his first birthday/Halloween BoyChild was a Pumpkin (seriously, his birthday is freaking HALLOWEEN, he NEEDS to be a pumpkin!) and for his second birthday he was a dinosaur…
5. Quilting. An extension of “sewing”… I thought I could piece together a small lap quilt and figure it all out on my own. The only thing… I think I donated all my quilting books to charity in my last purge. Good thing most information is widely available on the internet (and local quilting shops). I think that my first project will be an orange and black quilt for BoyChild (his favourite colours) with a more halloween-ish theme. I am thinking of getting really creative and doing a “crazy quilt” style for the topper Heck, I already know how to do embroidery!
6. Baking. I love baking, and cooking in general. The only problem I have is that, after my 10 hour day at work is done, I often don’t have a lot of time or energy to put into thinking up weekday meals. I would like to make up batches of:
   • handheld pies
   • cornish pasties
   • breads/buns
   • breakfast muffins
   • cornbread muffins
   • flatbreads
   • pizzas

I think that’s likely sufficient to keep me occupied, between working 10 hour days, 5 days a week, 2 upcoming work-related training sessions, having the kids with me the last 2 weeks every month (right now), upkeep of the house, taking Irish dance, travelling to Austin (squee), preparing for BoyChild’s 9th birthday, Christmas, seeing Reg,  talking to people on the internet, and trying to make sense of my life.

Speaking of travelling

It seems that in the next three months I will be making 3 trips!

In 2 weeks I will be heading to Alberta to do a 9 hour training session to relearn direct time entry. This will require me not only to fly to and from Alberta for only a day, but also stay overnight in a nice hotel and drive myself out to the corporate head office. Its seriously the ONLY perk I seem to have as an employee here (well, that and Dell discounts (I wish they had an EPP with Apple!)) because the company pays for small trips like this for training.

Sometime in October there is supposed to be another training session for all the site admins from all the different divisions of the company at head office. I really HOPE that (if this gets planned) it isn’t planned the last half of the month because, unlike theEx, I don’t have someone to take the kids those weeks for me to attend anything. It isn’t OFFICIAL yet, but its proposed for October sometime.

And last (but certainly not LEAST) I am planning to take my first trip out of Canada and travel down south to the great (and firey hot) state of Texas. It will not only be the first time I officially leave the country, but the first time I travel that far ALONE, the first time I will be required to have a passport, and the first experience with customs.

There is SO much to do and sometimes I forget that I have to do these things! So… for my own sanity, here is my LIST:

• get ID in maiden name (half done!)
• send RSVP card -DONE! YAY!
• fill out passport form, WITH guarentor and picture (get picture!)
• try to get part day off to go to the passport office to minimize wait time
• book flights
• get Passport into my hands (10 days to 6 weeks from application date)
• pay off Visa (and change name with bank and Visa while I’m at it) from alternate account
• book vacation days at work (not an issue, I have plenty left and it won’t be at a bad time)
• get Canadian money magically transformed into American money
• make lists of things to take
• pack
• worry about things like what I will eat in a foreign country

I’m sure I’m forgetting a million things right now… but that’s a start at least.