All-Crafts Day

Sunday morning....ahhhh, my favorite day of the week. Because it's the "day of rest" I seldom feel compelled to clean, work in the yard, or run errands. I look at Sunday as a day to do only the things that bring me joy. Like spending time with family, friends, or my cats. Or indulging in one of my many hobbies.

Today I'll be working on some digital scrapbook pages, and creating digital elements to use in those pages. I recently upgraded my PhotoShop 7 to PhotoShop CS3 and, boy oh boy, is there a lot of new functionality to explore! I'm having a blast with it. Around mid-afternoon my sister, Karen, will arrive with her knitting bag and latest project. In anticipation I've pulled out a knitting project of my own; a pair of socks, my first, and which I've not knit a single stitch yet because I'm intimidated by the pattern and the req'd five double-sided needles. I'm hoping Karen will help me get started.

If I get discouraged or bored by the socks, I have many other projects to fall back on; an afghan that I'm crocheting one square at a time, several cross-stitch projects, a quilt that needs just the binding put on for it to be finished, and many others. Mike would be appalled if he knew! At least I have finally become disciplined enough NOT to buy more "stash" until I make a dent in what I already have squirrelled away.

In keeping with the All-Crafts Day theme, this morning I dropped Mike off in Alameda. He will sail his "craft," the sailing vessel Mirage, through the San Pablo Bay and up the Carquinez Strait toward Benicia. He's planning to anchor off-shore for the night then, very early in the a.m., motor past Mare Island and up the Napa River to the Napa Marina. They will haul the boat out of the water so that he can spend the majority of the week cleaning and re-painting the ol' girl's bottom, in readiness for our Great Sailing Adventure next month.

So, what a perfect day for an afternoon of needlecrafts with my littlest sister. Karen is truly the knitter in our family right now, she probably knits every single day and has completed dozens of things, including socks. I'm hoping she might also have some advice on mittens. I could use several pairs of warm mittens for the boat trip, especially when it's time to "bash back" north! Seems they'd make a nice (small) project to take on-board, too...

More about our planned Great Sailing Adventure soon!