Plum Stitches

getting organized in 2011

My new little book for tracking my daily list, exercise regime and dinners.  I had started one of these little books last year, but in the frenzy of Christmas shopping I must have left it in a store.  It disappeared into thin air and has not surfaced.  At the time it made me very grumpy, but I've gotten over it and replaced the old with the new.  This was a gift from a good friend, when I turned the big 4-0, back a few months (guess I neglected to mention that one!)

I've been trying to plan out my days with a fresh page, making a list and then at the bottom writing down my exercise routine and plans for dinner.  It's worked pretty well so far and should serve as a good way to look and see the progress I'm making.  Because 2011 is all about progress for me!

Mid-Month (almost) Progress Report

• organize digital photos - have completed an overhaul of pictures from 2004, could use another look-through, but it's more or less done
• clean out under kitchen sink yeeeha!
• clean out the fridge yeeeha!
• clean and organize laundry room - been putting this one off
• plan out weekly dinners - with the help of my trusty notebook, I'm off to a great start
• exercise - again, with help of my notebook, it's going well

On the snow front and sled saga:  I gave up on the search for a sled in an actual brick and mortar store and just ordered one from Amazon.  Suprisingly, the snow is still fresh and white and I've heard we're getting more over the weekend, so hopefully the sled will arrive by then.

i've been cheating!

Long, long ago I mentioned that I was cooking up some ideas as far as a new career direction.  For those close to me thanks for the patience in listening to me!  Well, I haven't gotten much closer to that new direction, aside from brainstorming and starting a new blog - Blumengarten Jersey City. 

I bought the URL, but am now having the most frustrating time setting up the site, so while it's live, it's still very much a work in progress.  Anyway, take a peek and let me know what you think - I have much to add and if I can get the design quirks ironed out, I'll be sleeping much sounder!

bangs or no bangs, the great dilemma

Our last haircut was in April.  Wow that went by fast.  Her hair has become a little wild and crazy, particularly at the beach, with the salt air and humidity.  My big dilemma is whether to cut her bangs or attempt to grow them out.  I'm torn!  But, leaning toward growing them out.  At least for now she has no opinion one way or the other...

As for knitting, I knew I couldn't stay faithful to the Wildflower Sweater.  As I was searching for an adult pattern to put my Rowan Polar to use, I decided to try EZ's Tomten Jacket for a child.  It's moving along quickly, although to get the proper gauge I'm using number 6 needles with the Polar.

Working 9 to 5?

I've been thinking a lot about going back to work.  Just not sure what I want to do. A few months ago, I had Monster update my resume.  An expensive endeavor, but well worth the money.  I didn't know who the person was on paper when it came back! 

I was laid off from my job (working in Marketing for a software company in the financial services industry) when I was about five months pregnant.  All of it was highly suspect and we hired an employment lawyer.  You can't layoff a pregnant lady, right?  Wrong.  A

fter going back and forth with them I ended up dropping the whole thing.  Our choice was to either come up with a tremendous amount of money to pay our lawyer, or file with the EEOC.  By that point I was seven months pregnant and ready for it to be behind me.

I was in shock that this company I had worked four years for, made up the stuff that they did!  I unquestionably naive about the ethics of this publicly traded company.  They made up all kinds of stories about my performance, but funny thing was my reviews were never anything but above average.   Didn't matter, they could say and do what the wanted, and they did.  My lawyer said that he had seen instances where companies forged documents after the fact to support their cases.

I've been lurking on Craig's List for the past few months checking out the freelance writing jobs, but have yet to respond to any posts.  Oh well, hopefully I will figure all of this out sometime soon.

On to happier topics...my Baby Kimono is finished!  Well, almost.  The body is drying.  But here are the sleeves.

I'm trying a new method of blocking the pieces before I sew them all together.  Not sure how well this will work.  Once I put it together I need to figure out how I'd like to embroider.  I think I'll do a few test runs on swatches before I commit.  So, although the knitting part is complete, I still need to jazz it up a bit.

A new adventure...

I’ve debated with me, me and me about starting a blog for my creative obsessions for several months now…and well, here I am. 

Last year, when I was five months pregnant, I got laid off from my Marketing position with a medium-sized, well maybe small, publicly traded company.  I had been working as an internal research analyst monitoring the competitive marketplace for our division.  I marched out, hired a lawyer, got in a nasty exchange of letters with my former employer (who proceeded to lie, and make things up about why, exactly I’d been let go) and finally settled with them.  Which brings me to today, I’m currently at home taking care of our ten month old daughter searching for my identity aside from being a doting mother.

Enough of that “work” rambling.  I’ve been trying to track or at quantify what I’ve done in the past year and a half.  This is what I’ve come up with so far, in no particular order:

-Mastered painting ceilings, walls and woodwork, without the use of blue tape!
-Had a baby
-Continued to work on creating the perfect backyard haven, filled with trees, shrubs, perennials, while battling the ever present squirrel   
-Continued to work on mastering my knitting skills, obsessively knitting baby sweaters and hats
-Taken several sewing classes
-Bought a new sewing machine

Well, that’s at least a start for now.  My hope is to post to this site a few days a week, and see where that leads me.