The Secret to Happiness?

Don't ask me how, but somehow I ended up on Formspring, reading all the questions I've answered in years past, and found a question someone had sent me in July of 2010, asking, "What's the secret to happiness?"  Some people might say a million dollars, or finding something you're passionate about, or who knows what.  I had completely forgotton about this, but I answered, "The courage to never stop looking for it."  I still truly believe that.  Like the old saying goes, "The future belongs to those who believe in it."

Just some food for thought.  What do you think the secret to happiness is?   xx

P.S. Kudos if you noticed the blog change!  Although, it is hard to miss, since I changed almost everything... This one will be staying for a while.   I'm excited!

Delayed Spring Cleaning

I'm just going to get this out of the way and be totally upfront with you:  this is going to be a long post.  So if you've got choir rehearsal, a wedding reception, or jazz concert to go to right now, don't bother reading this.  At least, not right now.  How could I have you miss your best friend's reception, or the trumpet player you've waited all year to see?!

The reason this is going to be a bit long is because there are two parts to this story of mine.  Part 2 is being shared with you because Part 1 allowed me to discover it.  I know, that doesn't really make sense.  You'll see.

SO.  Here we go.  Next Monday, people will be coming down my street to pick up items being given away - clothes, small electronics, kitchen items, jewelry... you know.  So in preparation, my sister has been cleaning out her closet, and has filled a few (small) garbage bags.  Since I had nothing to do this afternoon after guarding, I pulled out a few shirts in my closet that I have known for years I would give away, once I actually decided to do it.  Andddd that turned into a good six hours of deep cleaning and organizing my closet, and dresser/desk/nightstand/floor.

I am kicking myself for not taking 'before' pictures.  So, so much.  My closet was a mess.  So much so that I am still staring in awe at this beautiful and organized space of mine.  Yes, those boxes all actually contain the shoes that they say they do.  And yes, I actually bothered to organize my remaining clothes into the type of item they are.  If you didn't catch that, from left to right: fall/winter clothes (out of sight), dresses, activewear, sweaters, t-shirts, and tank tops. Am I exhibiting my inner (ha, you see what I did there? Since personality is already 'inner'... yeah. I can tell.  You totally missed that.) type A personality?  Perhaps.  But who cares.  This is the best strategy I've used yet (the other was organizing my clothes by color, years ago), and it's so handy.  I like having them all grouped in sections, instead of fishing between hangers to find what I'm looking for.  So now I can be like, "It looks like it's going to be slightly overcast today, so let's grab a light t-shirt from this section, and a cardigan from that one."  Done!  Easy peasy.

Don't hate.  I know it's tempting.

Can you believe that all came out of my closet?  Except for the stack of jeans.  Those are from the dresser.  To try and illustrate the magnitude of that, I will tell you this: all that lovely empty space you see up there?  That wasn't there before. None of it.  In fact, to reach anything/put something away at the top of my closet, I had to jump.  And that's saying a lot, since I'm 5'10".

Okay, here's part 2.1:  while cleaning that hanging white cubby thing off to the right edge of the frame there (first photo), I found a bunch of my scarves (both ones I knit, and bought), and while I was trying to figure out where I could organize them nicely while they waited for winter, I realized I could block the brown wool scarf I was holding!  At the time that I'd knit it (a few years ago), I had no inkling of what blocking meant, and I certainly didn't have the materials to do it, whatever it was.  I've worn it the past few falls with one of my dressy-ish Forever 21 dresses, and I never really noticed how much potential it had to become a real classy scarf, not something that looked a bit crumpled.  So of course, I leaped up to pull my waiting blocking boards off my desk and ran to the kitchen to block it!  It looks amazing now, thanks for asking.  But you don't need to take my word for it, check out the pictures!  Of course, in these pictures it's still wet and pinned down, but you get the idea.

Alright, that's done.  Here's part 2.2:  when I was cleaning out aforementioned white-hanging-cubby thing,  I found like five things I knit years and years ago (age 14 I think?).  'Things' is about the most appropriate thing I can call them.  Once, I actually did consider them hats.  Not completely sure how.  They were just so damn laughable that I had to share them!  (I have just realized to my discomfort that I look like I have quite a large food baby going on right down below there.  I don't.  It's the lighting and weird shadows.  Positively.  Look at the other pictures if you don't believe me!  The lighting, I tell you.)

Okay.  Here's the kicker.  The green hat?  It's that baggy for a reason.  I had just been given a copy of Knit One, Felt Too for Christmas when I decided to try my hand at felting.  Enter this hat.  Haven't figured out why this is so funny?  You see, I hadn't understood that in order to felt something, you must use wool.  I laughed so hard at my stupidity today that it took me five minutes to explain to my mom what had happened to this hat.  Five minutes!  For those of you who are not knitting-savvy, here are the layman's terms:  this hat is made of acrylic yarn, and after it went through the wash, terrible, terrible things happened to it:  it became five times larger.  Such is the outcome when you try to felt something that isn't wool.

  

So you see, I wouldn't have been able to burn all those calories laughing at my hysterically comical attempts at knitting if I hadn't cleaned my closet.  That's what I meant about Part 1 allowing Part 2 to happen.  It makes sense... right?  ......Right?

All kidding aside, it's pretty incredible the difference in my knitting you can see between six+ years ago and now.  I'm impressed with myself, I'm not gonna lie.  (I guess all this Knitting for Confidence stuff is starting to pay off!)

Alright.  You have survived!  This is the end of my ridiculously long story.  If you're still reading, give yourself a pat on the back.  You deserve it for being such a trooper.  :)  Now, to reward you, here's a nice, soothing, pretty picture of the pool I guard at.   xx

currently listening to.... Home - Jack Johnson

Knitting for Confidence #6: Deep Water

I haven't mentioned this project at all to you, so here is my surprise reveal!  I started this top on the 15th, and finished it up yesterday afternoon.  It only took four days to knit this - the rest of the time was spent waiting for more of this gray yarn to arrive in the mail..!  I ended up running out of it when it was about 3/4 done.  I swear, the mail always takes a billion years longer to get to you when you're waiting for something important!  And you must forgive my floral bikini that's peeking out from behind the lattice-work top; I took these pictures after I got home from lifeguarding.

This is definitely a project I'm going to do again in the future, only smaller!  I took in about three inches from the body of this shirt because it was so loose.  And it was smaller than the 'small' on the pattern to boot!  But I still love this shirt to death - the eyelets along the ribbing, the boatneck neckline... it's so adorable.  I also added in a tiny band of cream yarn between the two main colors, which wasn't part of the pattern, and I love how perfect that turned out too!

Anyhow, this is a Knitting for Confidence post because one of my New Year's resolutions was to knit five things I've never made before, so here's #3!  My others so far are colorwork gloves and a shawl.  & the name of this post is borrowed from the colorway of this blue yarn.  It's so lovely!  Have you tried any adventurous projects lately?   xx

currently listening to.... Now That You're Gone - Bebo Norman