Wrap Up

I’ve been busy trying to wrap up a few loose ends in life.

Mailing long-overdue gifts to recipients who’ve (hopefully) long forgotten that I was even making them something…

…Compiling packets of my work to demonstrate just what I’ve been up to during my graduate career, well, aside from the knitting and sewing that is…

…Rewarding myself with quick bursts at the sewing machine to return to projects that only lacked one tiny seam to move from “UFO-weighing-on-your-conscience-and-cluttering-up-your-apartment-by-bursting-out-of-the-project-basket” to immediately usable objects.

I’ve been a little disturbed at the number of things I’ve pulled out lately that literally lacked one seam or maybe one evening of weaving ends or sometimes even just a darn button replaced. Seems that “almost done” means “give up and start something new” in my crafty lexicon.

And you know what’s completely amazing? When you actually work on these almost-finished projects, they get finished. I know, truly shocking. I’m holding out hope that perhaps the same may be true of my dissertation. Could spending hours, days, and weeks actually writing lead to a finished document? Please say it’s so! (Unfortunately, this project is lacking more than a seam and a button, but I’m trying to convince myself that this isn’t the case.) So, what I’m trying to say is that I have a whole backlog of finished objects to post.

But before I get to those, there’s another UFO that I need to tackle.

Way back in the sweltering days of summer, I realized that I needed to celebrate my blogiversary so I set up a contest. And then I promptly forgot to carry through with it. Talk about being a blog-jerk. I’ve been feeling guilty about it ever since. So, I’m going to try this again. My intention was to do something that reflected how I was spending my summer. Originally, I planned to do four prizes. And that’s where I got myself into trouble. I’m one of those over-achievers that lacks the gumption to actually be an over-achiever. I feel like I should do x, y, and z, but really, I’ve only got about an x in me. So, here’s my compromise with my conscience and you out there in blogland.

For now, I’m going to do one prize that reflects my summer of reading/writing, traveling, crafting and working out: a journal with some nifty pens, a tote bag (still to be made) for your journeys, yarn to keep your needles busy (Mountain Colors Bearfoot) and a handy dandy new water bottle to keep you hydrated. Yes, the water bottle is about as present as my summer workout routine was but it’ll be there before this goes in the mail, along with some little gifties like candy and stitch markers and such.

Everyone who leaves a comment by Sunday, September 30 at midnight EST will be entered. Those who left comments in the earlier contest will be entered twice for good measure.

I intend to follow this up with more contests more often, but as they say about intentions… I intend to blog every day and really get serious about my running again and clean out my closet and publish an essay or two in the near future. I’m not holding my breath either!