Small weekend plans

* Had my last piano lesson of the fall tonight. (It's a little complicated, but: my teacher works a regular job here in town, stops by my place around 4:45 once a week for a lesson, and then heads home. She lives almost 1/2 hour to the west so it's bad in Standard Time for her, she doesn't like driving home in the dark and I do not blame her. So I don't have lessons in the winter, and that's OK.). She did say: text me when the time changes again which is good because I always worry either she will want to give up the teaching, or won't want to keep me on as a student.

(Impostor syndrome invades all areas of my life, yes.)

Also this means I need not practice *so intensively* - I think if I do 40 minutes most days that will be fine. (I might even take a day or two off here and there).  I can also go back and "review" earlier pieces, have a little fun, maybe even revel a bit in how I've improved since I last played some of the things.

* Not going in this weekend. Instead I am taking time for myself:

* Going to clean the house up more. I did some in my living room (I always pick up/clean before my piano teacher comes, both the living room and the hall and bathroom - once or twice she's needed a restroom when she got here). But I need to pick up my bedroom and put clean clothes away and probably change sheets on the bed.

* Especially going to clean the living room and the dining room because tomorrow my plans are to *DECORATE FOR CHRISTMAS* - put up the tree and decorate it (that could slop over into Sunday afternoon; the Wesley Center board meeting was postponed so I have the whole afternoon free).

Yes, I know it's early. But this second half of 2019 has been such hot garbage (I don't think I need to recap it all) that I need something pretty and sweet and nice and that reminds me of better times.

So:
- Put the tree up
- Put out the Nativity set
- Set out some of the stuffies and other random things I set out only at Christmas
- Clear off the dining table and get out my poinsettia tablecloth and put it out
- Maybe re-do my message board (I still have "It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay" on it but maybe it is time to change)

*But tonight, I think I'll just do a bit of cleaning, and change my bedsheets, and maybe even get into bed early because the winter Interweave Knits and the holiday issue of Mary Jane's Farm came today, and I have ignored too many of the magazines I get lately and it will be nice to read them and maybe dream a little about things I could make (both food and crafted items)

* I am seriously considering getting a small chuck roast (or similar) at Pruett's tomorrow and making the slow-cooker "carne asada" that I make. I've only ever made it to take to church but I think if I can get like a 2 pound roast (or smaller) it will make a small enough quantity for me. It is supposed to get COLD on Monday, so it will be nice to have easy meals of something hearty.

* Shoot, I might even make a pan of gingerbread. I like it, it's not that hard, and it's a little more healthful (less sugar, and has a lot of spices, some of which are antioxidants?) than some things I could eat as dessert.

* I might also take out a few minutes and sew the binding on the small (pink) quilt that's sat in my sewing room since....well, since mid-July, I realize now. (I am trying very hard not to look at things and go "since before my dad died" because that puts my brain in a sad place, but yes, I remember picking it up right after the consult with the GI doctor about the colonoscopy that never happened....because I was in Illinois).

* I have a little longer to finish the AAUW hat; the hostess for our party (she always hosts as she has a house ideal for it) is going to be out of town the first week in December, so it is moved to the second week (exam week for me). So I think for knitting I am going to shift to momsocks and then maybe try to do my brother's hat (if I have a second set of needles of the right size....)

* It does seem a little cozier in my house now than it has for a while. I moved a few things around so I can accommodate the tree in my living room and once again the chair that currently houses Basil the Basset Hound, and Pigou, and the sequinned unicorn (Which I guess I kept the "official" name - Yaffa - for) is right across from me (I am sitting in my recliner) and I have a drying rack set up in my dining room (where there is space). I washed all my winter tights and they are drying on it, along with a pair of wool socks I wore earlier this week, and a dress that does better if it air dries. I need to clear off the coffee table and move it so I can put the tree where it sits now - and use it, in its new temporary location, to set some of my Christmas critters on it (the Nativity set goes on the piano, where it's more visible).

* I should also wind off the rest of the yarn (some for the vest I am working on; some for the long-stalled grey cardigan) and put it with the bags that those projects are in. I also have some other yarn for a super secret project that I need to wind off and start, but at least that one isn't "required" until January....

I admit I also, some time, want to get back to JoAnn's for more yarn. I had the idea the other day of doing YET ANOTHER pony-creature using that Elisabeth Doherty pattern, but this time with the goofiest multicolor yarn I can find (ideally: a spot-dyed or spatter-dyed one) and maybe do a plain solid color mane. And her name would be Ranibow Sprimkle.

Because of the extremely dumb things that make me laugh

(Maybe like a cream-colored mane, like ice cream? Even better if I could get a glittery cream or white colored yarn for it)

I also bought some super cute toy patterns on Ravelry. One is Eeek the Spider. Someone on ITFF posted a picture of her Eeek (named Portia) and it was so super cute....I wanted one. (And the idea of using *multiple* lock-washer eyes to mimic the multiple eyes of a spider is a big part of what makes it cute to me). I am contemplating, if I can find a fuzzy fur yarn and a smooth yarn that matches it, doing a part-fuzzy, part-smooth one so it is like a tarantula....or use solid black yarn and Swiss darn some white decorations on it so it looks like one of the little Phidippus jumping spiders (The ones we have are solid black, fuzzy, tiny, and have white highlights, I do not know if they are Phidippus audax or another species). They are cute, I like them (and it makes me sad that many of the links I found were about getting rid of them). That might be an over-Christmas project, though.