Hurray! I won!

Ok, quit reading now if you don't want to hear my shameless bragging. The letter from the Texas State Fair came early and I won first place for both of my entries! I was pretty confident they would win, but you never know. There are a lot of talented people out there. But I find that most people are very hesitant about having their work judged, which makes the entry pool smaller. What you have to realize, is that judging is often very subjective. You can't take criticism personally. Once I entered things a couple of times, I quickly learned what "helps" when everything is equal. Especially at the county fair level. The judge is not necessarily a knitter, so good use of color and texture can go a long way. For the state fair though, I usually agree with most of the placings when I see them all in person so I'd bet that the person judging the knitting is probably a knitter.

So now I'm planning an extra trip in October to go see my stuff.

I almost forgot...

The kids surprised us and came in last weekend to take Riley to NASA while I babysat Tucker. We finally got to see Tucker walk! He's been taking a few steps at daycare, but wouldn't do it at home. We still didn't manage to get him to walk while we had a camera ready though. In fact, I hardly got any pics at all! Trying to sit those two still for 10 seconds is like pulling teeth. So here's the best of what I managed to capture...


Bailey takes advantage of her opportunity to give Tucker a smooch.


It's no wonder this child is so skinny - he never slows down!

Woo-hoo! A long weekend! (sort of)

After being off work almost all week with a stomach bug (I worked Monday and Friday), I went in for a little while today to see a few people who had missed treatment while I was out, and also caught up on my paperwork. That's not so bad since I get Monday off. I also indulged myself and spent the afternoon browsing antique shops, with no real purpose other than the fact that I felt like it. Last night I caught the end of a story on 20/20 about "soft addictions" (bad habits) such as being late, messy, overweight, etc. The gist of the story was that we develop bad habits as a way of destressing, then they get out of hand and no longer provide the stress relief. In fact, they cause more stress. The cure? Identify what it was you were trying to relieve - such as loneliness. Indulge yourself in something nice (do something you enjoy), then remove one thing you don't like (clean off that messy table, be on time for one meeting, cut back on spending, etc.). As you take care of your inner self, the soft addictions will resolve themselves. So now I'm going to go clean off my messy kitchen counter. No need to tackle the whole house, just baby steps. This is pretty much the same philosophy as Flylady, the most sensational organizational system I've ever run across. I still do it in fits and starts, and it's time to get back on the bandwagon now that I'm feeling better. So that's what I'm planning on doing tomorrow while the laundry runs and James comes home from racing in Fort Worth (he won 2nd place today).

On the knitting front, I finished the body of the Victoria Shawl and have started the edging. If I really buckle down, I may be able to finish it in time for the county fair in October. But it's just killing me not to start any new projects right now. I've really got a bad case of "start-itis" now that fall is approaching.