Great answers for my question

In my last post I asked a great philosophical question : )

What do you do with your long fall and winter evenings?

And I got some great answers.  I knew my wise blog friends would come through for me!

 

Here is a sampling of your activity suggestions:

crafting

hand-sewing

puzzles

computer time

crochet/knitting

housework

cross-stitch

quilting

listening to audio books while crafting

cooking

getting a head-start on wrapping Christmas gifts

 

I personally think all of these are great ways to spend a winter's eve.

However, if any of the activities involve actual work, such as cooking or housework, you can count me out.  I often say when the sun goes down, I go down.  I'm soooo not a night owl.

 



But I am a morning person so the best suggestion to fit my personality was Pom Pom's:     We go to bed early! We get up early, too. I love the quiet mornings with lots of down time before I dash off to school.

     Now Miss Pom Pom, why didn't I think of that?  No, I don't have a daily job to dash off to, but I can still use the freshness of the very early morning to get my household chores done before delving into more fun activities or going out to one of my volunteer jobs.

So, I have been trying my routine out over the past week and would like to say it's working out great!  Even the dreaded time change wasn't so bad yesterday.

 

I actually celebrated the time change this year instead of bemoaning it. 

 Here's what I did last evening:

• I left hubby in front of a Netflix movie last night while I took a little "me" time. 
• I rearranged my closet a little, making it a little friendlier to peek into while selecting my next day's outfit.  
• I exfoliated my face (with just a little baking soda on a soft washcloth).
• I hummed around the bedroom while listening to quiet songs on the radio and putting things in order so we could wake up to a peaceful room this morning.
• I checked today's weather and chose today's outfit accordingly.
• Then at about 8:30 p.m. (!) I crawled into our electric blanket-warmed bed with my current read and enjoyed some quiet time until my sweet hubby joined me.

And you know what?

I found this morning to be a breeze for me to wake up early and start my day!

I even got in my morning exercises before seeing Neil off for his workday.

 

Now I just seem to have more hours in my day.

I do  have more productive hours.

And I've been using them too!

 

Here's a few things I used those new wide-awake hours for last week:

• I finished All my weekly household chores.
• I was able to volunteer one day at school, one day in a food pantry and one evening at my church.
• I met friends for lunch.
• I visited the public library.
• I had more time for walking~ and that brought my weight down two pounds!
• I sewed.
• I cooked a warm meal for my guys each night Mon-Fri. ( I don't cook on weekends :)
• I completed several at-home puttery projects.

 

Everything I've done hasn't turned out wonderful but I've had a wonderful time doing them!

 

Here's one of my projects:

 

I bought the black and white Casual Corner blouse (picture on right) at a thrift store a couple of months ago.

My loving husband told me as soon as I tried it on in the store that the black and white stripes made him sort of dizzy.

But being the independent (stubborn) girl that I am, and seeing as how the blouse was sooooo soft and comfortable (and cheap), I bought it anyway.

But every time I've put it on to wear, I look in the mirror and find myself swaying with the dizzying stripes (just like Hubby said).

 

So, I decided to dye it.

I could picture the white stripes dyed a soft gray with the black stripes still there but just a little less of a contrast.

Why doesn't my dye jobs ever turn out like I expect?

That's just one more reason to never dye my hair.

 

Back to my story...

I couldn't find gray Rit dye in any local stores so I checked my at-home stash.

I had pink....hmmmm...no, better not.

Well, I do have black.

I could make it a weaker concentration and leave the blouse in less time than the instructions say.

 

After only five minutes in the dye bath, the blouse was looking pretty dark so I pulled it out.

Oh, my.  My black stripes had disappeared!

I threw the blouse in the washer and spying a jug of bleach, I decided to give it a little extra help.

The results?

 

I'm not sure how much you can see in the above pictures but it turned out a rusty brown color with black stripes.

Not what I intended but as Bob Ross, the painter, used to say,

It's a happy little accident.

Because, now it matches my black pants/skirts and my brown skirt.

And the best part, no more glazed over eyes when Neil sees me in it.

 

Well, I gotta fly now.

 

I'm volunteering in kindergarten class today.

It's 50's day and I'm in charge of making the Coke floats!

 

P.S.

I have another question for my wise blog friends.

Neil is going on a business trip to Memphis, TN soon and I'm tagging along  accompanying him.

We would like to visit Elvis' home, Graceland, while there but it's so expensive!

I would love to find discounted tickets.

 

Got any ideas for me?

Direct links would be great.

(I was so overwhelmed when I Googled it!)

Thanks!