#sonotready

I want to write.

Once upon a time, a fellow blogger that I had exchanged a few emails with called me a writer.

A writer.

I was kind of taken by surprise with that. I hadn’t thought of myself as a writer at all. I came to find out later that whenever you post a blog post, you are in effect, a publisher. A publisher of content, to be exact. It doesn’t have to be good content. It could be really bad, in fact. But, you are a publisher nonetheless. That makes you a writer.

But, as you know, a while back, I stopped writing.

In some ways, I don’t know why. In other ways, I know full well why I stopped writing. One reason that I know I stopped was because I needed some head space. Have you ever felt like that? You just need the galaxy to stop expanding, the earth to stop spinning on its axis, the inhabitants of this planet to cease all motion, and for ALL THE THINGS to come to a complete and total collective hush. Every atom needs to just be still. Why? So you can get a grip! That’s where I’ve been. For a very long time now, it seems.

A year and some change ago, I went through a traumatic experience. Scratch that-I had been going through traumatic experiences for years. It just came to an abrupt halt a couple years ago. At the time, rather than feeling badly about it, I just remembered feeling *relieved.* But, as the reality of the fact that I was still not up to the earning potential I felt I needed to be with two children set in, panic replaced the relief pretty quickly. At the time, I just could not see myself empowered for many reasons I can’t even begin to go into right now.

The fear was debilitating in many ways. If it hadn’t been for the encouragement of one friend in particular, I probably wouldn’t be able to say that the nightmares I had about failing at caring for my children never came to fruition. I’m thankful for that. But, the energy it took to even get to that point had long been spent, many times over and back again. I found myself completely exhausted by the sheer amount of will it took to keep pushing forward. But one thing I am reminded of right now, as I write this, is that there’s a season to everything. Sometimes, the season in little, old Delaware is cold and brittle. But, without fail, the season always gives way to light and warmth. Every time. The weather is fickle like that. It takes its cue from life. It’s one of the signs we were given that after a death, there can always be a rebirth.  I think I’m getting mine…and that’s a good thing.

Yes, I’ve been MIA. Laying low. Learning to listen to me. I’ve learned some things about me. I think I’m a nature person. In the I-don’t-do-big-animals sense anyway.

Look! My thumb is getting greener. :)

Aloe is such a healer.

I like to keep plants around these days to remind me of what growth looks like. It’s beautiful!

As I am finally coming out of the fog, I am constantly reminded that as much as we may want the world to stop at times, it just doesn’t stop turning.  The world keeps going. Everything keeps growing, if it’s healthy. You have to just jump back on the wheel some time. Hence, the title of this post: #sonotready

Nope. I’m not.

You remember this handsome guy, right? :)

Even though, I can feel myself bouncing back from the events of the past few years…Well, this is possibly the last year that my children will be living under the same roof. Boy Child, whom I am so proud of, will be going off to college soon. What happened to my baby? He’s towering over me like the Jolly Green Giant and he appears to have grown facial hair overnight! I am SO not ready. I’ve been thinking lately of all the things I wished we’d gotten to do-or even just done more of the things we did get to do…But the thing that bothers me the most is that I didn’t get more pics of my kids. When I think about how many pics I don’t have of them, all the things I let get in the way of taking time out to do that, it makes me cringe. :/ I’ve decided I’m going to rectify that this year. If this could be the last year I have them together, it’s going to get documented like a CBS special on Charles Manson.

Oh yeah. It’s on.

Interestingly enough, I did notice that most of the pics I do have of them were a result of maintaining this blog. Kinda weird. I mean, it’s a fiber blog…But, between all the pics of yarn,wheels, and spindles (like the one I just finished in this post), I got to sneak in a few of the kids here and there.

But, definitely, not nearly enough.

Now, I’ve never been much of a scrapbooking fan. In fact, I don’t like the look of many scrapbooks. It’s kind of weird though because blogging is kind of like a digital scrapbook, right? Still, physical scrapbooks don’t normally appeal to me. But physical photo albums…That’s an idea I can get behind.

And so, it starts. While the kids have been in North Carolina for the past couple weeks, I’ve been collecting everything I need to get ready to do some serious documenting.

Part of the downer for me in taking pics of my kids years ago before I got a digital camera was the fact that the film had to be developed. I can’t tell you how many disposable cameras I wasted or how many photos we never got to see because I’d never take the film to be processed. You should’ve seen my happy dance when digital cameras came on the market! Unfortunately, that didn’t change that bad habit of not taking more photos of my babies. But, that all changes now. With the rest of the time I have with the both of them, I’ve found some ways that technology has made it possible for me to do this quickly and easily. Compact mobile printers. Cue the Supergirl music.

I’ve been testing two brands out on old photos I have of my kids from the blog (mostly) and whatever I can snap around here.

The first one is the Polaroid Zink. Zink means Zero-Ink. All I do is buy the little packs of paper, and this printer will spit out small 2 x 3 photos I send from my smartphone.

No replacing ink cartridges or anything. How cool is that?!

This thing is really cute too! It’s only about as big as a stack of playing cards, so it can easily go into my purse for printing anywhere. The photo quality isn’t half bad either for a device so small. Even though, realistically, it’s never going to give you what you’d expect from a full-sized printer, it does guarantee a really good, unbelievably quick pic and a lot of fun! The other cool thing about this printer is that the Zero-ink paper has a back that you can peel off to convert your photo into a sticker. Fun!! I’ve been sticking stickers everywhere! On the fridge, on my bulletin boards…even on my laptop at work *(my boss is was on vacation ;) ).* It has been a lot of fun!
Next up is my Canon Selphy I got from Joann Fabrics.

This one prints larger, better quality photos. It also prints from my smartphone. I love the color this thing can achieve! It also has a sticker photo paper as well to print small instagram photos (or card-sized photos you want to stick somewheres). But, it requires a tray and paper that has to be ordered separately. Yeah, I’m on it.

The Selphy is a bit bigger than the Zink printer. It also doesn’t use Zink paper. But, every time you purchase a pack of the paper, it comes with a new ink cartridge. So, no worries there. It’s just the tiniest bit more fussy overall than the Polaroid Zink. But, it’s so worth it!

The kids aren’t here for me to practice my printing prowess and I’ve stuck about every photo I had of them on the fridge. But, as usual, I’m finding yarn and daily life to be pretty good camera fodder too.

Of course, as you can see, all this has led me to playing with my smartphone photo apps. Filters, typography, washi tape…You name it, there’s still an app for that. And I’ve been trying them all!

I’m enjoying the silly yarn photos a lot. This one below is my favorite though.

I’m having so much fun, I figured I’d share some of my stickers with all of you. If you’re interested in printing out a sillied photo of yarn with your portable printer for whatever usefulness you find it…Maybe a chuckle…Or because, you know, you’re an oddball like me…Or maybe even both ( ;) ), feel free to download one of these (scroll down).

Yes, I’m jumping back into my life. It’s time now.

Okay, now. All together. Everybody squeeze into the shot a bit more…Now, smile. :)

Say, “Cheeseburger!!”