Key~Notes

You know that I’ve been working on a project for several weeks now . . . the hat/scarf sets for the kids my extended family is sponsoring for Christmas.  I finished the last scarf yesterday morning, and was off to the post office to mail everything to arrive in time for the 5 December submission deadline.

Except that the post office told me that even if I sent things priority, they could only guarantee 7-10 business days . . . WHAAAAAAA?!?!?

So, needless to say, I’m totally bummed.  I worked so hard on all of these, and was so excited to be able to help out with the family Christmas service project . . . *sighs*

At any rate, here are pictures of the completed sets:

For the twin boy/girl:

(hat made using this pattern; scarf designed by me, using a variation on the “bumpy” pattern from the hat)

For the 2 year old girl:

(hat made from my own pattern, scarf from this pattern)

For the 6 year old boy:

(hat made from this pattern; scarf based loosely on this one)

For the 9 year old girl:

(hat made from this pattern; scarf from this pattern)

You can’t see much of the detail of the scarf in the above pic, so here’s a better pic of the detail . . . LOVE this pattern!

They turned out so well (if I say so myself! ) . . . double drat that I can’t send them to get to Teresa in time!

~Were you ever in a drama, speech, sport, or pep club?~

I didn’t really go out for many clubs in High School. I think I attended Drama Club once? LOL I did, however, participate in Pep Club’s Big/Little Sister program during my Senior year. Each Senior girl who wanted to participate was assigned a Freshman “little sister” to befriend during the first few weeks of school . . . make sure that the transition from middle to high school went a little easier. I ended up being assigned to a girl (I WISH I could remember her name!) who was in Orchestra with me. We ended up becoming very good friends actually . . . such nice memories!

George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” was the November selection for our book club.  To be quite honest, when Melissa said that title as her choice . . . I groaned to myself.  (Funny note . . . when I told her this last week at book club, she looked at me in shock . . . guess I’m known to like the books that are chosen, or at least not be prejudiced against them . . . )

I had read “Animal Farm” back in Honours English class when I was a Freshman . . . so about 19 years ago . . . I HATED the novel then.  It wasn’t a matter of it not being my favourite book, or even of simply disliking it.  I LOATHED “Animal Farm”.  So obviously reading it again was NOT on my list of things to do . . .

But, I did.  And, you know what?  19 years made the difference for me.  While, it’s still not my favourite novel, I actually really liked it this time around!

Several things factor into that I think.

Firstly, I know what a “satire” is now.  Perhaps I was absent the day that our teacher explained the concept of satire to our grade 9 class, but I honestly had no clue what a satire was back then.  This time of course, I understand what satire is, and I was able to find the utter humour in the novel.

Secondly, I may not be an expert, but I have at least SOME working knowledge of the Russian Revolution/rise of Communism.  Back then, I had no clue really.  So, that made understanding Orwell’s “poking fun” at certain characters (political figures) a whole lot easier.

All in all, if you’ve read “Animal Farm” before and hated it, I’d encourage you to re-read it . . . you may just have an experience like mine that will change your mind about the book!