Juno has decided to give me trouble with my email. Unfortunately, I can't complain. I've had the email for almost 8 years and its free. You get what you pay for. Sadly, I just figured out how to move pictures from my phone to my email so I can post them and now I am cut off. Hopefully in a few days it will resolve itself.

Lets see... since my last post I have found myself to be pregnant. It's added an interesting twist on things. It's been a joke for a few months at my work that I don't really have a desk since I am daily moved to provide a warm body where needed. That has upped now to include different branches as well. From one day to the next I have no idea where I will be located or what I will be doing. I'm glad I'm able to help out where I can. My poor manager has her hands full with the two new branches our bank has opened up and I have no idea how she is managing.

I finished one of my college courses, but still have the other waiting in the lurch. I may need to withdraw. Either Monday or Tuesday I take my pretest for my life and health license in the state of Missouri. I really hope it goes well. I need to schedule my exam, but I am so overwhelmed with throwing up I'm having a hard time organizing myself.

On the craft front, I finished the Water washcloth and hope to have the corrections to the pattern up soon. Basically I had to add one stitch to each row to make the edging work. Fetal stele is already rearing it's ugly head and I neglected to realize that the edging demanded an odd number of base stitches. I have also finished two market bags and am halfway through another. I also picked up a book on freeform knitting and crochet and completed a muffin hat/beret thing that is really warm and comfy. My husband says "It looks crafty". It probably makes me look like an excentric cat lady, but it serves it's purpose and I learned a great deal. I'm looking into some of Prudence Mapstone's pieces for ideas of where I would like to take it. There are some really beautiful applications out there of this style and I'm interested to see how I might develop it to my tastes. Jenny Dowde wrote the book I read and I believe it is a great way to learn the technique. I'm not sure her style is one that I will adopt however. I think she is able to see the bigger picture with her chosen techniques that I am unable to. I feel very clumsy with the scumbles she uses and hope I can soon find time to practice and develop some of my own that I can more readily utilize to suit my tastes.

Hopefully, tomorrow paypal will clear my payment and I can look at one of the Prudence Mapstone pamplets I ordered. Her website: www.knotjustknitting.com has a great deal of information and links on the technique. I'm in love with the woad coat at http://crochet.nu/ I think I'm going to aim for smaller stitches than with Jenny Dowde and see where that takes me.

It's entirely possible I may just spend the next month in the bathroom studying for my licensure.

Oh, I was complaining to a friend last night that I can't get any decent birds at my feeders here in St Louis and I just looked up and saw a small black and white woodpecker at my suet feeder. I'm so excited! I've never seen a woodpecker at my feeders before. I only get sparrows, grackels, morning doves, and starlings. I really like the sparrows and morning doves, but the rest aren't so nice to watch. It appears to be a downy woodpecker, it's bigger than a sparrow and smaller than a grackle. I realize they aren't the most uncommon bird, but for a girl who grew up chasing snakes and exploring nature in the country who now lives in an urban industrial area, it's exciting.