I couldn't possibly come up with a title that would encompass all these things...

First, I would like to officially welcome August into being. August is one of my favorite months of the year. I'm sure the fact that my birthday occurs in this month has nothing to do with that....

My first week of "doing nothing" didn't live up to it's name. The whole doing nothing thing sort of went by the wayside. I actually was extremely busy, mostly with organizing, unpacking and going through old things in storage.

One of the first things I decided to organize was my closet, more specifically all the different bags of yarn in my closet. After going through a bit of it, it became obvious to me that what I needed was storage bins. In all the years I've been knitting, I've never once bought storage bins to organize my yarn. Once I got to organizing them, it was clear why the need arose... not only do I have yarn to organize, but I also have fiber... lots more fiber than I thought I had!The very top bin (the small one) I've filled with all the ends of yarn from old projects. Yes, the entire bin is full. The next bin is full of yarn, much more yarn than I thought I had. Lastly, the bottom bin is all fiber.

Once I finally organized it all and stepped back, I was thrilled with what I had. I couldn't believe I had enough to fill two bins. I realize some of you look at this and think "Two bins! Ha! My stash would barely begin to fit in two bins!" Well let me tell ya, two bins is like striking gold for someone who's spent the last two years as a broke college student and who's now currently unemployed (granted, the unemployment is by my own choosing...) I'm all about the stashbusting until I can afford to buy yarn again!

The organizing took a new turn when I went to my parents house to go through boxes that have been there since before I moved up to school... I don't know if you've ever had boxes sit around for years and then gone back and looked through them... I think you'd be amazed with what you find. Me, I found some of the first swatches I ever knit. Keep in mind, I started knitting about nine years ago...Notice the unplanned increasing on both ends and the fact that every stitch was twisted, bless my little heart, I had no idea what I was doing! Most of us didn't start out as experts and I taught myself from a book... I did finally notice somewhere along the way that the book's pictures and what I was knitting didn't quite look the same.

I would like to call your attention to one little section of this swatch though...It looks like something finally clicked!

After a week spent organizing and sorting, a nice little break was in order. I went camping with a couple of friends and it was fantastic. We basically hung out all day, reading, knitting... doing a little henna. Did I ever mention I used to do henna art? Call it one of my many hidden talents.The darker spots are where the henna paste is still on. Where it's orange, is where the paste has been removed and an orange stain is left behind. Eventually it turns into a deeper brown color. If you want to learn a bit more about it go here.I decided to put this OM symbol on my wrist and I absolutely love it. Here's what it looks like five days later...If I were to get a tattoo, I'd henna it first to see if it's actually something I want, in the place that I want it... you know, like, forever. Tattoos scare me that way. What could I possible want on my skin that I'd want to be there forever? The fact is, people change and what I love now might not be something I'll love when I'm 50, or 80... or 102 (by that point, it probably won't resemble what it did originally anyway!) I think for now I'll stick to henna.