Feeling Very "Connected"

I am not going to go into detail just yet because I feel this story will be better savored and understood in a week or so. However, I do just want to say that day by day, I am seeing that this world is not such a terrible place...that people are not as bad as they seem, and that there truly is something bigger out there. I am witnessing that the world as a whole is like one beating heart...In moments when we feel most at our wits end, like we won't be able to go on, God delivers people into our lives that impact us quite profoundly. Since starting my blog not even a year ago I don't think, I have met a handful of people from all over the world that never cease to amaze me with their wonderful talents, kind words, and big hearts. I have received wonderful advice, much support, laughed much, learned much, been moved to tears, moved to my knees, and felt more at peace than I believe I have ever felt in my life. I know God is in control of all this, but I just have to say thank you for all the people out there that I have interacted with who are following God's subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, nudges in my direction.

For some time now, I have been feeling like it is time to stop being a selfish child and start paying it forward. My eyes are constantly open for areas to reach out to others with love. I have come to realize I am really over analyzing this, though. I must constantly remind myself of K.I.S.S. Keep it Simple Stupid. Yes, it is a funny anecdote, but it holds true meaning for me. I am never happier than when my life is simple. I never feel better than when I do something simple for someone else. I never have seen more beauty in the world than when I notice the most simple of things, and I have never been so moved than by the most simple of gestures.

Again, I just want to say a blanket thank you to everyone I have met along my blogging path. I could not ask for better people to read about, learn from, lean on, cry with, laugh with, and write my story with. So, Thank You, all of you.

Blah...Blah...Blah and a Few New Developments

Today I am feeling particularly tired. It started our gray and then moved solemnly to rainy and now, it is just a little cloudy with otherwise blue skies. It just seems like a lonely day today, and it is particularly aggravating for some reason. Do you ever just have those days? I have plenty to do, believe me. I am working, along with a few others, on a massive order of crocheted items for a woman in India who is trying to help her sister start her own store. My order individually is not so massive. It is rather small when compared to my sister’s order. It still feels like quite the undertaking, though.


So far, I have finished one cocoon. What is a cocoon you ask? Why this is a cocoon.







And my friends, this is the only lovely cocoon I have finished. Don’t get me wrong, I am thrilled for the work, honored really, that someone trusts me enough or like my work enough to give me this job. I just thought it would be so much faster. I just assumed it would not take up every waking hour. It is not the cocoons themselves. It is me, and the fact that I am much slower than I realized. Those delicate little flowers with their adorable green leaves are taking me forever to make. Either way, they are pretty adorable when they are finished, and the money I am making from them is allowing me to take my First Degree Reiki Training! Who ever would have thought that my love for crochet would have paid off, literally?


On October 3rd this year, I will be taking my First Degree Reiki Training course. I will be starting a lifetime of Reiki. From what I have learned about Reiki through my own research, it is an energy healing, a healing for the soul. It helps to balance one’s chakras which allows for a better understanding of oneself and more peace in one’s life. I can practice Reiki on myself, my friends and family, my pets and even my plants should I choose to ever try to grow plants. I can do this because Reiki is just the practice of healing energies by use of the hands. I place my hands on specific, unobtrusive areas, and they “activate” according to the need of the person or thing I happen to be practicing on. It is a practice that originated in Japan with one man in search of answers. He was doing some very heavy soul searching, and during a period of intense meditation, after 21 days to be exact, he experienced what he described as a light literally passing through him and giving him the ability to heal others. One of the best parts, in my opinion, is that this energy does not come from me. It comes from all around us. Every single one of us has the ability to heal. Another great part, in my opinion, is that is not a religion. It will not interfere with my relationship with God or hinder it. It actually has the ability to further my relationship with God, again in my opinion, because I will be cleansing my soul. I will desire to keep my “temple” cleaner. With a clearer, cleaner temple, I feel I will be able to hear God more clearly and thus do His will more often than my own.


I am excited about this time in my life. I had decided around March of last year that I really needed to find out who I was, get in touch with myself. I needed a wake up call, and I needed to have a better understanding of my life and my priorities. During that time, I was planning a wedding, but our wedding is over now. Our lives are settling. My husband supports me in this decision, and he will even be coming along to act as my first “patient” if you will. I have felt so called to do something for other people my entire life, but I struggle with this because I tend to take on others problems and issues as my own, weighing myself down. With the help of Reiki, I can help others without bringing myself down. When I practice Reiki on others, we will essentially both be getting a treatment. I simply cannot wait for this to happen and for it to become part of my daily life. I feel very good about this decision, very much peace about it.


Anyway, I am very busy, up to my ears in yarn, and I need to get moving. I was just missing my blog friends and needed to feel a connection to the rest of the world as I am working away in my craft space. Hope you are all having a wonderful evening or whatever time of day it is in your part of the world. God bless!

I feel like I have been through the ringer.

I don't know why, but I feel totally and completely exhausted today. From the time I woke out my coma like state this morning, I have felt hazy and like my limbs way 1000lbs each. Crazy!

But today has been a wonderful day. I met a wonderful woman named Sandy through my sister. She writes awesome patterns and sells them on her Etsy, and I have been given the chance to do a little work with her patterns. I am so excited to get started. If my work is accepted, it could end up in India! This will be the furthest any one of my items has ever gone. Ireland comes in second. ;o)

Also, upon checking my e-mail this morning to find out about this opportunity to work with her patterns, I found that five of my eco-friendly cotton coffee sleeves had been sold! I listed them only two days ago, and a woman in Maryland snatched them up. I am just so happy to be selling things I made with the skills God gave me to people so far away from me, people I have never even met before. It is a wonderful feeling, a sense of accomplishment.

I feel like standing on the rooftops and shouting to the world what a wonderful God my God is. I am being provided for. I am being looked after. God gave me this skill, and I am being able to use it in ways that make other people happy. I never imagined that at 20 years old, I would be married and own my own online store, but God has made it all possible. Praise Him for His everlasting love!

Also, if you get a chance, go check out the adorable patterns my new friend Sandy has created. You will want to learn to crochet just to be able to make them. They are fantastic! Her store is called Sandy's Cape Cod Originals and her other shop is called Sandy's Cape Cod Consignments. She was even featured in the most recent catalog of Annie's Attic patterns.

She was kind enough today to add one of my very own necklaces to her treasury. There are some other great fall hand crafted items in there as well. Take a minute to pop in and check out everyone else's handy work. My sister from My Crazy Kids was even featured in there for one of her adorable bucket hats! She has been working hard at her own shop Momma B's Hat House and More making some really fun hats and her newest items for Halloween.

Have fun, and don't break the bank. ;o)

These are a few of my favorite things...

Recently I have taken a more "healthy living" approach to life and mostly cut coffee out of my life...:( Sad...I know. However, it's not so sad because coffee, or lattes really, have become more a treat for me now, something I have come to savor instead of just chugging down and moving on. They have even become a point of interest for me in such a way that I sort of want to study them. I have had inner battles with myself numerous times about applying at coffee shop. I want to be apart of that atmosphere. I want to make the drinks. I want to have the knowledge! However, I also don't want to ruin that atmosphere for myself. I love coffee shops. I go there to relax, unwind, and soul search...as well as a little people watching from time to time. I fear that if I were to work in a coffee shop, especially one of the ones I love and frequent often, they would lose their appeal because I would be crossing the customer/barista borders. I would know intimate details that have held a wonderful air of mystery for me all these years, and yes, I do mean all these years. I have been drinking coffee regularly since I was 16 years old.

However, now, I am drinking green tea more regularly. It has loads of health benefits ranging from being good for your teeth because it works as a natural anti-bacterial and has a natural source of fluorine to holding the possibility to prevent or even cure some forms of cancers! Plus, green tea, when fermented little or not at all has loads less caffeine than coffee. This is good in my case because coffee tends to sky rocket my ADHD tendencies. ;o)

I have been reluctant to let go of coffee, though. I am coming to terms with the reasons why, slowly. A few of the things that keep my grip strong are mostly sentimental. Coffee was part of my personality. My mile a minute personality, bouncing from thought to thought, caffeine buzzed, became something I was known for, something people might consider one of my quirks. I fear that if coffee is not in my life anymore, I will be losing some sort of essence of my personality. Another reason I have gained some understanding of is that coffee ties me to my mom.

From the time I could sit in a car seat on the table, I was always witness to my mom having coffee on Saturday mornings with one or more of her friends. My mom used to tell me that I was such a good baby, low maintenance. No matter what kinds of things were going on in my life, my mom having coffee on a Saturday morning with her friends around the table was something stable. It brought me comfort.

Once I got into high school, I realized that coffee was not just something that brought me comfort, it was something that would allow me to stay up to all hours of the night talking to my boyfriend on the phone and still get up early the next morning and jet off to school, without eating breakfast of course. My health habits in high school were not all that great, but it was like this silent agreement between my mom and I. She got up early, started the pot of coffee, and by the time I was rushing out the door, the pot was full and ready to be poured. It became part of our routine, and I never dropped it, not even when one of my teachers in high school told me I was not allowed to bring a closed drink from home.

During my senior year at high school, I had a great art teacher, the first hour of the day, so I started taking a different route to class. She never minded me bringing in my coffee. Oddly enough, it didn't even spark an idea in all the other kids' minds to start bringing their own hot drinks. Again, there was that silent agreement. I was different than the other kids, and my art teacher got me. We had another bond in that our names were both Kylie, but hers was spelled differently.

So you see, I feel now that I have developed a more healthy relationship with Coffee. It is a comfort to me now, something I go to when I really need to do some soul searching, when I need to feel close to my mom, or when I need to just feel nostalgic about the good old days before becoming an adult. I cannot ever just boot it out of my life. We have formed a bond that non-coffee drinkers just cannot begin to understand. So please...don't judge me...don't judge my latte...my espresso...or even my plain coffee. Don't give me your gagging symbol when I tell you I am craving a piping hot "Cup o' Joe" because Coffee is very close to me and you will be greatly offending all that I hold sacred.

;o)

Do You Know Coffee?

Well, I would love to claim to be this wonderful coffee connoisseur, but I am not. This Coffee Lingo Quiz proved me wrong. I had no idea what they were talking about. I only got 3-4 questions correct, and they told me I was a "Coffee No Go" who likes my coffee "plain" and doesn't need fancy foams....Sad....I like fancy foams....I just know nothing about them.

Do you love coffee? Maybe you love to read about coffee? Maybe I'm just desperately hoping I'm not alone out there, but you should all check out my blog friend Cosmo. He has undertaken the task of writing a coffee related post every day for the month of September. Go easy on him. Its a hard task to do, and he has done wonderfully! He may feel like just a regular guy, but his blogs bring a little bit of excitement to me. I would love to have the latte knowledge and experience he does. :)

Enjoy. I think I'm off to make a nice brew for myself.

This is my first quilt!

While we stayed home for our honeymoon, we did a little shopping with our gift cards, and my husband got me a sewing machine as his wedding gift to me. I had gotten him a mini fridge for his man room. ;o) I was so excited because I have been wanting to learn to quilt for awhile now.

My first quilt is a rag quilt, and I have to say, I think it was the perfect quilt to do for a first time quilter. It was so quick, and I am so in love with it now! Plus, to top things off, I was able to use all left over scraps of flannel from my Christmas project last year when I made my whole family pajama pants. The only fabric I had to buy was a piece of plain flannel for the "batting."

Let me know what you think!

Our Wedding Story

On Wedding Day, I felt calm. I had spent the night at home with a childhood friend of mine who also happened to be a bridesmaid in the wedding. My husband spent the night with two of his friends, one of which was his best man. We went bowling after the wedding rehearsal, and we had a generally good time. We certainly made lots of memories and laughed a lot. We all needed it, just to let our hair down.

On Wedding Day, I felt eager. I arrived at the church by 10am. We waited around for awhile after that without having anything to do. It was nice just to be at the church, just a few people that were involved in the wedding. I got to have plenty of time to breath and be pampered before the wedding.

On Wedding Day, I felt beautiful. For the first time in my life, people walked up to me and told me I was gorgeous. The twinkle in their eyes as they saw me for the first time in my full wedding garb was so rewarding. A woman should always be made to feel beautiful on her wedding day. I know for me, it definitely helped keep the nerves down.

On Wedding Day, I had fun sneaking around so my then fiance wouldn't see me before the wedding. I had fun wondering what he was doing, what he was thinking, how he looked all done up. I had fun in the suspense.

On Wedding Day, I marched up the aisle to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and felt as though I were running to be in my husbands arms. The ceremony didn't seem like it could go fast enough. I beamed through most of it, muttering jokes to my now husband. I cried as he held and caressed my hands. I cried as he spoke his vows sweetly to me, and I laughed as he looked at the pastor shocked when she said "Til Death Do You Part." Everyone laughed as his eyes bugged out of his head. It was the perfect comic relief. He says he thought she said something else. Either way, it was funny.

On Wedding Day, I had bird seed in places I never believed possible. We drove away in our old beat up Ford truck. It was fitting. We are simple people.

Our Wedding Day was beautiful. It was quick. It was small. It was all about us. I cannot express the amount of gratitude for the wonderful friends and family we had along the way. My sister agreed to put her entire family into the wedding. She did the big sisterly thing and put lots of hours into my day. Our friends pitched in with snacks and time. One friend even DJ-ed our reception with no prior DJ experience! It was very impressive.

Our life together will be interesting for sure. I am coffee and he is soda. I am romantic comedy and he is slasher. I am stress and he is free spirit. I am crochet and he is video games. I am personable and he is anti social. We are so, so opposite, and I am so, so lucky to have him. Last night, I fell asleep in his arms after a long cry. The honeymoon was over, it was back to work this morning. Our life is going back to "normal," and I had finally wound down enough for my emotions to hit me. It was a wonderful feeling to be able to calm down in his grasp. No one can make me as calm as he can. No one can make me as warm as he does. No one can be so sweet and gentle with me as he is.

I am happy. We are happy. This is our story, and it is all just beginning.

Wedding Day Pictures