Naturally Optimistic

...in the form of a DVD going out which someone bought (yay), a bill (boo), a rebate (yay) and a silly postcard to my folks. Such is the exciting life of my mail....

I love that this year's "CAOK" theme is correspondence. Yay! I'm a big fan, myself. Always have been. I've recently been writing/receiving letters & postcards again from my penpal of 30 YEARS! Yes, that's right! We started writing to each other when we were 8. We got each other's info off a show on PBS called "The Big Blue Marble" - I don't remember anything about that show except it was on Sunday mornings & at the end you could write in for a pen pal. 30 years later & voila! Still writing. It's amazing. I've met him twice. It's been a cool experience - one that could use several blog posts of it's own! So this week I've written to my Grandma & dear Kelli who started this all. I also just wrote 6 postcards so I can continue my nerdy "Project Postcard" ...uh, project. I still have a lOT of postcards to unleash on the world! Are you doing any corresponding?

It's one of my favorite times of year! CAOK or "Calculated Acts of Kindness" is something that Kelli coordinates every year. It's been so fun over the years to "play along." I don't always get 46 activities in, but it's a good reminder to stop, think & be thoughtful during this "reawakening" time of year. So - I'm playing along! I invite you too!

Ugh-I have so many grand plans. Why can't I make them come to fruition? I can't even keep up with reading SIMPLE ABUNDANCE for crying out loud! I was going to all sorts of things for CAOK & I haven't managed to do but one or two (which were fairly lame, anyway). My 11 a month in'11 was supposed to be me making 11 of something each month so I could build up my Etsy inventory & launch a store by early summer. THAT hasn't happened. The decorations for our St. Patrick's Day party are not yet up (let alone made). All the million things on my to-do list go undone. I guess I'm just feeling a bit in a funk today. Meh.

I haven't been doing as much as I had intended for CAOK II but a couple items fall into that category as well as "because I wanted to" too. Photo courtesy of Michelle I made this bag for Michelle for her knitting supplies. It is of cats, it is her favorite colors. She loved it! Yay! We knitted & had wine & conversation for the last time* on Thursday as today she's moving to Minneapolis. Hmph. I also included some fabulous Tastefully Simple Bountiful Beer Bread (my fave) and Bacon Bacon dip (my other fave). I made another bag for my sister. I made it in pink because that is her favorite color and since she's having triplets and doesn't know the sexes of the babies...she has no pink currently in her life (only yellows, greens, some blues). I also gave her some knitting needles (purple), yarn (purple), stitch markers and last night I taught her how to knit. She'll probably be on bed rest in the near future and had been wanting to learn. She did re...

I'm very excited to be participating in this years CAOK II or Calculated Acts of Kindness II. This fabulous celebration of doing good things, kind things, really nice things for no other reason than to just do them, was started by the Fabulous Miss Kelli last year. I was lucky enough to be a recipeient of a CAOK gift (a lovely wristlet & chocolates) and was so touched that I wanted to do something TOO. So, I will do SOMETHING. I don't know what yet....but here's what I do know. If you've moved, send me your address. If you haven't updated your Amazon Wishlist with things that you really want (preferably in the $10-$20 price range) DO IT NOW because you never know who might randomly send you something. (if I don't have your wishlist and you want to let me know you have one....do that too....I'm not saying, I'm just saying...). The first thing I did was bake some brownies for another blog friend who needs them right now. I mailed them this morning (t...