This post is brought to you by the letter 'F'

Since it's February and it's a little frosty outside, I thought I'd write a post on topics beginning with the letter "F"

Fibre: I've been a bad business person - mom has done two updates in the shop and I haven't mentioned either. There is some new Alley Cat, Stray Cat and Fat Cat up... check it out.

Here's my latest favourite:

Creeping Phlox

Free time: After a lot of thinking and some serious number crunching, I have gleefully said goodbye to Job #2. It's not that it was a bad job, it was easy and everyone was nice. I was just starting to feel overwhelmed.

So, now I'm sitting here with a whole bunch of free time ahead of me thinking, what am I going to do with it?
Fill it of course - one of the reasons I let the job go was to focus on expanding the amount of freelance writing I do. Dave is also planning on starting a business from home, so I will be helping him get that off the ground. And then there is the whole Wandering Cat world, with yarn, jewelry and beads, that I'd like to devote more attention to. And of course designing... so it's not really free-time, more like flexible time I'm not tied to any one project or workplace for a set amount of hours. And its time spent doing things I love, rather than just "work"

Frozen food: As mentioned before, Dave and I are trying to cut as much processed food out of our diets as possible. We are doing pretty good - the freezer is free of chicken fingers, fish sticks and the like. But it's made it tough for the nights when we get home late, or I just don't feel like cooking.

But I've come up with a solution - faced with a mountain of leftover mashed potatoes the other night, I decided to make some Shepherd's Pie. But instead of making one large pan and having another mountain of leftovers, I went out and bought a bunch of individual aluminum dishes with lids - voila - frozen dinner with out all those preservatives. I plan on doing this with lasagna, maybe some macaroni and cheese or even stir frys. Just heat them up in the oven when you're hungry! I will probably make some more up this weekend.

Funny: I generally leave for work before Dave, and normally by the time I get to work, there is an email about the cats stalking him while he's getting ready. This morning I got this: "Put your yarn in kitchen closet the dam cat 10 minutes after you were gone was running around with yarn in his mouth you had better lock that shit up"

This made me laugh so hard, because if Dave had his way, the cats wouldn't be allowed to do anything. I already have a hook on the basement door (where they get put at night when Dave is here because they keep him up) because they learned that if they take a run at it, they can force it open. His studio has a hook on it, because he's convinced the cats can open it - they can't he just wasn't pulling it shut all the way so it wouldn't latch. Said kitchen cupboard has a latch on it, because Peno likes to open it - just for fun. She doesn't want in she just wants it open - which drives Dave crazy.

Finish it: A few people have asked if I'm going to take part in Ravolympics. I'm not. I don't like putting myself under that kind of pressure - not with my knitting. I work for a newspaper, in a world of constant deadlines, I don't like deadlines on my hobbies too.

However, since I'm still riding the high of the cast off Frozen Leaves, I've decided to see how many WIPs I can get off the needles in the remainder of the month. I'm calling it 'Finish it February' Wanna join me?

It doesn't matter when you started you projects or how many you finish, or even if you start one fresh... the fun is to just see how many we can finish by the 28th! It's not a deadline, it's an open-ended challenge.