I am digging myself out of a mountain of emails today, and I just thought of something --- I haven't posted either link to our newspaper articles. So here they are :)

Bozeman Chronicle's HW Article
Billings Gazette's HW Article

A good friend of mine, Elizabeth, sent me the link to this brooch on Etsy. I think it should be come a standard pin for all Hunting Widows :)!


I've been crocheting up a storm the past 3 days. I had 5 hats to make, and each one required some extra thought. Different styles, different yarns, different sizes. I've successfully made 4 of them. AND I wrote down the patterns as I went along -- shocking, I know (maybe I'll even get the patterns up on my Etsy site!). Unfortunately, my husband and I are battling over one camera in this household instead of our regular two, or else I would post pictures. I added one extra special surprise to the hats this week --- a fleece headband sown into the inside! The one biggest complaint I hear about knitted/crocheted hats is they aren't warm enough. I decided to try whipstitching a piece of fleece to the inside of the hat, like a headband, and I'm so pleased with the results. They are now extremely warm and comfy hats!

Tuesdays include 6 hours of complete silence in my house. Josie goes to Elizabeth's house to spend time with her daughter, Eliana. It's blissful, even though my house is a tad bit dirty. It always astonishes me how quickly the floors get dirty in this house. *sigh*. I received a gift certificate to my favorite yarn store in town for my birthday, and I told myself that if I got everything done on my list I have permission to go spend it frivolously. I've gotten through emails, correspondence and blog post, so I'm 3 steps closer!

Have a great day!

I'm finding myself melancholy tonight. I don't know if it's from too little sleep or from a conversation I had with my husband; perhaps it's a combination of them both. All this wonderful stuff is happening with Hunting Widow, which I am forever thankful for, but I have some huge obstacles in front of me. Mostly keeping within budget, which reverts back to the conversation my husband and I had earlier on tonight. There are just so many things I want to do and offer women through HW, and unfortunately it might be a case of the champagne taste on a beer budget. I'm going to have to learn how to keep track of things better, or else I might be an EX-Hunting Widow!

Thinking of financial budgets leads me to time budgets. Do you and your significant other find yourself arguing---or discussing---these two topics? I know that I've put Tim through the ringer on the time budgets. For some reason in my twisted little mind, there is never enough of his time placed on ME. I need more of his time, he needs to do more for me, why can't he stay home so I can leave and do something, yada yada yada. And a lot of his complaints revolve around the other budget. Although I will say to his credit, he knows he's handling a 'delicate flower' and is very conscientious of the words he uses... :). I don't know why I'm so defensive about the financial budget. I think it's gotten to the point where I handle all of the details, which I am really not good at, and I know I'm doing a less-than-perfect job. But, it also feels like I'm the only one using the budget. So the monthly budget meetings have gone by the wayside, because it's MY job to instigate them, and our monthly budget sheets haven't been done for months, and I am not using my envelope system like I should be. This is one girl that Dave Ramsey would not be proud of!!!

Perhaps we should come up with an 'envelope system' for time budgets. A certain percentage of your time goes to sleeping. This % goes to work. This goes to eating. There are certain average percentages that go to vacuuming, cleaning, laundry --- household chores. THEN, you start working in the family time, one on one time with each kid and adult in the immediate family. Social time with friends cannot be forgotten, but must not exceed the family time. Mix in some alone time, essential for everyone (this being reading, watching tv, relaxing, hunting... oh wait, that would have to come FIRST in the mens' envelope system! hahaha *grin*). AFTER all of that has been integrated into the software, it'll print out a sample day plan for you. Tada, no more thinking for ourselves what we should be doing next---it's outlined in 15-minute intervals right there for you to see! Then when there is a disagreement over what should be taking place the next hour, the next day, the next weekend, all you have to do is refer to the outline and voila! No arguments. OK, there are many holes in this theory, but I really think I'm onto something :-)!!!

I'm definitely going to add more to my sleeping percentage tonight and tomorrow to make up for a super-fun weekend with our friends. We had a Christmas party at Tim's work Friday night. We loaded up Saturday morning and drove over to some friends' cabin in the mountains. Good food, good friends, and too little sleep. I was able to get some crocheting done, too, which I'm really behind on this Christmas season. "What did the big tomato say to the little tomato? Ketchup!" Yup, you got it: I'm the little tomato this week. Here's to a week of catching up! :)

Even MORE Exciting News...

...as if it couldn't get any cooler, I got a call today from Mark Henckel, the Outdoor Editor for the Billings Gazette. He's doing an article on Hunting Widow! Yeah!!! It sounds like it'll be out this Thursday --- I'm pretty sure I'll keep everyone posted ;).

Another weird thing happened today. A Bozeman business is already creating knock-offs of our Tshirts. They're infringing on our trademark (thanks to the business brains of Sheri), and after a quick phone call, they're supposedly taking their stuff down. I'm heading in there tomorrow with our Trademark Infringement letter, and I hope I don't have to flash it. I guess imitation is the highest form of flattery!

Ducks in a Row

The Holiday Spirit has finally settled in. I cannot believe how much I was dreading Christmas this year. Hunting season to Birthday to Thanksgiving to Holiday Craziness --- it was all proving too much for me. Add on top of that some tight budgets, and it's enough to make anyone grumpy. My mother-in-law gave me the book, Skipping Christmas (I think it's the same as the movie Christmas with the Krumps?), and it helped to read that. The whole Holiday Scramble gets a little too much for me. I'm going with mostly handmade gifts this year... We'll see how that goes! Of course, it would help if I actually carved out the time to make these said gifts. Oh well, there's always lovely Etsy to escape to!

I do have to say, my first weekend with Tim after Montana Hunting Season (deer, elk, but I hear that mountain lion just started - yikes!) was darn near blissful. I forgot how nice it was to make plans with your significant other. Although, I will confess, there was some getting used to each other and some 'discussions', but after awhile, it was great. Saturday included the Christmas Tree Hunt, my favorite hunting season of them all. The weather did not cooperate, so most of the hunting was done from the pickup. We put a couple of half-dead trees out of their misery. Little did we know, the trees were dripping of sap -- we've never dealt with trees this sappy before. Tim looked like Clark Griswold after getting that tree in our house...

Here's Sheri and the girls looking for trees ~


And here's the mighty "hunters" ~


Josie and I treated ourselves with a trip to Arts on Fire last Friday. We met our good friends, Elizabeth and Eliana there. Josie picked out a unicorn, and I ended up painting a little hexagon bowl. Pics of the end results will be posted next week ;)...

Here are the girls painting away ~


And here's a shot of Ms. Josie and multi-purple colored unicorn ~


Why I never thought about going here during Hunting Season, I don't know, but it's a wonderful place to take the kiddos. Honestly, I want to go back sans kiddos and get some real painting done ;)!

Getting started!

I'm kicking off the Holiday Season with a new blog :-)! Here's to the Billings' Scheels for ordering Hunting Widow Merchandise!