I’ll start with the unpleasant part of the trip: trying to get out of this country. Delta is the only US carrier that flies directly between the States and Kyiv and they just have one flight every other day. There is also a Ukrainian airline that flies between New York and here, but I’m not sure how often that flight goes. As you can see, the options for getting out of Ukraine and to the States are extremely limited. Anyway, we were on the Delta flight when we left for our trip. Things started out normal enough, but quickly went south. There was a mechanical problem with the plane. We ended up sitting on the plane on a tarmac about a mile away from civilization for 6 hours the first day (yes, I said the first day). I actually watched the sun set out the plane window. It was eventually decided that we weren’t going anywhere, so they loaded us off the plane onto busses, drove us back to the airport, and we stood around and waited for what felt like forever. Eventually, they told us to come back to the airport at 8am the next morning and they would get us on our merry way. Now fast forward to the next day at 5pm. We’ve been sitting around the airport all day (I cannot put into words how much I hated Kyiv’s airport before this misadventure. Imagine how I feel now.), with our flight’s departure being pushed back every few hours. Finally, at 7:30pm, they loaded us back onto busses to take us back out to the plane. And after sitting on the tarmac for two more hours, we finally took off - exactly 36 hours after we arrived at the airport in the first place.

Okay, so I’m trying to let go of my anger over that, so I’ll move on to the trip itself. We got to spend Thanksgiving in the US! We had a good time with our families, although it didn’t feel quite as much like a “vacation” as I would have liked. We’ll have to save that for later this winter when we take our R&R. We did a lot of shopping - Shawn got some super Christmas presents, thanks to my new job. And I got to spend all of 30 minutes in a JoAnn’s. I really need to plan a shopping trip of my own… We visited our alma mater and had lunch with our former theatre professor. And we toured the campus to see all the improvements they’ve made in the 7 years since we were there. (Has it really been that long?)

In all, it was a good, relaxing time. We played with our niece and nephew. I got to look at wedding magazines with my brother’s fiance. We did catch one movie. And we drank in the Americana. (Although the Christmas decorations were a shock to me when we first arrived - I had forgotten it was that time of year somehow. And exactly how decorated it would be.)

So now it’s back to the sub-zero temperatures and work. Ah…regular life must go on.

So this may be our first day of snow in Kyiv, but it’s Laika’s first day of snow ever. So we had to celebrate by bundling up and going for a play in the park and a walk through the neighborhood. Exciting and, by the end, exhausting for all. And to top it all off, today is Laika’s 7 month birthday. So her official b-day photo is in the snow instead of in our kitchen.

I have realized that there is a huge community of people who craft (knit, sew, draw, etc.) and then blog about it. How cool! I love seeing what other people are doing. It gives me so much inspiration, as well as a long list of craft books I now want to purchase. The other thing I’ve noticed is that there is what seems to be a large crafting community in Portland, Oregon. Why did I not know that when I lived there? I guess I was right out of college and more focused on things like “deciding what to do with my life” and “making a new marriage work” than really following my crafting passion. But now I feel like I missed out on something amazing. How is it possible that I have already lived in the perfect place for me and will not have the chance to live there again for another 30 to 40 years?! For now, I will live vicariously through the blogging of others who are there.

Here’s a list of some blogs that I’ve been reading on a daily basis lately:

house on hill road

angry chicken

Wee Wonderfuls

all buttoned up.

glittergoods

Wise Craft

Additionally, I’ve had some really excellent online shopping experiences recently. Since I now do most of my shopping online, I’ve been trying to find smaller businesses to frequent, rather than giving all my money to corporations. Not only do I feel good about helping out “the little guy,” these businesses know how to use personal touches to make me feel like I’m actually important as the customer. A novel idea in our world of Wal-Marts and Targets.

I got some spectacular fabric from Cia’s Palette - I would show it to you, but it’s for a quilting challenge I have with my mom, who just happens to be one of my faithful readers. And tucked in with the fabric I ordered was a good sized swatch of a different fabric that was equally awesome and in complementary colors! I also got a great vintage dress pattern from Eva Dress. This was going to be the dress I made for myself for this year’s Marine Ball, but it turns out we’re going to be out of town that weekend. Maybe next year… And finally, I picked out a Japanese book on embroidery and some floss from Superbuzzy. And tucked in that package was some Japanese candy! This experience basically taught me that I love getting surprise presents! And the shipping time for all three of these orders was way less than when I order from companies like JoAnn Fabric or KnitPicks. Granted, shipping time for us has a lot to do with the whole Diplomatic Pouch mail system, but I got the feeling that these people packaged my order and took it right to the post office as soon as I ordered. Very cool.

So there’s some online exploring for you to do. Obviously, I highly recommend all of the sites I listed. Let me know if you know any great sites that I should be checking out. I need something more to fill the time between work, dog walking, crafting, eating, and sleeping.