Catching up on my blog reading when I come across a link on Ryan's website that is just too funny not to steal. Thanks for the heads up.
Part of the reason this is so very funny to me is because approximately 2 years ago my Aunt made me a "humorous hat". The humorous part is that it's an aran sweater! Complete with arms that you can either wear hanging down by your side or tie into a cute little top bow. I LOVE this hat and always get wonderful comments on it when I wear it.
A couple of weeks ago I came across this pattern and immediately sent it to my Aunt knowing that she would enjoy it.
And now the above. I wonder what's next? Sweater slippers? That would actually be quite cute, the arms could be tied to hold the slipper on your feet. Unfortunately I am nowhere near talented enough to create a pattern and knit it up on my own. But if anyone else cares to try let me know and I'll happily post it here.
While driving around running errands today there was a minor traffic jam. Five adult Canada Geese and I think 18 goslings were crossing the road. Traffic was backed up in both directions (that makes it sound worse than it was -- three cars one way, two cars the other) while the parents shepherded their offspring across the road. It was funny to see the little ones waddling after the adults. One or two couldn't make up their mind and kept trying to turn back the other way, it was really amusing. Eventually everyone made it safely to the other side.
Aaaaahhhhh. Not Fresh Aire, although I like that too, but fresh, cool air. It's been overcast and threatening rain all day but I don't mind not seeing the sun because the temperatures dropped into the habitable range. I've flung open windows and doors to allow the fresh air to come into the house. It's really wonderful and smells so lovely. How lovely to be able to step outside and feel like you are able to breathe.
I used to belong to the FlyLady Group, I was introduced to it over 5 years ago by Karen. Got the daily emails, participated in all the challenges; it really did help me to stay on top of everything. Lately things haven't been quite so smooth and efficient. So I've decided that it's time to resubscribe.
Looking at the website I see that things have changed in the last couple of years...a lot. But I'm looking forward to getting back on top of all of this and hopefully freeing up more time for important things like kids, and knitting and gardening and ....
I find it very amusing though that my last post was how grateful and happy I was to be able to get so many things done at one time and this one is about trying to be more efficient. Believe me they are not diametrically opposed to each other. I think it was the sense of satisfaction with how well things went that made me realize that I need more of that.
It just occurred to me how very fortunate I am to live in the age and time that I do. First let me digress momentarily. S was required to do an independent research paper for school. Her topic, which she picked herself, was "The Effects of Labor Saving Devices on the Modern Woman - Era 1950-1960". It was actually a lot of fun because we own a 38 year old Hoover vacuum (which still works btw) and a 1950's mixer; she was able to bring those in for the show-and-tell portion of her presentation.
I was reminded of this project while I was multi-tasking this morning. First I loaded an enormous chunk of Mount Washalot into my new front loader (which basically equates to 1 1/2 of the old loads I used to be able to do), then I set the roomba to work in the kitchen while I unloaded the dishwasher from last night and reloaded it with the breakfast dishes. So I was in effect washing clothes, doing dishes and vacuuming all at the same time. 100 years ago, heck even 50 years ago this wouldn't have been possible. I confess to still being puzzled by my apparent lack of time to get everything done but when moments like this occur I am grateful for them.
Taking the laundry off the line on summer nights has always been one of my favorite domestic tasks. I love the cooler air of the evening. I love the crickets chirping slowly in the background. I love the fireflies blinking and darting through the trees in the darkness. I love the crispness of line dried laundry. Most of all I love the peacefulness of that time of day.
D begged to go to the beach today in a vain attempt to cool off. After she finished homework we headed down there. We had forgotten that there was a Flag Day Ceremony sponsored by the Town Veterans, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. It was a lovely ceremony with the head of the Veterans Association explaining everything as we went through retiring the old flags.
One large flag was selected to represent the 300+ flags collected for retirement. The field was separated from the flag thereby rendering it not a flag anymore. Then each stripe was cut off and a Scout recited a piece about the State that stripe stood for, when it joined the union and what some of it's historical accomplishments were. Then the pieces were ceremoniously burned.
One of the Boy Scouts played Taps. It sounded really wonderful to hear it echoing across the lake, rather poignant really.
D was very quiet and well-behaved during all of this, I was really proud of her. Afterwards she and the other kids ran around, in and out of the water, up and down to the playground having fun. The highlight of her afternoon though was finding a crawdaddy in the water and scooping him up into a bucket so she and her friends could peer and poke at him for a while.
Books are a weakness. It's amazing. I'm already reading two books; I go to the library to give them books that I am purging out of my house...I innocently browse the free magazine basket...then the free paperback book rack...then cast my eye over the new arrivals.
Kablooie! The next thing I know I am walking out having checked out a knitting book, a kitchen design book (I'm still dreaming), a crockpot cookbook and the latest Library Book Club book, Dress Your Family in Curduroy and Denim. This has got to be the 5th or 6th book club discussion that I have signed up for *sigh*. In every case I do manage to read the book but somehow I never make it to the discussion. Don't know how that happens but I'm determined to be there this time...I have until August.
Since I know you've heard me mournfully complain how little reading time I have in my day I'm sure you're wondering how I'll manage to read all these books. Luckily for me my library doesn't charge overdue fines. They have a conscience box -- which I do contribute to -- which helps because somehow I wind up keeping the books a wee bit longer than the date stamped on the cover. I guess I'll have to finish Kite Runner asap so that I can focus on Dress Your Family. I like to try to read the book club books at least twice. Once to read it and then again to examine it so that I can sound half-way intelligent when discussing it.
Stay tuned to find out if I actually make it to the discussion or not.
OMG! The heat and humidity is just unbearable today. It's been a long hot stretch. I find that after 15 minutes outside I can't breathe. Of course some of that is due to all of the cottony stuff blowing around and all of the pollen in the air but the humidity is just ridiculously high. It reminds me of when we used to live in Texas!
We're all sticky and crabby, and that's with air conditioning. D is working as quickly as possible to finish her homework so that we can head down to the town beach to cool off a bit.
At this point I'm thinking that popsicles sound like a good plan for dinner.
Another fun little find on the internet. This one apparently tells you what was the number one hit, number one album and what famous musicians share your special day (that's if you're picking birthdays). I hate to say it but for my hubby it is no one and nothing that I recognize. For me? Mostly Elvis.
Obviously pop music isn't my thing...I looked up the kids birthdays and was completely surprised to not recognize a single thing on the list. Perhaps the fact that it's a UK list had something to do with is but still you'd think I'd recognize something.
In the hopes of recognizing some music related to someone else I ran other people's birthdays. I stopped with my brother...the Beatles were popular then. Hmmmm...is there a bizarre correlation between my pop album/song being Elvis and his being Beatles? I wonder.
I've finally finished "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell". I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait to hear the reaction from my sister-in-law after she reads it. I'm passing it on to her the next time she and I get together.
In the meantime I have started "The Kite Runner" on her recommendation. I've heard that it is a very well-written book although a sad story. I'm looking forward to it.
I have also received other book recommendations that have now been added to the reading list. [note: like the knitting list the reading list is longer than it probably should be but I can't help myself -- there are too many interesting books out there.] My exchange mother recommended "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress". I looked at the description of it and it looks like a really interesting and wonderful book. Funny enough in the Customers who bought this book also bought section of this book is "The Kite Runner" as well as another book that I received a recommendation for, "Bel Canto". This book was recommended by Wendy. I had already read it and we enjoyed a brief conversation about how wonderful it was, some of the unexpected twists and what a poignant novel it is.
I used to be able to read a book a week but since life has gotten so much busier I usually find myself with only 15-20 minutes a day. At this rate it will probably take me all summer to read my way though "The Kite Runner" but I know I have the next great book lined up for after that one.
If you have a great book that you've read and would like to share I'd love to hear about it. Leave me a comment and let me know.
*gasp* I'm actually getting rid of books. Every now and then a frenzied "got to clean this place up" mood hits me. In this case it was a need to rearrange books, again, to try to make more room. I realized that it is finally time to let go of the college text books -- mostly Steve's thank goodness. After all who needs a ## year old, probably out-of-print book on "The Effects of Thermodynamics on Propulsion"? And "The Mechanics of Mathematics" is probably so old it's been revised at least 5 times.
I tried very hard to find other books that might qualify for removal from the shelves but was quite unable to do so. I'm rather proud of myself though, 41 books are on their way to the town Library. There's another book sale in August so perhaps they'll find new homes. More likely I'll find new books but for now I have room on the shelves and can fool myself into feeling virtuous for having let go of some books.
I'm about to bake a batch of brownies with D for her piano recital this week. It's going to be a busy music week. Tuesday she also has her choir recital. Sunday S has a piano recital.
I love this time of year. It's wonderful to sit in the audience and watch all of these students so earnestly playing or singing the pieces they have worked so hard on. It's my reward for a year of driving and paying for lessons. I love watching them all so scrubbed and shiny as they play or sing their beautiful music. So many different pieces. Of course I know almost all of the kids so that helps make it even more enjoyable. Not only is it my children, but it's their friends and peers as well. All the parents chat together afterwards about how amazing the performance is and how much the children have grown over the last year, it's a communal bonding kind of thing.
Last night Steve, D and I sat down to play cards. D taught us a new game called BS. It was a lot of fun, lots of laughter going on when people cheated or didn't cheat. The funniest part was that several times people decided that I had cheated and called me on it. My response was "help yourself" as I gestured to the cards. Of course they had to take them all because I was telling the truth.
I actually managed to figure out the cards and have a good enough hand that I only had to cheat once and then got all my cards aligned so that I ended on my turn with a single ace and went out. I hardly ever win at cards and do NOT by any stretch of the imagination have a "poker face" so it was a wonderful feeling to shark them both and win at cards for a change.
Our garden is definitely overrun this year. Part of it is lack of time and part of it is weather. I think I am going to have to get rid of a large section of the back garden. The woman who gardened here before me was a very enthusiastic gardener. I am grateful for the gift of the creation she left me but find that I am not able to keep it up especially with all of the other demands on my time.
While I enjoy gardening I do not have enough time to do the yard justice. I'm not sure how I'll manage to create the effect I want yet, but I am intending to only keep the top 5 feet of the back yard as maintained garden and then find some way to clearly define the border and let the rest of it go. I need to or I feel that I will go slightly mad worrying about the effect of the overgrowth.
Of course the hot humid rainy weather doesn't help. I find myself unable to spend too long outside in the yard because I just melt from the weather. I seem to be able to keep up with almost 3/4 of the whole garden/yard. I need to learn to simply accept that.
I have realized that my life has so many pulls in so many different directions that I am possibly too intense in my efforts to "get it all done." As I write this the cat is stretching and rolling over in her bed, very self-contented with her life; perhaps I should learn to be more like her!
Once again it has become time to clean out the storage cupboard. That's the one where we keep all of our Tupperware ™ and mock-tupperware products. We've tried so many different ways to keep them all organized. Lids in one box, containers stacked neatly nearby. Unfortunately after about 2 weeks of the kids unloading the dishwasher the neat stack isn't so neat. Even more unfortunately this situation is allowed to continue until one day the cupboard door is open and the containers leap out at you in a desperate bid for freedom.
At that point I take the time to reorganize the cupboard. My chief complaint is that either pieces have gone missing or the stuff is somehow multiplying behind closed doors. By way of example, this time I decided to move the stuff to a larger cabinet (that's probably a bad sign but we'll leave that aside for now) and pair all the pieces together with their lids. Any piece without a lid is set aside. Any lid without a container is set aside. I know the last time I organized the stuff I had everything matched up. So why do I have 14 mismated lids and 9 lidless containers? And I don't think I have any less pieces in the new cupboard?
Steve's chief complaint is why bother? Two weeks from now the cupboard will be a mess. Three months from now I'll be doing this all over again. He's probably right but I can't help myself, at some point I have to re-organize the stuff. It's some sort of a compulsion.
Now I'm left to ponder the following:
a. Do I keep the mismated pieces in the vain hope that their mate will show up?
b. Where do I keep them that I will remember that I still own them?
c. What the heck do I do with all of the stuff that was in the new cupboard? The old cupboard is smaller and the stuff doesn't fit!
d. Do I invest the time trying, yet again, to teach my dearest darlings to properly put away the stuff or do I just give up?
Any thoughts?
My friend Gail's daughter E had her 7th birthday today. She had a carnival style birthday party. Gail hired S and D to work at the party. S did face painting and her "booth" was hardly ever empty. She did such a great job that even E's Grandma asked for a painting, S did flowers and vines twining up her arm -- it was really lovely.
D manned the bean bag toss and was great at it, moving the line forward for the smaller kids who had difficulty getting the bean bags in. She also slipped them extra prize tickets. This was to ensure that everyone was a winner.
Part way through the party there was a sudden thundershower. Everyone grabbed the food and ran into the screened in porch. After about 10 minutes they all trooped back outside for more carnival fun.
Eventually it was time for music and fun. E's older brother and some of his friends put on an impromptu concert with three guitars and vocals. They were actually pretty good. Everyone else changed into bathing suits and jumped into the pool.
The cake was a gorgeous girly girl colorful swirly confection with three layers and cupcake edges. Very fun. D said she wants one just like it for her next birthday.
The storm eventually came back but not until after everyone had eaten their fill and sang to the birthday girl. What a fun way to start off the summer.
Steve, D and I had a "free eating" night and watched Finding Neverland while we ate dinner. It was a good movie but a lot sadder than any of us expected. The story was very sweet and touching. Steve and I were so impressed with how versatile an actor Johnny Depp is.
I was amused that Dustin Hoffman was in the movie since, of course, he played Hook.
Starting over on the shawl. I spent a fair amount of time frogging the entire thing and starting over with the new pattern. Got one pattern repeat done, I decided to try to knit it widthwise so there's 163 stitches across. So far it looks good and I think I like it a lot better than either of the previous two choices. We'll see if that feeling continues as I get further along. Luckily I counted right, I have to admit that I was dreading getting to the end of the first pattern row and discovering there was a miscount. I think the third time may be the charm for this particular yarn and project.
It's been so hot and humid all week I feel like I'm going to melt. I've actually worn flip flops to work (I'm lucky I can do that) to help keep my feet feeling cool. It's actually pretty funny to listen to all of us flip-flopping all over the office.
Today on the way to drop D at school I saw a sign that one of the school groups wants to have a car wash this weekend. Unfortunately the weather forecast is for massive thunderstorms on Saturday and Sunday. Somehow I don't think anyone's going to need to have their car washed, they can just leave it outside. Truthfully at school car washes I think there's more kid washing than car washing going on. After all if you get together a group of kids with hoses, sponges, water and friends it's a little too tempting to wash each other instead of the cars.
The humidity factor has been in the upper 90% the last few days so hopefully the rain will at least help cause that to drop to more comfortable levels.
Stitch Sisters was, as always, wonderful. S went with me so that she could work on beading projects for some friend birthdays. I really enjoy her commpany at these gatherings, it's so nice to be able to share this with her and everyone there adores her.
It was wonderful that Hope was there, I haven't seen her in quite a while. She brought some show-and-tell items including a Debbie Bliss baby sweater (her second sweater ever!!) that was gorgeous.
I made some more progress on Hoodie. Unfortunately it's been a REALLY busy week so the last time I did any work on it was...you guessed it, last Stitch Sisters. Of course I console myself with the thought that because I am working the front and the back at the same time it takes a l-o-n-g time to complete one row. Plus I'm changing yarn every 4-6 rows which doesn't help me as far as speed goes either.
In reading a lot of other knitting blogs I have decided that I am, of necessity, a process knitter. Firstly because I am probably thw world's slowest knitter. But secondly because I really enjoy the peacefulness of knitting and have no desire to speed through it. Of course it doesn't help that my project list is longer than my arm and continuing to grow but I am at least more organized now having shrunk my on-the-needle list to 8 projects (not including the fabric purse. I STILL need to get my butt downstairs and finish putthing those strips together *sigh*). Plus I've been very organized about writing down my wish-to-do list so that I can keep track of what I'm doing. Because I'm such a slow knitter I confess that there hasn't been much of a dent in the stash at the moment but we're getting there. Plus I'm hoping for a lot of knitting at the beach time once school is out.
Not a good combination. Why is it that my white cat loves sitting on black clothing? Does she think this makes her look more attractive since it shows off her lovely white fur? But there is seriously nothing more frustrating than getting ready for work, coming out of the shower and discovering a purring cat contentedly sitting on top of your freshly ironed black pants. Once you get all of the fur off the pants they don't look quite so fresh anymore. Of course I'm quite certain if I had a black cat she would be laying on the white pants.
Last night D went to let Chloe into the house and got a sniff. She bent closer and got an overwhelming stink of skunk so she quickly shut the door which startled Chloe who ran away. She came and told Steve and I about it. We were both stunned to think that our cat would have been stupid enough to tangle with a skunk and worried becauses we didn't want to leave her outside overnight but we also, for obvious reasons, didn't want her inside.
While we were discussing this, unbeknownst to us, D and S were plotting to bring the cat in and at least keep her on the screened in porch until we could figure out how to de-stink her. So they cut up garbage bags and got plastic gloves and outfitted D (S being older apparently was wiser to the possibility of skunk smell permeating and "offered" to let D try to catch the cat). She went outside to try to convince Chloe to come inside. It must have been a pretty amusing sight but it scared the cat because every time D rustled closer Chloe backed away. D came into the house very frustrated that she couldn't catch the cat and rather worried that she would spend the night outside and get eaten by a coyote or something.
Eventually the cat came up to the door and asked to be let in. She didn't smell. Hmmmmm. We've decided that there must have been a skunk under the deck where D was letting her in and that's what she smelled. Whew!
First let me start by saying *&$(%#@! The scanner isn't cooperating.
However, on a more positive note I found a little surprise package outside my door this afternoon. A thoughtful gift from my friend Cathy (thank you thank you). Yarn! Hah! I know I'm supposed to be on a yarn diet, but if other people gift it (completely unasked I might add) then it doesn't count.
The scanner wouldn't scan it with the top up and the yarn wouldn't fit flat unless I unwound some. So finally I unwound some to show you how lovely it is and it still won't cooperate. We have several balls of Berocco Denim Silk in the Iguana color and one ball of a lovely contrasting maroon ribbon. I'm not sure what it will become but I'm enjoying thinking about the possibilities. I've never worked with either type of yarn so it should be a lot of fun once I get to it.
My peonies are blooming! They're so beautiful! Such a sweet combination of pink and yellow, very different from the traditional peony. Although this is not an actual picture of MY peonies it is the same type so you can imagine what the bush looks like lush and full of blooms. 
I had never seen this kind of peony before; luckily for me the previous owner planted it. I had always thought peonies were only the traditional colors and bloom types (except, of course, for tree peonies but I don't have any of those either).
The hardest part about having peonies though is all of the ants. I want to go pick a bouquet of blooms but when we do they don't last very long -- this type seems to be more prone to petal dropping than the usual kind -- and we get absolutely covered in ant bites. Better to just admire the beauty of the flowers while they last.
The bush was planted so that I can see it from my laundry room and my screened-in porch, so I really do get to admire/enjoy it a lot.
On the way home today I noticed a lump in the middle of the road. As I got closer I saw that it was moving and realized it was a turtle. Slowing down I managed to stop close by; luckily there wasn't a lot of traffic. As I got closer s/he pulled back into its shell and stayed there while I carried him/her across the road in the direction s/he was already headed. (Usually when you pick them up they start swimming madly in the air which is a rather amusing sight.) I walked a little way into the greenery and underbrush and put the turtle there. Hopefully it kept wandering in that direction and didn't decide to go back across the road.
Now that the warm weather is here I realized that it was time to shift the houseplants onto the screened-in porch. I love sitting out there surrounded by all the greenery.
Some of the plants are getting rather large. Nothing too big to move but just a little unwieldy. The inside of the house looks rather bare at the moment as four rooms have been completely denuded of their plant-life. There are a few plants scattered here and there around the house, but all of the big, lush-looking ones have been moved onto the porch.
The funny thing is that by the end of the summer the porch looks wonderful. Then we move the plants back inside the porch looks really empty and the house looks stuffed with plants.
No pictures, sorry, but I got a really snazzy looking birdhouse from my mom this weekend at the aforementioned birthday party. Amazingly enough I also got a bag of birdseed from my aunt! How funny is that? They didn't know that each had the other item to unload share. Thank you generous people!
I put it up and it looks wonderful. The birdies will surely discover it soon. I'm hoping the squirrels can't get to it the way I have hung it. Chloe thinks it's lovely and sits on the deck under it posed gracefully awaiting the birds. She doesn't seem to have learned that the birds only come when she is not there or on the screened in porch. But I guess it's kitty entertainment enough to stare at a full bird feeder.
Okay who flipped the weather switch? First it was a cold and damp May. All of a sudden it's a blistering hot, thunderstorm June. This weather stuff is going to drive me crazy. But bear with me because the cottonwood trees are in bloom, I'm allergic to the stuff and it makes me cranky when I have to stop every five minutes and blow my nose.
This sudden switch in weather had also necessitated a switch in our beverage choices. Right now D is downstairs squeezing limes to make our favorite limeade. Four limes juiced, six cups water, sugar to taste. mmmmmm, delicious on a hot day. S had made a batch of sun tea, before the thunderstorm. One of my personal favorites is darjeeling and black currant teas steeped together. I foresee lots more of these concoctions in our future.
This past weekend D and I went to a family birthday party for our cousin L who just turned 1. It was great fun to see everyone there. The other baby cousins M and E were there as well. Cute to see all of these babies together and expanding the family -- we played pass-the-baby for most of the afternoon. It was wonderful to see everyone who was able to make it and catch up with them. I even got to catch up with Wendy. She of blog-start fame who got me started blogging and then stopped! Well, maybe she'll start again some day...I hear she's been writing.
The party was fun. The food was absolutely delicious, the cake was really cute with a picture of the birthday boy, who didn't like his first taste of icing, and there was a even a magician! D liked the magician and said he was "awesome!"
Ooh, I love presents. This one is candy from a Faraway Friend. Interesting flavors such as chocolate with chili (that one's for Steve although I'll try a bite but I'm a little dubious about spicy chocolate). Chocolate with apple vanilla yoghurt. When she sees this picture my friend will realize that there are a few bars *ahem* missing. That's because I live in a house with adolescent females who apparently can smell chocolate before it's even delivered to the house!
ummm...confession...I did at least get tastes of what the kids snagged...and it was all very yummy
More fun stuff! We got a one dollar bill this weekend that had a red stamp on it which said "See where I've been! Track where I will go next! Enter my serial number at www.wheresgeorge.com" It's a neat site that shows you where your money has been before it got to you. This site is only for United States currency. Our Canadian neighbors can go to http://www.whereswilly.com to check their currency travels.
My Aunt Carol claims that a ball of yarn is a fabulous investment for her. She knits and re-knits it so many times until she gets just the right thing. Well, I must be starting to take after her because tonight at Stitch Sisters (where they had a birthday cake for yours truly...thank you wonderful caring women that you are) I saw a baby blanket being made and fell in love with the pattern. I decided that it would make a fabulous shawl. So I will be shredding unknitting the current shawl to make the following:
Vine Lace Pattern
multiples of 8 +3
Row 1 = k3, *yo, k2, skp, k2t, k2, yo, k1, repeat to end
Row 2 = purl
Row 3 = k2, *yo, k2, skp, k2t, k2, yo, k1, repeat to end
Row 4 = purl
skp mean slip 1 stitch, knit 1 stitch, pass the slipped stitch over
k2t means knit two together
I'm not sure how this will work out because according to my math row 3 isn't "even" but I will trust in the pattern I was given because it looked beautiful. If it doesn't work I'll just bring it to Stitch Sisters and have them help me figure it out.
Tonight was the Girl Scout Gathering in town. The end of year ceremony where those who are bridging up to a new level do so. Plus awards, badges and special recognitions are handed out. D's troop had been disbanded for two years and only restarted this year. It's so nice to be following Girl Scout traditions again.
Especially wonderful was watching all the eager little Kindergarten Daisies being escorted across the bridge by Brownies and becoming Brownies themselves:
Twist me and turn me and show me an elf
I look in the mirror and see....myself
