This Week--The Week-end--A Little Last Week--Update

Well, I have already lost an hour cleaning out my inbox this morning.  And that is just going through and getting rid of all the stuff I won’t read (too many groups and newsletters, not to mention all the sales ads from various places)…at least my stove top is soaking to remove all the grime from last week when I was too tired to actually do more than wipe at it instead of clean it off well…the dogs are fed and well-petted…the rabbits are going to a new home soon (as much as I hate it, I have to take them to the House Rabbit Rescue, so thank you so much to Rescue people…)…small fry is still asleep, but I am not considering that a bad thing right now.  We’ll be up late tonight, so I am making sure she gets enough rest…we get to go to bowling league w R tonight. 

We definitely did get a great deal accomplished, not only this week-end, but last week as well.

Our composters have arrived…and are in need of being put together.  We should have assembled one this week-end, but we were all tired and raggedy and wanting to just spend time together…so we’ll be doing that Wednesday instead.

We finally planted the remaining outdoor plants, two pampas grasses and three azalea bushes…we also set up our raised bed ring around our tree in the front yard (there is still debate as to what sort of tree it is).  Instead of moving the hostas, since the ring turned out to be smaller than we had thought…although we still could have moved the hostas, we were really too tired to anyway…we planted the chocolate mint in the ring…

That was actually fun.  Both kids helped.  N helped spread the dirt and then walked around and around in the ring to tamp down the dirt…E put the rocks in (crystals I can’t throw away but won’t let in the house anymore) …we found two little green inch worms…I think they may have been on the mint and not on the tree, but they could have fallen off the tree while I was filling the ring with dirt.  I can’t wait until next year to see that ring over full of mint…

This is also the time of year when I am contemplating what other bushes we need to get and get into the ground asap before winter comes.  I know I want mock orange bushes and lilac trees…but E and I have decided we must have lots of flowers, especially sunflowers, after all the birds and butterflies we have seen this year…I may have to set her up an area in the front yard that is nothing but flowers…which for me means bulbs since I usually suck at raising flowers…but we’ll see.

We planted tomato seeds in one planter, the one we were growing garlic in…and though we forgot we did it, since we thought the seeds were old anyway, we now have a tomato plant growing on the front porch, with flowers blooming on it.  In the back yard, although one planter seems to have no more tomato plants, the other planter not only has strong plants, but the plants are flowering as well.  Another planter that had nothing in it that I dumped a bunch of salad seeds into does have lettuce growing in it.  Now that I have the rabbity garden goods growing again, the rabbits are going to go live elsewhere.  Seems rather sad. 

I did get N’s room turned around (so he wouldn’t be sleeping so close to the curtains).  All the extra bedding is finally out of his room…although the chest still needs to be moved yet.  At least all his broken nut cracker toys are on his dresser now (for the record, he breaks the nutcrackers…he loves to open and shut their jaws, but he also loves to remove the lever that you raise and lower to work the jaw…so I don’t think any of his nutcrackers have the levers in the back any more).  He was happy he had his nutcrackers and his bakugan stuff from the holidays last year.  I finally got his stars and his dream catchers up on the wall…now it feels more like his room…even though the closet is not yet 100% his yet.  It is at least progress.

I had my ‘office space’ cleared up…then I went to the library…then I needed to print something.  Now it’s a mess.  One day here soon I am going to have to do something else for a desk.  Technically, I have one waiting downstairs.  I need to finish off that space (and that will be after the rabbits leave).  I have a Green Tara plaque that cannot be hung from a wall that I need to put somewhere…but then if we go there, I have quite a few Mother statues that need a shelf or two…and these are the good ones, like the one from the monks in Italy…sigh…

We did go to lowe’s and look at wood…all we really need to do is figure out what style of bookcase we are going to build…I ordered all the wood-working books (and then some) this morning…I also ordered a wood-workers wooden toys that teach book as well.

We made it to hancock fabrics yesterday…and I am still hyperventilating a bit over that….but for what we bought, we did really well.  They had simplicity patterns on sale for 99 cents each (limit 10) … E found her Halloween costume.  She had been planning to be a vampire this year (N plans to be a vampire as well…) , but once she saw that mermaid pattern, it was all over.  I let her pick out her fabrics, with a little bit of help … and boy, does this kid owe me now.  I also picked up a good 10 yards of muslin so I can play with my one really old dress pattern…OR I can play with my Red Queen pattern…what?  Did you think I would be a mermaid?  I like my knitted mermaid pattern better.  

I bought plenty of supplies for the Glass Fairy’s purse I am making…I have a firm liner fabric, as well as enough matching thread to create a thread horse of epic proportions…I had help.  N helped me pick out thread.  It was on sale…I need thread…so I stocked up.  My original plan was to re-stock my sewing kit, since I cannot find half of it at the moment and haven’t seen it all together since at least 2006…all I need now is a bag or basket to stick everything in…although there are still a few little things I will grab when I get around to it.  Despite how much we spent, I am feeling rather good about things at the moment.

Hancock had mccall patterns on sale for 99 cents each (another 10 limit)…so I got patterns for the kids…well, N changed his mind on his…but E is in heaven.  Why the sudden re-interest in sewing?  Well, last week, I went through my closets yet again and tossed out a whole bunch more stuff…I had this major epiphany not too long ago (that I have not finished writing about yet, which is why you haven’t heard about it) and I found out…I can make my own clothes.  I can knit, crochet, sew…use duct tape and fallen leaves if I so desire.  It doesn’t help that I get stuck watching seasons of America’s Next Top Model (J Alexander’s book Follow The Model is so awesome, I am buying it for E—not for ‘modeling advice’ but for all the solid real life advice) and Project Runway, and so on, as different networks run old seasons during the day on week-days…and sometimes on week-ends.   I am inspired…not to mention, E still says she wants to be a clothing designer when she gets older…so I am trying to inspire her and help her learn different things…like all fabric is not created equal…much like all yarn is not created equal.  Just because it’s pretty doesn’t mean it drapes or moves…or that it is easy to work with…

I finally got my hands on Fairy Tale Knits by Alison Stewart-Guinee.  I had seen a pattern for free when the book first came out…and for some reason I kinda went meh and went on to something else…but with library access and too much time to scan for knitting books via the online library catalogue…I decided to borrow it… I ordered my own copy this morning.  I started the Modern Chain Maille sweater for N for his birthday this Friday.  The kid will be 7—he doesn’t really want anything for his birthday—other than two cakes…his dad has to get him the chocolate cake with chocolate icing—I have to make him the red chocolate cake with red chocolate icing…with no pictures or words on the top…just the cake.  That’s all he’s really asked for…except for the hat he asked me to make him awhile ago.  I started a scarf to match, but frogged it.  I started mittens, but frogged them.  I will make him mittens before too long here.  He likes them.  And probably a dragon scarf too…no clue as to which patterns I will use…yet.

But, I actually got very excited with the book…I am also planning to make him the crown hat, the princess version…the prince version looks too cluttered to me, not quite a crown…but there are other patterns too…they will both love the pirate stuff.  Not to mention, these patterns go up to size 8 (most of them) and they are worked in the round, rather than seamed, for the most part.  I am all about the seamless work these days.  There is a great deal to be done with this book.

I have to decide what sort of blanket to make our friends.  Their baby shower is coming up.  Do I make the normal ultra plush ultra fluffy baby loved and approved blanket that I always make…or do I make something else since we just gave a similar blanket to another couple for their new baby…and they are all friends, so is it impolite to give the same gift, even in different colors, just because they are both having babies, even though I know every baby who has ever gotten one of these blankets ends up loving the blanket to death and then some?  Hmm.  I have a little bit of time on that one…but not that much.  I may let R handle this one.

I haven’t picked up my cotton silk t-shirt this past week.  Too busy trying to come up w something for N.  Same goes for the silver bikini.  I only have about 50 more rows before I bind off the bottoms…but N comes first.  I did pull out my crochet hooks and work one whole panel (that’s one whole skein of yarn, btw) of a blanket just for N in his favorite reds…I am surprised by the lack of red yarn in my stash, but at least I had some…three skeins of red heart super saver.  Here is where I got the pattern.  I love the pattern.  It’s so easy even I can do it.  My crochet skills are rather lacking.  But this is fun.  I am not changing colors; I am simply starting at one end of the skein of yarn and going until I can’t finish a complete row anymore.  I didn’t measure a thing.  To start the foundation chain, I simply worked a chain as long as N is tall, or a little bit more so.  When I first saw this pattern, I had thought it would be a great pattern to make a blanket for our bed…I may as yet do that.

I have a blanket that my grandmother crocheted; my mother said it was the last thing she ever crocheted before Arthur got her for good (Arthur—come on, you know him…Arthuritis…arthritis…).  I covet this thing.  No one is allowed to touch it.  It looks as if it is all single crochet, done on a small hook…two panels crocheted together.  I have tons of knitted and crocheted blankets, most that I picked up at thrift stores or inherited from other sources (as in, this is what I kept after the divorce) , some from my mom that are in the same category as the one from G (no touchy)…but none that I made.  We have small throws I have knitted…and that N has usually pulled and yanked until there are fringes where no fringes should be—he’s very tactile—that I will take full responsibility for—I am extremely tactile as well...but we have nothing really more than a throw for over the back of the couch to keep your feet warm or something that I’ve made.  So, this blanket works really great here.  I may not get it done before his birthday…and I know I am going to need more yarn…one skein of red heart super saver does not very far go with this.  Right now…the blanket looks more like a long scarf…and I have three skeins of red in my stash…I used to have more…but I used it or I gave it away when I went through all my yarn last year…I can’t even find my own coveted maroons either…sigh.  Anyway, I want the kids to have a blanket, each of them, which I made for them.  Knitted or crocheted.  Although I am thinking this month, being National Sewing Month, would be a cool month to sew them blankets…I have a ton of fleece remnants and pieces downstairs.  I may not be able to make huge blankets, but I could make something.  That is totally back burner at the moment.  At least I have started N’s and we’ll see what I can accomplish by Friday.  I have to seam his Captain America Sweater…and decide about the star.  I have to finish the chain maille sweater.   Plus, I have to see about making him a red velvet cake…we’ll have to see.  I know him, the little pain.  Red chocolate means one thing to me and one thing to him.  I have to be prepared…

Today I need to run to the store and buy supplies for my craft show so I can get busy on that.   After I finish some of N’s stuff.  We are going to Branson next week, so I will be able to get a bunch of new ideas…maybe…what I want to do is get back into making my own soap again…but even if I made it today, the soap wouldn’t be ready by November anyway…

All right.  Enough of my own writing for now.  I have to get some work done.

Plans for this week?

Finish N’s birthday stuff.  Hopefully get some things ready for the November craft show.

Four to six articles per day.

Set up sewing kit…and hopefully sewing area.

Unpack and sort through the rest of the old kitchen stuff…yeah…that’s not done yet.  Did you think only books were left in boxes right now?  Nope.

Mop floor in basement.  Kids spilt milk and ice cream down there.

Mop up rabbit area.  I also need to clean out the hay bin before we send the boys away.  *sigh*  I hate to see them go, even though I haven’t been able to go near them for more than half a second in so long.

That covers that.  I have to go…too much to do today and it looks like rain.  I can’t drive in the rain.  Panic attacks ensue.

TTFN….you must think this in the original Tigger’s voice, or it does not count.