Pumpkin Sunrise

Another weekend has come and gone, how was yours?  Maybe just maybe the fireworks are over around here.  Every night since Thursday some town or family has been setting them off.  Luckily they are in the distance and I can sleep through them. My weekend was boring, isn't that wonderful? In a nutshell I did some knitting, reading, painting and all those pesky chores that demand my attention.  I feel rested and ready for another week.  On Saturday we stayed home, my husband did some outside yard work while I stayed inside with lovely AC and knitting. We went to Saturday night Mass then picked up our pizza.  Not only do the front counter girls know me but now the owner says 'your pizza is just coming out of the oven'.  We order the same thing every single week (large pizza with mushrooms and black olives).  Initially I felt embarrassed that I'm 'known'.  Now I don't care, I'm a regular - I am supporting a local business and eating yummy food.

Hello!  Can you believe that not only is it July but it's a hot and steamy beginnings of this month?  I'm wilting, no wait, I'm melting like the Wicked Witch of the West.  I would love Dorothy to come and throw a cold bucket of water on me.  Seriously though, if I could hug my air conditioning system I would.  Well most of our plants that we planted before our vacation have survived.  We have one butterfly bush that is trying desperately to die but we refuse to give up on it.  We have two columbine plants that are technically dead (!) but my husband insists that there might be growth deep down under.  I hope he is correct. During the past fall and spring when I was 'busy' with the gym three days a week and babysitting two full days, I was tempted to cut back on my three days a week of blogging.  I felt swamped and overwhelmed.  I felt something had to give in my days.  You see, on the days I babysit I could not do much else for the rest of the day becaus

I've been thoroughly enjoying knitting this  cowl in scrappy yarns.  However, I'm running out of all three colors so I'll be diving into scrap stash and see what I can unearth to finish off the cowl.  The above knitting project is the THIRD cast on attempt and right before bed on Monday night I thought 'this is it!  this is finally to my liking'.  Yesterday during my photo shoot of my projects for the this post my thoughts went to 'good gracious this is awful'.  I have dropped down two needles sizes and still dislike how loopy everything looks.  I believe this lace weight yarn has lots of sizing in it and makes the wool stiff.  I've knit with this before and vaguely remember thinking this.  Anyways...  I'm ripping the shawl out today and finding some other worthy lace weight wool in my stash to make this project . I'm enjoying A Gentleman in Moscow immensely.  The writing is lyrical and I find the Count delightful.  I ca

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig. Ah, can I tell you how much I love being home?  Most people go away on vacation to unwind and relax.  Vacations remind me how much I love being home.  I love my bed, my coffee maker and that beautiful perfect loveseat.  Such sweet bliss! Holly was happy we came home.  Stephanie asked me how we take care of the pets while we are away.  Holly stays home by herself and I have a friend come to check the cat every other day (Holly hates people) and of course the house and the pool. Frodo goes to the kennel where he gets lots of love from the humans.  When we come home, they are both needy in their own ways.  Then after 24 hours, you don't see either pet because they are sleeping to recover from their vacations. I'm a new cat owner but I do make sure she cannot shut herself into a room by accident (towel between the door and the door jamb).  I heard a story of a cat being shut in a room for many days (and lived).  That terrified m

We've been together for a week at Cape May NJ for a long awaited family vacation.  This vacation was in the planning stages since Christmas.  I wanted to go back to Cape May where we used to take our little children on a yearly vacation.  We have fond memories of foods, events, childhood accidents and wonderful beach moments. This past week was perfect weather for all the beach sun lovers.  I can't be in the sun in massive quantities because of my medications and my autoimmune disorder, but that doesn't stop me from loving the beach.  I walked the beach daily.  We rented a house this year to accommodate our adult children, everyone had extra wiggle room in this house.  The front porch was my favorite spot to read or knit or chitchat with whoever was with me.  Of course a vacation can't be a vacation without a problem.  This time I pulled a hamstring muscle (beach walking???) and that really hurt for more than three days. I'm happy to report I feel mostly

I finished the hitchhiker shawl!  I must say this was a delightful knit and I can see why everyone keeps knitting this pattern over and over again.  I enjoyed how quickly I memorized the pattern and of course how each section took a little bit longer than the last section.  My love of garter stitch grows a little bit more every time I have a project that showcases this simple stitch design. I did have enough yarn for 41 teeth AND I had yarn left over.  Phew!  Most of you loyal readers have knit this shawl but if you are a lone reader who hasn't you might want to give it a try one day.  Ravelry notes

This weekend has been relaxing and calm.  Even Frodo looks like he is taking time to smell the lilies.  My weekend included: -tons of reading -finishing the washcloths as a knitting palate cleanser, gearing up for a new cast on. -time spent with my family, lots of talking, eating good food and being together -because I'm with my family, the photos are minimal.  I tend to be in the moment when we are all together -sunshine and summery weather (finally) -loving life How was your weekend?

Sure I could go on and on about the relentless dreary rainy cloudy weather.  How every single blessed day this week has been rainy.  How my hair has gone crazy with all the moisture in the air.  How I long to feel some tiny bit of sunshine that lasts for the day.  How I wake each morning, look out the window and let out a little sigh because it's raining again.  But instead of focusing on something that I cannot control (although I'd like to!) I'm going to focus on gratitudes.   For all the thunder and lightning snuggles I enjoy when Frodo is frightened during a storm.  For eight years he was fearless and now as he ages he isn't thrilled with the noise so we snuggle.  For these pockets of time when I drop whatever I'm doing to give him some moral support.  For gardens that grow with all this rain.  Every single plant that was bought off the clearance rack at Lowe's is thriving in our gardens.  Maybe if it was sunny and dry we might forget to wa

I've been feverishly knitting the hitchhiker shawl trying to finish it.  I have 40 teeth and Im squeaking my way to 41.  Ah, the thrill of wondering how much yarn I have left.  I thought I had a partial skein of this yarn in my stash but I was mistaken.  So this lonely skein has to do all the work. The three color cowl is at the exciting contrasting color part.  I doubt I will have enough green yarn so like I said previously, I'll be fudging this pattern about to get the three colors in.  I'm considering this a scrappy three color cowl with my own creative license. Today I wound up two lovely lace weight skeins of wool.  I haven't decided exactly what I will be knitting but I do know that the project will be purple. What are you working on this week?

I finished reading the novel, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng and it was good.  She touched upon some difficult topics with elegance.  I miss the characters and felt sad when the book was over.  That's a sign of great story. Ah well, onto some new books.  I've read all of the Agatha Christie books back when I was pregnant with my daughter and in a new to me town with nary a friend.  It was just me and Agatha getting me through those lonely days.  I'm never lonely when I'm with a book. Anyways my daughter is 29 years old and I'm pretty sure I will not remember any of the stories. I spent time painting each afternoon, squelching the negative thoughts as best as I could.  Oh I swear I am thinking 'well this is a hot mess' each and every single time.  But then I flip through my book and see the tiny progress and that makes me happy. You know I wasn't an expert knitter on day one!  There are many many many hours, days, weeks, years and yes,