Posts

Weekends

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  Yesterday my husband and I went to the Phipps Conservatory with my sister and brother in law. We are trying to visit every season. We had such a good time, the butterfly exhibit was open (yay).  This time around my favorite spaces were the children's garden and the Japanese garden, both outdoors.  We came home with some new ideas for what to do with our backyard and the abandoned in-ground filled with dirt pool which is the ultimate gardening challenge for us.  My weekend was calm, I did a lot of knitting and reading and avoiding the computer, tablet and phone. I dug deep into art journaling and watercoloring as well. I am perfecting my skills at frying tofu and the photo below is my first attempt. The texture turned out fantastically. Next up is seasoning the tofu without salt (such a sad state of affairs because I love salt.) How was your weekend?

One Year Ago

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  A few days ago my ONE peony blossomed. Our neighbor gave us three peony plants, one survived through the winter and gave us a pretty show. Peonies are one of my favorite flowers but really many many flowers are my favorites whenever they bloom. Can you believe it is June? I cannot.  This time last year I was packing up a house we lived in for sixteen years, donating many belongings to lighten the load. That weird mindset 'I'm never going to hoard stuff again' has waned. I do buy the occasional used book knowing that each one I purchase might lead to a slippery slope of accumulation.  While I knit from my stash I still buy more yarn, I hope that it's at a slower rate but it is not stopping me from visiting yarn stores and keeping them in business. It's what knitters gotta do. One year ago I was frantically checking a list making sure the selling of the old house was on track and the purchasing of the new house was on track. I romantically daydreamed of boring days

Hollyhock Cowl

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  I'd say the bottom photo is the true color compared with the top photo, the lighting in this house is fickle and I'm still getting used to it. I finished another gift cowl to put in the present box for later this year. The wool was a left over skein for my sister's sweater . I had plenty of yardage to knit this cowl right up! I've knit this cowl before and enjoy the pattern immensely. Ravelry notes are here What are you working on this week?

Freeing Decisions

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  Good morning! This week has been really nice. I was appointment-free all week long, a rarity. The weather is right back into the rainy season. Since I'm coming up to one year living here, I don't know if it always rains here or if this is unusually wet. Does it matter?  Since moving here, I've let my hair grow long and just let it be. Another freeing decision! Why fight humidity? Growing out my bangs was another-freeing decision made more than five years ago, I highly recommend it if you fight styling your hair and yet it does whatever it wants anyways. I love when Holly stuffs herself in the downstairs cat tower. She enjoys looking out the windows and watching the world go by. She's been playing with all of her stuffed mice and leaves them outside our bedroom meowing to us that she gave us a special gift in the middle of the night. Sweet! Yesterday while noodling around on Ravelry I came across a laceweight shawl  that inspired me to dig through my yarn stash, wind u

Herald Shawl

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  I finished this shawl last weekend and once it was off the needles I started another one because I loved the mindlessness of this simple pattern. I did not aggressively block the shawl but I probably could have to make the eyelets pop a bit more.  This pattern is so easy to memorize and it's the kind of pattern you can talk and knit (at the same time!) and not make a mistake.  The wool is MadelineTosh Merino Light, which is a lovely soft fingering weight, but lately I've not been a fan of single-ply because of the slight fuzz that appears and the increased chance of the yarn spitting while knitting with it (I used to be okay with this 5-10 years ago). This skein has been in deep stash for quite a while so I enjoyed knitting up the shawl and using every inch of the wool! Ravelry notes What are you working on this week?

Weekends

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  Thank you so very much for your kind words and encouraging comments. I called the office late Friday afternoon and was told 'no further treatment' is necessary from the coronary CT scan. I am feeling better and my body is adjusting to the new (three's a charm) blood pressure medicine. By mid June I will have a follow up appointment with a cardiologist closer to home and during that visit I will get the nitty-gritty of what all the cardio test results mean. I have a multitude of questions. Thank you again - I am humbled by our little blogging community and the space we share.  Did your SEE that first photo??? Like crazy grandparents we drove three hours (one way to Columbus Ohio) for a lunch date with our son and daughter in law to spend some short time with our grandson yesterday. Oh the happiness!! He is a joyful baby, how lucky am I??  On Saturday, I did lots of watercoloring, sketching, reading and basically chilling out.  How was your weekend?

Routines

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  I've written about my morning routine many times but I thought why not touch upon it once more. I love to get up early in the morning, drink my tea and journal about the day before. Mostly it's about events, thoughts and feelings. Sometimes I rant but try not to very much. At the end of each entry I write my gratitude list. Frequently it's about family and friends, coffee and tea, quiet pockets in my day. The more ordinary the gratitude the more I feel peace. The past two to three weeks have been wonky here. I've been having health symptom issues that I thought were medication changes for my blood pressure. An EKG was slightly abnormal which referred me to a cardiologist. While waiting for that appointment I visited ER to make sure I wasn't having a heart attack (I was NOT). I met the cardiologist last week and he thought I was 'fine' but ordered a stress test anyways. I did the stress test on Monday and thought I passed! But then I got a call from the off