No Control

What is it in life that you have no control over?  You know, no matter how you try you simply can't resist.  It doesn't matter that you already have a zillion of ____ you just can't help yourself!

Here are 10 things that I have no control over:

1. Limoncello (several people could join me)
2. Fabulous hand crafted buttons
3. New knitting or felting books
4. Wonderfully fragrant hand lotion
5. Burt's Bees Lip Balm (I must have at least 6 tubes floating around)
6. Wool -- fabric, yarn, roving (did I have to even mention this one???)
7. Craft gadgets I've yet to even use -- Knit Klips, fancy quilting marking pencils, wet felting bamboo mats
8. Self Help books (not that I don't need the help, I do, but I just don't take the time to read) -- I should be thin, rich, in charge of my dog, have an organized house, and get along better with my son
9. Note cards -- I've got all sorts of cards but you know what?  I hardly write to people anymore!
10. Super Cool New Pens (see #9)

What about you??? 

Andrea's Virtual Shower

I wasn't quite sure what to expect at Andrea's Virtual Shower tonight.  I polled several co-workers -- since it started at 6:30 pm should I eat first, eat a little, skip dinner?  I wound up eating dinner, which was an unusual fiasco.  Kevin had bought two pizzas from Hungry Howie's last night and you know what?  When I got home at 5 pm he was downing the last of them -- and even had the nerve to snicker at me.  So I headed out of the house in search of MY own dinner and nearly got creamed by a car turning onto my street much too quickly.  Mood was quickly souring here.

Here's the mother to be -- live from Northern Ireland ~~

The shower was interesting as all sorts of women began to gather.  There were several quilting friends there including Aileen ~~

and Lee ~~

and Kathy ~~~

Missed getting a picture of Mary (-sorry Mary) and the others who had gathered to shower Andrea with gifts and love.  Dinner was not served (good guess Lisa) but there were appetizers and plenty of desserts, plus wine!

There was an abundance of fabulous gifts ~~

One of my favorites was a beautifully knit Aran sweater ~~

Here are the close ups of the pattern ~~

It was positively lovely!  Even the buttons were chosen carefully ~~

The same woman knit this beautiful blanket, too ~~

Here's the only shot I got of Diane's quilt for her grandbaby.  Unfortunately the lighting in that room was pretty poor and I'm not smart enough to take better pictures...

Here's a side view of baby Tristan ~~

There were several moments when Andrea looked VERY uncomfortable.  Like ready to pop uncomfortable.  Her intent is to have a water birth but she's ok with an Epidural if things don't work out.  Always good to have Plan B.

This is what grandma to be looks like when she realizes her baby has an 'outtie'.

And I'll leave you with a few shots of the yummy desserts, prepared by Holiday Market in Royal Oak.

And here was my selection (ok, it was my second visit to the table -- I knew Aileen would tell on me!)

Checkered Bag

Tonight I finished knitting a bag to be felted.  Might be the last one before my show at the end of the month.  I had purchased the Lopi yarn at a sale at Skeins on Main last year and finally got around to knitting it up.  It's my basic Jones bag but with a checkered twist!  I hope to felt it this weekend along with one other bag and any hats I may get done before then.  I finished knitting the handles, a 7 stitch version, at the Black Sheep Knitting Guild meeting tonight.  Here's the bag, the handles and a pocket.  I'm hoping that I carried the yarn loosely enough while knitting the checkered part so that it doesn't pucker -- we'll see on Saturday!

 

 

Here's a close up of the handle stitch ~~

After work tonight I met my friend Eddie for dinner at the Maple Leaf Cafe in Birmingham.  While the food was delicious I realized I had neglected to take a Prilosec this morning and I was feeling 'the burn' all night.  I had finally found an evening where Eddie could visit our guild meeting and while he was the only guy there I think he was comfortable, especially since he knew several people already from Ewe-nique Knits who were there.

I had a chance to visit with my friend Colleen, the aunt of the baby who died at birth two weeks ago.   I was really glad she made it to guild.  We hugged each other really hard, several times, and tried even harder not to cry.  Mostly successful, we talked a bit about how her sister and brother-in-law were doing and I asked her again to let them know I'm thinking about them.  Still so very sad.

Tomorrow will be the virtual baby shower for my friend Diane's daughter who is living in Northern Ireland.  I'll carefully wrap up the sweater for the baby and pray for a safe delivery and good health.  Something I think I had begun to take for granted but no longer.

Tristan's Sweater

I didn't start out making this particular sweater. I originally chose a pattern from the 101 Designer One-Skein_Wonders book, called Boy-o-Boy. I thought it was pretty appropriate but alas, it was not to be. Errata (ugh) and a poorly written pattern led me to frog the completed back and right front and start all over with a tried and true pattern.  I've used this pattern from Knitting Pure & Simple before but I was looking for something different to make a sweater for my friend Diane's soon-to-be born first grandchild.  I need to trust my instincts!  This top-down cardigan with a hood is too darn cute.  You have to love top-down patterns for easy finishing -- not a single seam to sew in this hoodie!

I snapped a shot of it in progress, something I often forget to do  ~~

Here it is, finished and blocking on my patio table ~~

A couple of months ago I picked up this great mannequin from my friend Kris ~~

It's the perfect size for displaying small things, like baby sweaters!

Isn't this the cutest button ever??

While I was traipsing back and forth to the patio table someone was spying on me !

This is one bold bunny.  He remained there long enough for me to do a double take, grab my camera from inside the house and skootch up close enough to get this shot, before he went hop, hop, hopping away.

Next to my back porch the Malva have managed to migrate and flourish ~~

I love these flowers but not necessarily the bees that are attracted to them.  When Mom was over for dinner yesterday we were attacke by mosquitos.  I should say Kevin and I were attacked.  My Mom has never been bitten by any kind of insect.  No bee stings, mosquito bites, nadda.  Too bad none of us inherited that from her.

Liver and Onions

I know what you're thinking -- ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

But when I was young, liver and onions was a dinner we had each month.  It's not an exciting dish.  No, it's actually quite simple and frugal.  Beef liver, rolled in seasoned flour, and fried in a skillet with butter.  Add oodles of sliced sauteed onions and a thick plop of whipped potatoes and we had a rib sticking dinner.  Cholesterol -- what's that??? We were never concerned with that as children.  I only knew it was high in iron and made me strong, like Popeye!

Yesterday I visited the Royal Oak Farmers' Market for the first time in eons.  There were many new vendors there including a place that sold beef that is raised on grass, no grains, no hormones, no yuck.  I learned their beef was high in Omega 3s and because it's raised on grass, the liver doesn't process the same old garbage so it's actually a healthier version.  I bought it, hook-line-and sinker.  What was really nice, though, was they gave me a pound of ground beef to try too.  So I got a pound of beef liver and a pound of ground beef for less than $2.50.  

Next I sought out some bacon to fry up with the liver, etc., and purchased a dozen brown eggs along with the 1# of bacon.  This guy actually raises, smokes and butchers his own meat.  I have to say both the eggs and bacon were excellent.  I'll be back to buy more.  From other farmers I purchased white onions, peaches,  cashew butter, and apple cider.

I love supporting our local economy.

So today I invited my mother to come over for dinner.  I know how she enjoys a liver and onions dinner so it was the perfect opportunity.   At first I thought I'd take dinner to her, which I usually do, but today I decided it would be too tough to cook it all at her apartment.  Plus, it would give her an opportunity to get out.  She hadn't been over to my house in months.

Dinner was fabulous -- liver & onions w/bacon, whipped potatoes, green beans, and fresh French bread.  Yummo!

Mom cleaned her plate so I must have been successful!  The liver was actually quite tender -- not at all like the beef liver I've had in the past.  It must be the grass!!

I can't wait to use the ground beef they gave me.  I bet it will be great too.

Tomorrow is the last day of the Michigan State Fair.  More than 160 years later the show will come to an end due to the economy.  That is so sad.  Maybe I'll try to take Kevin over there tomorrow.  He's never been, and I think he'll enjoy the Miracles of Life pavilion.  I'll take my camera if I do end up going.

Too Darn Late Again

I spent the evening knitting away on a baby sweater for my friend Diane's soon-to-be-born grandson Tristan.  I hope to post some pictures of the sweater in progress tomorrow.  I finished the hood and one sleeve tonight after completing the body earlier.  So.....only 1 sleeve and the button bands to go.  I might use the duplicate stitch to add his initial to the sweater -- if I have enough time.  The virtual shower is Wednesday.  More on that tomorrow....................

It's the Little Things

Sunday I finally tackled two outstanding home repairs -- fixing the flusher in the toilet and the closer on the front storm door.

The toilet had the work-around -- we just had to lift the tank cover to jiggle the float gizmo.  Now the front door is another story.  I bought a new closer in May but after tossing back a glass of white wine while installing it, wound up yanking the bracket right out of the door jamb when the closer setting was too strong.  Note to self:  might not want to consume alcohol while doing home repairs!  So we had the wildly swinging storm door all summer long.  But like most projects around the house, eventually I reach my limit on tolerance and make a move to get things repaired.

Both of these tasks were female friendly so I headed over to Home Depot and picked out the new toilet do-hickey.  I guess it's called a float but I'm still not certain.  I just knew what it looked like so it was relatively easy to select the replacement.  

But wait -- now there are all sorts of 'green' products out there -- which one is the right one?  The broken one I had was still available but I noticed it had a 1 year warranty -- ok, this is not the sort of task you want to repeat yearly -- why would they make it so cheaply???  I stepped it up a notch and selected a 'green' version.  It's supposed to save tons of water but I'm not sure how to quantify that -- maybe the water bill will just miraculously shrink?

Anyway, here's the model I bought for $12 as opposed to my old one for $6.

The actual repair was quite simple -- I can talk you through it if you need some help.  

I was done in a matter of minutes and then -- whoosh -- it worked!  Such an amazing thing you take for granted.  Push the lever and the toilet flushes, all on its own.  Gotta love it.

Feeling pretty darn cocky I moved on to the front door.  On Saturday I had applied some wood filler to the holes from the previous attempt.  As a matter of fact, no, I didn't take the time to sand it.  Why would you ask??!!

Armed with the properly charged up Milwaukee cordless drill (serious tools for serious work!), I tackled and conquered the door closer installation.  

Now it closes on its own -- what a novel idea.

I always sleep better when I've been successful at home repairs.  It bugs the crap out of me when I have failures and I usually have a fitful sleep on those nights.

Right now I'm sure my tossing and turning at night is directly related to my uncertain employment situation.  Here's the box I brought home yesterday.  

It is filled with loads of treasures:  my wire haired fox terrier mug,  Pepsi glass (vintage Ray Charles era), performance reviews since 2001, plastic back massager, empty planters, and a whole lotta junk treasures.  I have loads of Snoopy stuff still at my desk.  In case you don't know, Peanuts is licensed by MetLife for advertising purposes.  I have more of it than you can imagine.