I’m working on not getting caught up in the insanity that is the Fourth of July. in the US. I have food and drink and a quiet place to hunker down in (until. the fireworks start) and a lot to do here including more house cleaning although the place is much, much better since I hauled a massive amount of trash and recycling to the curb (and thank you Krissie. for coming to visit and spurring me on and for not mentioning the mess) and then, of course, there’s Nita. And Krissie made me go to JoAnns where I bought. patterns, so there’s that, plus modpodging a bulletin board and hanging racks in the kitchen and reorganizing this blog. BIG plans.
How about. you?
I’m working on catching up and potentially finishing projects this week. I’ve taken the week off from work to get some extra time for it.
Last week, while I was on a business trip, I started a Dragonbelly Shawl. I did quite a lot of crocheting while waiting for the red eye flight back. I think I’ll keep going til I run out of yarn, and then work the border with some plain black. So, almost finished.
My niece is expecting her second child, so her oldest is moving to a big boy bed . I told her I’d like to make him a quilt, and she sent a picture of this 2 yr old rocking his spiderman pjs with yellow rainboots. She said it was his favorite outfit. So, I’ve put together a spiderman quilt for him. I had enough of the spiderman fabric to make a pillowcase too. I’m going to the quilting shop this morning, and hope to get this one finished later today.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bzc29_7hmM6/
I also put together a cute baby quilt for the new arrival. I really like the dinosaur print. Hopefully, I’ll get this one quilted today as well.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bzc5dKmBoZA/
Now I’m pondering the next project to tackle. It will probably be a UFO – I have a quite a number of those.
I love that Dragon Belly pattern. I started one and then stopped because the yarn I though was black turned out to be dark brown which screwed up my plan. Then I couldn’t get the same dye lot . . . I just found it again two days ago cleaning. Must finish that. It’s so simple and makes such a. scrunchy shawl. Is yours in Whirl?
Yes, it’s Dandelion Munchies. I’ve got a black whirlette on order to do the border when I run out of whirl.
That explains the yellow in the Spider-Man quilt. If you run out of ufo’s, I can send you some of mine. 😝
I put a spiderweb pattern on the pinwheel blocks – it really works well!
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bzdt65hBgSE/
It does!
These are great!
Lots of cleaning and cooking. Going to have dinner guests tonight. A fairly rare event these days. I finally got my quilled horse silhouette framed and sent to my friend, so I put a picture up on Instagram. Spent some time knitting.
Headed to Ohio for a 4-day family wedding this weekend (#2 of 4 this summer). I’m working on being chill and patient, especially around extended family, most of whom are convinced they are always right about everything. Also, working on getting packing started as I’ll be leaving in 2 hours and haven’t begun.
Jenny, any chance we can get pictures of your house? I’ve been wanting to see it since you moved, especially after all the ones from the other house! 🙂
I am almost done with the blanket I started last August. I have one border round left. I hope to finish this week/weekend, and actually finish a big ass blanket (queen) in less than a year.
I made a giant ass list of all the things I need to do, and made some headway. I sorted it in to M-F stuff due to hrs available, some to work on in the next two weeks (important and just little goals to start doing – the things ive been wanting to do for months), long term goals, and things I can only do at my parents’ house. I already started a list for the next section of two weeks, too.
I’ve also been binging hoarders again, and I want to declutter again. I’m seeing imaginary roaches behind every door. T.T
If I ever get it clean enough to show anybody, sure. Its a nightmare now.
Working to get through the Fourth is my project here too (our poor dogs!). So my plan for tomorrow evening involves zombie movies, treats for all, a loud ceiling fan, and lots of reassurance for dogs-in-need.
Today’s plans involve some weeding, some writing, too many meetings, plus a long list of errands. OR, I might ditch 75% of this to go spend a few more hours at my pottery studio. It can be hard to balance my obligations with my obsessions.
Pottery studio! That sounds way happier than obligations. 🙂
Yes, I vote for pottery studio too.
I’ve got house guests and a new role at work that I am getting my head around, so I’ve been pretty busy. Next week I am headed to Spain for a holiday, so I hope to get lots of time for knitting and reading (as well as lounging around on the beach, hiking, eating good food, hanging out with old friends, soaking up some scenery…)
Me? I’ve spent the last three beautiful days lounging on the deck in my delightful backyard oasis in the city, mostly reading and following blogs and enjoying cold drinks and light meals. It’s July 3 and I’m halfway through my 3rd book this month. (Gwen Raverat’s Period Piece, having reading A Double Life on Monday and Big Sky yesterday.)
It seems summer is here and my busy days have slackened off. Today looks like more of the same. Though I may walk over to the library soon.
Oh, the hardship.
(Okay, a bit of laundry, shopping, mending a screen door, etc, in between. But mostly just being lazy.)
Super jealous! 😄
Me too! What is lazy and how do I get some?
Work now is actually starting on reading the TBR pile. Have decided on another book buying moratorium. Let’s see how long that lasts.
Still on the dehoard. Had another therapy session to help to get through the mental blocks. Man, I’m soooo close. It’s documents and KonMari is working but it is emotionally draining and the fatigue means I’m less effective. If anybody has any tips to help with the emotions, please tweet me.
I unfollowed many accounts on twitter to free up my timeline. It’s made me quite happy. https://www.instagram.com/p/BzdXdbDHnjc/?igshid=1savdr6edks1w
I love unfollowing people. It is a sort of dehoarding, isn’t it, and I find I have to do it regularly, on instagram and facebook, to maintain sanity.
Ignoring the holiday aspects of Independence Day has never been a problem for me. Since the power plant operates 24/7/365, I just go to work as usual. Mind, the Commonwealth doesn’t pay “holiday pay” for working on a holiday – instead they bestow “compensatory time,” eight hours usable some other day as vacation.
I don’t make quilts or blankets or anything useful. I have even abandoned one project – constructing indices for my ebook library – because Kindle and Mobipocket Reader do a better job at it. I called it “The Great Library (south) of Alexandria (Virginia)” I didn’t throw away the html index by title or index by author, because I still have the html files of many of the books. I just stopped updating when I added to the book directories.
TTFN
A water main broke yesterday so no water until late tonight. So, no kitchen cleaning. Also can’t mow the lawn because of light rain showers keeping it wet. Probably shouldn’t mow anyway because very hot and humid. At least my rain barrel is being replenished; I need that water for nonpotable uses!
I will frame a quick cross stitch picture I just completed. Another project done. Now if I can only locate the pattern for the next kit.
My Harriet Tubman stamp should come today. Unfotunately with no water to clean up the ink I will surely get on my hands I should probably put off using it. Ands I’ve got to find my ink pad and reinthat if it’s dried out.
Tomorrow a party at a friend’s house. And fireworks with my dog. My Shelties have all been convinced that fireworks are a rock concert-like show put on just for them. I have had dogs in the past that I’ve had to medicate. The Shelties are definately more fun.
I found my ink and ink pad. I located the cross stitch instructions. And, best of all, the wter company got the main fixed several hours ealier than expected! The grass is dryingout so maybe I will even get some of the lawn done.
The dotter uses her rainwater to water most of her plants, because city water contains chlorine and whatever additives, which seems to burn the leaves.
I love reading about everyone else’s plans/finished projects but rarely post my own. Today I’m baking a birthday cake and taking dinner to a friend recovering from surgery.
I got hired by an angry person to write a much calmer resignation letter than theybwould themselves right now. 😂 Also, getting a tiny bit done on the next book every day. My co-author is up my butt to write two new scenes, but also didn’t tell me this one important aspect. (I’m lawful good so I couldn’t figure out where the illegally-gotten money could be hidden.) So I think I’ve got a handle on that so as soon as I get some time poolside with one of my besties, I can move forward with that. Or, if I’m too tired, edit his stuff.
One of my commitments for this year was to NOT work on federal holidays (and Sundays), so today I’m doing my usual stuff (although a little different, since I’m working on a non-fiction — instead of fiction — proposal for submission to my agent next week), but tomorrow is for playing with fabric. Hoping to get a good start on the sashings that go between the red and white stars I’ve posted to #workingwednesdaypix in the past. Might reorganize/clean the pantry too, which isn’t playing, but is a distraction from work, so it’s allowed on a play day.
Yesterday was “find out about errors you made last week…. or in April” day, which was stressful. Today I am working at peace and going with the flow; so far, so good.
I have two baby blankets in progress (don’t ask) and a major baby/toddler dress, all of which would be nice to complete, but would involve actual crocheting. On the other hand, I don’t have to work on Friday!!!!! so progress is possible.
I have achieved a couple small pieces of long-overdue housekeeping which have rendered the kitchen noticeably tidier, and possibly even more efficient. Getting rid of half my kitchen stuff before the move helped a lot with that, but there is always the flotsam.
Found a potentially-interesting job to apply to yesterday. Now as always it’s a case of ‘fingers crossed’ and the ongoing need to find more jobs to apply to, interesting or not.
Have some blogging and publishing business to attend to today/tomorrow, but woke up with a near-complete scene in my head for the latest novel, so will very likely do that first since nobody is waiting for me to do the other stuff but me. Ha!
Also this week I need to read the latest Sierra magazine and get that into the recycling bin, and finish reading The Merchant of Venice.
Progress was made yesterday on our kitchen renovation. The countertops were installed and they look fabulous! Sadly the pictures do not do them justice. Also my husband has managed to get up some trim and has been re-installing the faucet and water to the kitchen sink today.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BzcCMzVg15Z/?igshid=zgesnpi8gp7
Over the weekend hopefully I’ll get more trim painted and maybe the doors. I also hope to work on quilting a quilt that I’ve been working on for months now or more accurately, has been on my frame for months now. 🙄
It looks gorgeous, Kelly! We’ve renovated the kitchen in both of the houses we’ve owned and it has been worth every penny. It is a joy keeping a beautiful space looking beautiful. When it is drab and ugly a sink full of dirty dishes was just garnish. 🙂
Thanks! Trim, toe kicks, flooring transition pieces, the backsplash, and painting & installing the doors is all that’s left to do. 😂
I seem to have stumbled into a “clear out the garage” day. I went out to find the hand truck and furniture dolly so DH and his brother could go deal with some stuff involving my late brother’s storage space (Good DH! Good BIL!), and wound up pulling a bunch of stuff out and cleaning and tossing and thinking about how to put what remains back in there in a more organized manner. I’ve filled the regular trash can (which we hardly ever do – it’s mostly bags of litter box remains) and am now awaiting trash collection (since I’m usually at work I have no idea what time the trash truck comes!) so I can fill it some more.
I have two days off in a row for the first time this year and I’m almost giddy about it.
Apart from going “there there” to the dogs if anyone in the vicinity decides to set off fireworks, I’m planning to get as much done on a baby quilt for the soon- to-be greatling as I possibly can.
How much of winning at life comes down to luck and perfect timing? My daughter’s scouts group is having an American themed night tonight, and I’ve been trying to talk her out of Green Day t-shirt. Rosie the Riveter! Perfect! Thanks for the perfectly timed inspiration.
We are invited to a firework viewing/dessert party tonight and a BBQ tomorrow afternoon, so I am happy. I like to be alone and quiet, but I hate the feeling that the whole world is having a great time and I am not sitting at the right lunch table to be invited.
I’ve done 4 loads of laundry because it’s a hot day and we have a clothes line, I got my car registered this week instead of the last week of the month. I went to the gym, and I practiced for a recital coming up in a few weeks. I think I’m going for goddess status today…
My hip exploded at the weekend, so I’m working on trying to get around without setting it off again, which mostly means crutches. I have a whole lot of obligations for the next six weeks that I don’t want to give up on, including a trip to Sydney to visit schools for Book Week, so the whole mobility issue is pretty fraught. I suspect a hip replacement is in the offing, but I’ve only just upgraded my health insurance, so I’ve got a twelve-month waiting period. And although theoretically I could go the public hospital route, that’s such a mess in Tasmania at the moment that I’d be waiting even longer.
So also working on not panicking.
Hang in there!
Thanks Deborah. I’m reading and writing, which keeps me mostly sane.
I’ve been knocking off the chores and errands today. It feels like I’m getting all organized to go some where, but I’m not. Staying home for the holiday, reading, watching a movie, staying away from the crazies.
Off now for a haircut.
After a worrying gap, I’ve now got four freelance jobs in the next few weeks. The first arrives tomorrow, along with the painters to do the back of the house. After much havering, I’ve gone with the pale cream the painter suggested. (I knew I wanted cream, but there were a dozen to choose from.)
In between visitors and a third go at scraping every last dot of Virginia creeper off the walls to be painted, I’ve had a couple of new ideas for the design of my garden and allotment, which I’m excited about. I love it when something clicks and seems really obvious.
This week I want to get stuck into the day job, work on my garden designs, and spend the weekend at the allotment, which is getting smothered in bindweed.
Bindweed. [Shivers of horror….] The only thing I ever found that could eradicate bindweed (other than frenzied digging and weeding every day for hours) is bamboo.
Bindweed’s football-playing, weightlifting, casually mugging, raping, and pillaging cousin from hell, in other words.
Good luck!
We’ve got it in our back garden, which also has about 50 young native shrubs/trees. I turned my back on the blasted convolvulus for about a fortnight last spring and it twisted its way up every. single. one of those plants. Such a pain!
I’ve heard that if you put glyphosate in bottles and dangle the growing tips in it, the tips take up the poison and that kills it. I might try that this spring. I’m not keen on herbicide but I’m not keen on convolvulus either!
Yes: I think I might have to resort to glyphosate, too, despite being organic. I battled with bindweed on my first allotment, and remember talking to a fellow plot holder as I was leaving, who said he’d dug out everything he could, and then put glyphosate on the regrowth two or three times, which put paid to it. I think I must do that: otherwise, at least a third of the plot is going to be no good for growing fruit or flowers – which I want to focus on.
PS. I understand you need to rub it into the growing tips when it’s growing strongly, in spring or summer. Sounds safer than hanging bottles or it!
I slept the entire day away today. It’s a waste, but I imagine the combination of sleeping with the rescue puppy and my dogs, plus the two funerals I went to last weekend, have taken the starch out of me. Plus it is hot and I can’t put the air conditioners in the windows by myself.
I am waiting to hear from my car repair guy if my car is actually repairable. I’ll put that on the pile.
I really am rather whiny today, aren’t I? All that sleep should have made me more cheerful, but I just feel guilty.
I applied for a real job yesterday. Not that I want to work, but I have the feeling that I’m going to be purchasing a new-to-me car, and that means another payment. I suppose I could just write more, but I think my brain is at its limit for producing words.
When the puppy goes to his new home this weekend I will get back to painting the upstairs rooms and possibly rent one out.
I’m really not as whiny as I sound, I promise.
You don’t sound at all whiny. Sounds like you just needed a day off from the world.
What Lian said. You just sound overloaded and overwhelmed. I hear you.
I have Wednesdays off from the day job (running an artists’ cooperative shop), although I did field the usual half dozen phone calls from the artists who were on duty. But I was pretty excited about having the two days off in a row to catch up on All the Things and maybe even rest. So naturally, I ended up volunteering to go in tomorrow morning and help out at the local rescue organization where I got my cat Harry Dresden from.
It suddenly occurred to me a couple of days ago that it was likely that many of their regular volunteers (there are a few paid people, but not many–it is a relatively new place) would have things to do with their families on the 4th. I have no plans–other than the usual writing/cleaning/gardening stuff–so I sent a message to the woman who runs it and was met with cries of joy, so it would appear I was correct. I do have ulterior motives…writing research related…but I also love this organization, which does their best to take care of the dogs and cats (and guinea pigs and even rats) that fall through the cracks of the local shelters. They do a lot of low-cost spay/neuters and fostering of animals while they’re waiting to be adopted. I think the volunteering will mostly involve cleaning litter boxes and putting out food, areas in which I have a great deal of experience. Now I just have to hope I don’t come home with another kitten. Pray for me.
Pray that you don’t come home with another kitten, or pray that you do? Both have their upside.
I’m going with she does bring home a new kitteh. 😁
No. No more kittehs. (And I actually pulled that off.) I have four right now–my 13 year old boy who is the last of the old bunch, and three 2 year-old-but-still-crazy-like kittens ones I got after Magic and Mystic died a year and a half ago
I’ve promised myself no more for a while unless a small black female kitten presents herself and makes it clear she is Magic reincarnated. Otherwise, no.
One will. You will know.
My husband wants us to get another cat to keep Lindy company now that Aubrey is gone. Lindy is 10 years old and I am pretty sure that his take on this is Aubrey or nobody. Particularly if it is going to interfere with his getting all the belly rubs and all the attention.
Yeah, that’s the way my Sophie is, except I think she’s kinda happy her brother is gone. There was an incident where he bit her in the butt. Afterwards, she banished him from the second floor. We, on the other hand miss her brother greatly. #kittehs
I wanted to tell you I think your cozy idea is fantastic. I was busy and didn’t see for a few days that you had replied to me when I asked about it so was waiting until I saw you post again.
Argh. From which I got my cat Harry Dresden. And I call myself a writer.