Things to Celebrate

Hello from cool, dreary, and rainy Philadelphia! The perfect kind of day to just stay inside and be cozy, and that's pretty much what I plan to do.

We have been kind of busy lately. I have been getting ready for both The Tim's birthday, and for Thanksgiving. The Tim always gets into a flurry of cleaning activity around this time of year, in preparation for holiday season, so he's been working on that. The cats are either sleeping and avoiding it (actually preferred), or busy snooper-vising. 

Yesterday was The Tim's birthday, and unlike today, it was a perfect fall day - sunny, cool, and just a touch of wind. He took the day off from work, and I swapped my volunteer shift with someone else, so we were both home for the whole day. He had asked to go out to breakfast at a place in the neighborhood, so we headed there first thing. He had one of his fave things, a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon, with tomato, onion, etc. as well. I had the tofu scramble, which is really good, and comes with fried potatoes, which we both enjoyed. We were stuffed until it was time for dinner!

The Tim had told me what he would like for his birthday, and for once, I had been ready for over a week, so that worked out really well. He requested a cheesecake for his birthday dessert, and we enjoyed that after presents, while the kitties enjoyed some kitty treats. 

We had originally planned to go out to dinner, but he said later in the afternoon that he was feeling slightly out of it, like he is getting a cold, so we decided to do that another night, and just had leftover chili and some grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. It was a lovely day, and fortunately, this morning he felt much better. A good night's sleep I'm sure helped. 😊

Over this past weekend, I put out our Thanksgiving decorations. I don't have a lot of them, but I love having them. Thanksgiving is such a wonderful holiday, and I feel that a lot of the time, it gets short shrift. 

I posted this photo as well as a few others on Instagram, and got so many comments from people saying they remembered these particular candles from their families growing up! I just have always loved them.

My other exciting news is that I finished the body of the cardigan I have been knitting! Here is a not-lovely bathroom selfie for you to get an idea how it looks.

This is the Fidalgo Cardigan, and it is one of the most favorite things I have ever knit. I love that as you are knitting the sweater, you are knitting the button band - no hassle having to pick up stitches after the fact! I have learned a few new-to-me skills with this pattern, and it is so well-written that I feel like it would be understandable to just about anyone. I watch the designer's podcast, and she is just one of those people that I would love to be friends with. Yesterday afternoon, I managed to knit half of the first sleeve, so I'm hoping this will be an FO before long.

So that's been what has been going on around here. The Tim had a lovely birthday day, even though it means that now for a few months, we'll be same age (he always loves being "the younger one" for most of the year). We're looking forward to Thanksgiving next week, not just because we both love the holiday itself, but for the first time in four years, The Tim won't have to work! He also took the Friday after off, so we will have a nice long holiday weekend together to enjoy. I'm so happy about that. Obviously, we've survived the years when he had to work on Thanksgiving Day, but it's just so much better when he can have the day off and be at home too.

I hope your week has been kind to you, and that you are enjoying any crafting projects you have. See you next time!

Decorations Make Me Happy

Shortly after fall started, I put out some of my fall decorations. because nothing makes me happier than having a reason to put out decorations in our house and/or outside. I don't have a ton of fall decorations, but there are enough to fill a box about the size of a large shoebox.

Then last Friday, I decided it was time to add in the decorations I have for Halloween, which are in a larger box, mostly because there are a few that are ceramic, and are wrapped in lots of paper. Needless to say, the cats find the wrapped things much more interesting, because they feel once they are unwrapped, it makes for a great place to sit.

I realize the photo at the top of this post is small, but I am including it because I am overly proud of how well I managed to make the top of the living room bookshelf look *just* the way I'd hoped and I wanted to share it. I was so proud of myself when I got this set up, I immediately took a picture. 😂

Is it the most amazing display of items ever? No of course not, but every time I am in the living room, or even when I walk through it, I notice it and it makes me so happy. Which is the point of decorating for any holiday or event, if you ask me. And in the world we currently are forced to live in, I firmly believe that even small amounts of pleasure give us outsized joy. I'm a big fan of take what you can to make your life better, as long as you are not hurting anyone else. 

I know that soon, we'll be seeing people putting out their Christmastime decorations - it used to be only the stores put out things early but I've noticed people starting earlier every year bringing out their holiday stuff, even before Thanksgiving in the U.S. (We don't because I have Thanksgiving decorations, which will surprise approximately none of you.) 

Does that bother me? Frankly, I don't care. I'm more bothered by people who take everything down the evening of December 25 or the very next day and never mention the holiday again until the next year, but that's up to them and since I don't live with those people, who cares?

People need happy things more than ever these days. And for lots of people, that means having their houses decorated for Christmas, even when it's weeks away. It's looking forward to someone's birthday, or a weekend away to a place that allows them to be in a different mindset.

So I have my fall and Halloween decorations giving me my little escape these days. Then I can take a walk outside, see the changing leaves, and maybe even see others' who have decorated. I like having a reason to smile and forget at least for a moment that there are other things upsetting me and stressing me at levels that are unprecedented. 

So I am asking you to do two things: 1) decorate things if you want to, whether or not anyone else thinks you should or it's the "right" time to do so, and 2) if you come across someone who has done so even if it's not something you care about, let them have the little bit of joy without pointing out that it's too early/too much/too whatever. 

Frankly, if *that* is the thing bothering you the most these days, you might just be the absolute luckiest person on the planet. So you know, enjoy that!

Fall Makes Me Happy

OK, fall does not make me all that happy when it's 85 degrees at the beginning of October, but a) according the weather people, it's supposed to actually cool off to appropriate temperatures after tomorrow, and b) I can still put out some of my fall decorations, which make me smile. And let's face it, in this s**tshow of a world, we gotta take the smiles where and when we can!

I've been busy knitting, and have finished a pair of socks that I'll share with you once the recipient has received them. Not that he reads this, but someone who knows him may and I want them to be a surprise. I'm going along well on the cardigan I started, but don't have any recent photos, so you'll have to wait a little bit longer to see what one.

But remember the little acorn I knit a few weeks ago? Well, now he has a leafy friend!

I have to tell you, this little leaf is so fun and so quick to knit - I may end of with LOTS of leaves! This is another part to the garland I have started, and I'm so pleased with how it turned out. 

Aren't they cute together??? I'm not making any hurried effort on this, because it's kind of a when-I-feel-like-it project, and fall comes every year.

In keeping with the fall theme, and leading up to Halloween, The Tim bought this Halloween throw for us at one of the Aldi stores nearby. Not bad for $5.00, right?

And on our way to Rehoboth Beach, The Tim wanted to stop at the outlets because he wanted to look for something specific. I bought one of these black cat pillows at one of the stores there. I also got one for Amanda.

This is sitting on the couch in our living room, and let me tell you, it's been quite shocking! So far, only The Tim and I will still sit on the couch. 🙄

Meanwhile, Amanda says their kitty has claimed theirs for herself. Go figure.

That's all the news for now. I hope you are all doing well and knitting, reading, cooking, baking, whatever makes you happy at the moment. I'm off to start dinner (I'm writing this late on Monday afternoon), and it's a good thing because I'm starting to get hungry and sadly, dinner has yet to cook itself ...

Decorations and a Visit to the Vet's Office

If someone could contact the fall weather and ask it to please return, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

Well last week I finally got my act together and pulled out the Halloween decorations. I always try to have decorations up at *least* two weeks before whatever they celebrate, but sometimes I'm just not with it enough to get it together. 

Anyway, I pulled out these little ghost decorations, and they made me smile. You can't see it in the photo, but they have ribbons to use to hang them up. But what I like the best is that my nephew's wife had her kids help her make these and sent them to us years ago. At the time, the oldest kid was maybe about ten years old - she is now 24 years old.

But if you look closely, you can see that what they are are pieces of clay with footprints of each kid! Then Liesl (their mom) painted and glazed them, and voila - a family of ghosts! Isn't that cool? I just love the whole thing.

 

So they come out every year with the other random things we've collected for Halloween. 😊

*****

At the end of last week, I had an appointment to take Alfie to see the vet. He was overdue for a yearly check up anyway, but he has also been scratching his right ear a lot more than usual, so I was worried there might be a problem.

Now, you may remember that we refer to Alfie as our "affectionate weirdo." And he is - he's a cat who sincerely marches to his own drummer. For instance, he has no clue that the cat carrier is something to be dreaded. Which means when it's getting to be time to go, you pick him up and put him in it - no drama, no trying to escape. And then he sits there waiting to see what is next. (Meanwhile, the others who are not in the carrier are all hiding, and act scared the rest of the day, even once it's put away.)

When we got into the exam room, the vet said just to let him out of the cage to explore a bit. He was enjoying that, and then the vet teck lured him onto the scale to weigh him with one of those squeezy treats. Well, he LOVES those, so he was a willing participant - though it was funny, because he kept looking around while eating it. I'm pretty sure he couldn't believe he was getting one all to himself, since usually they have to be shared!

Then the vet and the vet tech wanted to go back into the lab to take a look at his ear culture. So they left the room for a few minutes. Which led to sitting by the door, crying because they had abandoned him ...

Spoiler alert: they did in fact return, and he has a slight bacterial infection in his ears. So we came home with ear drops to be given twice a day. But the good news was that once they returned, there was still time for some attention for Alfie, since as you have probably always suspected, he gets none at home.

To review:

Alfie had an adventure;

He got a whole squeezy treat to himself;

They left, but they came back.

As far as he was concerned, it was all good. And as to getting ear drops twice a day? Well, that ends well too, because after the ear drops, he gets a treat!

It's a good time around here to be Alfie, you know? 😉

Cats, Fall Decorations, and Workers

Well, I'm glad you all seemed to enjoy my post about my volunteer job - I'm enjoying it, and that is really the most important thing.  Yesterday there was only one kitty, a 4-month-old calico, called Gabby.

Unfortunately, Gabby had a pretty bad kitty cold, so in the afternoon she returned to the main clinic to get some medicine and TLC. She was so cuddly and sweet while I was with her. She *loved* all the stupid songs I made up to sing to her. ❤

Over this past weekend, when the weather was still lovely, I was folding some laundry and saw something I had never witnessed before:

Will you look at that! Miss Esme enjoying sitting in the sunshine in the guest bedroom window! Maybe she does it a lot when I don't see her, but this was the first time I'd ever seen it happen. Of course, the Koodle chased her out of the window and downstairs within about 10 minutes, because he is a brat. But she seemed to enjoy it while it lasted ... 

Even though she is still pretty much scared of everything and everyone, she has made a LOT of progress compared to the kitty who came home with us originally. I'm hoping the progress will continue as she sees that we have not yet beat up or killed any of the other cats who live here (and trust me, the Koodle challenges us 24/7 on that front).

For specific reasons that currently escape me, last week I decided that we needed some nice and new fall and Halloween decorations. So I was poking around and found some at Target online, and even better they were on sale. So I ordered two Halloween decorations and a fall wreath. Since Target is good about returning things, I figured if they didn't live up to their online appearance, I would return them.

When I opened the box, I was happily surprised! All three things were exactly what I was hoping they would be, especially the fall wreath - as a matter of fact, it might even be nicer than I was expecting! Here it is still in the box, since it's not time to display it yet. But isn't it pretty?

The Halloween things are tucked away, but I'll try to remember to show them to you when I get them out to decorate.

As I am writing this, there is a work crew in front of our house, demolishing the brick planter that partially collapsed about a month ago. Two different people gave me estimates, and both agreed that rather than fix it, it would make more sense to remove it and cement over where it had been. Apparently when it was first added, it was not connected to the house - so it would only fall apart again down the road. I liked it well enough, but it had started looking sad over the past couple of years, and then the collapse was just the end. We're just planning to buy some nice planters to fill with flowers, etc. next spring. Quite a few people around here do that, and it looks really lovely, and still gives some outside the house pretties to see.

The guy who is heading the crew doing the work looks like he would be the son of "The Sopranos" character called Paulie Walnuts. 

So I've been calling him Paulie Walnuts, Jr. (obviously not to his face, his actual name is Joe). He's really nice, but he embodies the whole Italian-American stereotype, and it cracks me up. Also, from the get-go he called me "Bridge," and it amuses me so much when people I either don't know at all, or barely know, call me that. No one in my family or among my close friends has ever called me that, but so many random people go there automatically! 😂

But you know what? God bless them for doing the work on a day like today, when the temperatures are supposed to be 97 degrees Fahrenheit with the ever-popular "feels like" temperature being 107 degrees. I would already be passed out, so I am thankful for anyone who does outside physical hard work when it feels like you've entered the gates of hell when you step outside.

And that's it for today. I'm off to work on a few projects inside, so I can get them finished and check them off the to-do list. I hope your day is a good one!

We Aren't Hoarders, We Just Keep Things ...

Hello and Happy Friday to all of us! It's gloomy and humid here in Philadelphia, and according to the local weather reports, we're supposed to get a rainy evening, rainy day on Saturday, and then some true fall weather settling in. Fine with me, I'm more than ready for cozy season!

The other day, I pulled out our box of fall decorations, as well as a large envelope where I keep paper decorations stored. There's a mix of fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving decorations, and I always enjoy revisiting them. 

I was putting up a couple of paper decorations, and came across these two:

These are Halloween decorations that my nephew's wife sent to us, made by our great niece and nephew. The one on top is the work of Jude, and the bottom one is from Anya.

Who are now 21 and 23, respectively. 😊

We have a lot of holiday decorations from this particular family (4 children in all, they live in Arizona), but these are from the oldest two. And I love that their mom sent them to us all of those years ago. I love the randomness and little kid-ness of them, and how she wrote a message and their name at the bottom of each. Every year, they make me smile when I come across them. 

I posted these on Instagram, and every member of that family sent me a message, saying that they couldn't believe we still had them - even their parents don't have such artifacts!

So, as the subject line says, we're not really hoarders, we just keep certain things ... 😂

*****

In other news, I've just been doing the usual stuff, nothing too exciting to report. My arthritis has really been bugging me, to the point last week where it was painful just to walk around. This week is better, but it's still annoying. I've been knitting and cross-stitching and reading, but have no photographic proof of such activities. This past week was a return to summer-like weather, which was not inspiring at all to me. 

I did teach my first class at the yarn store on Tuesday evening, and that went really well. I am teaching a class to make the Antler Toque, which you may recall I made for The Tim a couple of years ago for Christmas. Our manager decided that it would be a good way for people to learn to do cables, and so I had four enthusiastic students who feared cables when we started, but had made them happen when the class was over. This coming Tuesday is the second/final class, where we learn the cable decreases and take on any questions. I think it is going well, but it does make for a really long day. Fortunately it's my last day of work for the week, so I can catch up on sleep/other things afterwards.

No real specific plans for this weekend, other than my work shift on Sunday. Since tomorrow is supposed to be kind of rainy, I'll probably work on some projects inside. We will also be watching the Phillies game against the Atlanta Braves, hoping that our Phils can pull off a series of wins. An uphill challenge, but if everyone is firing on all cylinders at the same time, it can happen!

Let me know how you have been doing, what you have been working on, etc. I hope your weekend is lovely (unless you are cheering for the Braves, haha. Kidding not kidding!), and that you have the chance to do whatever you like. See you next week!