Sometimes It's Just Dumb Stuff ... and, A Birthday!

Hello and Happy May! I hope the month has been good to you so far, and that if you ventured to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival this past weekend, that you enjoyed yourself.

I've been away longer than I had planned to be, but fortunately, I should be able to keep up with things going forward. My unintended absence was due to just dumb things - you know, things that crop up unexpectedly and take up your time and then all of a sudden you realize that you have not come up for air, and it's for no really good reason? Granted, I was sick for about three days with an intestinal bug, which was unpleasant, but also nothing I could do anything about. But the rest of the time, I was putting out little fires everywhere, or having to do projects that I had not planned or expected to do right now. 

Annoying, but in the past, so that's definitely a good thing!

Anyway, I've been reading, and planning my knitting, after taking way too long to decide on anything. I think when I'm in the midst of Dumb Stuff, I shouldn't try to plan anything. I also decided on a stitching project, and got the materials together, so all I have to do is get started. I also swatched for a knitting project, and actually after I'm finished with this post, I need to measure my swatches (2 of them) to see what needle size works better. 

The kitties are fine. Milo the Koodle has been on a real tear lately against Esme. He always chases her, but he's been going out of his way to do so in the past few days. And then when you tell him NO, he hisses at you. Jerk.

However, today is a special day because it is Hamlet's heavenly birthday, and Esme's third birthday! When we decided to adopt her, we decided since we were picking her up from her foster home on May 6, that we would just say that May 5 was her birthday. We knew that our sweet boy Hamlet would think it was a good thing for a kitty to have his birthday, too.

I'm making some brownies for The Tim and to have as part of our celebration later, and the kitties will have some special food for dinner. Later we'll have treats, sing Happy Birthday, and Esme will get her gift, which is a catnip taco (seemed appropriate for Cinco de Mayo!).  We are so lucky that even though she still thinks we are trying to kill her 90% of the time, she has improved from thinking it was 100% of the time. Now she will cuddle for a few minutes, and let you pet her without having a heart attack and running away. Baby steps, but good ones.

So that's the latest from here. I hope this week is a good one, and Happy Cinco de Mayo from everyone at our house!

Enough Light!

Last week, I started working on this stitching project:

And I have to tell you, doing the black thread on the black background was to say the least, a challenge! But I really want to make this project, and this is about the third of the black-on-black part of it, so I'm hoping to get another good chunk done today, because guess what? It's sunny and bright here, so I'll actually have enough light to see what the heck I'm doing - hooray! It's a Halloween ornament, so I would really like to get it done for the holiday this year. Fingers crossed.

How are things where you are? Today like I said is bright and sunny, and so pleasant and cool - just the way I like it to be, especially after last week was so hot and humid. Maybe fall is really thinking about showing up. I mean, next week *is* the last week of summer, so I'm more than ready. I've even been thinking of putting together some kind of soup for dinner. I love improvising with what we have, and I can walk to the market around the corner and get some nice crusty bread to have with it.

Since I worked for someone yesterday, they are taking my shift on Sunday, which means I have the entire weekend off. With no specific plans, except for Sunday morning when The Tim said that we should go out for brunch - you don't have to twist my arm, I love to go to brunch. I have things I'm hoping to do, but nothing absolutely necessary, and nothing time-sensitive, so I'm just going to see what I feel like each day and go from there. Such a luxury!

Today is laundry, and I'm currently waiting for the workers to come and put the final seal on our repaired chimney. I got my hair cut earlier, so once the chimney work is complete, I think I'll take a walk in the nice weather. It's so nice to have the windows open and not feel sweaty.

I'm glad you enjoyed the photo of Alfie and Esme that I posted. They truly seem to have a special bond, and it's fun to see them together. Alfie is such a goofy weirdo, and Esme is definitely the boss in that relationship. Which is extra funny not just because she is still timid around us, but also Alfie is easily twice her size. 😊

What are your weekend plans? I hope you are having good weather wherever you happen to be, but if not, I hope you can avoid anything too awful. Whatever you do, I hope you have time to just relax and enjoy things. I'll see you again next week.

Some Good, Some Frustrating, and a Whole Lotta Floss!

It was a lovely and also a frustrating weekend.  We had good weather, we got to spend some great time together, and I got some things accomplished even if they were not major activities.

And then it was frustrating - though the good outweighed the frustrating, thank goodness!

Saturday we got an early start, and took Hamlet to the Wissahickon Trail for a nice long walk.  The Wissahickon Trail is part of Fairmount Park here in Philadelphia, and if someone dropped you onto the trail from a spaceship, it would never ever occur to you that you were actually smack dab in the middle of a major city.  We had a good walk, and Hamlet loved seeing other people, pups, and ducks.  I was kind if disappointed that we didn't see any horses, but maybe next time.

The funniest thing was when we first arrived.  We parked the car on the end of a street right near the trail.  When we let Hamlet out of the car, he excitedly ran up to the door of an apartment building right there, as if to say, "I just know these people will be excited to meet me!"  It took us about 5 minutes to convince him that we weren't visiting anyone.  :-)

On our way home, we stopped in Manayunk at Hidden River Yarns, to pick up some knitting of mine that I was finally getting back.  You may or may not remember that last summer, I was knitting the Edie pattern, and when I went to do the sleeves - the very last part - one of them had all of the stitches off of the spare yarn where I had placed them.  (I suspect cats, but have no proof.)  I spent a lot of time trying to recover things, but finally had to admit defeat. I pollled my knitting friends, and someone volunteered.  Well, over the course of the last year, every time I would ask about it, she was "going to get to it," and finally I just said please return it.  So she returned it to Lisa at Hidden River, and Lisa performed "triage" so that I should be able to finish it (finally!).  So I stopped and retrieved it.  But today when I pulled it out to see what was/was not done, I was missing the pattern and some of the dpns!  So I messaged Lisa, and she is going to check when she is in the shop on Tuesday to see if they are still there.  I'm kind of annoyed - though NOT at Lisa - because the person who had it didn't seem to take very good care of it, or the project bag I was using.  But hopefully I'll be able to finish it soon, wash the project bag, and wear the top next summer.  Suffice it to say this was the frustrating part of the weekend.

Moving back to good things, I did finish one foot on one of the socks I'm knitting, and am nearly finished with the foot of the other one.  So I'm guessing that these may be finished by next weekend.

Forgive the smushed-up appearance of them - I just pulled them out of the project bag to take a photo and didn't do anything to "arrange" them.  I've been enjoying knitting this pair!

Today, I decided that I would undertake a project that could get me prepared to start my next cross-stitch project.  My mother was a major and prolific cross-stitcher, and I inherited her supplies.*  So before I bought any floss for my next project, I decided to pull out what I already had, because maybe I wouldn't need to buy any, or at least not much.

The stuff had been in the basement, so the binder-type things that the floss had been stored in were in questionable shape, and the floss, though fine, was musty.  I washed the binders and they are hanging up to dry.   And then I needed to figure out a way to hang up the floss so that it could air out, but even more importantly, out of the reach of kitties.  So currently there is a whole lot of floss hanging in various locations on our third floor!

You know, just a few things to choose from ... !!!

It may take me as long to organize and put it away again as it takes to make my next project. :-)  But I'm glad I have it and that it's in good condition, because it reminds me of my mom, and she would be happy to think that even though it's been just sitting for years and years, that I'm using it now.

I do wish that the weekend had felt longer, but it was a pretty good one overall, so I really can't complain.  This week I have a gynecology appt this afternoon, and a dental appointment on Friday, so it's a week of things not all that pleasant, but necessary and then hopefully taken care of for a while.

I hope your week will be a good one - if you are lucky, leaving out any medical stuff!

*One of these days, I'll do a post and show you some of her work.  My sisters and I all have some of it, and it's so beautiful.