WEEK 43 OF 52

 

Three weeks in a row I am posting!  Must be this gorgeous weather we are having that has me up and ready to attack the day.  The sun is shining, there is a cool gentle breeze and my front porch rocking chairs are calling my name.  Soon, sweet chairs, soon.

But first, I did a lot this past week and not all of it was crafting.  First, I will show off my crafting.

Still working on the lap throw.  The blue arrow shows where I was last week.  It is coming along and is not a hard knit but not something I will repeat anytime soon.  I was hoping to start a new skein of brown yarn before today.  Nope, I have this much left of the speckled to go.

SO CLOSE!  This week for sure.

I do have a finish to show.

I crocheted a doily.  It is been ages since I made a doily and I forgot how fun they are to do.  This one is larger than it looks here,  It is to protect my noodle board from being scratched by my 'treat' jars.

This gives you a bit more perspective of the size.  Those are quart mason jars that sit in a wire holder.  We keep our hard candies in them.  There are wintergreen lifesavers, Werther's originals and Dad's root beer barrels.  The family loves to grab a piece or two when they come by.  Can you say Grandma's house?

That sums up the crafting this week.  I got struck by the declutter bug.  Hubby continues helping a friend clean out her Aunt's house and after I went through the house I immediately came home and decided it was time to really get serious about getting my house in order too.  I spent the entire week doing the kitchen.  This is my domain and so I knew what I wanted to keep and what had out lived or no longer had a purpose for me.

The first photo completely filled my SUV's trunk, back seat and front seat.  The second photo has not been put into boxes yet so not sure how much room it will take up.  All I know is I am very happy with getting rid of so much 'stuff'.  It is so freeing!

Last night, hubby and I were talking about which room I should do next.  There are 2 rooms that will require him to join me in going through.  So, I think I will either do the craft room or the room that Josie used as she was growing up.  I also have decided I am not going to hang on to my mom's Hummel figurines and plates.  She tried to sell them on eBay and I have tried many consignment shops here and no one wants them.  I even put them in a garage sale and no takers.  I will keep one figurine as a memento of my mom and offer one to each or the kids, grandkids and great grandkids also.  If they do not want one, the boxes of them will be donated to Goodwill.  I hate to do it but I can not keep housing items that no one has an interest in.  They have been in my home for over 10 years taking up space.  Time for them to go on their way.

I finished up a book last week and have started the last one in the series.  There were 13 books and I loved all of them.  Now I am looking for recommendations for my next read.  I love cozy mysteries as well as biographies and novelists like Kristin Hannah.  If you have any recommends, leave them in the comment section.  Please and thank you.

I started OT this past week.  I think it is going to be a big help with my wrist.  Right now they are working on getting more range of motion and then we will go on to strengthening.  I have daily exercises I am doing and already can tell a bit of difference in the lack of pain upon movement!  Hooray!

I do have a little chuckle for you this week too.

Until Next Time..........................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 42

 

Whoa! Updating my blog 2 weeks in a row.  Do I get a gold star for that?

It was an interesting week for us.  Also a productive week for my crafts.

I finished my RCR socks.

Matter of fact, I am wearing them today!  These were done on Tuesday.  That meant I either needed to cast on something new or pick up on of my WIP's that are laying around.  I decided to pick up a WIP.

Remember the lap throw I started ages ago?  I decided to pick it back up and work on it.  I put a progress keeper on it before I started back on it.  Luckily I am able to work this Portuguese style knitting, so it is much easier on my wrists and hands.  I am hoping to complete this skein of yarn this week and then attach the last skein of brown which will finish it.........eventually.

I went to my Rheumatologist this past week.  She did have me go and get an x-ray of my wrist.  NO FRACTURE!  But, it is loaded with arthritis.  I am starting occupational therapy this coming week.  I am hoping it will help me so I can get back to crocheting again.  After all, I have a Lego blanket I need to finish and get out of my home!

Hubby has been very busy this week helping a friend clean out her Aunt's home.  He has worked 6 hours a day with her for the past week.  After walking through her house and seeing all the STUFF that is there, I now know I need to start getting rid of all my stuff BEFORE I leave this world.  On my!  This lady's house would have made a great episode on Hoarders.  Only, this hoarding is all high end items.  (golf clubs, shoes, clothes, jewelry, etc)  He will be going back this week again to continue helping.

Yesterday, hubby and I were getting ready to walk out the door to go to Mass when the doorbell rang.  SURPRISE!!  Hubby's brother, from Las Vegas, and his friend decided to come and pay us a visit.  It was nice to see him again but I had to scramble to get the guest bed ready for someone to sleep there.  That is where we put 'stuff' until we get time to find a final place for it.  They left this morning, so it was a quick trip for them.

The Brother

His friend is a huge historian and loves looking into where hubby and his siblings grew up.  It was in a small copper mining town in Arizona.  The history of that town is very interesting.  The mine started in 1872 and is still operating today!  They predict it still has another 20 years of production.  

The rest of today will be just kicking back and enjoying the day.  I will be working on the lap throw while watching some TV with hubby. I am also close to finishing the book on my kindle.  So, will read a bit too. There will be homemade taco salad for dinner tonight.  A quick and easy meal with leftovers for lunch tomorrow. 

That wraps it up for me.  Here is your weekly chuckle.

Until Next Time.............................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 41

 

Greetings!  Spring has finally come here.  We had a month of summer (March) and were kind of worried we would miss the mild spring temps.  Luckily, April has proven to be much more moderate in temps and our flowers and trees are blooming away.  

This tree is in our neighbor's yard.  It is a Plumeria tree.  I have never seen one in our area before.  They are very fragrant and the blooms are gorgeous.  Wish I had known they were good desert trees and I might have gotten one or two of those for my front yard last year when we landscaped.

I can not believe it has been 3 weeks since I last posted.  Time always flies by when we get close to Easter.  We have so much to do with the church, it tends to keep me away from my crafting.  But, that is fine.  Since Easter day, I have had more time to work on my RCR socks.

They are well past the halfway point on the foot.  Depending on my wrist, I would like to have them completed by the end of this coming week.

Speaking of my wrist, I see my Rheumatologist this week and am going to ask her if I should possibly get it x-rayed since it has been quite troublesome since my fall in February or if she thinks it is just more RA in that joint.  All I know is it is troublesome to knit and impossible to crochet.  This makes me very sad.

I did another craft while I was quiet on my blog.

I made the pink Lego roses bouquet.  I got these done on Good Friday so they graced my table for Easter Dinner.  Yes, I hosted Easter Dinner this year.  We had a total of 13 people for dinner and fun.  We planned the food much better this year and had very little leftovers.

Last time I was here I told you Josie got engaged.  Here is her photo of him asking her.

It was at the Renaissance fair.  And here is one of their 'official' engagement photos showing the ring.

They have the venue booked, invitations ready to mail, an engagement party set, and THE dress is bought.  They still need to do flowers, catering, his ring, and cake/cupcakes.  All this while he works full time, and she is going to nursing school and working as many hours as she can at the restaurant she has been at for almost 3 years.  

As for hubby and I, we are finally getting used to not having a pet around.  We have never been without a pet in over 45 years.  We have found it a bit freeing.  This is a true empty next now.  As much as I loved having a critter around, I am finding it ok to be without one.

We are starting to do a few minor repairs to the house.  It seems like when you have a 50+ year old home, things start to need more and more attention.  Hubby is trying to do most of them and when he can't we call in the professionals. 

I am wanting to dig into more decluttering.  We already did a bunch in hubby's office areas.  Actually, he did it all by himself!  I took a load to GoodWill just before Easter with all he cleaned out.  I am slowly working on other areas of the house.  It is amazing to me to see how much I can find to get rid of in an area I already had gone through last year.  My rule is, if it has not been used in 6-12 months, it is not going to be use in the next 6-12 months so donate it to someone who could use it.  Of course, this does NOT apply to yarn or crafting supplies LOL!

Ok, I have rambled on long enough. I will leave you with a little chuckle

Until Next Time.......................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!