Whatha Doin'?

 How was your day?  I spent 90% of my day in my craftroom.  But first thing this morning, I took my car to Discount Tire to get the back tire repaired.  Lucky for me they were able to plug it.  Phew, since there was only 6000 miles on the tire, I really did not want to replace it.  I was in and out in less than 30 minutes.

While I was there, hubby went to get some blood work done and then went on to his allergist to get his allergy shots.  I had just gotten home when he called to tell me he was at the car wash and it was not busy at all.  

Off I went to get my car washed.  It was sooooo dirty.  We had a couple of rain days and when it rains, all the dirt in the air gets plastered to the car.  It sure does look much better now with the wash completed.

When we got home, I called the appliance repair place our appliance store told us to call.  The seal on the fridge door is starting to shred.  The place I called was hesitant to give me a quote without sending someone out to look at it first.  I got a little hot under the collar and explained I was quite sure I could tell if the seal on the door was falling apart.  Their service call is $90 just to drive to my house!  They finally gave me a quote that was through the roof!  I immediately started looking online for recommendations for appliance repair people.  I found a gentleman with 5 stars and gave him a call.  What a difference.  He was happy to give me a quote if I would just send him the model info from the inside of my fridge.  He gave me a quote that was significantly lower than the first place.  He owns his own one man business and was so polite and easy to work with.  The part I need is on back order so it will be several weeks before the work can be done.  That is ok as there is no cold air escaping from the fridge at this point.  I just do not want it to start though.

After all that, I headed into the craftroom and began mask production again.  I started at 10:30 this morning and finished at 6 tonight.  That included all the cutting and sewing and 1/2 hour off for lunch.  Here is what I accomplished.

Twelve masks completed.  The top 6 are for the teen, the middle 2 are for my son and the bottom 4 are for me.  Hopefully that is it for a while............... again.

Nothing else got done today so tomorrow will be busier than usual.  I have a couple of errands to run and laundry to do. Right now I am going to go and watch a little NFL Football while I knit on my shawl and hubby's socks.

Until next time.....................happy crafting & stay well!

WEEK 11 OF YEAR 10

 

Another week is in the books.  It was an unusual week for me.  I was gone from home 4 days this past week.  I was dog sitting and running a teenager around to her play practice as well as a swim meet and also school.  This meant my crafting needed to be something portable and dog proof.  

First up is some finishes.

Coasters!!!!!!  My daughter called me last week asking me if I would be so kind to make her some coasters to use at work.  It was the perfect traveling project for me.  None of the coasters are bigger than 6 inches.  She loves them and was so happy to have washable coasters.

I did work on hubby's socks some more.

The gusset is completed and there is another 30 rows added to each foot.  Not sure how this coming week is stacking up yet.  Hopefully it will be quieter so I can do quite a bit on these.  I really want them off the needles.  The yarn is very scratchy and splits horribly and because of that, I stopped the pattern and am just doing plain vanilla for the feet.  I have more of this yarn but am thinking I will be waiting a loooong time before I use it.

I did start a new project on Monday.  I don't know why I felt I needed to start something else.  In actuality, I started 2 new projects on Monday.

This is not a very big cross stitch.  I got the wording done and have not touched it since.  It is not travel friendly and definitely not dog friendly.  

The other project I started was the  Fodhla shawl.  This will be the second time I have made this shawl.  This shawl is the one I wear the most so thought it would be nice to have another one.

This is being knit in a skein of yarn I forgot I had.  It is Cascade Sorata which is a baby llama and silk blend.  So soft and what a lovely drape to it.  My favorite part is the beads being added to it.

I just happened to have these glass beads hanging around and they go perfectly with the charcoal gray yarn.  The beads are added after the stitch is made.  It does slow down the knitting process but is so worth it.  Plus, the beads add just enough weight to the shawl that it keeps is laying so nicely.

That is all for my crafting this week.  The Havana is in time out until it cools off here.  There is only so much heat I can take laying on my lap.  I have been looking at my WIP list and realize it is time to pull out the "It Really Fits Cardigan".  I only have 1.5 sleeves to do and then knit until it is long enough for my liking.  Add a button band to it and it will be complete.  Hopefully, I will have it done in time for sweater weather here.

IN OTHER NEWS:

When I came home Thursday, I found this sitting on my kitchen counter.

My husband is so thoughtful.  I sent him to the store to pick up a few items for our dinner that evening.  He ALWAYS looks at the flowers when he is there.  These are lasting quite while.  They have a lovely aroma too.

Speaking of aroma.................................The fires that are burning the western part of the US are just horrible.  We are being affected here too.

This is what our sun has looked like all week other than on Tuesday.  That was the only day we were smokeless here.  I have seen photos from places in California and Washington where you can not even see the sun.  When we left Mass this morning, I noticed the smell as soon as I took off my mask.

Speaking of masks..................the teen was told her face mask needs to be plain without any patterns on it.  Of course this was not told to them until the first day she went back to in person school.  So, guess who is going to be making masks today?  Yup, me!  I had to buy plain material.  Thank goodness I had JoAnn coupons.  I got a pale yellow (her request) and black (also her request).  I think I will make a couple of black masks for myself too.

Yesterday, hubby and I got our pneumonia shots.  Neither of us had ever had one before.  We will need to go again next year to get the final dose.  In two weeks we are going to get our flu shots.  We were offered the flu shot yesterday too but since we had never had the pneumonia shot we thought we would wait in case of a reaction.  That way we would know which one caused the issue.

Today's 'to do' items are; make a loaf of bread (it is in the machine now), plan menus for 10 days, make grocery list, do at least one load of laundry (probably will do 2), & make masks (aiming for 4).

Tomorrow, you will find me at Discount Tire.  We found a HUGE screw in my tire this morning.  It is not flat but the screw needs to come out.  I am hoping the tire can be repaired.  I only have 6,000 miles on these tires.  They are the ones that came with the car when I bought it last year.  

That is all for me today.

Until Next Time......................Happy Crafting & Stay Well!!!!!!!!!

Thursday

 

Here I am again.  Dog sitting today until the teen gets out of school.  Then it will be kid watching and dog sitting until the Mom gets home from work.  Tomorrow will be my last day until the end of next week.  Then I get to do it again for a couple of days.  I love being needed.

So, what do I do with all this time away from home?  Hmmmmm........I have done extensive pattern searches for ideas for items I want to make.  There are movies playing on the TV for background noise.  My project bag is full of cotton yarn to make coasters for my daughter as well as hubby's socks I have been working on.  

I forgot to tell you....................our weather finally cooled off a bit.  We have been below 100 for the past 2 days.  We will be hitting 100 again on the weekend and it will stay in the low 100's for several days.  I will take it!  The night time temps are down into the 70's which is a blessing for us.  During the heat of the summer we are lucky if they dip below 90!  So this is fall for us.  It is so nice to not feel like a blast furnace is hitting you in the face when you walk outside.  Of course, the down side to this is our swimming pool will be cooling off rapidly soon.  I will miss being able to just walk out the back door and jumping into the pool.  That means, it will be walking season.  Time to dust off the sneakers and get ready for some lovely walks around the neighborhood again.  

Time for me to pull out my knitting/crocheting and enjoy some sappy movie.

Until next time...............happy crafting & stay well!

Surprise!

 

Howdy.  How are things at your place?  Have you had any surprises lately?  Please tell me about it if you have.

I got a surprise last night.  After spending the afternoon and early evening with Josie and her dog Thor, I was all settled in at home for a nice quiet evening of crafting and binge watching Eureka (on amazon prime).

My phone rings!  A REAL  phone call!  It's Josie wanting to know what time I will be coming to her house the next day.  I tell her I will be there around lunch time and there is silence on the other end of the phone.

"Uh, Mimi, I have dance tomorrow morning at 8am." (Josie)

"I thought you had dance on Friday morning during your in person school day" (me)

"Oh, I have it then too but I also have it tomorrow on virtual school.  I need you to come over earlier than lunch time.  Thor (the dog) will not leave me alone with I dance and if I close my door he claws it and tears it up.  He NEEEEEEEDS you!" (Josie)

"Um, ok, I will be there by 7:45." (me)

"Thanks, Mimi.  I love you.  Goodbye" (Josie)

I am still holding my phone in shock.  That means I will be over at her place from 7:45 until around 5:30 with a small break to go and pick up her lunch I promised to get for her.  (Culver's)

Once the shock wears off, I go into high gear.  I pack up my lunch for tomorrow, start going through my crafting projects that will be suitable to take (and semi dog proof), lay out my clothes for tomorrow (makes the morning easier), set my alarm for 6am,  and grab 3 of my Contigo water bottles to fill with MY water for the next day.  THEN, I settle into my chair and enjoy some TV with the hubby.

So, here I am at Josie's place.  The dog is sleeping under the kitchen table while I am typing and Josie is upstairs in her room dancing.  Or at least I assume she is dancing from the sound of feet jumping up and down above me.  Her next class is Spanish, so I am sure it will be much quieter around here for that one.

Now to show you some photos from the past two days.

Here was our sun yesterday around 5:30.  No, it is not sunset.  That is the color of our sun from all the smoke we are getting from the fires in California.  It is pretty to see but the air quality is horrible.  Needless to say, I did not go outside other to get from my house to my car and vise versa.

The sun is shining much nicer today.  The shadows are proof of that.  This is me and Thor the wonder dog.  Shadows sure do distort a person.

Yup, this is what the sun is supposed to look like here in Arizona.  We had quite a bit of wind that helped blow the smoke out of our city last night. 

Thor, the wonder dog, does not get the concept of personal space.  This was yesterday afternoon.............his nap time.

  This is where he is right now as I am typing my blog up.  He just wants to be close to his people ALL the time.  As soon as I am finished here, we will head to the couch and I will work on some knitting/crocheting and he will be sleeping on my leg again.

Until next time............................happy crafting & stay well!

Labor Day

Happy Labor Day for those of you in the USA.  Have you done anything fun today?  Hubby and I have stayed home (as usual).  He watch the FedEx cup golf tournament (Congrats to Dustin Johnson).  I did 3 loads of laundry, did water aerobics (that was more fun than work) and have been working on a couple of my crafting projects.

Since I am going to be occupied for most of the rest of the week, I wanted to get things arranged so hubby would not need to worry about any of my 'chores'.  I even have meals planned that will not take much time to make when I get home in the evenings.  Hubby is a great cook but I actually like to cook our meals.

My son and his family came by yesterday afternoon and we worked out this weeks schedule for teenager duty and dog duty.  The teen has so many things happening that is different this year because of the hybrid school learning.  I actually have an entire page filled out with dates and times of where I need to be.

Crazy, right?  But if I didn't do this, I would never have remembered everything.

Guess what I did last night?  I started 2 new projects!  Can you believe that?  I was in my craftroom altering the dog's baby t-shirts and saw a couple of bagged up skeins of yarn.  I have them bagged as I wanted to find a pattern to go with each of them.  Well.........what would it hurt to take a little look at the patterns I had sitting right there next to me.  Oh My!  I found a shawl pattern to use with my Cascade Sorata baby llama/silk yarn.  It is one I have done before and have worn it quite a bit.  It is no longer available as the designer has pulled it off the market.  In fact, I had test knit it for the designer.  It is Fodhla by Ruth McKeon (Celtic Knitter)  Some of you may remember her.  She was in the YOP group for several years.

The other project I started is a counted cross stitch.

I love doing lettering.  This is a very small item so should not take a huge amount of time to complete.  (I hope)

Hubby and I will be having our left over green chili pork tonight for dinner.  It was really yummy albeit very spicy hot.  

That is all from this part of the world.  I pray, those of you being affected by the fires that are burning are safe.  I know the smoke is really bad for several of my family and friends.  We are even being affected here in Arizona by the California fires.  Rain is very much needed!!!

Until next time.......................happy crafting & stay safe & well!

 

WEEK 10 UPDATE

Here we are, once again.  Time to update y'all on what happened last week in my crafting and a bit in my 'real' life.

Hubby's socks are coming along nicely.

I decided to do a heel flap this time instead of the Fish Kiss Lip heel.  So the flap is done as is the heel.  I am now on the gusset.  Hoping to get that finished up this coming week.  Seems like I will get more knitting time this week than normal.  (Will explain later)

Then there is the Havana blanket that I am in love with.

I am now starting to repeat the colors.  This is a fascinating way to do crochet.  The thought coming to my mind is, additive.  If the weather would cool off a bit I would work on this more.  

The purple arrow shows where I was last week.  There are 7 sections to this pattern.  Each section has 12 rows and is worked 3 times.  That means there are 36 rows done for each pattern section.  I am on repeat #2 of section 3.  Depending on how big it is when I finish this section, I may decide to do 4 repeats of section 4 so it will be long enough to be used as a cover for a bed.  It certainly is wide enough for up to a queen sized bed!

That is all the crafting for this week.  In other news..................................

Luna, on Thursday, had her teeth cleaned and a mass removed from her left flank.  She was totally whacked out when we got her home from the vet.  So whacked out she actually bit me!  This is my sweetheart of a dog.  I was shocked.  It took her several hours to become semi normal again.

She is required to wear a baby shirt for the next 2 weeks to keep her incision covered and away from her licking it.  This is not making her very happy but it keeps me from having to watch her every moment of the day.

Last night we went to our BFF's place and spent 3 hours having dinner and then roasting 30 pounds of green chili.

This was toward the end of the bag of chilies.  Otherwise, this large 6 burner grill was covered in chili.  We will be having green chili pork tonight for dinner.  YUMMY!  We love Mexican food.

While we were there, their big dog went outside and started running and did something to his leg.  He was limping and whining.  Since she works for a vet, she was able to talk to one of the vets and got advice on what to do for the remainder of the evening for him.  I just talked to her (by text) a few minutes ago and evidently he really messed it up bad.  They had to have him put down this morning because of the injury.  My heart is breaking for her.  He was so sweet and kind and gentle.  A gentle giant of a dog.

You will be greatly missed Magnum.  You were so loved by so many for many years.  Run free my friend.

This coming week, I will be on teenager and dog duty for my son.  He is going out of town for business so Mimi and Mommy  will be running all over to keep up with the teen's activities and making sure the dog is not in a kennel all day long.  The teen starts hybrid school this week.  It will be, online learning Monday through Wednesday and in person learning Thursday and Friday.  She has play practice on Tuesdays and Thursday evenings and swim practice every morning from 5:30 - 7:30.  This will give me lots of knitting time.  Hence the reason I am hoping to have the gussets on the socks completed this week.  They are the perfect traveling project.

How was your week?

Until Next Time........................Happy Crafting & Stay Well!!!!!!!!!

WHERE DID THE WEEK GO?

 

BAM!  And just like that it is Friday.  I can not believe this week is almost done.  As you read in my last post (Monday) I was extremely busy that day.  In fact, I got so much done on Monday, the rest of this week has been pretty easy.

Tuesday, most of my time was spent working on my two projects and trying to get progress made on each of them.  The best part of the day was a surprise phone call from my nephew who lives Seattle.  He is my brother's youngest and such a great guy. It was wonderful to talk to family and catch up on his life and what plans he has going forward.  

Wednesday was senior day at our local Kroger store.  As a senior we receive an extra 10% off our total grocery bill that day.  Naturally, hubby and I went to the store and picked up our needed groceries for the week as well as stocked up on items we use throughout the month.  After that little excursion, I dropped hubby off at home and I headed to WalMart.  I had not been there in quite a while and forgot how busy and big that place is.  All I needed was some baby onesies for Luna. (Explanation to follow)  Their baby department is clear in the back of the store and looked like it had not had any new shipment of items in some time.  I did find 7 plain white onsies and bought them and got the heck out of there.  Although, I will say, everyone was masked and was keeping their distance from others.  I just am still a little leery of being around a lot of strangers.

As you can see, I had to get long sleeved onsies so that evening, I did some little alterations on the onsies to remove all the snaps and also make them all short sleeved.

Thursday was the hardest day all week.  Luna had to go in for her dental and also for a mass removal from her left flank.  I had to have her there at 7:30AM!  Then I had to wait for them to call me to tell me how she did and when I could pick her up.  I got the call about 1:30 to come for her between 2:30 and 3.  They said she did quite well with everything and would explain what they found when I got there.  Now, does that sound ominous or what?

Hubby and I went to pick her up at 2:30 and she was still very drugged up.  She was so drugged she bit the vet tech that got her out of her kennel.  When we arrived home, Hubby was trying to carry her into the house and she nipped him too!  This dog has never even snapped at anyone, much less bit them.  We realized she was still under the influence and probably in quite a bit of pain from the mass removal.  We got her in the house, settled her down and then I put on her little onsie.  (that is the explanation)

She tried to bite me while I was putting this on her but stopped when she realized who's hand was in her mouth.  (Smart dog)  It took her quite a while to come completely out of the anesthetic and we made her as comfortable as possible.  

This is her temperpedic bed and she loves it.  She stayed in it most of the rest of the evening.  She did jump up on the sofa once (my heart took a real scare that time) and I went to help her get off the couch and then she totally chomped down on my hand!  I was totally shocked.  It hurt but she did not break the skin.  (Probably because she is missing quite a few teeth)  So I quickly realized, not to mess with this dog when she is on drugs and in pain.

About 10PM, I gave her a pain pill thinking it would help her relax and go to sleep for the night.  HA!  She was super restless and neither of us went to sleep until around 2AM.  Hubby said he did not hear anything so that is good.

She is much better today and is back to being the sweet loving dog we all adore.  Her incision looks very good.  She will be in the 't-shirts' for 2 weeks and then she will get her stitches removed and she can be naked again.  As for her surgery, she did have 3 teeth extracted (which we kind of expected) and the mass was a bit larger than they anticipated and it had attached to part of her muscle tissue.  So the surgery for the mass was a bit more extensive than they thought it would be.  It was just a fatty tumor so no need for concern for cancer.  Phew!  She will be sore for a while and her muscle will heal just fine.  Poor little girl.

So, today is Friday and hubby has just finished cleaning the last half of the house.  I am planning on going swimming (water arobics) later today and working on my projects.  My loaf of bread is just about finished baking and my house smells so good. Tomorrow we are going to our friends house to roast up 30 pounds of Hatch green chili.  That should hold us for another year.  While we are gone, I will be putting Luna in my craft room so Enrique can not bother her.  He loves her and is very curious about why she smells different and is wearing clothes.  She, on the other hand, is not as fond of him LOL.

Have a great day!

Until next time.........................happy crafting & stay well