Rain coming down, tea, cake, book, comfy chair, hassock...need I say more?

I really needed this...

 My sweet girl.

It was a great day, and my favorite kind of beach weather.

Lovely, just so very lovely...

 The sunrise yesterday was amazing...

 ...and changed so quickly as I watched...

...beautiful!

• • Tuesday

    

    86° / 63°
  • Wednesday

    

    83° / 61°
  • Thursday

    

    81° / 61°
  • Friday

    

    80° / 62° 
     
    We can only hope... Of course they put that little cloud icon up if there is even a 10% chance of rain... but at least it's a whisper of hope.  I will say this:  it is cloudy out right now and only 80 degrees, which it has been since at least 6:15 am when I got up this morning. I love Rian's new name for our state: Hotfornia...that it is, all right...

Ok, enough is enough...

112°F

Current: Sunny
Wind: SE at 10 mph

3rd day in a row vegging...I'm on my third book...this is getting ridiculous...if you don't hear from me after this I've probably finally melted completely...

uhhhh...???

Currently 102.4 °F ...this is AUTUMN??  Remind me again why I came home early...cuz I sure as hell can't figure it out...=-/  It is currently almost 5:30 in the evening and it's still this hot...the temp was reading 106 earlier today...my God...what was I thinking...ok, I wasn't...sigh... I'm going back to my book now...sorry, I just had to vent a little...

I come here for the soul food.

In NY:

We went to the local fair recently (my 2nd fair this summer!) in the next village over from ours.  This particular fair is over 120 years old...my mom used to go to it when she was a kid growing up here.  She'd be pleased that we went.  I have always wanted to go but just never did...don't know why, really...  Well, now I'm able to check that off my list.  What fun it was! It was a very small version of the huge county fair I went to in SD earlier, and in a very different, very rural area with lovely farms and tiny villages all around...just like the village I live in when I am here.  Mostly we looked at the animals...my favorite...well, I like baked goods, too...heh...but this time it was animals all the way...

 

This guy realllly wanted me...or maybe it was the paper I had in my hand or maybe my purse looked especially yummy.  He had a rather disconcerting look about him and he was almost as tall as me when he stood up on his hind legs and tried to get over the side of the pen.  I took his picture quickly and moved on.

This mom had her hands full, let me tell you...

These guys were actually butting heads...hilarious! They were so tiny they were able to walk in between the slats in the pen and so were wandering all over the goat tent.  Goats crack me up, they are SO assertive...

                             

This guy not only had a blue ribbon, he also had a huge trophy.  He was spectacular!

To cute and too tiny for words...=-)

Ditto!  OMG!

Nosy

Tuckered out...finally...

And here was a very cute human sorta-baby:

This little guy had just won a blue ribbon with his calf...so sweet...both of 'em...look at those faces!

All that, and we were home before noon.  That is my kind of activity...short, sweet, and outta the heat... before it gets a chance to do me in!

Have a great Sunday, everyone!

PS: JenClair, my new header is for YOU!

Well, guess where the 5 of us went on Sunday??  We all had such a good time!

This guy was GREAT!  ..."Sweet Home Alabama..." lalala...

Gee, pretty much what all of East County has in their yards...We don't have eggs or a tractor, though...but quite a few people around here do...

Mmmmmm! And a skyride!

I had a few goals of things I "had" to see: a jar of pickles, a jar of jam, and a pie.  Well, I got two out of three.  I saw no pie, but we did happen upon the home arts building just after cheesecake judging and scored ourselves a big piece of the blue ribbon winner! It was a delicious and very rich lemon cheesecake made by a most enthusiastic expert =-) 

Everywhere we looked there were people up in the sky...on the Skyride, on the Bungee Jump, swinging around in seats hanging by chains from that pole you can barely see in front of the Ferris Wheel, on the Ferris Wheel,  and on one of those awful sling shot "rides" just to name a few... I, personally, keep my feet planted on the ground unless I'm on a plane or a ship...

Oh! And we watched a bit of the finals in the Roller Derby match, a first for all of us! And it was fun!

And finally:

 I did not partake...after all, I was on my way to the funnel cake stand...otherwise...well, except for that whole vegetarian thing...

Friday Finish

I actually finished this on Wednesday but saved it until today cuz I haven't posted a Friday finish in at least a couple of weeks.  This is a child's vest, knit for the Afghans for Afghans project.  The current campaign items are due May 14 so I am happy I was able to get it done and in the mail on time. I am not a fan of this pattern, which was one of theirs on the site.  It's cute and wasn't hard but the way rows are knit makes the rolling inherent in stockinette oh so much more of a pain.  If it ever gets washed it is going to roll right back up, I think, and that upsets me since it's going to someone who probably has limited facilities for laundry and reblocking.  Live and learn, I guess...Now I am looking for a more local project, at least in the US, to knit squares for...far easier and I think I will get rid of a lot more extra yarn doing that.

Today we went for our walk around the Lake, as usual.  What a glorious, beautiful day...in spite of the dog poop I stepped in on my way back to the car.  WhattheHELL...people!  Clean up after your dog!! And, of course, I have brand new walking shoes with lots of nooks and crannies on the soles...>=-(  Ah, well, the day far outshines my irritation.  The little geese in my header are one of the new families along the path.  There are so many babies hatching right now...fun, fun!  I try to remember to bring a camera now and then...which also affords periodic rest sto...I mean...photo opps...=-)

Have a lovely weekend everyone!
xo, D.

Finally! =-)

She's home! =-)  After being awake for  more than 24 hours and traveling around the globe to get here, one of the first things DD wanted to do when she got into town was to have Mexican Food!!!  Of course!  It's what we all crave when we travel someplace far from here for any length of time.   So, naturally, we all headed straight to the Old Town Mexican Cafe, which is conveniently located on the way home from the airport.  A margarita and chimichanga later, she was ready to head home, see her kitty and our beagle girl, and go to sleep.  Tomorrow morning it's a family holiday breakfast because she missed it on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, and was pleased when I suggested it the other day.  Nothing fancy, just a family tradition for most big holidays. 

So!  It's been both a long 6 months and 6 months that in some ways just flew by.  I can't believe it is already over...and I felt like it would never end...weird, huh? I think we've both grown from the experience.  And now, finally, I can sleep without wondering where/how one of my kids is...for now, anyway...and that makes me a happy mom, indeed. =-)

Have a great Sunday everyone!
xo, Debby

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO Part II

Estimated time of arrival: 7:10 PDT!!!  Happy dance, happy dance!!!! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! =-)

Note:  she said despite the airline's pleas for non-essential trips to be postponed so that stranded passengers could use the seats to get home, there were many empty seats on the plane flying out of London...weird...I guess it was more a case of them trying to get back to the UK rather than US flyers trying to fly home...

Tomorrow! Tomorrow! TraLaLa...

...Fingers crossed! =-)

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"UK skies reopen for flights as ash risk is downgraded

All UK airports finally reopened last night after the country’s aviation safety body downgraded the risk posed by the ash cloud that has brought travel chaos to Europe.

Passenger flights and offshore helicopters made a welcome return to the skies over Scotland and northern England yesterday as some restrictions were eased.

Hopes that UK flights would return to normal appeared to have been dashed by a second wave of dust from the volcano in Iceland that has kept many of the country’s airports shut.

However, at 10pm, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) gave the all-clear for Britain to get moving again following days of testing the effects of the ash on airliner engines."

Well, that sucks...=-(

DD has been in Scotland for 6 months.  Guess when she is ticketed to come home??? Saturday...=-/  All we can do is wait and see and hope for the best and a shift in the wind patterns.  I mean, really, what were the chances of a freakin' volcano erupting...sheesh...

Edited to add: From my NY Times email:  "The Civil Aviation Authority has approved the opening of UK airspace from 22:00 today," or 5 p.m. New York time, said a statement from Heathrow Airport.  Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/world/europe/21europe.html?emc=na

Sooooo, a plane or planes have landed at Heathrow this evening...it's a start...I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!!

A Wow! Friday Finish...

Well, ok, it's a WOW finish for me, anyway =-)

I have been digging myself out of the black hole of my sewing/throw-everything-in-there-when-company-or-a-holiday-comes room for a while now, but it has been a seemingly insurmountable task.  However, and this is HUGE, this week I have been able to organize and PUT AWAY all my yarn and (general, not quilting) sewing/knitting/crocheting books and pamphlets into ONE cabinet!  I made the decision that if the yarn didn't all fit into that cupboard then I had too much and some of it had to go.  I mean, really, no one needs more yarn than will fit in there!!  And it does, with a full shelf above it that holds art supplies.  And I can walk in the room--there is floor!!!--and I even sat down in the MIDDLE of it yesterday to go through a bin of fabric.  I was also able to bring in the bins of quilting fabric I put in the garage LAST April when company came and needed the guestroom closet.  That was where the bins used to be when that was the sewing room...they just never got moved over to the current room.  There is room for them in the closet in the current sewing room now because I have been weeding out and consolidating...a LOT.  All this organizing gives me such a good feeling!  I didn't know if I would be able to fit all the yarn and stuff into that cabinet so the fact that I haven't gone so far over the knitting deep end that I can is wonderful and I feel so much more in control of myself, at least in the yarn department, if nowhere else =-) 

So, here is my Friday Finish for this week.  My dad made the cabinet for my mom as a hutch for their kitchen a few years before he died.  I brought it home when we cleaned out my mom's house, not knowing what I would use it for but knowing I had to keep it because every time I look at it I can see my dad out in their garage working on it, and it really is a nice cabinet, and, well, it's hand made...I had to keep it...it makes me smile...  Now, instead of being a catch-all, it is a working part of my creative life and I love that I can feel my dad there with me...love it... Notice my mom's paper lace shelf edging...sweet and yellowed with age, but I just can't take it off...She's there with me, too...always...

There were some other things I was going to work on this week for my finishing projects...things that only needed a button or a seam or just a tweak, but this yarn cupboard organization took over and, really, is as good a finish for me as any of them could have been.  So, next week maybe they will get thier pictures taken...Or, if I keep on keepin' on, there may be pictures of other areas in the sewing room...I do intend to keep this up, this is only one small area...I really need my room back and a place where I can do the things I love to do.  It's time...far past time, actually...for that space to become my studio again and not the junk room...I mean, seriously!

Have a great weekend, kids!
xo, D.

Mama has a brand new...

...Moosewood!   I am salivating!  I finally fully committed to vegetarianism in January or February of 2009, but had been "almost veggie" for several years before that... I can't believe I haven't gotten around to actually buying and owning this book until this week.  I always intended to, I just never bought it. Wow, am I going to be making some new and delicious meals now!  I'm tired of my same old recipes, though they are good ones, I'm just ready for something new...and, I can't wait to get started on these! 

O.W.W.

Poppy

Friday Finish x 3

Wow, 3 finished things this week =-)

First up, my very first knit sock ever!  I finished this on Tuesday. Yes, I've started the other one now, too... I finally bit the bullet and decided to make a pair of socks...people have been asking me why I didn't or have been telling me that I should...so I did...even though that kind of thing usually makes me resist with all my might...I'm a brat...  It wasn't hard at all; in fact, I found it fascinating to see how it all came together.  I used the two circular needle method, and Patons Kroy Socks FX 75 % wool, 15% nylon yarn.  I'm not too sure that I will go into the sock-making business but it was kinda fun. Um, yes, I have a "few" skeins of yarn for more...you knew I would have...and Mary Ann, I still have the pretty yarn and needles you sent me...I think it will make such a nice pair of socks...now that I know what I'm doing =-)

2nd finish,  a little sweater which I actually finished knitting in NY last October.  All it needed was the buttons. Serendipitously, Laurie over at Crazy Aunt Purl had a little tutorial today about sewing buttons on baby clothes in a virtually permanent manner.  And, actually, it was Laurie who posted a sweater that inspired me to make this little "5 Hour Sweater" ...yeah right...5 hours...ha...whatever...NOT 5 hours...not hard, either...but definitely not 5 hours...not for me...  I liked the colors of this yarn, and it was really soft...but it was acrylic and actually too soft for anything that one would want to have any kind of shape to...but I tend to make baby things in acrylic because of the washability and the price...since babies do nasty things to their clothes, grow out of them in five minutes, and moms like things that are easy to wash.  I would never use this yarn again for clothing, but it might be ok for a little blanket since it is so soft...the pilling that I can see happening right away probably wouldn't matter so much on a blankie.

And last, but not least, I finished a bag that I started probably 2 or 3 years ago.  I had knit the body and the straps already and felted them; all I needed to do was to sew them together.  And I wanted to add a lining.  So that is what I did today after putting the buttons on the baby sweater.  The yarn is a discontinued (of course) Berroco Medley.  I had seen a bag sample in a shop made of it, though, and really loved the way it felted with all the nubs and multi colors, so I hunted some down on eBay...I ended up having to buy 10 skeins...so I have a LOT left...I think I will make some scarves for gifts or maybe a t-sirt style sweater/top or something with the leftovers.  The lining of the bag has a large zippered pocket on one side and a divided "compartment" pocket on the other for my phone, camera, and pen, since it's what I call a "dump" bag and everything I throw into it will be jumbled up on the bottom.  At least with the compartments for those three things I will at least know where they are when I need them, even if everything else is all mixed up on the bottom. I also am so happy that I made the lining in a light blue color so I can actually see what is in my bag.  I think it should be illegal to make a lining in a bag/purse you make or buy out of black or dark fabric! haha! The buttons on the ends of the straps are all different from each other and are vintage carved wooden ones from my jars.  I'm not sure about the dark colors of them on the light blue but in person the bag is very arty, nubby, sorta hippy-groovy colorful, so the dark buttons are probably just fine...I do tend to over-think things...you may have noticed...

This photo does not do justice to the nubbiness and colors of this yarn...it is very groovy and very textured...I think the bright colors are whatever synthetic is in the yarn, so those parts didn't felt, which makes for a really cool effect. I do SO love this yarn =-)

So.  This finishing things every week so that I have something to post on Friday (or Saturday) is, so far, a really good thing.  I've been able to get some things off my guilt list that have been hanging around and that feels great!

Have a lovely weekend, everyone.  I hope they are beautiful Spring days for you!

xo, D.