My weekend in pictures

Saturday morning I drove to a suburb of Baltimore and checked into this hotel where I met a few of my friends. We used this....to get to the Baltimore Convention Center... which is in the Inner Harbor so we could attend this... which is a huge annual gathering of ... knitters! I met lots of nice people, a few authors, learned a few things, and bought some yarn. The next day my two friends left because they had been there for days and their time was up, but two other friends drove down from Delaware. I took the train by myself and met them in the city, then at the end of the day took the train back up to where I'd left my car and drove home. Missed a turn in the middle of horse country on the way home, but a quick call to my brother who is a whiz at helping me out when I'm lost, and I was back on my way.

I bought a few projects....
This hat, but not in those colors, for a baby gift. It looks like fun to knit and it's adorable. I bought yarn and a pattern for a sweater that I unfortunately cannot find a picture of to show you, because it's very new. I bought this book....
to help me design a sweater for DH. I also bought one of these Buddha buttons, the large one, for something as-yet-unplanned for myself because I thought it was just so cool looking.

I bought a few Christmas presents too, but, you know. Can't show em.

That's my story, it was fun to be with so many other women (and a few men!) who knit. Now I have to clean and get to work on a BIG project for school that I am very late on, and will take many many solid days of work, which I don't have, so it will take weeks overall. Yikes.

Ah, Fall

Look at the woods, don't you just want to go for a walk in there?

Fall Back Day

Have you changed your clocks?

It's looking pretty beautiful around here, and last week DH and I stopped to take pictures of it all. Today might be a good day to put the camera in the car too. Here's a lovely view of a farm not far from here....

And one of the many ruins of houses/barns/homesteads around us....
Isn't this one gorgeous? Unfortunately as I was trying to take more pictures someone let out the dogs on an adjoining property and I got back in the car real fast!
Then there was this sign, on the fence of a stunningly beautiful property with what looked to be meticulously restored buildings and gorgeous plantings. As you cross over a little stone bridge and round a bend, wham! this sign just jumps off the fence!

Windy Wednesday Morning

Now this is something you just don't want to have happen when you are knitting. I saw a few twisted stitches a few inches down on this sweater and decided to drop the stitches off my needle, unravel them, and use a crochet hook to pick them back up. That's fine except that I dropped the wrong ones and instead of fixing them first and then dropping the next ones, I dropped them all at once. There was no way to put them all back neatly, so I ripped them all out down to the bottom. That pretty much undid the entire evening's worth of knitting.

Gratuitous picture of Rusty and Keefer. Kiefer? I don't know how to spell his name!

This is from last week when we were watching K-Man while. He was very good and fun to have here.

Last sewing class today and I am in a bad mood because I did not finish my blouses and they have fitting problems and therefore I can't wear either of them to class and I was up late working on them and I don't even have any buttons and I'm never sewing again.

Charlottesville

Yesterday's New York Times had this article about Charlottesville - things to see, do, eat. I thought I'd put it here as the easiest way to share it, and it's permalinked so it will be there even when it's archived.

Knights, Ladies, weird fantasy costumes,and KINDLE

I'm meeting DD and boyfriend today at the PA Renaissance Faire. I'm looking forward to it, I love going. Not getting dressed up this year. I will buy candles and honey from the beekeepers that are there, and some wine from the Mt. Hope vineyard.

Hey, in other news, someone told me that Oprah had the inventor of the Kindle on her show, it's hew new favorite thing. In the world, I believe. Changed her life, she says. I get it because I LOVE mine. She gave one to each of her guests, as well as $50 off a Kindle to anyone who wants to order one by November 1. I am putting this up as a public service announcement because you should buy the readers on your list one for Christmas. This makes it $309. I know. It's a killer, but the books are MUCH cheaper and you know they are still going to buy paper editions of their best books anyways!

Home Dec

My mother-in-law asked me to make shams for her extra bedroom, to match some curtains she put up. I made the shams you see on the left, the peach fabric with the small print. I also made her the accent pillow you see, which is fabulous!! I made piping and the covered button in the middle of the pillow out of the sham fabric.

I am really happy with how it all came out and so was she, when I gave it to her earlier today.

Guess what you're getting for Christmas?

You are probably thinking that my life is pretty glamorous, what with those into-the-wee-hours sewing sessions and all. Well, just take a look at what a Friday night might hold for me.


I have been experimenting with making the same kind of bath products that I buy from a certain shop when I am on vacation. I've found some different directions online, so here you see my supplies being measured and mixed...







































...and squeezed into Christmas ornament molds.....




















molded into a loaf pan.

In case this looks like the work of a few minutes, it was not. I spent a very long time trying to get it all right. Made a HUGE mess to clean up.




















Ta da! Bath Bombs, solid bubble bath, and salt scrub. Scented with either warm spicy things like patchouli and cloves, or in the case of the green ones, eucalyptus.

I tested a bubble bath slice. WALL of bubbles.

So there you have it. Chemistry Night.

You should be around for Knitting Night. It's just off the wall.

Mad Midnight Sewing

Do you notice the time at the bottom of this post? I've been sewing. DS2 is still awake too, and he finds it amusing that my late-night activity is sewing, in fact, he is kind of snickering in a smart-ass way. BUT, and this is only exciting to me but I'm really happy I thought of this - I just spent several hours taking my two favorite REALLY old nightgowns and cutting them into one brand new FABULOUS nightgown! Madness, no? I really know how to kick it up after midnight yes?

The new hybrid nightgown is a masterful blend of a long white nightgown a white one with blue flowers. I even saved and used the nice covered buttons from the white one. I did a good job, this looks great. I'm wearing it right now. I may have to even go outside just to see the moonlight in my old/new nightgown. Cuz, you know, that's how I roll when I cut loose and sew into the wee hours.

Wednesday Morning

It's off to my pattern-fitting class this morning, just three more to go. My pattern looks incredibly cut, slashed, bandaged, darted, lengthened, and shortened. I'm wondering how any clothes fit any of us properly after this!

And what are YOU doing today?

A litle chilly in the house?

I guess so!

It's good to be strong

Pumpkins, all you can carry for one price. It's a good thing DS2 was with me! Sorry the picture is so bad, I took it with my cell phone.

Communication breakdown

My only excuse here is that it was earlier this morning and I hadn't yet had a cup of coffee....these emails went back and forth between me and DD.

To Mom
Subject: fall break

• Hey mom, I'll be coming home for break on the 8th, not the 1st.

From Mom
Subject: RE: fall break

• Rats, I was looking forward to seeing you next week!

To Mom
Subject: RE: fall break

• Goofball, that is next week.
  

Dogs

I smell treats, do you smell treats?

Do you think she has the treats?

I dunno, let me look.

It's her, she has the treats! Crap, she's holding them behind her back.

Good Food?

This recipe for zucchini "pasta" might be good and I can think of a few of you who might like to try it. I haven't made it but I will - the recipe is here in the New York Times.

Front Porch Insectarium

I am used to opening the front door and finding odd animals or insects there. In the evenings lately there is a frog huddled against the door (he has to hop up to get to it) for whatever reason. We have a variety of spiders, praying mantis, deer, squirrel, turkey - -but until this morning, not a walking stick!

As you can see he/she is on the ceiling of the porch. About 5 inches long, brown, and ridiculously stick-like. Very cool.

Nearly finished!

Here is the result of all the moving around and mess we created in the last few weeks. It was hard to get some of the pics because it's very sunny outside and that makes the rooms dark. I expect that my children will be the most able to see what a big change this is, since they live here, much of the time.

Here we see, from Dh's spot at the kitchen table, how the view has changed....
Here is the new "tv room" formerly known as the office. Notice that nice new floor...

Gratuitous picture of Rusty
The new library, formerly known as the family room. Three of the corners have shelves which, you will see, have not been arranged.
View from the foyer - that slipcovered wingback chair isn't staying. I just don't have the heart to ask anyone to carry anything else right now.
Messy corner shelves, but you get the idea of the room. LOL, I just noticed that I am reflected in the mirror between the windows.
And the living room, where not much has changed except that the bookshelves are gone and the entertainment center's armoire is there instead. I like how that looks.

Same as always, just another furniture arrangement. Alex is so sorry to be the child who constantly has to rearrange that room for me.

And that's all! It feels really different to have the rooms changed so drastically. I like it a lot. We need to get a rug for the tv room, and hang pictures, arrange some storage, etc., but it's very comfortable.

Note to DS

Look, all the books left in your room fit into the two teak bookcases - not a terribly neat arrangement, with some shelved flat, but I think it looks good. Hey, you can enlarge the picture and visit your books.....

I took these two out of your room to borrow because they look interesting. I photographed them so you will have the picture to hold over my head until they are returned.

WHAT WERE WE THINKING??

Oh boy, what have I gotten into here? We finished the office floor and decided to move some things around - to turn the office into a TV room, and to turn the old TV room into a library. So basically, every single flat surface on this floor is COVERED with either:

• office things, like files/computer/printer/copier/etc
• books books BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS
• TV things, like dvds/vcrs/tapes/cables
• Things that used to be on shelves, like photo albums, sculptures, framed photos, knitting baskets - - you get the idea. So here, take a look at what has happened - my house is GONE!
  

Look at the foyer. Complete with a sofa and bookcases. There is a view of the dining room from the kitchen.....the living room just keeps getting worse....and this used to be the kitchen!

Does anyone want to come over and help?

Please?

I'll make cookies....no wait....I can't get to the stove...

Home Improvements

These are some of the planks that we "shuffled" from all the boxes so their shadings would be mixed up. They are made from bamboo, which is supposed to be more environmentally friendly, so we thought we'd try it. It's a walnut stain, so it was hard to photograph well but here goes....This is what it looked like going in. That's a plastic underlay on the floor. (The painter's tape is keeping the cords out of our way and holding the spacers in place along the perimeter of the floor.) We made a three-row pattern repeat, and DH kept cutting the planks while DS2 and I did the snapping together. It went very quickly.
Here it is nearly finished:
And TA DA!
DH put in a ceiling fan too, and the room is nearly finished! He's is in the middle of repainting/replacing the baseboards and we'll be good to go.

Hey, what is that thing on the patio umbrella?

Is that a . . . bat?

Yep.


Go ahead, click on the picture to make it bigger. You know you want to.

DS2 was down on the patio opening up the umbrella when DH noticed this guy on the top. It had been sleeping in the folds. It wasn't really ready to wake up yet and it did wait a few minutes before flying off - - right to the deck, where it did a few figure eights around DH to express its annoyance before leaving. I'm glad I got a few pictures.