Wednesday, May 30, 2018

All About You

Have any of you ever used the "bent" double-pointed needles?
Mary Maxim (where I got this photo) sells them, and I wonder if they might help me with my Serious DPN Deficiency.  I'm especially drawn to the "resting place" for your fingers there on the left, as one of my real problems is just holding the dang things.



Tuesday, May 29, 2018

All About Me

Kathy commented on my previous post, saying that she once asked her children to call her by her name because she got so tired of hearing, "Mom, Mom, MOM, Mom."  I have already told my children that I want my grandchildren, should there be any, to call me "GrandKim."  Because I never hear my own name.

The other day, I took one of those Buzzfeed quizzes, this one to find out "What Color Should [I] Dye My Hair?"  My result was "silver."
Mother Nature was way ahead of that curve.

Also, note the Dr Pepper in the back seat.  SO yours truly.

Sunday, May 27, 2018

Weird


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The word "chips" doesn't appear anywhere on a Lay's bag of chips.
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I began this sweater a couple of days ago, using baby alpaca that is just SO wonderfully soft and squishy that every few rows, I have to stop and moosh it between my hands and/or rub it on my face.
My version is heathered grey, which is a color slowly taking over my wardrobe.  The color is, to my eyes, beautiful, and, again to my eye, looks good on me.

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There was a day, with each of my children, that I put them down and never picked either of them up again.
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Wednesday, May 23, 2018

#Chewy Influencer --- This One Is a Wee Bit Embarrassing


It's hard for me to admit that I need extreme stain remover, but I do.  Let's just say that there are a couple of stains in the house that have defied my previous attempts to get rid of them.

This worked for me, but it worked best not with blotting immediately, but with letting the remover dry for 24 hours or so and then giving it a go. (Yes, that is suggested by the manufacturer;  I wasn't freestyling there.)



Chewy.com allows me to receive products each month in exchange for my true reviews of the products.  There is no money involved.

Sunday, May 20, 2018

Foundation

This is where I went to school from 6th through 12th grades:
It was known originally as Peabody Demonstration School, an extension of Peabody College of Education. In 1974, it became University School of Nashville.  The photo here was taken in 1925, but that is how the building looked all the years I was there.

It is impossible to overstate how much that school changed me. It provided academic, social, political, cultural lessons that would have been unavailable in a run of the mill public school.  It was an occasional struggle for my parents to come up with my tuition, but they always did.  PDS/USN had a free and open environment that was nonetheless serious about teaching and wholly dedicated to learning.

My memories of this place are as much --- maybe more --- sensory as mental.  Looking out the window in Ms. Nicholson's room, feeling the chilly morning air.  (We opened windows in our classrooms a lot.)  The smell and humidity of the swimming pool.  The oh-so-welcome air conditioning in the cafeteria.  (Reference the earlier open window statement.)  Standing behind John Otey in the lunch line and hearing him sing/order, "Chicken chow mein 'cause I'm still the same."

Seeing this building always makes me happy.

Thursday, May 17, 2018

BBW

When I took Rupert out first thing this morning, I leaned in to check on The Nest, and Mama Bird tore out of there.  It's quite possible that, had she been still, she would have looked like this:

Wrens are my favorite, so Baby Bird Watch will be a pleasure.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Excellent Surprise

This is my hammock swing, on the front porch.
It's wonderful for just sitting in, of course.  I do a lot of reading in it (it's too narrow for knitting), and was preparing to do that today (note my book there.)  When I moved things around to climb in, I found this:

Do you see them?  The teeny little eggs?  I shan't be sitting in the swing for a while.



Friday, May 11, 2018

You Might Not Know

That lemonade with a peach infusion tastes wonderful.  When your daughter is a Starbucks barista, and offers to make you a drink whenever you give her a ride, you get to ask for interesting things. 

About Tate's Bake Shop, but you should.  I particularly recommend anything of theirs that contains pecans.

That I'm in the mood for a swap or a contest or something.  Would any of you be interested?  Which would you prefer?

That this yarn has been giving me fits for two weeks:
It came as a kit, with which to make a shawl.  I'm not sure that you can see in the photo, but the yarn is made up of four strands of, basically, sewing thread.  That makes it really susceptible to snagging and/or dropping one of the four threads at any time.  Add that to the fact that the shawl pattern called for it to be used with size 8 needles, and you can see how disaster was guaranteed to happen.  So, I went down a few sizes, but the yarn had long since made up its mind that it was not meant to be a shawl.

Maybe a scarf, then?  Nope.  A scarf knit lengthwise?  Nope.  A kerchief?  It seems not.  Back to a regular scarf.  Uh-uh.  Another lengthwise scarf cast on.  I have started and stopped with these threads so many times that it is now a test of wills. Sometimes, yarn misbehaves and you give it a time out.  It goes back into the stash to think about what it's done. Sometimes, yarn misbehaves and it makes one defiant.  This yarn is not going to beat me.  If I have to cast on a dozen more times, it will bend to my desires.


Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Knocking Around

Here's another thing about that feather table runner: I don't even have a table to put it on!  The kitchen table is square, the dining table is in the garage (but it's round anyway.)  The only reasonable place would be on the mantel, but you wouldn't be able to see it.

The temperature here is supposed to be in the nineties in a day or two;  I do loathe Spring and Summer so.  Thankfully, all my errands and appointments for the week are done so I can stay in and under the ceiling fans.

Have you been seeing the [near constant] commercials for "Book Club"?  I find the premise of the thing kind of offensive, really, but, man, I am a huuuge Candice Bergen fan.  When Dale and I moved here from Tuscaloosa, I couldn't find my copy of her memoir, Knock Wood, and it bothered me for so long.  Cleaning out the garage after Dale died, I found it.  It isn't clear how I missed it in all the unpacking, but there it was.  It's one of the best, most well-written, enjoyable autobiographies I've ever read.


Sunday, May 6, 2018

Good Mail

Have you gotten the latest KnitPicks catalog?  First of all, this:
A table runner with feathers.  So me. (The feathers of it, not the table-runner-ness.) Maybe several in different colors?

They are also carrying some really cute odds and ends now.


Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Little Things

Hello to May.  The last day of April meant all celebrated the birth of Dear Twinnie;  here's hoping your observations were safe and happy.

As much as I dislike Spring, I have to admit that stepping out of the house and smelling blooming honeysuckle is wonderful.  

There were two honeysuckle bushes in our front yard when I was growing up.  The nectar from the yellow blooms tasted better to me than that from the white.  The blooms here taste pretty much the same.


48

If you've ever rented a movie on Amazon Prime, you know you have 48 hours in which to watch it.  (By the way, why do we "watch"...