hand eye crafts

More and more storms last night and today.  I'm unfazed, as rain soothes me.  Hannah, though, is moving into a new apartment and I was supposed to help her transport some things this morning before she had to go to work.  The bad weather alone was going to quash those plans, but my power has been on and off, and I couldn't get the garage door open to drive to her. Therefore, I watched World Cup games and knit. I don't find watching soccer all that knitting-friendly.  It's the lull-heavy nature of the games.  Of the three sports that I will not miss, NASCAR is my best for knitting, followed by football, then hockey.  I stopped watching basketball and baseball years ago. I was listening to a radio show earlier, and the hosts were talking about foods they can't get where they live.  That, of course, made me ask the question of myself.  The first --- and so far only --- thing that hurtled into my mind was O'Charley's Caramel Pie. There are ...

A very strong storm came through here last night.  "Strong" as in "Madeleine hid in a kitchen cabinet."  When I went out this morning, I saw that the wren nest had been blown off the porch bench.  Stepping to the edge of the porch to look for it, I saw nothing.  Except that one little egg laying behind the bench, uncracked, untouched. It would seem that that egg and I are supposed to be friends. Kathy  hosted a swap recently, and I partook.  We were to send yarn for one pair of socks  a button, and something red, white and blue. Thank you,  Teresa , for my things!  Teresa made the necklace herself.  Thanks, Kathy, for the chance to make new friends. Closets are being cleared out here, mostly so I can feel productive, but also to separate unneeded stuff from things still in use and things not in use, from things that will go with me when[ever] I move. In one of the closets, I found this: It's from Hannah's senior port...

I'm rather sure that cats and dogs aren't the literal opposites of each other.  Yet here at The Chez, feline versus canine reactions to this month's  Chewy  products were at the farthest ends of the spectrum. Where Rupert wouldn't eat the dog food, Erin and Riley slam  into this food every night.  Truth be told, if I leave the kitchen for a moment, Madeleine will go over and shoulder one of them out of the way so that her restricted-diet-self can chow down. Both Erin and Riley prefer lots of gravy in/on their canned food, and this delivers for them.  I --- I mean they --- highly recommend it to you all. Each month, I receive free products from Chewy.com with the understanding that I will provide true and accurate reviews of my pets' experiences with the products.  There is no money involved.

The little wrens and their wondrous little mama are gone: Let me give Little Mama all the credit in the world: this was firmly attached to my swing with twigs and moss and pine straw.  A good bit of the bottom and the back of the nest sort of stuck in place when I took it out.  But there was an even more breathtaking sight once it was in my hands: A teeny little one left behind.  Sad.  Beautiful.  While I'm fairly sure Little Mama doesn't go through the same emotional cycle as humans, I still wonder if she was heartbroken at this. So I put the little guy/girl back in the nest, and put the nest on my porch bench, and that's where they will stay.

The long search for a wet dog food that Rupert will eat continues.  He will chomp down on baked chicken, so I had hoped that this chicken recipe would work.  Nope.  A little sniff, the tiniest lick of the gravy. . .  That was it. So now I have some small breed dog food to donate to a local shelter.  For that, thanks to  Chewy.com . Each month, I request products from Chewy.com to honestly review.  There are no monetary transactions whatsoever.

Do any of you fellow bloggers ever go back and revisit old posts?  For some reason, I began looking at the list of labels there to the right and checked in on a few of them.  My takeaways?  Sometimes I write real good, sometimes real bad.  Some things I have no recollection of, so it was nice to be reminded. On the subject of past posts, my last one.   Twinnie  asked about the yarn on the Sad Single Size 17 Needle.  It's Lion Brand's "Fast Track": It's basically flat strips of t-shirt fabric --- fun to knit with.  If I ever get the sweater finished (nope, haven't found the needle.  And who has a spare pair of needles that size?), it will be interesting to see if it's a bit heavy to wear. Bridget  warned me to take care as I sit down until the needle turns up. WAY ahead of you, darling friend.  My mother once sat on one, and the image of the hole in her thigh is quite clear. I'm reading a very good, very readabl...

How does one lose a size 17 knitting needle?  Especially  a 13 3/4" long, bright   red  plastic size 17 knitting needle?  'Cause I have.   And a sweater is hanging in the balance.

We have chirping!  You must be very still, and stand very close to the swing, but you can definitely hear those wee little peeps.  There seem to be three hatchlings, but again, the nest is so deep and so far back in the swing it's hard to tell for sure. How wonderfully cute, huh? Hannah's birthday is on the horizon, and her request of me was to have her nails done.  She opted for SNS, which is some new-fangled sort of non-acrylic or non-gel thing.  Me, I just polish my nails myself with regular polish when my nails are long enough.  Which they were the day before yesterday, the day before we were scheduled to go and have our nails done together.  The ring and little fingernails on my right hand broke, which meant that my manicure and polish were going to be done on nails much shorter than I'd've polished myself.  Still, we had fun girly time at the nail salon and Ulta Beauty, and here's proof: And, yes, I do have a thumb on that han...

The baby wrens have hatched!  It was sometime between Noon and now --- I saw Mama still brooding at lunchtime.  I tried to take a video, but nothing's clear in it.  That little nest is surprisingly deep, and everyone in it is, of course, varying shades of brown.  I saw three open-wide mouths, but heard no chirps. I didn't want to look too long, as Mama was clearly out hunting for food. Here's a picture from the Web to give you an idea, and to tide you over until I'm --- hopefully --- able to provide my own. I've got at least two other WebFriends with brand-new bird babies or eggs in nests right now.  Of course, none of the birds were thinking this when these nests were built, but it's as if they're choosing to share these moments with us.  I, for one, am grateful for that.

What time is it? That's right ---Frankensocks time!  I cleaned out the bedroom closet and found this bag of sock-weight leftovers.  I've already cast on. It appears none of you were familiar with the bent double-points.  I've yet to decide whether to buy any.  Thank goodness there are sock patterns for straights. Twinnie left a comment suggesting using two circulars.  I've actually done that.  Once.  It was the only pair of socks I ever knit circularly.  They were a chocolate brown heather, and I gave them to my mother.  She always insisted that it was  possible for me to learn DPNs, but it's just never happened. We've had some ferocious thunder storms over the past couple of days.  One, in the middle of the night, caused Rupert to urgently request that he be put off the bed to take cover under a table.  Earlier that day, "plain" rain produced this: An enormous, full rainbow.  So big, in fact, that...