hand eye crafts

Yes, it finally happened.  On the way, I saw a few spots that were still flooded.  Hannah never lost power or was inconvenienced in any way. Theobald was the only cat who showed any interest in me. He's always been a big sweetie. Hannah had to go to  lidl  for a few things, and I went along.  My first time;  she does most of her grocery shopping there.  She had to buy "legitimate" things --- I bought pastries. We were both craving burgers, so Sonic to the rescue. As Hannah pointed out, is there anything more American than a Route 44 drink? If there is a boba tea shop nearby, I promise my daughter will know about and frequent it. I don't especially like boba tea, but how can you resist a place that has a wall of stuffed animals? Still working on postcards.  I'm sending out to people while others are coming in for me. May you have a terrific week...

This is just about all that Helene wrought right here: Really.  My "hello" mat blown over to the front porch bench, which happens when there's "just" a strong thunderstorm. What is peculiar is how the damage is spotted around town.  Trees and power lines down, some flooding, some very near me.  Tornadoes often do the same thing, as if weather can pick and choose.  It was raining when I went to bed, fully expecting to be awoken by fierce winds and things crashing down.  Nope.  Some branches down, again, nothing worse than I've seen from thunderstorms. Sad to think that Maggie Smith is gone.  Tremendous actor and wickedly funny.  I recommend "Tea With the Dames" for about the 22nd time.

I suppose if I had hatches, I'd be battening them down now.  (Can hatches be battened up ?) Hatch-battening is another skill schools failed us on.  Life stuff, you know, like balancing your checkbook, picking locks, and wine pairings. Anyway, it's supposed to get nasty here overnight.  A weatherman on The Weather Channel just said that if there are tall trees around your house, go to the west side of the building.  The west side of this house is where most of the tall trees are!  The precise track of the storm keeps changing a little bit, but Athens is on the "dirty side" in all of them. It's a miserable and an excellent time to be without a credit card.  I can't go to a grocery store, and they're surely packed anyway.  I can't Instacart or GrubHub, and they have to be slammed, too.  So, I'm just keeping my devices charged and watching it rain.  

My initial stack of postcards to voters had dwindled to near nothing (at the top), but yesterday's mail replenished my supply: Break out the gel pens! On the TNT front, there hasn't been as much accomplished as I had hoped. Holding the hoop and working on it, the foxes are clear to me.  In the photo, though, it scarcely looks like anything. On the animal front, an  octopus  is a creature to be feared, amazed by, and, at least in my case, sort of repelled/fascinated by.  And according to this article, an octopus can be a bully and a jerk.  They are stunningly intelligent.  I haven't seen "My Octopus Teacher,"* but did read a wonderful book called The Soul of an Octopus.    It's interesting and funny and educational. *Heard it is emotionally wrenching.

Madeleine's syringes had been ordered, and groceries had been bought before this card thing happened.  Count your victories where you can. This has been one of those days when I stayed fairly busy, but looked up, saw it was 9 PM and thought, "Where'd the day go?  What did I accomplish?" I do have more Knitting Across America goodies to show.  For each state, there was a tote back and 2 or 3 things to knit.  I bought the full bundle for New Mexico: If you can make it out, there on the lower right is a hat with the state on it.  Each state had that.  This tote is especially pretty, don't you think?

Last night, I got a notification that a $1.42 charge had been made with my card, and asking if it had been made by me.  It had not.  Now, this is the same card that I had reported a fraudulent $200-something on a couple of months ago.  The $1.42, though, crossed A Line.  My card was frozen. I was supposed to go see Hannah tomorrow.  I've got gas to get there, but coming back was going to be tight. I was going to take us for a fun lunch.  Did I mention I the can't-buy-gas thing? We've been planning on seeing each other for a few weeks, but things kept coming up to make us cancel. Hey, Universe or Karma or Kismet or Luck of the Draw?  Enough.

My TV remote disappeared this afternoon.  Completely, entirely, it seemed.  I moved furniture, I went through trash, I vacuumed (in case I would hit it.)  I knew it was here. . . There's a cover on the sofa that I fold over when it's not in use.  I move it around to keep it unstained and ready to use.  Moving it made it easier to see under the couch.  After a good 45 minutes of increased frustration and sweating, I checked the cover again.  There it was.  When I moved it the first several times, the remote obviously got tossed into it.  Y'all have lost things, so you know the relief when you find it, mixed with anger at your ridiculousness. Thankfully, I found two feathers on Tap's and my walk yesterday.  They're the first I've found in a long time. The little one intrigues me.  SO small, dark brown --- wren, sparrow? Into the weekend, hoping to be and whip up some craft-type things.  I wish the same for you.

A while back, I told you I'd let you see my purchases from  Stunning String .  Here we go. We begin with me thinking of  Twinnie , an Oregon tote back and yarn and pattern for a pretty shawl. Most of you probably knew that Ella Emhoff hosted an online knitting group, which is awesome. I didn't know about it until I saw a post she made saying that it had to be plain aside for a while.  Obvious reasons, of course.  She seems quite cool.

I won't be taking on any big, complicated pieces for a while.  Girl and Rabbit remains untouched, resting on the arm of the couch. New in the hoop: This doesn't use DMC floss, but wool. You probably can't tell it from the photo.  It's basically yarn thread. There's nothing even close to interesting happening here.  I did watch "The Fall Guy."  Big Ryan Gosling fan.  It's entertaining, I guess.  Nothing spectacular.  It's going to take something major to replace my favorite Gosling performance: in "Lars and the Real Girl."

Riley, of late, has been going out on the back porch and making a sound I can only describe as part-Chewbacca, part-Jetsons-ship.  I think it means that she sees birds or something.  Occasionally, I'll answer her by dry-gargling.  That's the best I can do. The UGA game is in Lexington tonight, but you can still tell what's going on by listening to the traffic.  The past couple of days have been kind of busy, as people left town.  That made today light.  By Kick-off, there was practically no one on the road.  It's Halftime right now, and things have picked up a bit.  Snack runs, you know. I had Chinese takeout last night, and made the mistake of leaving my crab Rangoon on the coffee table.  This morning, I found what look to be very feline bite marks in the box. I'm glad I missed the attempted break-in;  the squeak of teeth on Styrofoam had to be unpleasant.

This guy --- or gal --- doesn't bother me at all.

This is my third round of voter postcards.  I volunteered to be part of a door-to-door team, but this is where people were needed.  I'll go where I can help the most.

And you have no idea how relieved I was to cross that final "x" in that upper left corner. And yet, I will spend yet more time with this piece.   Backstitching.  I've already done the girl's eyes.  Pretty much all the rest of it is, weirdly, shown as lime green on the pattern.  It's hard to see and follow. I took a picture to show you, but, dadgummit, you can see the lines just fine here. I may just take pictures and work from them!

You were something magnificently special.

Yep, Scattered Thought Day.  Tap recognizes Briton's ring tone, and is always really active while I'm on the phone.  As soon as the call is over, he demands to go outside.  He runs down the sidewalk to the driveway, then the garage, looking for Briton and/or his car.  It's kind of sweet. Football Thursday night, Friday night, yesterday, today, and tomorrow night.  My kind of Heaven. Once it gets dark here lately, every time I take Tap out, there is at least one bright green frog on the porch or the front porch siding.  They vary in size, but they all make me squeeze my shoulders to the front and go all girly-squealy.  They join my dreaded anoles in that, though the lizards will usually skedaddle when they realize I'm there.  Night before last, though, dear reader, there was a snake.  A small snake, I grant you, (a teenager?) but a snake nonetheless.   Tap either saw it or smelled it, and started heading its way.  I have never gotten that boy back in the house faster. I&

Araignee  reminded me that, along with potato, there is also yarn made of chitin and some made with milk.  Like her, I wonder how milk can be spun, and no, I won't do research to find out.  Some things need to stay magic.   When Stitches South was in Atlanta, my daughter went with me one year, and got some milk yarn.  I remember it feeling sort of like soft cotton.  I got myself some stainless steel from the  Habu  booth.  It got paired with something I already had and made into a scarf which, if I recall correctly, I gave to a student.  Habu has some remarkable things.  The last time I checked, you can get horse hair and pine needles.  The latter I can rake up by the bag full around my house. The last few days, there's been a breeze each day that sort of hint at Autumn.  I say this cautiously, as Summer sometimes teases us.

Yes, my friends.  Yarn from tubers.   New Scientist  says so.  Not only did I just learn about it, but I also learned that there is a part of the potato plant that is inedible and unusable.  And that's what the yarn is made from.  The thought of how much an environmental footprint yarn makes had never crossed my mind, but evidently potato yarn lessens it. I have knit with, and really like, banana fiber.  It's pricey, but I do like it a lot. Hooray for vegetation and people who think outside the regular spinning box. (Notice how I am not Tiny Needle-ing.  I'm still working The Blue.)

A quiet Labor Day here.  There wasn't even much traffic outside.  Tap and I enjoyed some ham, I had blue cheese potato salad and some fruit.  Oh, and an amazing sugar cookie from Fresh Market.  If you like sugar cookies and have a Fresh Market handy, we (Tap likes them, too) cannot recommend them highly enough. Knit Across America has, sadly, ended.  The last stop was  New York .  I did make purchases, but will wait until they* arrive to share.   *Yes, plural.  Don't judge.

I honestly did not realize that tomorrow is Labor Day.  It came to me when my Instacart shopper kept asking me to approve replacements.  In my head, I'm thinking, "How can there be no ribs at the store?" Oh.  Yeah. Silly me. First football weekend, but, thankfully, the UGA game was in Atlanta.  The Vandy victory was televised, so it's an undefeated season right now.