I have no idea who “Maxine” is, but boy this quote was my weekend! LOL (and who am I??)
I have been diligently working through the #cleaningarmy Spring Cleaning Challenge List (A huge thanks to Kym for sending me their way!) and I worked away on the kitchen over the weekend, ugh. But boy is it sparkly this morning! Today I have arrived at the dreaded bathroom/bedroom portion of the task list. I am wondering how I ever really did this without a list… I was a haphazard spring cleaner at best!
A weekend of cleaning was not what I really wanted to do, but I was on a roll.
I did manage a bit of spinning though! Saturday afternoon I virtually-spun with Jane, Sarah, Eileen, and Eileen’s sister and finished up some lingering singles on my wheel and I did some plying on Sunday! (If you’d like to join us, you are welcome! The more the merrier!) I need to give these beauties a bit of a soak to see how the twist evens out, but I am happy with my results on this!
My treat for finishing the bathroom/bedroom will be to ply up those reddish singles so I can get started on the fiber they complement!
After 100 days of Hope I struggled a bit to figure out what to post today. So I decided to just empty my brain and write.
It was a week of ups and downs. On the upside…as my snowdrops faded, the forsythia started to bloom! On the down side COVID has struck close to home. And while it is not in my house (that I know of), it is just too darned close for comfort and any plans I had for the weekend have been reduced to just staying home.
I thought I had a plan for my Daytripper Cardigan but as I colored, it was nice, but just not exciting. So I colored more. And still more. But finally, I left the plan and tried something different. And then I tried something even more different and the excitement grew! There is some real magic in finding the correct gauge AND the best colors for a project! Now, I just need to make a new “color” chart and I can cast on!
Out with the dark grey and the beiges, in with purple, raspberry, and a spring green!
While I am not trying to make the months go faster, I am excited for April because April is National Poetry Month! And this April will be the 25th Anniversary! I am so ready! I have a stack of “new to me” poetry books! I am really looking forward to immersing myself in poetry all month long. I am late to the joy of poetry. I read some poetry in school, but just did not “get it” although I had a grandfather who had memorized poetry and shared it often. I liked listening to him recite poetry but I did not really fall in love with poetry until I read Kym’s blog as she shared poetry during National Poetry Month! This April, I am going to join her and Bonny as we each share poetry with you all!
I am so excited about all these books!
I had been really hoping to go get a hair cut soon-ish. However, the Close Encounter of the COVID kind plus this has put that on a back burner for the foreseeable future. However, I did do a little online therapy at Ulta and I can tell you that this is some awesome lip color! Also, these foot treatments and this hair treatment are the perfect things for a mini-spa day at home! (also, I have been watching Messy Bun tutorials on YouTube and while I am not 100% hair-styling proficient – I am trying to get better, but does it really matter in Pandemic Living?)
That is all I have for this week, I will be back on Monday to share an update on my word! Have a good weekend all!
Each morning I begin my day the same way…before I can just sit with my thoughts I take Sherman out. He is a fine and quiet companion in the early morning… and he does not mind my silence while I listen to The Writer’s Almanac podcast and this morning’s edition was just spectacular. It’s Billy Collins’ 80th birthday today and if you want to listen to Garrison read a lovely Billy Collins poem you can do that here!
Listening to poetry really is a very good thing to start my day.
Another good thing I listened to this week was this episode of On Being. I think I knew some of these things, but boy did it help to hear someone talk about the stresses we’ve been living with… and how do we re-emerge when this is all over.
The On Being discussion on stress really helped in light of a conversation I had about gauge on Saturday with Sarah and Jane. You might have read about Kym’s gauge struggles so I felt a little déjà vu when I sat down to swatch for the Daytripper Cardigan… a MaryJane Mucklestone design… which, by the way, is the same gauge as 3 other MaryJane Mucklestone sweaters I had previously knit. I got gauge on each of them with absolutely no issues. This time? oh boy. I have a stack of swatches to show how I struggled with it! First I thought just do some knitty maths and go with my original swatch… good in theory, but the maths and the sizing did not work out for me. End result, while I have not measured my last swatch this morning, pre-washing it was on gauge. That swatch? Knit with a US 11 needle… on the bright side, my sweater will knit up even faster now! So even in struggles as you work your way out good things can be found!
Another good thing was this photo my daughter shared… and I just laughed right out loud!
Vivi, the chicken wrangler!
Finally, buds are appearing on my forsythia and lilac bush in my yard. It makes me smile to see them! Happy Monday everyone! See you all back here on Wednesday!
I haven’t done a “weekending” post in eons. Thank you, Pandemic Living for making weekends utterly unsharable! How many different ways can you say… ummm, we did the same thing as every other weekend.
Well, this weekend was the not like the previous weekends, so I thought it was “share-worthy”!
We started out on Friday heading off to IKEA… it was busy. So busy. Too busy. Pre-pandemic, I would not have even given a thought to all those people… but now? Being in a group of people is just not comfortable… so we rushed and did not get everything we came for…sigh. So we went back first thing on Saturday. However, we were smarter about our second trip. I looked up where the things were that we needed to get, made a list and we were in and out in less that 20 minutes and only saw 4 people. Why did we need to go to IKEA you ask? Well, we needed to replace our outdoor table and chairs. And we needed rubber backed rugs. The remainder of Saturday involved deconstructing the old patio furniture and building the new patio furniture. We also put the awning up on the pergola so we are ready to go on the next “moderately warm day” to eat outside. It was the perfect day to do all that work. It was sunny, but not at all warm. I wore a lopapeysa and was NOT too warm at all! We got a bigger table so I need to rethink the patio plants, but I am excited for the possibilities! Oh, and Sherman… well, as you can see he was took his supervisory role seriously, NOT! Ha…rather, he soaked up the sun and slept during the work. Thankfully, we completed the task with out his help! LOL
New table and benches!
I also picked up another Råskog cart from IKEA to give some semblance of order to my “spinning corner” in the living room. (versus having things just laying around on the various flat surfaces) I spent some time on Sunday putting it together and organizing it. I think this is going to be an excellent addition and I love that I can see things, but they are not laying around!
Everything in a place!
Finally, we purchased 8 rubber backed bathroom rugs. Yes…8. Why so many you ask? Well, recently Sherman has struggled to walk on the wood floors. He slips and falls all the time. So I had a conglomeration of rugs and/or towels down for him… but they slipped around almost as much as he did! So, now Sherman has a non-slip “path” to get from the dining room to the living room and he LOVES it! We probably won’t win any house decorating awards, but a happy pug makes me happy.
The Sherman Super Highway!
There was also a bit of Happy Houring, some corned beef cooking, and… perhaps best of all… I managed to get COVID vaccine appointments this afternoon for Steve’s dad, Steve, and myself! Shot one will soon be done and I am so incredibly happy about that! AND! We survived time-change (but back to zero-dark thirty to walk Sherman, sigh) Hahaha!
Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend too!
Let the rain sing you a lullaby. — Langston Hughes
We had a delicious taste of spring in Pittsburgh this week…warm temperatures, sunshine, and yes… some rain. It pattered on the roof all night and reminded me how lovely it is to be tucked into bed when it rains. It is the perfect invitation for sleep! Overnight my grass was suddenly green and it smelled so good outside! In the hushed winter world there are not any smells…but spring rains bring a smell overload!
And what could be more hopeful that the changing of the seasons. The forsythia bushes have taken on a yellowish-green hue as they wake from their winters nap. The maple tree in the front yard has been waiting patiently all winter for the right moment for its buds to open…and her wait is almost over. Those buds are a lovely red that looks even redder against a blue sky!
But this gives me such hope!
Last night President Biden gave me so much hope and I will gladly encourage everyone to get vaccinated when it’s your turn! (and in case you missed him last night…here you go!)
It makes me happy to hear about friends that I have worried about getting vaccinated. It makes me happy that Steve’s mom got her first shot this week! It makes me happy to hear about YOU getting vaccinated. And it makes me very happy to think about celebrating freedom from this virus on the 4th of July. And it will make me extraordinarily happy when it is finally my turn! Sometimes the best hope of all comes in a little glass vial.
Have a great weekend everyone! See you all back here on Monday!
“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.”
― Pablo Neruda
This week hope began to leap forward in a most glorious manner! My little snowdrops have come up and while their little flowers are not open, these hardy little flowers are the most pleasant bits of green in a very brown garden! Mine look very similar to the image above. No open blooms yet…they are waiting for a warmer day! (Which might happen here next week… 70’s are in the forecast!!)
And how about the hope that the COVID-19 vaccines are giving? When I listened to President Biden on Tuesday, I burst into tears at his news. Tears of hope. Tears of joy. In that moment I thought of all of us who have been unable to physically see our families during this pandemic… it has been so hard and seeing that light growing so much brighter at the end of this very long tunnel was exactly what I needed.
Finally, I leave you with this… since winter solstice way back on December 21 we have gained almost 2 hours and 14 minutes of daylight. (at least here in Pittsburgh!)
Have a good weekend all… it is Get the Taxes Done Weekend here. Wish me luck, lol! See you all back here on Monday!
