Housewife, 54

I canNOT believe that it is actually January!  The weather here today started out to be sunny, and the high temperature may have reached 60F.  Of course, by the time I got around to going outside, it was cloudy and in the 50's, but that was perfectly fine with me!  I enjoyed a walk with my dogs and put away some of my outdoor Christmas decorations.  I also did a bit of pruning on my fruit trees - just snipped of a twig here and there. I have had a good week.  The first week of January is usually good for getting organized and I did a bit of that. On Monday I took Elvis down to the Club and had a really good training session with him.  Taking a break from training is really good for Afghan Hounds! Tuesday I had a bunch of my knitters come to hang out and knit at my house.  That is always fun and it seems that several of them had made Resolutions that included coming and knitting on various projects or learning new techniques. On Wednesday, I took d...

Good Grief!  Where does the time go? Well, looking at my last post, I have an idea that I have been knitting to the exclusion of almost everything else!  I did get two of those pairs of socks done in time for Christmas, but the third pair was only one-half done by Christmas day, with the second sock just started.  I gave them to him anyway, and am still working on it now.  Give me another week or so and I should have it finished.  Then I am taking a BREAK from socks and finishing up some other projects this winter.  I'll start on socks again in the spring when I don't want a heavy project to drag around. This fall has not been the kind to curl up with a cosy pile of knitting in your lap.  It has been unseasonably warm all though New Year's.  We may have had  a couple of days where the overnight temperatures got down into the 20's, but most of the past 2 months have had daytime highs in the upper 30's or 40's and overnight has been in the ...

I have always loved 'useful' crafts.  Now, I understand that the term 'useful' has different meanings for different people.  For me, it means something that I can use on a daily or weekly basis.  Cooking is certainly a craft, but more often thought of as an art or science.  I think it is all three.  Sewing is a craft, but if you have little or no money to buy nice clothes that fit properly, it becomes a daily necessity ;-)   I learned to sew at a very young age, and as a child, most of my clothes were made by my mom or myself.  I also learned other useful crafts as a child: embroidery, macrame (which for me definitely falls into the not-so-useful category, as well as latch-hooking rugs) some crochet and knitting, and tatting.  But other than sewing, all of these other craft skills were at a very basic level. While I was an avid seamstress, I did not have any interest in quilting for a long time.  I blame this on my mom.... she was not a qu...

Well, we are now fully into our fall move.... moving others, that is! My brother decided to change our Dad's moving date up, so on the first weekend in October, my son and I went down to help.  We moved Dad from his house into my brothers new home - Dad will have a bedroom, bathroom and small sitting room on the first floor that are all his.  His rooms can be closed off and heated as he likes, he has access to the garage and has to actually pass through the family kitchen and eating area to get from his bedroom to sitting room, so he most certainly is not isolated!  I think it will work well - it will give him privacy when he wants it, and still keep him surrounded by people when he needs that.  It looks like the ideal arrangement.  Dad's house is not sold, so we just moved what he needed to start settling in.  I will have to go back and help clear out the house - it will take a while ;-) The following week was oriented to Dad again.  He had an app...

I cannot believe how long it has been since I last posted!  I will have to attribute my procrastination to the complication of having both the time and the inspiration to write - at the same time.  Guess that does not happen very often for me! So what have I been doing?   On top of running a house, working with and caring for my dogs, and ignoring my garden, I keep pretty busy.  I got into a terrible rut during that long HOT-weather spell of sitting and knitting or reading.  Once the weather cooled off in August, the damage was already done.  (Imagine that; we don't often see the words "cooled off" and "August" in the same sentence, do we?)  Anyway, the damage is that my book stack was fully stocked and my knitting projects well begun with a drive to finish several projects before Christmas. Not to mention that the garden was almost ruined by the heat and then pretty much finished off by the Japanese beetles.... Reading:  Nella Last'...

And yes, I mean real headaches.  The weather is the culprit - HOT, STEAMY and unrelenting.  Here in the Chicago area we have had temperatures and humidity levels in the 90s for what seems like weeks!  It is too hot outside to do anything.... I don't want to work in the garden, walk the dogs, or even sit out in the shade and read.  Any time you step out the door, it feels like you have walked INto a sauna and your body begins to sweat buckets.  Disgusting.  And I believe that going in and out of air-conditioning is what is aggravating my headaches.  That and thunderstorms that crop up almost every evening.  In the past 10 days we have had over 8" of rain.... and that just means more humidity and sweating and dripping..... SO, to keep myself semi-occupied I have been doing indoor things like reading and knitting.  In the wintertime I read and knit, but the 'flavor" of my books and the texture of my knitting is different to match the season. ...

And yes, I mean real headaches.  The weather is the culprit - HOT, STEAMY and unrelenting.  Here in the Chicago area we have had temperatures and humidity levels in the 90s for what seems like weeks!  It is too hot outside to do anything.... I don't want to work in the garden, walk the dogs, or even sit out in the shade and read.  Any time you step out the door, it feels like you have walked INto a sauna and your body begins to sweat buckets.  Disgusting.  And I believe that going in and out of air-conditioning is what is aggravating my headaches.  That and thunderstorms that crop up almost every evening.  In the past 10 days we have had over 8" of rain.... and that just means more humidity and sweating and dripping..... SO, to keep myself semi-occupied I have been doing indoor things like reading and knitting.  In the wintertime I read and knit, but the 'flavor" of my books and the texture of my knitting is different to match the season. ...