sooner or later

Nasty nose cold is wearing me down. I just realized I haven't taken my vitamins in ... well, a long time. No wonder. I'm trying to get things done so I can start on some gifts but it's doing slow. I hate slow.

Rat is not fond of ginger snaps, I guess. The trap is empty.

I'm taking mice to the potluck tomorrow. Little radishes and big radishes with little slices raised up for ears and the root left on for a tail. Cute and not too much trouble or too many calories.

It is one of the balmy weekends we get so rarely. No humidity to speak of, cool mornings and evenings. While babysitting, I walked my grandson around the block in his stroller last night before the mosquitos came out and it was wonderful. The rest of the kids went to see Shrek III and the report from the youngest was that it was great. She's a Shrekie!

This morning I did a little weeding, a little watering, a little admiring. My flowers are going great. The yellow daylilies are beginning now that the purples are midway done. The gardenias are all open now and some have dried up and fallen off. Color everywhere, not a lot but enough variety to make me happy when I walk in my garden. Oh, and the tomatoes are growing and need more staking. Of course. But the news is not that good on the zuchinni. Why do people moan about growing too many zuchinni? All you have to do is plant them in a semi-shady spot evidently, and you will never have the chore of harvesting any!

Spent the day hither and yon doing errands and appointments. Started off late because there must have been a power snafu overnight and we woke up to early morning daylight instead of NPR. It was a gorgeous day, windy and warm.

I got lots of little things done and still had time to stop for a visit and a game of Chutes and Ladders with my granddaughter. No one won. We just got tired of sliding down the chutes and starting over. She wanted to play "no rules" but I am thinking she needs to learn that when you play games with others (like in school) you need to play by the rules. I was gentle but firm and we both moaned whenever either of us had to slide down a chute. But still, it is not a fun game when you keep going back and forth over the same stretch of gameboard. It should be called Quicksand.

While waiting for my turn at several establishments today, I knitted. No one apparently knits anymore except in my little circle of friends. Many stares and comments, all positive of course.

Wasted some money at Hobby Lobby. Needed some things and bought some things I don't really need, but just looked like they might come in handy sometime. Some black bias tape that you iron in place until it is stitched. I've always wanted to try this. Also some extra machine needles. You can never have too many expecially when you sew through paper a lot.

The space dyed yarn is sitting near the warping board. Good sign. I may actually start measuring out the warp for the swatch swap soon. But first I need a plan.

I'm tired now. Just got back from water aerobics. Talked to my mom for a bit this evening. Everything's fine. The grill king is back at work and says he feels fine and all stats are pretty much normal.
But I'm feeling ragged around the edges. Attended a funeral for a friend today. There was a sellout crowd but only three (including me) got up to say anything about her. The pastor talked about all the many facets of her personality and one of other two speakers said how she only knew a small part of what was said about her. That's true for all of the weavers who came - we none us of knew about many of the other interests she had. She played musical instruments and sang in several groups. Amazing - I never heard her sing. We knew her as a meticulous weaver. Her weavings sung to me, I guess you could say.
It just seems too soon for her to go. Someone will have to inventory her yarn and her looms. She probably has it all carefully stored. I doubt she had the indecent abundance I have shoved in my closets. She even wove up the sample skeins from a dye workshop she attended. Most everyone else just hung theirs on the wall to fade in the sunlight. She wore hers around her shoulders proudly. A shawl of many colors.
She sometimes overwhelmed people with her explanations of how things worked and I sort of remember her saying something like: I guess I should just shut up now. I talk too much. And then we'd all laugh. No, Marji, you didn't talk enough.

It's going to hurt tomorrow but tonight I feel pretty good. A nice workout in the pool. She really keeps up a fast pace for 45 minutes. I've squeezed muscles I didn't know I had. My goal is not to cause a draft when I make tiny circles while my arms are out straight at shoulder level.



These are the azaleas in the back beside the garage. I can see them from the windows in the back of the house. The previous owner had put all these lovely azaleas up under the bathroom window in the back. Hidden from the street and from any window in the house. I moved them years ago when we first had foundation work done. The only one to die was one I left in its original location. They are gorgeous and deserve to be the focal point of any yard. Every year when they bloom I wish I had put one up front instead of the white ones which look dirty brown two days after they open.

There will be peace and calm soon. I can feel it. I will get caught up with filing. I may even file our tax return in the next couple of weeks.

The year is one quarter gone almost and I'm just now getting my calendar prettied up and ready to use.



I used a piece of fabric that was stamped and painted years ago in a workshop/retreat in the hill country. Too small to make anything monumental. Too wonderful to throw away. Just the right size to cover the calendar. It's a calendar printout that I took to the office store to have spiral bound. I have blank pages between each of the months so I can make notes, glue in stuff or draw what ever I like. I hate lined paper. Too much like homework.



Vacancy: Toad Abode
Previous tenant met with a bad end. Estate sale this weekend. Cash only. As soon as renovations are complete, applications for new tenants will be accepted.

After the second session of water aerobics, I am a little less stiff and the leg cramps are abating. Man, the heated pool feels great but going with wet hair wearing a damp robe into the cold night air - that's a shocking thing. I feel positively Swedish. Like I've dived into the lake after a sauna!
Then I ironed some fusible web onto a bunch of green fabrics. Have to get going on my February journal quilt. Oops, I'm a little late - but not going to give up on this resolution.

Everything will be blogged about tonight.


At lunch on Saturday, while slicing through a perfectly cooked, thickly crusted steak, the grill king announced he will be inviting more people over to the house for dinner. We really must get suitable tables and chairs indoors and out. His steak success is going to his head. I plan to bring in chicken parts and perhaps fish. For his anniversary present I have ordered a branding iron that says Road Kill. I can only hope it will arrive in time for the next invitees to appreciate it.

My daughter dragged me kicking and screaming to the garden store where they have nothing but plants and pots and fertilizer. Bought a bit. She bought a lot. We had coupons. It was a weekend that begs gardeners to go spend money and try again. She planted hers around her new gazebo. I put a couple of tomatoes in my raised beds and one and only one zuchinni plant. The sugar snaps are still producing. Can I send anyone some parsley? We harvested the one white radish that came up. Granddaughter refused to try the radish, but she did take three nibbles of a sugar snap (don't say the word pea!) and agreed it tasted good. Which earned her a bit of dessert for her adventurous foray into new green foods.
She stayed over last night and woke up with a smiling, "Good Morning, Grandma" even though she was forced to sleep on the floor in a non-zippered "sleeping bag." In other words, I piled two blankets on the floor with a pillow. If the guest room was cleared out a bit and not so close to my craft supplies, I could trust her upstairs. But she wanders after hours sometimes.

J and I spray basted her quilt at my house outdoors and in the process embedded some oak ephemera in the batting layer. I loaned her my walking foot for the sewing machine and although I believe in it, ran a little test and proved to both of us it was a wise purchase. In just two inches of stitching without it, the top layer had slipped 1/8 inch past the lower layer and the sample was curved. The sample with the walking foot matched up perfectly at each end and lay on the table perfectly flat.

I finished warping the 45" wide loom with the 3" wire warp... seems a waste of opportunity, but the little loom is going to be taken to my daughter's house for her use for the next half year. She's rearranged her house to make room for it already. I have no idea what I will put in my bay window now. It never occured to me that she would be taking the loom away when I said she could use it. But of course it makes sense. I just will miss it a lot and the room will feel strange. Maybe I'll set up the card table for some collage work while I watch summer time happen in the backyard.

Anyway, the wire warp. Was a pain. I had forgotten how much. And I really hadn't planned it all until I got down to threading. Moved from just a plain point twill to a rose path and that meant I was short a few wires. So I had to unroll the warp beam and add those and one of the wires snapped and so I had to move one from the edge to the middle - that will come back to haunt me, I'm sure. Then I felt the need to add some beads. Again, designing on the fly - I undid the warps from the front beam and added some to three warps. Fortunately I had used a 10 dent reed which was wide enough to allow the beads to slide through. This will all become clear later when I post a photo. Patience. I'm still designing. But I have several commitments for this warp. A magazine article, a show entry or two.

I found the right screws for the little loom so that is finished. We should be able to weave on the pink warp the next time my granddaughter comes over. And just warping the looms gets me thinking about projects that I want to do. Washing dishes makes me think of projects to weave. I have a dishcloth I wove. Yes, I use it, it is beautiful even though it is orange. I should weave more of these for the fall sale. In green, not orange. I reason I have this one is because it is orange, I'm sure. No one buys orange wash cloths. I crocheted around the edge and that took a lot of time, but it is really, really, nice and is holding up very well. As long as no one goes near it with bleach cleanser, I'm okay with using it. It stays in the drawer when my mom is visiting. No matter how hard she tries, my green sink will never be white.

Water Aerobics in summer is my favorite exercise class. Now I'm in love with it in the winter. Just found a class at an indoor pool just five minutes from my house and at a time when I can get there! What could be more perfect than that? And wouldn't you know it, my first class and I worked late. Hahahaha, nanny-nanny boo-boo, I made it there anyway.
So Monday and Thursday will be slow posting days. You have been warned. Nothing going on here but catchup.

The net connection has been dicey here lately. I am running now using an unprotected wireless connection - I think it used to be protected. I might have changed a few settings while trying to get it back up. Hmm, there may be some drive-by postings on our account....

It's been a tiring week. I'm needing a nap but it's too late in the day. The grill king is getting spun up for the evening meal. He will be wanting me to tell him how to do sweet potatoes. Anyway, been running around in circles lately.


The weavers' meeting was this week and once we got past the usual lights on now/lights off now/oops, lights back on now, thank you! business, we actually got to do a little needle felting. Never mind that there was a meandering attempt at summoning our creative inner being, a real lack of verbal instructions, very few inspiring examples and some unrelated slides, I actually worked on the little felted yarngoddess this morning and she's beginning to show some signs of life. I think a few beads and she'll be ready for prime time. More people might have stuck it out had they known it was a make it and take it evening.



Worked on some ATCs for a swap. February's theme was romance using a black and white color scheme. Those are done and ready to be mailed. I got our Valentine swaps on Valentine's Day. Very nice bags of goodies. J will get hers today.

I have an idea for the Birds round robin that I have to work on this week, but I'm going to have to practice and sample a lot first. I want to finish the blanket that is on the big loom and begin winding the napking exchange warp that has to go on next. I have been working on a collage book in a black photo album that I've been "saving" for a long time. I am going to use up all those interesting trashy little bits I have been saving and bringing home. I need to use it or toss it. The house needs cleaning. I need a nap just thinking about it.