Her Day

 

This is what I think of when I think of Mother's Day. I always bought my Mom one. 

Back in the day it was the height of chocolate sophistication. Even the boxes were fancy. Jordan Almonds. Molasses Chews. Chocolate Truffles. Those chocolate covered raspberry jelly things. So good.  They used to have foil wrapped pieces in them making the interior so pretty. They are not the same since Russell Stover took over the company and neither is Mother's Day without...

...her. I don't think you ever get over losing your mom. Today she's never going to be far from my thoughts. She would have been 90 on her last birthday which was a few weeks ago. I never got to see her grow old, I only got to see her get sick. If she's anywhere now, I hope she's over on Rainbow Bridge with all her critters. She never met a mangy mutt she didn't love.  

A Very Senior Moment

 

I cooked my rice cooker. I have a bad habit of using my glass stove top as extra counter space and had sat it on an unused back burner in anticipation of making some soup in it later in the day. 

I never made the soup but I did use a front burner to boil potatoes not thinking that the heat would radiate. It certainly did.  What a mess that was to clean off the glass. 

Friday Fluff: Fiber Frenzy

 

The days after the MDSW are usually filled with all kinds of fiber mischief because of all the inspiration I absorbed at the festival. This year, thanks to my back, I had to take all that energy and do nothing more than watch YouTube videos with it. Watching what other people bought has been the highlight of my day. My poor Ladybug is still waiting for me to get this plying finished so I can move on to better things. 

Speaking of better things, look what came in the mail yesterday. I didn't just order sock yarn after the festival, I ordered fiber. I wanted something bright. This will do. It's Merino in the Meh colorway from Ajem Fiber Arts. 

This rainbow gradient collection in the Opalite colorway jumped in the cart along with the braid. It's 6 ounces of Polwarth from the same company. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet but it's nice to have around. It's so soft. 

Ghost Garden

 

We've got two new additions to the Ghost Garden. I've got another Ginko. This one is bigger than the first one I planted. 

We also planted a River Birch down by the creek. The bags are working really well to keep the deer off of them. The Mister picked up some PVC pipe and cut them to size to hold the mesh off of the trees themselves. We didn't want to crush the leaves. 

The Grand total of new trees in the ground stands at 20. We're still 4 short of our city mandate but look at all the new trees that  Mother Nature has gifted us that are now being allowed to thrive since the giant poplars are gone. We've got baby Beech and baby Black Gum all over the place. It's getting crowded out there. 

One fail was the Paw Paw tree I ordered. We had one out back that died last year and I wanted to replace it but this pitiful thing is what showed up. It's nothing but a stick with some browning leaves on it. I'm going to keep it up on the deck and try to nurse it back to health but I honestly think it's a goner. 

Some good news is that one of the Sweet Bay Magnolias that arrived broken seems to have recovered. It's really taken off. The other one is still a bit spindly but I think it will fill in with time. 

Speaking of filling in. Look at what the hostas have done. I wish I could stop time right now. Everything looks so green and healthy but it won't be long before the sun scorches all those leaves and the deer nibble them to the ground. I suppose there's nothing to do but enjoy the good days while they last because they don't last long. 

I also need to thank Ruth at nypeapod for sending me a package of her award winning jams, syrups and pickles. After I posted about The Mister buying jam from the jam truck at the Farmer's Market, Ruth offered up some of her goodies and I jumped on it. If you're a foodie and you haven't visited her blog you are missing out. She also sews. Like whole wardrobe sews. I'm always in awe when I read her posts.

Thanks so much, Ruth! It was most appreciated. 

Wednesday WIPs: Forgotten Friends

 

I really need to get these socks done now that I have Miss Babs on the way. I worked my way down the foot on both pairs on my ride up and back from the MDSW on Saturday. I thought I'd have gotten further along that day because it's 1 hour and 17 minutes from here and I knit pretty steadily but I guess not. 

So far no ripping back on the Hue Shift this week. I was wrong about this being the last row in this section. There is actually one more row after this one. 

I've started the May panel on the Doodle Cowl....

...which reminds me that I still have Chestnut sitting here right next to me in my knitting stand waiting to be finished. If I just did one round a night I could get this done. I've got to work on getting it back into rotation. 

TNT: Slowly but Surely

MDSW wasn't the only thing I attended this weekend. On Friday night we went to the First Friday block party on the boardwalk and on Saturday morning we went to the Farmer's Market. By the time I got home from The MDSW on Saturday I was beat. I had planned to spend Sunday recuperating by working on my stitching while The Mister was gone all day playing golf but all I did end up doing was taking a lot of naps, icing my back and finishing up the first Star Wars trilogy. I even had a pizza delivered. I NEVER do this. I felt better yesterday so I started the next border box on the Patchwork sampler but I didn't get too far. 

Earlier in the week I had rounded the last corner on Funky Flowers. I'm very close to getting this done. So close that I've been searching on eBay for another vintage kit. 

I started another block on the quilt on Thursday. It's the 12th one. I still have 13 more blocks to go and the entire outside border but if you'd have said I would be this far along already I wouldn't have believed you. I started quilting it on January 1st of this year and I had such a hard time believing it I had to go look at that blog post to make sure. 

 

MDSW 2026: The Stuff

 

My primary reason for dragging my pitiful self around the fairgrounds was to bring home some gray wool for Spiral Chicken. See any gray here? Nope. None to be found at any of the rug hooking booths so that was a big fail. 

Then I elbowed my way to the Miss Bab's booth in the main exhibition hall and found this year's festival colorway. It's called Perfumed Air. She hangs all the different weights of MDSW dyed fiber on one rack and everyone is trying to get to it at the same time. It's chaos. Trying to find the sock yarn I wanted was impossible so I gave up and ordered it online instead. I even got free shipping. 

My first purchase was from the Into the Whirled booth. I still have some of their fiber from a trip to Rhinebeck that I took 12 years ago. That old fiber is so pretty I just want to look at it but I did buy some yesterday that I intend to spin for the TdF. 

Besides that Into the Whirled Cormo in the Mirepoix colorway, I came home with two other braids. The far left one is Polwarth from Kim Dyes Yarn in the Canyon Camping colorway. The middle one is from a booth I don't know the name of. I thought the name would be on the tag but it's not. It's Shaniko tweed in the Sunset colorway. I have to say that finding braids of fiber was hard to do this year. So many of the vendors I usually buy from aren't here anymore. Fancy bags of gradient mini skeins seem to be the thing most vendors are pushing these days.

At the end of the day I was disappointed with my haul so on our way out we stopped at the merch building and came home with a festival tee for me and a wool hat for The Mister. In all these 30 plus years I've attended this thing, I've never had a shirt. I do now and I'm already looking forward to wearing it next year when I hope I'll be back in shape and ready to shop.