Dumped On

It was oddly dark yesterday morning.

It seems my poor little house was covered in leaves.

And it wasn't just the house. Poor Mini is a mess too.

The Mister takes great pride in keeping the leaves up but we were fighting a losing battle yesterday. Instead of the usual trickle it was a blizzard.

It was a leafy snowstorm all day long.

I'd no sooner sweep them up then they would be back and deeper than ever. It was very odd.

If this keeps up we won't have a leaf left by Thanksgiving. I should also mention I had to turn on the AC as it was also hot as blazes. This should be an interesting winter.

Fast Friday

I know some of you are trying to blog everyday for Nablopomo (or something like that) and today I feel your pain. After the two weeks I've had, I've got nothing. I do have this faux knit fleece for kitty and doggie beds that I picked up at Joanne's last week to show off but that's it. I haven't got time to fool around with the blog right now. I've got a damn giant gingerbread house to build sew.

Oh...and before I'm off to get busy with a needle, have you seen this?


 If I wasn't so busy, I'd sooooo be doing this KAL.

It's a mystery shawl and it's called The Doodler.
Happy Friday!

Resting in Pieces Part 2

Daughter's building is over top a Whole Foods. You go down in the elevator, and then up the escalator and come out right in the middle of the store. It's weird and for me very disorienting.

 Daughter had left me a pile of twenties to buy food for my stay. My first trip down resulted in my coming back with lots of weirdly indulgent odds and ends. I shopped forever but I have to say, as pretty as everything is displayed, Whole Foods just doesn't do it for me. Having said that, the baguette and goat cheese were perfect. The bread pudding, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and dark chocolate pear and almond bar were beyond yummy. The popcorn and brown eggs were as expected and the only disappointment was....believe or not-the apple. As perfect as it was on the outside, it was rotten on the inside.

The next day I went shopping for the kitties who both had very upset tummies. They are prone to tummy issues when stressed so I cooked them some fresh chicken, salmon and rice. I also picked them up some fancy schmancy kitty food to plop on top if they balked at people food but it wasn't necessary. They gobbled it up and it seemed to settle them both down which was a big relief as I was growing tired of cleaning kitty barf off of Daughter's light beige carpet.

I threw a couple of spoons of food from the hot bar in a box for my dinner and it alone came to $6. The slice of pumpkin pie was a bargain by comparison at $2.  Those five items came to $16. Sheesh. I am so happy I don't live here. I would most certainly go broke.

On the last day of my staycation, I got all caught up knitting again and watching BBC's The Hidden Killers history series on You Tube. Scary, scary stuff but a great way to kill three hours.

 The next morning I only managed a few minutes of airport knitting while waiting to pick Daughter and Hubby up.

I left her condo in Bethesda at the same time they were boarding their plane in Florida and I made it to BWI just as their plane was landing. An early morning accident with an unfortunate fatality on the highway in front of their complex created complete gridlock on every road leading to the Beltway. I sat in traffic for hours. After picking them up and dropping them off, I still had my hour's drive home. Whew. Was I happy to be home.

Resting in Pieces Part 1

As you know, I've been kitty sitting at Daughter's this week. It's been terrifying. It's a very high security type of place filled with snooty urbanites. You have to use this disc thing to gain access to everywhere you go. I stood in the elevator going nowhere for who knows how long until I figured out you have to swipe even inside the elevator. It's not enough just to swipe to gain access. Sigh. It's been tough.

 Then there is the matter of the kitties. I'm terribly allergic to kitties so I have to go over the place with this stuff. I swear by it. It may be all in my head but it keeps me from having asthma issues. At home I wipe down my kitties with it. At Daughter's I give the place a good wipe down and steer clear of the kitties.

 That's no problem because they are not very fond of me.

They know Mom and Dad are gone when I show up so they pout and throw up all over everything.

The first two days of the four day staycation wasn't too bad. Lots of TCM and knitting next to a sunny window. I never left the place or even got out of my pjs. Sweet.

I had brought a box of cheerios, some soymilk and a bag of Popchips. Daughter left me this chocolate witch and with the cans of soup I found in the cupboard,  I had plenty to keep me alive until I felt like going out for groceries.

As for knitting, that's son's cardi being knit all at once in pieces. If he shows up at anytime over the holidays I want to be able to see if anything fits so everything needs to be partially made. It's actually not a bad way to do it. All the pieces are different so it's like having lots of projects which as you know is my favorite way to knit.

 Same thing for these socks that will be gifted. Knitting both at the same time is like having someone knit the other one for you. It makes the process go so quickly it'll amaze you.

 When I wasn't knitting I was reading. My library didn't have anymore of the Flavia De Luce books that I am in the middle of so I had to make due with someone else-Agatha Raisin. The verdicts still out on how much I like her. I listened to the first book in the series a while ago on Audible and it was read by the hilarious Penelope Keith so it was her that I pictured as I read. It helps as the middle-aged, man crazy Agatha is a bit on the unlikable side. It also didn't help that the woman drinks like a fish and I had neglected to bring even a bottle of wine to get me through the long nights. Sigh.

Autumn Twill

There was so much going on chez moi in the days leading up to Halloween that my last weaving project got snipped off in a hurry and packed up in this sorry state.

I did take a few photos before I went for the scissors.

I had this much warp left. I was worried if I would squeak out the last full sized towel but I did with a bit to spare.

I also had quite a bit of yarn leftover. This was a very generous kit from Cotton Clouds.

 It had to get packed away because I needed the space.

The space the loom took up is now occupied by the beginnings of a very large (and a bit wonky at the moment) gingerbread house. I've got to cut all the pieces out, pin them on as straight as possible and then find the time to hand sew them on. This is only one of the three sections of it that need to be finished asap. That roof is not going to be fun. Thank goodness I have high ceilings.

 There is also candy to be made. Lots and lots of candy.

 And costumes that need to be re-made as some of the ones we bought were awful. I had to make a Hershey kiss from scratch.

Then there was that huge caterpillar that needed to be sewn together. It was only pinned in place so I could figure out how to fit four girls in it. I had to hand sew in all the hula hoops that makes up its body but the worst part was cutting a hole in its cute little face so I could put in a piece of red screen so the lead skater could see where she was going. That meant digging a big hole in all that head padding and then covering it with more red fleece to neaten it up. Oh, that was a job. We are quickly running into the holidays and running out of ice time for practice so everything needs to be put into production NOW. Ouf.

Sweater Weather

I am still at Daughter's condo (the one over a Whole Foods!) but before I left I took a walk with the camera so I would have something more to post about this week than two grumpy grandkitties.
It was the first time I needed a sweater to get through Pup's morning stroll. It's not exactly cold but it is getting chilly.

I've been in socks for a while now. I was surprised to see how many new additions I have to my sock collection. I must have been busy this summer.

 It just starts looking like fall around here at Halloween. You can see how much green we still have in the trees.

There's a bit of yellow here and there.

 On my backyard path I found these but I had no idea where they came from.

After a bit of a hike, I found the tree. The wind must have blown those pretty leaves quite a distance.

The Mister's wood pile is pitiful this year. We haven't had a storm that has brought down any trees in a while. I suppose that is not exactly a bad thing but it might be a chilly winter because of it. I can't see him buying wood.

Look what I found in the front flower bed. We must have bought an autumnal bloomer. It's a tiny bloom but there are lots of them. I have no idea what they are. They look a bit like a dwarf chrysanthemum.

To end on a crazy cat lady note, here is the sun room we built for the outside kitties using the umbrellas from last year's skating production number and a painting tarp. Underneath is my old mini trampoline and a covered kitty box that we stuffed with pillows. We put this eyesore in a sunny spot hoping the outside kitties would make use of it during the day when the heated huts are not in use. I hate to think of them outside in the cold. I know it's our fifth winter together but it never gets any easier for me. The cats-they don't seem to mind.

November

These are dark days around here. The sun as sunk down behind the house and the leaves that remain are keeping us in shadow.

Even with my new bright Ikea light and extra super duper magnifying glasses, stitching has been slow going.

When the sun comes back in January and my couch is covered in beautiful warm sunshine every afternoon this is going to be a pleasure to pick up again. Lately it's been a chore.

I have to admit that I spent more time on this than on stitching in October. This is the official 2015 mugshot because it's now all put away until next year.

Speaking of being put away, the latest weaving project is also a done deal and my little loom has been packed away until after the holidays. Sniff, sniff. I had to hastily cut the towels off and store them until I can free up some time to deal with those hems. I'll have to finish it all later because there is something urgent and very big sitting in the middle of my living room-but that's a post for another day.

As for that Halloween prank with the Echo app, it worked perfectly from Daughter's house. First, my Pandora Spooky Symphonies station blasted the theme from Psycho and then the Theme from Beetlejuice late last night. The Mister thought the parrot was turning it on. Hahahahaha....