TNT: Hey Big Spender

 

You know what I just did? I went and spent $45 on floss. This floss. The green one. Just the green one. Why you may ask?

Because of this. I bought this pattern last Christmas and never could get all the materials here at the right time so it's been sitting and waiting. I picked it up the other night and got completely addicted. This doesn't look like much but it represents a lot of stitching. I had to rip out that big star and the other big motif at the bottom twice to get them right. 

Someday it just might look like this and it takes 20 skeins of the green to do it. 20. I originally only ordered five because I doubted I would stick with it but it seems I like stitching with one color so I went ahead and bought the rest of it and it wasn't cheap. Hopefully I have enough Christmases left to get it done. I've got another birthday coming up this week and it seems that lately they've been coming way too often. 

Showered

You know how I felt about Daughter's friend throwing her a baby shower during a pandemic. I was very, very much against it but my worries were vetoed so I had to just bite my tongue and go along for the ride and hope for the best. I have to say that her friend who is also expecting did a wonderful job of making it as comfortable and risk free as possible. We had hand cleaner with the favors which were beautiful balloon themed cookies that were made by DIL.

The cookies were little works of art and I wished I had taken a better picture before they were almost all snatched up. The day was such a blur that I had a hard time remembering to get any photos at all.

I was in charge of the food and we had Panera make boxed lunches so no one was touching anything. You could take your lunch and find a spot that you were comfortable in to take off your mask and eat. Daughter's house is pretty big so everyone migrated to a bubble with their acquaintances and stayed there which was nice. 

Some people just drove up and dropped their gift off on the porch. That was nice too.

Daughter was in one area of a big room. Everyone was masked. We only ended up with about 12 of the 40 people invited showing up since so many people have been recently exposed or sick or just taking extra precautions now that the numbers are once again terrible. Her coaching friends have been particularly affected as it is competition season and so many skaters are testing positive after going to rinks out of state.

Daughter was really looking forward to her cake. She's strictly gluten free and she had to order this cake months ago because the waiting list is so long. She has plenty in the freezer now since there was so much left over.

Her friend had decorated with lots of balloons and onesies. This one was particularly appropriate since Daughter has 4 cats. 

Daughter's MIL is an amazing quilter and I was looking forward to what she had made and this did not disappoint. She had been very sick with Covid not that long ago so I was amazed she had gotten it finished in time. 

The back is a soft, textured fleece material that has a silky feel to it. I can see a baby loving this.

Oh, baby....it was a day I had been dreading for months but I feel good about the fact that everyone who attended was taking the situation seriously and understood the risks involved to mother and baby. I won't be, however, breathing a sigh of relief for a few days. Daughter just got over an up close exposure scare and so now we wait, worry and monitor...........again. 

 

Knit News

 

Itty bitty advent sweater number 2 is coming together much easier than number 1. I've got the body done and am working on the first sleeve. For some reason I did the wrong ribbing on the first one. The second one looks much better. 

I've also been working a bit on Altheda's second sleeve. I can only work on her when the weather is below 40. Woolly wool itches me to death unless it's really cold and we've been having roller coaster weather. Cold one day, warm the next. It's crazy.

My poor socks haven't been touched in ages. There's been just too much kitchen drama this week to settle down with anything at night. If I don't steal a few minutes out of the day to get a row or two on something-it just doesn't happen. As soon as the sun goes down I can't keep my eyes open long enough to get through a single show or the chapter of a book. I think I'm in hibernation mode. 

Glad Tidings

 

After spending Thursday twiddling his thumbs The Mister thought better of putting off the plumbing for the weekend and tackled it bright and early. There was still a lot of yelling but.........

.........we have water! We're still on the lookout for leaks but so far so good. We've even got the dishwasher up and running. I don't know how to contain my joy. It's been almost exactly 3 months since I've had water in the kitchen. 3 months. 

Speaking of joy....I was so happy with my little Ikea Strala candelabra that I bought myself a big Swedish bridge candelabra to sit on the windowsill over the sink. It's really beautiful. I don't know why I am so holly jolly festive this year. Usually by this time I am a total Grinchy McScrooge. 

Friday Stuff

 

This is one of those posts that is all over the place because that's just how life is at the moment. Things are coming at me fast and furious on this countdown to Christmas. On Black Friday I got a bunch of bargains from Connecting Threads and they just showed up.

All I meant to order was the binding fabric for the baby quilt that I had forgotten to order but I came away with a bunch of cool stuff including this great bag and saved $20 bucks on the whole deal. That bag is nice and heavy with a pocket inside. I don't know why I wanted it. I never go anywhere anymore but I do love bags and I am sure I can find a quilting project that I can tuck into it. 

Then there is this. We started the plumbing but like everything else it was ill fated. I am showing The Mister under the sink but it was mostly me under there. He can't bend that way anymore. Of course everything I did was wrong and we ended up screaming at each other for most of the day and then gave it up. We'll try again on Monday. After that debacle we're taking a long weekend. 

We did get the faucet set up but still no water. I kept saying to just call a plumber but Mr. DIY or Die wouldn't see it my way. Once again it is a question of old dogs and new tricks. The Mister is stuck in his way of doing things and all these new fangled gadgets need a new fangled approach to installing them and he won't hear of it. Sigh. 

In the midst of all this turmoil there was a bright spot. I didn't make it to my annual Ikea Christmas pilgrimage this year but I did get a new little Strala light from someone off Ebay. It's so cute and almost makes my wreck of a kitchen festive. 

And finally....it's the big first birthday of the latest Baby Grand. He starts off a crazy month of birthdays here. His mom's is tomorrow. Then we have me, #1 Son, DIL and finally the Solstice Grand who isn't much of a baby anymore. It's a good thing we are all spaced out over the country or there would be a whole lot of cake to be eating in December. 

Soap Tale of Woe

 

This is what my soap drying racks look like. This one is practically empty and the rest are empty. The one awful thing about dragging this kitchen thing out so long is that my soap room has become a staging area so I can't cook up any soap.

And..since I haven't been making soap or giving it away my stock isn't being rotated either. I usually go through a lot of soap and now what I have left is old. This is what my few remaining bars of goat's milk soap looks like. It seems to be turning color on the bottom where it touches the metal rack. I wasn't happy to see this. 

I took a knife to the bad parts and got it off those rusty shelves. It better last me until I can get back to making more or I'm going to be down the street at the little artisan soap shop picking up some of theirs. I just can't go back to store bought. 

Wednesday WIPs: Finally Some Progress!

 

Look at that. An almost normal kitchen. In one spot. All the same it had The Mister and I doing a happy dance.

The sink wall still looks like this. The Mister opens up the cabinet, looks around, plays with some plastic pipe thingys, makes ugly noises and then goes and does something else. Getting a sink anytime soon isn't looking good. 

Then there is the floor. We've still got plywood and plastic. We are holding the plastic down with pieces of the new floor. It's really heavy. Since putting down the floor will mean destroying the living area once again we've decided to hold off on it until after the tree comes down which knowing me will be December 26th at the break of dawn. 

We've also got to put all the shelves in the cabinets and put on the handles. The list is never ending. 

Right now The Mister is more interested in doing stuff like this. 

Chimneys don't clean themselves and wood doesn't split and stack itself. Getting these chores done while the weather is still decent is fine by me. It's nice to get outside and out of the kitchen for a while. He splits. I stack.

My reward for all that hard work? An after dinner fire complete with serenading owls. A night to remember.