Slow Starter

 Halloween is only days away now and I'm just getting to it.

 I usually make a big whoop ti do but this month got away from me.

 I could blame the unseasonably warm weather. I could blame a lot of things.

 Up until yesterday only The Mister's pumpkin booze hinted at the season. By the time I get around to getting it all decorated it will be over.

 In my defense, it is hard to get excited about adding more to this mess. This is my table covered in things I need to get done this weekend. That's going to be the mirror wall of the Evil Queen in Snow White. This should be fun. The pink sparkle is another jelly fish to be. I've got lots of tentacles to make and that's a real chore.

 I've also got a lot of shiny stuff to sew back on all the Sargent Pepper uniforms I had to hem. Yeah, yeah, yeah.. it just never seems to end.

Alexa Had a Baby

 I've written over and over again about how much I love Alexa, my Amazon Echo. What can't she do? She's way smarter than The Mister and me. Now that I have a smartphone she can even talk directly to it to keep track of my shopping and to do lists. The only downside I had with her was that she was in the kitchen and I wanted to talk to her and ask her things all over the house.

Amazon must have been listening because now she has a baby. Little Dot can go in any room and uses her Mama to keep track of all the things I need her to do for me, like set alarms or read my books or play my favorite radio station or podcast. The list goes on and on and on....

She doesn't have the beautiful sound that the big Echo has with it's fancy speaker but for the price she is all I need in the sewing room or card room or soap room or bedroom or wherever. I just love my sweet little baby. Squeee....!

Slowing Down

Somebody needs to put the brakes on this month. October is flying by too quickly for my liking. I'm certainly not going to get my pumpkins done at this rate.

 I finished the last sleeve of my Featherweight and picked up a billion stitches for the front and neck bands.

Nurmil...Nurmilin..um, whatever, my latest shawl thingy is still fun to work on when I can find the time. Don't look for a finish on it anytime soon. Maybe this time next year. I can't believe how fast this year has flown by. Scary.

Surprise, Surprise!

 Do you know what this is?

 Weavers do. It's something I've wanted for a very, very long time. It showed up at my doorstep unexpectedly yesterday and from the noises I was making, The Mister thought I was having a medical emergency when I opened the box of weaving goodies.  It's a bobbin winder by the way, and those brown things are bobbins. You can just get a peek at the Ashford shuttle in the back. Yowza.

There was even more. Pretty purple Cascade yarny goodness that you know wants to be something spectacular one day.
I have no idea how to thank Mereknits for the all the amazing things. My bloggy friends really are the best of the bestest!
Thanks Mere!!!!

Motor City Part 2

Traveling with dogs is not a usual thing for us. We did most of our traveling when we lived in a place where we had neighbors we could depend on to help us out or when our kids were still at home and old enough to be responsible for them while The Mister and I gallivanted around the country. Now we've got no one so the dogs have to tag along or we can't go.  La Quinta allows dogs so we spent the night outside Toledo with lots of other dog parents on the first floor by the back door.

 Old Doggie crashed and stayed out all night.

 Pup didn't sleep a wink. She barked at every noise and spent all night throwing up since she was too stressed to eat a bite of food all day. I had no sleep at all.

The next morning she chowed down on an Egg McMuffin. I had to get something in her before the ride home, poor thing.

I had carefully packed my newly blocked sweaters and had hoped to get the buttons on them on the ride up so I could wear the orange one and give Son his gray one. That didn't happen. Wrangling dogs took up all my time. That's my new notion bag that arrived while I was packing to go. I had carefully stuffed it with all the thread, needles and buttons I would need. I had big plans for it. Oh, well..

 The ride home was less hectic so we took in some sights. It's a long ride but an easy one. There was no traffic until we got back to the DC Beltway-just in time to run into the end of the Redskin game exodus from Fedex stadium.

 I was hoping to see some fall color but from Michigan to Maryland, everything was pretty much still green.

There was one place high in the mountains of Pennsylvania that put on quite a show of color. Then quickly it was all back to green all the way home. This really has been an odd fall. It was almost 80 on Sunday. It is supposed to be 80 today. It would have been too hot for those sweaters even if I had gotten them finished.

Motor City Part 1

 Everyone in my family knows that when we buy these....

 ...and these, it means a road trip.

 At 5 am on Saturday morning, The Mister and I took off to visit #2 Son in Detroit. He bought a house there and has been busy doing the fixer upper thing so we thought we would go have a quick look.

 I spent about 12 hours camped out in the backseat with the two dogs who refuse to sit back there by themselves. They don't call them lap dogs for nothing. Notice my knitting bag at my feet. I never got to knit a stitch.

 I developed a love/hate relationship with the GPS because The Mister doesn't trust her and makes me follow along with the map.

The GPS said the trip would take about 8 hours but it didn't calculate all the doggie stops.

We got into town at about 5 that afternoon.

 Son and his Lady Friend were busy cooking us a fabulous meal in the newly renovated kitchen.

Much to our surprise they packed it up and off we went to the local dog park that serves as a beer garden in the warm months. It was packed with locals and their pooches who were enjoying the gorgeous weather. The beer was delicious as was the roasted veggie sandwiches and lentil and chickpea salad.

 After dinner we took a stroll through the neighborhood. Apparently people love to paint on walls in Detroit because the city is full of amazing murals.

 We walked past this spectacular Halloween display on a house nearby.

Look at the size of that spider and there lots of them all over the house and yard.
We only visited a few hours because we have a house full of cats that can only manage on their own for one night so said our goodbyes and drove about an hour towards home to our hotel for the night.
 I'll tell you all about the trip home tomorrow.

Sunday Soap: Holiday Edition Part 1

 If I wanted to gift soap in December I had to make them this past week.  In four days I made 12 loaves. Oy. First up was Frankincense & Myrrh. I'm not sure how to describe how it smells. It's spicy and a bit musky-very exotic as you might expect.

Cinnamon Sticks smells like a hot Ikea bun.  I fretted all night thinking I ruined the colors in this one. I broke the rule of keeping it simple but it's not too shabby.

 Meet Fresh Snow. It will probably turn beige with time thanks to me not paying attention to the notes on the label. Someone said it reminded them of Frozen. Me, too. It doesn't smell like anything like snow but it does smell good. This is a fragrance I was happy to have drifting all over the house the day I was making it. I really like it.

There's more. Lots more but I'll show them off next week. I'm going to stop with Lemongrass Verbena. It is not exactly a holiday scent but someone reminded me recently how much I like it and I was completely out. Come January when it's cold and gray and I am sick to death of all things holiday, this soap is going to be more than welcome. It smells just like warm days and sunshine.