Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

Woo hoo! I finished the bottom border on the Winter Patchwork sampler. It went fast. I suppose it's because it's a mirror image so you can stitch two things at one time. I like that. There's a lot less fiddling with floss. 

Speaking of fiddling with floss...the Christmas Quaker is now this big. I LOVE stitching with just one color. I am going to have a very hard time putting this away when the season is over. Maybe I won't. It doesn't really scream Christmas to me. 

As for the kitchen, yesterday we organized critter food. I've got piles and piles of it all over the house. It's been hard to come by so I've been hoarding it when I can get it. Seven hungry kitties is not a pretty sight and that supply issue is worrisome. 

Ta da....the last of the pantry shelves are in and filled. All with critter food. Just think of all the room I would have had for people food-although we just took 4 big bags of pantry items to the food bank yesterday so I think I'm okay in that department too for now. Other than rice, pasta, beans and canned tomatoes we don't eat much pantry type food. 

And.....in case you were wondering what happened with that gingerbread cookie kit. Well...I certainly don't have the patience or talent DIL has for cookie decorating-but they were good and I suppose that's what counts.

It Takes Four

 

Yesterday we took a complete day off. No organizing, no cleaning, no nothing. I just sat on the couch and caught up with the Advent Cookie Adventures of Arne and Carlos while working on my little sweaters.

I learned a lot on the second one because I actually followed the directions. The first one I knit using three needles because that's what I am used to even though the directions call for four. It works so much better with four. The pattern is all worked out so you don't have to count or even pay too much attention if you just use four needles. 

On sweater Number Three I am using the Magic Loop. The pattern calls for it and of course I didn't use it on the first two. It's already making more sense this way and I'm only at the ribbing. Speaking of ribbing, on the first one I goofed it up by not following the directions but this one I goofed up on purpose. I am going to do all the odd ones with 1 by 1 ribbing and the even ones with 2 by 2. That way it might look like I did it on purpose. 

Making Merry

 

The only thing I had planned to do yesterday was get my tree up but when I went in the spare room to dig it out of the closet I ended up spending the morning organizing it. It's where I keep my pandemic hoarding stash and it was a mess. I've never had this kind of stash before and it showed. Now I can find everything. This room is getting a major overhaul when the kitchen is finished but for now this will have to do. We also made another trip to the dump with a carload of junk from that room. We really need to stop being the kind of people that can't throw anything away.

Since we were out and about I had The Mister run into the grocery store and grab some Christmas cookies for the tins. I can't put up a tree without Christmas cookies and egg nog and my oven still smells awful when we turn it on so I'm still not using it. It hasn't been high on the priority list until now but next week we'll have to be making some calls to find out what's going on. I need to make lasagna on Christmas Eve. 

I usually am baking up a storm right about now so when The Mister saw this decorate your own gingerbread kit in the store he picked one up for me. It's better than nothing.

Even though I haven't been baking I haven't been deprived. I've been working my way through this jar of Christmas candy and I think I've started a new tradition. 

Speaking of traditions....it's up. My little Ikea kitty proof tree is shining brightly in the corner once again. White Christmas is on the TV and all is right with the world-at least this little corner of it. 

Merry Almost Christmas everybody!

One Box at a Time

 

We've been living in a sea of boxes and yesterday we unpacked every single one of them. This is the floor between the living area and the disaster of the dining area where my tree should be but isn't. We were too tired after all that work to dig it out and put it up. Tomorrow. Maybe.

This is all that remains of the big mess. Four bags of canned goods and two boxes of glassware to be donated. We'll figure out where next week.

Even after hauling out a car full of the trash to the dump the place is still a mess. We've got furniture all over the place and it's all wrong but there's no sense moving it back and forth because we still have the new floor to put down. I hate it because we don't look like we're living in a construction zone anymore. It just looks like we're a couple of slobs. 

But....in spite of it all Christmas is still happening in dribs and drabs around here. No Nose Santa is finally up on the old fridge where he belongs. The new fridge will be the last thing to do before we declare this job officially over. I can't wait. 

Another Birthday

I worked my behind off yesterday. I know it was my birthday but I had a grocery order to pick up, boxes to unpack, kitchen cabinets to fill and dinner to cook. The Mister helped for a change and we had veggie fajitas in the new little electric skillet that I bought as a birthday gift to myself.  During the remodel I've been relying on my parent's ancient one and I bet that teflon coating is a health hazard so I traded it in on a newer, safer model. 

Before the grocery pick up we took Pup for a walk in the park across the street. We usually have the place to ourselves but it seems they are using it as a Covid testing site and it was packed. Yikes. Our county hospital put out a statement yesterday that they are filled at the moment with Covid patients and can't take anymore. Double yikes. 

After dinner all I wanted to do was curl up on the couch and take a nap but it was 60 degrees out and a prefect night to go see the lights so we did. 

The place is always lit up like crazy but my favorite is always the crab pot tree. 

It's hard to believe you can take a pile of crab pots and turn it into something so pretty.

Pup and The Mister got to pose on the pier. 

And........today is #1 Son's birthday. This is me 44 years ago at the surprise baby shower that my mom and my sisters threw for me. I was telling Daughter at her shower that at mine I had the flu with a fever and couldn't understand why my mom was insisting I come to her house for dinner when I felt so awful. 

It wasn't until I got all the gifts home that night and starting playing with all the baby things you see in that crib that I had the first inkling of what was to come. Oh to be that young and clueless again. 

68!

 

Happy birthday to me. I'm 68 today and feel every inch of it. I had to go to the dentist yesterday for a checkup and right before I left the house I took a nasty fall-right on top of The Mister who was on the floor trying to put the bottom panel on the new dishwasher. I got tangled up in the vacuum cord and went right over-splat. If that's not an old lady thing nothing is. Last night we were both feeling the affects of that splat. 20 years ago that fall would have been a big laugh. Not so much at 68.

So how am I spending my big day? Finishing up the cabinets I hope. Getting those knobs lined up on the all those drawers has been an adventure. I've used every trick I know to get them even. The template was great for the big handles but for centering the little knobs-not so much.

And talk about stress....there's nothing like drilling holes into your brand new (but discontinued) cabinets so if we make a mistake it will be there forever. Even The Mister had the heebie jeebies.  I was hoping to have this done so I could empty some boxes and put up my tree tonight but that's not going to happen. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not.

Wednesday WIPs: Kitchen Update

 

Silly me. I thought when I got up yesterday morning I'd have all my boxes unpacked and my cabinet shelves lined and ready to go. Nope. Not even close.

Putting on the door handles was tedious and slow going. We only got some of the top cabinets done. None of the bottom ones. 

We had to get the doors all lined up right first and that was no easy task. These are not top of the line cabinets and it's certainly obvious now. It was a case of close enough is good enough after about three hours of fiddling with the darn things.

I managed to get one cabinet near the stove done but then we realized we didn't have enough hardware for all of the shelves. Either we didn't get them or we lost them. We tore up the house looking for them. We'll have to figure out how to get more today I suppose. I hope it doesn't mean another trip to Lowe's. I'm pretty sick of trips to Lowe's. It's the only place I've been in almost three years and it's getting old. 

But...it's not all bad. I discovered I could still get my Christmas cards on top of them. These cabinets are a lot taller than my old ones and I feared this tradition was history but as you can see it's not. It's little things like this that are making the new kitchen feel like it belongs. For a while there it was touch and go.