Food for Thought

 Harry S. Truman said this:

When even one American – who has done nothing wrong – is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth – then all Americans are in peril.

Toast and Hydrangeas

Here's a story a friend told me a few weeks ago:

While at a large grocery store, my friend saw some beautiful hydrangeas. She bought the flowers, and at home placed them in a vase on a little table in her dining room.

So pretty!

The next morning, she saw the toaster on the little table and noticed one side of the flower arrangement seemed burned. When she asked her husband about it, he said, "Oh. I didn't even see those flowers there."

Hmmmm. Flowers? What flowers?

LOL!!

Depression, Lockdown, and a Broken Bone

There are many reasons I haven’t been writing here, but no excuses. Let's just say the last year (and then some) has been tough in some ways and I reacted, as I tend to do, by burrowing into myself. And, as I always do, I eventually gave myself a good shake and popped back into the real world. 

Hello, Real World!! Glad to see ya!!

I must say there was one excellent aide effect to the burrowing months: I got my cross stitching mojo back! I had not been in the mood to cross stitch for at least a couple of years, and had let all my fiber love go to knitting and crochet. Then one day, after organizing all the cross stitch magazines with free kits scattered all over my living room (because although I did not want to stitch, I did want to look at cross stitch stuff), I picked up a small freebie, started stitching, and wham! The mojo was back! It was crazy. Now I cannot get enough of cross stitching. Has that ever happened to you? 

I started with a bonus kit from an older CrossStitcher magazine and even though it was fussy in some parts, I whipped it out quickly and even made the stitching into a keyring as directed. Fun and cute! 

Then Coronavirus happened, and I had to work from home for a couple months. My workspace was grossly inadequate and uncomfortable because, for reasons known only to the company IT guys (but I’m guessing having to do with me answering the phone through my computer), I had to be physically connected to my router rather than using the WiFi. If I’d realized it was going to be eight l-o-n-g weeks at home, I would have asked for a 30-foot cable and assembled my workspace at the far end of my dining table. But I did not foresee the drama and set up with a card table and a six-foot cable in the crafting/TV room next to the router. Yikes! It was a cramped, uncomfortable, and awkward mess, and I’m not even going into detail about any of that. 

The good thing about working from home was the commute -- basically 20 to 35 seconds from anywhere in the house to my "office." I got to sleep an extra hour every morning and was home from work by 5:01. I went home for lunch every day. It was awesome!

The lack of commuting time (and errands on the way home) gave me plenty of extra time each day; I upped my hobby time accordingly. I mostly alternated cross stitch with crochet and, in addition to working on my Attic24 granny square Harmony blanket (see the original here), I crocheted an owl. He turned out to be really cute! I think the owl was supposed to be a keyring, but I turned him into a scissors fob. He's from a pattern by Rachel at Yarn Artists that I'd had in my stash for years. I love him!

He may actually be a bit big for a scissors fob, and he is definitely very lightweight for a fob since he’s stuffed with only the tails from the crocheting and a tiny bit of fiberfill. He’s quite useful as a fob for the blanket crocheting, though, as I can use him as a needle minder between bouts of sewing in the ends on the granny squares.

I started another bonus cross stitch kit, from a pretty new (at the time) CrossStitcher. It’s a folk art-y bird. I got all the stitching done pretty quickly,

but just as I was to the point of finish-finishing it into a hanging ornament with a felt wing and ribbon tail (as directed in the magazine) . . .

. . . I fell and broke my clavicle. All varieties of stitching were over for the duration, and the bird still isn’t completely finished, even though my collarbone problems are (mostly) over. Sigh. Nothing like losing the momentum to throw a project into the UFO (Un-Finished Object) pile!

Somewhere in there, I think maybe just before I started working from home, I started a Mill Hill kit by artist Amylee Weeks called Don’t Stress Meowt:

I rocketed through three of the flags on the banner at the bottom before the broken bone brought that project to a screeching halt as well. (I have subsequently finished stitching the banner, in case you think I can't count how many flags are stitched.) 

I thought I could cross stitch with one arm if I used my floor stand to hold the project . . . but I was oh so wrong! I spent a very painful hour moving the stand to the living room and setting everything up just so, then stitched for maybe an hour. Turns out, I can’t stitch with the floor frame without either holding the scroll frame with my left arm (impossible with a broken clavicle) or leaning forward a wee bit. Since I couldn’t use my left arm, I leaned forward. I paid for that when the Advil wore off! Oh, man!! My collarbone hurt so much that my whole body hurt. 

Lesson learned!

Really, The Clavicle Incident taught me (at least) a couple things.

Thing One: Use a non-skid mat in the bathtub. Even if you are in a hurry and are just taking a very quick shower, use the non-skid mat. If you are almost finished with your very quick shower and you see the mat hanging there on the towel rack instead of laying in the tub and a little voice says to you, "Whoops, you forgot the mat," do not say to the little voice, "I'm almost finished; it's cool," and continue the shower without the mat. It is far better to say to the little voice, "Thank you so much for the reminder," and put the mat in the tub.

Thing Two: If something else happens (not a fall in the shower, because you are smart and will heed me about the non-skid mat) and your collarbone is broken, while you are masquerading as a T-Rex -- which you will do, for upwards of eight weeks -- one of those weird-looking grabber thingies that people use to get the potato chips off the top shelf is useful for any number of purposes. Ditto a telescoping magnetic wand; I typically use my telescoping magnetic wand for locating/retrieving flying embroidery needles, but it will also grab pens, cans, and other assorted roll-y metal objects. You will want these two things because it will hurt when you stretch much or bend over at all. I suggest getting those tools now so you'll be prepared in future because, trust me, you will be in no shape to go shopping (or even order online) for a while after that bone snaps. If the pain doesn't deter you, the pain killers will. =)

I will say The Clavicle Incident wasn't all bad. One good thing is that I was able to catch up on my reading! I am a voracious reader, but between work and play, sometimes I don't have enough time for all the books I want to read. I usually have at least 20 to 25 need-to-read books stacked on the hearth and my Kindle is always packed. Since I couldn't do much of anything else, I read all the time while I was the one T-Rex-armed woman! Here are some good ones for which I remember both the title and the author:

The Girl on the Train and Into the Water, both by Paula Hawkins

Have You Seen Luis Velez? by Catherine Ryan Hyde

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick 

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton 

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Cruise

Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson (YA)

Along for the Ride by Sarah Dressen (YA) 

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

Oh, hey! Another fun consequence of The Clavicle Incident just occurred to me -- house work. I could not do house work. It took me ages to change the sheets on my bed and I was exhausted and in pain afterward. Forget about cleaning floors and all that harder stuff. I waited until the lockdown restrictions eased then hired a cleaning company. Which I'm keeping, by the way. Lockdown proved just how much money I fritter away on spontaneous drive-through lunches (when I have a perfectly good lunch, brought from home, already in the work fridge) and expensive coffee drinks and snacks while I'm out and about after work and on weekends. I've realized it is tons more fun to come home every other Tuesday to a clean house than it is to grab lunch or a snack in lieu of the food I have at work or at home. This doesn't mean I no longer eat and/or drink out. Quite the contrary! I have eaten out (or gotten take-out) quite a few times, but they were meals I chose to eat out, not meals I grabbed on the fly or stopped for because I was too lazy to prepare a meal at home. 

If you've read this far, THANK YOU! I'll give you a break and move along now. I'll be back later with more Old(er) Lady stuff to laugh about about which to laugh. 

LOL!

 

Still Funny After All These Years

Well, it happened again! 

Lorna and I went out for lunch last Saturday -- Thai, yummy! (There's a little place down the street from our neighborhood and I swan, they have the best pineapple curry in the world!) We were just chatting away as we ate, laughing at each other's stories, and generally having a fabulous time catching up since it had been a while since we'd been able to spend any time together what with Covid and us both still working and all.

A man who was seated at the only other occupied table in the place started to leave the restaurant and as he passed by our table (but a good seven socially-distanced feet away from us), he turned toward us and said, "You ladies are having too much fun!" Then his eyes crinkled up like he was smiling behind his mask and he went on out the door.

(No margaritas were involved, so he didn't have to worry that we were unable to safely drive home. Also, he seemed much more nice and much less weird than the other guy.)

It's good to know we've still got it!

LOL!!

Check this out, April 2019 edition: Shiner S'More

Look what I found at Aldi last week:

 

Yes, that is Shiner S’More, a Chocolate and Marshmallow Ale!!

I like Shiner Bock and I am from Texas, so, really, it was pretty much a moral imperative that I give Shiner S’More a try. I got a six pack, which is typically an annual supply of beer for me. I don’t think this will last that long. I’m going to have to share. 

Surprise! The S’More ale is pretty good. The main hitch with S’More is that I’m not particularly into beer in general, so unless it’s blazing hot and I’m out on the lake, I need something appropriate to eat while drinking a beer/ale, and seriously, I have no idea what is appropriate to eat with an ale called S’More! I tried a few snacky items with it, and decided the best of the lot was chocolate cookies. Makes sense, I guess. Maybe I should have gone out and gotten some graham crackers? 

I think the beer would have been fine (better?) by itself if only I liked beer well enough to drink it without food alongside. 

Long after I had finished the beer, I came across some German sandwich cookies (chocolate crème between plain cookies); they probably would have been really good with the S’Mores brew. I’ll try that combo next. Yum!

Oh, yeah, and I love the labeling – did you see the dots on the bottles that say “brewed for happy campers”?! 

Ahhhh, April! Bite Me.

Oh, April! Look at all those people just a-dancin’ with joy over March’s departure. Notice I said, “those people” – I am not a fan of April. April is more annoyance than joyous in my book. To wit:

Taxes. My 2018 total wasn’t as big a deal as 2017, thanks to the recent updates, but I still had to cough up $800 and that's a lot to me. Besides, anything more than they already take away on payday just ticks me off. (Last year, the Feds pried $2,500 from my severely pissed off self; I admit the reduction to “only” $800 was an improvement, but WTH anyway?! I have extra taxes taken out every month and it’s still not enough?!?!! How did my effective tax rate get so high when my salary is so low?!!??!)

Allergies. Oh, yes, Spring is busting out all over . . . .  ugh. I’m allergic to it. Flowers, trees, grass, and all the other green-and-growing things are throwing pollen around like Mardi Gras revelers with bright beads and I’m allergic to the pollen. I’m taking one prescription and one OTC allergy medication plus decongestants along with shots of nasal spray and inhaler hits every day just to breathe in enough oxygen to give me enough energy to sneeze, blow my nose, and wipe my swollen runny/itchy eyes all day long. (Oh, and don’t forget the ibuprofen ruining my liver in aid of dimming the raging sinus headaches.) Just breathing wears me out, never mind trying to do anything else. I’m dead on my feet by late afternoon, and on that rare Saturday when I have nothing urgent to accomplish, I can sleep for 20 hours and still be exhausted because I’m not getting enough oxygen. Oh yeah, there’s a lot of mold flourishing in April, too, and surprise! I’m  allergic to mold, too. Yeehaw.

The daily dressing dilemma. Oh, yes, everyone is thrilled that March is gone, Spring is here, and Winter is over. HA! Two days ago when I was out doing errands it was 88 degrees, yet the current forecast shows a possibility of snow tomorrow. The temp dropped to 59 yesterday with overnight low in the 30s, and is forecast to be colder tonight. Funny, really funny. Ha. Ha. Give me winter anytime. It’s much easier to know how to dress for the day when the temperatures aren’t changing by 20 or more degrees from one day to the next. I much prefer to keep a hat, scarf, and mittens in the car in case of a bitter wind than to deal with a snow boots vs. sandals situation every morning. 

Tornadoes. April can be all about tornadoes around here. We’ve already had at least one tornado watch or warning or something this month. I’m calm about tornadoes in general, and have a (strangely) strong “if I perish, I perish” attitude when there’s one coming right at me, but that doesn’t mean I want them flying around everywhere. I’ve seen the swaths of nothing-but-rubble left after four different tornadoes in four different cities, and that’s four more than I wanted to see. I definitely don’t want to experience a tornado or see another place destroyed. 

Rain. It is not as bad here as it was in Chicagoland (where, I kid you not, it rained the entire month, day and night, and the water in the parking lot at my office building consistently ran more than ankle high), but we get enough to add it to my “April Sucks” list. Oh, yes, I know we need rain and I’m all for a reasonable amount of rain, even occasional drenching rain – at night when I’m at home. All night, every night is okay with me, but I hate when it rains on my daylight parade. Seriously, waterlogged shoes, water inside my purse and/or tote, slick roads, hydroplaning vehicles! Who needs that stuff?! There’s nothing wrong with a good thunderstorm, but let’s do that in the late evening so I can sit by the picture window with a glass of wine or a cup of tea (depending on whether it’s 65 or 35 degrees out there) and watch the storm rock and roll. That's so much more fun than the risk of being struck by lightning while splashing to my car with three soggy bags of groceries on the weekend or after work. 

All right, all right. I admit that April in Oklahoma isn’t all bad. The sun does shine somewhat regularly. April is the last hurrah of anything approaching cool-ish weather before we are catapulted toward the oven that is summer. Sometimes the sky is clear and it’s warm enough to take a walk around the lake or ride a bike after work or on the weekend. I even give two plants a pass – the grape hyacinths and chocolate mint that grow in the bed down the side of my garage. The hyacinths are dainty and pretty and are the first color to show up in my yard; the mint seems to shoot up from zero to a full bed overnight and (right before my eyes start burning) I love the fresh chocolaty/minty scent. And, best April thing of all, I can put my favorite Spring wreath on my front door.

I made this wreath. Crocheted flowers on eyelash yarn = the way to go for me! LOL!!

So, happy almost mid-April, y’all! After the snowstorm tomorrow, put on your flip flops and meet me on the porch. Don’t forget your allergy mask; I’ll bring the wine and antihistamines.

 

Look at that chocolate mint! I swear two days ago, there was no mint, just a half dozen or so hyacinths. Now the hyacinths are fading fast and the mint is taking over the world. It smells sooooo good. 

Yes, We Are That Much Fun!

Georgia and I went out for Mexican food a while back. The restaurant we chose is a local favorite and for good reason. The food was delectable, the service was excellent, and the rocks margarita we split was perfect. Our waiter was a hoot. When he asked us if we wanted separate checks, Georgia and I agreed separate tabs were fine, but we had a moment of bickering over who would pay for the margarita. Our waiter listened to each of us telling him to put the drink on our ticket, then laughed and said, “I am afraid.” Georgia asked, “Did you say you’re afraid? Afraid of us?” He nodded. She gave a delighted grin and said, “I like that! No one’s ever been afraid of me before.” 

We enjoyed the dinner conversation as much as the dinner, and as we always do, we laughed a lot. We weren’t screaming with laughter, but neither were we giggling silently into our napkins. We did not disturb other diners, but Georgia told me some hilarious stories and there were a few times when we quite literally laughed until we cried. I don’t know when I have laughed so hard.

Just after Georgia told a particularly entertaining anecdote, we noticed the couple at the next table looking at us. Intently. Like, staring. The man saw us noticing their stares, caught my eye and asked, quite seriously, “Are you okay to drive home?” 

I looked at Georgia, who looked at me. Then we both looked at the man, with “Huh?” all over our faces. He said, “I have noticed you are laughing a LOT, and you drank that big margarita. Are you okay to drive?”

After a moment of shock, Georgia and I both started stammering that we had split the margarita so I had not drunk much alcohol at all; plus, we went on, we had eaten tortillas and chips and salsa in addition to our meals, and in fact I was stone sober. He appeared unconvinced. We tag-teamed additional information – we always laugh like that when we’re together, and Georgia was telling hilarious stories, and –and – and of course I can drive home safely! I was completely flustered and we were both flummoxed. Who was this guy, and why in the world would he think I had drunk too much to drive? 

At the end of our rambling about my absolute sobriety, the man said to Georgia, “Well, I guess I’ll take your word for it since you are a doctor.” 

His companion looked questioningly at him. He said, “She’s wearing scrubs.” 

Georgia explained she worked in a dentist’s office, and the conversation went haywire from there. The man asked if anyone had ever come to the dental office with teeth so dirty that the hygienist couldn’t clean them in one appointment, and what was the most disgusting thing Georgia had ever seen in the office, and a variety of other repellant questions. Georgia answered politely and in very general terms, while I silently contemplated how much I wanted to brush my teeth immediately. 

Finally, the odious side of dentistry was left behind and we all discussed Mexican food and New Mexican food and Tex-Mex food until the man and his companion at long last departed – after warning me quite loudly that cops often drive by the restaurant looking to catch drunk drivers.

When they were out the door, Georgia turned to me and said, “I thought they were going to move over and sit at our table.”

We still giggle over the man who told me I was drunk. We have decided that surely he never seriously thought I’d had too much to drink, and that, in fact, he and his companion were simply jealous of how much we were enjoying our evening out. We prefer to believe the man started the whole thing about the margarita as a way to join our conversation because he wanted to have as much fun as we were having. Who knew we were so enviable? LOL!


(The photo of Cashmire is just because she's so stinkin' cute.)

Knitting 2018: Quite Large and Itty Bitty

One thing I failed to mention when reviewing 2017 was non-Christmas knitting.  That’s probably because I failed to finish any of my 2017 WIPs (WIP = Work in Progress). I dragged some 2016 projects into 2017, then I began new projects, but I honestly do not remember finishing anything besides the Christmas ornaments. That’s very sad, no? 

Yes. (Sigh.)

I haven’t finished most of the 2016-2017 WIPs yet either. (I think I need to set some goals for 2019.)

However!! In 2017, I began a large-ish throw as a wedding gift. I was lured by the most wonderfully soft yarn EVER. Seriously. It’s a 50/50 superfine alpaca/wool blend, spun into super gorgeous, super chunky, super warm, super soft yarn. Do you get my drift? It’s fabulous yarn. If you want to hunt some down, here's the label:

Seeing that it was such large yarn and to be knitted with such large needles – size 50, 25mm – I thought for sure I’d have the throw knitted, washed, blocked, wrapped, and gifted in a month.

I’m such an optimist.

Or an idiot.

It turns out that knitting with giant yarn on giant needles hurts. It may not hurt everyone, but my hands ached. I could knit three or four rows, max, in one day, and then I needed a couple days to rest my hands before knitting again. And that lovely, soft, alpaca/wool? Hot. I could sit right by the air conditioning vent with a huge fan blowing on me and I would still be blazing hot. Cashmire loves the yarn, too, so she was my lap’s constant companion while I knitted. Of course having a cat on the lap has the same effect as holding a hot stone. I’d knit four rows, at the end of which time I was in dire pain and sweating like a horse!!

To make a long story short (and cut down on the whining), let’s just say I didn’t enjoy the process as much as I had expected and it took waaaaaay longer than it should have done to finish the gift. I did manage to keep Miss Manners off my tail by handing it off to the newlyweds only 364 days after their wedding. 

I was very pleased with the result, which made it oh-so-totally worth the pain and the heat! I felted in the ends; everything’s just so smooth and lovely. And it is soooooooo soft!!

Here’s what it looked like while blocking. That’s a full-sized bed, so I think the throw is large enough to cover a single bed, which I guess makes it more of an afghan than a throw . . . ? Whatever it is, I don’t think Oklahoma gets cold enough that someone won’t be warm while snuggled up underneath this! 

What do you think? 

I gave the guys the throw one night while we were at a small local diner. This is the best photo I could get without disturbing all the other patrons and the wait staff. Look at the size of those stitches! I don't think I'll knit anything that big again, but I am just crazy about the way this project turned out.

(And aren't those two adorable? I love them; they're the best!)

So, that’s the large version of my 2017-2018 knitting. Ready for the tiny version? Sure you are!

A while back, I discovered Anna Hrachovec and MochiMochiLand. (Check it out: https://mochimochiland.com) She designed the spaceship I enjoyed knitting (several times) a few years ago. That was a kind of standard-sized toy made with worsted yarn, but you know how obsessive I can be – once I discovered her designs, I bought kits and patterns and books to make more fun stuff. 

I especially love little things, and her teeny tiny mochimochi are perfect. Naturally, the cat had to be the first itty bitty I made.

Her ears are a little small because I picked up the wrong size needles and her legs are really short ditto, but I think she's cute anyway. She was a hoot to knit, too!

Then I moved on to the most hilarious thing I've ever knit -- a sumo wrestler!!! Here he is with the cat. The nail polish is there to show size. 

In this photo, you can see that Mr. Sumo has a top knot. LOL!!

His bellybutton is supposed to be an "innie" but in the process of weaving in the ends and getting his shape right, I accidentally popped it out. Whoops!

I cannot tell you how much I laughed while knitting this guy! Every little step made me hysterical! The mawashi, the belly, the top knot. I could not stop laughing. This guy was as much fun to make as the Sculpey f-bomb!

Next up, zombie. Another hoot, and he's super-duper tiny!

I popped those three in a wee cosmetic bag and took them everywhere to show to everyone. They were a hit, and I was still laughing every time I saw them. Yay!

While that universal show-and-tell was going on, I tried to knit a ninja. The first one was a fail because as I was trying to knit the final row of decreases, the whole project shot out of my hands, the stitches flew off the needles and my ninja unravelled. Grrrrrr. The next one failed due to a tension error on my part that resulted in a puckered up prune face. Then I made one whose head was at a 90-degree angle to his body. Grrrrrr grrrrrr grrrrrrr grrrrrrr grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!! 

I gave the ninja pattern a rest after that, and moved along to this fella:

Cashmire was very kind to let him lie around on her in the same way she has been known to lie around on me. 

Next up, everyone's favorite little critter, a hedgehog!

I don't know how many hedgehog patterns I have for knitting, crocheting, and cross stitching, but I can tell you right now, it will be hard to beat this tiny guy! He is just so stinkin' cute!!

After the successes of gnome and hedgehog, I took a deep cleansing breath and tried another ninja. This one is a surprise for the company IT guy; it will go in the mail this week. I seriously doubt he reads this blog so it's probably safe to show you . . . . TA-DAAAAAA . . . . The Silver Ninja! 

The Silver Ninja is the personification of stealth. He slips into the computer system, then resets passwords and does all kinds of other things without anyone ever seeing him. 

It's now officially Autumn, so I took my three War Eagle Craft Fair pumpkins up to decorate my desk at work. Then I knitted an itty bitty pumpkin to go with them. Then my desk looked like this:

(sorry about the business cards in the background; I didn't even notice them. sigh.)

Then the The Silver Ninja did his sneaking-around thing and next time I looked, my desk looked like this . . . 

and this . . . 

and this.

Every time I turn around, it looks different up there! 

Oh, and do you see the cute drawing of a cat in the background? My coworker's daughter drew that for me. Adorable, huh?!

Happy Fall, y'all!  ;-)

Check this out – September 2018 edition: Blue Bell ice cream

Delicious!

Escort Service

One of the times I was in Wichita Falls last year, I tagged along with a group outing to see a play at Back Door Theatre. We went by private bus, which was pretty cool. It was kind of like a small school bus and a pretty noisy ride, but I really enjoyed it.

My seatmate was a hoot of a woman named Vickie, who was originally from California and had been in Texas only a few years. She and Cindy are friends, and I thought she was probably in her mid-60s, based on what Cindy had mentioned about her. She delivered Meals on Wheels twice a week, took water aerobics three times a week, was heavily involved in all sorts of community activities. Turns out she was in her 80s!! She was a ball of fire!

Anyway, Vickie and I were chatting up a storm (in slightly raised voices to be heard over the conversations around us and the road noise) and covering every topic under the sun when somehow up came the subject of those car “skins” that advertise the owner’s businesses. Vickie said she had been surprised to see a pickup the other day that was advertising, of all things, an escort service. 

An escort service! We looked at one another in awe for just a moment, then began to discuss how weird that is, wondering how much business an escort service got from someone seeing a pickup with a skin, etc. We were laughing pretty hard, too, contemplating an escort service advertising on the side of a pickup.

In a pause in our conversation, the (older) lady in the seat in front of us, turned slightly in her seat to say, “An escort service escorts big vehicles on the highway. They are often used in the oilfields.”

Vickie and I stared at her and then at each other and said, “Ohhhhh.” 

Vickie and I laughed harder than ever to think we’d missed such an obvious explanation. She at least had the excuse of having never been around oilfields. My only excuse is that I’ve been away from Texas for too long.

But seriously, how funny would it be to see a vehicle advertising that other kind of escort service?!

The Year in Review -- The Year 2017, That Is!

Happy September 2018! 

Yeah, I haven’t exactly been blowing up either of the blogs for a long while. I was actually shocked to realize how few postings I’ve made in the last couple years. I guess I think about writing here far more than I actually do write here. Even my personal (handwritten) journal has received short shrift since the middle of this year; I happened upon it under a pile of junk on my dining table last weekend and was horrified to realize how long it had been MIA. No wonder people keep sending texts and/or emails asking if I’m still alive. Yikes!

So – here I am, welcoming myself back to my own blog! In celebration of what is, I hope, the end of my writing hibernation, let me catch you up on what’s been going on in LOL-Land. 

[I am going to throw out one tiny little bit of excuse for my laxity, which is that time seems to go by ever-more-quickly with every passing day. I am constantly shaking my head and thinking, “How can it already be January/summer /my birthday/Christmas/a new year/(name any event or season)?” For a while, I had begun to wonder if I had reached the point where the world around me actually blurred from the rapid spinning of the planet. However, it turns out that blurring was just cataracts. Ha!]

Anyway, here is 2017 in review. 

Oh, but before 2017, here’s one fun thing from 2016.

One of my sister’s Christmas gifts was a handmade (by me) representation of her favorite word. As she told our dad once (when he objected to her use of the word), it’s the perfect word – it can be a noun, a verb, an adjective, or an adverb. (He didn’t buy it. She didn’t stop using the word.)

It’s a paperweight! I saw a very nice pewter f-bomb paperweight in a catalogue and knew she would love it, but it cost $40. I am way too cheap to pay $40 for a paperweight, so I started thinking of ways to make one. I found plenty of patterns to knit or crochet, but none of them hit me just right. Finally, I remembered my old friend Sculpey™ clay! This bomb has a rock as its core to make it heavy-ish and a ball of aluminum foil is wrapped around the rock to keep from using so much clay that it wouldn’t bake and harden properly. It took me quite a while to sculpt this as I am no kind of artist, but I don’t know when I’ve had so much fun or laughed so hard making a clay project. 

Back to 2017 – I bought Cashmire a flying saucer heated cat bed. She apparently used it behind my back (hair all over the pad, pad all ruffled up), but spurned it to my face. Finally, I caught her in there! Don’t you love how snarky cats can be?!

Carolyn and I went to a craft fair. One vendor had items hand-made from all kinds of natural elements. I was trying to decide between two autumn wreaths, but just could not make up my mind. I told Carolyn my dilemma and we discussed the merits of each wreath. She also liked them both and told me whichever one I didn’t get, she was going to buy. After more discussion, she asked, “Which one?” I pointed at the sweet little wreath made out of wood rounds, with a cute burlap owl on it. Carolyn immediately snatched it off the display and told the vendor, “I’ll take this one.” I could not believe she was buying my wreath right out from under me! I was shocked speechless. When the vendor took the wreath to look at the price, Carolyn turned to me and said, “Merry Christmas!” Then she laughed and laughed. She said the look on my face was priceless. 

I went to Wichita Falls several times to visit Cindy, and we painted that town pink (Cindy’s favorite color)! Cindy took me to cute boutiques, fun antique stores, a craft fair, and twice we saw a play at the community theater. Every trip was so much fun! On one of my visits, Cindy fell in love with the switch plate in the women’s restroom at one of the shops. She found the owner of the shop, and ended up buying the plate right off the wall. Now it’s in her restroom!

I cannot remember every single place I went with Cindy, but I know I've eaten at Casa Mañana twice. It's the home of the famous Wichita Falls red tacos! The tortillas are soaked in a red wine sauce before frying. Yummy!

We ate breakfast one morning at the TGS Cupcakery. They are open all day and serve wonderful homey meals. I loved their signature cups so much that I bought one!

Some of the other places we went:

At one of the little shops, I bought a hilarious little tin. Here's the front:

The back:

The front edge:

I adore that the snarky little thing looks hand-embroidered. It's proudly displayed in my dining room so I can giggle every time I walk by the secretary. 

Marlene and I went to Iola, Kansas, to attend a Buster Keaton celebration. It was my second time to attend and her fourth time, so we already had the lay of the land and knew just what ancillary sightseeing and shopping we wanted to do before, after, and between sessions. We had a blast for four days! We each made a few purchases (not least, we each left the Russell Stover candy outlet with a heavy shopping bag and a light pocketbook), but my favorite purchase is my monster handbag. It has a nice long cross-body strap and it will hold everything I need for a quick dash to the grocery store. I seriously dislike grocery shopping, but this little bag adds a jolt of entertainment. Not everyone has a bag wearing a tiara!

Naturally, we found fun on the road as well as in and around Iola. We decided to eat lunch in Tulsa on the way up. Since neither of us have a clue about that city, I asked Siri for some options. Marlene and I chose a barbeque place that sounded local, and followed Siri to the food. 

  

The onion and jalapeno rings were divine. I had a delicious pulled pork sandwich, but it was completely overshadowed by the awesomeness of the rings. 

On the way home, we stopped in Coffeyville, Kansas, to tour the Dalton Defenders Museum. They have lots of interesting memorabilia from the era, plus a fascinating documentary about the Daltons and the foiled bank robberies. (The Dalton Gang planned to rob both of the town’s banks at the same time, but it didn’t work out the way they planned.) Coffeyville was the first town whose citizens banded together to try to prevent a bank robbery, then chased the robbers to their horses while they were trying to get out of town. There’s a walking tour that follows the paths the bank robbers and the townspeople took during the event. The buildings that housed the two banks in question are still there, and you can trace everyone’s footsteps. (The city has even painted footprints on the pavement to help you out with that.) When we paid admission, the older-than-we-are gentleman volunteering at the museum that day gave us each back two dollars more than we were expecting, explaining that there is a special price for people who visit on Sunday. Later, we saw a little sign advertising the senior discount – two dollars less than regular admission. We loved that he gave us a “Sunday price” rather than tell us we were eligible for the senior discount! Now, that’s a kind and tactful man! 

In October, I went to Bentonville, Arkansas, to attend the annual Fall Craft Fair hoopla with Lynzee and her friend Heather. Heather invited us over for a fabulous home-cooked breakfast feast to keep us strong for the shopping. We had limited time, so we decided to hit the Fair at War Eagle Mill first. (Check it out at https://wareaglemill.com/fall-craft-fair/. There’s more to War Eagle than just the annual craft fair.) We stayed there so long – the Fair was HUGE – that we didn’t have time to go anywhere else!! It was crazy how many booths there were! Someone had fresh, hot kettle corn, so we munched on that while we shopped. We limited our purchasing to only what we absolutely could not live without (who wants to either carry it all around or make a bunch of trips back to the car??), but we saw a ton of cool stuff we wanted. In the end, I bought just enough things to make me feel extravagant without totally loading me down, including three little handmade (of fabric) pumpkins, three flavors of handmade pasta, and a jar of Hatch green chile seasoning. 

After the Fair, we met Heather’s husband, Nathan, at a local Mexican food place, where I ordered a margarita and Nathan had a beer. It looks kind of normal in this photo . . . . 

. . . . but, good heavens, look at the size of that margarita glass next to Lynzee and me!!

I’m pretty sure we also ate food, but I don’t remember that part . . . . . (just kidding!!)

The next day, Lynzee and I went to Fayetteville. We visited the Savoy Tea Company, where I purchased an herbal tea named Prince Charming; a kind of bohemian bead-jewelry-clothing shop called Dark Star Visuals whose owner was delightful and helped me figure out which beads I should use for a knitting project and where I could order them online; and some other fun stores where my only purchase was a cake pan. As soon as I got home, I made blueberry bread in it:

It looks perfectly disgusting, doesn’t it?! SCORE!!!! I love it, and made several yucky-looking breads throughout October. I may create a sugar-skull cake one of these days to try my hand at cake decorating, but nothing’s going to beat blueberry batter in there!

I got on a handmade (and sometimes weird) roll at Christmas. It began when the women at the office decided we would each decorate one of the inner windows. All sorts of grandiose plans were flying around, so I hatched one of my own. Behold the hanging advent calendar window:

Carolyn taught me about the candy canes. They are cheap plastic six-to-a-package ones from the Dollar Store, wrapped with strips of colorful fabric. I taped various kinds of Lindt Lindor truffles to the bottoms of the canes as the daily treat. The numbers were cut from vintage-holiday scrapbooking paper. It looked pretty nice when I put it up. Sadly, the candies were too heavy. I tried everything I could find except duct tape and permanent glue to hold the canes up, but every morning I had to re-hang at least half of them. 

Wrapping the canes was totally addictive; I made way more than the 24 I needed for the window. I put a bunch on my tree, and every package I wrapped had at least one attached. 

After Christmas, I went back and bought all the leftover canes I could find so I can make more this year. I’ll find a use for them . . . . . maybe a bunting on my mantle?

The candy canes got me rolling and next thing I knew I was making other crazy stuff! I knitted a few striped tree-shaped ornaments based on a free pattern from Lily Sugar ‘n Cream and Love Knitting magazine. My favorite color combo was teal/lime! Then I knitted this triangular tree and sewed a pocket on the back to hold a gift card. 

Lynzee likes pandas, so I stitched this ornament for her. The frame is an embroidery hoop wrapped with ribbon and felt. In retrospect, I probably should have just painted it. Oh, well!

In honor of Lynzee’s cats, Elaine and Tina, who love sparkly pom-poms, this:

I felted a couple polka-dotted Christmas ornaments, but forgot to photograph the finished balls before giving them away. This one had small dots

 and the other one had big dots. I made them by felting red roving onto a round Styrofoam ball, then felting white dots made with white roving or wool yarn onto the red. I made hangers by felting the ends of a loop of the white yarn on the top. I want to make some more felted balls this year in other colors, and keep one for myself this time!

So, that’s 2017 reduced to one blog post! There was more to the year than that – I do have a few tales to tell – but that’s enough to get the ball rolling for now. I’ll be back soon, I promise!