saturday’s results

i know you’ve all been waiting with baited breath to get a gander at the “attic room”. i don’t know why it’s called that. it’s not an attic. technically it’s not really a room. it’s a space that has been enclosed. whatever.

here it is:

in order to access the “attic room” you have to walk through the “nintendo room” this is the lovely wall paper in the “nintendo room”. you see we name our rooms based on what we do in them. we “nintendo’d” in this room. a LONG time ago. and the wall paper was here before we were. wallpapering the nintendo room just never hit the top of the priority list. the poster is new. well it was 20 years ago. come on now, don’t be afraid. let’s just ease the door open and deal with what is beyond it. seriously. open the damn door already.

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finally. there it is in all it’s glory. the “attic room”

oh look. all the crap decided to greet us at the door. no. unfortunately, the room is that full of crap. hmmm i wonder where i should start? in the northeast corner? northwest?

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camera facing northeast

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camera facing northwest

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guess i’ll start at the doorway since i can’t walk any farther into the room. ya think?!

so for several hours, chumley and i schlepped the crap out. i had 3 beds designated as “zones” a throw away zone, a rummage zone, and a keep zone. i strategically used the bed farthest away as the keep zone and the one closest was the throw zone. i was ruthless (in my opine) chumley only had to give me “the look” once. i felt wasteful tossing a bag of bags. and no, i likely would never have used them because they were kind rumpley and a bug might have crawled into one. sick i know.

the throw zone. and more of that lovely wallpaper.

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the rummage zone

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and the keep zone

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so now you are all wondering what the “attic room” looks like

not so scary now is it!!!

 

prayer shawl #1 bites the dust

so yeah, on that little retreat last weekend, remember i said we did a little yarning. karen taught me how to purl. it’s simple people. it’s like a backwards knit. anyhoo, i can now knit AND purl. and that’s all i need to know to do a prayer shawl.

so i get started. i start with a little prayer for the person who will receive the shawl and add just a little “please help me do this” plea to the end of the prayer. i’m knitting and i’m purling. 3 knits then 3 purls. i decided to make it bigger than the 57 stitches wide so i’m doing 99. i don’t always end up in a 3 though when i’m done with the row. folks, that means i’m either dropping stitches or adding stitches. but i’m such a happy knitter, i just go with the flow. it’s kinda hard to keep track of 3 knits and 3 purls with all the chattering going on not to mention the adult beverages. i make the decision that i’m going to call this a free-form prayer shawl. so my knits and purls don’t match up and make an actual design, the yarn is beautimous and i’m having a fab time with my girls. lots of love and good energy is going into this shawl.

retreat ends and i have loads of knitting and purling to do before it’s finished. so i do some in the evenings. after each row i have to admire my work. crap. how did that huge hole get there….ummm must be a dropped stitch or something. i should count my stitches. 107. are you kidding me? i look it over good and decide i can fix the hole after i get it done but i need to be more careful. so i start trying to get back to my 99 stitches. yeah. so after several rows of reducing stitches, i now have a huge wart in the side of the shawl where i went from 107 stitches to 99. more crap. oh, well, the person who gets it will probably not even notice. the yarn is making beautiful rows of color. #$*%&( another hole. WTFungus happened HERE? oh well, maybe i can add a bead there to cover it. by now my smile is not quite reaching my eyes and there is a bit less love and even a smidge of hostile energy going into the quilt now.

fast forward a few nights and kris finds me unraveling 15 or so inches of knitting and purling. she’s like “what ho? what’s going on here? stop. wait! you can fix it” i am calm. i am centered. i reply:

“there is no way i can give away a prayer shawl over which i’ve dropped the f-bomb three times.”

and so i start over. calmly. gently. slowly.

and then i got a cold sore. $(%(*)#_@& karma.

 

i’m so excited

i could wet myself!!

chumley and i made a deal.  she is on her way (well should be soon) to go through my storage room.  i am making 3 beds into “zones”  a keep zone, a throw zone and a rummage zone.  it’s going to be my little version of the show “clean sweep” except without the guy with the accent.  i wonder if kelly can talk with an accent?

yea!  she’s almost here!

 

it’s important to have a good fit

so our last hurrah while my sister kris was here was a little retreat at a swanky hotel. mr. wonderful’s magic card paid the bill even. so we checked in friday night and stayed until sunday morning.

i arrived to find a little quilted bag filled with australian candies on my bed. fun and YUM.

we tried and tried to extract the cork on this bottle of wine. eventually i had to go door to door in the motel looking for a big strong man. it took two.

success!

saturday we went shopping…..a little yarning, a little artsy, and a little necessary. in my 47 years on this earth, i’ve never been properly fitted for a bra. never improperly either. i just bought whatever size “looked” like it would fit. kris even remembers buying bras with me one time and i said “just throw a couple in for me in the same size you bought”. i don’t remember that. but it could have happened. it sounds like me. so….yeah, guess what? i was wearing the wrong size. supposedly 80% of women are wearing the wrong size. i’m not much of a shopper so i just took whatever style the saleschick said was their best model. and yeah, 2 sizes smaller band size and 4 sizes bigger cuppage. hello girls!

pretty fancy isn’t it? we’re sittin’ pretty now.

and i apparently found the soap picture worthy…..idk…..can’t explain everything i do.

and we also took in a couple of movies. nights in rodanthe. do not go to this movie. seriously do not go… without kleenex. real tears. streaming tears. i’ll see this one again. and then sunday morning kris and i couldn’t sleep so about 4am we ordered up IRONMAN (love me some RDjr.) and then at 6am we went out for coffee. we returned a couple hours later and the others were still in bed!

kris also gave all of us foot massages. a little slice of heaven i’m tellin’ ya.

kris is now on a plane winging her way back to australia. booo hooo for me. it will be at least a year before i can give her a hug. i’m not gonna think about that right now.

 

they’re back

my brother kevin and his son jeremy have been gone the past months serving our country.  they came back friday.

“thanks guys” is so inadequate.

sunday we celebrated with a deep fried turkey and trimmings along with conversation and hugs.

kevin and his family: matt, kevin, lisa, jeremy

melissa and jeremy

 

still alive and well!

not to worry, the pic of chumley while annoying, didn’t get her too riled up! just been busy having fun.

neil leaves on a jet plane this afternoon. the trip went way too fast. they had loads of people to visit and since we had to keep on with our daily lives, it hardly seems he’s been here 3 weeks. kris gets to hang on for an extra week and she’s got her week jam packed. the best part is a little weekend retreat for the girls. there’ll be pix of that i’m sure as chumley is sure to do something stupid! just kidding !

here’s a quick couple pix of the quilt kris finished for kaiden. i quilted it very simply-just some freehand SID in the center and a bead board border. and used a poofy batting as that’s what my daughter likes (unlike me who loves the cotton to get the antiquey srunched up look) isn’t it cute?

and here’s a red pear that we found at the grocery store. yum. very yum!

and that’s also my new cutting board. i’ve had a plastic one before, and most recently a wood one. this one is glass. we’ll see if i like it! kinda cute anyway.

and here is scott and ian prepping to go “mow”. ian mentions mowing at least a dozen times every day.

so that’s what we’ve been up to. what have you been up to?

 

OMG

let me introduce you to my sister kelly.  many times i’m kinda wordy but this time, i’ll let the picture do the talkin’

yeah.  i know i’m gonna be in BIG trouble for this.

 

what’s going on with me lately:

this made me smile.  especially at the 2:30 minute.

DANCE

last week we wii’d (how’s that for a little bit of alliteration?)  kris and i boxed each other.  the dang kids secretly video taped it (and it better be gone by now!) they claim i looked like i was doing “walk like an egyptian”.  i was “rabbit punching”.  and i think i knocked her out that time.  harumpf.

i have a new “chore”.  scott has always taken care of feeding the outside animals.  i do the inside ones (which only includes humans).  i was drafted to take on the outside ones (wild cats).  i’m not very good at it yet.  i forgot to feed them yesterday when i left the place.  so i did it immediately when i got home.  i went to pour out the food into the cat pan and DANG <insert colorful blue streak of word choices here> and i poured out a MOUSE.  it’s been 12 hours since it happened.  i’m not over it.  i may need to negotiate a chore change.  or i could grow up.  hmmmmmmm

yesterday as i was driving to the kids’, i followed a car.  just a car.  i swear it was being driven by remote control.  i saw no live person in it as i followed it for miles.  so i wondered…if your head is hidden by the head rest, can you see over the steering wheel?

kris has been taking photos.  this was a sneak peek she sent me.  she’s hasn’t had a chance to do any fiddling with them yet but i’m gonna post a couple anyway!

and

 

the party’s over now

3 weekends, 3 parties.

yesterday was kaiden’s baptism. it was just a lovely day. i don’t have photographic evidence of this. mostly because kris is in town so i don’t have to be the official photog. so pix of the actual day will come later.

i did however find time at 3:45 am (who STARTS their day at this time? crazy no? yes.) to take pix of the evidence that the party is over!

scott’s fancy shoes. not sure how or why, but my farmer’s market beaded bracelet was found inside one of his shoes. nothing on the calendar to warrant wearing these shoes again for a while. guess they’ll go back in the closet until the next time.

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the colors in the runner look a bit faded compared to real life. i made this for a quilt class i led in 2004. looks nice no? i have a chronic disease of “piling”. if there is a flat surface i am compelled to pile crap on it. i like my table without crap. crapless. that’s what i want. a crapless table. a crapless house even.

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a close up of the quilting. funny how much more i like this after it marinated in the pile of quilts for a few years. i ain’t half bad at this quilting thing. my quilting time has been severely limited as i get into the nana care groove. i miss it.

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the last bag of trash. one of many.

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evidence of my late afternoon nap after the guests left. the boys took over child wrangling and carin and i dozed a bit. the pillow cases are made from a rescued vintage quilt (sister kris did it not me but i got ‘em). the pink quilt was a gift made by kris for my 40th birthday. scrappy pinks she collected from friends and family. a definite fave. the day bed began life as a king size waterbed that we purchased in the 70’s. it sat in storage for years until i brought it out and a friend’s dad converted it into the day bed for me. i like it.

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the deserted family room. really looks empty. and why don’t i have a quilt hanging on the wall? i wonder why i didn’t notice that big bare spot until i looked at the picture. if you look closely at the wood, there is even a built in quilt rack. all i needed to do was chose a quilt and hang it up. i have quilts. many of them. i’m a quilter without a quilt on the wall. things that make you go hmmm.

the baptismal gown and quilt hang over the back of the chair on top of my prayer shawl. the chairs belonged to my grandfather. i am working on (read it’s a UFO) crazy quilted fabric to recover the chairs (there is a partner) with someday.

and the last bit of cake. scott’s sister makes cakes. yummy cakes. i sent home the leftover chicken, and fruit, and soda, and beans, and croissants, and chips with the kids. after all, it was their party, their food. i kept the cake. the missing piece was breakfast. this will be supper.
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yup. the party is definitely over.

 

bbq #2 done….butt is starting to drag!

i’m several days late in posting.  we’ve been having a good time!  this was to welcome kris and neil home.  we had lots of good food and the weather was just perfect.

gramcracker, kris, neil and mom….you can tell how thrilled they are knowing they would be making a blog appearance.

the tent and tunnel town was a busy place:

ian  matt

and i lost a $10 bet on this one:

all 6′2″  (i’m guessing here) of this muscled farm boy made it through the tunnel.  i’m $10 poorer, but gobs richer for having enjoyed the moment!