Thief!

Really, I could have, and would have, finished fixing the second front of the Lopi sweater, if I didn't keep having kitten issues. That's not the only culprit, oh no. He's the only one caught on film. Naughty kitty!

Pay It Forward

Here's the deal:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days. That is my promise. The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

AmpuTeeHee is doing it. So is No-Blog-Rachel. And StickChicky.

I now know what I will be watching with my knitting tonight. Have a good one!

Because There Are Always (at least) Two Points of View

*Martha's Way* vs *Maxine's Way *


Martha: Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugar cone to prevent ice cream drips.
Maxine: Just suck the ice cream out of the bottom of the cone, for Pete's sake! You are probably lying on the couch with your feet up eating it, anyway!
Martha: To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the potatoes.
Maxine: Buy Hungry Jack mashed potato mix, keep it in the pantry for up to a year.
Martha: When a cake recipe calls for flouring the baking pan, use a bit of the dry cake mix instead and there won't be any white mess on the outside of the cake.
Maxine: Go to the bakery! They'll even decorate it for you.
Martha: If you accidentally oversalt a dish while it's still cooking, drop in a peeled potato and it will absorb the excess salt for an instant "fix-me-up." (Do you really think Martha would admit to a screw-up like over-salting?? I think not! She's innocent, remember?!)
Maxine: If you oversalt a dish while you are cooking, that's too bad. Please recite with me the real woman's motto: "I made it and you will eat it and I don't care how bad it tastes!"
Martha: Wrap celery in aluminum foil when putting in the refrigerator and it will keep for weeks.
Maxine: Celery? Never heard of it!
Martha: Brush some beaten egg white over pie crust before baking to yield a beautiful glossy finish.
Maxine: The Mrs. Smith frozen pie directions do not include brushing egg whites over the crust so I don't.
Martha: Cure for headaches: take a lime, cut it in half and rub it on your forehead. The throbbing will go away.
Maxine: Take a lime, mix it with tequila, chill and drink!
Martha: If you have a problem opening jars, try using latex dishwashing gloves. They give a non-slip grip that makes opening jars easy.
Maxine: Go ask that very cute neighbor if he can open it for you.
Martha: Don't throw out all that leftover wine. Freeze into ice cubes for future use in casseroles and sauces.
Maxine: Leftover wine??????????? HELLO !!!!!!!(Not at my house, either!)

I Must Have This

BOOK: Knitting Lingerie Style by Joan McGowan-Michael. So many adorable little knits within its shiny pages, and by adorable I mean grown-up loveliness. Lots of pretty. It's a brand spankin' new book at the library (I found it through the on-line catalogue) and I am the first person to get my grubby hands on it! Oh the joy of it! HA HA HA I must add this book to my library. Hubby says "..so buy the damned thing. You only live once..." See why I love the man?

The maniacal knitting has come to an end. For the time being. We had three (3!) showings in three days. The last one resulted in an offer. Not a great offer but we are negotiating. The three days also resulted in money from two pairs of finished socks for our mechanic (I hear he's been showing them around too; free advertising!), a pair of wool mitts for hubby (for which he's been bugging me for a number of weeks), a finished pair of those cushy heeled socks for hubby, and a finished "spring" sock and a started cuff on a second one. I've also been knitting on another eyelash scarf; almost to the end of the second ball. Cheap project, that one. Got the yarn from the dollar store in the mall. I'm planning on this scarf for me but I suspect my fashion princess might attempt to swipe it on me. She likes it as much as I do.

Two for the Money

Last night I finished an order for two pairs of wool socks. I'll deliver them later today, after the house showing (that's number two in as many days). Okay, the thing about these showings? Yes, the house is for sale, therefore it must be shown so people can see what's on offer. Yes, I want to sell this house so we can move. But the whole "strangers poking their noses into all my nooks and crannies" thing? I don't love that part of the selling. I know it's unreasonable, but there you have it. I get cranky and bitchy when we get notice of a showing. I can't help it. I'm trying to down-play it today by knitting obsessively. Actually it started last night; our real estate agent called around 9pm-ish and it's been a knit-fest ever since. I knit a mitt for hubby from the time of the phone call to bedtime, and finished the thumb this morning. The second cuff is already about half done. Grrrr...

Thank You So Much

I received a big envelope in the mail... I had to check the mailbox after Alison asked if I received anything interesting in the mail lately. Got me curious so I finally crawled my (still)sore behind out of my warm comfy bed and trudged down the hill to the box. Lest you think that I'm a completely lazy slob, I had by then done all my barn chores, and made two big pots of drop noodles (it's a Polish thing), then crawled back into bed with a book to rest my screaming muscles. Anyway, no picture, but trust me when I say, I found some fabulously fresh bay leaves from her own bush, and a couple recipes, and.... Some totally cute stitch markers! Squeee! Soooo cute!! Trust me. Love you Alison! You're totally the best.
Gotta get ready for work. Picture tomorrow, maybe.

Back to "Farming"

Isn't that a lovely deer? He had no problem finding the apples and carrots under all that snow!

Monday evening the cow got escorted into the barn for the winter. Fudge, on the other hand, is a bit strong-willed so I just let her make her own way in, in her own good time. Actually it wasn't too bad. I left the electric fence open while I was dealing with the cow, and eventually Fudge wondered out, and following Moonlight's bellowing made her way into the barn. I had a bit of a wrestle to get her into her own stall, and with the exception of a single trampling of my foot, all went relatively well. Fudge is somewhat disgruntled since now she's completely cut off milk, but at least I finally have a regular supply of milk in the house. Hey, I believe letting her be milk fed for 11 months is quite long enough. Boy, oh, boy, that will be lovely beef. I taped her last night on a dairy Holstein tape, on which she measured out at 902 lbs! Now, considering that she is part Limousin, and looks the spitting image of her daddy, I dare say she weighs more than that! Her neck is way bigger that her mother's, and she stands almost as high! An incredible animal.

***

I might as well confess. Yesterday afternoon, after a lenghty nap, as I was going downstairs, I slipped and had a terrible fall. Spilled my coffee and everything! Hubby freaked of course, but I did appreciate his help getting me up off the floor and onto a soft chair. I smashed my left elbow and butt bone just below the cheek, which makes it extremely sore to sit. The scariest part, however, was how dizzy I felt after I managed to sit down. But I am in one piece and working for the next three days.

The kittens all got bathed last night, because I discovered fleas. Not so good, since the fleas had to be picked off by hand. I couldn't use the flea shampoo on them because they're too young. This morning I clipped their little bitty sharp claws. They're seven weeks old now and wildly playful, oh my goodness. Funny, too. Soon I'll be finding them new homes.

It Didn't Rain

Every Remembrance Day in my memory has been a somber and very rainy event.

This year, this was Remembrance Day, Lest we Forget. Even during power outages, let us never forget our war heroes. They fought for us. For Peace. For Freedom.

Question: why don't people wear the poppy year round?

There has been knitting. Socks for me. Isn't this a fabulous colour? Makes me think of spring.

These are going to be socks for hubby, with their super duper extra squishy comfort heels.

And this sweater for Colin needs a zipper, a collar or hood, and a bit of finishing. It's made of 100% wool, and he proclaimed it soft, on bare skin! There is something to be said for small victories. (At the moment, he's quite P-O-ed at me because there is no milk in the house.) Do I need to point out how short lived these victories are? Yeah, I didn't think so.

Have you seen this? A Glass Spinning Wheel by Andy Paiko Glass. Amazing!

And what's a blog post without some kitten cuteness?

...The Sky Is Falling, The Sky is Falling...

Not really, but the hurricane (post tropical storm) is getting closer and letting itself be felt. When it first started raining around lunchtime, most of our storm preparations were done. Except for the laundry. I've been doing laundry for a better part of the day just to get caught up and so we don't get caught without clean panties and socks if there is a lengthy power outage. We were scheduled to have a showing tomorrow as well, but in the late afternoon hubby finally came to his senses and allowed me to call our real estate agent to cancel. I mean, jeez louise! Let's show a house at it's worst, why not? On the other hand, it could have been a good thing to show the house still standing and everything intact. I wasn't quite willing to bet on our getting through this storm unscathed.
Oh, here comes the lightening. We lost power for a few moments just as we sat down to eat dinner. My biggest concern? I had bread in the oven with at least another 15 minutes of baking to go! Hey, I gotta be prepared. But now, we're good to go. We got milk, lots of water, four very fresh loaves of bread, lots of sandwich fixings, and the eliminator is charged up and ready for service. Emergency radio and flashlight (crank type) at the ready. Candles--check. Animals inside? Yup. Except the cows. I'd like to see this storm try to move those two! Cancel last. No, I'm not asking for trouble. Nope, nope, not me.

Here's a news flash! I was chit-chatting with Marilyn and Crystal at the library (SSRL Bridgewater) and naturally conversation turned to knitting, and I may have mentioned that it would be nice to get a knitting group going at the library, and they said, "...sure, you could use the conference room....". Almost too easy. But is that not a great idea or what??? It could be a great place to get together to work on secret Christmas presents! So, anyone interested? Any ideas on days or timings? I would prefer either mornings of Wed, Thurs, Friday. The others days, it wouldn't matter what time, just dependent on when the room would be available. I could distribute some posters, maybe advertise over the radio. Because we all know that knitting groups don't have to be held in knitting stores--too much distraction, not to mention that we all probably have lots of yarn to work with already... (Wow, lightening!) So I'll think on it this weekend, what's left of it, and post the details here once everything is confirmed with the library. It'll be great to meet other local knitters! (Wow, double wow! That lightening and thunder now are getting close!)

It's starting to sound nasty out there. Heart racing.... Better sign off before this post is fried...
Take care!

In the Bait Pile

Just feeding the locals...