Saturday, May 31, 2008

I would have sworn it had only been four or five days since I posted here, but Blogger tells me it's been ten. That means I didn't write anything about the awards progarm at Lexi's school last Thursday (5/22). She got a certificate for having an A average in all of her subjects. I'm glad they broke the program in two parts - K, 1 and 2 at 8:30 and 3, 4 and 5 later.

Alyssa and Lexi have gone to a baby shower, so I have the house to myself for a couple of hours. When Alyssa mentioned the shower recently, I told her I had some handknit baby blankets she could choose from. Yesterday I discovered that there were only two left. I need to make more. Since I finally finished Carmen's shawl yesterday, I started a blanket this morning. It's a stitch sampler one similar to the one I made for my great-granddaughter Rose to take to daycare a year ago. Twelve squares with a different stitch in each square, with a garter stitch border and garter stitch 'ribbons' between the squares. I have a couple of other baby blankets in mind as well. Each blanket should use up about a pound of yarn from my stash; I've used about 13 pounds so far this year.

I had my oncology apointment on Tuesday afternoon. Everything stays the same; it's getting boring.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Coffee on the Front Porch

When I sent Lexi down the hill to meet the school bus this morning, I took my coffee and knitting out to the swing on the front porch. I got two rows (32 stitches each) done before the bus came. Sitting there, I recalled a day about fifteen years ago when I mentioned at work that I'd had my coffee and toast on the front porch. One of my co-workers said she was jealous. Adeline was a twenty-something single mother of a three-year-old boy. I told her that her time would come - I had been where she was, but with two kids to get ready for school (nursery or elementary). I hope Adeline is now having her morning coffee on her front porch.


Lexi has been doing things in miniature recently. She made a birthday card for me that is 1 1/4 by 2 inches. She used a marker to color the outside orange, which one of my favorite colors. On the front she wrote Adele and drew a balloon. The inside simply says Happy Birthday. To give you and idea of the size of this couple sitting on a cloud, the cloud is one cotton ball with a toothpick run through it. She is so creative sometimes!


The tie-dyed shirt she's wearing in the other picture came from school. I think she selected the colors and the order of them on the rubber banded bundle, but the teacher did the rest. She brought it home Friday in a ziplock bag with instructions to rinse it in cold water, first with the rubber bands on and then with them off, then to wash it by itself. The kids were to wear the shirts on Monday for a group picture - Lexi said all except one girl remembered to wear them.


Thursday, May 15, 2008

Powdered Sugar Donuts

Sunday was the annual Pentecost picnic at church. It was held inside this year because it was chilly and damp ouyside. The leftover donuts from the coffee hour between the early and late services were put on the dessert table, and Lexi and her friend Franny shared one. They thought it was very funny to get powdered sugar all around their mouths. Of course, there was also powdered sugar on the floor beneath their chairs, as well as crumbs from the Doritos they ate. I apologized to the sexton who would be cleaning it up.

Alyssa and Lexi are completely moved in here now, but there is still some organizing to be done. A bunch of their stuff is stored in one of my sheds, and Alyssa has set aside some things to put in a yard sale that her boyfriend's mother and aunt are having soon.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Shirley

On April 3, I wrote that my friend Shirley was in the hospital with cancer in her upper spine. She spent almost four week in the hospital and had fourteen radiation treatments. Then she spent nine days in a nursing home. She died there on Saturday, and there will be a memorial service for her this Saturday.

She was a feisty lady! A wonderful weaver who also knitted and crocheted. For years she and her son had a business near Cadiz KY weaving rugs. The business burned one night about three years ago, and Buddy died in the fire. He lived in an apartment above the business, and Shirley lived in a trailer on the same property. Buddy was out of the building, but went back in for his animals, and didn't make it back out.

Fifty years ago, when Shirley was in her late twenties, with four young children, she had cancer for which she was treated with cobalt. She said that was 'the sickest you'd never want to be.' Years later she met someone who had worked in the lab making the cobalt treatments. That person said she had often wondered if anyone survived the treatments, and Shirley told her that at least one person had.

Recently, her brother voiced the 'you've had a good, long life' sentiment that we tend to say to or about someone who's past seventy or so and who's ill, and Shirley replied, "Yes, but I want more."

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Discovery!

It's easier to crochet (as long as the project is small) with a cat in your lap than it is to knit so encumbered.

Since Alyssa and Alexis are going to be moving in with me in the next week or so, I've been moving some things out of the 'loom room' - principally the loom, which is now in the back room along with the knitting machines, sewing machine, drum carder and other fiber processing equipment, and the laundry equipment. I came across a canvas bag there with a bunch of balls of yarn and neatly-labeled crocheted swatches. They were from my attempt about a year and a half ago to teach some Girl Scouts and their mothers to crochet. (I am not a teacher!) There was also a Crochet Today magazine, which had an article about the 'Caps to the Capital' campaign, with a simple pattern for crocheted baby caps. I made four of them yesterday and have done two so far today. Yes, I know the campaign is over, but I'll find some place to donate them. Anyway, that's when I made the aforementioned discovery. Ginger likes to lie on my lap (and sometimes play with my yarn) while I knit, but that is really annoying. However, her being on my lap was not a problem when crocheting such a small project.

The 'loom room' will be Lexi's room. She'll have to put up with all of my craft books and magazines being in there - there is no place else that I can put those shelves. She and I moved her cot in there last night, so she slept there. My room looks bigger without her cot in it. This morning we decided that the bookshelves holding coned thread can be placed along a short wall in my bedroom. She'll help me move them when she gets home this afternoon. That will make space for a piece of furniture she has for books and toys. We'll get it all figured out eventually.

Gardening
These pictures are the ones I tried to upload last week, but couldn't. The lilac is now completely finished blooming. It's still an attractive bush for the rest of the year, just doesn't look like a giant bouquet.

Probably no one else takes pictures of dandelions, but I think they're pretty - cheerful. The hosta, of course, will not bloom for a couple of months, but it is growing well.

The dogwood is losing its petals - the ground is almost white around it.

The iris will continue to bloom for a while, and there are clumps of it in other parts of the yard that are just now beginning to bloom.

This is the only bleeding heart that I have. I really want it to spread.

I've been outside for about half an hour this morning, mostly weeding, but I did spray some Roundup in a protected corner. There's more area I want to spray, but it's too breezy.

While I was looking for things in the shed, I found the two canvas chairs with arms that I thought had been 'lost' - borrowed by Alyssa and Andy and not returned. I'm glad to find them.

Quilt Show Luncheon

Last week was the annual quilt show and contest in Paducah of the American Quilters Society (their museum there is really worth a visit if you're in the area). My church, Grace Episcopal, has been serving a lunch on Friday during 'quilt week' for the past twenty years. Two years ago I helped serve, but this year I only attended. My college friend Jerene came from California for the show, and I met her and her two aunts (from central KY) at the luncheon. It was really nice to spend some time with her and catch up on what's going on in our lives.