Suburban Musings

It's been a rough couple of weeks at Auntie's house.  Sleep deprivation has been an issue, plus the discouraging reality that the bounce-back after chemo did not materialize as expected.

In the meantime, I have been trying to focus on the positive (in spite of the tragedy at Downton last night).

Here are my musings:

Poinsettias have always been a staple of Christmastime in my family.  Considering the fact that my mother and her siblings grew up in Bloomington with greenhouses, and one of her brothers continued the business in Jordan, I guess it's not surprising that flowers are often present.

This is a piece of Lladro that I made a special trip into Madrid from Salamanca to bring back for my mother back in 1980.  When Auntie and I cleared out my mother's apartment, I told Auntie to take it with her.  I guess I chose this one for a number of reasons - a bird, flowers, but especially the little squiggle that is the worm on the branch.  (Recuerdas, Fede, ese viaje a Madrid en el tren?)

When I worked for The Evil Airline That is No Longer I appropriated this Rugrat train case from the kids' stuff for my desk.  It popped up again in the move, and now I've brought it to Auntie's house so that I can keep track of the cords I need for my various electronic devices.  Very dependent upon electronics, I am.

Auntie has made a lot of really cool stuff.  One of those things is a kaleidoscope, which sits on her coffee table (with the Lladro bird and other precious items).  I remember my kids always liked the kaleidoscope a lot.

Ironically, my aunt, who you may remember from the Christmas Quilt, is very talented in the quilting  department, loves this simple quilt that was given to her at the hospital.  Folks make them and donate them, I think mostly to the cancer wards.

We got snow yesterday.  I love snow.

Life is good.  Surgery is Wednesday.  Hoping for the best.

Ixnay to the Drapes

My kids laugh at me because I hate drapes.

The drapes that came with the condo were awful even to people who like drapes.

Really, it wasn't just me.

Today, the window coverings from The Little Blind Spot were delivered and installed.

 The hideous drapes are gone.

 Panel blind for the balcony in teal cement.

 Roman shade teal circles for my room, and Roman shade teal cement for Boy-child.

The drapes, along with all the hardware, went to Savers today.

I've been doing a lot of little stuff over the past two months, but this is the first big thing since the bookcases.

Hooray for getting rid of the horrid drapes!

Too bad it's impossible to take an accurate (color) picture at the condo in the afternoon.

Kitchen Knits

So, I received the most delightful surprise in my mailbox the other day - a wonderful set of kitchen hand-knits:

They're lovely and much needed, plus they add color to my very color-less place.  

My heartfelt thanks to Rose the Gypsy.  Great timing.  Very thoughtful.  Wonderfully useful.

In the meantime, I finished the fishnet stole/scarf.  It's blocking at the moment, on purple towels, so the color is a little skewed, but I believe it will serve its purpose well, which is to have a little something that goes with everything.  Plus, this is my second FO for 2013 - woot!  

Unfortunately, Auntie is not doing very well, so I am not at my place using the new kitchen set at the moment.  Soon.  No more chemo, thank goodness she's done with that.  With any luck, she'll be having surgery in a couple of weeks and on her way to full recovery afterward.

New Year's Knitting

Here's the first of my 12 from Stash in 2013- a hat for Boy.  I had an extra hank of black washable worsted for just this thing (Boy does not get anything made with fancy yarn any more).

This will be done soon...it's a fishnet pattern in a very colorful yarn.  The idea was to have something that would go with everything.  I'm very interested to see how it blocks out.  (Hopefully it will be blocking on Boy's bed next weekend after he returns to Chicago Tuesday).

This is a stealth project - to be done for someone who stalks the blog and belongs to Ravelry, so no details.  The yarn was purchased at Borealis before it closed.  It has to be done by the end of April.  I find that I have so little knitting time these days, I'm not going to take any chances, which is why I'm allowing myself nearly four months for a project that is not really that big of a deal.

I also have a pair of socks OTN (no surprise), so that gives me four of the twelve to be done from existing stash/WIPs.  Doable?  I hope so.

For Yarnover I signed up for the dinner the night before and "Knitting Happily Ever After - Ergonomics for Knitters" with Carson Demers.  

I'm all for Happily Ever After!

2013 Goals

I had a lot of big goals last year, and I accomplished them.  This year has a much more modest list.

*Take a trip that is not child- or work-related

*Join the YWCA across the street (not in January)

*Start riding a bike places (when the weather is better - I'm not interested in winter biking)

*Knit twelve things from stash yarn.  This was inspired by Chelsea

*Take three more classes at the Apple store

*Go through at least one box of my mother's stuff each month

*Wag more, bark less

I did manage to finish my Sketchbook recently - the front and back covers posted here.  I'm thinking of going to New York to visit the Brooklyn Art Library, among other places.