Week 9 & 10 - In Which I Become Unemployed

The last couple of weeks have been a blur, frankly.  To me, lots of things have been happening and I just sat down to review them all.  Some folks would say it was a typical couple of busy weeks. You be the judge.

The MOST IMPORTANT NEWS...As of this past Saturday, I am officially a Retired Person.  After just shy of 15 years, I finally decided to leave the library.  Life's too short to have to deal with some people in one's life (there are a couple of personalities there that I'd tried to live with and it just wasn't happening for me) and this was a mostly easy decision for me to make.  Add in the fact that my library pay for parttime work is equal or just a tiny bit less than my Social Security check for fulltime leisure....it was a no brainer decision!  I sent a text to my brothers to tell them that Mom's 3 kids were all now unemployed - I was the last one to retire.  One of them sent me this note:  "I prefer not to think of it as being unemployed. Think of it as "working smarter"; you're being paid while you sleep in until noon.  Or even if you sleep until noon next Thursday, you get paid for every day. We should have known this back in the 70's."   Dangit, he's right!

I spent yesterday knitting and sewing....today will likely be more sewing.  I figure I have enough projects to last me till about age 100 so I really don't need to worry about being bored.

Two weeks ago, the Qualifying Round of Sock Madness started.  Everyone who registered (I think someone mentioned there were over 1500 folks from around the world who registered for this annual sock-knitting contest), received the qualifying pattern at the same time.  We had exactly 2 weeks to knit a pair of socks, following the pattern exactly with no modifications AT ALL!  If we did that, and sent in photos with specific areas marked so the mods could judge if we really did follow the pattern with no modifications, we made it into the actual competition.  Here you see my pair:

I used a yarn with the name of Llamacorn....I'd had that yarn for a year or so and never found a pattern to use it with...this pattern wasn't necessarily the perfect one but I made it work and the moderator who judged my pair only said "Wow, a lot of colors when magnified to 150%!" You can see where I used black marking thread to show where the smocks are on the sock. 

So now I'm waiting to be put on an actual team and have the First Round pattern appear in my inbox...Then I'll be knitting like a fiend to complete the pair and be one of the the set number of qualifiers for the next round.  I rarely have the expectation of going past Round 3...I'm just not that dedicated a knitter nor am I that fast...I'm hoping the next round starts before Saturday morning - I'm leaving for a week in Utah and will have some quality knitting time on the plane!

Mom has been knitting, too.  She decided she wanted to knit herself a sweater with some money she got for Christmas.  It's been over 70 years since she last knit a sweater ( for a boyfriend who she was no longer seeing by the time she got the sweater done).  She picked out a lovely little cardigan-type of sweater that is knit all as one piece except for the collar piece.  No buttons or buttonholes.  She's been working on it since January and this past weekend she finished it.  Isn't it great?  I'm so proud of her!

And she, rightly so, is proud of herself, too!  

Well, I'm off to start work on my 2nd day of retirement!  Thanks for stopping by.

Week 8 - Where the Devil did Mother Nature Go?

Okay, now,  I realize I'm spoiled...I make no apologies for that.  John has spoiled me our entire married life.  There is very little that I want that he has denied me.  So when I say I'm done with winter, I'm really done with winter. The only problem here is that John has absolutely no power to fix this.  I'll forgive him this time!  Besides, I think the police are on the trail on this one...they don't need John getting involved.

The weather here in southwest Missouri has been ever-changing.  Mid-60's one day and two days later we have snow and wind chills below freezing.  Take today.

Not sure exactly how much snow we got, but the temps are positively frigid...and continue on a downward spiral toward zero degrees.  Overnight temps are expected to hover around 2 degrees with a wind chill of around -15 degrees.  I am hoping they cancel school tomorrow...that means the library will be closed as well and I can have another day off this week. 

We also had a snow day this last Thursday.  I spent the day making a small decorative pillow for our entry.  The embroidery machine has gotten a true workout this week.  I'm planning a bigger pillow for later in the spring - assuming we ever get a spring.  

Here's what I made this week.  It measures 4" by 8"...

And then I worked up another Row by Row block - this one from 2016.

It's from Bittersweet Quilts in Joplin, Missouri.  I wish now I'd swapped out the dark blue in the kit for a lighter blue so you could see the galvanized milk can better....but I might be able to highlight the can with the tackdown stitching for the applique...

The time is gong slowly with regards to my retirement.  Only 2 more weeks.  And then I'm going out to Utah to see the kids and grandkids for a week.  John will stay home and make sure Mom is ok while I'm gone.  

If it's March, it must be Sock Madness.  We got the qualifying pattern this morning and I am going to sit down and start knitting once I finish this blog post.  This is my 12th year competing and the 13th year of the competition.  I look forward to it every year, even though I have no expectations of getting much past round 3 each year.  There are 7 rounds, with more and more folks being eliminated each round.  It's fun to challenge myself to knit patterns that have never been seen before (some of them have been written specifically for the Madness) and I always - always - learn at least one thing new each year.  

Once I finish this qualifying pair, I'll post.  I'm using a colorway called Llamacorn.  Intriguing, isn't it?

Thanks for stopping by.

Week 6 & 7 - I Did It!

Yes, I did it.  I handed in my resignation to the library. On March 16th, after I close and lock the library, I will no longer be employed.  And I can't wait.  I've been there for just shy of 15 years.  And I am soooooooooo looking forward to no more alarm clocks, no more dealing with people with ideas of superiority, no more having to drive (or not) to work in the winter.  

I plan on spending a lot of time quilting and taking over most of the cooking. Those of you who know me, know that I have rarely cooked during most of the almost 46 years I've been married.  But if I'm stopping work, then it's only fair that I take back some of the meal planning and preparations since John will still be working.  I see lots of crock pot meals and casseroles in the future of this household.  

Last weekend I stitched several more rows from past Row by Row kits.  Here are the ones from Salt Lake City 2017 and Phoenix 2018.

Last week we had Presidents' Day holiday on Monday and Tuesday is my regular day off...I took advantage of that and signed up for a 2 day workshop in machine embroidery.  I had so much fun!  In 2 days I completed 6 projects.  Lookee!

What you see here are an adult apron with a mixer ad mixing bowl applique, a tea towel and towel holder, a hot pad, a bread basket, and a recipe card cover.  I'm not a turquoise and pink kinda girl but these are really lovely items.  I see some more items of this sort coming off my machine in the future.  

Additionally, I worked up a decorative pillow this morning.  

This was so fun to make.  It's only 4 inches by 8 inches.  I did one for Christmas and have plans to do one for Easter.  I'll show you once it's done.  

Have a wonderful week, my faraway friends. Thanks for stopping by.

Week 5 & 6 - Elephants and Turtles and Whales, Oh My!

The last couple of weeks I've spent taking items out of the studio, in preparations for John to change out the lights in the ceiling to LED lamps.  Those suckers are BRIGHT!  And make it so much easier to see when I'm sewing or knitting at night.

The Sewing Drought seems to be over.  Yesterday alone, I made up three rows from the 2015 Row by Row experience event.  The theme that year was H20 - or Water.  Se there were a lot of fish and water scenes.  Here are 3 of them.

Really fun to make.  I have several other kits with fish or undersea themes or boats.  Together, they will make a lovely little quilt.  Now to get time to finish them off!

It's cold and icy today.  The temps are above freezing so what little bit of rain we got this morning had turned to ice and is now melting.  They say we will have more ice later today.  I don't mind, as long as we don't have work tomorrow - then I can sew and not have to worry about driving in it.  

Our furnace is on the blink again.  Fortunately, it's still under warranty so it shouldn't cost an arm and a leg to get it repaired.  Punxatawyney Phil didn't see his shadow on Groundhog Day so they are predicting an early Spring....as far as I'm concerned, Spring starts on March 20th, regardless of that silly groundhog's predictions.  

Sorry for the short blog post this time.  Mark this down on your calendars, as it's a rare occurrence - Sally didn't have a lot to say this week!  

Thanks for stopping by.

Week 4 - More Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

This week is even more of the cold stuff.  Today the temps started just above 0 and with the wind chill, well, let's say the temps haven't gone up much.  It is currently 9 degrees at almost noon...We had a dusting of snow overnight and all things considered, the schools decided to call a Snow Day.  The policy at the library is thus - if schools are closed, we are closed.  Hence, I have the day off.  I can't say I'm not glad.  I'm beginning to think I don't like working anymore.  There's plenty of things to do here at home - fun things, things I really want to do.  Work is a four letter word - need I say more?

John and our neighbor took the 2 boy cows over to the neighbor's property on Sunday...it is past time for them to be weaned.  Sometimes a mother cow will self-wean but our two moms are true nurturers!  Once they got the boys into the trailer and pulled out of the field, John shut and locked the gate and they began to drive off.  Our Rosie went kinda crazy!  She began bellerin' and running in circles, and generally acting like a mom who'd had her child taken out of her arms at gunpoint.  She calmed down after about 20 minutes and I went back to whatever I was doing when I heard the ruckus.

On Monday morning, Mom came in and said she thought John had taken the boys over to John P's place on Sunday.  I said, yes, he did.  She said, well, I've counted the number of cows at the hay ring and it seems we have a total of 4 over there.  Hmmm, says I, there should only be 2.  Yep, there are 4 cows over there.  Okay, I missed something, evidently.  

I went to work and since John P. is not only my neighbor and my John's best 

friend, he's also my office partner at the library.  I told him about finding 4 cows in the field when I expected to see only2.  He said, yes, he got a call about 2 hours earlier from another neighbor of ours and it seems the 2 boys found a break in the fence (or made one themselves) and came home to their mamas.  He came over right away and enticed them into the field with a bucket 'o feed - cows will follow a feed bucket really easy, at least our cows will.  So now we have 4 cows again- 2 of which still haven't been weaned - and this weekend it's fence-mending at Mr. P's place for my John.  

Thanks for stopping by.

Week 3 - Brrrrrrr

This past week we see how Mother Nature can be a typical woman!  She's all over the place, temperature-wise. From unseasonably warm temps to frigid numbers, all in one week.

This past weekend was Martin Luther King weekend...no work for me on Monday since the library was closed for the holiday.  With today being my usual day off, I got a 4 day weekend. Yippee!  I sewed almost all day Saturday; Sunday was chore day, as usual.  Yesterday I spent moving stuff from the studio into another room in preparation for John to change out the lights in the studio from regular bulbs to LED bulbs....I can't wait!  Today I finished moving all the stuff out of the studio and now John has no obstacle to fixing my lights.  

In moving stuff, I find that some doesn't even need to live here anymore...I can take a bunch of stuff (mostly fabric that I bought long ago and really don't know why.  Our tastes change over time, doesn't it?) and give it away to allow more room in the studio for moving about. No pictures, I'm slightly embarrassed at the amount of 'stuff' that I've accumulated.  

In spite of the weather, the animals on this tiny farm still need attention.  Doesn't matter that the temps are frigid...snow on the ground, wind blustering, making the temps even more arctic than normal.  The cows still need hay.  

Brrrrrrrr.  He finished and came straight in to warm up!

Sometimes, when I'm sewing, I have company in the studio....and sometimes, my company decides he wants to help.

See that little black and white paw?  He sure wants to help.  

"Did I help, Mom?  Did I?"

Well, if you managed NOT to sew your paw while I was motoring down the seam, then, yes, you helped!  

It's time to get dinner started...my turn to cook tonight.  Thanks for stopping by!

2019 - Week 1 & 2 - Getting Started

Well, 2019 started off right nicely without us forcing ourselves to keep our eyes open and welcome the New Year.  We went to bed at the usual time, and, TA DA!  When we awoke on January 1st, the New Year had successfully been ushered in without our help.  I love that!  

Again, this year, I will try my darnedest to post a blog update each week...no promises.  Just Try!  I just heard Yoda in my head saying "There is no Try, only do or do not."  Well, that little green guy doesn't live at my house and here we certainly do Try!  

We passed a relatively quiet and pleasant and uneventful holiday season...the new year began with just the 3 of us plus the fur people and cows and chickens.  The weather stayed pleasant - cold but no snow or ice.  Here we are on the 13th of January and our first snowfall occurred last night.  It wasn't supposed to snow, it did anyway.  Fortunately, we only go about 1/4 inch of snow so it won't prevent me from going to work tomorrow.  

We don't expect any more snow today...just really cold temperatures.  I'm so glad I don't have an outside job.  

Earlier this week, this was the view outside my studio window...yes, that is a herd of deer grazing just past our south field, in the neighbor's front yard.  Our neighbor texted John to tell him we almost had a deer on the front porch. 

Well, I'm off to start work on another quilt.  Since finishing DA BIG QUILT for my friend in New Jersey, I've completed 5 table runners, 2 wall hangings, and one full sized quilt.  Yesterday I finished 2 table squares - need to make up a backing for each of them and then they can go to the quilter.  I have 2 big quilts already cut out and ready to sew up.  That doesn' include any knitting projects, either.  

I've finished 3 pairs of FlipFlop socks to send to a friend in Georgia.  She doesn't want to give up her FlipFlops but her feet get a bit cold so I did some FlipFlop socks to wear that cover most of her feet except the toes...that should help.  Got the box ready to mail tomorrow so that's one more thing off my list! 

John hung new curtains in the Great Room for me, and he took down some miniblinds in our bedroom (we also have blackout curtains on those windows so the miniblinds are superfluous - and the kitten has destroyed them playing with the cords).  I've got a huge pot of spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove - enough for dinner and then several more dinners worth to freeze.  The laundry is almost done. Now it's off to help mom get started on knitting a sweater for herself... And then I can spend the rest of the afternoon either knitting or sewing.  

I wish you a peaceful and happy week to come.  Thanks for stopping by.