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Eleven years into widowhood, after one year of incredible happiness and nearly 14 years of single blessedness. Retired, and mostly enjoying it. Still knitting. [Zen]tangling.again after a brief hiatus.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

When you find yourself in a hole –

Stop digging. Or knitting. And do something else instead.

So I bought this on my lunch hour yesterday, when I absolutely *had* to get out of the office:



And I wound up this between DVD’s last night:



I think they probably belong together, and I have no idea what their baby will look like. But here’s an engagement picture. I strung all 679 beads onto the yarn this afternoon.



This morning I bought five jars of assorted jams and jellies for our year’s supply. Not in the mood to photograph it; Thursday was a slow news day chez nous, which is why you got a glamour shot of band-aids and Kleenex.

And then, with a car full of milk and butter so I wouldn’t dawdle, I hit the estate sale that Secondborn’s best friend and her husband were having. The first thing that I really paid attention to was this:



Her grandfather made it, using the same pattern that my dad used to make one for Firstborn, complete with crayon drawer beneath the seat. I have no idea what happened to Firstborn’s; left behind in one of our many moves is my best guess. So this is rather a bittersweet acquisition, and this is also public notice that Firstborn gets dibs on it when I kick. And in the meantime it’s here for BittyBit and any future Bitties. Not sure where it will go. Maybe here, next to my own?



I also scored this occasional table, which after a little Murphy’s Oil Soap is now between the spots where the rattan chairs will go.



It’s got some veneer worn off and would be a pain to keep dusted if I were the dusting type. There is probably some fancy name for when wood is routed to look as if a piece were constructed of bamboo canes, and if you know it please feel free to share. And obviously I didn't do as good a job of getting the dust out of the sides as I'd thought.

I just thought this had a nice shape and interesting details, and it’s a good size for the space available. And because it is all wood and more or less one solid piece, I am less likely to break a toe on it than I would have been on the tile-topped, tripod-ish metal-framed table that LittleBit and I were coveting at a local shop. [Though I did mutter a childbirth word when I bumped it against my toe while sliding it to its current position.] Not to mention the price differential is roughly 2/3 of one of the chairs. Here's a better shot of the tabletop, minus my planner and keys and cellphone.



In order to get the beads onto the yarn, I wanted a beading needle that had an eye large enough to hold the yarn and small enough to slip through the hole of a 6.0 seed bead. What I came home with, was a vial of wire threaders for punch needle embroidery. Note to self for future reference: do not even think of using a wire threader and messing with beads, with a fresh manicure. Thank goodness for clear nail polish, which covers a multitude of sins, omissions, and brainf*rts-in-general.

I also came home with this: $99 worth of stuff for $5. Has this been a great day for the frugal, or what?



Three Prairie Moon patterns, each more charming than the last. And three other patterns, one of which I forgot to include in this shot. At the bottom you see the vial with my polish-eating needle threaders.



I have a 20-year-old piece of tussah silk that I've been wanting to make into a pillow top for a couple of years. I got started on the beading tonight while watching Kindergarten Cop, and I'll save the photos for another day. This post will be photo-heavy enough, and I'm about ready for bed.

Oh yeah: I got my hair cut, I got my nails done, I picked up quarters for laundry for the next time the Laundry Fairy smacks us with her hamper.

Night, all! Have a blessed and peaceful Sabbath.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I see what you mean about us both having serendipity Saturday. I like the furniture you found at the estate sale.
Punkin

Jerry said...

Good Evening Lynn, This is Mr Twisted. AKA Jerry. To answer your question, Mrs. Twisted learned at age 10 durring a Summer program taught at House of the Seven Gables in Salem Mass. Fast forward to another life I learned a year and a 1/2 ago. I was watching her knit a bunch of felted purses. I asked her if she thought I could learn because it would make a wonderful gift for my Daughter. From there it was all down hill. I started to buy needles and yarn and it all went crazy. If you read my blog it looks like all we do is buy yarn. Now we knit together and I tend to enable her in questionable purchaes and visa versa. She has pretty much stuck to knitting and I have tried spinning and dyeing even designed my own project. Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope you return. I will have to go back and read some past post of yours to get some background on you too.
Your new blog acquaintence Jerry

Aisling said...

Omgosh. I LOVE that rocking chair. and the table.