Knitting

A few years ago I knit a few children's sweaters. They turned out ok, nothing impressive. I tried to tackle some projects that had more complicated stitches and nothing seemed to progress so...I gave up. Last year I thought I would try again and bought some red yarn to make a scarf- I started it about 6 times and would drop a stitch (I still don't know how to pick up a dropped stitch) or get mixed up on the pattern so... I gave up. Last week a friend told this very sad story about how she wanted a felted hedgehog so I thought I would try again. Success! It only took 2 days to knit and felt. Here's what it looks like:





I'm so pleased, I pulled out the red yarn (scarf above) and am trying again. I have restarted 3 times, but I feel like I finally understand what I was doing wrong all along. Amazing. It's going to be a basketweave

XXXXOOOOXXXXOOOO
XXXXOOOOXXXXOOOO
XXXXOOOOXXXXOOOO
XXXXOOOOXXXXOOOO
OOOOXXXXOOOOXXXX
OOOOXXXXOOOOXXXX
OOOOXXXXOOOOXXXX
OOOOXXXXOOOOXXXX
XXXXOOOOXXXXOOOO
XXXXOOOOXXXXOOOO
XXXXOOOOXXXXOOOO
XXXXOOOOXXXXOOOO
Ironically, I just mistyped the above so had to fix that too.
Wish me luck.

Covering a fuse box

I have a very unattractive fuse box that you are forced to look at immediately on entering my home. Now I could hang a picture, but there are electric wires coming right out of the top, and it's in a funny spot so I always thought I was stuck just having to have it there.

But I saw someone that used magnets to attach something to a fuse box and Voila! My problem is solved. I used some fancy papers decoupaged to a very light board and now I have a very attractive wall with no sign of a fuse box.



And close up:

Pictures hung

Blinds!

After 15 months of newsprint taped up over my windows...

























Glorious!

2nd upholstery project

Ok, did this one on my own.

Upholstery project completed

Halloween in San francisco

I miss my family in San Francisco terribly so thought the weekend of Halloween was the perfect time to address this lacking in my life. The weather in Boston was terrible- cold and rainy. So I was really looking forward to SF were the weather would be warm and rainy. Luckily good company more than makes up for bad weather.

First stop- the Halloween parade at the grade school.
It rained before the parade and after, but during... all clear.

But of course who was the star of the parade?

My niece. Almost 6.

Outside of their front door.

Nature areas in MA

Ok, so the day started with me extolling the virtues of my GPS. How it opened up my world, how it made it so easy to go anywhere. Can we see where this is going? Of course, my GPS totally led us into a cul de sac with the park nowhere to be found. Luckily Carol had an alternative way of finding the place and before we could get too frustrated we had found the park. Well worth the effort. Although it was chilly (mid-50 degrees F) the sun was shining.


















After wandering around the park we went to Cape Ann to see the beach.






Hard to believe all of this is less than an hour away from the city.

Trip to Pasco Airport

Just to give you a feel for the ride from Walla Walla to Pasco



Windmills on the hillside

How I spent one day in Walla Walla

1. Nephew needed new shoes delivered to school- Flip flop trauma





2. Wandered around Jo-ann Fabrics and found
Peacock Wreath (earlier at the local park we had seen the saddest Peacock ever. It had no feathers in its tail. It was a bit ironic that here I was possibly seeing where the poor things feathers had gone)


Metal corn (really does someone need stalks of "corn" in their garden?)

The House

The house in Walla Walla is really lovely. I took just a few pictures to give you a feel for the place.
Here's the newly renovated kitchen:


The other side of the kitchen is the eating/computer area:



The lower level has the Den and the kids rooms- here is the door to the bedroom:




The Den:

The Great Triathlon in Walla Walla

We decided to host our own triathlon. It would consist of scootering (like a Razor scooter), biking, and then running. Starting line is just there were the driveway begins to narrow (at the end of the tree shadow) and the turnaround is at the telephone pole. So you scooter out and back, then bike out and back, then run around the house

What? It might be easier if the picture was marked up?



Run continues around the back of the house



and up this walkway to the original starting line.



Then we added Archery in as a bonus- the target is at the end of the fence line (on the right)

This is just a picture of the front of the house where everyone slowly walked back in to get sustenance after the events.


It's tough competing against your siblings. My niece was complaining that her older sister was always better than her. I told her that some things never change and her mom was still faster than me! She'd just have to find other things that she excelled at.

RV Shopping in Pasco

On our way back from the airport we stopped by the local mall. While teen and preteen girls may enjoy shopping younger boys aren't quite so thrilled. So my nephew and I went to puruse the RV's for sale in the parking lot. Now, I thought this would be a way to pass the time, but wasn't too excited about what I would see. What a mistake! Look at these things!

They have bunk beds- with personal dvd players.



Driver's seats that are more luxurious than anything I have seen before, full size fridge freezer on the right, dining area on the left-


and I'm sure it was so subtle you didn't notice the sleep away nook above, but sometimes you'd rather a bit of alone time so you can watch the tv that's installed up there



Later

Fun things in Walla Walla, WA

You can build arrows from scratch



You can go to the library



You can ponder how this presidential election might turn out