Sunday, October 23, 2016

lots of little things, a catch up

I didn't mean to take a long break from blogging, but it sort of happened.  I've noticed that when I have a lot on my mind that it's hard for me to keep it light here on the blog. So what I thought I'd do to kind of ease back into the routine is show a few pictures from the last week.

Last weekend I drove down and visited my Mom for the weekend.  Every year about this time I really love to go to a pumpkin patch.  I love to go with my Mom because she is not daunted one bit by my excitement, she mostly eggs me on! ha!  There's a fruit stand outside Red Bluff that does a pumpkin patch and then sets them out for you to pick from.  There is one in Chico that people were raving about last year but it was a huge disappointment so we went back to the tried and true fruit stand that we love.  
I got a bunch of tiny fun pumpkins that I took to the office to share and then kept these large ones for my house.  Mom had given me this step-stool, and as I was taking it out of the car to put in the house I thought the pumpkins would look fun on it! 

I took my little mouse along to show Mom and also finish knitting up the dress.  Mom decided her name is Hortence!  ha!  Here she is amongst some Fall decorations in my house.  Isn't she cute?

Awhile ago I planted some Red Hot Poker plants, but since it was the end of the season I fully did not expect any blooms.  I was walking through the back yard yesterday and what did I find?  A little bloom!!!!  Oh how my heart leapt. Just love this. 


Oh man, this cross stitch frame is a long time coming!  Oy vey.  You may not remember that I have been working on the Storytime Sampler by the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery, because it's been a million years since I've worked on it.  Yikes.  The thing is, I was hoping that Harry Potter would be one of the frames.  I was waiting each month, hoping he would be the next story.  Since I've been so slow at stitching this I've been able to see the work others have done on Instagram.  I had made up my mind to just stitch the pattern the way it was written, just go with it.  But, I kept thinking of Harry.  There was one lady who replaced another frame with Harry and I thought, I should do that.  But, then I felt conflicted about copying her.  I started the September frame which was Black Beauty.  Then was distracted a couple months.  When I picked it up again I realized that the train already in that pattern could be the Hogwarts train!  As I started to think more about it, I realized I could pick parts from other patterns and frames and mix them together to make Harry.  I used one of the empty frames in the pattern and played around with colored pencils until I came up with this:

It's not perfect, but I'm happy with it because it represents one of my most favorite book series.  I'm glad that I deviated from the pattern :)

This next picture is a two-fold project picture.  Since I finished Hortence the mouse I allowed myself to cast on some socks!  Yes!  I don't even know why I am so strict with myself project-wise because I've been longing to knit socks for weeks.  So, I took yarn with me to Mom's house and the second I finished the dress for Hortence I cast on these socks.  I wanted to add a little texture and luckily remembered the Hermione's Everyday Sock pattern stitch so that's what I've been working on knitwise.  I bought this fabric at the quilt fabric store in Chico and this morning made it into a needle cozy.  I had been wanting to make one using these poppers as closures.  I also added a bit of batting and quilted straight lines.  Sorry it's sideways, not sure how to fix that.  I just love this fabric, it will be fun to use it every day on with these socks.


In other news, I think I may be out of the non reading brain fog caused by grief.  Before my husband passed 3.5 years ago I was a bookworm.  After, I could still read but my attention span and retention was just not there.  It's slowly been coming back, thankfully!  I read an entire book in one night last Friday at Mom's house!  Crazy.  I had been wanting to see the movie The Girl on the Train and Mom gave me the book to read before seeing the movie.  I read the whole thing, that night.  It's funny, now that I've read it I'm not sure I want to see the movie - ha!  

Sorry this was so long to catch up, and such a long post.  Hope you all have a great week!

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