Hello Monday, Goodbye July

Well here we are again at the end of another month. This month seemed to pass both fast and slow. My brother in law passed away on the 10th, my little mother in law fell and had to have 12 staples in her head, she also spent a couple of nights in the hospital. We did a quick overnight to Nashville for a doctors appointment for hubs. And then when you work in tourism, like I do, July is usually one of the busiest months of the year. I am a bit tired of this month and ready to say goodbye to it.

The weekend was just what I needed though. It was long and lazy. It was also really hot with some of the hottest days we have had all year. Temperatures reached well into the nineties and the humidity was terrible. This caused a few late afternoon thunder storms. We stayed safely in the house and watched the lightning show.

I decided to bring out some cross stitch that I hadn’t worked on in a while. This particular pattern is one I tried to finish last year for Halloween. But I had gotten a late start on it and didn’t finish in time. I got it out on Saturday and worked on it for awhile. Maybe I will have it finished and framed by Halloween this year. I have also been working on a crocheted afghan. Don’t ask me what I will do with it. I have plenty but I just love making them. And I love giving them to people so maybe that is what I will do.

***I am loving the colors in this afghan. I am using a few different rolls of self striping yarn. Who know what it will turn out to look like. That’s part of the fun I guess.***

I am itching to start a knitting project. I still have those socks to finish and I know I shouldn’t start anything else until I finish them but you know I will.

I also started a new book by Jennifer Hillier. This is the third book by her that I have read in the last couple of months. I started “Creep” on Sunday when it became available on my Libby App. I should have known I wouldn’t get anything done that day. When you start one of her books you just can’t put it down. Be prepared to settle in and take the time it takes to finish. Her books are grisly I am telling you the truth. But there is always such a great story and there’s always a mystery. I read an interview she had given and she told the interviewer her husband asked how she could come up with such gruesome stories? I never read these books at night I always switch to lighter reading before bedtime.

We noticed a couple of weeks ago that something had gotten into our tomato plant. It had eaten a good chunk out of a couple of tomatoes. I thought maybe it could have been a deer, or possum or some other critter like that. Then I noticed these strange droppings around the plant they almost looked like tiny green grenades. But not that tiny. I told a friend at work and we googled different kinds of critter poop. Sometimes we need a little break from the craziness at work and I was really wanting to know what had been in my tomatoes. Well it turns out it wasn’t a critter at all well it sort of was. It was a horn worm. Of course if you are familiar with growing tomatoes I am sure this was not news to you. I would never have thought a worm could leave something like that behind. I think my tomatoes are pretty much finished for this year. We did get quite a few off of this one plant.

I found a couple of things from the Old Farmers Almanac that I thought was interesting. The first is how to tell a good watermelon when you see one

And the other thing: Have you ever said Rabbit Rabbit first thing in the morning on the first day of the month? It has to be the first thing you say, first thing in the morning. This is supposed to bring good luck for the month. Is this an English tradition? southern? southern Appalachian? Northern? I’m not sure just where it originated. I’ve heard a lot of tales of people who say this first thing in the morning on the first day of every month. I only heard about this a few years ago. I sometimes say it and sometimes I forget. It’s all in fun I don’t believe that saying anything like this one way or the other will bring good luck but I think it is a funny little tradition. And tomorrow is the first day of the month.

And I must leave you with a picture of my precious boy Gus. He was looking at me with this sweet face this morning, making it very hard to leave him and go to work.

So what was your month like? I for one am looking forward to cooler temps in the upcoming months. Of course this is East Tennessee and it has been over 100 degrees F in October so that is nothing you can count on. Have a wonderful week.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Weekend Happenings, Making a Halloween Wreath

Mums and pumpkins and wood smoke and red and gold leaves. I love fall!!! I just want to grab it and pull it close and savor it. I think that is what I will do. I have so many things I want to do to enjoy fall but it seems like it goes by so fast.

Happy October friends how was your weekend? I got back into town on Friday afternoon. I spent the last week in San Antonio Texas for a Caves Association meeting. I left out last Sunday and was gone until Friday so a long time to be away from home. For me it is anyway. Coming home to the nice cool weather and the changing leaves was so nice. Of course having my kitties snuggling on my lap to sleep was just the best. I think they missed me.

Our flight on Friday morning left at 4:45 AM and we had a rental car to return. So we were out and about super early. I think I got about three hours of sleep. I packed everything on Thursday night so I would be that much ahead on Friday morning.

Our flights were very uneventful. I think those are the best kind. I wasn’t sure if we would have delays because of the hurricane. But we didn’t and we were back in Knoxville by 12:30 PM. I headed straight home for a nap. Ahh sleeping in my own bed was just heaven.

Saturday I had a grocery pick up and I went to see my MIL at the nursing center. She is doing really well. I am so proud of her. If she keeps doing as well we are hoping she will be able to return soon to the assisted living village where she had been. My friend Kathy and I also ran back to Athens to their Dollar Tree and picked up some more things for my wreath. We stopped off and ate Chinese food on the way home.

On Sunday I couldn’t do anything but sleep. I had a lot of things I wanted to do but every time I sat down I found myself nodding off. Just the busy busy busy of the previous week catching up with me I guess. I watched two movies that I thought were good. The first one with Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer. This movie was made in 2014 when Shirley was only a young girl of 80. I think she is amazing. The movie was a little slow but very sweet. The second movie was SO GOOD!!!!! it was Last Seen Alive. It is streaming on Netflix. It was so intense and starred the hunky, ever so easy on the eye, Gerard Butler. I think I could watch him in anything and love it.

I wanted to work on a Halloween wreath and I finally did get to it later on Sunday. I think it turned out pretty well. I got all of this stuff at the Dollar Tree, which is now Dollar and twenty five cents tree. Ha!!

***I used the shorter rolls of the decorative mesh. I didn’t want my wreath to be so large I couldn’t put a little sign on it. And I think they are easier to work with.***

***I cut 36 of these because I wanted my wreath to be full along the wire but not bunchy in the middle. I did black, orange and purple but you can use any color combination.***

I only used the black pipe cleaners for this wreath. I felt like the black went well with a Halloween theme. But once the mesh is tied you really can’t see the color of the pipe cleaners so I guess it doesn’t really matter.

***I used my cutting board and cut the strips into about 22 inch lengths. I then just crumpled them together to form sort of a bow.***

***I then added the pipe cleaners to attach them to a metal wreath ring. You can also get these at Dollar Tree.***

***I continued*** *adding the strips of mesh.*

***I liked the way it turned out. It took me less than two hours to complete including clean-up.***

And because I love fall and everything about it here is a cute Fall Bucket List . I got this from Pinterest. I think my wreath will count as “making a fall wreath” and I watched a football game last weekend, and I can conquer drinking a hot chocolate right now. I love all of these!!!! Which ones will you do first?

Join me back here tomorrow for a total recap of my week in San Antonio. It was so amazing!!!!

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

And Life Goes On

I have to say I am so sick of being in hospitals. I guess I am very fortunate that I have been a visitor and not a patient. I am not going to say much more about that at this point. Maybe more later.

I took a few extra days off from work this past week. Some of it was a little mini vacation. I wanted to be off on Thursday so I could be with my sister in law and nieces while my brother had triple bypass surgery. The surgery was long but it seems like the more people you have with you to talk and laugh it takes your mind off of what is going on and moves things along more quickly. So my sister and I went up on Thursday and and stayed at the hospital most of the day. My brother did great!!!

On Friday I did nothing. I worked on the temperature blanket and started working on a Halloween cross stitch. I read and napped and it was just such a relaxing day.

***This is what my Halloween cross stitch will looked like when it is finished. Hopefully by Halloween. I love this pattern it is so easy to follow.***

***You can see I haven’t gotten very far yet. Cross stitch takes a lot of time***.

On Saturday I decided to go back to the hospital to visit my brother. My sister went with me. He was still in CCU so we could only visit for a few minutes and only one at a time. He was doing great and still is.

My sister had 30% off at Kohl’s so we made a stop there on the way home. The only time we shop at Kohl’s is when we have 30% off. I know a lot of prices are elevated at this time just so they can offer the discount. But just look at this treasure I found. A Sex And The City jigsaw puzzle!!!! The price on it was $7.47 so I calculated 30% off of that would be great!!! But guess what? The puzzle rang up only $2.78 and I got 30% off of that. What????? I can’t wait to put it together.

We stopped at a little Mexican restaurant in Lenoir City and had a late lunch. We have eaten there before and it was great. This time the food was just meh.

Monday morning I took Scruffy into Sweetwater to get a much needed hair cut. The lady, Tiffany, who did his hair was new to us. My sister just loves her. She cuts her babies’ hair and my sister is always happy with the results. She was able to get me in pretty fast. In the summer Scruffy needs a really short cut so his hair doesn’t brush the grass. Being in the grass causes him to have more ticks on him. I have been trimming his hair for awhile but I just can’t get it close enough. It especially makes me nervous cutting around his face. Tiffany did an amazing job and he was only there for a couple of hours. While he was there I went to buy a few groceries and take them to my mother in law in the assisted living village.

Scruffy and I came home and took a nap. Getting a haircut always wears him out. I read a book and it rained all afternoon it was so cozy. The book I am reading this week is by Danielle Steel. It is called High Stakes. It is so good. I love some of Danielle Steel’s books but some of them not so much. This one I am loving. This is another book through the Libby app. I have one waiting it is Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. I don’t know how I have never read this book but I haven’t. I will keep you posted on it.

After the rain we took a long walk.

***Look at the steam coming up after the rain. It has been so hot here every day.***

***Allie cat, AKA mama cat, has some of the funniest expressions on her face.***

***Scruffy loves walking with his little kitty sisters.***

So it was back to work today with a lot of things to catch up on and a lot of things to deal with. That’s just the way it is and life goes on.

How has your week been so far?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

I Am Making A Crocheted Temperature Blanket

Hello friends how is your week going? I told you a few posts back about the temperature blanket that I am crocheting. I mostly knit but every now and then I still like a good crochet project. I always wanted to make one of these blankets but I seemed to miss out at the beginning of the year and then too many days would have passed and I felt like I would never catch up. A temperature blanket is of course based on the daily temperatures in your area. Each row is a corresponding color based on the temperature for that day.

I keep track of the temperature every day. I just jot it down in my calendar in my phone. Some people go by the daily coldest temps some do the high temp of the day but I decided to do sort of a midday temp or an average temp for the day. I don’t work on it every day but I try to keep up so I won’t be too many days behind. One row is one day. So you can see with 365 rows, one for each day, that is a lot of rows. I am doing only a single crochet stitch. I started out doing a double crochet or half double crochet stitch but I could tell this was going to make my blanket about a mile long. So I switched to a single row of crochet stitches.

The colors are your choice but I checked out a few sites to get an idea of what other people use. Of course for cold you think blue so that is what I used for my colder and coldest temps. The fern green color is temps being 54 to 64 degrees. I haven’t had to work with that color a lot yet. And then of course hotter temps make you think of darker red or orange colors.

I used a fairly cheap yarn. I do believe in spending money on a project that means a lot to me but I have found some nice yarns that are not too expensive especially for something that is somewhat of an experiment. I used the “I Love This Yarn” that you can get at Hobby Lobby or Michaels. It is acrylic but it is also very soft. If you wash it it is even softer. I am using a size I crochet hook.

So this is what I have so far. This is January and February. March has had some really warm temps so I will be able to use that darker green color. There are a lot of ends to weave in and I am trying to do those a little at a time.

***The top nearest the window blinds is January. We had a really cold spell in January and there were days and days of the dark blue color.*** ***The is not the best picture but you can get an idea of what it looks like so far.***

***So many ends to weave in. I try to keep caught up so I won’t have them all to do at the end.***

I am having so much fun with this blanket or actually it’s about the size of a throw. I know it is going to be really warm. I will keep you posted on how it looks month by month.

Are you working on any new projects?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!