Little This and That

My Independence Day weekend was rather quiet and with some chores.  My son came and trimmed two limbs which were assisting my Olympic jumping squirrels to land on top of my two squirrel proof 4  bird feeder poles.  No way they can get to them from the ground.  They would climb down to the very thinnest part of the limb and jump.  Needless to say they ruined my feeders with their rat like teeth so that sunflower seeds wouldn't stay in.  Problem is now solved.

Did cat duty for neighbors so they could go to the beach for the holiday and also cut grass in between the drizzles so Ben's playground is well groomed now.

And, pulled a few loops on the Black Kitten Mat while watching some great recorded movies.  I didn't keep track of how much time was looking at the loops being pulled vs. keeping my eyes on the TV screen.

Am looking forward to turning the curved corners and finishing 'Blackie' then will work more on my son's rug before doing the binding on this.  So then there will be two which need binding.... Chum and Blackie.

Hope you enjoyed your weekend as it is back to real life tomorrow.  However, this IS my real life and each day is a weekend or a holiday to me. 

Saundra

Thrift Dropping Shopping

Actually the day started out well with me finally releasing some of the items I've held onto too long.  I dropped off a huge box of clothing, cotton fabrics and craft supplies no longer wanted or use.  That drop off is on one end of the building and delivery was made successfully. 

The entrance which holds priced thrift shop items is on the other end.  Sadly I chose to see if there were any "Life is Good" tee shirts or other items to my liking.  Thank gawd I found no clothing as I'm trying to empty my closets and drawers.  And it isn't the time of year to be tempted by wool clothing for rugs. 

What I did find was this basket which is only about 4" tall but has 6 sections in which to put wool for hooking projects.  My hope is that there will be NO MORE wool mess around me on the sofa rather the strips for the rug will be contained in each of these bins.  (Oh really Saundra???)

This shows the measurements of this wonderful basket.

Only minor advancement made on the Black Kitten Mat but think there may be interest from others out there to join me.  All are welcome and would love it if you'd share your work with me. 

Today is supposed to be the last of the low humid days  for a while.  I enjoyed that time with Ben and a glass of wine on the back deck as he kept a watchful eye on squirrel movement.  Thankfully my electric bill will be lower this month but think it is about to rise since heat and humidity is to do so also.

Have a great evening everyone.

Saundra

A Good and Bad Day

The first 'good' news is that I played with wool and gave some a tea bath in anticipation of my black kitten mat.  This is some of the wool up for task.  The very top wool had already been given an onion skin or tea bath some time ago and will be used sparingly in parts of the rug.  The two pieces of wool on either side of the cat picture were 'as is' wool and the tea bath pieces of that wool is just below them.  The textured wool just under the kitten's picture is also tea dyed but didn't feel like pulling out a large piece from my shelf to show you the minimal difference. 

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be ready to  pull a few loops on the kitten and plan to use some of the as is wool before tea in the rug as well as wool from my worm baggies.  I'm getting SO excited.

Other GOOD news is that my riding mower can be used and the vibration of the motor had wiggled the spark plug connection loose.  The repairman said that when it was assembled the guy might not have pushed it on until it clicked.  He hoped that the rest of his service calls today were as easy to fix.  So I'm good to go with grass cutting tomorrow with lower humidity.

And now to the good and BAD news.   Comcast technician came this morning to assist in giving me a better internet connection so I won't get the pop ups saying 'internet not connected'.  The technician swapped out the old modem and gave me one which has two connections; 2.4 and 5.  One will give me faster service and the other for distance.  He said the other modem was not nearly as good as this one.

Now to the BAD news.  He was a big muscular guy and he leaned back on the office chair and don't know what the hell he thought this chair was ~ a lazy boy recliner?  He fell backward, kicked off the sliding tray which holds the keyboard and popped out the bolts/screws from the base of the chair and loosened the other two.  Yeah, I'm sure you are chuckling at the thought of a hunk of a guy falling backward.

Remember this photo?  This is what my computer chair looked like before after I'd hooked the arm pieces.

This is what it looks like now.  He put back the slide table and keyboard but the note pads are still on the floor as is the chair pad which fell off.

Here you can see how the bolts popped out of the base of the chair.  This was a tilt back chair but now to the pressure of his relaxed mode leaning back with his muscular torso.

I sent a picture of the damage to my friend who stays here while I'm at camp and told him this would be on his list of things to fix.  He said it can't be fixed and that I should file a claim.  Yes, I've filed a damage claim with Comcast and hope they help cover the cost of a new one.  Don't want a leather one, don't want to take advantage of them, just want a functional chair back.

Oh well, life would be boring if it weren't for hills and valleys we encounter each day would it.  Frankly I'm looking forward to a little 'coasting' for a while.

Have a great night and don't forget it isn't too late to join me in the black kitten playtime. 

Saundra

My Life as I Know It and Man Cave

I consider myself a rather happy individual and even remember as a kid in school when kids would comment..."she is always smiling" and they would laugh. At that time figured they thought I was goofy or had mental issues.  Truth is even now I look for the upside of life rather than the down side.

Yeah, here comes the BUT.  When stuff happens in a sequence when they should be working fine... I am not a smiling person.  Case in point.....May 29th is when the NEW riding mower was purchased since to repair the old one 'they said' was going to cost over $1,000.  Heck, may as well buy a new one, right?

So, I purchased a brand new (not used) riding mower from Sears.  Since the oil in it was to be changed after 5 hours of use I kept track of my usage.  Prior to Saturday I'd had 1 hour 20 minutes of usage.  So it was time to cut the grass again and started it up, drove it down to the end of my driveway to cut the very front grass.  Put the blades in gear, pushed the gas and it started cutting and shut off.

Oh no way!  This is a brand new $#%!! mower.  So turned the key off, disengaged the blades, put it in neutral, and changed the cut setting a little higher.  Okay, let's start-r-up again.  Nope, wouldn't start.  It was in neutral so pushed the mower up on the roadway out of the grass and tried again.  Nope.  Thankfully I've a 5 year warranty because I think there's a lemon in the garage.  Hey, this is just after 1 hour 20 minutes of cutting.  And YES, there was gasoline in the tank.

That wasn't the only bad thing this week but think I've re-hashed enough bad so......here is an update of my son's Man Cave Rug.  I want to get that empty part to the left of the rug hooked and then will enjoy working on the black kitten mat and/or starting the binding process of  Chum.

Before hooking the Black Kitten Mat I want to do some wool aging so might give you a tutorial on that for you newbies.  Yesterday's post did show you the wool I'm considering using on the mat.  But don't want my rug to look like a new rug using new wool to look like an antique....I am trying to replicate that antique look I love so much.

Stay tuned you guys and gals.  Sorry there's not more meat to my blog posts lately as they seem sorta humdrum to me as I post them.  Hopefully soon I'll have some goodies to share.

Have a great night and since Sears repair is coming tomorrow maybe I'll get some grass cut soon.

Saundra