Day 202 of 2025

This shirt I'm making will not get finished tonight, 

but I'll manage it first thing in the morning.

 

Day 201 of 2025

My sewing is going but, of course, 

things are going slower than I had planned. 

I hope to finish this one tomorrow.

 

Day 200 of 2025

We were invited to go to a new-to-us farmer's market this morning. 

We love a new adventure.

 

Day 199 of 2025

There is a whole lot of sewing on the docket for this weekend. 

Once again Michaels came through

 with the materials I needed for this project. 

 

Day 198 of 2025

Sometimes I feel like the buds are more beautiful than the blossoms. 

 

Day 197 of 2025

I found the book I was looking for the other night. 

It took six minutes.

When I talked to Little E today, I forgot to show it to her.

 

Day 196 of 2025

Dinner.

 

Day 195 of 2025

I've decided I need to make a new t-shirt to wear next week.

 It shouldn't be too difficult as I've made this pattern before,

 but I want a longer sleeve than I've done before 

so that piece needs to be traced. 

I'm hoping to get started tomorrow.

 

Day 194 of 2025

It  appears that Michaels has picked up all the thread

 I would have purchased at Joann for clothing and bag sewing, 

especially for topstitching when a very close color match is wanted.

Good to know, Michaels.

 

Day 193 of 2025

A birthday celebration is in progress.

 

Day 192 of 2025

The mailbox flowers are thriving this year.

 
 

Day 191 of 2025

I've finally joined the two fronts and the back together. 

It's time to knit around and around for a while.

 

Day 190 of 2025

This is where I keep most of my knitting and crochet books 

along with some of my sewing, but not quilting books. 

I am looking for one in particular 

that I was telling Little E about this morning. 

Do we want to guess how long it will take me to find it

 or if I will find it here at all?

 

Day 189 of 2025

I hit a couple speed bumps with this tee since I last showed it here. 

There has been little progress but some decisions were made

 as to how to proceed with the challenges I am facing. 

Today I began working on the plan and found that I had made a few mistakes

 in previous rows that I could not ignore. 

I slipped my stitches to a spare needle to the offending spots one at a time

 and dropped the stitches down to the place that needed fixing. 

Then using this quite helpful tool, picked them all back up to the top

 and put them back on the needle. 

I think i've done them all (4 or 5) and am ready to resume knitting.

 

Day 188 of 2025

This is something I made a long time ago. 

It has come back into my possession and attention recently. 

I'll give you more information and my thoughts on it soon.

 

Day 187 of 2025

"Limelight Hydrangea"

The first of many more to come.

 

Day 186 of 2025

Yesterday we gathered for a 4th of July celebration. 

The two spray bottles with battery operated fans, one of which is broken, 

that I had were a big hit with the children 

in these ridiculously hot temperatures. 

There is a lot of summer left.

Today we hit the jackpot. 

These should cover the children and possibly some adults 

who might crave a spritz of water and a little breeze

 in the effort to stay cool.

 

Day 185 of 2025

The wait is over for the fireworks to begin.

 

Day 184 of 2025

I finished the right front yesterday and the left front today. 

I'm almost ready to connect the front and back 

so I can go round and round.

 

Day 183 of 2025

Funny story: 

Years ago I bought the Kate Rusby songbook.

 At one point I was looking for it and couldn't find it. 

I couldn't find it for a very long time. 

While it was lost, every time something else went missing, 

we would say it was with the Kate Rusby songbook 

indicating that once we found the songbook, 

all the other lost items would be right there with it. 

They were just hanging out together having a great time. 

Today I was knitting and needed to start a new ball of yarn. 

I looked in the places that I thought it might be. 

I was not in those places. 

I did come across the songbook though, 

but, alas, the yarn was not with it. 

Shortly thereafter I did find the yarn

 in a quite close and convenient place. 

Knitting continues. 

Maybe I'll get a progress picture for you tomorrow.

 

Day 182 of 2025

These day lilies are blooming a couple weeks later than last year. 

This is the second year after transplanting them. 

It's good to see them blooming again.

 

Day 181 of 2025

This one is tiny. 

The next driveway seems a long way off. 

And is it just me, or does he need to grow into those ears?

 

Day 180 of 2025

Yesterday I acquired three large containers 

full of textiles including crocheted items, 

old trims, and embroidered things. 

Today I am sifting through the containers. 

There are some keepers and some items I'll pass along. 

I especially like the hand embroidered things.

 

Day 179 of 2025

We visited The Lume exhibit 

Connection: Land, Water, Sky at Newfields today. 

It was amazing. 

Here Fireball is moving the art with just the motion of his hand

 in this interactive part of the exhibit.

 

Day 178 of 2025

The hawk is back.

 

Day 177 of 2025

Well, this is unfortunate. 

I am making good progress on physical therapy

 for a knee injury from three months ago that hasn't healed yet. 

Today I lost my footing

 and felt like my ankle and foot crumpled under me. 

X-rays show nothing is broken,

 but I'm sure this will affect how much physical therapy

 I can do for my knee.

 

Day 176 of 2025

This is the benefit of accidentally letting some of the bananas

 get way too ripe. 

I'm definitely not sad about it.

 

Day 175 of 2025

There is a new Fiesta color. 

This one is called linen. 

I'm looking forward to mixing this one in.

I'm not sure when they started with this stamp 

on the back of the pieces. 

It's definitely new to me 

to have a number stamped below the Fiesta logo.

 

Day 174 of 2025

Monday is laundry day, 

but when you need to be out of the house most of the day, 

laundry gets started late 

and subsequently folding gets done very late. 

But it's done.

 

Day 173 of 2025

The last few weeks have been busy 

and I haven't always gotten to my puzzles. 

Today I'm going to solve all of these.

 

Day 172 of 2025

Click HERE 

to see the original picture in this same spot, 

at the same art fair, 

in the same heat six years ago.

 

Day 171 of 2025

We're headed back to our car downtown tonight. 

I know I'm not giving you much to go on, 

but does anyone want to guess where we were?

Where am I?

 

Day 170 of 2025

Update on my purple dye splotched jean jacket:

I took the advice from the comments and did a Google search. 

While vinegar did come up so did Borax natural laundry booster. 

I happen to already own a box of Borax so I put half a cup in a large bucket 

and added the hottest water I could get from my tap. 

I submerged the jacket and let it soak. 

I can't remember how long I let it soak

 but I'm sure the water was no longer hot. 

When I poured the water out, it was purple. 

I rinsed the jacket and then put it in a regular laundry load. 

It worked fabulously. 

There is no trace of purple splotches.

 

Day 169 of 2025

A storm blew through this afternoon. 

We were out and about and had to wait it out to come home. 

There was a lot of rain but we saw first hand how damaging the winds were. 

On our way home we encountered a tree across the road

 for which we had to turn around and take another route, 

uprooted trees, tree limbs all over yards and roads, 

and traffic lights that were not working. 

Upon arriving home we found that we had no power. 

Limbs from far away trees were strewn all over our front and back yards. 

Our own trees fared pretty well with just a few small limbs down 

with the exception of this hawthorn 

which lost close to a third of its fullness in the break it suffered. 

We'll start clean up tomorrow after the rain is done

 and the puddles have receded a bit.

 

Day 168 of 2025

The day lilies are mostly all in bloom now. 

This is the biggest group of them. 

Further out, under the maple tree and closer to the street, 

is the second largest group. 

That group was started from the originals I got from a friend.

 I planted them strictly under the tree 

and have replanted all the rest in the yard from them. 

I have one more smaller group by the front of the house

 but couldn't get them all in one picture. 

This is the best showing of day lilies I've had for many years.

 

Day 167 of 2025

Fireball. 

I had taken some pictures of a Cooper's Hawk in our backyard

 which was fascinating to watch, but they all turned out poorly. 

So Fireball it is, making his way through John Green

 a couple chapters at a time.

 

Day 166 of 2025

We visited the butterfly exhibit at the zoo

 for the first time in a long time. 

I am amazed at the number of butterflies that tend to gravitate

 toward flowers that seem to act as camouflage. 

 

Day 165 of 2025

So much clover.

 

Day 164 of 2025

Tonight we got to go see GB#3 participate in a musical

 after two weeks of musical theater camp. 

He had fun being in the show and we had fun watching it.

 

Day 163 of 2025

It's another picture of a bunny. 

This is one of the little ones who are growing bigger every day. 

Those ears with the sun shining through them get me every time. 

 

Day 162 of 2025

Displays like this always make me smile. 

It reminds me of the Richard Scarry books

 that we read all the time when the kids were little. 

My favorite.

 

Day 161 of 2025

Out of dozens of day lilies that have sprouted buds, 

the first half dozen has bloomed today.

 

Day 160 of 2025

As I began the task of knitting the right front I spoke about yesterday, 

I found myself in need of a system to keep track of what I was doing and when. 

This pattern calls for multiple things happening at the same time 

but at different intervals. 

It was, at best, confusing to me. 

Little E is working on this same project so I contacted her for help. 

She had created a chart of sorts for her version and sent me a picture. 

After some time studying her notes, 

I made my own version of it specific to the numbers I needed to achieve. 

I think I have wrapped my head around it as the knitting is going well now.

 

Day 159 of 2025

Update to the Geddy Tee: 

The back portion is at the required length 

and has been put on waste yarn. 

I've picked up the first side of the front.

 

Day 158 of 2025

Our plans for the day began with breakfast out. 

When we tried to leave, 

we found the neighborhood cat guarding our house. 

It took some effort to get him to move so we could open the door.

 

Day 157 of 2025

I grabbed my jacket from the dryer

 on my way out the door to an appointment. 

It wasn't until later that I noticed there had been a laundry mishap. 

I'm not sure how to remedy the situation. 

Fireball suggested color catchers, but I'm not sure they would help

 for something that has already been discolored in the washer

 and then dried. 

Suggestions welcome.

 

Day 156 of 2025

Happy Birthday, GB#3

 

Day 155 of 2025

This should give you a better idea of why I made the four granny squares.

 This is the back of the Geddy Tee. 

Two more inches of blue and then I can start the front sections.

 

Day 154 of 2025

Well, that isn't going well.

I have reread the directions and this is definitely not right. 

I have since torn the blue back to a beginning row 

and re-knit that section. 

I have begun the straight knitting section. 

I'll be here a while.

 

Day 153 of 2025

When these are the colors of any scan,

 red is not usually the color you want to see. 

This is the case with my retina scan today. Treatment was administered. 

After that, it was not a great day for me and my eye.