Bron's Blog II

Fruits Of Our Labor

Who needs the exercise bike when you have all this rock to shovel and haul? Here's the before pile:

Here it is yesterday morning:

Piles waiting to be distributed:

The finished project:

Edging & mulch in the front flower bed:

A small area to walk on created in back at the suggestion of our real estate agent. It used to be bare earth:

Weary helpers:

After a full morning of "rocking" I was pooped, but still managed to crochet a bit on Lacy Top Cardi. Progress pics tomorrow. :) In the meantime, let me say that June's Knit N' Style is, as usual, a bit uneven in it's offerings. The last issue was unusual in that I liked so many of the projects. This one has the obligatory hideous fun fur projects (will it NEVER end?????):

And yet, Melissa Leapman's two tees are cute:

As is this camisole:

And this tote:

For some reason, several of the patterns have really, really high necklines and for a summer issue that seems very odd to me. I'll admit that if I didn't have a subscription, I would've passed on this one. As it is, I might just try that cami pattern for this summer. I have several cotton choices on my shelves that would work well for it and it looks like a fairly quick knit. :)

I'm off to 7th grade social studies - a teacher I've subbed for many times so no surprises today.

Happy Monday!

Save Me From Daylight Saving

As I do every 6 months, let me start by saying I hate Daylight Savings Time with all my heart.

Going off of it a couple of weeks early just adds insult to injury.

There - with that out of the way, let me reveal that Andrea was correct yesterday. My mystery item was a tea cozy:

I must say I'm rather pleased with it. It fits my 6 cup Brown Betty perfectly. :) I'm definitely making more of these! The cozy itself is based on a 1953 Workbasket pattern, the crocheted flowers are all mine. :)

I'm knitting a basic dishcloth to match:

I crocheted & applied the flowers while watching "Little Miss Sunshine" last night. If you haven't seen it, go out right now & rent it. It's a wonderful little film about a family - everyone in it totally flawed - but during a trip from NM to CA they get past their individual problems to come together and be...well...a family. The performances are wonderfully nuanced & the Oscar nods/wins were certainly deserved. The kids watched it with me (although beware of some language if your kids aren't old enough to deal with it - there's also a pretty strong reference or two to porn) and they loved it too. For a 12 & 14 yr. old to love a "little film that could" as much as an adult is saying something. Colin & I kept remarking how much like Dylan the character of Duane is in the movie. Although Dylan would never take a vow of silence! LOL

I did do some hard physical labor yesterday on the rental house. Here are some before & after pics that I've been promising. Before painting the outside:

After:

Nasty walls before:

Walls & new carpet after:

Spray painted red fireplace (painted without our permission!) before:

After:

You're also seeing cleaned tile & grout too. I'm amazed at what those guys were able to do with the filthy floors.

The boys & I did a little rock spreading yesterday:

That can really take it out of a person! We stopped after less than an hour - I knew I'd be hurting really badly today. We've got a pretty large area to cover in front but we're in no really hurry. If we do a little bit a day we'll be done soon enough & save ourselves some pain. Shoveling rock is definitely not something I'd want to do for a living!

To end this entry, I thought I'd show you a little something that might just cure a bit of my project ennui:

I picked it up on a whim and I'm glad I did. More on that next time. :)

And Bianca's Jacket? Another inch done on the sleeves. I'll get there...eventually. ::wink:::

I Really Did Have The Day Off

It still seems surreal. LOL It's been so long since I've been alone in the house it kind of freaked me out. But I managed to get some things done. :) It's a good thing I was home since the carpet installers were able to come out to the rental yesterday. It really looks great with new carpet to go with all the new paint. :)

Our appraisal is going to be adjusted upward also. Yay!

Things always happen for a reason, and obviously the original purchase deal falling through was the best thing for us.

Next up: We'll have the carpet cleaners come out to clean the filthy tile/grout in the family room, kitchen & bathrooms. Then we'll have the Merry Maids or some such organization come out & see if they can work miracles with the bathroom's tub & shower enclosure. I have a feeling we'll be resurfacing the tub and the shower but otherwise, the bathrooms should just take some work & industrial strength cleaner to fix.

And notice how I'm hiring it done. ::wink::

I finished the back of Bianca yesterday:

The scary thing is that I added five inches to the length on this and it's still only 14" from the bottom of the armhole to the hem. Whew!

I've finished the shaping on the right front:

I'll take this to school today as my proctor knitting, along with the butterfly dishcloth/hot pad combo. And anything else that strikes my fancy because I'll have at least 4 hours to sit & do nothing tomorrow. Sigh.

Why they don't just call in the job as a single period, I don't know. Then, at least, I could be home doing something constructive around here!

Tomorrow, at least, is a full day teaching. But I proctor again Mon., Tues. & Wed. As it stands, I'll have next Thurs. & Fri. off, so I shouldn't complain, I guess, if I get a 4 day weekend!

The winds here were awful yesterday so I didn't get out to take pics of the house. I'll do that today if the weather has calmed down. :)

Tomorrow is my Mom's birthday - she would have been 94.

It's strange to think it's been 5 months since her funeral.

She would've loved a set of dishcloths for her birthday. But she never would've used them. The last set I gave her (back in '90 or so) she used as doilies under pictures in the living room. I told her to use them, I could make more! But no - she insisted they never touch a dirty dish.

That was Mom.

Finally, A Bit Of Sleep

Usually the third night is the charm and I sleep better out of sheer exhaustion!

The last few substituting days have been on the stressful side so I'm looking forward to, if not days off, at least proctoring days where I get to sit around most of the day & knit or crochet while getting paid for it! LOL

Cross your fingers, though - I don't have a job for today and I'm thinking I won't since it's the first day of testing.

In other news:

And a butterfly hot pad has been started:

This is the first side - you crochet two & then put them together. But I'm thinking I'll make 3 - 2 for a hot pad & one for a matching dishcloth. What the heck - I live to be reckless. ::wink:::

When we got home from school yesterday, the painters were sitting in their truck taking a break and the outside of the house was done! I'm glad now that I took pictures of the rental to post here. I'll take more pics today & show you what a difference brown paint made! The new houses we're competing against to sell this one are all being done in medium to dark shades of brown stucco. This new paint job makes our 30 yr. old. house fit right in. I can't tell you how updated it feels!

And the inside is gorgeous. Bright and above all: Clean! We've ordered the new countertop in a laminate that looks like gray marble. Our painter will be back to do the kitchen cabinets in gray & white to match.

In case you're wondering, the gray is my idea - gray & white is my fav color combo for a kitchen. :) With really bright, preferably red accents of course! ::wink::

Evidently our realtor stopped by yesterday and was amazed at the house's transformation. He's really taken an interest in this house, checking in with us frequently, and the only reason I can think of is that he has a buyer or two in mind.

The kids & I will be planting flowers out front this weekend and we'll be having gravel delivered too to spruce up the front.

We're still shooting for a March 15th listing date.

Then we need to get serious with our own house-hunt. We've been cruising neighborhoods and have called on a few. Of course, the ones we REALLY like are WAY out of our price range. $379,000 for a house pretty much boggles my mind, unless I've won the lottery. LOL

But dang - they sure are pretty houses. Sigh.

::grin:::