A Grumpy Husband and a Senile Dog

We got about 8” of snow yesterday and a lot of wind. The husband went to work for a few hours in the morning but was home by lunchtime. I knew he was going to be unhappy that his schedule for the week got all blown to pieces. I wasn’t wrong. He does not like the fact that he cannot control the weather.

And although Rusty is still hanging in there and still getting around (more or less), he spends a good portion of his time wandering around the house. He will whine at the door to go out, and 30 seconds later, he will whine at the door to come in. And then go out. And then come in. Wash, rinse, repeat. Yesterday, he kept coming into my office to stand there and stare at me. If I can convince him to lie down on his pouf, he’ll sleep for a few hours. Otherwise, it’s a lot of aimless wandering and wanting to go out and come in.

I worked on the BSKD website for a bit, did laundry and various other tasks, and spent a few hours prepping some new sewing projects. My flexibility improved so much this summer with all the gardening that I am loath to sit for more than a couple of hours, so I am trying to do things that require me to be up and moving around. Last week, while working on those knit tops, I contemplated reorganizing my machine setup. Right now, the sergers are in DD#2’s bedroom and the coverstitch is in the spare bedroom. This requires me to get up and move, yes, but it also requires that I take my serger threads and associated tools with me every time I switch machines.

At some point, I may take the bed out of the spare bedroom. That’s a tiny room to begin with and even a twin bed takes up space. We’ve kept beds in all the bedrooms even though we only need sleeping accommodations a few weeks out of the year, but we’re moving into a time of our life when that might not be as necessary. This Christmas, I think, will be the first year in over two decades that we won’t have houseguests. DD#1 is spending Christmas with her boyfriend’s family and DD#2 thinks she’s going to have to work and won’t be able to take time off to come home. I told my mother and sister not to come this year—we’re all spending Thanksgiving together in Seattle so I will see them then—because it’s probably going to be just the husband and me and there isn’t anything for them to do while they are here.

[Call me a grinch, but I am somewhat relieved to have a quiet Christmas this year. Christmas has always been the holiday from hell for me. Between being the pianist for two churches, school activities when the kids were little, houseguests, and all the associated preparations, I’ve had to work extra hard to enjoy the holiday. I’m always deliriously happy when January 1 rolls around.]

This is what happens when the children grow up. It’s necessary to be flexible and establish different traditions.

I wore that blue Nancy Raglan top several times last weekend. It’s so warm and cozy that I ordered two more lengths of French terry fabric yesterday—in sapphire blue and hot pink—to make two more.

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I got a lovely gift in the mail yesterday. When I was at the embroidery retreat, one of the ladies who cooked all the meals asked me for my address. She sent me a kit to make a pumpkin pincushion! It’s adorable. I am going to try to get it put together today so I can send her a picture and a thank-you note. I can never have enough pincushions.

I am rather obsessed with this wool penny embroidery project, now that I have a better idea of what I’m doing and can experiment more. I’m still messing around with the original sampler I started last winter. These are some of my favorite stitches so far:

A flower made of a double cast-on stitch with pistil stitch accents:

A whipped-stitch spider web with a bullion stitch border and French knot accents:

A bullion “rose” which I think looks more like a bullion cactus, but whatever, and some fern stitch accents that make it look like I’m practicing for surgery:

And baby rick-rack whipstitched down:

I’ve started adding bits and bobbles to my embroidery, including buttons, baby rick-rack, and beads. (That was very alliterative.) I love that these pennies are small enough that I can sit down for five minutes here and there and work on them. The individual pennies are all different, but together they make a very interesting sampler.

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Our neighborhood gardening club has their monthly meeting tomorrow night, and Elysian and I are scheduled to share what we learned at the farm expo last weekend. This should be a fun get-together. Temps are supposed to be back up into the 50s by this weekend. I’d like to get out and at least look at the garden one more time before it all gets snowed in until spring.