Our Own Little Frankenweenie

Poor Mandy!



She had skin and dental surgery yesterday and there are six spots spread over her little mini body that have stitches.



None of this was lost on us today, Halloween. Certainly great and costly lengths to have a believable costume! :-)



Fear not, she is getting extra treats and good painkillers.

Everyone sends out this oldie for your enjoyment.

Parting shot: Waiting for a bedtime story.

Paint, Pairing Down and Packages

I'm starting with packages first. Bombs!! OMFG! I don't care who you voted for, if you are still with this so called president and his messages of hate, I can, at this point, only assume that this is who you really are too. It is said that good people voted for the cheeto and that may be, but if you are still supporting him and those spineless cheats in the GOP, I for one, do not consider you "good people". I can't imagine being so greedy and fearful and selfish that anyone would allow a wannabe third rate dictator to continue to run this country. As the meme says, "Hate never made any nation great." Get off your butt and vote next Tuesday, your nation and Democracy depends on it.

Okay, onto painting. Oil paints are a bugger to deal with but the results are so worth it in the durability department and my kitchen is as hard working as the next.





 They say they have latex paints that are just as good. They are not. The kitchen isn't quite finished. I have another bank of cabinets to do, and the fresh new wall color to put on, which will be latex but here are some pics as it is now.

Even the dogs have a little artwork over their water bowl.

The realtors tell you not to paint your cabinets red, it lowers the value. Unless you know your house is going on the market I just can't imagine decorating for some unknown person. I love red, I love orange and I love the new look. I mean who doesn't move into a new house and want to put their own colors in anyway? Next year it may be time to replace the wood countertops, not the butcher block but the fir ones. I would love a solid surface type but maybe I'll go for all maple? We'll see.

I paired down a lot of stuff out of the kitchen, and a lot of glassware and dishes. I am changing over my green and white vintage restaurant ware to vintage stoneware. I picked out a pattern I loved and have been scanning Etsy and eBay for it. For anyone interested, the pattern is Midwinter's Stonehenge Wild Oats. Paint colors I've used have mostly been from the newer Magnolia Collection. The red is "Vine Ripened Tomato", the upper cabinets are "Soft Linen", the walls will be "Cinnamon Sugar" and lastly the island is from our local Miller Paint and is a Color Guild color "Heat of Summer". I know many of you loved the 40's jadeite kinda green, but my kitchen has been one shade or green or another since we built the house and it was really time for a change.

And speaking of changes. I finally convinced my Mom to move into the "residential living" area of the Rogue Valley Manor. It offers much more assistance and oversight. She still has a lovely one bedroom apartment still although a bit smaller. She has no stove there, just a microwave and fridge but all three of her meals are provided and if she doesn't feel like it going down to eat, they have tray service. I think it will be perfect for the duration and easy enough for hospice to manage when the time comes too. So, I am working on getting her move lined up and coaxing her to pair down clothes and such as we can for this next move.

There has been precious little creative stuff going on. I did manage to finish up a lovely new wool crepe kimono. The collar is a piece of handprinted silk. These were both sale pieces of fabric, the 3 yards of wool a hefty 10 bucks, the silk, $5. I'm considering this my new robe. Why not? ;-)



 I can hand wash it easily enough. I do have a lovely plaid shirt in process. Cuffs on and this morning I will finally have time to do snaps and hems! I think I'm going to take a painting break this weekend. Cook, sew, weave and hang with the kids.

But while I wasn't as creative this past week or so, someone was.



 This nifty stained glass piece found a place in my weaving studio. I see it while I wind my own threads.



I'm leaving you all with this, an anthem as prescient today as it was in 1964.

Parting shot: Some days you just want to stay in bed.

After the Rain

Finally, fall has arrived. The air smells of fir and cedar, pungent and clean. The earth, damp and soft, redolent with the thick musty smell it has been lacking for months on end. The smell of salvation. The woods have again been restored to softness and give as one walks through them. Gone is the snap and crunch of a too long and too hot summer. The skies are a deep clear impossible blue and the stars have been putting on their very best twinkle and shine. Nirvana is just another name for Autumn.

So, part of the blog hold up was the surgery to insert a Nephrostomy tube into my Mom, then a second emergency surgery since it wasn't draining properly. Placed her cats. (My name is now Mud,actually worse), but it had to be done. I've had a wonderful loving home set up with my friend and hairdresser since my Mother was first diagnosed with small cell carcinoma. Anyway, my Mom went right from the hospital to the health center attached to the community where she lives. We are all trying to get her to move into a more assisted area of the manor and that's were it's at. The cats have settled in nicely BTW.

Yesterday was the second anniversary of my Dad's death. I don't know if my Mother remembered and I didn't remind her. I think she forgot. Can't decide if it is a blessing or not.

Then of course Gene got a cold and happily passed it on to me. Considering the crappy couple of weeks, I took to my bed along with Mandy who decided to injure her neck and shoulder area. We had quite the pity party last week. Towards the end of the week we did get a few fun things done and the plotting and planning for fall and winter sewing has begun in earnest. Here are a couple of new patterns to make it into the salon.



They are resting on their respective fabrics. The solid aqua is a denim and the cotton print perfect for this fancy western style shirt.

I tried to modify one of my patterns to have a funnel neck and failed.



I'll wear it but not my favorite and it helped me decide I don't really want anything up on the front of my neck. It will be a nice painting/barn/dirty work kind of top. It's a lightweight brushed denim I've had in my stash FOREVER! I also got another scrub top out. I loved this fabric so much it I almost substituted another one but I'm glad I didn't.



 It came out so nicely.

A wee bit of weaving has gone on.



This is the first towel on Fanny Justine, but really I'm now onto the third one and am enjoying her easy weaving ways very much. I love everything about this loom.

In amidst all the upheaval, I started painting too.



The island has been complete for weeks,



the lower cabinets are getting their second coat of paint today and then hopefully we'll get the dang hardware back on!

All the while, driving, resting, sewing and painting, I have been downing books on Audible. You all know I am a serial reader and now, listener, so for anyone who is interested, I have consumed and greatly enjoyed the following books.

The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, all read expertly by Steven Pacey. The books in the series are, The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, and The Last Argument of Kings. I've also read a spin-off in the same world titled Best Served Cold. These are not young adult books. There is murder, gory battles and lots of bad language. They are gritty and good and wholly engrossing if you like that sort of thing.

Then it was onto something a lot more fantasy. Sarah J. Maas has provided hours of great fantasy and some pretty darn good adult romance in her Court of Thorns and Roses series. Had I known about the romance angle of these books I might have passed them by, but I enjoyed it all thoroughly. One night I couldn't put it away and finished up the book around 4:30 in the morning. The books in the series are: A Court of Thorn and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Ruin. There is a novella in the series, Court of Frost and Starlight. It's just okay and I understand it is providing a bridge to further books in the same world. If you liked the series, you'll probably want to read the novella too. This is NOT a young adult series although I have started Ms. Maas's Throne of Glass series which is geared for YA and it is very good but of course contains none of the sex or language that COTAR does.

So there you are! A rundown of my last few weeks. Let me remind you that the midterms are 23 days away. We all need to vote! I owe you a song this post and after catching a couple of musicals yesterday on the tube, I just can't resist. Abba anyone?

Parting shot: The consummate lap dog, literally.

No Time Right Now

I was so far behind a week ago and then caught the cold from hell. I will catch up here soon but for right now, read something much more worthwhile than what I can offer. One of the more recent additions to my blog list has a post worthy of your time. Thank you retired knitter for this post.