Easily amused

I think winter has me so mentally drained that I am far too easily amused these days.  The snow is melting. It really is.  Not as quickly as we'd like but still...

I came home from work tonight and noticed this by my back door

Do you see it??   It's a tiny patch of exposed grass.   Hallelujah !!!   Don't laugh - it's a start.  In fact it inspired me to try and get the ice/snow cleared away that has blocked the front door for the past 2 months.

LOOK, the door opens again!  (See, easily amused).  Not so amusing is the busted rail to the right.  Crap

Oh well, can't dampen my spirit. I can see 10 blades of grass AND today was my Friday.  That's right, I'm off work until next Tuesday.  Tomorrows fun - painting the kitchen.  Yeehaw!

Sweet Sunday

It was one of those great days.  No particular reason, just the kind of day that Sunday's were made for.  I puttered away all day.  Tidied up the house a bit.  The kitchen nook still is in a bit of disarray but that's because there is an extra piece of furniture in the way.  I have a heavy cupboard that needs to be moved to the basement for extra storage.  But I'll have to use my feminine wiles and lure some muscley man in to help me.  Lol   

The maple products are starting to appear in the stores.  When you see the appearance of the first maple leaf candy, it's a sure sign Spring is here 

When I went down to the basement today to do laundry, at first I thought I had left the lights on.  But no, it was sunlight peeking through the windows.  That means the snow is melting!!  I can see out those windows again.   I decided to help things along a bit and went out with the ice chipper and cleared some more ice off the driveway and away from the down spouts.  

Spring fever has also fooled me into thinking I have a green thumb.  I bought a new house plant for the kitchen.  Meet Harriett

I am trying to be better with plants.  They do make a house look more homey.  Our local florist shop has been great at helping me pick plants that don't require much attention.   (I should mention that I have killed a cactus.  I mean, who does that?)

So with a focus on the house this weekend there wasn't much time to work on Spot but I did bring it out tonight.

As you can see, extremely limited progress.  The hit and miss section has me completely intimidated.  Wish me luck, I think this may take awhile. 

The only downside to Sunday is no more Downton Abbey.  Damn their short season!

Bye Bye Border

Today's the day I finally got rid of the ugly wallpaper border in my kitchen and nook area.   I can't believe it's taken me this long.   Here is was.... Country basket blue and peach....blech

And here it goes.......

The next thing to go is the ugly matching peach valance.  (I hope that doesn't take 8 months)

My neighbor loaned me her steamer.  What a difference!  Definitely worth using one of these.  Worked like a charm

However, part way through the task I realized why it's taken me 8 months.  It's because your house becomes a disaster zone.  I feel like my house is in a perpetual state of mess.  

Ughh, I hate this part. But I do not miss the border so it's worth it.   And in one corner I had a little trouble.  Some of the wall came off with the border.  So I have to patch that up.  Next weekend I'll re-paint the room and the mess will be back.  Perpetual mess 

I wonder if my little house will ever be in order?

Thursday Random

I've been hooking a bit each night all week.  No marathon sessions, just a bit.  This darn "working for a living" really interferes with hooking. Lol.  But Spot is coming along 

Now begins the stressful hit and miss parts.  The bag of worms is mocking me.  It knows this part will drive me nuts. 

Today we had rain.  Glorious snow melting rain.  I had to travel today for work.  The drive this morning was a little dicey.  The roads were wet and the temps were hovering around freezing.  And then I drove into thick fog.  Basically I white knuckled it for half of my trip.  Luckily in the way home the temps were higher so it was a much better drive. 

It's close to easter and I saw this on facebook today.   ANDREA, this made me think of you :)

It's a plus

Oooh happy day!  The temperatures climbed to the plus side today.  At lunch time I decided to try and find the downspout on my eaves trough.  Naturally it was encased in a pile of frozen snow.  So I dumped a pile of ice melt crystals on it and hoped it worked.  Sure enough by the time I came home at supper time things looked better.  I chipped away with a shovel and eventually found the end.  After clearing a little area, a chunk of ice popped out, followed by a steady trickle of water.   Yay!!  Tomorrow is supposed to be mild again so hopefully I can find the other spout at the front. 

I've had to work late the past 2 days so not much progress on Spot, but it's a start 

Tonight I've started hooking in the background.  Feels good to have a project again.  

Spots and worms

At long last, I picked up my hook.  It was way past time and "Spot" needed to be transferred onto the linen.  

This is just one of the many reasons I dislike transferring patterns.  Sharpie stains!

It was a stain filled morning as I made a bit of a crime scene in the bathroom sink too.  Everytime I color my hair at home, the bottle slips out of my hand and dye flies everywhere.  Tell me I am not the only one this happens to........  One the bright side, cleaning up the stains keeps me busy while the color sets.  Lol 

But I digress....  Since Spot is a great pattern to use hit and miss, I am setting myself a little challenge.  I'm only cutting wool for the centre background and the cat main body.  The rest "must" come from this bag of worms

Should be interesting as I'm not really good with the whole hit and miss technique but we will see what happens.  Happy hooking!  

It sprang

There was some melting today!  Wheeee, it felt almost spring-like.  It gave me a boost of energy I haven't felt in weeks.  I met The Hens for coffee downtown this morning and then picked up some treats at the german bakery for auntie.  I even stopped at the florist and picked up a new little house plant.

I found some of the pots Mom painted at her adult day care group.  Once I found them I wanted to put them around the house.  I'm starting to care about the house again so I know I must be feeling better.  I even did some housework for the first time in weeks.  And it really needed it. 

I even cooked a real meal.  The guy was in town yesterday selling fresh fish from his truck.  He is usually in town every Friday but most times he is sold out before I get off work.  Fresh scallops.....

.....sautéed in butter.  Look at the perfect carmelization on those beauties!  Finished with a butter lemon chive drizzle with some vegetable orzo with goat cheese

I'm back!!   

Spring

I took these photos this afternoon to show you what the first day of Spring looks like for us.

Winter has been hard on my poor little house.  See the trellis hanging half off 

Might be July before I can get on the garage again!  Haha

And finally the tunnel to the back door

Pfft, Spring.......yeah right!

Irish Blessings

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all.  I hope you're all proudly wearing something green today.  This day was my Mother's favorite day.  She embraced her irish heritage. Lord help you if you arrived at her house on March 17th and we're not wearing green.  She got this Irish pride from her father.  He was a great old guy who could sing those Irish songs like a pro.  When I was young he used to joke about me promising he have a traditional Irish wake.  Ironically, his funeral was held on March 17th.  Pure coincidence most likely but I like to think he planned it that way.  Just in case you are wondering, we did not prop him up in the corner but it was talked about a lot that day.  I think if his brothers weren't a little afraid of Mom and Auntie, they might have tried ;)

I was invited out for a traditional feast of green beer and cabbage rolls but since I'm still coughing like a tuberculosis victim, I decided to pass.   Who would want to eat next to a barking germ bag?  I came home and made myself some potato pancakes

And for dessert......a special delivery treat from a lovely leprechaun friend.

Brownie, pistachio, whipped cream trifle with a mint chocolate stick for garnish.   OMG.....so tasty.

It's hard not to think of my Mom today.  I'm sure she is having a grand celebration in heaven and her and Grandpa and singing together.

The driveway shuffle

And the evil dance of winter continues.  Another round of the "driveway shuffle" today.  Believe it or not, another 2 feet of snow fell yesterday.  TWO FEET.......  

So we trade off driveways.  The first one to get plowed out parks on the street until their yard is clear.   Today that was me.  Once my driveway was clear, the neighbor to my left snuck in behind me so they could get their driveway plowed.

Then at supper time, the neighbor to my right snuck in my yard until her driveway was opened.  We are so sick of this crap.  It had drifted so deep this morning I couldn't get either door open.  They were completely blocked and I was trapped.  TRAPPED !! I had to call a guy from work to come here with a shovel and rescue me.  YES, RESCUE ME....  So sad.  Luckily work was closed until noon but it was still nasty out.  Just before 1pm there was a 15 car pile up on the highway at the town border.  Luckily no serious injuries but the highway was closed several hours to clean up. 

People around here are losing their patience with winter.  Things are starting to get silly.  If you have a good sense of humor listen to this little video.  If you live on the east coast, you'll appreciate it.   

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvk0iVjyhW4 

A week to forget

I have to say, the winter of 2015 will be hard to forget.  My sad tale of woe starts last Friday.  I ended up leaving work early with flu symptoms.  If only I had known, that was only the beginning..... Coughing, nauseous, stuffy and dizzy.  Went to bed and woke early Saturday morning and felt.....funny.   I was itchy.  I reached around to scratch my back and it was covered in welts.  Back, neck, head.....

I knew that wasn't good so I headed to the ER.  I was having a bad allergic reaction to something.  Still don't know what.  They quickly gave me Benadryl and steroids and I wasn't allowed to leave for several hours.  After a few hours the welts started to subside and the itching was to a point I didn't want to shred my own skin.   The doctor also determined I had a chest infection/flu on top of it.   He sent me off with 3 prescriptions, one of which was more steroids.  

You'd think this would be a point where things would turn around......  Nope, I had a wicked side effect from the steroids. (I'll spare you those details.  You're welcome). By Tuesday I couldn't take it any more and stopped the steroid and by the next day I had some improvement with "the side effect" but by this point I was so weak and exhausted, I was useless.  

Now it's Wednesday and outside temperature was on the rise.  I went to the kitchen and in the new hooking nook area at the back, there was a big spot on the carpet.  Looked up and caught a drip in the eye.  So now there is an ice dam on the back roof and my kitchen was leaking 

Soon it was leaking in 2 spots.  All damn day!  I called my cousin and he was tied up on another job but promised to come today and shovel the roof.  Good to his word, he arrived first thing this morning. The cavalry had arrived!!

He was scooping snow off the roof and throwing it on the walkway.  I just assumed there wasn't much up there.  I was wrong.  He was up there a long time so I looked out the back door.  The door, the entire walkway was jammed with snow and ice from the roof.  The door was blocked in.   So eventually he climbed down and realized it was a problem.   Then I saw him drive away.  I knew he wouldn't leave me like that.....would he??  About a half hour later he arrived back with a snow blower.  He was here 3 and 1/2 hours in total.  Poor guy.  But at least the roof is no longer leaking. My hero.  

The good news is today I did get my appetite back and feel a bit stronger.  I may even try to get to work tomorrow.  It will be nice to get some fresh air and out of this house.   

Curses! Foiled Again!!

Ahh, that brings back memories of Saturday morning cartoons.  Back when they were good.  But I digress....  My hooking corner was ready and I had no excuse to not start a new rug.  Recently I downloaded the Rapid Resizer program to print patterns in any size.  I had printed out a pattern and was ready to piece it together to trace.  Now.....where is that scotch tape??  I spent over a half hour looking in every drawer, box and bag.  No tape!   

Oh look.....a new excuse ;).   So today on my lunch break I picked up some scotch tape and after supper I started piecing.   And I printed the pattern too large and don't have a piece of linen large enough.   Sigh........

Tomorrow I will print it a bit smaller and start again.   This was a free download from Sally Van Nuys on a hooking facebook group.  It's so cute and looks like a great way to use up some worms.  

Hello March

And more importantly, goodbye February - you snow-ridden, frost-bitten b#%ch!

I'm sure March has got to be better.  Some of this white crap has got to melt this month!  Friday the cable company arrived and hooked up an extra cable line in the kitchen nook. So now I have a comfortable hooking area with a TV.   Yay!  No more excuses 

Lots of light, a stash of wool and a TV ..... What more do I need?  Now I just have to decide what to hook next.  I have a big project to do but I'm still tweaking the pattern so I'll find a small something to do until I'm ready.   Time to troll my patterns.