A Crafty Post, Cleaning and the MN State Fair

I was successful at getting everything tumble-polished yesterday, although I was a bit of an idiot and didn't put pipe cleaners through the holes of two items, leading to the stainless steel shot getting caught in the interiors. It took a bit of working with some sharp tools to get all of the intruders out from the cavities, but eventually I was successful. The two cords I had to un-knot were toast (unfortunately), so the final thing I did before leaving work was cutting a five-root length of a waxed cord so that I can replace the old cords with new ones today. 

This is a four-stick "Oho de Dios" that my 
hubby made as a gift for his mother 30 or 
more years ago. She had it hanging in the 
kitchen where she could see it every day. 
It's quite three-dimensional and very 
detailed. DH is quite talented with cording 
and yarns. 

My LJ friend CuriousWombat had posted a small craft the kids had done on Sunday using crossed sticks and yarn. I remember that technique as a common one in the Southwest US, called "Ojo de Dio" or "Eye of God", and mentioned that my husband used to make quite complex ones. She was curious to see an example of his work, so I found one that he had made for his mother - we reclaimed it when his father passed and we were packing up their house. I took it from our storage room and took a quick photo of it to share. 

My macrame owl hangs on 
the wall at the entry to our den 
on the lower level of the house. 
It might be old fashioned, but 
I adore it. I've collected owls 
throughout my life and he's 
a welcome part of the collection. 

Hubby is quite talented with cording, leather and string. I'm sure all of you remember Macrame - a knotted string technique practiced heavily in the 1960's and 1970's. I have either two or three large plant hangers at the shop that DH made, and of course I have the requisite Owl, because he made me one early in our lives together, as a gift. It might be old-fashioned, but I still love it. 

Do you see the rainbow? It was wonderful watching the 
rainbow appear and disappear with each arc of the 
sprinkler. Like a little gift of sunshine and water 
that would make the grass and plants even happier. 
The plant in the foreground is one of my potted tomatoes, 
the hanging pots on the right are strawberry plants. 

On Wednesday, as I was chatting with Aearwen for our weekly catch-up, I had turned on the sprinkler in the side yard. As it moved through the arc, I could see rainbows in the droplets, Can you see my rainbow in the photo above? It made a wonderful hour chatting with a friend even more special. 

If this pin is available from the State Fair 
booth when we get to the Fair, I'm 
buying it. Apparently the pin dates from 
the 2020 Fair - the one that was 
cancelled. I love it. The two State Fair 
mascots - Fairchild and Fairborne - are 
hugging the state. In case you're 
wondering, they are gophers - 
we are the "Gopher State" a nickname 
given to the 13--lined ground squirrel 
and made popular in 1858. 

And on a final note, Sharon got her airplane reservations for her September trip so I immediately went onto the MN State Fair website to purchase and print out our State Fair Tickets. We're ready to go, even though we're only in the beginning of the summer now, and that occurs at the end of the summer. Now I'm looking at my house - overly cluttered as usual - and thinking "Two months is not nearly enough time to get this place knocked back into shape". But I've got to try. Today I tackle the floors of the bathrooms which need a good, thorough scrubbing. 

Have an excellent day, be kind, stay safe, and I'll be back tomorrow. At least, that's the plan - LOL. 

Graduation Means Higher Education and Another Logistics Problem *sigh*

Yesterday was a very busy day - grocery shopping at Target, Trader Joe's and my local grocer, making various things in the kitchen, and of course my final Friday Zoom call with my WildFit Tribe. Many of us brought our Alkagizers in cocktail or wine goblets to toast each other across the airwaves. The call ran over the full 90 minutes we have often taken - a lot of people just checking in to say "Thank You" to our Coach, Monica, and the other Tribe members. We've now graduated from WildFit 90, and quite a few of us are continuing on to higher education within the Living WildFit program, a different group focused on the next 12 months of living within the program. . 

Now that we've learned the program, we're living 
the life. The booklet is a help in establishing our 
structure, but the new Facebook group will be 
a place to ask questions and get support from 
coaches and fellow WildFit participants. 

My first major challenge will come in 8 days - the mini State Fair event that we're going to on the 30th of May. I'm looking forward to it, and will choose my foods carefully, but the State Fair is unique and holds a special part in my heart, like Thanksgiving does. The big thing though, is the ability to take events in stride, choose consciously, and know what to do afterwards to get right back on track. That's exactly what I'll be doing - choosing carefully during the event and then getting right back on track, maybe with a one-day fast for a quick reset the day after. 

Next week we'll be at the State Fair on Sunday. I can 
hardly wait. My eldest niece chose the same date for 
a family bar-b-que, and we're missing out on the family 
event because DH will be eating mini-donuts - LOL. 

I've gained several new Facebook friends through the WildFit program, and have also joined two new Facebook groups for the continuation of the program into the next year(s) of my life. Although DH says I'm "wasting away", I'm far from that. I still have another 15 pounds I'd like to release before I start remaining stable. I'm not in a hurry on that, and I'm quite content with the 15 pounds I already have released, but I DON'T want to regain those pounds either. I feel better than I've felt for a long time, and I know I can still improve. 

My LK150 knitting machine takes quite a length of 
space. Here it's on a 6 foot table. The white parts at each 
end can be pulled out to extend the bed another 4 inches or 
so on each side, so total space needed is approx six 
feet. It works great in the corner where I've been using it, 
but apparently it bugs him when I'm working on a 
larger project and need to leave it set up for more than 
a day at a time. 

DH has his focus on the den as his next area of cleaning. Considering at least half of the junk in that room is his, I'm not going to object. But he's also determined that my knitting machine needs to be used in a different room (even though it's rarely set up for more than one day at a time). So, I'll have to see if I can set it up in the craft room. If not, I'll need to set it up in Sharon's Room, which would require my purchase of a stand for the machine and getting rid of the old antique dresser which has been up there forever and is truly worthless trash. I'll take a tape measure around tomorrow and try to determine what location will actually work. I'm not sure if the brackets will be able to fasten on my craft table in the craft room, and that's a major problem if that's the case. 

On that note of household stuff, I'm totally out of here. I hope your problems are equally minor. Have an excellent day and weekend and I'll be back on Monday and please, be kind and stay safe. 

Membership Recommendations and A Warm-up On the Way

My Sunday was relaxing, although I was busy all day. Sunday is my day to sleep in and I indulged in that, catching almost eleven hours before awakening. It's how I catch up on my sleep after six days of short sleeps. I also don't exercise on Sunday, it's a "catch up" day for my body too. 

For years I've been told that catching up on sleep 
on the weekends is actually not good for me. But, 
I've been in my sleep/wake schedule for years, and 
it actually works really well for me. I only get one 
day a week to "catch up", but I do love my extra 
3-4 hours on that single day. 

DH was involved with his computer and then with the football game, so I took advantage and did another five rows of looming on my shawl after breakfast. It still doesn't look like I've done a lot, but I've actually done almost 1/8th of the total threads. Of course that means that 7/8 of them remain to be woven. Last week I didn't weave very much, I tackled loose warps, tightening where I could, and I marked a couple of broken warps that I'll have to adjust when I get to that part in the weaving. I have plenty of silk still spun, so making a broken thread whole again isn't a major problem. 

DH is the Vikings fan, I support the Denver Broncos. But,
after this week's games, we both finally have one in the 
Win column, both standing at 1-3. We'll have to see 
who does better this year, his Purple People Eaters, or 
my beloved Broncos. 

I've been watching a series of classes on Craftsy.com for my knitting machine. I'm just aching to get to work on it, I want to play with my new toy. I think I've finally figured out where I will set it up, but I'll have to pull it and box it back at the end of every work session. I don't have to room to keep this "active". Still, the e-classes have been excellent and I'm excited to dive in. BTW - Craftsy (which recently purchased itself back from a different company) is offering a fabulous membership offer to anyone interested. One year for only $5 (normally $79). That would give you total access to any of their classes, and the quality of their classes is top-notch. 

I fell into Craftsy because they had a series of 
machine knitting classes by the woman who wrote 
several of the machine knitting books I have on 
order. I've been watching her classes and the 
quality is excellent - so much better than anything 
I was viewing on YouTube. It was hard to beat 
a $5 membership offer, so I nabbed it. I thought 
you might be interested, so I posted it here too. 

Another membership that I nabbed on special, was the National Sewing Circle. They currently have a one-year membership offer on tap, also for $5. Again, this allows you to access any and all classes and patterns they have available. As a note - both of these memberships are auto-renew, but you can cancel them at any time, so if you decide you like it, but not enough for the full membership cost, just mark down on your calendar that you want to cancel your membership in September next year. Viola! Problem solved. 

I learned to sew at my mother's knee, and she was a 
professional seamstress for many years. So I learned 
a lot. But I haven't done any serious sewing for more 
than two decades, so I decided to join for $5 and 
refresh my skills. I'll get my money's worth, I'm 
quite sure. 

On that crafty note, I'm putting on a hoodie, making my oatmeal, and enjoying the fact that our temperatures this week are expected to be closer to our normal - highs in the upper 60's and low 70's, and lows in the lower 40's to lower 50's. Since we actually got below freezing last week (thank goodness for those tomato covers I purchased earlier this year), it will be a nice autumn warm-up. 

A month or two ago I purchased three of
these Tomato/Plant covers from Amazon. They 
were a reasonable price, and a LOT easier to 
handle than the old mattress pads we had been 
using to protect my tomatoes in cold temps. 
We used one of them for all three of my 
tomato plants last week for several days, and 
they work really well. I'm pleased with my 
purchase. 

Have a truly excellent day, be kind to everyone you happen to meet, and spread some love and joy - we all need more love and joy in our lives. Be safe, stay healthy, and please, wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow.