A Little Yarn On The Side

....and I don't have jury duty!  The jury system is a great thing, it's even an interesting process, but it still doesn't mean I want to be there. I did have to go in yesterday, and I have to say that I was impressed with my fellow jurors.  No one WANTS to be there, but aside from two people who sounded like they were trying to get removed, during the questioning everyone really did take the process very seriously.  I was lucky enough to be at the end of the line for my particular panel--which meant that for me to be impaneled as a juror would have required the dismissal of 41 other jurors, which I think might have resulted in a mistrial--so I got to watch the process without really being involved.  Unfortunately, it meant two hours of sitting on the hard benches in the back, but at least I was saved from two additional hours on that bench by some sort of hiccup in the trial while we were on break, and we were sent home shortly before noon, and I spent the rest of...

Blogger is still broken, but after an afternoon of crafting, I now have two new felt ornaments.  Amazingly, I had put the beads on a sugar cookie ornament but had never sewn it together, so that was a nice find.  They're such cute ornaments. I also finished yet another mitten ornament, and even finished color-work ornament number 10: which is a jumping skier if you can't tell.  I still don't think I'll get all 55 done this year, but just a few weeks ago, I wasn't sure if I'd even get to TEN, so that's exciting. I've even started number 11!  This will only be the second one I've done in red, which is sort of funny as I did a blue-Christmas theme in the main room last year so won't be decorating with blue this year, even with all the cool new ornaments.  We have a huge entryway in the house, and we now have a big 9-foot tree to go in there in addition to the regular tree I put in the living room, and someday I'd like to decorat...

The spending ban is almost over (October 31 at midnight, but who's counting?), and it's actually getting a bit harder.  I am SO close that it almost just seems silly that in two weeks it will be okay but it isn't now.  Yesterday we met a friend to go prowl antique and thrift stores, and I ran across I don't know if you've examined sewing books at any length, but the more recent ones aren't really very helpful.  I suppose they might be if you're a beginner, or sew very simple things, but I sew clothes.  While I would not dare to call myself an expert or even an intermediate, I have run into issues and questions that are just more advanced than I can find.  The sewing book--which helpfully is even a three ring binder that will stay open --was published in 1961 originally and updated in 1970, so it's for an era when people made more of their clothing.  I had placed 3 books on my wishlist on Amazon to order on November 1 to hopefully find this informatio...

The fact that I could misplace my camera for several days can be explained by two words: canning season This is the time of a year when large boxes of tomatoes in the living room and canning jars in the entryway aren't even remarkable enough to be explained.  It's also the time of year when Finishing Friday gets usurped by 15 pints of salsa and 12 pints of crushed tomatoes.  But at least it's followed by a season of eating well , even if I am a little sick of tomatoes at that point. First, to prove that there were indeed two new mitten ornaments, and to remind myself that Bernat's red holiday yarn is a little too bright for my taste, though perhaps it will actually glow on the Christmas tree. I can now also show you my latest rope basket experiment,  which was much harder than I thought it would be.  I had a lot more trouble getting the oblong basket started than I expected, and ended up with a tiny gap in the bottom of the basket.  It was ...

......but to be fair, there's not much to photograph either.  I did make another mitten ornament yesterday, but it looks just like all the others anyway.  It gets me to 269 ornaments, which sounds like a crazy number until realizing I'm now 12 ornaments behind.  Eke! I could show you the 12 pints of olive and herb tomato sauce I canned yesterday, which might actually BE photo-worthy as the recipe said I would have about SIX pints and there might have been a bit of cursing going on, but I have been canning for too long now to have not been at least a little bit prepared for such a thing.  10 pounds of tomatoes going into 6 jars just seemed unlikely--at least in my world--so I did have extra jars cleaned and prepared.  It might have taken me a few years to learn that one, but I do eventually catch on to these things......... I do have a plan on the ornament front.  I still have one ornament design set that I haven't tried as I was a bit nervous about tr...

Finally, there was actually some crafting during my crafting "vacation."  Not a lot, but there are now three more ornaments, and if I could find my actual camera, you might be able to see my attempt at stippling on the felt heart.  I can't, and haven't yet figured out how to do much with the camera on my phone, so you'll have to take my word for it.  These still leave me quite a bit behind, but at least there are new ornaments. My big goal for this weekend was to get some LONG overdue birthday presents done.  I'm not as positive what Theo's goal was,  except to "help" by laying on everything in turns and shedding over everything.  It's a very important step in all my crafting projects.   With the house overflowing with fresh-picked produce, I spent the morning drying some sweet peppers and roasting, peeling, and freezing 3 dozen poblano peppers, but I still had time to finish these up this afternoon. Both birthdays were over the su...

An unexpected frost warning tonight combined with high winds meant the garden couldn't be covered, so after physical therapy, I harvested what was left.  Even after our friend picking on Tuesday and me picking yesterday, there were still an amazing number of ripe tomatoes, which are just sprawled all over the counters or in the freezer now.  I swear I am really, REALLY on vacation now.....................