A little more pink elephant

My lovely daughter adores making jewelry.  She was very enthusiastic when I requested she make me a necklace to go with my pink elephant dress.  It's sparkly! And more pink than I normally wear all year.  I look forward to the excuse to wear it!  She even used findings that match the gold in my wedding ring.  There's been talk from her about beaded martini glasses to affix to the headband I plan to wear, maybe even a matching brooch.  I'm starting to think my daughter may be interested in the 1950's aesthetic...almost as much as I am! ;-)

We went for a wander

After bugging our darling daughter for more than a month, the week of her birthday she finally announced what she wanted to do: go to the local botanical gardens and get more jewelery making supplies.  Kept things simple, and her hair was already purple.
Husband had that Friday off so  we voyaged the a whole five minutes to the requested botanical gardens.  We stopped at the lovely little cafe at the gardens to have lunch before we went tromping around outside.  Daughter seemed quite pleased to sit outside, in perfect weather, and eat mushroom brie quiche with birds flitting around, chirping away.
Once we finished lunch we strolled into the gardens proper, applied much sunblock, admiring all sorts of local flora, fauna and art for the next three and a half hours. Which worked up an appetite for the orange creamiscle cupcakes and squashed frogs (cornflake/rice crispy treats dyed green with candy eyes) that were awaiting us at home.
The next day, we drove to Austin and had lunch in a favorite micro-brew.  Feeling quite full, we thought a bit of a walk was in order, so we ended up at Lady bird Johnson's Wildflower Center . A very pleasant place, but it was a warmer than the day before and the bugs were out in force.  We gave up after less than two hours of wandering. After consulting with the birthday girl (who was just as hot and worn out as the rest of us) we agreed to go home and eat more cupcakes.
At some point over those two days, we also let her do a run through a store, steadily putting beads and cord and wire and findings into her shopping basket.  There was also the stop at the costume shop and a comic book store to round out the trip nicely.
The most important part, daughter seemed very content with her birthday!

Pink Elephants

A few days before my daughter's birthday last week ( yes there are pictures and we went neat places, which I will tell you about later) my husband found out about an Oktoberfest type shindig happening locally at the end of October.  He announced we were going. My response, "Fine. I want to get a pink elephant dress to wear".  He then said, "Well then I will wear my kilt". I smiled, said, "Fine, you do that" and then proceeded to buy a dress with pink elephants on it.
I am not typically a girl who likes wearing pink.  I have avoided wearing it for years. I prefer to wear green or black or even blue once in awhile.
But...I have a flask case from my great-grandmother that has a drunken pink elephant sitting in a fancy glass like a burlesque dancer. It's a cherished item that may have given me a weak spot for drunken pink elephants.
Pin Up Girl Clothing very kindly had three different styles to choose from with said intoxicated pachyderm on them and now Husband had given me an excuse to buy one(from one of my favorite shops whose dresses are worth every penny).  The dress got here, quickly and as amazing as promised, but as I've said, I don't really wear pink, what the heck was I going to put with it?  Not more black. The outfit would look monotonous.  Short, pink, lace gloves would play up the style of the dress and add a spot more color. Yarn stash to the rescue! I had two pink yarns in two different gauges with the lace weight being worked into short lacy fingerless mitts and the sock yarn will most likely become a snood. They aren't the same exact shades of pink, so it won't look all matchy matchy, but all three shades are on a bag with a burlesque theme that resides in my pile o' purses.  Win! Throw on some nude, black back-seamed stockings and black kitten heels I think I may have managed an outfit using pink!

In Anticipation of Sweater Weather

I have a confession.  I gave most of the cold weather tops I've knit to my daughter.  In my defense, they fit her better than they fit me.  I knit quite tightly and in the last year or two have finally figured out how to compensate for it, usually (see below).  On the up side, it means the need to knit myself more sweaters that will likely work better with my wardrobe re-work, frequently using already stashed yarn.  The down side is that it means my list of things to knit has grown by several pages.  It's become a bit daunting.  Occasionally, I will go through the list, weeding out what I think no longer works,  all too often adding a new thing that I think is perfect.
The rust colored sweater above is the Abalone by Hedgehog Fibres knit as part of a Stockinette Zombies knit along using some Cascade 220 I had shoved in a bin.
The green sweater still in progress is Irish Coffee by Baby Cocktails Thea Colman.   Again, using yarn I had in a bin. This time it's Patons Classic Wool.
The hat came about because I decided I should have practical accessories that not only match each other, but the stuff I would be wearing them with as well.  I chose the pattern Lee by Ysolda Teague using the yarn called for.  Gauge gave me a nibble on the behind with this project. The yarn was lighter than I expected, so I used the needle size called for.  This was stupid. With the way I knit, I should have gone up a needle size, so the hat, while gloriously soft and warm as well as being cute on...is also just a touch too small for even my head.  I will probably re-knit it on bigger needles, it was a quick knit the first go around, and give the first one away.
All this work to have clothes for when the season changes...it is so very worth it!

Homemade Marshmallows

A picture  of why I am so happy I taught my children to cook!  Beautiful homemade marshmallows.  Also known as one of the indications my daughter really should become a pastry chef.  She is a magician with sweets.
The marshmallows made outstanding nibbles while my nose was buried in The Hunger Games series. If you haven't read these books, please do.  I personally found them highly enjoyable, (they may have brought out a bit of the fan-girl in me).  The books are fairly quick reads(I read the last one in less than a day), well written, and not strikingly soppy or sugar coated teenage drivel (Husband's comment was that, for the young adult category,  they were a bit dark) .  Just for reference I am also fans of Robin McKinley and  J.K. Rowling.  I started the last in the Parasol Protectorate series today, Husband read it while I finished The Hunger Games trilogy. Ms. Carriger is quite popular around our house.  The first and second Girl Genius novels are also doing a tour of the house, the online comic being much beloved.
There's been an outstanding amount of reading going on lately, even the teenagers are flying through novels left and right.  I figure it must be the weather. Lying under a fan, in the heat of the day, and exerting only enough effort to turn pages has been an ideal way for us to pass the last month.  In my case, it's because I read faster if I am not trying to knit at the same time and yarn sticks to your fingers when it's over 90*F.

Re-do.

At the beginning of May, I was all set.  I had myself all pulled together, down to commercial bath products that actually worked, pants that fit properly and a fantastic hat that looked like a U.F.O had landed on my head.

Cue the beginning of June. I am looking a bit worse for wear. I've found an extra ten pounds, so while the pants still fit, they don't look nearly as well. I haven't re-dyed my hair, so the (still) ashy blonde roots are prominently exposed in my otherwise copper red mane and the frizz that summer weather has caused remains untended. No effort has been made to replace the bath products that had been working so well, which doesn't seem to matter as I have been lax in using them anyway and the state of my skin is testament to that, oily, flaky and breaking out.  Truly a charming image, don't you think?  It's an image I wallow in for June and part of July.  At which point I actually look at myself in a mirror and announce to the empty bathroom, "I really need to do something about this!"

I start exercising as soon as I roll out of bed. Can't seem to stick with it if my brain is fully awake, it argues and makes excuses.
I stop mindlessly eating whatever leftovers I find in the fridge.  I make smoothies and keep containers of mixed nuts (not pre-packaged or seasoned) at hand for snacks.
There is a pillaging of the pantry to make bath items.  The search reveals the necessary components for a face/body lotion, face scrub, sugar scrub and hair oil. Concoctions are stirred and notes taken so I can actually replicate them should they work. I even get fancy and put together an herbed milk bath.

Progress is slow. I am irked at myself for having to re-do all the work from the beginning of the year. I have no deadline nor any solid set of goals to reach.  There is just a desire to be healthy...and to be happy with the way my pants fit.

Scotch Eggs and Why Socks Are Good For Insomnia

About a week ago I gave in to my husband's request and had a go at making scotch eggs . They weren't difficult, just a bit fiddly.  I would have taken pictures, but they disappeared rather rapidly. Everyone in the house has an outrageous fondness for them.
Most of this week has been devoted to functioning on almost no sleep.  For some reason lately, my brain has decided that actual sleep is optional.  This is detrimental to my knitting.  I can push myself through most of my day, but the fine motor skills required to wield my needles suffer.  To the rescue comes the plain vanilla sock!  I have a two gallon bag, the yarn in it weighed and wound, to make pairs of ankle socks.  Mind-numbingly simple, don't even need a pattern, easy to fix if I make a mistake, yet much needed by me type socks.  The kind of knitting I normally avoid during the day as it tends to put me to sleep. 

Today, I am mostly avoiding caffeine (difficult), instead sipping a tisane of lavender, mint and chamomile. There are plans for a  lovely warm bath this evening, then dragging my behind into a freshly made bed, to knit slowly and steadily on my very uncomplicated socks until, thought processes beaten into submission by determined lack of attention and use, I finally manage to sleep.
Wish me luck.

Keeping myself entertained

I've been pretty much left to my own devices this past week, which means I have done quite a lot of knitting(sort of, there's been a lot of ripping and re-knitting) and (for some reason) housecleaning. The tending of my tomato plants (started from seed) has involved far less effort thanks to all the thunderstorms, though I am still waiting for an edible fruit.
 Sadly, I am only halfway through the Dresden novel I am reading and had hoped to finish this week. I am a huge fan of Mr. Butcher's books, so now that the house is all clean maybe I can curl up in a corner, finish my book, and then be upset I finished the series (instead of upset because I spent too much time reading the news).

Because

Yes, that is a sock that looks a bit like a slice of watermelon.  No, I don't know why I felt the need to buy the supplies and cast it on immediately. I saw the finished pair over at Knitter's Brewing Company , giggled and then couldn't let go of the idea of making a pair.  The yarn colors are bright Summery perfection and the pattern is working up surprisingly fast.  So while it's not a project I would normally pick, I am absolutely delighted I found it!

Summer Stuff

Things started with the summer office get together at a local ranch. There was longhorn cattle, brisket, a hay ride, and the obligatory water balloon toss. It concluded with an outstanding example of a Texas downpour.
Fourth of July brought barbecue and fireworks watched with neighbors, all of us out in front of our houses "ooohing" and "aahhing".
Now, now it's all about avoiding the heat during the day and waiting for my niece to make her entrance, punctuated with the attempt to keep my tomato and sweet pepper plants alive and very unfocused knitting.

I made it through May! Yes, I know it's mid-June.

May was, busy.  There was the trip to Key West, my youngest turned 15, my in-laws came for a visit over Memorial Day, and my husband was gone for about a week thanks to work (ok so it spilled over into June).  There was very little downtime between festivities, (much of said downtime was spent knitting baby items that still need to be sent to my darling sister).  Housekeeping amounted to trying to get the laundry in the general direction of the hamper to be tended to at a later date and randomly picking things up as I stumbled to bed in the evenings.  It was certainly fun, just rather exhausting.

This last week has been a return to what passes for normal around here: laundry caught up, plants tended, floors vacuumed and me thinking I need to cast on every potential project in the house.
The weekend will bring the celebration of our sixteenth (are you as shocked as I am?) wedding anniversary and Father's Day.  Both look to entail grilling tasty bits of food on the barbecue and eating various pastry while watching movies on the couch.  It honestly sounds like bliss.