Cats on the Carpet. . .

Cats on the carpet with a ball of yarn,
Pretty's brain is fried from this week, seems so long. . .
Whatcha gonna do with a tangled mess?
Don't know, but stay outta the rest, please!
You know we can't stay outta the rest!
6 weeks to the wedding.
Less than 2 weeks to the shower.

My house and my brain are just a hot, cluttered mess. . .so I gave the cats some yarn. At this point, why not?

Yeah, why not, Mom?

Pretty's brain is a little like all that yarn up there. . .tangled and tossed about this week! There will be more knitting (and more blogging) soon. . .I hope!

Until then, thanks for stopping in to see me in my madness this week. :o) Knit in Good Health!

Black-and-Whites

Some of you may know that Pretty knits. You may also know that she occasionally knits like a maniac to meet deadlines, and that is exactly what she was doing the other night. . .trying to make some headway on these mitts for a party last night, and forgoing sleep until the wee hours of Friday morning. Pretty was verrrrryyyyyy tired at work on Friday.

These are the times I wish I could turn it all off and sleep like a swaddled Peanut! But even though it was late, and I was stressed, I did get to see something pretty cool. . .

As I sat there in the front room, knitting and watching TV with the volume turned way down low (A League of Their Own was the movie, and I totally missed the last half-hour in all the excitement), I heard some rustling outside (open windows, lovely night), and so did the cats. The cats were actually competing frantically for the prime real estate on that driveway-facing windowsill. "What the ---?," thought Pretty. Oh, the skunks.
My neighbor (a kind and lovely woman whose company I enjoy on the rare occasions when we are both at home, and outside, at the same time, and neither of us is running in or out like chickens on a mission), my neighbor has a porch. It's a lovely porch that she added to her home shortly after she moved in. Apparently, it's also a lovely home for the black-and-whites!

Five, count 'em, FIVE baby skunks were rooting around under that tall, grassy bunch of foliage! (I know, it's a bad cell-phone photo at night, but I couldn't get all 5 with the camera, which takes slightly-less-grainy night shots.) They were going back and forth, in and out from under that porch. . .

. . .through the side yard to frolic in the grass and look for grubs and bugs (they eat grubs and bugs, right?). . .

. . .never venturing very far from the tall grass, planted just for them to dash under and hide, apparently!

They were cute, "stinkin' cute!," and apparently not at all bothered by me hanging out the window with my camera! That's good, because I cannot really think of a smell that I dislike more than fresh skunk when I step outside (or streaming in through the open windows on a cool summer night). I never did see the mama or the papa, but I assume they were somewhere under that porch. After all, they had clearly put all of the kids to bed at a decent hour, there's no reason they should stay up, expecting the kids to sneak out to goof off with their friends after bedtime, right Army Boy? Wait, skunks are nocturnal, they SHOULD expect that. I'm gonna go over there and let them know just what those kids were up to last night. . .they really need some parenting advice, and I'm gonna give it to 'em!. . .

On second thought, maybe I'll just knit. I'd rather tangle with sheep and alpaca than with stinky black-and-whites! I don't think I have ever heard of anyone knitting skunk yarn. . .

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health, and please don't do anything startling in my yard anytime soon!

long day. . .need coffee. . .

I don't "tweet" often. Yesterday, as I realized that I had accidentally left my cozy bed almost an hour sooner than I needed to, I tweeted the need for more coffee on the Summer Solstice. My beautiful daylillies don't seem to mind all the "awake" time,. . .
. . .but the Pretty is having trouble keeping up! After all, there is yarn to be knit and crocheted into precious things, sometimes even secret things. . .

. . .and there are photos and paper to be scrapped into creative masterpieces to adorn the days of our lives for these next few "big events" this summer. . .

. . .and there are plans to be finalized for a wedding, and work, and a home life, and my friends, and all my hobbies. . .yawwwnnnnn!!! Bring on the java!

I wish Peanut would come and visit again, so I could catch more of these:

In just a few weeks, we will see her again. . .I can hardly wait.

For now, Happy Wednesday, blogworld! I'm glad you stopped by! Grab yourself a cuppa coffee or tea, or your bev-er-age of choice, and Knit in Good Health!

Flowers, Fabrics and Favorites

The phone rang last weekend, but I was on a walk. Even though I have a cell-phone, a really incredible cell phone even, I decided not to answer. Maybe it's the old-fashioned in me. . .Maybe I was enjoying Sweetie's company so much that I couldn't bear to interrupt. . .Maybe I did not want the caller to know how out of breath I was after that last hill. . .whatever the case, I did not answer when it rang.

Eventually, though, I did listen to the voicemail, and I did my best to give the Mother-of-the-Groom a call back (at a time when both our schedules allowed some relaxed and fun conversation), and I was glad that I did. I guess with Peanut visiting, and jury duty looming, I had not realized how fast the time was hurtling forward to Snake and Dollface's BIG DAY!!!

"How is the planning for the shower coming?," she wanted to know. . .which is a fair question, especially when that event is less than a month away! So, we talked, and I assured her that I have everything under control (as though I was a teenager, pacifying my parents about final exams. . ."Don't worry moms and pops, I got it under control!")

Truth is, it was still on my back burner. The flames were not out, but I had not yet felt the urgency to actually plunge headfirst into the planning. I am so glad that Snake's mom called me and re-lit that fire! Now, I think I've got it under control. . .or at least more under control than last week!

That picture up there, that's gonna become centerpieces for the shower, and I think I have a handle on the favors, too. And the fabric down here:
Well, those have to do with the wedding. . .still a bit of a surprise, but I promise to show you when it's a finished project!

And down here, my Favorite of all. . .is this little work in progress. . .!

Well, that's just a Gramma being a Gramma. Thanks for indulging me!

I don't know how much knitting will be done over these next couple of months, but I promise to share all of the creativity that goes into this wedding, yarn-related or not! If you're looking for the wool. . .I apologize, and I hope that you can hang in there for a little while. . .it will be back. After all, don't babies come after weddings? And we are having a wedding this summer!!!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

Knitting and Nuts!

Recently, I mentioned in a blog post that I was working on a project that I couldn't mention yet, because it was for a gift. Well, the gift has been gifted, and now I can show it to you!

Dishcloth Britches are a favorite project of mine for bridal showers, and I have recently taken the time to record a couple of variations of the poem that goes along with them on my project page for this gift (I can't take credit for any of the verses, I trolled the internets to find them, and I used the first one on this project). The idea is simple. . .knit two, square-ish dishcloths and "sew" them into tiny britches with ribbons at the waist, ankles and a little bow at the top of the inseam. . .cute, huh?To use them, the recipient undoes the ribbons and bows, and viola! Dishcloths! (Or washcloths, one of the poems has an option for that, too!) Super cute! You know what else is super cute?

Peanut and Grampa in their matching sun hats! Peanut looks a little unsure about it at first, but Grampa looked high and low for that hat for her. . .you gotta protect that soft, baby skin. . .and now they match! lol In the end, her time with Grampa left Peanut in stitches!

Those two, they are Nuts about each other. Who can blame them?!?

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!