What do you mean July is almost over?

I can not believe that this is the last Sunday of July? Where did that month go? Have I really been off from work for a month already? I don't feel relaxed enough that to be true. 

I have been working on Santa on the Advent Calendar. He has his face now and one arm.

His head looks disembodied as he still needs his hat, beard and mustache.

My donation scarf is growing. The pattern is from a magazine that my aunt gave me when I was a teen in the 1970s, because it had a dog sweater pattern in it that I wanted to make.

I have started a different cowl. I just could not get the other one to work for me. I think it was the wrong pattern for lace weight yarn. I have started the Breeze Infinity Scarf instead. 

I decided that I wanted to crochet something, because it takes less brain power for me than a lacy knitted scarf. This will be seamed at the ends to make a cowl. Once it is blocked, this will be a really pretty openwork pattern. It looks pretty good already.

One of the bunnies came to visit Friday and I put out some carrot pieces. 

 I was able to get a couple of close-ups while it was nibbling on the carrot.

I like when they visit our yard as long as they stay away from my flowers (bunny repellent ensures that).

There was just one bunny that night. Often there are two or three.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are up to. We may be visiting our son today, so I think I will be knitting and crocheting instead of working on Santa as sequins and beads do not make a portable project.

Thanks for stopping by!

A day in the city

My daughter purchased 4 tickets to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in New York City. Hubby really wasn't interested and it was difficult for my son to make it on a Wednesday, so she sold two of the tickets and she and I had a mother/daughter day in Manhattan last week. For those of you who don't know, this play consists of two parts each one being two and a half hours long.

She drove down to Long Island on Tuesday night and we caught the train to Penn Station late Wednesday morning. It is about an hour train ride to Manhattan from where we live. We walked from Penn Station to the theater and had some free time to do some window shopping. The first part was at 2 pm. It was fantastic!

We then went to dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant, Daniela Trattoria. We each had a glass of wine and an entree. My daughter had ravioli and I had shrimp parmigiana and we had a little of each other's dinners. We also shared a slice of carrot cake. 

We made our way back to the theater for Part 2, stopping along the way in a Steve Madden store to window shop again. Part 2 started at 7:30 pm and it was as interesting and as exciting as Part 1. 

The special effects were amazing and scary sometimes. The acting was spot on. At 10:15 pm we walked back to Penn Station to catch a train home. Hubby picked us up just before midnight. It was a great mother/daughter day and as a bonus my daughter stayed through the following weekend. 

Why is it that we hem and haw about the final finishes of some items? All I had to do was cut the ribbon to make 10 small bows and the bow that sits on top of Mom's toilet tissue cover. 

I also had to tack up the ruffle every so often on the bottom and add the bows. Really it wasn't all that difficult, but I keep putting it off. Finally, Monday I just couldn't stand looking at the unfinished cover. Ta-da!

A fellow blogger asked how I finished the pillow cover so that I can insert a pillow. Here is the cover on the pillow.

On the back, I just cut two pieces of fabric large enough so that they overlapped 3-4 inches. I hemmed one side of each and now there is an opening that allows me to easily slip a pillow in and out.

This saves on storage space as I just hang each pillow cover on a skirt hanger until it is time to use it.


I am currently reading Free Range Knitter by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee aka the Yarn Harlot. This is a book of short knitting stories. It is quite amusing and very light reading. Nothing really special.

That is all for today. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Finishes

I have finally gotten my act together recently. I visited a local framer and had Baker Beach framed. This first picture gives a better idea of the color of the frame.

I thought you might want to see the finished product without the camera flash....although that gives the impression of a setting sun.

I spent parts of Thursday and Friday making "Over the River and Through the Woods" into a pillow. This has been hanging around since 2014 and was on my list of items to finish this summer. Thursday was spent auditioning fabrics, sewing, ripping and resewing. I wasn't happy with it, so I let it be. Friday I got on my computer to get some ideas and I came up with a finish that I am very pleased with.

I didn't feel like finding the pillow to give you the full effect, but you get the idea. I may look around for some pine tree and/or snowflake buttons to put in the cornerstones, but I am considering it done right now. Those are extras that aren't really necessary.

I also finished crocheting the toilet tissue cover for Mom.

It still needs some ribbon embellishment to be truly complete, but that will be done soon enough.

I added all of the white trim to Santa's suit. 

I will get back to this later today. This is not a finish, but it is what I am now working on.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching today. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I will be adding to Santa.

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas in July!

I have started adding Santa to my Advent Calendar. He has his boots and part of his coat. For some reason his coat took me 3 different sessions to complete. 

I am not sure why Santa's coat took so long, but there you have it.

I finished my plastic canvas tissue box cover. I didn't add the ribbon as I was happy with the way it looked as is. 

Now I have started a knitted scarf for donation from my stitching group. I have a whole lot of singleton yarn skeins. I gave my mother some yarn and a few patterns and she is going to try to make a few also.

I also started a crocheted toilet tissue cover for my mom.

I am reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets now. It is the second of the 7 books. 

I finished Nora Roberts' Rebellion and needed to get away from romance novels. I paid a visit to my local library to swap some books and borrow a couple too. Here is what I took home.

The top two are borrowed and the bottom are swapped. 

I have a few more hydrangea in bloom.

 Aren't they pretty.

 This one is a fairly young plant and only has a few blooms.

My hosta are really full right now also.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. I will be adding some trim to Santa's coat today. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!

Lazy Days of Summer

I am enjoying my lazy summer days. So are the bunnies. Can you see all three?

There is one near the fence post on the left that is hard to see, then one sprawled out and another to the right closer to the sunshine.  

You can see how relaxed the bunnies are in my back yard. I even walked out onto the deck to take this photo.

I stopped reading Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty. I just could not get into reading it. I will bring it to my local library's swap rack. Maybe someone else will enjoy it. I am now reading Nora Roberts' Rebellion. 

This is one of her classic historic romance novels. When I bring some books to the swap rack I need to find something other than romance to read. 

I cast on a new cowl this week.

I have knit only a few rows so far as I want to finish my tissue box cover. I should have that finish in the next post. 

Have any of you seen this product?

 I just bought two boxes, because I am tired of having so many shoe boxes in my closet. I was able to fit six pairs of shoes where once there were four pairs squished together.

Here are the first six pairs of shoes all set up. I have so far eliminated 3 shoe boxes after I set up the next six pairs of shoes. I think that I will still need to keep some of the shoe boxes so that I can store booty shoes in summer and sandals in winter, but I think if I purchase one more set I will be able to keep more of my shoes on display and not forget about some of them.

Thanks for stopping by!

Snowman!

I finished the snowman on my Advent Calendar. I was very happy with my progress until I realized that I have 34 pieces sewn out of 192. 

 Really? I don't know if this will be finished by Christmas.

 I am going to try hard to work on it though. Santa is up next. He will be on the right side.

I am more than halfway finished with the plastic canvas tissue box cover. 

I have been working on it while watching the FIFA World Cup Soccer Matches. 

Hubby and I have been enjoying the better weather around here lately. We went down to Jones Beach and saw a beautiful sky.

We also celebrated 33 years of marriage yesterday. We had dinner out at a waterfront restaurant.

My Easter lilies have bloomed. They are quite lush and beautiful this year.

Whenever I receive a lily at Easter time, I plant it in my yard once it is warm enough outside. Some of them come back each year.

I am joining Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching. I am going to start Santa's boots today. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy 4th of July!

On this Independence Day I am making salads, ribs and baking brownies.  

Above is my Spicy Cucumber Salad and below are boxed brownies (I prefer my scratch made) with chocolate chips added.

It will just be Hubby, me and my mom but we will enjoy our little celebration. 

I spent part of the morning looking for uses for my many plastic newspaper bags and I found this great site, My Recycled Bags. There are many great projects here. I think I will make one of the totes to use at the grocery store. I need a crochet project right now and as you can see I have many bags.

I am going to return to my stitching group tomorrow. I think I will bring my plastic canvas tissue cover. I have this side and two more to complete.

This is an easy project that doesn't require much thought and will allow me to catch up with everyone. I haven't been to one of the meet-ups since last summer. 

I have been reading a lot this summer. I finished Deadly Fate by Heather Graham. This is another murder mystery, ghost story, romance novel. Her books are heavy on the murder mystery/ghost story part. There is usually just a little bit of romance added in. They are a very easy read.

I also want to read all the Harry Potter books again. I have already finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Now I am trying to read this book again. I started it two times during the school year and couldn't get more than 40 pages in and then put it down. 

I am at that point again and I am going to try to read past this point and see if it gets better. We shall see.

I am joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along today. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are knitting/crocheting and reading.

Thanks for stopping by!