Random Catch-Up

The problem with missing several weeks of posting is where to start when one has a bit of time.

I will simply jump in with bits and pieces and some randomness.

Work (which is still full-time temporary, and show no sign of changing) has held me to a crazy and mixed-up schedule for the last several weeks.  I have had early ins and late outs, which have allowed me to leave early on Fridays (good).  However, with the addition of yoga classes to the mix, my commuting by bicycling has been way off the mark for the summer (boo).  Perhaps I will get caught up with that, but alas…

Fall has come to northern Colorado in the last seven days, I fear.  Wham bam, and summer is done.  This just kills me.  I am enjoying a few tomatoes from the yard, and they are very good.  No where near like the first year, though.  The shade the pergola provides prevents the concrete patio from heating up and helping the tomatoes along, I believe.

Wonderful Guy and I drove south to the Renaissance Festival one weekend this summer.  It was very warm day for the re-enactors to be decked out in long layers of brocade and other finery, me thinks. I was glad to be in shorts and sandals.  We drove home the scenic route, and ate dinner in Denver at the Cheesecake Factory.  I mention this because I have never eaten at this place before, thereby never having had their Red Velvet Cheesecake.  I ate some that evening, and some after my lunch the next day, and some for dessert after dinner that night.  It was awesome each time.

Another Saturday, we took in a pancake breakfast held by a volunteer fire department in a small community up in the mountains.  Afterwards, we just kept driving higher, and lo and behold! We ended up in Granby at Lonesome Stone. Oh yes we did.  And I bought some souvenir yarn and some roving.  Because I had to.  A storm suddenly blew up and we couldn’t go visit the alpacas, you see…

I have found a place where I can swim, and that, along with yoga (and changing my purse) I believe has caused a change in the force with my back.  And for that, I will keep on doing what I am doing.  Daily back discomfort is not fun.  Waking up at night with back pain is not fun.  What is fun?  Having a night without that discomfort and waking up in the morning more rested than I have been in weeks…er…months.

Precious niece and Only Step-Son have become engaged to be married.  But not to each other.  But it appears both events will be the same month next year.  I can’t wait to see how each event is planned out!

That’s enough for now.

FOs...IRL

(finished objects...in real life)

Eldest on the beach in her cover-up. Even after a week, it was still good to go, if sagging just a smidge.  She tells me that once home, a round in the washer and dryer brought all the bounce back.

My shoulder shade at the wedding.  It served perfectly, as the wedding was moved inside due to the weather.  I was wanting something on my shoulders through the evenings activities.

As I said, when knitting meets real life and works, well, that's real nice!

Back Again

My back has been giving me grief.  So much so that the end of last year I went to a physical therapist.  She who detests such infringement on time, finances, and prefers more of a holistic approach to healing...went for some PT.  And apparently I whined about it enough that Eldest Daughter deemed yoga might shut my trap, and has been paying for some sessions.

All joking aside, my back was not letting me sleep at night, and seriously not getting any better, and I was very frustrated because I try very hard to do...well...everything right.

I was even more frustrated because during the time we were in Cancun, and for a few days upon our return, I had respite from pain!  I thought I was cured by the beach and seawater!  But alas, it was 'back' on me by the end of the week.

But then I thought to myself...self...there was another time recently that it wasn't so bad...upon the return from your recent visit to see Eldest.  I had put that to a new mattress and starting yoga however, and also starting up the biking again, and really altogether too many variables to zero in on a cause, and who cared because it didn't last.

However, I am of a scientific nature.  And I continued to hurt.  And I wanted to figure this out and find an answer.  Why did my back not hurt so much those two times?  Was there a common variable?

Why, yes.  There was.  I didn't carry my fabulous hand tooled red leather bag on either trip, that I bought in October, right before my back went south big time.  (I knew that thing was too big when I bought it.) (But, oh...it was...and is...fabulous...)

Last weekend I changed out bags.  I am still getting past the twinges and the soreness, but I am getting past it.  I don't feel worse daily and I am sleeping better. Seriously I felt the difference almost immediately.

Crazy.

In the meantime?  I have fallen in love with yoga.  Behold.

Om Nava Shivaya Yoga Mat Bag, by Audrey Loopy, out of Tahki Cotton.  (If it stretches?  I can toss it in the washer and dryer!)

The i-cord handle threads though the top and is grafted back at the bottom!

That's an i-cord bind off...my first, and it was tricky!  I need to do it again before I can claim that I know how to do it.

I think the bottom looks awesome. I might firm up this with a circle of cardboard.
Maybe. Maybe not.

Why, No...

I am not dead.  Thanks for asking, though.  Summer has had it's way with me.  I certainly feel worn through.  Leaving yoga last night, it was noticeably darker, and the light in the morning has a different slant already.

Gah.  But enough with the whining.  There is plenty of good without feeling the need to complain about the change of the seasons.

First off, the camera has been sent off, repaired, and returned.  Halla-freaking-lujah.  So that's one extended warranty I am glad I was persuaded to purchase.

I have finished and mailed off two pairs of socks.  I got photos of one pair and forgot to photo the other.  The tiny camera...it makes me forget things.  Wisest Sister has promised to tie up the photo loose end for me.  However, the unphotographed socks apparently fit.  The vote is still out on these...

Water Fall Rib, from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks, out of Lonesome Stone's Mountain Feat.

Many and other items of note have been happening here at Chez Irons, little of which I have photographic evidence of, and literary descriptions will have to wait....because what I really want to show it this...

Done and ready to send off for arrival by Grandbebe the Third's second birthday (which was my goal).

The quilt she is finished...

And photographed...

Embroidery by Dearest Sister...who already has the panels for Grandbebe The Fourth's quilt done, and is talking up Number Five...which isn't even...in the planning stage yet...the bebe that is. Obviously the quilt is...

Clicky for biggy...these are fun to see up close!

Quilt ended up about 62"x62"...more or less...

Machine pieced. Hand quilted. All of it...quilted and bound by hand...



Fabric mostly vintage, supplemented with some reproduction.



Material is sorted for Number Four.

Wisdom (On The Cheap)

On the way to work (when I am driving), I pass a couple of churches with message boards. When I am biking, one church even has a small one close to the bike path.  These message boards sometimes tell of upcoming church-y events, or sometimes their owners use them to impart words of advice and wisdom.

Which can sometimes be a bit obnoxious…from my perspective.  I remember, back in the day of being 'the minister's wife', looking over such platitudes and helping to decide which #1 would work with the letters we had available, #2 would work with the space/lines available, and #3 wouldn’t offend.

One of these message boards I pass is a new-fangled and modern electronic gizmo, so #1 has no implication, and really, I am not sure that this particular establishment is too concerned about #3, because sometimes?  I get a bit chapped passing that place.  I mean sometime I just want to roll my window down and yell….’whatever! BOZOS!!!’  I don’t even remember what today’s words of wisdom were.  Something about experience and knowledge and THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW ME SO SHUT IT!!!!

In front of the other church today…something about not finding the real meaning of life using Google.

All this for free.

However!  For a mere $3.97 (plus tax), I could have bought a magnet on Sunday from a little independent shop in our Old Town that spoke to my heart, and I remember oh. so. clearly.

“I wish I were as thin now as when I thought I was fat.’

The choice is mine.  Refrigerator wisdom that I have to pay for, but apparently sticks with me, or religious bleatings for free that irritate (but apparently not the hell out) me.