Laundry

Laundry has no sympathy.

It piles up no matter what. Yesterday I did 4 loads. And while I waited for the washer and dryer to beep and chime, I vacuumed the floor and mopped the kitchen. It's good to keep busy, and the more mundane the chores the better.

And as long as I was doing laundry, and I had more than one load of towels--because it's been like the Holiday Inn around here this past week--I decided to throw in one of my crocheted bowls to see if it would further felt.

It did felt further and it looks pretty good, but it might benefit from one final further felting.

All felting aside, Mr. Gadget and I are doing ok. We are alone again, now that we've bid good-bye to our relatives. I really miss Mr. G's younger brother (Mr. Garlic) who did all of the cooking. I tried to convince him to stay, but he made some silly excuse about having to get back to work. Thank goodness for turkey pot pies.

Sadness all around

I haven't been around the blog lately because on Feb. 13 we lost Tech Guy. We are back in Connecticut, dealing with the arrangements, and trying to accept the reality of it all. I'm doing ok. Friends and relatives have been amazing. Mr. Gadget is doing ok too. We are holding up as they say. I will be back after the weekend.

Cat fight?

He looks like he's been in a real doozy, doesn't he? Lucky for him, he's not in pain, although he's getting fed up with my poking and prodding.

Yesterday I added his haunches and hind legs, and I gave him more of a chest. I also added ears--cut from old manila folders and glued on. I'm not happy with the ears though. Now that I've looked at some cat pictures, I realize they're not quite right. I'll re-address those after I'm done with my scalpel and hemostat. I need to add a little more brain matter. I'm sure he won't be very pleased with that little procedure either.

I stuck a tail on him too, but it's hard to see in this picture. All will be revealed eventually, and hopefully he'll be in fine form for the big cat show.

Haute couture

I've been making new clothes for the grandma hangers.
Mr. Gadget is quite taken with the multi-colored one but refuses to use it in his manly closet. This is a great little project for using up sock yarn. Grandma's version was made using crochet thread and triple-crochet stitches; mine is made with sock yarn and single crochet.

While I was working on these I had a grand idea. A couple of my elder friends in Connecticut gave me some sock yarn that they had purchased to knit socks, but then found the smallness of the project too challenging for their not-so-nimble fingers. I really have no need for more hand-knitted socks, so I've decided to make them each a couple of covered hangers using their gifted yarn.

I did a little work today on the paper mache cat. Mostly I poked and pinched and squooshed. I'm not satisfied yet with the shape. I need to look at more cat pictures. Then again, I'm mostly aiming for whimsy.

Here's a picture of my first foray into paper mache.

I think I called him a goonie bird. Believe it or not, this was a college project. I was in my first year at the local community college taking a class called Art for Elementary School Teachers. It was fun making him, but not nearly as fun as carrying him all the way across campus to the parking lot.

Bag lady

I finally found some time to start on the paper mache cat. The first step was to gather a few supplies, including a large brown grocery bag. I stuffed it with wadded-up newspaper to make a nice, well-rounded cat body.

Then I rolled up more brown paper (saved from a recent shipment of a Mr. Gadget gadget) and glued and taped 2 front legs to the body. I had plenty of length so I bent up the bottoms of each for paws.

Next, I stuffed a small brown bag (from one of Mr. Gadget's hardware store purchases) for the head and placed it on top of the body to check for proportion. Not too bad, but it will need more squooshing and shaping. I'll need to ge some decent masking tape--the best friend of paper-machers--since this cheap dollar store tape is not doing a good job. I might even call my glue gun into action. Just about anything works when constructing the form because it all gets covered with strips of paper and this hides a multitude of sins. I've found the same to be true of capri pants.

This is not my final answer to the challenge of making a paper mache cat. The process is not unlike the first draft of a writing project. You just get everything down on paper and then you sculpt and shape and squoosh. I should be able to make good progress as long as Mr. Gadget continues to shop.

Not just a fashion statement

I always thought persimmon was just a fashion trend. I remember back in my teenage years, when I had a subscription to Seventeen magazine, girls just weren't hip unless they were wearing "in" colors of the season. You know, like quince, fig, avocado, persimmon or eggplant. It was always some sort of produce as I remember. Today's fashionistas have even included a variety of wines. I'm so pleased because I've always looked good in chardonnay.

I never considered persimmons a fruit worth tasting.....until recently. I was in the Asian grocery store the other day and they had a whole pile of persimmons. I decided it was time to try one. Well.....what a tasty treat! The secret to getting the full enjoyment out of a persimmon is to let it ripen in the fruit basket till it's just the consistency of the Pillsbury doughboy. Just pleasingly soft. Then you just cut it into quarters, take the skin off, and enjoy!

Later today another one of Mr. Gadget's brothers is coming to visit. He'll stay through the weekend--long enough to watch the Super Bowl with plenty of time to recuperate. There'll be lots of wine, plenty of snacks--including some quac--and enough testosterone to force me out onto the back patio with my knitting.

So I guess I should go and spiff up the bathroom, corral the dustbunnies, and chill the wine. And hide the persimmons.

Family jewels

When I was young, one of my favorite gifts from my grandma was a few of her crochet-covered hangers. Although, I must say, I'm much more appreciative of them now than I was then. On occasion, she would give me a 5-year diary or some stationery--both of which I liked--but neither of which survived the ages.

I could probably make some of these hangers with left-over sock yarn. I'll bet Big City Girl would appreciate having some....even if they don't come with batteries, remotes or touch screens. The instructions for use are simple enough: hold hanger in left hand, apply coat with right hand.

I have one more finished object to share.

I'm getting kinda tired of making socks. I'm much more of a sock-knitter than a sock-wearer. Maybe I'll just crochet sock-yarn hanger covers. I'm a big hanger-user, although I haven't always been. In my younger years, like Big City Girl, most of my clothes were dustmops.

So today I went to see my west-coast hairdresser, Clara. She gives me a nice haircut using mostly a razor. This works well with my thick hair. Clara never comments on the haircuts I get from my east-coast hairdresser. But when I get back to my Connecticut haircutter (I think that would be my Concutter), there are sometimes a few cutting remarks..heh...heh... Like, "Oh, I think the right side is a little longer than the left," or "Yeah, that's the way they cut hair out west." It would be nice not to have to worry about hair. I've told Mr. Gadget I'd be happy to donate some of mine to him, or that I might even let it go gray. But he politely declines my offer, and then strongly suggest that I not un-friend my hairdressers.