Knitting a painted desert

This has been my project for the last couple of weeks.  I'm knitting a shawl for my aunt who we'll be visiting soon.  She lives in Arizona, near Flagstaff, and loves all things southwest.  I'm knitting the shawl in Lion Brand's homespun Painted Desert.

My aunt celebrated her 100th birthday last August, and Mr. Gadget and I missed her party. She's my dad's sister--the oldest of my grandparents' 4 children--and she's outlived all of her siblings.  We call her our family treasure.

So now I'm back to needle-felting.  My plan is to work on fall things while we're here this winter, and Christmas things when we visit again in the summer.  But now I'm in the mood to make a cat.  So it might have to be a black cat.  Unless I find myself making a yellow cat, and then I will have to abandon my carefully thought-out plans.....which I have a long history of doing.  Whatever....


Today I'm celebrating the completion of our new shower.  I'm sure I mentioned the reconstruction work that's been going on here at the Calcondo.....again!  The guys have worked hard to finish this shower so we'd have one in working order before they started the second.  A shower might seem like a small thing...in the great scheme of things.  But it will be nice not to have to tote my towel and soap and shower shoes over to the gym to bathe.  It reminds me of those oh-so-painful days of junior high.

A room of one's own?

With just over 1300 square feet here in the Calcondo, and with Mr. Gadget and me not having much to do except wait around for assessing/repair/delivery/reconstruction people, things get a little tight....not to mention, tense.  So when I saw that the dishwasher delivery person had left the box on the porch it got me to thinking.


I could find a nice comfy place on the grass where I could plant myself and ask Mr. G to put the box over me.  There's no way I could fit through a door in the box (like I did when I was 4) but I could cut a window at about eye level that would be just big enough to slip a few bon-bons through.


With my clip-on book light I could read or knit, or just sit there and enjoy the quiet.  If any nosy neighbors strolled by, I could pull the flap on the window closed and avoid unnecessary questions.  I would likely attract a crowd of onlookers, but that wouldn't bother me.  I'd just eat my bon-bons, and maybe even a small dish of dulce de leche ice cream, and let those looky-loos gawk.


I think I could sit there enjoying my little retreat for most of the day, or at least until Mr. Gadget called me in for the nice dinner he had prepared....just after he had done a couple loads of laundry and had everything neatly folded and put away....

What was I thinking?

So, you may remember Vinny--the chef doll I made for an Art Doll Quarterly magazine challenge a few years ago.  Well, I don't know what got into me but I decided to give it another go. The subject of the new challenge was "The Age of Aquarius." Although I wasn't a flower child back then I did wear bell bottoms, so I decided that was enough to qualify me for the doll challenge. "Far out!" 

It was quite a challenge as it turned out.  That was mostly because my working-on-doll mood would frequently leave me in the dust. But I did persist and managed to get the silly old thing, I mean the wonderfully whimsical art doll, finished and delivered by the deadline.  Check the spring issue, due out around the end of February, to see if I made the cut.  They have yet to tell me that beforehand.  In my case, I'll probably hear about it from a friend. Mr. Gadget and I are at the Calcondo where we get forwarded mail sometimes in a timely fashion.

So yes, the Calcondo.  We've had another flood....of sorts.  The sewer again.  It happened mid-November, so we decided, rather than coming out here then, we'd let the cleaning crews do their thing.  This would leave us with just the putting-it-back-together part. Lots less smelly we figured. Turns out that was probably a mistake.  The demolition guys came in and tore out way more than they should have.  In fact, a mop and some Fantastik would have been sufficient based on what our contractor reported when he did a walk-through before the demolition.

I'm not usually one to think badly of people.  I leave that to Mr. G.   But the guy who owns the demolition company was at our front door soon after we arrived to tell us what a great job he could do rebuilding it all for us....for a hefty sum.

We were very worried that the place wouldn't be in good enough shape for us to live in during our winter visit, but we've managed to make it quite comfy.  And it's 80 degrees outside today in L.A. and we could be at the Concondo were it's going to be 5 tonight. So what's a little sewer water?

Bowled over

Over the Thanksgiving weekend Big City Girl and I went to the local Pottery Factory.  I had never been, but she knew the drill.  And, thankfully, there was no technical knowledge required.  You just pick a piece of pottery, throw on some paint, and presto!  You're a ceramic artist.

I picked this little snack bowl with a place for your thumb.  But I quickly envisioned a yarn bowl.  This would make the perfect accessory for my knitting adventures.  The yarn would stay safely in the bowl--rather than wandering around on the floor--and I could just pull it out of the hole. It worked beautifully for my crop 'o pumpkins.

You can find the pattern for the pumpkins here.  The only change I made to the pattern was that I stuffed the pumpkins a little fuller than Denton suggests.  But either way, they are fun to make and were very well received by those to whom I gifted them.

.....Sorry!

.......I just had to take a coffee break.  But I'm well-caffeinated now and I have some new projects percolating, so stay tuned!