Man, I am really getting a lot of blog time from this dang block.
Today at work I grabbed my knitting to knock out a row or 2 and lo and behold my empty needle was nowhere to be found. I went out and checked the car but didn’t see it.
Had the kiddo at home check around where I usually stash my knitting but no luck.
As I left the office there was my poor needle sans row counter laying in the parking lot. It wasn’t broken but it was pretty roughed up, no more smoothly passing a stitch from one needle to the other.
Poor thing. I can’t believe it didn’t actually break
And they were the only size 8 needles in my house…
But, I decided to check YAYB (yet another yarn bag) in the craft cave and lo and behold an old forgotten project on some longer metal needles, no one knows what it was supposed to be when fully formed so off it came and I knitted my poor little block onto the new needles
There we go, now we can see it not all scrunched up
I am about halfway done and getting psyched up to start block 2, clearly it won’t take as long as this one 🙂
I grabbed this because it had a few rows on my size 8 needles which is what I needed for this 1st afghan block, but the more I see it the more I love it. I am not generally a fan of yellow, but this one is really growing on me. My original plan was to use different colors of whatever I have for each block but now I am giving serious thought to making more in this same color. What do you think?
I have many jillions of different colors of the Lily Sugar and Cream (of which this yellow is one)
Progress is being made! Next up. Row 17!This color, though…
So the Traveling Afghan block 2 pattern is now available. So that is exciting except it looks way more complicated than I’m ready for and due to multiple restarts I am on row 10 of the first block… Again.
It does seem a bit neater this time around, I think this is try number 4?
So I will power through and finish this one and try to find my knitting cheat sheet book and figure out how to knit from a chart (sweet jesus)
These were the only words I needed to read to drag me right into this world. This is a 4 book series, and follows Mary Bennet as she learns that magic is in the world and she herself can use it.
We get to spend time with some of the characters you may know if you have read Pride and Prejudice, and even if you haven’t there is plenty of detail to make sure you know who is who.
She faces many supernatural foes as she tries to save the world and keep her secret safe.
I really enjoyed this series and I am really hoping for more!
Posted in2020, book review|Comments Off on Regency Mage Series by Joyce Harmon
I stumbled on a post the other day for an international knit/crochet along project sponsored by Lion Brand and hosted by Two of Wands Please click links above for a kit and full details on the traveling afghans
I was intrigued and shared the link with my mother. She has opted to do the crochet while I will do the knitting.
I will be posting pictures of my progress here, there will be a new pattern every two weeks for your knitting or crocheting pleasure. By the end, we will have 24 10×10 squares to put together in a 4×6 configuration. If you decide to join in, shoot me a message and let me know, we can work together!
Is it ramen? Or is it an unfinished knitting project being pulled out to use for something else!?5 rows down, 55 to go!
I did not realize when starting this book that is was not only about the WPA packhorse librarians (which is why I wanted to read it) but also about the Blue People of Kentucky
I was fascinated from the very first page when it mentions blue skin and knew for sure I wasn’t reading a scifi/fantasy novel.
The book delves into both the discrimination and abuse the Blue People faced as well as quite a bit of detail on what the librarians faced both in the administrative tasks of their jobs and the deliveries themselves.
To my delight, we also learned about some of the science behind WHY they are blue.
I definitely would recommend this book to friends
Packhorse librarians ready to start delivering books
Posted in2020, book review|Comments Off on The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
As Emmeline grows up with her father on an island all their own, she doesn’t even realize that there are other people outside their little world. As she grows up she learns from her father that smells can be nearly magical triggers for memories of all kinds, her own and others
After a tragedy changes her circumstances greatly she is suddenly thrust into a new world where she has to learn to trust others. As she seeks the truth about herself and her family she learns what really matters.
Certain smells can bring me immediately to long lost memories, so i was intrigued by this story and look forward to reading other stories by this author.
Book received from Netgalley for pre release review
Posted inbook review|Taggedbook review|Comments Off on The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister
i was 6 years old, on the bus home from first grade. i thought i was actually dying.
when i got home and told my mom (since she definitely wondered why i got off the bus sobbing) turns out this was totally normal (for our family) both my parents suffered from what we then termed ‘sick headaches’ simple enough, you got a headache and it made you puke. so off to bed with an ice pack in a dark room i went. i don’t know how often i got them as a kid, but i know they happened, and it was always met with an ice pack and a dark room and ‘puke bowl’ so i didn’t have to try and make it the length of the house to our one bathroom.
fast forward into my teens and i do remember they were more frequent, and definitely hormonal although it took a while to realize that. still, dark room, ice pack, sleep. although at this point i had added a hot shower or bath to the mix. a hot shower or bath followed by ice on my neck and/or forehead seemed to be better than just one or the other. i like to think i was shocking my head into behaving. into my 20s they seemed to lessen and during my pregnancy, they seem to have stopped altogether.
in my 30s they became more frequent again and one day at work as i was preparing to go home due to the pain, a coworker asked if I had seen a dr for my migraines. and i thought, ‘my what?’ and she explained my sick headaches were not just a family thing, there was an actual diagnosis and at that point, a fairly new medication called imitrex to help manage them. i was beside myself, i had NO idea.
off to the dr i went and sure enough, imitrex was the answer for me. so began a life with migraines, but the could be handled most of the time by imitrex although if i sneezed or coughed i knew the migraine was still lurking but at least i could rest or even sleep until it finally went away.
so here i am in late (dear god, late?!!) 40s and they have again become more frequent and severe. i have for the first time ever seen a neurologist, after my regular dr when helping me complete some paperwork realized i was taking my abortives (imitrex and naproxen) way too often.
the neuro prescribed me a new medicine, treximet, and a mri and some blood work. i finally managed to get all the ducks in a row (ie referrals and insurance approvals) and get the mri scheduled for this weekend.
i woke with a migraine that had escalated to a 5 or 6 in pain (it was a 2 when i went to bed) . so i took an imitrex at 3am then i took a hot shower as well but still was in too much pain to go to work this morning. i called in sick when my husband woke me as i had overslept i managed to toss and turn and get some sleep until around 11:30 and then got up to have some coffee and food.
i went out to grab the mail and my treximet had come in the mail today .treximet is a migraine abortive that contains both imitrex and naproxen in one pill. .so since it had been hours since the imitrex i went ahead and took a treximet. i realized laying on the couch about an hour later that my head pain is gone?? i was afraid to move off the couch, clearly this is too good to be true. but then. i sneezed. a good solid sneeze, one that would usually drop me to my knees with a flash of pain during a migraine, even WITH imitrex onboard.
and then. there was nothing, no pain, no flash of agony. is the migraine really gone? so it could be the rest i had already gotten, maybe the pain was tired of fucking with me today, but maybe just maybe, it is the new medicine.
for the first time in years i think that migraines may stop ruling my life and activities.
so last week i went on vacation, a trip to missouri and to kentucky then back to missouri
i will now regale you with stories and pictures from said vacation.
i flew to saint louis and got in my rental car, all very uneventful other than the fact that my suitcase was the first on the baggage claim thing and then the rental car shuttle was pulling up to the curb as i got there. so that was cool
i got in the car and hooked my phone up to the fancy ass bluetooth thing and got my gps directions map up and running and headed out. about 2 hrs later i stopped at public house brewing in st james, missouri, drank a few tasters and loaded up on their fruit ciders, a peach ale and of course revelation stout.
Hard Cider
Peach Ale
after that i headed to my cousin angie’s to be amazed by how well she is doing on her weight loss journey.
and then on to colton’s to meet my friend jamie that i initially met in one of my facebook groups, she was on a road trip of her own and we managed to coordinate meeting in the great metropolis of rolla, mo.
we had a great dinner and i caught up a little bit, each meeting with her (this is our second in real life) is like hanging with someone i have always known and there is no awkwardness we just keep on talking like it hasn’t been 2 years since we had dinner together the last time
after that i headed on to that ‘blink and you will miss it’ town of my early childhood, and got to my mom’s just about bed time.
we got up bright and early for our road trip to kentucky. it was time to meet the newest great nephew and his mom, and see my nephew.
we left the house around 5:30 am and headed out. my mom, awesome person that she is, knew of a dunkin donuts on the way so we stopped there to fuel up on sweet coffee and donuts.
as we drove, we laughed, told stories, ate junk food
DQs 5$ meal box is delightful
and just had a fabulous time, we also stopped at a few tourist attractions
do you need a pink camo high heeled chair? if so they have them at boomland!
We got to our destination that afternoon and i got to meet my new niece (by marriage) and she was just as awesome as i expected her to be, and of course my new great nephew who will learn that i am the fun aunt and have no real rules.
Nathaniel napping on Aunt Tiggy
Great Grama and Nathaniel
my nephew came in from work a little later and we had a wonderful time catching up.
as always there is never enough time and on Saturday morning after letting the new parents sleep in a bit and getting a picture of the new family with grama/great grama we headed back out to Missouri, this time my 13 yr old nephew joined us to go back home as he had been staying with his big brother for a few weeks.
Road trip fun!
There is nothing like being with family and definitely nothing like being with them at the river.
snack time!
learning to throw rocks. *not aunt tiggy’s best idea
tadpole!
what a morning
dad likes to chase people with crawdads…
tiny fish that try to eat my little sister
After a few days at the river, there was rain and lots of it in the forecast so we loaded up and headed to mom and dad’s house.
They promptly put me and baby buttercup to work shucking corn. i am not a fan of those little worms that live in corn, so at one point i pulled the husk down and screamed and hit the corn against the side of the bucket and jax decided that was how it was done, so he started screaming and hitting the corn every time, it was quite entertaining.
Later that day i headed over to visit my aunt but she wasn’t home, so i just spent a little time at the pond, enjoying the rain drops on the lily pads (she came to mom’s to see me later in the day)
and then more family!! my nephew and his kids came to visit
I love my babies!!
It is impossible to capture everyone and everything, but i hope you enjoyed this little glimpse of my vacation!
Bacon cheeseburger skillet
Grilles chicken and asparagus 
Egg salad and bacon
Spam and eggs
we headed back out to Missouri, this time my 13 yr old nephew joined us to go back home as he had been staying with his big brother for a few weeks.
