Random Ramblings - May 26th 2023

We’ve had several quite warm days recently, which they say will stick around over the next couple of weeks, and at some point after that it's meant to get hotter.  I'm glad it's not meant to get hotter yet.  But with it already at the high end of the temperature range I can tolerate, I’m not looking forward to when it does one bit.

 

*~*

 

    Anyway, as you likely figured out from last week's post attempt, May hasn’t been going quite as I planned.

 

It started OK.  Then we got to about the middle of the month.  I thought we might continue some of the de-cluttering and organizing.  Maybe even finally look in to getting the things we need removed that need to be disposed of rather than given away removed from our house.  But none of that ended up happening after all, and I’m so drained from the past couple of weeks that it won’t be happening any time soon, because my spoons are long since used up, and I don’t have the energy to deal with anything non-essential at this point.

 

My Mam ended up back in hospital.  This time she was there for ten days.

Ten days with four dogs (Lilie and Logan, plus Mam’s two: Izi and Cai) in the house is too much, especially when two of them (Izi and Cai) aren’t used to hearing the comings and goings of people going to the nearby shop, two of them (Lilie and Cai) are easily excitable, one of them (Cai) is an untrained puppy, and one of them (Logan) isn’t a big fan of too much play time.

 

We ended up with me and the dogs camping out in the living room so that at least Kelly could get some sleep.

 

This is what it sounds like when four dogs are in the same room, barking because someone decided to use our driveway to turn a lorry around in (which is what the beeping you may be able to hear over the barking is).

 

 

At least, I hope the clip will work for you.  It wouldn’t go on YouTube properly, even after I converted it to a format that should work, and I haven’t tried doing this kind of clip directly in to a blog post before.  I figured it was worth a try though.

 

Either way, by day four Artemis was hiding in his cave or tucking himself in his shell in an attempt to get away from the chaos.  By day six the dogs had decided they’d had enough of each other’s company, and Lilie especially was opting for sleeping upstairs with Kelly rather than staying in the living room with the rest of us.

 

Don’t get me wrong, Izi and Cai are adorable dogs.  But, like I said, four dogs in one house is too much.  Sure, we have a reasonable sized house.  But without a large back yard for them to tire themselves out in, and with people constantly forgetting that a private driveway is not a place to park when you’re goint to the shop, even if it is very convenient to park there, four dogs definitely started to feel like too many very quickly.  So everyone was extremely glad when Izi and Cai went home on Wednesday evening.

 

Anyway, my Mam is doing as well as can be expected.  That’s all I’m going to say about it though, because she specifically requested that nothing more than that was said, especially online.

 

*~*

 

In other news, I made these little flowers in a crochet class a couple of weeks ago:

 

 

~

 

Also, they were teaching Tunisian Crochet in another crochet class.  I wasn’t going to do it.  I mean, do I really need to learn another fibre art? After all, I already do needle knitting, loom knitting, and crochet, and want to learn tatting.

 

But it was the crochet group doing it, and I like spending time with them on their Zoom calls.  So I figured I’d go along to hang out with them anyhow.  I figured I’d work on my blanket while they learned Tunisian Crochet.

 

For those who don’t know: Tunisian Crochet is a kind of hybrid between crochet and knitting, which uses some of the stitches for both, plus a couple of its own, and where you often have several loops on the hook at any given time (hence needing special hooks, because they’re longer than the usual crochet hooks, with a knobbly bit on one end like a knitting needle has to stop the loops sliding off that end).

 

Anyway, I think you can guess where this is going.

 

Yep.  I ended up giving it a go.

 

I had to use a regular crochet hook, since I didn’t have any of the longer ones for Tunisian Crochet, but I wasn’t the only one doing it with a regular crochet hook.  Here’s the little sample piece I did while learning:

 

 

Our wedding anniversary was this past Monday (May 22^nd) and Kelly had been asking if I wanted anything specific from him for our anniversary.  So I ended up asking him  buy me a set of Tunisian Crochet hooks.

 

Yeah, you saw that coming, didn’t you? LOL!

 

Of course, with dealing with the four dogs, I haven’t had time or energy to play with them yet.  But when I can I’m going to make more little squares like the one I did to try Tunisian Crochet out, and then they can be part of the blanket with squares done with the different fibre arts that I plan to eventually make.  "Eventually" being the key word here.

 

~

 

Oh, and... In case you're wondering... We had pizza for dinner for our anniversary.  With the dog chaos in full swing, we didn't have the time or energy to do more than that to celebrate.  Not that we do much anyway, if I'm totally honest.  We really aren't big on large celebrations, as regular followers of this blog likely already know.

 

*~*

 

I like having fun bottles to put water in to drink.  In a weird sort of way it encourages me to remember to drink more, because I like the bottles.  Whatever works, right? And I just got a new one.  It’s a Harry Potter one.  Spacifcally, it’s a Ravenclaw one, and here it is:

 

 

One picture shows the whole bottle, and the other is a closeup on the Ravenclaw crest.

 

Kelly wants a Slytherin version, so I’m going to get him one soon.

 

*~*

 

Speaking of Harry Potter things: one of Kelly’s birthday cards was a Harry Potter themed one.

 

I actually meant to show you his birthday cards, but I forgot.  So, here they are:

 The Harry Potter one is from my Dad, and the other one is from my Grandma.

 

Most people we know don't tend to bother with cards these days, hence him only having two birthday cards.

 

*~*

 

I think that covers the main points of the past couple of weeks.  And I need a nap, so I’m going to let this do regardless.

 

I hope you’ve had a more relaxing couple of weeks than I have.

 

A #Storm + Conversations, Organization, And Other Aspects Of My Week

We had a terrific thunderstorm on Tuesday.  It lasted a couple of hours, and the peels of thunder were impressive.  Unfortunately, since I was trying to finish up on the cooking call during the start of  the storm, and then eating dinner (we made enchiladas on the call this past week) and feeding the petkids during most of the rest, I didn’t give getting a video a thought until afterwards.

 

Yes, my dogs are calm enough during storms that I could get on and feed them even while an impressive storm was going on.  I don’t know if it’s the fact I enjoy the storms, or the fact my singing apparently has a soothing effect on dogs (to the point where my Mam has called me for me to sing to her dogs over the phone to calm them in the past).  But I used to sing to them during storms when they were scared as tiny puppies, and they learned not to be afraid of storms.  I used the same technique to teach them not to be so afraid of fireworks, and it’s only super loud ones that suddenly happen very close that they take notice of (and even then it’s just to bark a little before settling down again).

 

Anyway, besides the storm, it’s been a week of conversations and organization.  At least, that’s what it seems like; it definitely feels like conversations and organization has been the main theme of the past week.

 

Conversations, because I’ve been involved with at least one Zoom call every day, not to mention phone calls and messages I’ve been dealing with.  Nothing urgent.  Just one of those weeks where it seems the moment you sit down to have some quiet time the phone rings, or you remember you needed to talk to so-and-so about such-and-such and don’t want to forget again so figure you better send the message now – while you’re thinking about it.

 

Organization, because I de-cluttered and organized some stuff in the kitchen, needed to set up some Tweets to make sure they’ll go up on time for the ACB Crafters’ Twitter account, and some of those messages I needed to deal with were about needing to arrange and re-arrange some stuff for the schedule for the upcoming episodes of the cooking call I do with Herbie via the ACB.

 

To be honest, since there wasn’t much to deal with in the kitchen (just removing a few things I’d been given I knew I wouldn’t use, so wanted to box up to send somewhere where someone else could potentially use them, and re-organizing a few things once the spaces those things had taken up were empty) I feel like I’ve spent an awful lot of the past week glued to my phone or computer.

 

I mean, there were other aspects to my week: housework and other day to day chores, playtime and snuggles with Lilie and Logan, playtime with Artemis, some reading time (though not as much as I’d hoped to have, and a lot of it was done by making use of the option to enjoy an audiobook while doing housework – I did finish one book, and start two others though, one of which was the book for the 18^th and 19^th century book club) and working on some crochet (my blanket managed to gain another round).  I even managed to sneak in a bit of time to watch the first episode of “Wednesday” on Netflix with Kelly, which I’m enjoying so far, but will give you a proper opinion of once I’ve seen more than one episode of it.  But I definitely feel like I spent more time doing the things on my phone and computer than anything else combined, and am hoping the coming week involves a bit less computer and phone time, and a little more crafting, reading, and TV show watching.  Perhaps even some writing time? Though that might be too much to hope for when I'm still dealing with trying to tackle the organizing and de-cluttering project.  I can hope though, right?

So, how about you? How was your week?

#AmWatching + #Crafting Projects + #Dog Groomers + De-Cluttering + Weather Reports

Since I'm ahead on my reading for this month, I felt like I actually had some quiet time to watch a TV show and a movie on the weekend.  So I worked on my crochet blanket while I watched season three of “The Mandalorian” – which, I admit, I enjoy more for the antics of the baby Yoda than anything, even though I am a Star Wars fan.  And also while I watched the “Cruella” movie which I give a four out of five, since I didn’t think it was nearly as good as “101 Dalmatians” but did think it was a pretty good movie.

 

Needless to say,I’ve made quite a bit more progress on my crochet blanket.  One of these days you’ll get a nice surprise and I’ll be telling you it’s finished.  Not yet though, since there’s still a way to go before that happens.  But there’s progress, and it’s growing.  Slowly.  But it’s growing.

 

In the meantime, I made this little bunny in loom knitting:

 

 

It’s meant to be a wooly representation of the marshmallow “Peeps” you can get around Easter.  At least, people in the US can get them.  Apparently they come in rabbit and chick shapes.  Well, mine is a rabbit shape, and made with a random white yarn with blue flecks in it I had in my stash, since that’s what I grabbed (probably because it was near the top from doing the crochet rabbit appliqué I made a few weeks ago).

 

*~*

 

Last week was the last time the groomer we’d been using for Lilie and Logan could come, because he’s moving, and where he’s moving to is too far for him to continue coming to this area.  But he gave us the number of a local groomer he recommends, and she says she can take us on, so I've arranged their next appointment with her now so I can be sure to get them done when they’d be due to be groomed again in July (I get them done every three months; the vet does their nails if they need doing in the meantime, and I brush them regularly in between as well, so it’s often enough in my opinion).  So they're booked in for Monday July 24th at 10:15am with Nicola at Tailtastic.

 

She’s not a mobile groomer like the previous one was, so we will have to start taking the dogs there, rather than having the groomer come to us, but it’s only a short walk from our house, so it’s not a big deal.  Although, I’ll miss Anthony, who has been an excellent groomer in the time we’ve been able to use him.  I’ll also miss the convenience of the groomer coming to us.  But it can’t be helped.  Better for them to have a groomer we have to go to than none at all, right? And even better if she comes recommended by a groomer we know is good.  I also think "Tailtastic" is a fun dog groomer name.

 

*~*

 

The de-cluttering project continues.

 

I sorted through the contents of a box of stuff of my Dad’s that I was storing in my craft room, since he said I could just put the stuff with my own.  It’s all sewing stuff, with a couple of leatherworking tools among it.  So I did that, and in doing so was able to clear a little more space in my office/craft room – despite still having the stuff in the room – just by no longer keeping it separated.  I was also able to empty a storage box, which is going to come in handy for Kelly to put some of his stuff in when we get to dealing with his office/gaming room, which will hopefully be something we start dealing with pretty soon.

 

I got my braille books put in the right order on my shelves in my office/craft room too.  I sorted them while listening to the audiobook for the book I'm reading for one of the book clubs I'm part of.  Making use of the option of audiobooks while working on de-cluttering and household chores is how I'm keeping up with my reading well enough to be ahead on my reading goal for the year.  I mean, I do also read a little in braille, just to have that quiet time settled with a book in my hands.  But I'm glad of the option to listen to a book while I do other things with my hands.  When the de-cluttering is done, I can make use of that option more often than I currently do to get craft projects done quicker.  That and watching some of the movies and TV shows I want to watch.  I'll still want to make use of my Orbit and read in braille.  Sometimes even read a physical braille book.  But still... Audiobooks definitely make it easier to fit in more of the things I want to do while finding the energy to do what I need to do.

 

Anyway, if you’ve been following my blog long enough, you might remember how we ended up acquiring two sofas last year while waiting for one we’d been promised? Well, we’ve decided not to keep both after all.  I mean, given how often we have company over, and how few people we have over at a time when we do have company over, there’s no real need for us to be able to seat so many people, and we’re trying to do the de-cluttering thing properly.  Plus, as it turns out, Wayne was looking to replace his sofa, which has needed replacing for a while.  So, when he learned we plan on getting rid of one, he asked if he could have it, and I said yes.  I think he was especially glad to learn it’s the bigger corner sofa we plan to get rid of.  I know some people think we should have done it the other way around, but the smaller one meets our needs, and I find it more comfortable.  Not to mention, the corner one takes up a lot more space.  The extra seating it would allow compared to his old sofa is ideal for Wayne’s social habits, but unnecessary for us.

 

The sofa went to Wayne on Tuesday, so we spent Wednesday re-arranging the living room to have things where we want them, and to be able to actually access the DVDs we have on shelves without climbing over furniture to do so.  Now we can actually access the DVDs properly, we can go through them and get rid of any we don’t really want to keep, since I know there are definitely some we’ve acquired that we don’t necessarily want.

As it turned out, it was a good thing we did get to work on the living room on Wednesday, since on Thursday morning the landlords sent someone to look at - and give a quote for - the work that needs doing that we mentioned to them back when we had the inspection.  They did call first and check Thursday was fine for them to come, but I was glad I was able to say, "Yes," since we've been waiting more than a month for them to start dealing with it.  Now we have to wait some more, and maybe soon the work will get done.

 

*~*

 

The weather here still can’t make up its mind, and keeps switching from chilly and damp to sunny and warm.

 

They’re predicting another scorching hot Summer.  I hope they’re wrong, but can’t help agreeing with their predictions.  Maybe we won’t get as many hot days as last year, or it won’t reach quite as high temperatures.  But I’m pretty sure they’re right that we’re in for another hot Summer.  It'll be hot by my standards at the very least.  Ugh!

 

I think I’ll make the most of the cooler days while they last.

 

*~*

 

So, that pretty much sums up what’s been going on around here over the past couple of weeks, besides routine stuff like household chores, regularly scheduled Zoom calls - mainly, but not exclusively, crafting related - I like to attend, etc.

 

What’s been happening in your world lately?