The End of Days Uh August

Well I have to say this month has kicked my butt big time and it's showing no signs of letting up.  I know we all experience these when it rains it pours moments in our lives and this month I'm having one. 
Just when I thought things were turning around that dark cloud found me again, so I am pulling out my trusty sword and paused to do battle this time it's computer crashing time.  The continuous mystery of my car's problem, and lightning striking much of the essential electronics in my household not to mention the one going mystery of my son's car problems a computer crash just wasn't on the list of things to do this month. Rant over.

the dreaded message

Aside from all that aggravation I have managed to get some Slow Stitching in this week on the Greenwoman #2 piece.

I should have snapped another photo I started on the second eye last night so I am much farther on this piece.  I will link up to Kathy's Quilts today for some Slow Sunday Stitching here: https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2018/08/slow-sunday-stitching_26.html

I am also making crochet progress on the afghan for my sister, I am working a simple granny square using Mandala yarn by Lion Brand this is Spirit colorway, so far just two cakes have been used.

I have 6 cakes of this yarn which should give me a nice size afghan once it's done, the one I made for my little great niece was made with 4 cakes and the finished size is 60 inches square.  I am also working on an afghan using the shell stitch in Mandala yarn Wishing Well colorway for a beachy look.

It's funny I had forgotten how easy this stitch works up, its one of my favorite crochet stitches, speaking of crochet this week I picked up a two of Betty Hechtman's crochet mysteries and two of her yarn retreat mystery books.

These should just about bring me up to date on her books until the newest books come out in paperback.  So in between stitching I have some light reading to keep me busy and entertained for a while.

Slow Sunday Stitching today

My new water bottle tells it all after a lightning strike on Wednesday took out the internet modem, DVD player, and the HDMI capabilities on the TV. You could hear the strike, then a crackle and loud snap and those surge protectors were toast but did the job they were made for well mostly. ugh sucks to live in the lightning capital of the world. On the up side went to the Xfinity store to get a replacement modem and was in and out in 10 minutes, So business can continue as usual.  The rest of the week kind of went downhill after that.  

In between labeling about 800 items to send into Amazon to restock the store, running the usual errands and dropping my son's car off for repairs and than dropping mine off the next day for a new tire which I found out was the reason for the crazy vibration lucky my usual mechanic was available and he also fixed the controls on the door at no charge so the buttons are no longer sinking into the arm rest and I can use the buttons to adjust my mirrors and open the windows which I won't be doing for awhile it too darn hot a

terribly humid.  I am ordering another tire for the front so both can wear down at the same time, since it is showing quite a bit of wear it will only be a matter of weeks before it goes bad, so much for the warranty to 70,000 miles.  

I finally had time to get a little bit of crocheting done on my sisters Granny Afghan on Friday evening, 

I put off  doing any hand embroidery for a few days because after handling all those adhesive labels and bagging everything my fingertips are quite sore (I have a sensitivity to adhesives).  I'll work on the Greenwoman piece today for the Slow Stitching.

I also have a new project I started to crochet it's another afghan using the Lion Brand Mandala yarn in the Wishing Well colorway which looks kind of beachy to me.

Oh on Friday Urban Threads was having a sale which is running through August 24th and I bought a five new hand embroidery patterns all the patterns I bought were 50% off so each one cost me fifty cents.
This is one of the patterns, here's the link:
 https://www.urbanthreads.com/recentRelease.aspx?date=081718 

https://www.urbanthreads.com/recentRelease.aspx?date=081718

The piece above isn't mine it's a photo I borrowed from the email I received alerting me to the sale, you can bet I will have it traced out soon.  This one is called Moon Phases Quilting Square, I also bought one similar called Around the Sun quilting square.  I love celestial pieces and I have just the fabric I want to try out and I think it will look great.  

The Herbiary by Maia Toll arrived a few days ago, it feeds my weakness for unusual books and my love of  herbs and gardens mostly I just love the colorful illustrations.

36 botanical cards 

The book includes 36 cards neatly tucked into an envelope in the back of the book and don't you just love the end pages.

Cards tucked away

Luscious end-papers

Here is a look at some of my favorite pages so far.  I have a few friends that would just love this book so

Oats 

Rosemary

Elderberry

I think I need to order a few and get a jump start on the holiday shopping this year.  Well that's about all I have for this post. I'm linking up to Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching click on over and have a look   https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2018/08/slow-sunday-stitching_19.html

I will leave you with this thought...it made me smile.

Slow Sunday Stitching, August TUSAL, a New Granny Square, and a Few new Reads

This week has flown by with a few projects underway and a few in the design or planning stage life is good.

I finally got my car back from the repair shop with a nice little surprise which had me slightly irritated but what can you do.  The mechanic nicely pointed out the drivers side door was hit by a piece of equipment which left a nice little dent in the door so I need to get an estimate for the shop owner will be paying for the repair.

The following morning on my way to the post office I notice the window control panel was sunken in the buttons still work which is great because the long buttons control my door locks and the round on adjust my mirror.

I don't think it happened at the shop because the bottom buttons looked a bit recessed a few weeks ago, I believe the Florida heat melted the glue that holds it in place. one of the reasons automated window come off the track is the glue disintergrates in the heat or at least its the most common explanation we are given.  So that will need repair next which will be some time this week or the next but not at the same garage.

On the up side of things we finally got a good soaking rain yesterday afternoon, and the hand embroidery for this Green Woman project has been started, it's not my design it's from a decal I purchased a while ago and enlarged.

So once again I am working with mostly green floss. Yesterday was the New Moon for August which means it's time once again to post a photo of my Orts for the August TUSAL which is the Titally Useless Stitch Along.

You can see all those green threads with a few snippets of pink and purple yarns from the Granny Square afghan I crocheted for Tessa my 5 year old great niece. It measures 60 inches square.

 I started another Granny Square for my sister which was slow going over the weekend because my hands we aching so I put it aside for a while.

This one is being done in the Mandala yarn Spirit colorway, I may have mentioned this yarn has quickly become a slight obsession I just love the colorways and the way the flow when worked.

In my last post I mentioned having to abandon my shopping cart the other day after being overcome by an odor that left me quite breathless.  Well I went back on Friday morning to see if those cakes of yarn were still in stock and to my surprise they were.

The six on the left is the Magic Moon colorway with lots of luscious purples in the mix, the 6 on the right are actually 2 different colorways 3 Echo Caves and 3 Wishing Well, I am going to combine them for an afghan. The Wishing Well looks very beachy,  the Echo Caves has 3 of the same or nearly the same colors which should work up very nicely.  I want to try my hand at knitting with one of these yarns.

I am linking up my post to these wonderful blogs today:
https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2018/08/slow-sunday-stitching_12.html

https://itsdaffycat.blogspot.com/2018/08/august-orts.html

On my reading table I have a two new to me publications I am reading, the first feeds the earthy side of me and the second one feeds my love of plants and natural dying.

http://www.ravenous-craft.com/zine

https://rebeccadesnos.com/plants-are-magic-magazine/

 These are just what I need to lose myself in when my fingers and hands are too sore to pick up a needle or a hook. I included a link below each photo if you want to check out the sites.

And finally a recent jewelry making project is my stone cairn pendant with a small piece of green beach glass dangle from the bottom.

A Rough and Rocky Start to August

Well began a bit rough and rocky with my car still in the shop for repairs, I dropped it off on July 26th where it was going to be put on the lift and looked at with the knowledge the work wouldn't begin until the 31st, which didn't happen because they were busy at the shop so I was told work would begin on the 2nd, it didn't and the excuse was they sent the wrong part  so work would begin when the part arrived and I should have the car Friday evening or Monday.  NOPE still working with the hope it would be ready yesterday but there was another problem so did I want to have it done I wouldn't be charge labor only for the part.  So its there and I said okay as long as it won't take a week.

All this reminded me of why I stopped using this shop for auto repairs, unfortunately my regular mechanic is undergoing treatment for leukemia and isn't always available and he didn't want to take on the repair because my car the transmission has to be removed to get to the engine, long story short about  a 10 hour job.   The current shop where the work is being done has one mechanic the owner and 1 employee that doesn't do the repair job my car needed.  Leaky oil pan, gaskets etc.  a common problem apparently on the 2006 Cadillac.   Well received a call last night the  major work is done was just waiting on something for the oil filter and I should have it today,  I am not optimistic and figure tomorrow, which will be two weeks, what I find irritating is he suspected such a long delay I would have like to know so I could have arrange to rent a car, the first week I didn't care because I was still not feeling 100%.  grrrrrr!  That's how August began here.

On the up side I feel better, no more fever, nausea gone after a nasty stomach ache all last weekend.  And for the most part the cough is gone.  House hunting is underway and we found two that have the space we need, both still in Ocala.  This week we had to Orlando area to look at a few.  Though we get more house for our dollars here so that will be a determining factor.

The one house that we are considering has the size I need, a lovely entrance with wrought iron gates which I love and this a little perk in the guise of a pool.

I finished the hand embroidery on the piece for the Stitch at Home Challenge I call it Herbal Tea and will use it as a banner in my herb garden

My inspiration for this piece is my love of brewing blossom tea in clear tea pots, always a hit at my tea parties.

The theme for the challenge is Burlesque which translates to an absurd or comically exaggerated imitation of something and not the fans and feather boas.  Anyway I finished well before the deadline of the 15th, to my great surprise the Kreinik threads didn't unravel or run when I washed it.

The Granny afghan I crocheted for Tessa I finished last night so I will be starting another crochet project today

Granny Afghan

 I used Lion Brand's Mandala yarn in the colorway Wood Nymph, Tessa loves pink and purple.  I have become somewhat addicted to this yarn and how it flows from one color to the next.  I let the colors flow for this, I admire people that cut off to control the color flow but for me the purpose of the yarn is to just let it flow.

spirit

The next project is an afghan for my sister in the Spirit colorway and then I have another project in mind and I am going to combine Troll and Unicorn Cloud as they have some of the same colors or nearly the same, I will alternate cakes.

troll and unicorn cloud

Yesterday I was at Walmart and found some new baby yarn colors so I tossed them in my cart 6 Magic Moon, 3 each of Wishing Well and Echo Caves which I had planned to combine and while I was shopping I was so overcome by an odor that I had to abandon my cart and leave the store.  My inhaler wouldn't respond and I just couldn't get a breath. I think it was detergent or a similar heavily scented item.  This happens sometimes when I visit Bed Bath and Beyond in the Villages and the scented products are so strong I often walk in the door take a few steps and have to leave.  Some scented products set off my allergies, just had to stop using a deodorant because it kept making my eyes itch and run at first I thought it was the detergent maybe I had bought a scented version, but after a shower this week and dressing I could smell the scent my eyes began to tear up and I knew.  Luckily I had a backup.

 I'll plan to go back today to see if the yarn is still on the shelf, it sells out fast and the baby yarn is new.  So while the month began rough and rocky it's turning out pretty good.

Now on to books this week I am reading A Secret History of Witches by Louisa Morgan, I don't know about you but I tend to have themes, the repeated patterns, that keep coming up in my reading  for me it's witches. I just love witches who wave wands, I love witches who brew potions, I love witches who heal well you get it.  What is your repeated theme in books you read.   I am linking this post here https://www.gsheller.com/2018/08/yarn-along-august.html  for the August yarn along, click the link to see what other bloggers are reading and knitting or crocheting this month.

Also linking to https://www.supermomnocape.com/