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Finally!

The yarn I’d been waiting for to weave AF’s baby wrap finally arrived on Friday afternoon, as I’d predicted. So today I committed to spend time at the loom.

AF's wrap

I liked JM’s framboise cotton, and I also really like AF’s magenta tencel. Both of these wefts work well with every color in the warp.

I’m quite happy with my progress…I got 100″ woven today – 2/3 of the wrap! I have some plans for tomorrow, but should be able to get the last 50″ woven. If not Sunday, surely on Monday. JMC & AF, it won’t be long now!

It rained most of the day, but I did spend a few minutes outside changing my old stick-on-the-glass house numbers…
house numbers before

…into new screwed on the siding house numbers.

house numbers after

I hated those old numbers, so even though it’s a little thing, it made me happy to do the ‘upgrade.’

While I enjoyed the weaving and the minor home repair, here was the most fun I had today: playing fetch with Jack. (Sorry for the poor quality of the video. I had to hold my phone in my left hand and play fetch with my right…easier said than done.)

It’s hard to believe he’s only been with me for 4 days. He’s a remarkable little guy, for sure!

5 minutes my &#%!

My house had 3 ceiling fixtures that were clearly fan/light combos at some point in their lives, but by the time I moved in the fan blades and mounting hardware was all removed, leaving 3 lights with weird metal parts. I like ceiling fans, especially in the bedroom, and especially since I am not used to air conditioning. I’d much rather have the windows open, although these last few days I admit I’ve been appreciative of the AC.

Anyway, I ordered 3 Hunter ceiling fan/lights to replace the 3 odd ducks in my ceilings. Decided I’d do the bedroom first. The first 2 fans are called “Five-Minute Fans” by Hunter. HAH!

Now mind you, I’ve never done this before. My daughter’s done it as well as my son, so I figured I’d be brave and do it myself instead of asking one of them. And admittedly, since I’ve never done it before I was moving slowly and made some silly mistakes I had to undo, but it easily took me 2 hours to install this baby.

bedroom fan

Still, it works like a charm and made me proud of myself.

So today I moved into the weaving studio to install that fan. From start to finish, which included removing the old fixture and cleaning up my mess, took me exactly one hour. I didn’t think that was too bad. I obviously learned quite a bit from my first attempt.

studio fan

But 5 minutes? I think I’d have to install dozens to get to that time frame, even acknowledging that they admit that the light fixture isn’t included in that time. And yes, their video shows a woman doing it in 5 minutes, but I still think it’s completely unrealistic unless you do it constantly. For me, it’s rather analogous to the tents called EZ Up. I’ve had 2 of them, and I never found them EZ to put up. All that being said, I would absolutely recommend Hunter fans. The quality is great. I’ve had ceiling fans before, but nothing as quiet and stable (not at all wiggly) as these two.

On another front, I haven’t gotten much weaving done. I was away on that swell family vacation for a week, and didn’t feel much pressure to get the last 15″ of JM’s wrap woven because I was going to be at a standstill then anyway. Why? The yarn for AF, her sister on this warp, was back ordered. It was supposed to arrive well over a week ago but still isn’t in my hands, and until it gets here all I can do is wait. This evening I got the email that it’s been shipped & the USPS says I’ll get it on Thursday, but I bet I don’t have it till Friday.

I have finished JM’s and will now start the planning for my chair seats. I may or may not have the yarn I need (I sure hope so-I want to use up my way-too-big stash!), and may or may not get the warp measured before AF’s weft yarn arrives. No matter what, as soon as it gets here, I’m off the chair cushions and on to AF’s wrap. Then to the next 2 wraps–warp yarn all here, weft here for one, weft for the other to arrive with AF’s weft yarn.

So how was I spending my time? Well, I had a wonderful surprise visit with some out-of-town friends who were passing through the area and wanted to see my new home. Delightful!

Then I spent an outrageous amount of time looking at the dogs available through the MANY local rescue organizations. Ultimately I submitted online apps for 4 different dogs, needing to be approved and meet each of them.

On Monday a doggie foster mom brought a little guy over here to visit me. He was very cute, but would have absolutely no part of me. Foster mom & I sat outside on the grass with him for at least 20 minutes, probably longer, and he wouldn’t get within 5′ of me. Sometimes was trembling, occasionally with a low growl. This was definitely not my dog. I came back inside and did more online searching.

This morning another doggie foster mom came with another little guy. He pulled at my heart strings and I took the plunge. Meet Jack.

Jack, side view

With rescue dogs some things are best guesses, including breed. He’s perhaps a mix of Shih Tzu and Lhasa Apso. He’s likely 3 years old, and here’s his sad story.

Jack (the name I’ve given him as he didn’t have one that he knew) was rescued about a month ago from a hoarder in Kentucky that had 45 dogs. 45! His fur was incredibly matted everywhere, but from the top of his head down to his nose so thickly that he couldn’t see anything. When they started carefully cutting away the fur they could see that one of his eyes had a terrible infection, and a vet eye specialist determined that his cornea had ruptured from the infection. Even if they cleared up the infection, he wouldn’t be able to see out of it, so best to remove it. While he was under anesthesia he was neutered and had his teeth checked & cleaned. He of course was a mass of fleas, too, and had so many flea bites he had to have antibiotics for them as well as pain meds for the surgery. What an ordeal!

Despite this horrible experience, Jack is very sweet. He doesn’t seem to hold any grudges against people for treating him so badly. He is shy but not timid, a gentle soul.

Jack in bed

He is appropriately a bit anxious, not knowing me. But not overly. And when my daughter and grandson came to visit, he allowed himself to be petted.

Jack & Rusty

I’m sure we’ll get along just fine once he adjusts to his new home. He may or may not be interested in or able to work up to walking up to 3 miles with me in the morning; we’ll just have to see how it goes. But his sweetness and temperament spoke to me. He’s a quiet and calm guy, which is important to me. I know he likes other dogs, so will be sure to give him some of those experiences once he’s a little more settled. In the meantime, my one-eyed Jack & I will spend time bonding.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

I had a great week in Canandaigua with my family. Due to work schedules, much of the week was just my daughter, my grandson & me. We hung out in the built-in pool a bunch as well as exploring local fun things to do. A clear highlight of the week for me came on Thursday. My daughter was running errands so grandson & I were alone, and he said, “GP (that’s what he calls me, stands for Grandma Peg), you make a great vacation.” How wonderful is that?! It even makes it okay that I ate waaayyy too much and put on a few pounds that I’ll have to get rid of.

We checked out of the rental house yesterday morning and headed home. After unpacking I thought I’d see what I could see online for estate sales…maybe someone would have some kitchen chairs for me. Only 1 sale that had photos showed anything that might work, so I got in my car & headed out. I didn’t have high hopes since the sale had started on Friday. But lo and behold, the chairs that were in the ad were still there, and were just what I’d been looking for!

2 chairs

The price was right – $40 for 4 chairs – so I didn’t even offer less than their asking price. I noticed at the sale that the chairs weren’t perfect; they’d had some hardware additions to make them sturdier, but that’s okay with me. (Look for the angle brackets in the corners here.) In fact, I may do the same thing to the chairs that haven’t had this strengthening done.

chairs with angle supports

I came home and unloaded the car, then drove to the shelter to visit with a few dogs I might be interested in. The Rochester city shelter has an interesting system, gathering names of people who are interested in each dog (up to 5 people) and releasing the dog on a given day. If person #1 doesn’t show up, it goes to person #2 and so on. One of the potential dogs already had a full list, and I didn’t really connect with the other, so came home without a dog. That’s okay. It will happen.

Then I scrubbed those chairs to get years of grime off them. The seats are a ‘lovely’ vinyl damask pattern. I’ll be weaving fabric for them as soon as I can. That’s the main reason I wanted chairs like this with upholstered seats.

Finally it was time to make a nice salad for dinner. I did something else productive after dinner…but that’s for the next post.

This morning I took my usual 3-mile walk. While I was out I came across the biggest slug I’ve ever seen. I put my foot next to it for scale.

big slug

Today I need to mow the lawn, install another cabinet organizer I bought, do some weeding (if it’s not too hot), and finish weaving JM’s wrap.

Table tale part 4, and vacation

My daughter helped me carry the table into the kitchen the day before we left for vacation. Although there’s much glare on the top, I feel like the color on the side of the table is pretty accurate.

table in place

And here it is from the other side with the drawer open.

table  with drawer open

When I was putting the drawer in I realized that at some point in this table’s life it had a drawer on each side. Now it has 1. That’s okay with me; I like it just fine.

Since we’ve been at this lovely vacation rental in Canandaigua, we’ve watched the moon rise over the lake most evenings, going from deep red low in the sky to bright white high overhead.

lake moon sequence

Most fun of all, on Monday we went to a ropes course (1 for kids, 1 for adults) in Bristol on Monday. The little guy was fearless. He wants to go back.

tightrope on ropes course

I really enjoyed being with him, but would not want to do the adult version of this course, 20-30 feet overhead. Not my cup of tea.

New acquisitions (and more weaving)

Although I still haven’t found any kitchen chairs, I’ve been looking, a lot. Today I went to 4 thrift stores. No chairs, but I did buy a really sweet, little table to replace a TV tray in my living room.

pembroke table, front

It’s reportedly a Pembroke mahogany table. If that’s true, I got a steal of a deal from a vendor at Greenovations – $55. Even if it’s not a Pembroke, I think it’s really lovely, and the right size & color for me.

Pembroke table side

I definitely wanted something of that height there, although I’d thought I needed to have something with a lower shelf to house a DVD player, so I’ll have to rethink that plan. Or switch table places if I find something that meets both needs later.

My rug arrived for the spare room today, too.

spare room rug

The colors are just what I wanted, and I like the patterning. I knew the rug was made from wool & viscose, but none of the pictures I saw online showed me the distinctness of the fibers and heights.

rug close

I’m not at all sure how those raised areas, which are clearly the viscose, will wear. I’m going to have to live with this rug for a week or 2 and make a decision during my 30-day return window.

I have been weaving, too. I have about 140″ of JM’s wrap woven, with 80 more to go. I’m sure I can get those 80″ woven tomorrow. (I’ve thought that before, too, so we’ll see.) I wanted to give you a better idea of how nicely the colors were playing together, but none of the photos I took were at all realistic for color. A recent post by Sandra Rude explained that many small digital point-and-shoots have trouble getting accurate colors with reds because they have a lower quality sensor than bigger DSL cameras. I wish I understood that. 😉 So you can get a good sense of how great the framboise works with the blues here, but the red color is completely off.

center of JMC's wrap

Unfortunately, I’m still waiting for the tencel for AF’s wrap, the sister to this one, to arrive. The good news is that I’ll be spending next week at a lake house with my family, so I won’t be weaving anyway. It will be more relaxing for me to know that I couldn’t weave even if I was home. 😉