Be*mused

Come on-a my house

Raspberry chocolate cream

All of those articles you're reading about the current slowdown in home sales?  They would seem to be right on target.  In 12 days, we've had two showings.  This for a house that sold within the first week the last few times it's been for sale.  Our realtor called today and assured me it's just the market.  He held an open house at another listing Sunday, on the same block as two other open houses, hoping to draw buyers to look at several in one stop.  No one came.  Almost unheard of.

 
Strawberry layer

Naturally, my inclination has been to keep everything shiny and bright, fresh and showable on a moment's notice.  (*M'am. I'm a realtor from Rinkydink Realty and I have a buyer who's interested in seeing your house. Would that be possible, today?  Great!...We're in the driveway.*) 

Chocolate mint

Today, instead of sitting here drumming my fingers on the tabletop, I decided to cook something up.  Want to stop by for a piece of cake?   

Cherry torte

Tempus fugit

I couldn't resist cutting into my new fabrics and trying a few new grandmother's flower garden combinations.  I've been meaning to purchase some solid black to start on the connecting hexes.  This wasn't intended to be a bed-sized quilt but the flowers are so much fun to make that, like eating gumdrops, I have a hard time resisting the urge to try just a few more.  It really would be the perfect summer project for me this year...easy to scoop up when I have to neaten the house on short notice.   

It's a beautiful day here today...the first day of summer!  The same kind of clear, sunny day that it was 32 years ago today when we got married.  Yes, the longest day of the year...there've been a few laughs about that over the years.  Sheesh, 32.  (I think we had just finished 4th grade. Heh.)  I'm heading to Chicago shortly where we'll enjoy an anniversary dinner and a welcome respite from, well, here.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend...we're planning on spending it driving around, scouting neighborhoods, in search of the setting for our next chapter. 

Sometimes you luck out

This morning I watched as the *for sale* sign was extracted from the front lawn.  Unfortunately, it was my neighbor's lawn across the street.  She and her husband moved out yesterday, stunned and saddened by the quick sale of their home several weeks ago.  Never satisfied, are we?  Expecting it might take (many) months as has been usual recently in our area, they listed it in May and sold in 4 days, forced to move to a rental condo until her husband retires in the fall.  And not happy about the prospect of missing the summer in their beautiful yard.  In contrast, it's looking like I might be spending the summer here, as we have had only one showing since Friday.  I'm already sick of the routine, which somewhat resembled a Chinese firedrill when we got the realtor's warning call during a lazy Father's Day morning.  So enough talk of this!

   

Look what arrived in the mail.  That's a Kaffe Fassett tablecloth draped over my wicker chair.  While at the wedding last week, I was able to sneak over to the (only) Pine Cone Hill shop, less than a mile from where we were staying.  M drove to hunt down some coffee while I quickly browsed, restraining myself admirably.  "How was it?" he asked, as I climbed back into the car.  "Fabulous!"  As we started to pull out of our space, he tentatively added, "Did you notice they have an outlet store over there?"  This was quite brave of him, as his niece was scheduled to be walking down the aisle in less than two hours.  But having opened that door a crack, of course I had to dart in!  I cruised around quickly, snatching up this 60' x 60" cotton tablecloth for a relative pittance, with plans to cut it up to use the fabric, the design of which is exclusive to the Kaffe Fassett PCH bedding line.  Those reds and pinks against the turquoise! 

Confused?  Well, as soon as I got home, I realized I have the perfect table on which to use the cloth.  Good thing I have a local connection there, eh?  My SIL sent the last two available tablecloths along to me before I had barely finished unpacking.

Too bad I forgot to include them yesterday during my wash 'n press fest.

Done deal

The realtor came yesterday and we finalized the house listing.  I could have used one more day to finetune things (couldn't I always?) but M had his last vacation day yesterday so it was the best time for us to meet with the realtor, go through the disclosure papers and sign the contract.  I'm not overly optimistic about the listing photos of the house.  They were hastily taken as I darted around, barely one room ahead of the realtor, fluffing and adjusting, moving plants from surface to surface depending on his vantage point.  I had forgotten to check the deck after M had moved things to trim some tree branches and shots were taken with things in disarray and no flower pots in sight.  Oh well.  With luck, the first people through will fall in love with the place and that will be that!  (A real dreamer, aren't I?)

So, I guess we're really doing this.  It hit me when I had to clear the refrigerator door of all of my favorite shots and recent postcards...de-personalizing.  It feels funny to have not much to do now but wait for people to come through.  Other than that pesky little task of finding a house at the other end.  I was joking last post about getting back to all of my projects, but now that there are no more to-do lists, I think I actually will.  Projects, and some 1300+ Bloglines updates.  Yikes.  At this point, I'm considering clearing out and starting fresh.   

In the meantime, check out these fabulous quilts on Flickr that I found through a link at Rosa's.  I've been back to look at them several times. 

And if you haven't seen this video yet, take a few minutes to watch what has to be the *feel good* clip of the week.  It gives me chills.

Glorious color

1,400 plus miles round trip in a car in 6 days might not seem like a relaxing getaway, but it was.  We might have flown, but we had a stop to make on the way to Massachusetts and it all worked out perfectly.  The event we traveled to was a wedding, the first of our nieces and nephews.  It was lovely in every way.  Just like the bride. 

The rehearsal dinner was held here in Stockbridge.  A perfect setting on a late spring evening.  Happy couple surrounded by happy family and friends.  Exquisite hors d'oeuvres. 

The wedding day dawned overcast and as the late afternoon nuptials approached, a light mist began to fall.  It did nothing to dampen the occasion.  The ceremony location was hastily moved from the lawn to canopied terrace, the monsignor and the rabbi took their places and the harpist nimbly plucked.  *I do*s were exchanged and the rest of the evening was a happy blur of poignant toasts, lots of laughter and, now, happy memories.  It all passed too quickly. 

Attendant's bouquet

The wedding was perfection in its design.  The bride's gown and attendants' outfits were simple and elegant yet the event was punctuated by gorgeous color.

Wedding cakes

Table centepiece

Candy bar

Now the newlyweds are off to start a happy life together and I'm back in the heartland.  The realtor is coming this afternoon to take photos of the house so I'm dashing off to finetune some staging.  Once the house is listed in a couple of days, I should have nothing more to do than get back to all of my projects.  Right.

Crazy busy

I'm crazy busy today, admittedly mostly my own fault.  The house is just about set and we interviewed realtors on the weekend.  It is all, finally, falling into place.  The actual listing awaits some forms that need to be green-lighted by the relocation company first but we're heading out early in the morning to drive east, so they'll have to wait.  Please don't remind me that we are wasting the prime househunting week of the year...we've heard it from everyone already.  I doubt one week will be the make-or-break factor and we're leaving to celebrate a family event in Massachusetts.  There, and along the way, we'll be seeing family from both sides and frankly, it couldn't come at a better time.  I'm so ready for a break and we haven't seen any family since the holidays.

I've known about the event for almost a year.  I've had the outfit for many months.  So why did I leave it until today to head to the mall in search of the necessary undergarment?  Oh right, because I hate the mall.  Happily, I emerged victorious so all's well that ends well and now I'm ironing and packing and baking and banging out this quickie post to thank you all for your kind comments on the mitten.  I can't wait to start on an actual pair now.

While I'm away, do take a few minutes and read this wonderful post at Tanya's blog, Taniwa.  No matter your craft or avocation, I'm guessing it will strike a chord with you as it did me.  And if you're at all interested in day-to-day life in Japan, poke around a little more.  Tanya's posts are entertaining and often quite illuminating. 

I've been playing with some corner options on my whirling star blocks and I'm liking the little red triangles.  Back next week!     

Mission accomplished

 

I've done it.  I've finally completed a patterned mitten and I'm hooked!

It's from the Selbuvotter book, specifically the Nordic Heritage Museum #3 mitten on page 91.

It's not perfect, but I recently came across the quote 'Finished is better than perfect' on someone's blog and I've taken to repeating it like a mantra at critical decision junctures.  It works!  In any case, this mitten won't have a mate.  It was a pure learning piece and was approached as such, which freed me to plow through difficult areas, learning my lessons and maintaining a rhythm without pressure to rip back.  Good enough meant that I could see what mistakes I had made, corrected them (or figured out how) and it was still looking like a mitten.  Crucial criteria.

The thumb join area is one of these small disappointments.  Clearly, the pattern doesn't flow here and some of the pickups look twisted.  C'est la vie!  Part of the problem was that I was that I was using Susan Bates metal dpns, which while easy to knit with, are extremely slippery.  In that small thumbhole area, it was all I could do to keep moving along, picking up stitches, working in pattern and trying to keep the stitches on my four needles.

The inside even looks pretty, doesn't it?  The blue line of carried yarn along the right edge was at a break on my needles and even though I could see early on that it was being pulled a bit tight, my efforts to allow a looser carry didn't seem to make much difference...there's still a little ridge there, even after blocking.  Have any of you done similar mittens on two circs?  I recall seeing patterned socks worked on two circs (fun ones here by Haphazard Knitter) but since I've never tried that method with socks, I probably shouldn't start with Norwegian mittens.

I feel a little silly posting a mitten project in June, but really, this is the perfect project for this time of year.  Small and lightweight...no pressure to finish quickly because of need.  I'll definitely be making more of these, though I'll try different yarn.  I used the Satakieli for authenticity, but found it to be too splitty for my taste.  Though maybe that was because of the metal dpns?  I do like the resulting fabric. 

Ok...I just can't write my first June post without a summery touch.  How about my lilies?