Not gonna lie.

I kinda hate July a little so far. It's the weather. Ugh.

Too hot and WAY too humid to do anything fun outside. Or anything outside really. (You could swim.......but I don't have a pool.) I've been reading a lot lately. Which is good for working through the stacks of books (both paper and digital) that I have. But man, I hate humid. It turns me into a whiny princess. :(

Way back a couple weeks ago, before the dew point parked it's ass in the 70-75 degree range and refused to budge, I did manage to finish a couple projects.

Cookie A - Jubilee pattern

Yay! Socks! Only my second pair this year. NUTS. I am seriously lacking in sockitude this year because of my tendonitis issues. They are..........a little weird? They look massively big but fit pretty okay. Probably too thick to wear with lace up shoes but, as luck would have it, I tend to wear clogs more often than not in the winter around the house. (I contemplated doing the smaller pattern size but the gauge was telling me they would have been too small then so I didn't even bother to try it.) Cheetos-colored socks aren't for everyone though, obviously, so these I'm definitely keeping for myself. :)

That's it for me with knitting though until the weather changes. I started a scarf but it's too too too sticky draping over your legs, etc. to work on it right now.

Also finished, little L*K strawberry sampler that's......also a little weird? I had almost none of the hand-dyed threads it called for and the DMC conversions provided were........less than stellar. I'm not 100% on some of the colors, as far as them all working together, but, you know - it is just a little sampler. No sense in driving yourself mad over it either.

Do you know how hard it is to find collectables that have LIGHT-colored Himalayans in them? IMPOSSIBLE. Everything is done up with the darker Seal and Chocolate point Himalayans.  *pout* 

So I was SUPER stoked to find this original watercolor on Etsy with a Blue point kitty, just like my Mooshie. OH HELLO, I MUST HAVE YOU.  (The seller is Amble and Sing. SUPER cute stuff!) It's just about the most perfect thing EVERrrrRRrrrrr. *ahem* I put one of his favorite 'glitter' balls he loved to fetch with  it and I just love it. Makes me smile every time I pass it in the hall. :)

I'm really over how quiet the house is too. I had tuna fish for lunch yesterday - alone.
By myself. Do you know how sad that is? No one cared. No one came to sit with me. No one begged for a treat. It tasted like salty tears and disappointment. 

To remedy that, expect a can of whoop ass to be unleashed around these parts around mid-August. Hopefully. *fingers crossed*

Bunny bomb.

 I'll get to the bunnies but first I wanted to thank y'all for the sweet comments about my Mooshie on my last post. It was a difficult week. You resign yourself to crying at inappropriate times (or so it feels like) and you get through it. I feel a little better this week and I did have some good moments going through my mementos of him. I dug up the pictures of when he was a kitten, which I hadn't seen in yearsssss. (Actual photos because we didn't have digital cameras back then! lol) Had real photos made of the digital photos I have of him, to add to those. And I ordered a custom engraved stone for where we bury him, right next to Tubby, who was his friend from way, way back. (She has a stone too.)  It gives me comfort to go through things like that. Makes it feel like you are a tiny bit proactive and not so out of control with it all. Maybe it's just me though. :)

 While I was digging for his photos though I came across this little angel, just tucked away and long forgotten in a sandwich baggie. I used to work on the side as a sample stitcher for a LNS (that no longer exists) and I think this was the sample I submitted as proof of my work, as an example of neatness, ability to do over one work, etc. Gosh, talk about a long buried memory! That's going back AGES. 

It's part of a free angel ornament pattern by Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum circa 1997. (Plenty more of those free angels here.) I had totally forgotten how amazing her angels are. I'm wondering if I can just rip back the sleeve a bit on this a little to round the bottom out and make it into an ornament. You just know that red has left a mark on that linen by NOW though.*sigh* Reds. They are trouble makers.

Anyhoo. I had finished up a couple new bunnies a couple weeks ago and then..........got distracted and stuff. :(  

 I feel kinda over it now but the photos were already done and they *are* cute so I figured I would post them anyway. I mean, it's not their fault, is it? I was very happy to knit them up. This boy might be my favorite of the bunch. His face and sweater just came out so perfect, I love him lots. :)

My efforts to knit through that sack of worsted wool were wasted though because, four bunnies later, I still have a sack full of it. lol 

And I'm not sure what to do with them now that I have them. They don't seem inclined to hop off anywhere so I will keep them until another use for them makes itself known. Maybe everyone I know will get a bunny for Christmas and then THEY can wonder about what to do with them. I just like KNITTING and these were a hoot to knit. :)

Hope everyone (who celebrates) has a happy and safe Fourth!

I actually remembered to gather up all my red/white/blue stitchies to put out in time for the holiday. 

Well, me oh my. Miracles do exist. lol

Sadness. (Now with bonus free pattern!)

 Well, that's that. 'My' baby hawks are no more. Not sure what happened but things were fine Saturday morning - but by Sunday afternoon the nest was abandoned. After watching them intently for almost a month I can't tell you how positively morose I was all Sunday over this. Not sure what that says about the state of my mind of late (nothing good, probably) but there you go. I think I'm mostly over it now. Mostly. Other than having to stare at that empty nest while I'm sitting on the deck, year after year, as a reminder. (Seriously. The nest they had on the edge of our property two summers ago is still fully intact, though you can only see it in the winter when the leaves are down. This new one is in clear view all the time though as you can see from this photo I took while sitting where I usually sit on the deck.) On the plus side though, the adults are still around, at least for the moment. They woke me up early this morning with their squawking, just like normal. So at least they weren't killed or anything. That would be even sadder.

This was a nice little pick me up to my mood though. :)

An amazing little stitched fob from Carol as a surprise thank you for a pattern I gifted her. Just so generous and so EXQUISITE. Her finishing is jaw-dropping perfect. I am in awe. And so thankful for the gift. I will treasure it.

The backdrop in that photo is from my latest visit to WEBS. We were way up in northern Massachusetts for something else and managed to swing by the (epic) WEBS store before they closed. This stripey goodness was part of their anniversary sale so I got it for a song so I REGRET NOTHING, even though I clearly don't need any more yarn.

Heart of America - LHN

And finally, another long-mouldering WIP is put to bed, rest, and FINISHED. Yay! I do so love getting these WIP's out of 'storage' and finished as part of my 2013 'plan'.

The last bit of stitching this was not without incident though. I did the 'land of the free' letters on the bottom last and ran out of the color for that with ONE letter to go. SO CLOSE TO FINISHING. What a bummer, right? And then I looked at the sample and realized I DID THE WHOLE THING IN THE WRONG COLOR. @@#$#

On the good side, I had PLENTY of the color I needed to do it correctly. 

On the bad side, rip. rip. rip. rip. 

Oh well. It's done now and I really do like this piece.

This pattern was originally gifted to me way, way back in, mmmm, 2011? (Or 2010?) 

So continuing with that, I'm going to pass it along to someone else who wants it. Just let me know in the comments if you want to stitch it and I'll draw a name for it at the end of the week. (Or around there.) Don't be frightened off by the size of it or anything because I can TOTALLY see stitching up these blocks individually for smalls or scissor fobs, etc. That 'Old Glory' block in particular seems ripe for a small finish, if I must say. :)

And with that I think I'm going to go sit on the deck some more and try NOT to stare at that black hole of sadness in the tree that taunts me. It is AMAZINGLY beautiful today, after a run of hot and sticky-ickies, and I intend to get out there and soak it up.