Greetings, Salutations and  Great Big Hugs to All!!

As I opened my laptop this morning,  wisp of dark green fabric appeared to greet me. Now usually I try to keep the fabrics, wispy or not, separate from the other areas of my life, such as the laptop.

Hahahahahaha!!! Who am I kidding?? I’ve got threads all over the place. Found a red thread on my washcloth last night AFTER washing my face. That means that this red thread was somewhere on my face or neck.

And I wasn’t sewing with red thread yesterday.

In fact, I wasn’t sewing at all!!!

I am used to threads being all over my skirt after working on a project, but this is a new one:  a  random drive by  red threading.

Ah, well, back to the  dark green wispy strip: it was a cat whisker from a Zoom class I took last Friday.  Originally the class was to be just before Halloween.  Another of the CraftyMonkies classes facilitated from England, this one was postponed due to the teacher, who was in Cape Cod, losing power to her studio due to the storms on the East Coast.

Time of the class was in British time which makes it 12 to 3 pm for us here in the Central US time zone, but made it in the middle of the night for the poor Aussie in the class. I think most in the class were from Great Britain or the US, but there was also someone from Denmark.

And, because the name of the class was “Making Cat
Faces”, the first five minutes of the class was showing your cats at home to the other 30 class members.   There was one woman who had both and preferred dogs, but didn’t mind being the odd one out.

The class was, for me, an exercise in opposites. It was good but bad; exhilarating but frustrating; creative juices flowing but drying up at times. Did I get my money’s worth? Yes. Did I learn new things? Yes. Did I learn enough to be able to make my own cat faces? Yes. Would I take another class from this instructor. No.

So that brings us to why was I making whiskers out of dark green instead of black fabric.  Strangely enough, the black kept fraying and was too open a weave, which you would think would make a better whisker.  And yet it didn’t.

See what I mean about learning things? It’s not always what you think you’re going to learn.

And speaking of learning new things, ( a right good transition, guv’nor)  I recently AGAIN skipped to the end of a book. I know. I know. But I was feeling so badly for all the characters, not seeing any possible positive outcomes.

Not that I have to have a Pollyanna ending for every book, mind you. However, when all the characters are grinding their gears at life, I need to have some hope for them.

And this is what I learned: I liked the ending so much that I wanted to return to where I was in the morass and find out how they got  to the ending!! So, I did. I went back and read to the ending.

The Book Police and my past English teachers did not come to haunt me. The NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English and the NEA did not ask for my membership cards. And, best of all, my inner voice commented on what a good solution it was and to go ahead and do that again if the situation warranted.

Changing habits is not without a few stiff breezes and whitecaps, and yes, you can consider this a transition. I was surprised at how much of a change it made to have two sets of gloves and sleeves going at the same time. For years I have had one which I have to wash and air dry every night. So, at 7 pm my body alarm says, better get that glove and sleeve washed so you’re not up late and they can air dry. Oh, and what else do you have that you can throw in with it? Okay, grab the dish towel, but not that red shirt. Not the bath towels and for sure not those microfiber washcloths. Not the new dark mask fabrics and for sure not the jeans. Every night.

Now it’s every other night. Still at 7 pm I start for the basement then stop.  Wait. I don’t have to do that tonight.  Old habits die hard.  Same thing in the morning when I think I need to run downstairs to pick up my glove and sleeve off the line, except it’s already on the desk in the kitchen.

I know it’s small stuff, but it’s all small stuff. I do have the heady feeling of “What am I going to do with all this time?”

And then I remember that I used to dream of all the extra time I would have when I didn’t need to fold diapers anymore.

I never did figure out what happened with all that time.

********* nope. not even close here

Yard Waste. You know, I love living in Minnesota.  It just tickled me pink when we were at the Yard Waste Center? Dump? Recycler? last week during the noon hour.

It. Was. Packed.

It was a weekday and it was packed with a line to get in.  Any why?  Because Minnesotans watch weather reports like nobody’s business. There was a forecast of rain and possible snow later on in the day and for the next few days ahead. Everybody was trying to get their leaves up off their lawns and to the yard waste  before the precipitation added significantly to their weight.

It was a parade. It was a gosh darn it all, hotdish not casserole, gray duck of a parade.

It made me smile.

This also made me smile: I found my mom’s ring that I had been looking for for at least 10 years. I thought I had lost it. I thought perhaps I had taken it off while in the recliner before the recliner  that’s now in the basement; in other words, it was gone.

Yesterday while I was doing a drawer clean and organize, you know, like a closet, only smaller. I was moving an evening bag, you know, one of those bugle beaded fancy little bags that you can’t fit much more than a Kleenex, a cough drop  and your ID in, I opened  said bag  and some earrings, a necklace and this ring tumbled out!

I was so happy!  My heart sang!!

Now I do want you to know that I have reorganized this drawer and moved this bag many times in that ten years. But I had not opened it.

It does say something about how many times I go out dressed up enough to need a bugle beaded  fancy little bag!

Oh and speaking of getting all dolled up, I ordered a set of perfume samples from a new company I heard about. I thought that perhaps the hubster and I needed a little aroma therapy.

So, every day there’s a new vial to try. The first was a winner for me, but the hubster said it smelled like the air freshener that his mom used to spray in the bathroom.

Sigh.

I wonder how many other wives who like lily of the valley are thwarted by their hubsters’ olfactory memories.

Today’s fragrance is another winner for me because it smells like ——————wait for it—————–Coppertone!!!!!!  Well, it does say it smells like the sun and the beach.  I like it because it is the smell of summer. Can I get an amen?

Have a Terrific Tuesday!! Do something to feed your creative soul today.

BIG HUG!!

Love,

Janet