Rub a Dub Dub…a new home for the tub

Meet my claw foot tub. He is one of the treasures which came with the house when we bought it 19 years ago.

The last couple of decades have been a little dry for tubby. Relegated to the dog kennel to collect leaves and twigs and wait for the day when his services would again be needed.


That day has finally arrived.



We spent last weekend scrubbing and rubbing, priming and painting. Spiffing him up for his new job.


Tubby has a new lease on life and doesn’t he look happy? He is now the focal point in the center of the expanded garden. Next spring he will be bursting with flowers, standing proud and showing the world what a grand old guy he is.

MeMe tagged

Cary at Serenity Farms MeMe tagged me a couple of weeks ago in a desperate attempt on her part to get me to update my blog. I guess is worked because I am finally getting around to following the rules of this adventure (at least most of them).

The meme is Six Quirky Things About Yourself and here are the rules:

1) Link to the person who tagged me (Cary)
2) Mention the rules
3) Tell six quirky yet boring things about yourself
4) Tag 6 other bloggers by linking to them
5) Go to each person's blog to let them know they have been tagged!

So here are my Six Quirky Things:

1. Whenever I eat chips (potato chips, Doritos, etc.) I try to eat all the little broken pieces first, saving the large whole chips for the last.
2. And, once I am down to just the whole chips, I tend to snap off pieces and eat them instead of biting into the whole chip.
3. All the t-shirts in my drawer are folded with the front picture out and visible. This makes it easier for me to grab the desired white t-shirt. Since my kids do most of the laundry folding this means I usually re-fold most of my t-shirts because they rarely even turn it right side out much less fold it picture out.
4. All of my white socks live in a Christopher and Banks bag at the bottom of my closet. My colored socks are in a dresser drawer (which is too small to also hold the white socks) arranged somewhat by color.
5. I hate crawling into an unmade bed but I am willing to navigate through and around all kinds of stuff to get to the bed.
6. The toilet paper roll is always put on the dispenser with the paper coming over the top and falling towards the front of the roll (farthest point from the wall). I believe this is done by me because the plaster wall in my bathroom has a rough texture and if the roll is placed the other way I will invariably scrape a knuckle on the wall attempting to find the end of the roll. In my next home the walls of the bathroom will be smooth so that this problem is eliminated.

Wow, that wasn’t easy. Probably because I find all these things to be completely rational, this just proves how crazy we all are.

Now to the part of the rules I will be rebelling against. As a bad blogger I rarely update this blog and the only blogs I visit consistently are Serenity Farms (who tagged me), Maple who has way too much happening right now to be tagged and a couple of blogs visited by millions (Yarnharlot and PioneerWoman) neither of which will I be tagging. So…if you happen to visit this post and want to be tagged so you can play along feel free to leave me a comment and I will update this post to tag you.

Enjoy the rest of your day and come back and see me again if I haven’t scared you off with my quirky self.
…Pam

Treating Myself

Just got back from Lansing, signed up for a weekend of classes at Threadbear being given in August by Maggie Jackson. She is from Ireland, a country I really want to visit someday, and she designs using unusual textures, materials and stitches. I am excited to expand my knitting knowledge and try something new.

This is a treat for myself after surviving the last week and what will probably be the challenges of the next 3 weeks. Husband had neck surgery last Monday for a compressed disk and all went really well. One night in the hospital and I brought him back home. First couple of days were pretty quiet because the 'good' drugs kept him sleeping quite a bit but we are now well on the road to recovery and boredom is setting in quick. He has never been one to set still so a month of no driving and limited lifting/movement will be interesting. I will certainly deserve that class by the time it gets here.

I finished daughter #2's bolero and happily put that pattern and leftover yarn away. Making 3 sweaters from the same pattern is enough for me.

During my wait time in the hospital, I worked on the second sock for the railroad sock pattern started in January. Purposely took this sock with me because I knew the odds of me finishing the second sock on this one was pretty slim because the first took me such a long time to do. Combination of skinny yarn and small needles was not good even though I loved the look of the final sock. Strategy worked as sock number 2 is at heel and going well.


Nursing time at home has been spent working on the Wistful Swing Jacket pattern from Mission Falls. Fell in love with this coat when I tried it on a couple of years ago in a local yarn store. At full price the yarn itself would have cost me about $175 so I couldn't justify it at the time. I got lucky and found the yarn on clearance so for $27 plus cost of pattern and time I will hopefully have a long coat sweater I love.


It will be interesting to see if the coat or sock is finished first.

A Short Visit

I finished my rambling rows jacket this week. Pattern from Cottage Creations, cream yarn was recycled from a sweater I made my husband 25 years ago when he was my boyfriend. It was in the donation box and I had always loved the feel of the yarn...so I disassembled, washed and finally chose this pattern to remake it. I ran short of yarn when I got near the end of the sleeves so finishing digressed from the original pattern which calls for cuffs and a button band. My version has kimono type sleeves with I-cord edging around cuffs, collar and front. Chose Plymouth Encore Colorspun in colorway 7512 with the help of Mary.

While taking my photos to share I had a short visit from a friendly butterfly. I think he saw the camera and decided to get in on the action since he posed for several shots before continuing on with his daily flight.

I'm still here...

I'm still here...just been busy weeding and raking and knitting and doing the Mom thing. A quick catch up on the last 8 weeks.

Garden is in. Lovely Michigan weather means we have had to cover plants for frost warnings 3 times now. The last one took out about a dozen tomato and pepper plants so we just picked up some more. Gotta have enough plants for the salsa and spaghetti sauce.

Finished daughter number 1's Holy Moly just in time to wear it for Short Ones First Communion. Here we are in our fancy clothes.

Daughter number 2 has now requested a Holy Moly of her own since the little sweater we found at Sears is a little big. I have the back done up to the armholes compliments of hang out time on Mother's day.

Items I've managed to finish -
Sweater for Alpaca with a Twist (sorry forgot to take a picture before shipping it off).
Last February's sock, pattern is Hellen's Socks, yarn is from Live On.


Track meets have been good for knitting time. Got a dishcloth done for the kitchen supply cabinet and finished sock one 'Little Sky Sock' in Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters. Need to make the pair to this guy to figure out a couple of things I did wrong on the first sock.

Knitting goals for the summer are to work my way through the remaining socks in Cat's book, try a mobieus scarf, finish a few UFOs and hopefully add a couple of designs to the Etsy store. I better go get busy.

Holy Moly

I finished my Holy Moly Bolero. Now working on the same pattern in a smaller size for daughter number 1. Used yarn that has been in the stash for at least 20 years. Pattern came from December 07 issue of Knit N Style. Made my sleeves 3/4 length instead of long. Daughter is talking about short sleeves for hers.


In case any of my knitting buddies visit...I did not attend the knitting circle tonight because I am fighting a cold. Thought we would all appreciate me sharing my knitting via my blog and keeping my germs to myself. Hope to see you all next week.

Yarn Swift

Yarn swift is done. This was one adventure I don't think he wants to repeat. He just finished a mini niddy noddy that turned out really nice. I want to put a finish on it and add a cool pin to hold the one end before I share pictures.