An account of what I have been doing for the past week

We have new pictures of the eight-point buck.  I am beginning to think that perhaps we ought to give him a name. 

This is what he looked like last week.  For comparison, I will post the first picture we took of him a couple weeks ago.  Take a look at the antlers. 

In response to Christine's comment about stitching the red and white band of the stocking cuff, yes, it is very tedious.  I stitched it diagonal 3-stitch row by diagonal 3-stitch row changing the color for each row.  The second time I stitched it below the lettering, it was equally as tedious.  The band with the diamonds and hearts is almost as tedious.  I sincerely hope that once I finish the cuff and get to the main part of the design it will not be tedious and I will enjoy the stitching. 

Unfortunately I have not been able to stitch on the stocking very much this week.  On Friday a week ago, we discovered that we had lost track of two baptisms which were scheduled for last Sunday.  My stitching time this week was devoted to adding the names and dates on those banners and finishing them.  I understand that it may have been fortunate that the banner for one of the families was not ready.  Apparently the older siblings were very sticky from s'mores.  I probably would have spent this past week trying to get the chocolate and sticky off the banner. 

This has been an extremely busy and overloaded week.  One of the major points was loosing power as a result of a tree downed by a very heavy thunderstorm.  It turned out much better than we thought it would.  Power was out for only about 3 hours.  A little earlier that same day, our clothes washer quit working.  I was waiting for it to develop a second problem which would then make it economically feasible to replace it.  Through a series of very fortunate coincidences we were able to get the new one that I wanted and have it delivered the next day.  Laundry went along very well with just a slight delay until the power went out.  We discovered that the other side of the freeway had power so we ordered Chinese take out for dinner. 

Rewards were in order yesterday for having survived an extremely trying week.  We were free yesterday afternoon and I was able to talk Roger into taking me to an estate sale that attracted my fancy.  It was supposed to have sewing and quilting items but I had seen in the online directory of contents pictures of some bowls and a plate.  I fell in love with them.  Realistically I knew the probability of seeing them late in the afternoon of even the first day was going to be slim.  But an hour before the close of the first day of the sale, we were there and so were they.  Not only were they there but the prices were reduced by half because it was late in the day and the people running the sale wanted to clear things out.  When I saw the plate I wanted, I tucked it under my arm while I went around checking everything.  I was willing to leave the set of bowls because I did not want to pay for a set of twelve when I only wanted one.  When I discovered that the prices were reduced, I went back upstairs to claim the bowls; for that price, I felt I could find some place to keep them. 

Here is the plate.  It is lustreware and so it is a little difficult to show it off to you in a picture.  It is not a valuable plate but it is hand painted.  The lavender/orchid band is the color of one of my Siberian irises.  Maybe that is why I fell in love with it. 

Here are three of the twelve bowls.  They are not valuable porcelain but I fell in love with them at first sight of the online picture.  The designs are hand painted and are not transfers.  The bowls have three little feet and you know how much I love plates and bowls with three feet.  I did not know they had three feet until I saw them in person.  We really do not know what one would do with twelve of them.  They are not soup bowls or fruit dishes.  I supposed that they could be used as ice cream bowls but they seem a little large for that.  One of our sons thought they might be finger bowls but they are too big for that.  I really only need one and I could use it as a candy bowl or decorative piece.  I wonder what I can do with eleven more of them.


All of the major highways and freeways we needed to drive the 50 miles to the sale were seriously affected by construction.  There were significant lane closings and traffic restrictions.  Several of the secondary roads we had to travel were also detoured for construction.  In MN, we have two main seasons, nine months of winter and three months of road construction.  That certainly seemed to be true yesterday. 



I did find a book published in the 1980's with some crochet stitches, designs, and patterns.  It is extremely interesting.  It has directions to make the pattern stitch that I have been using to make baby hats.