March Madness

Hi Dear Folk,

Let out one hour early from work today as it is horrendous.  Freezing rain and sleet, it's well below freezing so can only get worse.  But I'm now hauled up with a nice cup of tea, a Mr. B. raisin cookie, he makes the best and Blogging.

So what's going on and what's been running through my mind?  Oh before I forget a message was left an our answering machine from The Boy's old college, saying that he had been awarded an essay award.  Something that he submitted last May and they have just finalized their judging.  His dad phoned him, a $500.00 prize, so that made him happy.  We should be able to see his essay on line at some point.

Some things on my Chinese table.  Said raisin cookie and my find from the thrift, a Grimwalds Royal Winton cup and plate set, isn't it lovely, just the one little set was waiting for me, flowers in the cup are so nice. Another thrifted item was the tea tray from a charity shop at Newmarket, UK, just love those little birds.

I have finished the length on my shawl, I was going to use up all my yarn, but I think it would just be too long, and I still have to do the edging.  So with the four balls of yarn left over, I am crocheting a matching Tammy.

I love this tea catalog that comes in the mail.  If you live in the USA you will find it such fun to receive and read.

I was going to crochet myself a crochet needle holder, but when I saw this at the thrift for 0.99 cents, why invent the wheel.  It looks brand new.  It probably is for knitting needles but works fine.  It has a paisley pattern on the outside, see it on the table in the above photos.

Here I caught the sun on Saturday.

I couldn't resist this tin joining all of you in the quintessential British understatement.  Plus there was some good tea in it.  For the moment it stands beside my Raj Elephant photo frame and that seems quite the right spot for it.

Another little find 0.50 cents, I loved it as soon as I saw it, and knew it was coming home with me.  I looked it up and it is worth $50.00 round about, so not bad.  Must be Huck Finn with his dog.

This came home with me too, just thinking of summer camping trips.

And I haven't seen any of these yet in my garden, because they are all buried under the snow.  Probably I haven't looked enough.  I feel like Tupp she sticks her head out of the door, turns around abruptly and runs right back into the house.

You can just see a glimpse of the patchwork quilt my friend gave me from her aunt's house clearance, it was just laying on the floor, and I said I'll take it and give it some TLC.  I'm sure it's made out of mens' old suit material.  I washed it, it was very dirty and now it sits on my sofa, just the right tones.  I still need to redo the edge, but that's all tucked in for now and you can't see it.

Mr B. and I watched the film "Saving Mr. Banks" which I did enjoy, but when I read up about P. L. Travers, it kind of took away from it.  Her grandchildren who were from her adopted son, said she didn't love anybody and neither was she loved.  Yikes I hope nobody says that about me when I die.

It seems she had the opportunity to adopt twin boys but only wanted one child so just took one, even though she had the finances and the opportunity to have the two brothers and it effected both of them the rest of their lives, both becoming alcoholics which is ironic because that's what her father was.

Childhood events can have such dire consequences.

So what's my next project,  I wanted something fun with a lot of colour and I think I've come across the right crochet pattern, a crochet car coat is what it's called.  But it's made up of lots of crochet squares and rectangles in different sizes, with a few triangles thrown in.  I'm working on choosing my colours.

I came across some yarn which is a wool blend, by Bernat at a reasonable price,  the colour was chartreuse, well that's what I came across in the local shop as a return and they did not have anymore. The original crochet pattern colours show it in very dark navy blue, almost black, colonial blue, dusty blue and lime.  The navy colour in the yarn I've chosen is lighter, so I'm thinking I might change that out for a black. I ordered the balance of the yarn I wanted through mail order.  Unfortunately all was ordered before I came up with the thought of changing out the navy for the black, but have been able to find the black in a local shop, so will run over there and get it when the weather lets up.  They also have a robins egg blue and I'm second guessing myself on the blues.  So when I get them all I will study them and see what blues I do want to go with, the other blues I've ordered are turquoise and teal, and to me the teal is not a true teal, so I think I will have to hold of on judgement until all is in front of me.  There must be enough contrast between the different shades of blue to make this look good and I feel the teal and turquoise are too close in the shade spectrum.

Choosing colours is such fun.  I wanted to make a cardigan, but did not want to stick to one colour and I think this will be a fun project, I hope it all comes together.

I do still have my Japanese flowers to put together into a shawl, so will get onto that first, that will be nice for spring.

We are meant to change the clocks this Saturday and Spring forward, I will be grumpy for a week over this as my body does no springing forward.

Take care keep warm if your up North and cool if your down South.

Christy