Author: 459856pwpadmin

This morning I was working in the garden early, and I got another flower bed cleaned out and a few annuals planted.  It is late to still be doing this, but I never planned to put myself on a strict schedule.

 One small thing that brought a smile to my face was this single poppy.  We had a good hard frost two weeks ago and the poppies shriveled up, except for this one bud.  It stood tall while the leaves all around it wilted and turned black as did all its neighbors.  I am sure there is a lesson in that.

 My stepson was here for a few days and we had a lovely visit.  He came bearing good humor and gifts and we enjoyed the time spent with him immensely.

I got this little device to hang one's purse off a table, shown here on the sewing table with the strap from a knitting bag.  This looks really convenient and I hope it lives up to its promise, although i've already used it for said knitting bag, while knitting in the evening.  It is a great improvement as I can keep the ball of yarn in the bag, rather than in my lap where little kitty claws keep sneaking up trying to snag the yarn and make off with it, little kitty claws that far to often snag me as well as the yarn.

 I also got a knitting book,  Reversible Knitting, which I had been quite curious about for some time, and I've enjoyed looking through it.  I like the pages about different knitting stitches and am quite intrigued by some of the patterns.  I can definitely see myself making some of them up.  If you are on Ravelry, you can see some of the patterns here, although several of the patterns I love, like the double-knit vest and Teva Durham's Geometric Dress are not on Ravelry.   Of the other patterns it seems some of the things I find the most intriguing are the least popular — go figure.

But really the best gift of all, aside from the company, was time to myself.  A and his Dad went out for an afternoon and left me home alone.  I was thrilled.  

There are so many things I feel behind on that I was tempted to play catch up with various projects.  But I didn't, or at least not entirely.  I spent a couple of hours in the sewing room, getting the lining cut out for my skirt, finishing up the marking, and applying the interfacing so that now I can just sit and sew as I get the opportunity.  I also sat and knitted a little bit, working out the details on the shaping of a sweater, something that takes more attention than I have had available in my knitting time of late.

 But I did work on other projects as well just because there is so much that is in process and unfinished.  I realize that I have more things going on than I can finish at once, but I am still dealing with my own frustrations at living in this constant transitional state.  I feel like all my ragged edges are showing, so I worked in the garden, cutting down and ripping out many overgrown shrubs and vines and maple seedlings that were all trying to make their homes in inappropriate locations. 

Then I came inside.  Rather than plunging right into projects, I sat and just enjoyed the silence for a while.  You know there are different kinds of silence and the silence of  house containing only yourself is different than a silent house with two occupants.  I needed those few minutes to just catch my breath and feel the silence.  

Only after those few peaceful moments where my mind relaxed could I address some of the little details of the rearranged living room: rehanging paintings, positioning vases and lamps — although I am not completely happy with the lamps and might replace them — and slipping foam pipe insulation around the edges of the glass coffee table.  G keeps running into the coffee table because he can't see it and forgets that it is there.  His legs are all battered and bruised but he likes this table and refuses to replace it with something he can see.  I thought this might be a solution for now, and it looks better than I had anticipated.  

I really had no intention of shopping last week.  Well I had no intention of shopping except for the aforementioned pearls.

It didn't quite work out that way.  I just happened on a few perfect things.  One of those things was a leopard-spotted coat.  Actually there were two leopard-spotted coats but that is a story which will have to be continued another time.  The coats are not interchangeable.

 My fate was sealed, if not the moment I saw this coat on the sale rack, then the moment I tried it on.

Truthfully, it is not a coat that I would immediately say is "my style" and yet it is.  G loved it at first until he saw the other coat.  And I loved both, and came back for this one the next day, determined that I would not turn down something so perfect just because it did not quite fit someone else's vision of me.  If I have learned anything it is to stop giving in to other people's expectations just because it is easier than standing up for myself.  It isn't easier, not in the long run.

 I wore the coat out for dinner Friday night to celebrate G's birthday.  By then he had forgotten that there were two coats.  Since the "coat" is silk with a silk lining, it can work as either a dress or a coat, and I opted for the dress option Friday night.

Unfortunately the late afternoon light is brutal at our house and the choices tend to be either glare or deep shadow.  I had to manipulate the light in this photo in an attempt to see some of the detail.  I think you can see the bubble hem and the bit of ruching on the sleeves.  The front edge of the collar is also wired so it can be scrunched and manipulated.  

Note how nicely the coat/dress goes with my new necklace as well.

I think this will be fabulous over a sleeveless dress with a bit of a pencil skirt, but unfortunately my skirts are all too big at the moment so I can't demonstrate.  It should also shine over narrow pants or with boots come fall.

A  package arrived on Thursday, a serendipitous collaboration brought about by the wonders of the internet.

On May 11, Duchesse, who writes the fabulous blog Passage des Perles,  had written about a fabulous strand of Keishi pearls she had seen at Kojima Pearl, and had ordered, having them strung with some silver Balinese box beads.  Unfortunately the necklace was too short for her and she had to return it.

As it happened, I too had seen those same pearls on the Kojima site and had fretted over them.  I really wasn't sure what to do with flat stacked pearls of this type, but I was fascinated by them.  While I pondered, Duchesse bit and collaborated with Sarah Canizzaro at Kojima to create a necklace.  A necklace which just happens to be the length I have discovered is perfect for me — 17".  

I contacted Duchesse, and Kojima Pearl, and I waited.  Thursday I practically ripped the package open as soon as I returned home from the post office.  The pearls, and the necklace, are as stunning as I had hoped.  

 I wore them Friday with a simple tee shirt and skirt, and again out to dinner Friday night.   To my delight, they coordinated perfectly with a pair of brushed platinum earrings with tiny diamonds that I had worn frequently when working but which did not seem to fit into my more casual current lifestyle:  too formal for every day and not formal enough for evening.  Yet with this pearl necklace they are perfect.

This past weekend we attended the last concert of this year's chamber music circle and it was both fabulous and disappointing.  I realized as I was driving home that I haven't written about any of these concerts this year, and it is mostly because of this good/bad dichotomy which I have been feeling in relation to this series.

The musicians were fabulous (The Daedalus Quartet), the program gorgeous (Mozart, Brahms, Dillon) and yet the whole thing seemed over-amplified and it truly distracted from the sound.  With the Mozart it was not so much the volume, although that has often been a problem, but the way the amplification muddied the sound, muting the clarity that should have been there.  I must admit I didn't notice as much in the Dillon, but I am not as familiar with Dillon, and the music was at times much more spare.

The Brahms really got to me though.  We listened to the Piano Quintet in F minor, Op 34, and as I mentioned the performance seemed fabulous.  But the piano was overpowering, deafening really, as were the combination of the strings with the piano.  This is a very small hall, seating around 100, with lovely acoustics on its own.  There is no need for amplification, in fact the amplification works against the music.

And yet no one seems to notice or say anything.  I really don't know any of the board members, and I do wonder if it is just me, although G notices the same thing so probably not.  I think I shall have to inquire at the board meeting next month.  I hope I'm not just becoming one of those grumpy old ladies who complains about everything.  I would expect the volume and the amplification at a rock concert but not with a string quartet.

I think I've had it.  I've reached the end of my rope and things have to change.  I can't live like this anymore.

Not to worry.  I'm talking about the electrical wiring in my house.

There are times when I think there was no zoning enforcement when this house was built.  I don't know if there were no laws, or if it was just that no one enforced them.  But I do know that I have needed to do something about the wiring for some time.

Since we moved here we have had electrical work done, and probably not always by the best person, but I was young and I learned as I went along.  I do know that an electrician did not have to be licensed to work in this town until fairly recently so there were all kinds of electricians running around the county who could work here but not there and so forth and so on.  Some of them of have worked on my house.  Hell, some of them probably worked on this house when it was being built.

But back to the issue at hand.  I am tired of something going bad, needing repair, and then finding out that the whole things is crazy wrong and needs redoing.  Now it has taken me a while to find an electrician I trust, who will come back to the house, and is willing to take on the job, because, as I said, although the house is not THAT old (it was built in the 60's) it is the kind of house in which almost every job is complicated.  And I'm just plain old tired of "complicated".  

I left the skirt fabric out on the cutting table for a while so I could play with different placement options for aligning the print and laying out the pieces.  I am not sure I am completely happy with what I have, but it did seem to be the best option at the time, after several hours, spent in small increments, moving the pieces around on the fabric.  After I get the skirt basted together I'll see what I think and then decide if I need to cut the back again, or if this will work.  Luckily I have fabric and time.

Otherwise, progress came to a standstill right after the skirt pieces were cut and marked.  I prefer to get the cutting done before I start sewing, but the lining will not take long.  I can probably get to that by Monday as the weekend is completely filled, although I may break down and sneak off for a little cutting therapy, or even hand-basting therapy.

In the meantime, many things that have been in the negotiation and planning stages for months are suddenly moving forward and I am busy and there is much piling up.  Would I have preferred that some of these things happened sooner? of course.  But it is what it is.  

I am still catching up with the garden, and waiting for some plans and estimates to come back from the landscape designer.  I am behind on my work, but other projects and the weather have not always been cooperative.  Whatever happens I am way ahead of anything I accomplished over the prior three years. 

The lights went out in my sewing room.  It was not a circuit problem but a wiring problem, and although I temporarily have light again, that circuit has to be completely rewired as does the entire electrical panel.  I knew this would have to be addressed eventually;  the problem was finding an electrician willing and able to do it.  Admittedly however, I would have preferred that it not happen right now, when so much else is going on.  My goal remains reaching a point in our lives where we are not reacting to one problem or another and things just work smoothly.  I do actually think I see this place on the horizon, and that is a huge step ahead of where I was not so very long ago. 

At the moment, I think I can just relax and enjoy this brief period of calm before the next flurry of activity.