Thursday, June 28, 2012

Mini Vacay!


We took a mini-vacation this past weekend, which was WONDERFUL! We only went about an hour away from our house to crash/house-sit at my parents’ house while they were away. So, while we were a mere hour away from our apartment and staying in my old home, we reasoned that it’s a vacation as long as you don’t have any major responsibilities and you aren’t sleeping under your own roof.

We got to relax, hang out with high school friends (we’re from the same town), and I cleared out my old room. That’s right, I went through the last boxes of my high school things and sorted it all out into four piles: Things to Keep, Things to Goodwill, Trash, and Not Quite Sure. The Not Quite Sure pile included two porcelain dolls and some kid crafting kits that I tried, but failed, to rationalize a value for in my current life. This pile I left in my old closet to keep my sister’s items company. I hauled the Trash pile off to the dump and I took a variety of things to Goodwill this past Monday. I must admit, though, that I did consider leaving my parents a note saying that they could take the items to Goodwill, but thought better of it and just did it myself. Phew, my mom has been nagging me about doing this for THREE years and it is FINALLY done. I must admit that I was a little surprised when all was said and done about just how easy it was to sort and throw stuff away.

While my fiancĂ©, James, and our close friend played Team Fortress 2 (TF2) and talked games I relaxed and worked on my Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick Winter Set. To provide a little bit of background, I purchased two balls of Wool-Ease Thick and Quick on a Black Friday sale in 2008, one Charcoal and one Navy. It was long past time for this yarn to make its way out of my yarn stash, and I needed a quick project to get the “yay, I’ve completed something” feeling to help me keep going on my mom’s sweater (which only needs sleeves and finishing touches). I started it Tuesday June 19 by chaining on for a pair of cottage slipper socks. I did need to purchase one additional skein of Charcoal to ensure that my socks would match! These are my first handmade socks period. I’ve never made socks before and I’ve never been given socks. They are worked top down with a ribbed cuff at the top. So my socks have Navy ribbing with a Charcoal body. In order to use up the now leftover yarn, most of a skein of navy and about a third of the Charcoal, I made a matching cowl and wrister set alternating the body and edging colors. Since I had the most Navy left, the cowl is Navy with Charcoal edging and the wristers are Charcoal with Navy edging. I am so excited about this set, even if I can’t wear them until this next winter.




While rooting through my mom’s craft/book closet I found a piece of cross stitch that my mom did commemorating her marriage to my father.



I’m going to frame it and present it to them for their upcoming (19th) Wedding Anniversary. Or, maybe, I’ll hold onto it for a year, make an appropriate and complimentary gift and present both items to them for their 20th Wedding Anniversary. I feel like that might be more appropriate just because people always make a bigger deal about round anniversaries than just the fact that you made it another year.

I don’t know if you are aware of the old trend of dressing ornamental stone geese in absurd outfits, the trend never really made it down as far south as Virginia, though I believe some Florida residents have a thing about dressing stone manatees. There was a time, however, when it seemed like every house in Ohio had one of these geese and they changed their clothes regularly. My grandmother gave my parents one of these stone geese years and years ago, and for a while my siblings and I would change its clothes regularly with the season, or when we felt like it. Over the last several years though it hasn’t been changed at all and the clothes were looking a little… gross. I mean, this sits outside in all sorts of Virginia weather and in the middle of the woods. So, James and I decided to change her into a sunflower print bikini that was appropriate to the hot weather we’ve been experiencing. We also put on a little black hat to serve as a sunhat for lack of more appropriate attire. Perhaps this is another thing that I will need to craft for…


All in all we had a great, relaxing weekend, until we went to pack the car and we couldn’t find Trousers. We have two cats, Trousers, a three year old grey tabby, and Harlequin, a two year old calico. We tease that they are His and Her cats because He likes James best, and She likes Me best. We took them with us mostly because our apartment has no A/C and the forecast was quite hot for the weekend. Plus, it was only an hour in the car with whining cats, right?



But anyway, we looked everywhere we could think to look in the house, under the couch (which wasn’t even pushed up against the wall the cats spent so much time under it), behind furniture, in piles of stuff, in closed rooms, and nothing. We searched the house until James took it into his head that he must have accidently let Trousers out when he was coming and going. So, we searched the woods around the house to no avail.

I must admit that I had, at this point, two conflicting ideas about where Trousers was. On the one hand, I firmly believed that really he was still somewhere inside the house, maybe in cat space [link to article?], but in the house none-the-less. The second thought was that if he had indeed gotten outside that he must surely have been found by a larger animal and we would be lucky to find his remains. I mean, in all honesty there aren’t many bear sightings in that particular neighborhood, but there are occasional sightings. Not a pleasant thought.

I was on the verge on going into to town to get more cat food to tempt the wayward cat back, when I did a sweep of the house to make sure we knew where Harley was since James had picked her up and chased her around and out of her easy hiding spot (under the couch). Apparently when James chased Harley around the house it roused Trousers in a way that all the calling and searching we did couldn’t do, because when I turned into the dining room there the stupidly, wonderful, jackass of a cat sat blinkingly under the ironing board as if he just woke up from a long and refreshing nap. I don’t know exactly where he had been hiding, but I snatched him up and James likes to tease that I cried into Trousers’ fur, which simply isn’t true… though, I do admit to being misty eyed.

We promptly shoved both unwilling cats into their carriers, packed the car and headed home only an hour behind schedule. Luckily, we didn’t have any plans or commitments so this was less stressful than if we were on a tight schedule. And honestly, we weren’t going anywhere without both cats in the car with us, and since they’ve both been found it’s all good.

This past week, since we’ve been home, I’ve been busy trying out different Pinterest pins, mostly cooking. I’m preparing to report back on those various attempts in the near future, but for now I am going to run and get everything done for the evening. James decided that we should have a Romantic Comedy Evening and curl up with a movie tonight. I have an Awesome fiancĂ©.

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