Happy February!!!!

February already!  Yes, it is still cold and snowy but March is on the way.  I go back to work in March. Happy Days.  Yesterday I vacuumed and mopped the wood floors in the great room.  Everything looks nice.  I even washed Riley's Moo (a cow pillow) which was damaged at Sleepover Camp.He chewed a large hole in Moo's rear end.

Yesterday, I tried stuffing the feet separately (with new stuffing) and stitching them closed on the sewing machine (breaking yet another needle).  I then decided to do the stitching on the rest of the cow, by hand.  I had removed the cheap balled up stuffing before washing and I filled the cow with good stuff and even stitched down the backbone to keep the new stuffing nicely positioned.  Then I stitched the torn and chewed areas along the bottom seam.  Riley watched all these things with extremely close attention.  The cow was then returned to him and he gently licked the cow's face to welcome her back.  And promptly fell asleep with his head on the cow's side.  All's well in Riley's world.

I was watching the TiVo'ed recordings of three hours of the Good Wife and liking the clothing being worn by Diane.  So I jumped up and got my journal and did a few quick sketches of the items I particularly liked. My new Chinese horoscope for the Year of the Dragon (beginning on Feb 4) mentions wearing more black.  It also requests that I do more work facing north.  Guess what?  I am facing north as I type.  And my sewing machine is facing north.  Sounds good to me.  I wonder which way I face at work?

I have received a tall stack of mail from unemployment.  Why can't they send it all in one envelope and save taxpayer money?  The end result is that I must reimburse the state of Maine for the $72 I got for Christmas pay.  Because Sunday was in a different week.  The good news is that I am still getting my benefit checks.  And not in jail.

I finally gave up on the Cuisinart coffeemaker and unplugged it and opened the carton holding the new Krups coffeemaker.  The Cuisinart started out grinding the coffee beans and then brewing the coffee.  Then, after years of this it stopped grinding but would still brew coffee.  It still does that, but now it shuts itself off whenever it feels like it.  Not keeping the coffee hot.  The coffee from the Krups is very tasty.  I'm using Dunkin Donuts Decaf (like I had in Florida--yes!, in the expensive Italian coffeemaker) and it is very tasty.  Doesn't have the creamy top like in Florida, but just as rich and flavorful.

This morning I ordered a black knit dress from Coldwater Creek.  Boatneck with little capped sleeves.  There was a $25 off coupon which just about covered the tax and shipping.  In the end, I saved $10 on the dress. I figure it will be nice to have a "little black dress" in the closet.  I can wear it with a jacket, filmy blouse or sweater.  I can even wear it with pearls.  The "new" Coldwater Creek sizing chart is interesting.  Large is now just 14.  Large used to be 14-16.  Now 16 is XL.  My recently purchased pencil skirt is a 14 so I chose the 14 in the dress as well.  While watching Project Runway last night (recorded) I heard something interesting.  Celebs on the red carpet are usually wearing "double Spanx" under the clothing.  Two pair of Spanx (and I am sure they are not wearing the appropriate size for their weight--going smaller).  I find wearing one pair to be claustrophobic enough.  I'll use my savings of $10 (on the dress) to purchase a pair of control top pantyhose.

As a note:  My custom made wool skirts from the mid 80's have a 31.5 inch waist band.  Which in those days was really large.  Now it's a size 10.  I believe I was wearing a size 12 or 14 then.  (42 and 44 in European sizes)  I know, because I still have the clothing, that everything is pretty small.  I remember feeling really fat back then.  Now, I dream of being that "small" again.

I have a lunch date set up for tomorrow with my walking buddy (and she will pick me up), a movie date with my daughter on Sunday and another lunch date for next week sometime with my library friend. Hello February!!!

More Fiber in 2012

In more ways than one.  Most of my readers got to this blog by way of the Art Quilting Ring button.  So it seems only fair to have Fiber Content here on a more regular basis.  Less talk and more Art.  No, not really.
Same amount of talk as usual with extra art. And one or two prunes with breakfast.

This is the bottom half of my 12 by 20 Metamorphosis piece due on February 12th.  It needs help.  I think I will need to sit and wonder about improvements in the next few days.  The top and bottom parts of the piece are not "playing" well with each other.

Riley is experiencing vacation re entry also, I think.  Perhaps there were things about the Sleepover Camp experience that he really enjoyed more than home.  And there are things he likes, loves, about home which he didn't care for at Sleepover Camp.  He seemed quiet and perhaps a bit sad today, but perked up when I got dressed to walk him.  I think he misses having all the small dogs climbing all over him in the open play area at Sleepover Camp.  That's what happened.

G arrived home after his first day back at work.  All the senior citizens (most of his customer base eats the Dollar Menu) asked him if he's bought a place down in Florida while he was gone.  We did think of looking but waited too long to get started.  Then we were too busy.  A nice condo is available within walking distance of our friend's home.  2 bedroom and 2 baths. We didn't get a chance to go look at it.  Now is the time to buy as everyone is going belly up and the folks who want to buy, can't get a loan.  Yes, that's right.  Lowest mortgage rates in history and no one wants to lend money.  You can get an adjustable rate but not a fixed 30 year loan.  That's Florida.  Even the guy building that huge house next door can't get a fixed loan.

I used the "on special" ground Angus beef ($2.05 per pound) to make an enormous pot of meatballs and red sauce.  They smell wonderful.  G is boiling his Italian pasta and my zucchini julienne is salted and getting limp.  Almost dinner time.  And then a quick trip to Staples for some supplies for G's work.  We have recordings of the fourth episode of Downton Abbey to watch and a mess of Sherlock Holmes. And I am half way through my Swedish mystery.  I never had time to read while I was gone.  Always someone to have a conversation with.  Never talked so much as I did last week.

Feels Good To Be Home

Riley is enjoying his morning, on his bed.  He has even been snoring softly.  I think his dog snores are some of the sweetest sounds, especially today.  Yesterday was a blur.  G and I were both exhausted from the plane rides and then the stuff we needed to do to "get back" into this life.  The grocery store wasn't what I would call "a good time" and it was very expensive to restock the house.  Everything, yesterday, seemed very expensive.  We watched some TiVo and were tucked into bed by 10 pm.

My headache is gone (mostly).  I have almost everything we took on vacation washed, a new battery in the scale (up 3.5 pounds), the floors need a vacuum, the Christmas tree needs to be hauled outside and the bathrooms need a complete scrubbing.  That's my list for the coming week along with shirts to iron.

The 12 by 20 project is being revealed on Feb 12 so I need to work on that.  See how the piece has "aged" as it sat pinned to the design wall while I was away.  I also promised some fabric art pictures to my friend's mom.  I taught her to quilt and she has made more quilts than I could even dream of making.  Now, she wants to see the things I make.  Via, the internet.

G has been on the internet looking at the expensive coffee maker our friends had in Florida.  The coffee was excellent.  One cup at a time.  A refurbished (used) one is "only" $600.  I think they cost several thousand, new.  Another friend has ordered three.  One for each of his houses.  See, we just can't keep up and I don't even want to try.

G is taking a shower and we'll, all three of us, be going out for a walk in the woods when he is done and dressed.  The sun is shining and it's somewhere in the 30's.  Very, very unusual for Maine in late January. February is right on our doorstep.   I need to make a few lunch dates with friends.  My daughter wants us to see a movie together (One For The Money) and we'd like to treat her to a nice dinner for all the driveway shoveling.  February sounds busy already, huh?

I stayed true to the low carb diet while on vacation and didn't eat pizza, French baguette or Italian pasta while everyone around me DID.  I did treat myself to a serving of dark chocolate gelato at the end of a huge party meal on Las Olas Blvd at Cafe Europa.  That was my only splurge.  And it was totally divine. I ventured off the diet to have wonderful grapefruit, honeydew melon and two juicy peaches.  I told everyone to just ignore me and go about ordering what they wanted and enjoyed.  They did.  I ordered what I wanted and we were all happy.  I think the extra pounds are from all the wine and cocktails.  I tried to order mixed drinks that didn't contain too much sugar, but even a little will certainly mess up the Atkins Diet.  Now, I can just resume normal (low carb) eating and move on.  I thought it was going to be impossible to stay on the plan, but it was very easy.

I wrote here that I was saddened and perplexed that no one mentioned my weight loss.  But after reading the comments made by my most thoughtful Readers, I now agree that I am still the Joanne they know and love and that was all that was important about me.  Not my weight.  They were just as kind and sweet to me when I was a size 2X as they were this past week. And my short grey hair was what they spoke of most.  Too short.

I'm Back

A wonderful visit.  So happy I went.  A suntan plus some sun poisoning but no (or not much) sunburn.  Both of us have terrible headaches and I am having some residual "wave" from the boat trip.  I feel like I'm still at sea.  Must be an inner ear thing.

We have no food in the house.  The dog came home just now and wanted a WALK pronto pronto so G has taken him away.  His dog bed is wet so the parts I can wash and dry are in the washer.  My plants have done well in my absence and just needed watering.  I'm hungry.  Must eat something.

I followed my diet as best I could (meat, eggs, cheese, almonds) but there were cocktails served every evening at 5 and lots and lots of very good "table" wine as the Miami wine snob described the bottles. My clothing fits but I fear the scale will report an increase when we replace the battery.  The airplane seat seemed narrower on the return flights.

We went out to eat most days and had some incredibly wonderful food.  I purposely did not take my camera, otherwise there would be boat pictures, food pictures and water view pictures.

The house was magnificent and made the re-entry to my little house here very depressing.  I miss the marble floors, the stairway (marble) to the second floor with balconies, the elevator, the pool and the Italian coffee maker (oh, that was pretty wonderful all on it's own).  I also miss the walk in showers, gorgeous towels and Koehler fixtures.  The kitchen with the huge Wolf restaurant range complete with red knobs.  The freezer drawers and the built in steamer.  Perfectly steamed vegetables.