Sunshine

 It was sunny most of today.  That didn't help warm up the world, we topped out at 9 degrees, but I appreciated the sunshine.  I also noticed that the sun is moving every so slowly back to the north to shine on the birdfeeders which made lovely navy blue shadows on the fresh white snow.  Still no birds or squirrels so the snow is untracked.

 

This afternoon I weighed the yarn remaining in the skein and realized that I was going to run out of yarn before I ran out of hat to knit so I pulled out the needles and turned the hat back into a ball of yarn.  Which meant all of the knitting I did yesterday and last night was for naught. *sigh*  Not exactly what I planned.  But by re-knitting the same yarn I halve the price of it so I'm getting more fun for half as much money.

So I went onto Ravelry, the fiber website, to find a hat pattern that uses the same yarn but needs less.  I found the Snow Day hat which uses the same size yarn, the same size needles, and even the same number of stitches to start, but has a shallower brim so I'll have enough yarn in this skein for the whole hat.  Hooray!

06 February--Barbara Malcolm, The Seaview. 

The day wore on with a lot of trips upstairs and down.  I finished all the linens and the curtains.  I set up the iron and ironing board in one of the bedrooms and spent the rest of the morning pressing and hanging curtains.  The sun streaming through them and the soft breeze lifting them made the rooms look just like I had imagined.  I had made some extra pillowcases with designs on them using all five of the colors so that each room, while it had its own personality, looked like a part of the whole. 

In the very back of the cargo container were four boxes with little things that I had gotten to make the place not look like it had come from a catalog fully formed.  I did not want it to look like I had ordered the “Caribbean B & B” package from Bed Bath and Beyond, so I had combed thrift stores and antique shops for items that fit the place but looked a bit, well, a bit eclectic.  I had wooden kitchen tools, old bowls, and some Victorian looking iron pieces, some broken pieces of old garden art, and a lot of old glassware.  It had been hard not to buy a lot of old textiles to hang on the walls as art but I wanted things that I could take down and wash. 

I didn’t want to find black spots of mildew behind picture frames, so I had Silas and Iggy and Will driving nails and putting in wall anchors to hold the metal and wood things I wanted to use for art on my walls. 

You should have heard them complain.  “We have just managed to get these walls fixed and now you want me to drill huge holes in them so you can hang broken metal?” 

Iggy did not appreciate my approach to decorating.  I put my hand over his as he brandished the hammer at me.  “Yes, Iggy, I want holes, nice tidy holes with nice sturdy wall anchors in them to hold things up.  I want to enhance your beautiful walls not damage them.” 

He grumbled but turned and started drilling.  Silas did not say anything.  He and Will spent the day working on the old counter where guests would check in.  They repaired a few of the boards that made up the tiny rank of pigeonholes for the room keys and they nailed up pieces of our reclaimed wood on the outer side of the desk so that it showed all the colors.  It was gorgeous. 

In the afternoon I moved downstairs and started putting my own apartment together.  It was such a pleasure to work in the bright rooms, setting up the bed, unpacking the IKEA furniture I had bought for dressers and in my small sitting room.  I lined all the drawers with cedar so that the bugs would stay away, and I put down rag rugs made with old denim blue jeans on the repaired floors.  Silas and Edward had used Tung oil on all the floors and they just gleamed.  I was trusting Iggy that the oil was the answer to keeping the wood in good shape.  We had sure used enough of it. 

Today's toss was another couple dresses that are too big.  I'm wearing one of the flannel ones and, while it is comfy, I don't think it looks good.  I'd rather be wearing some of my new jeans which show off my new sveltness.

The prompt today said that you get caught on public transportation without a ticket, how do you stay on?  Good grief, these are the worst prompts I've ever met.  They're too specific, they don't leave room for creativity.  *flings up hands*

--Barbara