Flowery

I slept late this morning. Didn't wake up until almost 9:30am. Of course I stayed up until 12:30am last night so that makes sense. Which explains why I wasn't dressed when the doorbell rang around 11 o'clock. I figured that it was a political canvasser so I didn't hurry to dress. I could pick up the door hanger info card later. But I went out and there was a box from 1-800-Flowers on my porch! I opened it up and there was a bouquet with a Happy Birthday card from DD. What a lovely surprise! There are six roses and a whole load of those Peruvian lilies called Alstromeria. Those last a long time so I'll have pretty flowers for days, maybe a week. Thanks, DD!

When I looked out the window I noticed that there were a couple Dad's roses blooming so I went out to take their picture. I missed the flowers' prime but they're still beautiful and they still smell great, much nicer and rosier than the florist flowers. There's nothing like those old roses for fragrance.

I decided to try my hand at drawing one of the roses in the bouquet this afternoon. It isn't too bad, not the best version of a rose ever but it might be my best stab at one.

Here's the actual finished Red Preemie Hat. I spent a couple minutes this afternoon running yarn through the last stitches on the needles, cinching the top closed, and weaving in the starting and ending tails. Some little brunette baby will look smashing in this hat.

And for a blond baby I cast on this lavender, light blue, white, and green model that's just knit 1, purl 1 ribbing for 30 rounds and then a little decreasing to top it off. I'm calling it the Ribbed Preemie Hat. The pattern calls for casting on 64 stitches which I did and started knitting but it was making a BIG hat, too big for a tiny preemie, so I pulled out the needles and turned it back into just yarn. I looked at the decreases for the top and chose a stitch count of 48 stitches which looks like it'll fit a little head.

I filled the bird feeders yesterday afternoon but no birds showed up today. I know they'll come eventually and make short work of all of the seed and suet but I miss them when they don't come. I know I shouldn't wait so long between fillings if I want them to stick around but I just can't afford to keep buying that much birdseed.

I started listening to the audio files of Open For Business today. I got through the Intro and the first four chapters. I hope to get through the whole book this weekend (including Monday) so that it'll be out there for sale with the rest of them in the next couple weeks. I talked to a Customer Service person at ACX yesterday and asked about ways to advertise my audiobooks. She directed me to a page on their Help site that has some helpful tips but I want a way to make an ad or discount the price for a week to attract listeners and reviews. There's gotta be a way. I have Promo Codes that I'd be happy to share with anyone willing to sign up for a free 30-day trial Audible membership in return for a review or reviews. Email me or respond to this post.

--Barbara