Livin' La Needle Loca

...for your Halloween reading. For the most part, I had a normal childhood. We kids went to school, our dad worked, and our mom stayed home. We ate dinner together every night and got together with our relatives for major events. Nothing too remarkable, except that major movies, and get a relative to take our little brother or take him with her (one kid was easier to handle than three). Now this was the early 60s: you could leave kids at the movies then. And anyone could sit through a bunch of matinée movies without getting kicked out of the theater. That's when I fell in love with horror movies; I couldn't get enough of them! Maybe it was being exposed to death and funerals at an early age, but I found them only a little scary, but wonderfully entertaining. (And, no, I didn't have nightmares after them...) We saw a "Brides of Dracula" and "The Leech Woman" double feature; and repeats of the Creature from the Black Lagoon movies and "Bride of Fr...

...lately it's been all about knitting and spinning. My quilting (and other crafts) have been neglected. Occasionally, I'll pick up a cross stitch piece, but it no longer has the allure that it once did. My quilting mojo was jump-started by Pacific international Quilt Festival. I had all that wonderful Christmas fabric calling my name and I succumbed on Saturday. I had a pretty good Idea what I wanted to do with it. (Pattern? I don't need no stinkin' pattern!) This is what I accomplished on Saturday afternoon: I want to add one more border to make this wall hanging just a little bigger. However, I did not have enough of the color I want to use. So, that meant a quick trip to Eddie's Quilting Bee on Sunday. While it was nice to visit their new store, they didn't have much n the way of Christmas fabrics. Rats! Guess I'll have to make a midweek trip to The Granary (that will break my heart...LOL!) If they don't have what I want, then it's on-line shop...

...can you believe that November starts next Thursday?! Neither can I! Rounding out our guava experience of the week, here are yellow cherry guavas: And for you flower lovers, alstroemeria from a purchased bouquet. I bought the bouquet to decorate our dinner table last night. We had a wonderful visit with my high school friend Jane and her husband Gordon. They've never been here before, so we gave them a tour of the house and the garden. And of course, I had to show her some of my stash and my spinning wheel, Sirena. I demonstrated spinning on the wheel and showed off my handspun yarn. Jane brought her daughter's wedding album to share—they had a stellar photographer and the album was gorgeous (as was the bride!). We spent some time going through a few of my old pictures, talked about where we used to live, and (of course) our daughters. For dinner, we got take-out from the Country Gourmet so we could enjoy our conversation. (I love Country Gourmet, but it's always really ...

. ..since I have no visible progress on my current projects. Oh, I've made progress; it's just that things don't look drastically different from the last pictures I posted. Instead, here is a small part of our feijoa (pineapple guava) harvest...on the tree: and a closer look: Tomorrow, my friend Jane will be here for a short visit, so I have to get ready for that. But, I'll be back for Eye Candy Friday!

...I had my whole weekend mapped out. First I was going to get my house cleaned, organize my craft room and then do some spinning. Saturday, I woke up at 5:30am feeling a bit stuffed up. This was not a big deal, it just meant I was uncomfortable lying down. I did a little reading and it was OK. Since I needed to come up with better storage for my growing fiber stash, I went to the Container store and bought a few zippered fabric container. The longer I staying in the store, the worse I felt. After I bought my containers, I went to Borders to look for something to read...I started feeling achy and my stomach was upset. I headed home and had some soup, and some Airborne. I spent the rest of the day on the couch eating crackers and drinking carbonated stuff to try and settle my stomach. I was able to get some knitting done in the afternoon, but most of my Saturday plans went out the window. Sunday I felt somewhat better. The Husband left for a long bike ride and I knew this would be my ...

...because showing you pictures of my knitting is kind of boring at this point! Instead you get to see flowers and fruit. Freesias from our front yard: Purple salvia in our back yard: Remember the Pomegranate blossoms I showed you in June ? Here are pictures of the fruit: Our little pomegranate tree did itself proud this year! As for my knitting, I am making progress. I started the heels for the Poppy socks and my Blue Moon project is coming along. They just don't look significantly different than the last pictures I posted! Anyway, my plan this weekend is to clean my house and do a big of organization in my craft room. I'm getting overrun with spinning fiber and need to figure out a better way to store it. Once that's done, I want to spin a bit more of the Merino-Bombyx roving and get started on one of my quilting projects. All I need is about another 8 hours in the day...then I might have enough time to work on my projects!

...you'd be right! I'm still working on the cuffs for the Poppy socks . Very sloooowwww progress! I'm trying to work on my Blue Moon experiment project, too. (Not much progress there either.} I've also been editing and adding photos to my vacation set on Flickr. Here's one that I added today: This is the Husband taking one of the Cosmic Galaxy Egg pictures at the American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM). (Yes, we did visit other places, but the AVAM pictures are the most intriguing!) That's all I've got right now...at least this isn't a picture-less post! I wish there were more hours in a day; I need more time so I can finish something!