All things proper

My husband and I have had the same USA flag flying from the front of our home for the past eight years. She has been beaten by the wind, rained on, suffered the effect of a deep freeze last winter, and one year, was even misted with a few snowflakes. We should have brought her in so the elements wouldn't take its toll, but I love having our nation's flag flying in front of our home. A few days ago, I noticed some pretty rough damage and her colors are long since faded. I will never disrespect all that those stars and stripes stand for, so I removed my tattered flag from her mount, and began looking into the respectful way to dispose of it. I found this website that tells you you can burn it. I knew that's how it was done, but wasn't sure if it was okay to do it ourselves. Apparently, it's fine to do it yourself, so tonight, Chris will prepare a fire in our fire pit, and we will ceremoniously dispose of her properly. And sometime within the next few days, I will go purchase another one.

 

One of the things I love doing is extending my decorating beyond the inside of our home, and creating another 'room' out of our front porch. We don't have a particularly large area, but I love for it to appear as inviting and relaxing as the inside. I do that mostly by changing my plants/flowers, and my wreath on the front door. This year, as I think I already posted about it, instead of a wreath, I did a hanging basket of fall foliage. My husband sent me to our local Home Depot yesterday to pick up some more paint (we're re-doing our master bedroom), and they must see me coming when the seasons change. This was sitting right by the entrance, and how could I resist? Just too adorable!!! I had been wanting to get some mums anyway, and I love this color, so it was perfect!

 

 

It's supposed to be fairly warm here in northern Calif. for the weekend, but beginning on Tuesday, the forecast is for more fall-like weather, with possible showers on Wednesday even. We will take whatever we can get as our state is so dry. It might mean the delay of having our new carpet installed in our bedroom, but I'm okay with that. I want to take my time to do it right, and it gives me a chance to shop for the new decor I want in there. We have even properly prepped our floor by painting it with a couple of coats of 'Kilz'. Since we have dogs, we don't want to take any chances of having them 'mark' the new carpet (previous owners had dogs that marked in that room), so by painting the floor (concrete slab), we're told that should take care of it. We spent the day yesterday painting the walls, and will do any final touch-ups today, once Chris returns from target practice with his buddies this afternoon.

 

 

In spite of helping with the painting, running errands, and still preparing our meals in between, I have managed to get a fair amount of knitting done. I'm now more than halfway with the baby blanket I'm knitting for charity, which is also our October challenge with the guild I belong to. I'm so pleased with it, and hope it keeps a tiny newborn toasty warm!! I'm hoping to get it finished this weekend, so I can get back to my cardigan. I'm so close to being finished with that as well, just in time for cooler weather!

 

 

Just as I'm nearing the finish line with this blanket, my brother in Alabama contacts me and requests a new scarf done in Marine colors of gold and red. He is very proud of the fact that he's a Marine (once a Marine always a Marine), albeit retired. Thank goodness he didn't put a time deadline on it! Nonetheless, I will go shopping for the yarn in those colors this coming week, pick out the pattern, and of course, since it's my brother, I'll get started on it right away. Right away after my cardigan! Actually, his scarf can be my on-the-go project for a while.

My friend Kathy, has started knitting her first pair of socks. I'm so proud of her!!! She made the mistake of using a waste yarn too close to the same color as her yarn for the socks, when she put in her lifeline for the afterthought heels. Since I have an awesome lighted magnifier (a Dazor lamp), I offered to bring her sock home to pick up her heel stitches now that she's ready to knit the heel. It wasn't too bad, but I did have to just pull the lifeline out a little at a time and then pick up the stitches it left behind. Eventually, I got them all set up on her needles though, and now she can finish up her first sock! Huzzah!!!

 

I've only been getting in a little spinning right before bed this past week. Which is nice since it's so relaxing and calming. I did go buy a scale so I could weigh the alpaca roving I'm spinning and it turns out, the bag was mismarked with the weight. Just to refresh, the weight was supposed to be 5.3 ounces, but when I weighed it on our new scale, it was still weighing at 5.3 ounces, and that's after I know I have already spun at least an ounce. My bobbin is about 3/4 full, so now that means I'm going to have to try to just eyeball it to see if I can get close to the same amount on each bobbin. It's not the end of the world if I don't, but it's always nice to have close to the same amount on each when you go to ply. Oh well, now with my new scale, it will hopefully take the guess work out of it for future spinning.

 

My hubby has promised to get the rest of my Fall decorations down from our upstairs, so I'm going to spend the rest of my day switching out my decor to prepare for the upcoming holidays. Life is good!! :)