The Blues?

Again I have to start by saying that's been a long time since I've blogged. I hope that this hasn't made you too blue. But we've been totally caught up in our new house and all the things that goes along with it. We kind of forgot that having a house equals a lot of chores. Todd has totally been into the lawn and all the other chores that go with the yard. He loves, loves, loves riding his new mower around the yard. In fact, when Todd gets the blues - he jumps on the mower and about 2 hours later (we have a big yard) he comes back covered in grass and is in a much better mood.
Here are a couple of photos of his maiden voyage around the yard:

The funny part of this photo that is not obvious to the casual observer is that Todd has the mower running - but it took a couple of minutes before he figured out how to make it go forward because for shipping they had disconnected the transmission. It was a couple of tense minutes before he was off and running!

But now he is a pro - taking corners like he is on rails.

Of course these pictures are before he put the grass catcher on the back of the tractor. Now it looks like the yard has been freshly vacuumed every time he mows. Now, if I can just get him to ride the vacuum in the house we'd be set!

One thing about the yard that is helping me not be blue are the lilac bushes. They are so gorgeous and the fragrance is so thick that the moment you go to the back yard, that's all you can smell. It's so summery!! I wish that I could bottle it or make one of those scratch and sniffs. I'll give it a try - go ahead and scratch the screen to see if it worked.....well? ....No...too bad because you don't know what you are missing. I couldn't resist so I had to cut some and bring the smell into the house too. I can't share the smell but I can at least show you what I'm talking about:








Gorgeous!!!!

Believe it or not, but I have been knitting a little bit since we talked last. At first, I got the bug to knit, but of course I need a project before I can get going. So I had a sock book that said that I could use any yarn and they could make a sock that I am truly happy with. One sock always is different than the other and neither ever fit like a glove (well maybe that's the problem since I'm making socks not gloves). So...anyway, I thought that I'd give it another try. So off I went down the road to sock town. As I am happily knitting feeling like I'm finally going to conquer my sock dilemma, Todd keeps giving me the look as if he knows not to say anything but also knows that something just isn't right with this sock. Finally, when I was down to the toe - he asks if I am making a sock for a club foot. I ask him what he is talking about and then he asks me to put it on. And he's right - it's huge!!! If I had a club foot, it would fit - but a normal size foot - not. I think that George could use it as a blanket it is so big. So while he was napping, I tried it out:
Yup, it's a club foot blankee for George. Needless to say it is going to remain a single. George has fur anyway is not really in need of covers. Although I would say that he does look pretty cute!!

So after the club foot sock, I decided to make a baby outfit for my girlfriend who is due in September. She had said that she wasn't going to find out the sex of the baby before - so I went and made one in cream, then on the last button hole - I messed up and put it on the wrong side of the sweater. Although I'm sure that the baby would never notice, it just would not do at all. Plus I decided that it didn't take me any time at all to make so would knock out another one. Except, I didn't have enough yarn - so I decided this time that I would make yellow. Is yellow a neutral baby color? Hmmmmm.....I'm unsure. So I decided to start making a blanket. I got one square done when I got the phone call from my girl friend - yup, you got it - she's having a boy! I'm so happy for her, but I was not feeling the yellow so back to the yarn store I went. This time - baby blue was my goal. At least no one would ask her if it was a boy or a girl - right? So...I finally finished it. Take a look:

The pattern came from my MIL - she always has the best patterns. It is so fun with all the yarn overs and knit togethers. Looking at the photo now, the little buttons I put on look like they are staring at me. Take a closer look:

I need to go back to the yarn store because I only bought 4 buttons and I really need 5. I know that no one ever buttons the top button - but just in case that's the new style, I'll fill in the gap.

George Update: George has a new house arrest device to keep him from escaping. Yes, he has a harness. He thinks that he is a dog anyway, so I thought what the heck. I just wanted him to be able to up on the deck with us without going to the edge jumping off and running (well jogging) into the neighbor's yard. So without further ado, here is George in his new prisoner garb:

Todd thinks that George looks humiliated. But I disagree. In this picture, he is actually wagging his tail (again he thinks he's a dog) as he looks over the edge of the deck. It took a while for George to get the hang of not being able to go where ever he wanted. Here he is testing the waters:

Now George isn't exactly like a dog. He doesn't exactly walk along with you. Instead when pushed, he just lays down where he is to show you that he is still in charge. But as any good prison guard would do, I just pick him up and take him where I want him to go. Also, I am going to go buy one of this retractable dog leases because this one is made out of ribbon yarn (well it was in my stash and I thought it was tougher than wool) which George has already made a tooth hole in so it is only a matter of time before he is free!