Why British plugs are better than American ones

Interesting! I never really thought about the differences. I would, however, rather step on an American plug in the middle of the night than a British plug. :)

Last day of June

Hard to believe that July 4 is almost upon us. I must have mentioned before that my absolute favorite holiday of the year is July 4, which puzzles a lot of people, especially those who love Thanksgiving and Christmas with a passion. For me, Independence Day is the perfect holiday -- summer foods like salads and fresh veggies are abundant, parades where you get candy thrown at you, bagpipes, floats, sunshine and warmth ... what's not to love? Plus it's my father's birthday, so we always have a delicious cake to anticipate. July 4 always seems to be gloriously sunny and warm, unlike Thanksgiving and Christmas, which fall at the darkest and most dreary time of year.

This year, O will not be celebrating the 4th with us in Connecticut as we dropped him off at camp yesterday:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375"] I look so much like my paternal grandmother from the side, it's scary![/caption]



This is the second time he's been away to camp, but it's also the longest -- a full week. At this camp, it was the last year where he could go for just a week -- next year, when he's 13, it's a two-week stay (oh, and I hope he wants to go back. The possibility of two weeks of maternal freedom has me almost giddy!) We were lucky in that his best friend since first grade was able to join him (you can see his friend's feet in the bottom photo) because O was not at all enthusiastic about camp until L was able to go. But the night before we left and were packing, O seemed pretty excited, and when we arrived he seemed to hit it off with a couple of the other boys in the cabin. We really liked the two counselors assigned to the cabin, one of whom is a World Cup fan. He told O he would keep him informed of all the scores and plays this week; I, on the other hand, am his Wimbledon contact, although he'll have to wait for my letters to hear how Andy Murray and friends are faring.

When I returned home from dropping him off, my husband predicted I'd be missing O by the end of the evening. He lost. I am enjoying the quiet house immensely! I have, however, already written and posted the world's most boring letter to O. The nice thing about camp is they don't allow campers to bring cell phones and iPads -- instead, communication with parents it through the mail (or, God forbid, an emergency call by one of the counselors).

The camp is in Connecticut, so I'll be heading to my parents' house on the lake Thursday night, spending the 4th with them and celebrating my father's 75th (!!), then picking the boys up early Saturday morning and bringing them over to Grampa and Grandma's. O wants L to meet Carolina, my youngest brother's golden retriever, and show L how he can drive my father's pontoon boat so Saturday will be a busy day. Let's hope the glorious weather holds out!

I do have some finished knitting projects to show but it means dragging my dressform outside for good light. I have some interesting thrift shop finds to show you, including a crocheted blanket that I picked up for $5. I've also returned to biking on my two-wheeler and this week alone biked 55 miles. On Saturday I did a 30-mile trip to Cambridge and back:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"] View of the Charles, June 28, 2014[/caption]

I was beat that night and suffered a nasty headache and sunburn on my lower thighs, but I was proud that I made it, especially since just six months ago I was struggling to stand up without yelping in pain. :)

My goal this summer is to re-read all of Jane Austen's novels. The first I'm tackling is Mansfield Park, which I'm enjoying immensely. I forgot how decisive Austen was in drawing these characters; her touch here was not as deft as say in Pride and Prejudice. Fanny Price's goodness can be a bit tiresome, but I'm still enjoying the re-read and noticing things I didn't get the first time around.

TGIJ!

And yes! Spring is finally here in New England. :) Some years I can start my garden in early May, but it was fairly cold here right up until Memorial Day. This week the temps are in the 70s and 80s, so maybe we'll just go straight into summer ... which is okay with me.

I decided a few weeks ago not to do a big garden this year. The biggest reason is my back, but since I'm planning to spend a lot of time in Connecticut this summer helping my parents out, having a garden adds more to-do items to my list. Instead, I asked O what he would really like to grow this year, and he said, "Watermelon!" Thus fully half of the fenced-in garden is dedicated to watermelon. I put in a few herbs (lavender, basil, rosemary), and then built a raised garden:



I basically followed the instructions I found on The Crafty Gemini (video was especially helpful). My husband let me borrow his electric power drill, and once I got the hang of drilling holes and screwing in the deck screws, putting the bed together was a piece of cake. The only difficult part of the operation was buying wood at Home Depot, where I was ignored and then talked down to, I suspect because of my chromosomal makeup. Time to look for a new place to buy lumber! Also, I want my own power drill. :)

This week O has been helping me fill this sucker with dirt and topsoil. I had hoped to get the soil to the top of the bed, but I think it's good enough to grow kale and lettuce. Next summer I'm going to build a couple more beds using some scrap lumber.

Knitting

I finished my Mind the Gap socks a couple weeks ago. Nothing much to say about the pattern (btw, when does a pattern become your pattern? I've knit these plain vanilla socks so many times with a few personal tweaks that I don't even need instructions.) The yarn was a pleasure to work with. I bought it through Trailing Cloud's Etsy shop, thanks to Kristie's post some months ago. I'm pleased I got the stripes to match on both socks, although I ran into orange striping while "kitchenering" one sock.



I had started on a plain vanilla cardigan last month, but today decided to rip it out and use the Cascade 220 yarn to knit Andi Satterlund's Miette cardigan. I need more stylish sweaters, and Miette fits the bill. I also ordered some yarn through WEBS to knit another Kate Davies' owl sweater for the fall and two skeins of hemp yarn for summer kerchiefs.

Weight

My weight did not budge in May despite my working out at the gym and zealously watching my food intake. That said, my pants are definitely getting looser. A couple weeks ago I bought a pair of size 8 jeans, which I thought I'd be able to fit into by the end of June. Well, I ended up fitting into them this weekend and wore them comfortably all day in Newport! So what I think is happening is that I'm burning fat and gaining muscle, which doesn't change the number on the scale (muscle weighs more than fat) but muscle takes less room that fat, thus why I seem to feel smaller.

At any rate, I'm still heavier than I'd like to be -- my body still has visible pockets of fat -- so I've made some tweaks to my diet, instituted some new habits (drinking plenty of water!), and set a few goals for the month. Stay tuned ...

Saying goodbye

My brother Matt finished out his year at the International Yacht Restoration School in Newport, RI, and is presently driving out west to Oregon to fight fires with the forest service. Here are some pictures of last weekend's boat launch ceremony. Yes, that's my crazy brother swimming in 58 degree water, towing his sailboat into harbor. Such a show off!



[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"] Matt is talking to John, who bought "Matt's boat." The sailboat will be moored at a local yacht club to be used by John's children and grandchildren.[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"] I loved the look of concentration on Matt's face. He's an excellent sailor![/caption]

Hard to believe Memorial Day is here...

Every time I wanted to post in these past few weeks, my blog was suffering a denial of service attack, which resulted in my service provider having to shut down my Wordpress login. But yay, today I could get in so here I am.

Spring here in Boston has been cold and rainy. I've even cranked up the heat a couple times; I normally shut off the heat on April 30 and suffer through the occasional chilly day, but this spring has tested my internal thermostat.

We're heading to Connecticut this holiday weekend. My son is attending summer camp for a week in early July, so we're going to the open house on Saturday, then spending the rest of the time with my family. Forecast? Rain. Although on Monday it looks like it may be sunny and high 70s.

I'm almost done with my Mind the Gap socks ... I'll probably finish them tonight and photograph them over the weekend. Any time I've been caught knitting in public, someone always comments on how colorful they are. One benefit about living in New England is that people tend to mind their own business and comment only when they have something nice to say. Only once did someone speak disparagingly to me about "some older lady" knitting in public (at a school graduation). He didn't realize that I was the one who had been knitting, and when he figured it out, he looked chagrined ... probably more about insinuating I was an "older lady" than anything else. ;-)

Last night while I was whirling my way down the foot of my Mind the Gap sock, I watched a BBC documentary running on PBS about Queen Victoria and her children. I studied the Victorian era in college (history/literature/politics), but the extent of my knowledge of Queen Victoria's private life is that she was devastated by the loss of her husband, she spent almost all her reign mourning for him, and that her children were married off to various branches of the family in Europe. I did NOT know what an overbearing and needy mother she was until I watched the show and some of her letters were read aloud. She even mocked the looks of some of her children and in one letter wished that the Prince of Wales would die before she did because he was such a disappointment as a future king. (He ended up being quite a good king, despite his playboy reputation as a youth.)

It made me contrast Victoria with the present queen, Elizabeth. They reigned under different circumstances (the British Empire no longer exists, Elizabeth has had the support of her husband), but I wonder if in 100 years, Elizabeth will outshine Victoria in history? I think so. Unlike Victoria, she has accepted if not embraced change and kept the monarchy relevant for the majority of her subjects.

OK, enough rambling. Off to knit. Knock wood, I'll be able to get back to you with a picture of my finished socks. :) Have a nice long weekend if you're stateside!

Welcome May

Let's hope that April showers really do bring May flowers because April turned out to be one of those months where when it rains, it pours. It started when my husband came home suspiciously early one evening, like around 5 p.m. Which would normally be wonderful as he usually works until 8 or 9 most nights, but this night it was because his contract suddenly ended at the company he'd been working for since 2011. It wasn't entirely a surprise--things had been tumultuous for awhile--but it happened before we expected it. Upward and onward, though ... the good news is that he's a software engineer with high-demand skills/talents, so when he sends out resumes, he actually gets interviews. Right now he's on 2nd and 3rd interviews for a couple positions he's really excited about so fingers are crossed.

I also lost my step-grandmother after a long battle with Alzheimer's Disease, learned that another family member is fighting cancer, and was left reeling after an AD diagnosis in my immediate family.

Combining all this with a cold and rainy spring here in the northeast, I just haven't had the spirit to blog, never mind sew or knit, although I did cast on a straightforward cardigan in heathery purple that makes me happy every time I pick it up.



(The purple yarn is in the background; in the foreground is a completed knit hat.)

But April wasn't *all* horror and gloom. I managed to stick to the 5:2 diet plan (five days of eating normally/two days fasting) and I lost a total of eight pounds. I would have lost a few more, I think, had I been able to get out on my bike for serious exercise. On the other hand, eight pounds is nothing to sneeze at, especially since I took off seven pounds in March for a total of 15 pounds and I wasn't a saint around Easter, although no Cadbury eggs passed these lips. I put on so much weight when I was on blood thinners for three months. I eat a mostly plant-based diet and when you're on medications like Coumadin, you can't eat stuff like lettuce, kale, and broccoli, which I normally eat in abundance. Now that I'm back to my green diet, I feel and look much healthier. I still have a ways to go before I get down to my fighting weight, but I'm encouraged that the weight I put on has slipped off fairly easily.

What's nice is that my family is starting to notice. Last night O was sitting behind me. He sighed and said, "Mom, I'm tired of looking at your butt crack. Can you pull your pants up?" Jeans that a couple months ago were difficult to zip up now have to be tugged up to my hips to keep me decent. I've made a bunch of knit skirts to get me through the warmer months; I don't want to sew jeans until I'm back to my fighting weight, so until then, I guess I'd better invest in some belts. ;)

How is your spring going?

The Duchess of Cambridge and her court shoes

Of course I've been keeping up with the Cambridge's grand tour Down Under and reading all the breathless commentary on stylish Kate. She certainly has a great pair of pins, and today I learned her secret: nude court shoes!

Here in the U.S. we call these shoes "pumps": closed-toe, low front shoes with heels. According to the fashion press, nude pumps/court shoes give the illusion of long legs when the color of the pump and the skin are similar. Which makes sense, as your eye tends to stop when you get to a jolt of black or red at the feet.

Sign me up!



According to the folks in the know at the Daily Mail, Kate's preferred court shoe comes from London-based retailer LK Bennett and these shoes are, unfortunately, sold out in the U.K. If you're stateside, you can purchase the style "Sledge" at Nordstrom for just $345.

If you, like I, don't have a royal allowance for footwear, here are some lower-priced options.

Here's the Madden Girl Fastenn pump for $34.30 at Belk. The LK Bennett pump is a bit more taupe, but I think the Madden Girl version would work better on someone with fair skin. It must be a popular choice with Kate admirers because most sizes are hard to find: Belk was the only online retailer where I found a variety of sizes available.

If you've got more dosh (sorry, I've been reading the latest Elizabeth George mystery), the Cole Hahn Chelsea pump is very similar to the LK Bennett court shoe. They're currently $199.00 at Zappos ... and free shipping. Like the Madden Girl pumps, though, popular sizes are unavailable at the moment, but Zappos will let you know when your size is back in stock.

 



The Michael Kors Ionna pump is quite nice, too, and a more reasonable $130 at Zappos -- that is, if they have your size. The only thing I don't like is the bling on the back of the heel.

I saw some other nude pumps by Kate Spade and Christian Louboutin, but if I can't afford LK Bennett, it goes without saying I can't afford these versions either.

I'm curious to see the "nude" effect on my own legs, so I'm heading down to our local Marshall's to give it a try. I'm not so sure about that platform look; my mind goes to porn films, hookers, and Times Square in the 70s, sorry. And those heels -- some of them are 4" or 5". Never mind walk in them. Could I even stand? We'll see ... I've sewn a bunch of skirts in the last couple months, and I'm eager to see if nude pumps are the trick of the eye my figure needs. :)

What to sew, what to sew...

Like I mentioned last week, I started knitting up a second wool sock for a pair I've earmarked for my stepmother. That small act gave me a boost of knitting mojo. I've knitted about four inches of the cuff/leg, and with steady progress the socks should be ready for when we see her over spring vacation in two weeks.

My sewing mojo, on the other hand, has not only left the room, but it seems to have high-tailed it out of Dodge!

It's not for lack of patterns, fabric, or ideas--I've got plenty of all three. What's tripping me up is--and I'm ashamed to say this because I detest any whiff of body shame--my weight.

Last October I ended up in the hospital with a herniated disc, followed by DVT, with both conditions curtailing my cycling routine. Cycling is my exercise of choice, and it does a good job burning calories and keeping me fit. Not only was riding out, but walking was, too, because of all the ice and snow. (I had to be careful of falls or I could "bleed out.") As a result, I put on 25 pounds through lack of exercise and not watching my eating when my activity levels dropped.

Now...I'm completely confident that those pounds will come off now that spring is here, my disc injury has healed, the DVT is gone, and I have an awesome trike to cycle with. But I keep thinking, "Do I want to cut into this gorgeous shirting/Japanese selvedge denim/expensive wool boucle for a Grainline Archer/pair of jeans/couture fringed skirt when in six months I'm going to be three sizes smaller?" Yes, I could alter the fit at some point, but to be honest, I don't like doing alterations, especially on anything I've made. Is that weird? I don't mind hemming Levi's or taking in the sides of a RTW blouse, but when it's my own creation, it somehow annoys me and the garment never again looks as good as it did during the original fitting. It looks, I don't know, wonky.

The mature and rational side of my brain says, "Sew for the body you have today. Use the expensive fabric; you can always buy more. Test out that pattern you love. There's no guarantee that when you lose the weight, you're going to get a perfect garment anyway. And if you do love what you create for the 'bigger me,' you can ask a professional to alter it." (Geez, listen to me. I should listen to myself more often!)

But then Lazy Easy-Way-Out Di chimes in: "Why not sew a bunch of knit things to wear around the house? like t-shirts and yoga pants? That's how you dress anyway." Princess Di calmly interjects with, "Dahling, I thought you were trying to upgrade your wardrobe and not continue down the path of fashion dereliction? Yoga pants," she sniffs. "Really."

So I do nothing but pet my fabrics and gaze longingly into my sewing room.

What would you do?

In the meantime, here are some more pretty pictures of Newport. Last weekend I took another trip down there, this time with my son, and we were able to see the boat my brother is building at IRYS up close.



[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="333"] See the lemur?[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"] Curved pieces of wood get shaped in the steam box.[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"] The view from Brenton Point State Park[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"] My boy.[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"] The surf was crazy wild that day![/caption]