Joining Carole & friends for Three Things on Thursday... 

Being in different countries/hemispheres/time zones, the girls often communicate & share day-to-day updates via Snapchat or some other social media...

1: Kate

If you're not following Kate on Instagram, I'd like to recommend... and keep an eye on her Stories, especially on days when she takes a hike. Lordy, Scotland is a gorgeous country.

1: Ali

Kid shenanigans are the best shenanigans!

1: Maddy

With daughters in both UK and Australia, I get more than my share of sheep shots!

I am showing great restraint in sharing only one shot from each!! haha.

As hoped, I worked the last two motifs for Hexie Love and, unlike any of the others, they were truly JAYGo'd (Join As You Go).

I imagine that once I figure it out, the border will go fairly quickly because there won't be all the color changes.

Or will there?

Then I finished knitting the headband portion of Wild Fields... still have to sew it up. The kids will be over tomorrow after dance class, so I'll see how it fits the girls then, and decide (or let one of them decide) whether to add the crown on this one.

It must all have been a bit too much because I went to bed last night without setting my alarm... and weirdly woke up this morning right about the time I'd normally be getting dressed. Rusty's teaching in Door County all week, or he'd most likely have roused (me) a bit earlier. I hurried with the brushing & washing & making up (it takes longer to curl my eyelashes than to actually apply any makeup), and added a cup of coffee to my usual KC&T order instead of making it at home... and actually made it to work on time!

Warning: All Work, Gnome Play - Gnome MKAL 7 spoiler ahead. (Are any of you doing this?)

There's a story my mother used to tell about a Thanksgiving meal early in my parents' marriage -- for Dad's boss or for family, I don't remember that detail. The important thing was that Mom asked Dad to go to the kitchen and get the cranberry sauce, which she'd forgotten to "decant," and she was mortified when he proudly presented the perfectly can-shaped specimen.

I saw this at an estate sale on Friday afternoon and... maybe it wasn't all his fault!

I'm not sure what got into me, but I got up close & personal with my kitchen & bathroom floors on Saturday in a way that I haven't done in a very long time. First, I've had cleaning ladies for the past few years (but not right now) and, second, Rusty does not mind scrubbing floors! I bought a steam mop to use at Ann's house, though, and decided to give it a whirl at mine... it was awesome. It did edges pretty good, but not corners... so that's where we got close again!

Ann had ordered some pillows with the furniture for her house, and I got the call that they were ready for pick up, so I drove up to Green Bay on Saturday afternoon. I stopped at St. Vinny's, where I bought a half-dozen pair of Susan Bates long straight knitting needles; Target, where I walked the perimeter of the store and ended up with two items that I'd picked up right in front (for a total of $6); and the Packers Pro Shop, to pick up some football goodies for guests arriving this weekend for football! I'm so happy to welcome football fans again.

Ann & I both had guests last week that were here for the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Kohler. Golf is not my thing but I actually tuned in on TV for a few minutes on Sunday and even I was awed by a couple of shots... they looked pretty impressive/impossible to me! Ann's people left yesterday, so I stopped over a couple of times to get laundry going. I actually brought sheets home to hang on my clothesline! My guy left today, so... rinse & repeat.

I've been working on Hexie Love... slowly, but getting there! I've attached all the motifs at-hand, and need to make two more before I move on to the border. I am aiming to do that tonight. I'm afraid I might be a little short of yarn for the border, but I guess I won't know for sure until I dive in.

I haven't worked at all on the headband/hat that I started while camping, because I've been knitting a gnome hat!

That is through Clue 4, in which I knit nearly a foot-and-a-half of 3-stitch I-cord! Had that little detail been disclosed at the beginning, it would have been a hard NO on this for me, but... who knew? (NO ONE! It's a MYSTERY!) Turns out, I can knit about 6" of I-cord per quarter of football. I can't wait for tomorrow's clue!

Meanwhile...

...this is a frame from a super-cute Snapchat yesterday. Ginny could feel the kitten's heartbeat, and Malina... well, she's just all over it!

We packed up, hooked up, and took off on Friday -- almost right on time! It was about a 3-hour drive to Sauk City/Prairie du Sac, and we had a very scenic drive a la Google Maps and the "avoid highways" feature.

We checked into the campground and set up Ducky, and then I drove Rusty over to the art center so he could set up his teaching space.

We borrowed Ali's pop-up gazebo, which expanded our "living space" by quite a bit! haha.

It was the first time hooked up to water other than in our own driveway, and only the second time hooked up to electrical. I finally used some equipment that I've had for over a year (surge protector, white hose, pressure regulator), and then some newer stuff (water filter, sewer hose).

We had cold water only (but brought an electric kettle), and there's a still-unpatched leak in the black water tank so we didn't use Ducky's toilet. We were roughing it just a little. There were toilets & showers very close by, though.

Other than Sunday, which was a scorcher, and a rain shower as we were making our departure/emptying the gray tank, the weather was great. Cool at night, breezy, clear skies... we watched ISS for a full 6-minute pass overhead and an almost-full moon rising on Saturday night while sitting by the campfire.

I made coffee & Rusty made breakfast every morning, then I took him to the art center. I diddled around, went to the grocery store, visited an antique mall, a cheese store, and most importantly...

...a YARN STORE! My only opportunity to stop at Flaxen Fleece was on Saturday, and by then I'd realized that I had everything I needed to work on finishing by blanket...

...except the actual blanket!! So it was a CRUCIAL stop. I had a pattern in mind that I wanted to shop for, and brought needles along, too, so at least I was prepared for something.

The photo was taken this morning before work... it's already pretty dim at that time of the morning! (My headlights were on the entire way to work this morning.) Anyway, the colors are a bit more vibrant IRL. It's the start/headband portion of Wild Fields, just published in Knitty worked in Malabrigo Rios, purchased at Flaxen Fleece. I bought a few hanks (thinking headbands/hats for the girls), and a couple of mini-skeins just because. It's the first actual knitting I've done in MONTHS (it's like riding a bicycle).

Anyway, back to our adventure. I had lunch "in" by myself everyday, and then we'd find a restaurant for dinner -- a brewery fish fry on Friday, Mexican on Saturday, BLTs at a pub on Sunday. I never made it to Wollersheim... it just wouldn't have been that fun on my own and they were only open 12-5, anyway. I thought the campground was close enough to the art center that Rusty could walk, but it wasn't, and had I known that I'd be driving every morning I might have chosen a more remote spot -- in a state park or something. It was "ok" -- right on the Wisconsin River, the facilities were clean, the owner was very responsive (to a complaint about a squeaky swing that needed oil) -- but there were no trees in our part of the RV park and it was very close to a busy highway (the only time it was quiet was for about 20 minutes around 4am). There were a lot of established "seasonal" sites further into the property and, oh boy, some vintage travel trailers that were fun to see!

It was a lot of fun, and kind of shame that it might be our only outing with Ducky all year! I felt truly relaxed and that I had an actual vacation!

On Sunday, I managed to get a batch of Vicki's* Roasted Tomato Sauce in the oven -- the first in a long while.

I used tomatoes, garlic & onions from our CSA along with rosemary, Italian parsley, basil, and celery that I grew from the starter plants I purchased from them a few months ago.

The way that recipe goes, it's all popped in the oven for 25 minutes, stirred and roasted for another :25, stirred again and roasted for :45. It's the perfect recipe for multi-tasking because... it's not cookies or a cake. Twenty-five, schwenty-five, it doesn't matter that much if the timer dings it's reminder for :05 or :10 more. I love me some char! I blended it a little with my hand-held and stuck it in the freezer for later... I am tasting it in a lasagna in January.

Over the weekend, I finished the second-to-last row of Hexie Love!

Some of these randomly plucked crocheted circles are from very early days of this project, when my crochet/counting ability was a little wonky, to say the least. It makes me laugh when I pull one of those out of the bag! So this one was re-done -- twice, actually, because apparently I'm still challenged even in the late days of this project!

Ali took the big kids to the "Eve of Destruction" on Friday night -- our local raceway's end-of-season demolition derby extravaganza -- and I took charge of the littles.

It was a late night, but Davy was a trooper! He was in such good spirits all night long, and... I witnessed unaided/unsupported squat-to-stand more than once, so it won't be too much longer before he figures out the whole walking situation.

It was Malina's night to sleep over...

...and boy, did she sleep! She wanted a sleeping bag on the living room floor, chose her pillow, and was zonked out immediately. She slept until about 10:30 on Saturday! Ali said that Malina is her "late sleeper," and she was taking advantage of an unusually quiet Saturday morning to sleep in.

She accompanied me over to Ann's and watched a movie while I did some clean-up and made up a bed for the house painter, Randy.

This was still fairly early on Saturday, and he worked all day on Sunday, too. The new siding color is just a smidge lighter than the old, and I love it.

Ducky's been parked across the street all summer and we had to move it yesterday so the owners could use the area to stage a little remodel project over there. Rusty & I are perfecting our maneuvers -- me behind the wheel and him giving directions. It took a lot of backing up & pulling forward, turning the wheel this way & that, and the across-the-street neighbor stepped out just in case we needed him (he's an excellent guide & I've joked about bring him wherever we go, but we really need to figure it out for ourselves!)... and we did it!

Rusty & I will be taking off with Ducky on Friday for a weekend in Prairie du Sac where he's teaching a weekend class. We'll be in a campground/resort for the first time, located across the river in Sauk City, so we'll see what that's like -- it's a whole new area for us. There's a yarn store, Flaxen Fleece, about a 10-minute walk away from the RV park, so I'll definitely be checking that out... along with a local brewery and nearby Wollersheim Winery & Distillery. I'll be crocheting and knitting (new project alert on the horizon!) and mending and maybe catching up on some overdue bookwork (if the internet is any good) (or maybe I'll find a coffee shop) and probably napping.

So I'm in for another busy week -- a couple of book club meetings, prepping AQA for a weekend guest, and finishing getting Ducky ready (much nicer in our own driveway instead of schlepping across the street) -- but a 5-day weekend with a little adventure is ahead.

I spun on a dime not once, but twice, and accommodated last-minute Airbnb guests at both Ann's house and mine.

On Tuesday, just as I walked into Knit Night after work, I got a weird message via the Airbnb app... which eventually became a booking request for four guests at Ann's... arriving between 8-9 p.m. Luckily, I'd prepared on Monday following another inquiry/possible booking (I originally planned on doing all of that on WEDNESDAY)! So all I needed to do was make a quick run to the grocery store, make sure everything was neat & tidy, and change the lockbox combination.

I left a few lights on when I left (it was way darker outside than it looks). It's got a nice glow. I can't wait for the new paint!

On Wednesday, I had a message from the guest that I was expecting in our apartment this weekend saying that he'd tested positive for Covid and wouldn't be able to travel (from PA). We worked through getting him rescheduled for a weekend in November... and I thought I had an unexpected free weekend.

HOLD UP! Yesterday, as I popped into my local antique mall after work, and I had another Airbnb "ding" -- right about 4:30 again -- a request for three to stay at my apartment, arriving in about an hour. I thought I was pretty prepared, so I accepted... turns out I had a little more than making a bed to do, but I did it! I met the first guest, Chase, when he arrived (they actually trickled in over about 12 hours), and turns out they work for a home improvement company. They're in the area because of a hail storm we had on Tuesday that caused some significant damage in places around here. I don't know if that's what brought Ann's guests, but I'm thinking so...

There are seven gallons of paint in the back of my car and three more to pick up after work today.

(Whoops! I never even considered that there'd be a problem getting paint, but the "deep base" needed for a couple of the colors wasn't in stock and they didn't know when -- or even IF -- they'd be getting more! Luckily, there's another store nearby and they had some on the shelf.)

If the darn weather cooperates, painting at Ann's Queen Anne (AQA) will commence next week.

It'll be AMAZING to see the exterior all freshened up! The siding & trim colors aren't changing much, but the accent colors are! These photos are skewed a little on the blue side, but you get the drift.

Also, this was in the mail yesterday:

It was addressed to the NORTH POLE! Haha. OMG, I just love it, and I can't wait for more!

Have a great weekend!

The computer gremlins plaguing my morning yesterday seem to have moved to the phone system at work today.

Whatchagonnado??

I had to run back into the house this morning to fetch something I'd forgotten and was taken by the morning glow. I just said to Rusty the other day that it seemed like the leaves were thinning a bit. It's still pretty dark now in the morning when I get up -- somewhere between "first light" and "sunrise," but I still open the blinds in the bedroom.

Catch every ray of summer!

So other than these few words, it's gonna be a Wordless Wednesday!

(There are a few more words on Insta if you're interested.)