Inappropriate Clothing, Ladybugs and Managing Your Maid

There's no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing. -- Unknown

July: hot days, very little rain, intense sunshine. What to wear? Shorts and tshirts? A sunhat? Lots of sunscreen?

What better clothing for a hot summer day than a knitted alpaca scarf?

This scarf has been off the needles, blocked and ready to wear for a couple of weeks now, just in time for the heat. Yes, timing is everything, and mine is crap, apparently. I love this cowl, though. It's made from gift yarn that my friend Linette gave me just before my kidney donation surgery, and I was determined to make something from it as soon as possible. It's a free pattern from Patons, but I made it with much lighter yarn than the chunky weight suggested in the pattern. It's full of errors (I flipped around the order of the cables in there a couple of times), but really, who cares? I am loving the transitions between each shade. It reminds me of the ripples on the top of a Mars bar... chocolate, caramel, ripples... mmmm...

In the meantime, I'm still working on the toys I sold in exchange for pledges for my MS Bike Ride. Despite the fact that I usually don't like making toys, they're a good project to have when the thought of any knitted clothing makes your eyeballs sweat. I'm using Mia Zamora's pattern called Laura Beth, which is an adorable little girl doll wearing a ladybug costume. I finally got some safety craft eyes yesterday, which I inserted last night. I learned that, yeah, you should really put those suckers in before you close up the head - what a pain! I felt good about getting that part done, even if they're kind of creeping me out right now:

During my trip into town yesterday to get the craft eyes, I stopped into a vintage shop and found this lovely leather handbag, which jumped onto my shoulder and came home with me. It was only $14, in perfect shape, and is large enough to carry my wallet, phone, keys, and other various sundries, but small enough not to become the bottomless pit my current handbag has become:

And on the same street, I visited a used bookstore and came home with this treasure: a British cookbook from 1932. It's well-loved (there are some pages I'm going to have to be careful with), and it is full of all the post-war, Downton Abbey-type stuff that I find delightful to read.

There's a chapter on Household Management, which details how you should entertain if you are not fortunate enough to have a maid:

And there is a section about balanced daily menus, which surprised me by being exactly what I believe a balanced daily menu should look like:

In all, I know I haven't been all that chatty on the blog recently. Work and life just seem to be very hectic these days, but during my morning run this morning, I thought to myself: If I just keep moving, I'll finish this run. And I realized that, now, more than ever, I have a very strong faith in my body that I can get through anything. As I ran on the rocky path I was on this morning, I knew my feet would find the surest and safest route. And in the same way, I have a very strong faith that, even though I'm not posting all that regularly right now, things will fall into place sometime.

Anyway, it's hot, and this laptop is getting warm. Off to go make those creepy heads cute somehow.