"Fall Is Just Up The Stairs..."

(Ever get tired of saying "around the corner?") Going up the stairs means I have to climb to get somewhere, and that I do, both literally and figuratively. 

Once the weather cools down just a little bit, I have to go upstairs to the attic to pick up on the long overdue unpacking. (Yesterday was a blazing 97º and the temps in our attic are far above that). I did manage to tough out about 45 minutes up there Saturday to sort out several big piles of clothing into different sizes. By the time I finished I felt like I'd spent an hour in a sauna. We have been through an extraordinarily hot summer for Omaha this year, and I don't like that one bit! Along with the extreme drought we are still in, it's been a struggle to keep plants alive. 

It's also made me cranky! I'm a cool-weather girl and I love my rainy, dreary days. Since June, there has been exactly ONE of those.  The weather man promised this morning that we're going to drop into the 80's by tomorrow and will stay cooler for the next few days after that with a chance of rain. So I'm hopeful!  Sorry, all you sun-lovers out there... your turn is over for awhile, I'm hoping! Anybody know any great rain or thunderstorm videos? I think I could use one.

On the figurative side, I have an uphill climb still ahead on my personal goals of more weight loss and finishing work on my book. Those are hard, but exciting things to look forward to! I'm looking at a total of over 75 crochet patterns here, and trying to decide whether to put them all in one book. I also have to find all of the crocheted items I can to re-photograph them. Pattern tester volunteers (God love 'em!!) are waiting for assignments. There is a lot to do!

Speaking of that... I'd better get to work now!

A Free Saturday, What To Do!!

I'm at one of those places where I've lined up entirely too many projects for myself, both crochet design and personal! My DH is out of town at a golf tournament, leaving me to my own devices!! Now what to do with all that free time...

My crochet to-do list:

– Design the Backward Rose Mini Doily
– Design the Backward Rose Hair Clip
– Design the Bingo Bag - a fun summery striped purse which my son's girlfriend, Janette, requested I make for her
– Design two more fantasy flowers for a pattern I'm working on

Crossed OFF my to-do list this morning, removing the sleeves from a favorite old top I've never worn much, making it sleeveless and adding edging to the sleeves and hem, plus edging and beads to the neckline. Have it on right now, feels so much better! Now I'll wear the pants off of it for years. It had this beautiful floral embroidery all over it, and nice fabric, but the edges were finished with this crappy plastic tape with stitching over it. Yuck!!  I have to say... please excuse my hair:)

Not crochet, but cool anyway - I bought this green dress, the "perfect sundress," this Spring. Sadly it's a floor-mopper! It stinks to be so short sometimes! Anyway I finally figured out a way to shorten it 5 inches without hemming, with lines of ruching. I wrote it up here if you want to see how it was done.

We're still in the clenches of this @#$*$ heat wave/drought! I hate having to water every single day. There is a sprinkler system installed here, we've found the things in the yard - but there's no control panel, no place to turn it on that we can find. Guess I'll have to have a sprinkler guy come over and tell me what's what one of these days. Meanwhile, it's crochet awhile, move the sprinkler.

One last quick thing to share – a fellow crocheter is giving away a pretty amazing crocheted Crocus Doily on her blog tomorrow. You still have time to enter the giveaway here.