This N' That N' S'm Other Stuff

Some random things for a Friday, to distract you from the fact that I have no new knitting to post--I'm having way way too much fun "bonding" with Lady Eleanor. Talk about a perfect match of pattern, yarn, and needles!

Now, unlike Patty, I am not so fanatic about coffee that I roast my own. Yet. However, we have recently graduated from Ye Olde Standard Coffeemaker, i.e. the Greenie, to the new, deluxe (Mother's Day gift) version--the Red Hot Momma.









Ergo, the Red Hot:







This baby grinds the beans (seen next to her on the countertop) then brews the brew, all done via timer so I don't even need to get my lazy self out of bed to come downstairs to hot fresh coffee. My kidlets love me, even though I can't quite figure out why.

What I don't love? That countertop. It's been the focus of a love/hate relationship ever since we moved into this house. Did I ever mention that this house was built in 1920? True. The countertop is the original. Which means that, while it's "period" and therefore desirable, it's also had 86 or so years of being scrubbed and cleaned, and it no longer shines. Just sits there sullenly. And that grout has been replaced, and bleached. That's as clean-looking as it gets. Coffee stains, probably.

If I stay in this house, I may need to remodel the kitchen. Enough with the Period Ambience!


Okay, now on to something fibery. Remember the blocks I showed you last week, made by the M&Ms? Well, here's another one. Thank you, Nonie!

Now to wait and see what mine will look like. Always a surprise, even to me!


This is Fran's quilt top. Don't be deceived by the difference in scale due to the size of the photo; this is one big quilt-to-be! What I thought was really interesting, and the reason I took the picture, was that there's a very strong pattern that emerges when you look at the quilt from a distance.
Because: it's four-patches, matched with blocks the same size, and I don't think that Fran expected that it would develop that strong diagonal line in the red and white. But it's sure there!
Well, it's nice that people are still working at stuff and getting things done. I'm getting a few things done, but nothing that can be photographed and blogged about.

I mean, you don't care that I got the dishes done, now do you? And you don't want to see my trash cans lined up at the curb, etc etc. Nor can I show you photographs of the nice displays I put together at work, since they were thoroughly picked over within five minutes.

But, some new yarn came today, and it needs to be released from its bags and photographed. And I need to try to capture how pretty my Sea Silk and its beads are together.

I'll leave you with this link to some really amazing pictures--I guess it's true that you can, indeed, hand-feed hummingbirds!