Endings/Beginnings

Real time Rayen here. I'm almost fully recovered from the flu, with just a bit of residual congestion and a lot of weariness from lack of sleep. I'm also back to work at the day job after losing 2/3 of my vacation to illness. At the moment I'm finishing work on this crochet throw I started while I was sick.

I did not really start my summer art quilt; the flu + stiff fingers derailed that project just as I was beginning it. I shifted to crochet because it's mindless and I needed to do something while I was recovering.

Some of my favorite projects are those that I've done when I've been ill. I have a beautiful but slightly wonky tote that I stitched while I was waiting for cataract surgery. I love that silly bag so much; working on it helped me get through a terrible time in my life. Now every time I look at this throw I'll think about my summer vacation with the flu. Not giving into sickness but creating in spite of it is one of the hardest and yet most rewarding self-helps.

In four days I will reach my other summer goal of catching up to my pre-published posts, and from then on I'll only keep a week of content scheduled to publish on the blog. I may double up on daily posts again now and then to avoid getting too far ahead of myself. Hopefully this helps me be a little more spontaneous. :)

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Stuff

After finding this Caron one pound skein of lovely peach yarn in my thrifted lot I raided my stash for two cakes of Mandala in Pegasus, which matches it perfectly. For practice and hand therapy I'm going to make another Worth Street Afghan with this free pattern , but this time I'll use the yarn that was recommended for it plus the one pound skein. I'm not quite ready to do the vintage/recycled linen quilt I had planned (still a bit too nervous about the idea), so I'm going to use some color therapy and make a quilt from these thrifted green fat quarters. I considered doing another Yellow Brick road patchwork pattern, but I might go with a split rail fence like this one.

Better than Fried

I cut some chives from the kitchen garden to make garlic-chive baked fries for dinner. This is a great side dish for veggie burgers. Click here for the recipe from Taste of Home.com.

The Mercantile

If you don't mind walking 33K square feet in retail space, The Mercantile may be the vintage/arts store you'd enjoy visiting if you're ever in Orlando. I certainly did. Because it was busy I didn't take any photos in the store, but it's absolutely amazing and chock full of antiques and artisan creations, most of which were pretty reasonably priced. For $21.00 I invested in a picture of sailboats for the guest bathroom I'm redoing, and a fairy mystery jar of cool stuff. The jaw was hand-painted and decorated, and utterly charming. I think I wanted the jar more than the contents. As you can see the contents were both generous and pretty cool, too. I finally have some vintage gloves to use for my art quilter bingo challenge!

Rayen

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