Dawn Brocco's Life and Design Blog

Am shellacing new bedroom closet door trim hubby finally sanded this morning, so that I can paint it. Also shellaced another door frame, awaiting paint, then I need to put a 2nd coat on the downstairs bathroom door, which got its first coat last night. Then the 2nd front door hallway ceiling to paint, as hubby sanded the spackled spots there too this morn. Humid or not, it's gotta get done. It'll just take forever to dry.

paint, paint, paint, paint, paint. bah!

He had to fix something connected to his car's wiper blades this morning, so he couldn't get to the lumber yard to get a few boards for the front porch. Hopefully tomorrow.

The porch boards are old and the painters managed to chip off the ends of several boards, during their work. But he's gotta get them in, so I can shellac them then clean the entire 65' long x 7' wide porch and repaint it. All after he moves a load of wood off the porch that he bought to fix some of the upper part of the porch. And, after he gets the paint. Now, he said he brought home a color card of latex deck paint, which I need to go find where he put it.

Nearly every year since we've been here, I've repainted with the same light grey oil deck paint, especially when we ran the B&B. But now we've changed the house body color and the foundation color to warm tones, so the grey is a no-no. Nope, he must have left it in the car, I'm not seeing it anywhere.

Non-house: The autumn sales season is just beginning. All summer, things are mostly dead. But I got a late night order from Russell Pierce, the owner of Bartlettyarns for many of the patterns I've done in their yarns. So, this morning, with the fan blowing the humid air away from the printer, I printed and got the order out this morning via hubby's trip to the PO on his way to work. It's beginning. Thank goodness. I have noticed that their website hasn't been updated in a while. They do have new Fisherman Bulky colors - Lupine and Bracken - but they're not on the site. Call them if you want to make sure about yarn color availability.

Oh well, back to shellacing.

It's raining again and probably will be raining until Thursday. The RE agents come through next Tuesday and the garage/carriage house isn't scraped and painted yet and one entire large side of the house doesn't have the body color on it yet - aaack - nothing like having to do everything at the last moment.

Hubby *couldn't* get those 2 exterior light fixtures, as they were handmade copper ones. They had no brass ones and at $300 *each* and we need 2, they are so far out of our budget it's ridiculous. So, yet something else to add to the long list of stuff to get on Saturday, including, but not limited to (leftover legal proofreading speak), endless bags of cedar chips, 2 large urns to flank the front door on the porch and plants for said urns, a new back screen door, lots of exterior plywood, framing wood, wallboard (all for the mudroom), and, and.

OK, there's *gotta* be something non-house I can write about. And my mind goes blank. There *isn't* anything else. Well, not much anyway. I sent my new Curvaceous Cables book to VK and IK for blurbs. I sent one to Janet, who is graciously going to review it in an upcoming issue of her Twists and Turns newsletter. I've sent one to Unicorn Books & Crafts to see if they'll distribute it and of course, to all the yarn companies whose yarn I bought to make the samples in said book. If you enter Dawn Brocco into the search box and check the "author" box, you'll see my 5 other books listed!

I'm cogitating on a creating a pattern preview display for yarn shops that carry my patterns, etc. I'm still in the researching of the materials required etc. Need to get to Staples and get one each of what I need, before I invest in quantity, to see if it'll work and look good.

But not now, too much going on as it is. I really gotta finish working up 2 new wrist and neck warmer patterns, which will probably be the last new designs I'll have time to do until who knows when. Life does get in the way! But maybe I can make a dent in them today, as I can't shellac or paint today, as hubby couldn't get to sanding the floors this morning, and we're waiting on some spackling of a ceiling to dry before I can paint. If only his union contract would settle, then he'd have vacation time and could take a week off - we really could use the time. But as it is, nope, nada, nothing.

8 days until the agent caravan comes through.

Yup, did the wire brushing and painting of 2 sides of foundation wall on Saturday. Still more to do, but rained yesterday and is really damp out today. Arms were tired and muscles sore, so took yesterday off from anything strenuous. It's hard to unkink knotted up muscles. I tried to weed the driveway-flanking beds, but the air got so still and the mosquitos found me right away, so that got nixed, until it de-steams outside.

Today I have ceilings to bleach, one to paint, phone calls to make, all the brass in the house to polish, dig out the 3 remaining rose bushes in the front yard, and vacuum.

Hubby picked up 2 new outdoor light fixtures for the 2 front doors, on his way to work. There is only one place that has hanging outdoor fixtures, not astronomical in price, that would look good on an antique house. I haven't even seen them yet, but they got his OK, and I trust his judgement - we both know what the house needs. He also picked up shellac, so I know what I'll be doing tomorrow - floors!

Well, back to it I go.

Spent yesterday painting the exterior of the kitchen walls, 2 coats, except for one small area up high for which I need hubby to set up a big ladder, then I can finish it today.

Today I am also wire brushing the foundation walls (stacked bluestone long ago covered in cement), so that I can paint them as well, but first he says I need to shellac the basement window trim. I'm making more iced tea as the painters are here today as well and maybe even tomorrow.

I *was* gonna bleach the front hall ceiling and second doorway ceiling, so that I can paint it, but that's a no-can-do as the entire front of the house is sealed up, as that's where the painters are. No windows to open = no bleaching anything indoors! I even put an "ixnay on the oorday" sign on the inside of the front door, in case hubby forgot and tried to open it to go get the morning paper.

I *will* post reams of photos when it's done, so you can see what we're killing ourselves for! It will look wonderful and we'll get a few short months to enjoy it.

Designing? Ha! I did 2 rows I think last night as I sat on the couch, right calf aching from the ladder, neck muscles pulled from painting and a headache. Then I finished the laundry, remade the bed and showered. Hubby came home, I stretched out on the couch and promptly fell asleep.

The comps were surprising. I had been following what similar houses were being listed as, but not having the *sold* list left me with only half the necessary info. So, it turns out that although the market is good here in the Mid-Hudson Valley of NY, people are listing their houses far too high, having them sit far too long, then finally repricing and selling closer to reality. Reality is still pricey, mind you.

The buy-it now boom was last year, apparently, when an agent could ask a seller how much they wanted for their house and probably get it and sellers would come up from the city and say I want to see 5 or 6 houses and I'm definitely buying one, and they did. And we're talking weekend houses! Not primary residences. But that's what's nice about this area, it's just 2 hours from NYC, filled with pastoral beauty, great restaurants, spas, quirky shops, and antiques.

We'll not get as much as we were hoping, but it will still allow us to move to where we want. Now, to get it all said and done by the end of this year!

This week is hormone withdrawal week. Not fun. Woke up with a screamer of a headache. But finished weeding the garden today before the RE agent came back at 11 with the contract to sign and took room measurements.

I hardly got any knitting done yesterday, my brain was so immersed in house hunting and crunching numbers, but the ones we like just aren't back on the market yet. Many come off for the summer, then go back on in September.

Today I did some cleaning and painting of window wells - just 3, can't do the front windows facing the porch, as that's where the painters were working. Then I Windexed them inside and out and did laundry, scrubbed one of the baths and made more iced tea.

It doesn't look like there'll be time to hardly breathe between now and getting an offer with binder. Then we can breathe, briefly.

Looks like a lovely day today! Painters were here by 9 and am beginning priming on the 3rd side of the house. I'm going into the garden to (finally!) weed it. I haven't taken more than a perfunctory look at the garden in weeks. No watering, no fussing, too much other stuff to do!

But, it's still cool out, so I won't overheat like an old Stanley Steamer, and should get it all done this morning. Then I'll print more books and enter the new book into my catalogs and price lists. And heck, if it's still not humid later, I'll strip out as much of my computer/printer room as I can and vacuum and clean the carpet. Then I can cross it off The List!

Mondays, particularly Monday mornings, are always hectic. Not that any other workday is or can be hectic, but it's a given that Mondays will be, no exceptions.

The RE agent will be over Wedn. morn, as tomorrow hubby has a pre-arranged appointment in the morning. Oh, the wait. Spoke with the accountant today as well and he can handle our taxes even after we move - yippee - I less thing to change.

This move will be even more involved than our move here, as we're not just moving a household, I'm moving my business as well, which also complicates which town we get to move to.

Some Cape towns don't want you working at home, even if there's NO impact on traffic or services. Well, gee, isn't that nice. I also hear that although MA is democratic in general, the Cape is Republican. Eesh, not again.

It was humid again this past weekend, so no more rug cleaning nor painting took place, but I did start clearing out one of the 2 basement sections, and made a huge pile for hubby to haul to the dump and to be recycled.

I would have shellaced the floors that needed it, but apparently we're out of shellac. It's best to buy it just before you need it, not keep it for 10 years, then use it! And I thought I'd be sanding the floors, first, but he wants to use his sander on them, so I wait.

Today, I handled bills, phone calls, book orders, laundry, made a gallon of iced tea and did a whole lot of email. Actually, there are days when email takes up a majority of the day.

I finished the first neck warmer sample for the next pattern, and have begun to write down what I did. Then I can start the 2nd sample. But right now I'm just feeling numb from so much conversation, so I need to jolt myself or I'll stare mindlessly at this screen until hubby comes home from work!

"Curvaceous Cables Collection" is out!!



I posted photos of the designs on the Booklets page, but not any of the 5 chapters' worth of How-to info, naturally! I printed a batch yesterday and will do another batch today or maybe tomorrow - it's going to be *very* hot today and thunderstorms are due later, so tomorrow would be better.

Interview with the real estate agent went well - should have comp results in a few days (fingers and toes are crossed) - this is WAY quicker than the last time we had an appraisal done. We were shocked that he will have it done so quickly, but then, this time I chose the top selling agency in the area and specifically asked for a realtor experienced in listing and selling antique houses. We're not pussy-footing around here.

More List work today, and I'd like to finish the new pull-on neck warmer sample, so I can CO the button down version. Should weed the garden, but not today in the heat.

Oh, but I said the other day that I'd put up more hollyhock photos! And, so I shall.

Well I managed to paint 3 doors, transom window and all the mouldings in that second front hall yesterday, then vacuuming, laundry and took down and put up 6 windows' worth of curtains. Ended yesterday pooped with my flat feet aching.

That door curtain rod I bought online isn't what I wanted. It's one of those that run a rod through the top and bottom of the curtains to keep them taut - yuck. I never did like curtains that way, even on a door. So we thought we could just use the top rod - nope. Seems the moulding around the 6 panes of glass in the door is too deep!

OK, thought I, I have one of those rods that snaps into 2 Y shaped brackets, that keeps the curtain away from the window, BUT, not only are the 2 brackets I have too deep, but when hubby took them down off the hall window, so I could paint that area the other day, he can't remember where he put them and may have tossed the brackets. Now, did I say to throw anything away?! No, not I. I wanted to measure the depth on those brackets so we could look for *shallower* ones.

I ripped out some of the new neck warmer design I was working on. It's OK. I knew I wasn't going to be sure, until I knit it up, how it would look. So I just needed to reassess where to begin the shaping, which I did, but haven't had the time to reknit it.

I'm sill re-proofing The Book, again - adjusting, tweaking, catching little things and one, not so little thing - better now than later!

WAS going to get it done today, printed and *up onto my site* - 4 words, but no quick feat to do - it does take time. But, we'll see, as I cajoled hubby into calling, who I think is the best local real estate company, to get someone in to reappraise the house (we did it over 2 years ago, and if anyone has followed the real estate market recently, they'll know that in some places, like ours, the market have doubled in 2-3 years). I'm dying to get this over with already.

So, he does and gets a 10:30 am appt - aack, say I - way too early for me, so 11:30 am it is. I mean, there's all that last minute put-your-life-away running around to do, so the house doesn't look lived in - much, anyway. No, it's not done being painted, no, we're not done with The List, but it'll take him about 2 weeks to do the appraisal, as getting comps for antique houses in Saugerties isn't easy. Our house is much more like the kind of house someone looking to buy a second home in Woodstock would buy. Lots of them there, not here, but each town much comp within its own town.

So, I gotta get rolling - tons to do today, including 2 coats of shellac and then paint on that second front doorway's walls.

I did take more photos of the hollyhocks - they're growing so nicely - but not today - over the weekend if I can...

And The Book is coming soon, I promise!!

There's this LIST. 2 pages+ long of things we GOTTA get done around here before listing the house. The LIST just keeps growing as we remember/take notice of things we somehow overlooked before. Easy to do in a house 13 rooms, 2 attics and 2 basements large. (Geez, I forgot - there's also getting new driveway and parking area gravel and shoveling it out - oh there goes the neck and shoulders for sure.)

So, I did about 15 minutes of MY work today then tackled some things on the LIST. I only got to cross off 2 things though. God I love crossing things off lists. It means DONE, no more, onto the next thing. But some things are do-them-in-stages things, and it seems like they'll never get crossed off.

So, today I vacuumed and cleaned the parlor rug, the front hall stairs runner, and a hooked rug and a door mat. Then I cleared out stuff from the secondary front door (as if one front door isn't enough, some antique houses have 2). We had been using it as a closet, as it's not more than 3-4' square, bounded by 4 doorways - imagine! 1 door up into the small attic, 1 door to the family room, which we never use, 1 door into the dining room and 1 door outside - also never used.

Then I hauled some trash from the attic down into the basement (about 5 trips' worth). Then I vacuumed the floor and attic stairs, scrubbed the woodwork, doors, floor and attic stairs, so that, beginning tomorrow (what fun) I can start shellacing the papered walls (to seal the paper, so the latex paint doesn't make the old but crappy paper buckle), then paint them and the ceiling and the 3 doors and trim, then lightly sand and shellac the floor. Should keep me busy for several days.

When I get to shellac that floor, I gotta sand and shellac the main front hall floor and a few worn spots in the parlor. Tired yet? There's still a gazillion things on that LIST.

I've already warned hubby that once we move, if we *ever* get to move, I'm finally, after 46 years of never having more than a cheapo haircut (and even that I haven't had for nigh these past 11+ years, as I've been cutting mine and the family's hair), having a full day at the best damn spa I can find - manicure, pedicure, bikini wax, massage, mud wrap, sea salt scrub, facial, you name it. If they have it, I'm getting it. I want to have all this work soaked out of and scrubbed off of me! I can't start a new life in a new home feeling ragged and looking like a tired old scrubwoman.

More laundry, am crocheting 12 tiebacks for the kitchen curtains which didn't come with any and which weren't even sold separately. That's OK - 1, 50 gram ball of yarn will do them.

I just printed one copy of The Book to go over one more time and have hubby go over as soon as he gets a chance. I'm cogitating on price. I don't want it to be too expensive, but I've seen other, black and white books sell for more than the price I'm considering and this one is full color.

So, what think you all - is $18.95 too much or too little for a full-color how-to book with 6 designs, 36 pages in length??

Gotta paint that hall today and see about rearranging our bedroom furniture so it looks better for showing. On design fronts, after the tiebacks are done, I'll get back to that new wrist and neck warmer design. Actually, as I went to sleep last night, I thought that this new group of designs would be great as a booklet - as they all have the same theme - 100 yards of yarn or less. I'll mull it over. Indie patterns sell better than books and are less trouble to put together, so maybe I'll just stick with what I know works OK.

Was *going* to begin tackling window painting this past weekend - ha! The heat and humidity were just too darn horrid to even *think* about going outside, never mind *work* outside.

So, I bleached several ceilings just this spring, but on Saturday, I began the rounds again, bleaching (with Jo-Max, as well) the entire (14' x 17') dining room ceiling. It was 98 degrees here Saturday and the humidity was hanging like a wet blanket in the air, and here I was, up and down the ladder, standing near the hot ceiling filling my lungs with chlorine!

But that's whatcha gotta do when there's no AC to dry up the air. I wash all the linens in the unused rooms every 2 months or so - 'cause they get moofah smelling. And my books, it's ruining my collection of books in the library.

I'm waiting a few days, to give my sinuses a rest, before doing the front hall ceiling then bedroom 1, probably again as well.

Sunday I did 2 loads of laundry, scrubbed the pine kitchen floor (and boy do my chest and arm muscles feel *that* now), rematted 16 large prints that go up the front stairway then around the upstairs hall walls and finished all the editor's changes for The Book. Yesterday was better - it was only 95! Then a big storm blew through and cooled it all off, for now.

Today, the curtains I ordered from JCPenney, for the kitchen, came in, so I pressed and hung 4 of the pairs. One pair goes on the door, so I gotta wait til tomorrow so hubby can drill holes and hang the door bracket. The last one goes in the hall, which he primed yesterday and which I need to paint tomorrow.

Then I printed retail and wholesale catalogs and some patterns to fill a Gazette reimbursement order, which are *STILL* coming in after all these months, 8 months to be exact! Before we move, I'm going to have to put a notice up on my site - a LAST CHANCE notice, as this is going on far too long.

I also retook 2 of the photos for the book, which I still need to adjust. I'd clean some carpets today, as it *is* finally drier, but both arms and my stomach muscles hurt from scrubbing the floor and I pulled my neck and my left calf (going up and down that ladder ad nauseum) bleaching that darn ceiling, so, nope, I'm in no shape to do anything strenuous until the bod feels better.

I do have a photo of Pickles, tho! - lying atop one of my pieced pillows. He'll look for whatever is mine to lay on. My clothes on a chair, my knitting, my knitting books spread out on the floor, anything!

I just spent over 3 hours filing household bills and shredding ancient ones, after clearing them out of the filing cabinet. And that's not counting the 1/2 hour I spent yesterday shredding all those damn credit card apps that come in the mail daily. Oh, the good old days when one didn't have to worry about identity theft.

JC's marked up copy of the "Curvaceous Cables" book came back today - so I'll be on the computer, again, most of today, as I've been for days.

Last night, I flipped, again, through all the stitch dictionaries looking for inspiration for the next neck and wrist warmer design. I ended up revisiting a mock cable and rib stitch pattern I've used before. I like it because it's versatile, not boring to knit, yet not difficult to knit. So, I sketched out the increases necessary for the shape I want and swatched to see if it would work, and indeed it does. So, I think I'll crunch some #'s and CO for the neck warmer, first. This way, I can work on it in between bouts of book changes.

Some window washing, priming and painting awaits me this weekend. The 6, 1st floor front-facing windows and the 5, 2nd floor front-facing windows. That's just 11. There's 43 the last time I counted, but a dent is a dent. But first hubby needs to take down the storms, screens and their frames, so I can do the entire window cavity and all those 6/6 pane dividers. And the front door could use a sanding and repainting with the brickish red oil paint, as well. Been wanting to continue with the carpet cleaning, but it's been too humid. Only 2.5 weeks left in August - work, work, work....

Oh, how could I forget the 3 eyebrow windows? OK, that makes 14 windows out of the 43 to do this weekend, if my hands don't fall off first!

bat in the bath
Yes, yesterday morning, hubby went upstairs to clean one of the bathrooms and found, sleeping in the tub, a bat. After he came downstairs and we both scheeved awhile, he went back upstairs with a plastic tub to capture it.

HOW it got into the house, we haven't the slightest idea - we never have open doors nor windows. All windows are screened or still have the storm windows lowered, as the painters have windows on 2 sides of the house sealed up with plastic, as they've been painting. We've been here near 11 years and this was a first. I mean the outdoors are home to deer, geese, turkeys, bunnies, groundhogs, squirrels, chipmunks, mice, hawks, herons, owls, other birdlife, but they stay outside!

Well, except for the mice, but hubby keeps good control on those that venture indoors and the hawks dine on the rest. And though we did put up 3 bat houses when we first moved here (to help control the insect population), they've been empty, or so we thought.

hollyhocks
Photos of some of the sprouting hollyhocks - the only flowers to be seen here, at this time of the year:








new designs, new yarns colors?
As for design work - I've just finished up 2 samples each for a new neck and wrist warmer pattern. I enjoyed making these and will start more neck and wrist warmers as soon as I write up this pattern. Photos need to wait on a shady day.

I was *going to* work up another capelet sample in black soft Targhee wool with beads. The beads are on their way to me, but not the yarn. The company has a new owner, so I need to wait on her getting settled and ready with her new color cards and yarns.

She's a hand dyer with 20 years' experience, and from a preliminary email discussion, it appears that her color range will be far more extensive than previously offered, which means, *maybe* I can hope she'll have a full range of the feminine shades. This would save me from having to dye the wool yarns and leave me to just dye the cashmere yarns, which I much prefer. The wool is very lofty, which makes the dyeing a much more difficult process.

As long as I can get the capelet design done and published for autumn - but autumn's coming sooooon.

Hubby's such a card! He was flipping through the Sunday paper's Target ad, which showed some shrugs. And he says:"I know why they call these shrugs." "Why?" asks I. "Because when you ask where's the rest of it, the wearer shrugs her shoulders and says I don't know!" Yuck, yuck, early Sunday morning humor, before the coffee's kicked in!

We did lazy yesterday. Well, after we drove to CVS, paint store in Kingston, B&N for a gift card, and a different grocery store, as our local Price Chopper was out of Redpack puree (heaven forbid!). That was after his usual Saturday morning jaunt to do the grocery shopping, drop off a prescription, go to the library and to the local hardware store. His back was bothering him, so, after we came home, he plopped and stayed plopped with heatpacks.

Today, however, will be his tackling of the long job of cutting back all that green stuff that grows - I'd call it grass, but it's a plentiferous blend of weeds, mosses, clover, ground covers and some grass.

Et moi? I have some wool area rugs to clean with my spiffy new carpet cleaner, then to continue redoing the charts in the new book, as per editor's suggestions! I wish I could say I'd be spending it filling orders, but it's been 6 days since an order has come in. For those that dream about giving up a steady paycheck - yes, this is what every summer is like when you're a self-publishing designer!

Work awaits...

garden
Watered the garden last night after the sun finally passed over. It had been 4 very hot days since I last watered. I just can't get out there at 7am before it gets disgustingly hot and humid. I tried yesterday morning about 10 am, but had to reprime the pump and the darn thing still wouldn't work. It's old, it's seen better days, it's not getting replaced. Hubby fiddled with it after I gave up, but by then the Heat had descended upon us.

The peas are truly kaput, the zucchini however don't mind the heat, and the hollyhocks - 5 are blooming as of last night!

This morning I chopped down those stupid Hostas on the east side of the house in a corner nook where the house was added onto. The painters are heading that way son to scrape, sand, prine and paint. I'm not a shade-plant loving person - most are just too boring - except for Lily of the Valley and Azaleas. And Hostas, with that stupid, unscented flower that juts way up from a fanned-out base of green leaves - ugh. They go in the same boat as pine trees - no love lost on them, either!

designing, weather
Been fiddling with a stitch pattern to try to get beads into it, but I none of the methods I've tried make the beading look good *in this stitch pattern*. So, that's that. Will try another pattern for a beaded neck warmer and wrist warmers. The first neck warmer sample used just 45 grams yarn or so, so it's well under the 1 hank rule I have for this pattern. That's all the design work I did yesterday. It's just too hot and humid to feel or be industrious.

How those guys can work outdoors, I don't know. They're painting the window trim now on the back of the house. Just the 10 minutes or so I spent cutting down those plants left me red, flushed and drenched, which a cool shower alleviated. Oh, the Cape's weather will seem like heaven compared to this. Their 10-day forecast didn't have a day over 85 and most were 80 or so, not our 96. By 8 pm yesterday, we were still at 87 degrees, they were at 70! And instead of 0-10 degree winter temps, 20 degrees is the lowest they get. Oh yes, we're looking forward to nicer weather.

Paint!
Oh, the painters put 2 coats on the west side's trim and put 2 coats body color on the rear (north) side, as well as the trim sans windows! Yay - 2 colors! How the trim stands out now! can't wait til it's done so I can post photos.

I printed a copy of the booklet and sent it to JC today. But first Hubby and I discussed the cover. It had gone from vibrant to blah. So I took more photos of one of the shaped cables, repeated it down one side, added a color border and color text, and yes, it stands out now, without being overwhelming:



Next Design
Some designers get PPD - post project depression - not I. Before I've gotten to the end of a project, I can't wait until it's over, so I can get onto the next thing! Which is just as I have done.

A couple months ago, I mentioned buying some Japanese knitting pattern books - these are VERY cool and full of elegant designs. One book, tough, was a beginner's book. (The downside to not being able to read Japanese!) But, it wasn't a bad purchase.

Beginner/young Japanese knitters are much like beginner/young American knitters - they want simple and quick (read: fat yarn) projects. There were some neck warmers in that book - not dickeys, per se, much more stylish. and the idea gelled awhile in my head. Along with the idea was the NEED to have patterns that use only 1, read it, ONE, hank of my cashmere yarn, for the least costly cashmere project there could be!

So, after flipping through many resources, I have ideas for several knit and crochet neck warmers, and they each should only use 1 hank. I also want to pair the neck warmers with wrist warmers. And, of course, I'd like some glass-beaded variations. So, I CO and have 2" done so far - a whole new project is underway!

There's really no time in the summer for not getting as many designs done as possible, as once Fall hits, dyeing yarn, printing patterns and books, and processing and shipping orders cuts into design time drastically. Add to that this year - our selling the house, packing, moving, getting settled, registering my biz in another state, AND not being offline for more than a week! My 2 retina surgeries taught me well how easily knitters forget about you and don't order anything, if you're not online, even if you can't help it. I'm not suffering those losses again this year.

I haven't forgotten about the *next* floral brooch pattern and the cashmere undershirt, or the 2nd capelet sample. The first floral brooch pattern hasn't sold well, yet, anyway, so I'm not likely to do another until I see that knitters actually want brooches.

I was going to do the 2nd capelet (this one beaded) in black cashmere, but have changed my mind. I ordered black Targhee and the Metallic Black Frost beads for the sample. The cashmere kit will be an option, naturally, but it's an expensive sample to afford to knit up, at this time of the year.

So, plenty of work awaits in this almost perpetual 96 degree heat and humidity.....

Productive Days
Got a good-sized order from Patternworks, late yesterday, for my Love Collection booklet, which uses Plymouth Yarn Alpaca Boucle in all the designs. They're putting it into their Fall catalog!!

So I began printing immediately and stopped about 10 pm, beginning again this morning til about 1 pm. Punched, bound, bagged, boxed, invoice and packing slip printed, as well as the UPS shipping label - ready to be picked up tomorrow.

Then I spent the rest of the day, until just now, reworking photos and charts in the new book and doing laundry.

Tomorrow, I gotta reprint another copy of the new book and, if the color adjustments have worked out as I hoped, it can get sent to JC for editing. It's 36 pages - not huge, but almost twice the size of my previous booklets.

Painters
Painters have primed (oil primer) the back of the main house section today and reprimed most of the west side again, as the bare wood sections (where they took down 150 years of paint) sucked up the first priming layer. They should be painting the west side walls tomorrow. Then the trim at some point. Maybe (!) they'll paint the rear side as well, tomorrow? Gotta make more iced tea first thing in the morning. Would have done it tonight, but we were out of water, had to wait for hubby to bring it home after work.

We made the weekend turn out to be much better than Friday - thank goodness!

I'm almost done with "The Book" - one last design to finish up today, then print it and see how the photos look. Then to send it off to JC.

I picked peas and zucchini this morning, as it rained yesterday. And tada!, some of the hollyhocks are opening up! Yesterday, I counted 18 of the plants that have buds on them, but none had opened yet. I've got about 3x that many in the bed. Today one is opening and another is just about to. Would be great if they all opened. And that bugger, the groundhog. was at it again. He actually moved the bricks I put up against the fence - grrrr.

Photos of the bed and my one opened flower so far: