MIA, Catching Up

 

It's important to know the difference and why you should not say Happy Memorial Day to anyone.  That's like saying Happy Funeral Day.  My Father, Uncles, and Grandfather all served; but I am lucky that they all returned safely, so I honor them on Veterans Day.  For those of you who have lost a loved one in service to the country, I honor and remember them and am sorry for your sacrifice.

As a person that doesn't really like winter, it's I think a bit odd that I decided to read/listen to this 4 books series by Elin Hilderbrand, but I've been taking a break from some of the heavier books I've been into of late (WWII, politics etc).  This is book #1

This is book #2

This is book #3

And this is book #4.  Lots of characters in this series.  At the center of things is The Quinn Family, owners of the Winter Street Inn during the Christmas Season.  Eggnog, and Whiskey and prison terms, a surprise pregnancy, Santa kissing who?  Subplots a plenty between a hedge fund manager, a drug addicted wife, a music teacher with an interesting and frustrating love life, a bartender, a French maid, a marine in Afghanistan, and a Famous TV Anchor.  NEVER a dull moment.  I've enjoyed many books by this author who writes about Nantucket, her home.  A fun, and entertaining diversion from life and all the things in the news currently.

Catching Up:

• I've been MIA since returning from Hilton Head with lots of appointments.  The most involved was dental surgery, Gingival Graft that turned out to be far more involved than was anticipated.  I'm 5 ish weeks since, but not yet completely healed.  Eating and exercising have been difficult until just recently.  
• I am now back to going for walks and mowing; but have no exercising stats for several months to record
• I've been involved with the planning of our 55th high school reunion which will be at the end of the summer
• hubby and I have finalized the details of our upcoming tour of Sicily in the fall

We recently finished watching this series.  I really like Jeff Daniels; though the series is a bit dark...........realistically so when you think about small towns in the rust belt.  Thus far there are 2 seasons, and there's debate about whether or not there will be a 3rd season.  Just have to wait and see, I guess.

I'll post a picture of the almost finished afghan, the last one I worked on while still on Hilton Head Island, in the next blog post.  For now, I'm anxious to get blog walking and see what you all have been up to in my absense.

Another Ta Dah, Finished Project, Roses and Books Oh My

 

Falling Leaves is drying after being laundered.  This was the easiest project so far this year, as these were all crocheted squares (no knit squares), and while all are not granny style squares they were fairly close to the same size, so that required a bit less work on my part.  This ghan is a bit more narrow than I like, but working with the squares that I had this was the way to make the pattern of squares work.  It's unusual for me to have so many similar squares to work with.  My daughter and hubby like symmetrical things and so they liked this one..........me, I've gotten used to working with some of this and  that and sorta prefer the less symmetrical designs.  Either way, it will keep someone warm.  All the afghans I put together from pieces parts are donated to Homeless Shelters.

The before picture, though turned the other direction.  This ghan didn't change much as I worked on it.  Forgot to mention above picture it's edged with really dark green, though it may look black in the picture.

This one is the next project, though after looking at it awhile, I moved a few squares since this picture.  This will probably be the most tedious of the ghans so far this year, as the squares are really different sizes, some are squares, and some are rectangles and some are knitted.  I'm not sure I have enough of one color to do the edging and sizing for this, so may do a bit of a design/pattern with edging in order to use multiple colors....we'll see how it goes.  Current plan is to edge the middle row both horizontally and vertically in brown and do the 4 corners in the dark green, lighter green, and or blue left over from the previous ghans.  Trying hard to use my stash and not buy more, particularly after the work my daughter and I did over Christmas to sort and roll and donate 41.5 pounds of yarn.  Buying would add to the stash and that's not the goal.  Soooo, we'll see how this goes.

More gorgeous roses.  These white roses are tipped in pink and are so pretty.  Hubby brought this home yesterday.  I missed taking a picture of the last roses he brought home that were purplish.  

Post World War II, Paris and it's people are trying to rebuild.  Families are separated, missing and or dead and somehow life must go on.  The captivating story of two strong women from the same family generations apart finding a future with the commonality of a small neighborhood bakery.  A most enjoyable book.

Set in 1916, an intriguing story with a World War I nurse.  She finds herself in the middle of deadly secrets as she carries a personal message from a fallen solder to his family.  Lots of surprises in this book.  I'm not typically a mystery book lover, but found this book hard to put down.  I also didn't know befpre reading/listening to it , that it is  book #1 in a series, so now I need to find the listing of how many books are in the series and get them on my list.

I've read/listened to a good number of Kelly Rimmer's books and always enjoy them, and this was no different.   Though set in 1970/current day we're transported back to the cold war, double agents, injuries and danger.  Family loyalty vs patriotic duty with some very tuff decisions to make.