And now for some color

On Friday, MJ and I visited Aurora, a local historic village. (This is the left coast. We think houses that were built in 1888 are OLD!) Naturally, this is also a prime area for antiquing. (Stuff from WWII is antique?) and we fell in love with - of all places - the architectural re-cycling shop. Very nice from the outside, with lots of Black-eyed Susans in front.








Inside it was full of posts and columns and moldings and bannisters and iron fences and . . .well, you know. Also, they had a whole case full of handles and drawer pulls. My inner magpie went freaking nuts!! Stuff from the 1920s with flowers and swoopy lines and swooning maidens all embossed on the drawer-pull for cry-sakes! For $9 each. And my inner accountant had to wrestle the magpie down and sit on it or I would have gotten ten of them to re-do my dresser even though I don't know how big the existing pulls and handles are. The magpie is still sulking, and the inner accountant is cranky about all the bites and scratches she picked up.


Here's one of the oldest buildings in the area - real Pioneer stuff - 1849 I think. A woman's average life expectancy then was 40 years. I think they were so worn out by the grueling labor of survival that they were grateful to die. And as far as pioneering goes, this place was luxury. At least she had neighbors to talk with. And windows! Can you imagine living in a one-room cabin with no windows and no other women around to talk to? The husband comes in from 16hours of chopping down the encroaching wilderness and all he wants to do is eat and fall asleep. You're lucky if you can get him to wash the sweat off before he falls into bed. No computer or TV or radio or anything to amuse or entertain you. Small wonder they wrote long and chatty letters! Introvert that I am, I still think I would grow melencholy and pine away for lack of contact. I already know I go a bit crazy if I don't get out and talk to people at least once or twice a week. History makes me so grateful for the life I have!!

And I am so grateful for the friends I have! Dave's interview with me was a wild success and I sold a whole bunch of books! thank you, thank you, thank you everyone for your wonderful comments!
On the knitting front, I am this far along on the sweater for my beloved sis-in-law. It helps to stand back and look at the whole work in progress. I'm starting to get bored with it. I don't like having to pay attention every row. Much rather put it on auto-pilot and just knit, or be constantly creating as I go along. This making-things-match is teeedeeeusss! I'd better knit both sleeves at once, or I'll hate the second one with a bitter, lasting, and totally undeserved passion.