29 May 2008

yet another sign of the coming of the ending of days

While I was driving home from Memphis the other day after dropping my guy off to catch the train, I had plenty of time to think.  Since the air conditioning is not working properly in my vehicle since just after (oh thankewthankewthankew) the heat wave ended last fall, and since I've not had the extra cash on hand to get it fixed just yet; I've been driving with the windows down.  That creates extra drag, yes I know, but one way or the other I'd end up paying for cooling so extra drag equals extra gas for the time.

The thing about driving with the windows down is that I find it extremely challenging to listen to the radio (which is the only sound system in my car, well besides me.  oh! and the handful of gravel rattling around in the hubcab), esp if I'm stopping/starting and then getting up some speed on the hi-way and then stopping as I go thru PoDunkin'DoNuts, Mizz'ippi.  I can understand why the gansta wanna-be's next car over were scowling at me.  Cuz really, "We Built This City (on Rock and Rollllllllllllllll)" should never be played that loudly, esp at that time of night.  And then to have a puffy pudgy woman bellowing out the lyrics while driving a gramma car is just wrong.  But that's not the end of days sign, altho some would argue that it sure should be.

The other thing about driving with the windows down is that I get really grimy.  I mean there is this nasty combination of road grime, environmental pollens, sweat, tears, and bug blood that creates a rather disgustingly sticky film on my entire person.  I feel like I'm wearing a mixture of mud and honey as some sort of toxic facial mask.  Dudes, if I am gonna have that sensation, I'd rather be on a motorcycle.

So I turn off the radio, and just sorta buzz along with the rushing wind pulling the shorter fine little hair loose from my headband, where it gets stuck in the sweaty grimy facial film (which in itself is not so bad, but the thing is that the ends of the loose shorter fine little hair become trapped between my glasses and my eyeballs and since my eyeballs are wet and my glasses generally are not, the ends of that there loosened hair adhere to my eyes and that makes driving a real challenge as I pry the stuck hair off my temples and it reaffixes itself~~and my guy wonders why I sometime lose my shit and shave my head; but that's not the end of days sign).

No, no.  The sign of the coming of the end of days was placed in front of the rather large church just down the road from my guy's place.  Actually, it wasn't even the sign itself, but what it represents.  Cuz that church?  Usta be an all you can eat seafood buffet on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.  Then the metal building was renovated into a church.  Southern Style Baptist, we do prayin' right.

28 May 2008

sillee me needs sleep

This past week has been very odd for me.  I've become a homebody to a great extent over the recent years.  Prior to that, I was quite different, hopping in my car and zipping a few hundred miles was something I did on a daily basis.  But now?  Well, now, hobbling to my car and making a round trip of several hundred miles...well, it wears me out.

This morning, I got up at the ungodly hour of 'ishouldstillbesleepingsweetlyanddreamingsweetdreams' and put pants on and drove to Memphis which is about two hundred miles from me in Starkville.  About twenty miles out from the blue suede city streets, I contemplated ducking into a shop to grab something but decided not to chance the caffeine that is still found in decaffeinated coffee (it's decaffeinated from the caffeinated state, but by no means caffeine-free), cuz the last few times I had decaf, I sprouted multiple arms and tentacles and scared myself, innocent children, and wild feral dogs.  Instead, I pushed on to the Amtrak station and parked to wait for my guy's return from the windy city of Chicago.

We then went to Brother Juniper's which has the very best breakfast evah in Memphis.  It was our first time there, and I loved it.  Tho perhaps I should not have had the potato-based breakfast dish.  Cuz about half way home, my neck could no longer support my head and my eyes were retreating into the deep dark cavernous area just under my brain.  I felt bad about my guy having to drive the rest of the way home, but it was either that, or we were gonna have to park amongst the rigs at the nearest gas station so I could give in to the undertow of the sucking slumberous state.

When we got home, I crawled outta those pants and into my jammies and snuggled my head into my guy's shoulder and wrapped my limbs around his and drooled ceaselessly while snoring solidly.  He sweetly waited until I was so deeply drowsed that he could rearrange my person in such a way that would allow him to breathe, swallow, and otherwise continue to survive my stranglehold of 'butiloveyousoverymuch' clutch.

My guy has since brought me a sandwich, showered, and driven back to Oxford for his appts tomorrow.  He's coming back to see me on Friday so I need to get as much beauty sleep as possible.  Cuz right now, I'm scaring myself, even without the sprouting of appendages.

I hope your week has been good and continues to be so!

26 May 2008

hyperballic tawashi

  Earlier, I'd spoken of Lisa's Thank-You Afghan squares and also a tawashi in the form of a hyperbolic ball (or a hyperballic tawashi, as I've dubbed it).  The Lisa's Thank-You Afghan is very straightforward to understand.  You see, I don't leave home often, but when I do; I can't always take my dogs.  So Lisa, my landlady, feeds the furrbees.  So I wanted to do a Thank-You Afghan of bright colors for her, since she loves bright colors.  In the background, you can see a sample of some fifteen square inch granny squares that I've been completing so that I can soon piece it together and then give it to her.  The little ruffly pieces that are dotting a few, were my early attempts to do the hyperball; which as I pointed out, is not really meant to be a ball form, turned round and round but that it was to be turned as in flipped row by row.  I'll post pix of Lisa's Thank-You when I am thru.   Hope you've had a great weekend!  And a good week to come!

hyperba wha...?

I simply can't tell you the number of times I have asked myself, "self, is it not possible to 'isometrically embed the hyperbolic plane as a closed subset of the Euclidean 3-space?' well, isn't it?"  Only to chide myself, "for the sake of all that's sane, 'please give up pondering this as it will only lead to the destruction of my health, peace of mind, and happiness in life.'*  please, if not for your own sanity, think of your guy!"  And then,  I admit, I don't know what an isometrically embedded hyperbolic plane is, let alone as a closed subset of the Euclidean 3-space (whatever that is).  I've heard these phrases, but never uttered in any relevant way to my own silly self.

Until...

Yeah, so the other day, the amaZING miss monica sent me the very easy instructions for crocheting tawashi.  Tawashi is a lil Japanese scrubby used for dishes and/or body parts.  Ya know, sorta like those poofy body puffs that are all the rage with the advertising of shower gels and such?  Those things.

AmaZING miss monica said that they were easy to do and fast and might give me a lil break so I don't shove my crochet hook into my eye while working on Lisa's thank-you afghan and squares (more on that later, I wouldn't want to confuse the issue any further, huge eye roll here).  That way I can still be productive while taking a break.  And as we all know, I am all about productivity (nodding solemnly, tis true; ask any of my friends and if they say differently, well that's just cuz they're all liars, all of them).

Stick with me here, cuz I am gonna tie it all up into a very ruffly quirky flirtatious ball.  A hyperbolic ball to be exact.  Stay tuned, dear reader.

The pattern is something like this:
     Hyperbolic Ball
ch2.
6sc into 2nd ch from hook.
turn.
2sc into each stitch.
turn.
2sc into each stitch.
turn.
continue to "2sc into each stitch" and turning until you want to drive your crochet hook into your eye.  then, you are done and need to return to the project from which you are taking your break.  have fun!

Actually, it really is fun and once you figure out (like I did eventually) that the "turns" do not mean "join and continue into one big ole circle, turn, turn, turn" but that "turn" means "turn, like in crochet, reach the end of the row and turn, ya know, flip it.  yes d'uhm debra, turn=flip as in the conventional sense of crochet and not 'turn' as in round and round and round turn".  Please do keep in mind that amaZING in no way contributed to my extreme agitation with my stupidly sillee me.  I call her "amaZING" cuz she truly is and she did tell me to NEVER EVER JOIN THIS.  I hold her in no way responsible for my own ineptitude.

Yeah, so then, cuz I was thinking "turn=round" instead of "turn=flip", my hyperbolic ball was not quite right.  So I googled "hyperbolic ball" so that I could SEE what the hell it was spoda look like.  And then I hadda click on this link, cuz I just hadda.  I mean, I simply could not resist, and really, who among all you crochet'ers could?  None, I say, none!

Not with a title like this:  Crocheting the Hyperbolic Plane

I mean, dude!  It is a scholarly paper!  Published in a real peer-review top-tier journal!  With real PhDs as authors from a real mathematics department at a real university!  And a prestigious one at that:  Cornell!

So I clicked on the link.  And that's when I lost my remaining academic mind.  I've not actually read past paragraph three, subsection one...cuz I'm still tickled pink over the idea that someone actually was able to write and get peer-review approval and publish a paper using crochet to explain hyperbolic planes, a geometrical concept that is difficult for most mathematicians to fully understand.

I mean, I love it when folks fuse art and crafts with academics.  Brilliant!  Kudos to the author, Daina.  The girl has moxie!

*the actual quote is below, and I now have reconfirmation of why so many men are maddening, cuz of all that dwelling on sensual passion: 

For God's sake, please give it up. Fear it no less than the sensual passion, because it, too, may take up all your time and deprive you of your health, peace of mind and happiness in life.

 Wolfgang Bolyai urging his son János Bolyai to give up work on hyperbolic geometry.

25 May 2008

...freezing? well, yes, but...

Well, Friday night, my guy missed his train.  It was a misunderstanding of parking proportions, and to make a looonger story a bit shorter, we decided to try it on Saturday night.  I drove him up to Memphis and then I drove to his place in Oxford, and am just now settling in home here in Starkville.  A four hundred mile round trip that will be repeated early Wed morning.

We enjoyed getting to spend some extra time together and it was a very nice venture altogether.  So, now that I am home, I will take a shower, after my air conditioner unfreezes.  again.  I may need to speak to my landlord because it just might be laboring too hard for the space it is to chill, and freezes too easily.  I've cleaned the filter (I'm good about that, and I dry it thoroughly before I fit it back in) so that is not the problem.  But, even tho it is warm (read "hotter than dog breath", but not as smelly ~~ thankfully, i might add), I am glad to be home.  For a couple days, anyway.

So, hope you all have had are continue to have a wonderful weekend!

23 May 2008

Back it up

My guy is leaving on the night train from Memphis, bound for Chicago.  Sounds like a bit of a blues song or such.  I need the Pips to back me up on this. (he's leaving, {leaving} on the midnight train to georgia) and if they could so some cool synchronized dance steps that would be mahvelluminous.

Did anyone watch the season finale for American Idol Wed night?  If you did, you would have seen some great bits.  Diana Sommers, Bryan Adams, ZZ Top, Graham Nash, uhm I know I'm forgetting some others that were good (and by that I do NOT mean the Jonas Brothers, shudder, cringe).  But the funniest was Pitka (Mike Meyers) advising the Davids.  And next to that?  Gladys Knight holding auditions for the Pips...Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robt Downey, Jr.

ahhh, good stuff that.  good stuff.

So, my guy is Chicago bound (or as Robt Johnson said, "back to the land of california, to my sweet home chicago"; love the man, the music, the mood; but it speaks accurately of Mississippi's lack of educational standards, as then, as now) for the weekend and part of next week.  It's the ABA Conference, international...big BIG deal, and he is presenting.  So if any of you happen to be in Chicago and happen to have an undying interest in applied behavior analysis, and also happen to want to hear about the intervention of burnout amongst direct care staff...well, then you are indeed in luck!  Because all the stars have aligned and you yes you are in for a treat indeed!

However, if not, then no.  No you shan't be able to spend the time I cannot with my guy.  And that is a sad state of affairs.  Not that I wish my guy would have an affair.  Oh, no and far from it.  Just merely to say that it is a sad state of affairs that I shan't be spending my weekend with my guy.

sniffle.sniff.

Baby Steps to Classiness

I've fixed myself some lovely white tea with lemon and honey and iced it down and yum, s'wunnerfullest.  sigh.  so lovely.

Earlier today, I took a can of white clam sauce and poured it out into a skillet, and let it boil.  Then I added slowly four beaten eggs.  I kept stirring it and let it cook all nice and good and then I took it off the heat to cool (and also so I could use that burner cuz it is the only one of four which is actually somewhat useful, tho not exactly very well moderated) and cooked some pasta.  After I drained it, I added the clam and egg mixture and some basil pesto and omg!  It was so good I almost forewent the fork and just buried my face right in the bowl and snorted the stuff.  And I might have if it wasn't for my resolution that I would cease doing that.  Doc's are tired of removing peas and things from my nose and I have run out of creative explanations for just how those veggies go so far up my nostrils anyway.

Baby steps to classiness, I say.

22 May 2008

finally, telling it like it is

The image “http://graphjam.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/funny-graphs-reality-of-lols.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Compliments of:  GraphJam

I really don't like when folks will use fillers.  It demonstrates their vacancy of thought.  Ya know, those things like:  IC.  How can you have a meaningful conversation if one person is inanely moronic as to not be able to generate an actual thought?

I also don't particularly like the liberal usage of greatly exaggerated responses such as:  lol.  Who actually does LOL as often as they use this?  There are a handful of times in the past few years that I've actually had the reaction of bursting forth with laughter at reading someone's message.  When I do actually burst forth with burbles of laughter, I almost always describe it accurately with snickers, snorts, chuckles, chortles, or whichever is appropriate.

And do people who type that in response to their own silly selves actually find their wit is really that inspiring that they actually laugh out loud?  To me, that's the equivalence of being able to tickle yourself.  It just doesn't happen that often.

I mean, there are times when I think, "wow, that was pretty damn witty of me" but rarely do I actually burst into laughter.  Laughter is something that I think happens in response to a joyous surprise.  On unforeseen comment or event that cracks me up is worth sharing in the hopes that others will also find it funny.  Predictable humor tends to get a smile, maybe a slight sound, from me.  I do appreciate it, yes, but I don't fall all over myself, rolling on the floor laughing my ass off.

And really, who does?

21 May 2008

frustration

gotta request for ideas and suggestions.

i've been dealing with some extreme nausea, with light sensitivity, and lying down seems to make it worse.  i sometimes will be nauseous and slightly dizzy and usually am light sensitive anyway.  but this, this is more extreme and has resulted in vomiting.  any idears?  any at all?

20 May 2008

"It's the shoes!" (from Bird Cage)

Right, so I somehow missed that it was bedtime last night.  I was listening to the end of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" which means that I thought around disc 12 that it was nearing the end.  Oh so not even close to being the case.  There are 23 discs and you'd think that simple math would not have allowed "mid-point" to escape my attention, but yup it did so I kept listening and kept crocheting and thought, oh one more....I'm not tired...one more.  Ya know, like a page-turner.  Only this was a disc flipper.

Next thing I know, the day is beginning, the damn birds were more cheerful than any critter is spoda be at that time of the morning.  Excepting I was.  Cuz I that's what happens when I stay up and miss sleep and get into the second wind of things.  My nerves sing.  So since I was jazzed, I finished the audio book.  And finished the text book ("The Clerk's Tale", a sort of spinoff of the canterbury tales, set in the mid-1500's with a crime solving nun...which is actually very realistic cuz the author is very historically accurate and doesn't tend to exaggerate stuff...I now know more than I ever thought I would about the various Offices and Nones and prayers and rules and things...and much more than I really felt I needed to know...but it was very essential to the story lines and this is the third book I've read in the series...and since I have attempted numerous times and failed miserably to actually read Chaucer's Canterbury Tales...dude, I get too bogged down in the language and the spellings and the archaicness...I find these contemporary to the present books with now language but contemporary to the then customs and all makes for a very good read, unlike this parenthetical paragraph that is so grammatically incorrect with poor syntax and sentence fragments.  thanks for reading, grin).  And finished more blocks of the thank-you afghan I'm making for my landlady who feeds my furrbees for me whilst I am gallivanting around the mountains of Kentucky.  And then I realized, dude, you skanky.  So I took a shower and felt zestfully clean altho it was ivory, which means I was 99.4% sure to be squeaky clean and pure.  On the outside.  Cuz I didn't wash my mouth out with soap.  Never been big on that there whole concept.  Excepting the time I was really out of it and scraped my toothbrush across the top of a bar of soap ONCE.  That was the same time when I mistook aspirin for breathmints and chewed up a whole handful to get the soap taste out of my mouth.  Yeah, I was a bit feverish and was insisting on having my shoes cuz I hafta pee!  and doesn't everyone need to lace up their sneakers to make the trek to the potty in the middle of the night?!?

I had a good session today.  Guess what we talked about?  and the recommendation was to uhm, get some sleep tonight.  And I will, right after I finish scrubbing the kitchen floor with my toothbrush.  and ivory.  while listening to the audio-books i picked up from the library today.

Now where are my shoes?

18 May 2008

...wha...how...uhm....?

Dude!  Here it is, like over a week later and I'm trying to think what was I doing that has me thinking that I've not had a minute...and I can't think of any one thing.  Yes, I've been crocheting myself into knots.  Yes, I've been running errands.  Yes, I've made sure I've kept all my appts.  But, it's not like any of those things is so crucially occupying that I should feel so disoriented, like I do.

and i do.

i did go for a long walk (well, it seemed long cuz i have been almost as active as a slug) with my guy today.

i did get my eyes examined on friday (the rx?  same) whereupon the iDoc said that he thought i need bifocals but i'm not old enough.  funny that, cuz i would've thought that needing bifocals would be a function of necessity and not a dependent on the function of age.  sillee me, obviously.

i might would've asked him about that, but i was fighting with the dilation drop effects...mostly trying to walk without my face finding the floor.  or the walls.  or the .... damn, was that a doorframe, a metal door jamb?  why yes it was, and now my nose is a bit wider and flatter than it had been.

i also got a few oddly upsetting items from dept of edu.  what was oddly upsetting was the fact that i still get so upset about the whole thing.  i mean, yes, it would be upsetting, regardless.  but after all the crap they've done, you'd think i'd be past that sorta reaction.  ya know, the hyperventilating, lights strobing, sound waffling, jabbering reaction that includes tears and tremors and panicked emails and calls and sounding like kathy bates's character evelyn on fried green tomatoes when she is utterly bewildered by the senseless cruelty of strangers.

...bah...wha...whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

oh, yeah.  kathy bates has nothing on me.

10 May 2008

Baby Boy Blanket

My guy's baby sister is having a baby boy, due at the end of June.  This will be her fourth child, all boys.  The oldest is nine, then 6, 2, and this one.  eeek!  This is a blanket made of seaspray, a greenish blue fluffiness very appropriate for a baby.  I just can't seem to get nice sharp clear pix with the webcam, so it is a bit fuzzier than the actual yarn is.  I started to make this last night at about nine and here it is eight in the morning, poof! done!


09 May 2008

summary of last week

an excerpt of eMail which covers the last week:

my guy wasn't able to get to my place til about 7:30p fri so i drove us up to chattanooga and we got in around 1 (well 2, eastern time).  the wedding was wonderful saturday afternoon and we had a lovely drive up to hazard that evening, checking in around 8p saturday evening.  then sunday morning, my guy witnessed a disruptive dispute that was escalating in the hotel lobby, which he didn't tell me about until that evening (just as well, given what occurred later on sunday).  we drove east to the breaks interstate park and walked some trails and had a wonderful morning and early afternoon.  i made the remark that brenda got married and we (my guy and i) are on the honeymoon!

that sorta changed tho.  we pulled out of the one overlook parking lot, i was driving.  went around a curve and then there was a dodge ram extended cab truck with a customized paint job (metallic orange and silver with white) jacked up high, with an altered exhaust system that came right up on me, honking his horn and rev'ing his engine and tried to pass me on the twisty curvy steep road (think gatlinburg without the tourist).  at every fork in the road, he stuck right to me.  so finally when there was a stop sign, i got out and read off his front plate (kht-9398; virginia plates~~as russ may say, kentucky hick thugs, as a possible meaning for the plate, wink) to my guy and when i got back in, the truck honked long and a woman started to yell out to me to "come back here bitch".  it was about 5p on a sunday but we had seen the visitor center open earlier so i wasn't sure if they were still open (turns out they weren't) and that was the only place i could think to go.  so i went here, the truck pulled in and blocked me in, i saw another car in the lot and thought it might be the woman that worked at the center.  before i even got my door shut, the man got out of his truck and started toward me, yelling.  he was about 6'4" and huge, fat, big.  the woman threw her teenage son outta the truck (he was maybe 13 or 14) and hollered at her three younger childen in the back seat (extended cab) to shut the fuck up.  she got over to me and making a fist, walloped me in the left side of my head, drove my glasses into my face, got a hold of my hair and started yanking and screaming at me about having respect for her children (?!?).  later i found out that when my guy started to come toward me to be in between me and the man, the man stepped over in front of my guy and said something like, "you don't wanna piece of this" and flipped out a knife.  there were some folks that were driving by and slowed but the woman got off me and the cars passed.  she got back in the truck while the kids were screaming and crying, "stop it mama, please stop it!!  don't hurt her, mama!"  The man kept telling me to get in my car, and i said not until he left.  he said that he was gonna get his brother (the woman was using her cell, maybe texting) and they were gonna teach me a lesson cuz i didn't know who i was fucking with and on and on.  finally they left.  (the back of the truck, the rear window said, "TINY'S TOY").

i drove straight to the lodge where i was sure there'd be an office or at least a ranger.  i got one as he was getting into his truck and started to tell him.  he finally called for someone else who called the county sheriff who came with back up.  it turned out everyone except the sheriff knew exactly who it was.  the sheriff asked me to write it down and they chatted amongst themselves and to my guy while i wrote.  my guy pointed out that if they did this to us, they'd do it again to someone else.  the man just got out of prison and had been pulled over within the past week cuz he was throwing gravel with his jacked up truck wheels.  when i was thru, i told them all that i wanted to make the formal report cuz if he and his brother and friends were waiting for me when i left that i wanted a record so they (authorities) would know what happened.  i told sheriff yates to contact me if the woman did something else and they wanted to prosecute her for other things too.  in order for me to press charges, i'd have to find out exactly who she was and go to the magistrate etc.  i told them that i wouldn't continue all that but that i did want to make sure the authorities knew.  and my guy reiterated that if the folks would do that to us, then what would they do to others.  the park ranger people knew exactly who he was and they were very stern and said that they would make sure he did not enter the park again.  they asked us to come back.  the sheriff and his people said that they would go talk with him at his place.

monday we drove around and looked at apartments.  and all day this thing from sunday had left its mark.  then my guy told me about the hotel spat from sunday morning.  so we got to talking and he is gonna bring this up tomorrow when he meets with the guy at the internship site.  cuz it seems like violence is just under the surface around here lots.  i know that poverty can have an effect and wear on  folks.  but ya know, both of us were rattled and my guy is very upset with himself cuz he keeps saying that he shoulda been protecting me and that he should not have backed down from the guy and all that.  we stopped at applebee's tonight and after dinner, we talked with the manager about what the folks are like in her opinion.   she kept assuring us that we would love it, not to let these isolated incidents bother us but yes, folks here carry guns and most take the law into their own hands and yes, it is a volitile community but really we'd  love it and she always felt safe and never felt in danger.

thing is, this happened in a public park with families and children around the corner.  in broad daylight.  unprovoked.  so i didn't even predict it and see it coming.  how do you prepare for that sort of thing?!?

anyway, the area is beautiful and other than the violence element, we've been having a good time.  my guy met with his folks tuesday and afterwards, we drove to buckhorn lake resort and also saw a huge cathedral of logs, and the oldest building in the county (a log cabin way back on a single lane road that was not marked).  we had a wonderful trip and the drive was lovely.

we left wed.  stopped to see the cumberland falls and spent a few hours there.  it is one of two places in the entire world that a moonbow occurs.  it is like a rainbow, but starts with a bright white light at the base of the falls and continues thru the mist; only visible at the full moon with a clear sky (no cloud cover) and fairly dry air.  pix can be taken, but you must use a delay so that you can capture enough light and get the phenomenon on film.  we had lunch in a lodge right along the overlook onto the river.  it was wonderful as we were the only ones there, and there were tons of birds, and squirrels, and a few snakes and butterflies right outside the window.  it was amazing!

we got home to my place very late wed.  and yesterday, i did lots of errands.  a bit confused still, travel-logged!  love, debra

08 May 2008

poppin' my head in for a moment

well, dudes, more later...i've just late last night gotten home from this past week's whirlwind of wedding, travel, and spats (lots of forthcoming details on those, cuz dude! not every day, or week, or month, or year, or decade does one get walloped along side the head (me) &/or threatened with a knife (my guy) oh yes, more details forth coming).

we are FINE.  no worries, k?

01 May 2008

some pix, finally posted

Brenda's wedding is Saturday, this is for the bride and groom.  This queen sized granny square is one big granny square with all the Lion's Jiffy's heather blue available and then all the sante fe available and then all the caffe available and then all the grass green available from this area's WalMarts (yes, walmartS, I bought out several stores' worth).  I then added several rows when I finished making the rounds as large as I wanted the square to be.  The added rows to the top in grass green are where the pillows would be, cuz ya know mattresses are not square.  Then I edged the it, as the one shows more prominently.

In the foreground of the other, showing the granny square on my queen bed, there is a red rose done in filet. I scanned in a red heart done in filet.  I forgot to turn the it before I uploaded it.  I'm new to filet.

 I also made a variation of a wimple with a looser collar than usual.  It's for my mom who does not like anything too tight around the neck and doesn't like anything too heavy.  So it looks fuzzy but is actually very light and notice the drape?  It flows.  I am also making my mom a shawl in this same yarn, will post pix when thru.  Thought it would be a great mom's day gift for her.

In one of the wimple pix, I am holding a red heart on a white background done in a tapestry method.  I'm new to using tapestry stitch too!  The AmaZING Miss Monica sent me a surprise package including this adorable lil dress, it is a corner bookmark.

And there was this fabulous yellow cotton dishcloth with a butterfly in the center.  You can see front and back pictured here.  Thank you AmaZING Miss Monica!