Back at it!

Hi Megs,

I guessed that Rushka was chewing on Dick Chaney's head - good one Rushka!

Hope you had a nice Easter. We had a snow storm on Easter day. It was colder and we had more snow on Easter than Christmas. Nuts. My garden rabbit got covered! Not so Happy Easter Bunny. My crocuses were up but the also got covered in snow. It is now melting.

The renovations are done! We have cleaned up, put stuff back in the rooms, thrown out about 40 bags of junk, taken a bunch to storage and are we happy to be back to normal. Two weeks of crazy. When we moved here in 1996 it was so rushed, the house in Ottawa sold so fast that we just dumped stuff on the van. While we had done a lot downstairs the upstairs was just as the former owners left it. Now we have made it ours! Feels so good. Here are some pictures.

The Balcony - left and right.

Below left the "elephant bedroom" (New Hope Gray), our bedroom (Davenport Tan), my studio (Seaforth Sage), Dad's study (with Dad in it) (Depot Buff). You can see there is a lot of wood! But it is all so beautiful and warm. Dad's study has cork - with a green tinge. Very soft.












And things are a little less messy in my studio but a lot is going on in there. Love my stuff!

We do love the way it looks. So warm and cozy and once all the wood dust gets out it will really be nice.

Your rug looks "interesting" - a conversation piece for sure. The colours are nice but I guess every T-shirt is not the same.

The Knitting Guild got a total boot out of you knitting a hot water bottle cover! They follow our blog and got a real hoot out of it. Wondered how "old" you were. I mentioned you had a birthday but that is as far as I went. I explained about cold African winters with no central heating. I am sure that San Francisco can be damp and the comfort of a comfortable hot water bottle will be just perfect! You are funny!

And speaking of birthdays - here are your presents - they do exist - I just haven't mailed them yet. I promise I will do it tomorrow. I also included some Easter presents- for next year. There are also some presents for Rushka. I am still looking for the Robe. I have e-mailed Holt Renfrew but have no answer yet.

Now - I cannot believe you fogged your entrelac! Really proud of you. You are your mother's daughter. I have done this so many times (before it was called frogging) when stuff just didn't look right. And well that you did because it will be so much nicer. I find that if I don't do this and finish it with it just not being right that I never wear it, don't even give it away because I don't want to inflict it on someone else, so it goes to the basement and then out in a clothes bag to some poor charity. The kinder thing is to just rip it and get it over with. Like taking a bandage off a cut. Just do it! It looks so much nicer and "right" with the colours making the basket weave. It is just time - and time goes by and you will have either something you hate or something you like. I didn't realize it had a gold line in it. This really comes out in your new version. Really nice yarn.

I just did the same thing with my fourth shawl (of the five I am making for Brazil) I changed yarn and there was just a slight line of change of colour so it frogged over 20 long rows (on the triangle - yikes). The yarn is hand spun so has variations which are nice - but not in a long line. But now it looks so much better. Just hated that line. Then I found a mistake in the garter stitch (can you believe I made a mistake in the GARTER stitch (momentary loss of mind). I didn't "garter" it. So I went down with a rug hook and reworked 8 stitches 13 rows down - one row of stitches at a time. But - not it looks good and I am motivating again!

I have hardly picked up anything else. With the house being so crazy all I had the heart for (and not even that) was the shawls. I did have to drive to Halifax to get a yellow fever needle so I took the entrelac and worked on it while I waited to see if I would die from a reaction to the needle. Nothing happened but I did get a tier done. Had lunch with one of my CP gals, picked out some new light fixtures for the bedrooms & Dad's study (the problem with painting is then other things look seedy) and drove home.

Clay got back home to Toronto from the Barbados and then he DROVE from Toronto to New York with friends. He loved it - has a friend from high school living in Brooklyn - and now is going to renew his efforts to get his US passport. He also may regrow his beard and hair. He needs a change.

We are really looking forward to coming to see you in SF. We have a hotel and noticed that the picture of the lobby has one of those wonderful lamps we "almost" bought in the 70's and have kicked ourselves since then. It keeps coming back to haunt us.

Really feels good to be in my redone studio. My dyeing place is almost done in the basement - electricity is in but no face plates yet. Can't wait until it is done and now that the renovations are done I will have time to get down there.

Take care - see you both soon.

Love ya, Mom, XOP