From Mom's House

The plant pictured above is a Peace Lily. It is from my Mom's house. It is one of the things I brought home. One thing I can tell you about my mother is that she loved to garden and take care of house plants. I couldn't save them all but I did bring home 3. I have the Peace Lily, an azalea and a geranium.

I did some research on how to take care of the lily which I learned isn't a true lily. The most supportive and informational place I found to learn about the care of this plant was at HGTV.com. I haven't had one of these plants before and would like to keep it for a long time. Right now it is living on the table in my eat in kitchen so I can see it and remember her several times a day.

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

Finally Friday

Not really sure why I might be happy it is Friday. Not tied to jobs or school schedules anymore, weekends don't mean much. However for those of you who spend time looking forward to the weekend I hope it is a great one.

My youngest sister left Mom's house yesterday. She will be the last of us to ever be there. Now the realtor and the trustee of my stepfather's trust take over. They are planning to get the yard cleaned up for curb appeal, paint the inside of the house and get a professional cleaning done including the carpets. After that the house will go on the market. The sale proceeds will be split among the 5 of us, that is Mom's 5 children. 

The house wasn't a childhood home for me and I won't miss going there. It is, however, grandma's house for all the grandkids. I suppose they may all have some feelings about that part of their childhood being gone to other people. I hope whoever buys it has at least half the joy that my nieces, nephews and children had when visiting there.

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

Bing Image Creator

I have spent some time playing with a new online toy. Have you heard of Bing's Image Creator? I can't remember how I leaned of it but I have had fun playing with it. This tool works to create an image with the words you type in. You can use style words like watercolor, digital art or in the style of an artist. Next you need to use words to describe what you want to see. You can even include mood words.

With that said find a few of my creations below.

Playing with words to get an image from your mind to the screen can be fun but sometimes frustrating. If you would like to play with this too click on this link - Bing Image Creator. Let me know if you try this in the comments. 

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

Considering Online Marketplaces

Happy Wednesday! I don't know what the day will bring but want to start with a positive attitude. 

We finished the last episode of the last season of Mrs. Maisel last night. I really loved this show and will miss it. The monologue she did on the Gordon Ford show was one of the best she ever did in the show. I won't give away anything else. I still don't really like the jumping around of the timeline this season had but it is what it is.

While upstairs doing laundry I started knitting a mindless scarf. This one is the last that I have planned out of the Lion Brand Shawl in a Ball. I bought, I think 6 different colorways at very good prices and when done will have a triangular shawl and a wide scarf knit on the bias out of each color. Hope they sell.

Speaking of selling...

I am considering moving from Etsy to eBay and Amazon Handmade. There are no up front costs with either of those and both sites have more traffic that Etsy. Anyone have any experiences with eBay or Amazon Handmade they would like to share? Comments are open and I would love to hear from you.

I don't like what is going on with Etsy concerning strange bot take downs of products and holds on payments that are happening so often these days. On top of that I still feel that Etsy has lost control of their marketplace. I have a shop that I have been reporting for months. It is so very obviously a reseller. This shop lists all its wholesalers as production partners and its listings as handmade and it is so infuriating! Let's face it, Etsy hasn't been what its founder imagined for a very long time and I miss that Etsy. Whoops, slipped off the positive attitude already. Damn.

Deep breath and I'll be moving on to twitter now.

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

Still Hurts

I didn't do all my stairs yesterday and probably today either. I spent a lot of time using an ice pack on my left hip. Took some ibuprofen too. This morning on waking up the painful hip is still there. Am I suffering from the dreaded sciatica? Isn't that just for old people? LOL

So I'm thinking lots of gentle walking and more ice for me today. The ice packs help and give me an excuse to sit and knit. I am working on a shawl done in Lion Brand's Summer Nights and the pattern is Reyna (Find the pattern on Ravelry)  I am adding a wider garter stitch border to mine. I really like the look of the mesh bands combined with squishy garter stitch in the pattern. 

Stopping this post here for today so I can get my retweet favors done and then get the ice pack out. I am going to combine ice with gentle strolls through the house and ibuprofen and see if I can't get this discomfort to go away. I've got plans that don't include this kind of time sucking distraction.

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

Staying Fit

While staying at my Mom's house to care for her and then clear her house my exercise routines were abandoned. I suppose I could have taken walks and probably should have but I did not. So now I am starting to make efforts to get back in regular routines.

I live in a 2 story house and I am using the house to get myself in better shape. According to my FitBit and its app climbing 10 sets of stairs a day is a good goal. Doing that doesn't take much time and while not easy, is doable and I have done 10 flights a day for the last 4 days as exercise along with the other sets I do just normally in a day. Yay me!

I don't know if it is connected to my sets of stairs but this morning is bad. I feel achy all through my hips, lower back and right knee. I do want to keep going so I will see how I feel after a cup or two of coffee, publishing this post and doing my retweet favors. Is it amusing to think about what one 68 year old lady will do to get another green star?

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

What We Are Watching

Jim and I have started watching season 5 of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" on Amazon Prime Video. It will be the last season as far as I know. I have thoroughly enjoyed the show but this season is a bit strange. A few episodes in and I keep wondering what the writers were thinking because they keep throwing in random scenes in the future. These scenes take the story from the 1960s to the 1980s and I don't think they add to the show at all. 

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As usual I am watching and enjoying and Jim doses off after a few minutes and it is only around 7 pm, after dinner, when we settle in the living room to watch. He complained last night about feeling tired all the time. He also is complaining of cold feet and legs. He has also changed the dosing schedule for the medicine he takes to keep his vasculitis under control from every week to every 2 weeks. I worry about this all the time and will keep an eye on him.

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!