My husband's brothers and their fantastic wives came into town and we cried, laughed, and just generally celebrated Gloria and enjoyed each others company. We don't get to see each other very often since the middle brother, George, lives in Nashville and Chris (the youngest) lives in San Juan Capistrano. Because of this, the wives have never had too much time together to get to know each other. Now our husbands may not be so excited that we got to share so many notes. However, some real bonding occurred and I think we all found it a great experience, even though the circumstances were sad. I say often that today is a gift - that's why it's called the present, so I wish you all the best present you can have today!!

As always, happy knitting and crocheting!

  Now that I have your attention I will explain what I mean by one stitch at a time and this motto is going to help keep me sane during an unscheduled kitchen remodel.

About a year and a half ago, we got a deal on some lovely maple wood kitchen cabinets from a friend of ours who had replaced theirs. So we used a few of them in our rental house to remodel the 55+ year old kitchen, saving the rest for our house. Well, the balance has been stored in my husband's office for all this time and our WONDERFUL craftsman, Erik, gave us a little nudge over the weekend. BOOM! We were off and running or really, demolishing, as the case may be. Our house is 25 years old and this is a long over-due project since there was never really any thought put into the space on how to utilize it to its fullest. Thus, here we are deciding what will go where, while living out of boxes and making coffee in the bathroom.

Our current kitchen

We are figuring approximately three weeks to finish and I am sure that this is going to get worse before it's gets better. Hence, the one stitch at a time motto! Naturally, I will knit to keep myself sane (like I need an excuse) and will keep you posted as to the progress of said insanity! :)

Our current kitchen storage

The good news is that we are already down to choosing our flooring options (this all started Monday, May 2nd) which means we're getting along pretty fast. The layout is a real fun part of the process and Erik and I have been working together on various projects for the past few years so we tend to be in sync on the ideas front, which makes this step really fun. So we now have all of the cabinets in our garage ready to go in and I can't wait to shift, fiddle, and plan the project. My goal with this kitchen is to have as much counter space as possible while creating a more open airy space. *Sigh* This is where the challenging part of the project comes in.

Starting to look better

Speaking of knitting to keep some sanity, I have finished my second pair of Turkish Bed Socks and am about 1/3rd of the way through my Cocoknits Liesl. Endless stockinette is right up my alley!  I am using the Koigu for the socks and some stash linen yarn for the Liesl and have even considered pulling out my (so close to finished) Summer Open Cardigan! This is serious as am I loosing my mind...finish something, horrors!! LOL!!! I crack myself up hee hee!! For now I will just try to stay in the one stitch at a time mode and have survived the first week with two more to go! Just keep knitting, just keep knitting, just keep knitting and so on...

As always, happy knitting and crocheting!

Jeanne

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