...Sawtelle...goofy yarn...

...Hmmmnnn...that's never happened before...

...as I was working on my Sawtelle the other day...I came across this big white lump of fiber in the middle of my Caron Simply Soft skein...

...so I didn't want to break the yarn and have 2 more ends to weave in at the end...

...so I spent a few minutes untwisting and removing the white fibers...

...and now I can continue knitting without a knot...

...you'll be happy to know that the new skein really does match...I can't tell any difference in the colour...

...exploring WV...

...Scout's Merit Badge College was held at the West Virginia Institute of Technology...

...it is truly perched on the side of a mountain...

...I saw this old picture in one of the buildings and thought it was neat...

...so I found the building today and tried to get the same view...but because there's another building in front of it now...I couldn't quite match it up...still I love the old buildings...

...all of the buildings are really nestled right up against the side of the mountain...

...and the flat areas are man-made...

...like this patio...with statuary...

...there were stairs absolutely everywhere...

...these led up to a lovely...but steep...trail...I don't think you can read the sign in the picture...but it say's 'Tech Trails'...

...and these really steep stairs lead up to the football stadium...

...right on top of the mountain...I was wondering if they ever have a ball get out of the fence...and have to chase it all the way down the mountain...

...it was such a lovely 'winter...NOT' day...on a lovely campus...we had a really good time...

...what places have you visited recently in your community for the first time?...

...Merit Badge College...

...Scout spent the day at Merit Badge College...he's in that crowd somewhere...

...the meeting hall ceiling...I think I must have a thing about ceilings...as I always seem to have photographs of them...

...in his Communications class...he said that the instructor made the class fun...I'm guessing it would not have otherwise been so...

...at lunch...very crowded...lots of vegan options though...

...meeting up with friends in one of the lounge areas...so glad he's making new friends...all of these photos were candids (most taken through doors)...he didn't even know I was stalking him...

...another gorgeous 'winter' day...and a very successful class...and some exposure to college life as well...

...and for me a few quiet hours of knitting...and a walk around a small WV town...

...from my back deck...

Sunshine and shadows...this is the way the sun sets here in the mountains...it goes down over the hills and you have the rays of sun and shadow through the trees...

...we're already in the shadow...but the hills behind us are still in the sun...

...Sanctuary...

...everybody needs a little...
sanc·tu·ar·y   [sangk-choo-er-ee] noun, plural -ar·ies.
1. a sacred or holy place.
2. Judaism:
a. the Biblical tabernacle or the Temple in Jerusalem.
b. the holy of holies of these places of worship.
3. an especially holy place in a temple or church.
4. the part of a church around the altar; the chancel.
5. a church or other sacred place where fugitives were formerly entitled to immunity from arrest.

...isn't it lovely?...

...Bathrobe repair...

...Scout had snagged a hole in his bathrobe...

...and it needed to be patched...so I cut a little patch out of the doubled part of the front...wait...I'll fix that later...

...just turned under the edges and zig-zagged that in place over the hole...

...the completed patch on the back...

...then I took a scrap of linen...and wrote 'Scout' on it...

...turned under the edges and zig-zagged that in place over the harvest site...

...and voilà!...a neatly patched bathrobe...with a new name tag...now it won't get lost at Bible Camp this summer...

...what have you been repairing lately?...

...Sawtelle progress...

...it's coming along nicely...

...Green Bathroom Project...

...well...this was supposed to be a happy post...

...where I show you a couple of fairly hideous BEFORE pictures...

...with carpet...of course...

...and then I'd show you a couple of IN PROGRESS pictures...of how we found tile under the carpet...and bought some goop that was supposed to clean the carpet goo off the tile...and it did with about 2 hours of work per square foot...but it did work and I was all happy and frugal-like...keeping the seafoam green fixtures...

...because we were saving the BIG bathroom re-do project for the even more hideous bathroom attached to the Master bedroom...

...so with a nifty gadget...

...we removed the wallpaper...

...even just removing the coastline print brightened the room considerably and made it a lot less busy...

...we bought some pale green...really almost white...paint...

...the Man fashioned a new retro greenish light fixture from the bottom of a broken ceiling fan unit...so always check the return/mark-down/damaged section of your hardware store with an open mind...

...we got a neat matching kit from This Old Toilet...and matched a new toilet lid...

...we installed a new faucet...and our retro mid-century bathroom was almost complete...

...and then when we were putting in the wood floors...we had to remove a few tiles for the reducer-threshold thing-y...and we found what looked like some water damaged wood...so...YIKES!...we took up some more tile...and found that the rotten stuff...although completely dry now as no one has used this shower in probably more than a year...will have to be replaced ...that means that the floor tile and the tile around the bathtub will be ruined...

...so being the optimist that I eternally am...and always embracing the unexpected and unwanted as if it was what I had wanted all along...we'll be changing our plans...and keeping the blush bathroom off the Master bedroom for quite a while longer as we repair and replace the Green bathroom...I'm thinking we can even stop calling it the green bathroom...as it will almost certainly be WHITE!...

...a gag gift...

...Scout needed to bring a 'gag gift' to the Valentine's Party at church...and I must say that his first ideas for said gift were just a little bit too gross...but one of his ideas was to wrap up a rock from the woods behind our house...we were all in the car (probably on our way to or from the hardware store) when this idea popped out...and it put me in mind of the old 'Pet Rocks' from the 70s...so I said to Scout's Papa...'remember those Pet Rock things from the 70s'...and so...Scout was intrigued...and thought that a 'Pet Rock' might just be a better gag gift than a dirty ole rock from the woods...

...so when we got home...he did some research...(i.e., Wikipedia)...and did some composing and cutting and pasting...and made his own little 'Pet Rock'...

...and with the information he gleaned from the internet...

...and some of his own funny words...

...and some pictures aquired with his mad cut and paste skilz (wonder where he inherited those)...

...he fashioned a funny little booklet on 'The Care and Training of your Pet Rock'...

...it was hilarious...

...and he made the Pet Rock a box home (leftover from one of our new shades) that was the perfect size...simply punched some holes (so it can breathe) and lined it with some crumpled paper strips...for a nice soft 'bed'...

...it was quite the hit at the party and was 'swapped' at the White Elephant game more than any other...