Multiple Choice? How About All of the Above!

So what happened to make 'lil 'ol me fall off the blog planet for the past two weeks???

As my usually frequent posts suddenly stopped you probably have suspicions as to whats been going on...

...if you suspect the renovation/redecoration work swallowed entire days and even evenings as tradesmen arrived early, left late and had a voracious capacity for more supplies and the next design decision to be made, necessitating daily driving all over the city for tile and flooring and counters etc. etc. etc., you'd be right.

OR

...if you suspect that March Break plans for Number One Son, made in advance of undertaking the work noted above still happened in addition to keeping the reno work on track you'd be right too!

OR

...sadly if you suspect that perhaps my brother's ill health has worsened and so more time and attention has been required to properly support him in his home, as is his current desire, you'd also be correct.

OR

...if you remember when this was a knit blog complete with posts that pertained to knitting of all things then you might suspect that all the above has all but sidelined my knitting for the past two weeks (although it feels like two years) you too would be bang on target with those suspicions as well!

BUT

The ultimate issue has been that little problem with my computer mouse. When even right clicking with the aid of a hammer wouldn't make things happen I was frozen out of my machine. Amidst the craziness I did manage one day last week to drop by a big box office store - it was beside a big box home improvement store - I grabbed a new wireless mouse, briefly imagining a very late night or very early morning post might be within my grasp but - the wireless thingy for the new mouse didn't get along with the old keyboard's wireless thingy. I was still frozen out. Yesterday, en route to my brother's with the day's home cooked lunch and dinner delivery I returned the mouse and bought a combo keyboard/mouse pack but arrived home to find Mr. Computer down and very unhappy about the power being shut off to his quadrant of the house earlier in the morning.  While cooking dinner last night I reset the settings, did the diagnosis and reported the problem and ta da - here I am!

If you could hear the commotion around me right now you'd be hard pressed to imagine my daily companions of the past five weeks might well be saying "au revoir" as early as tomorrow afternoon. But I know, having closely followed and supplied their labours that all the noise is the sound of their final push.

They will leave, in their wake, a radically improved domestic landscape. It will not be complete of course - with lots of work for me to do to really finish the updated rooms and clean and repaint the halls and doorways that have suffered with demo and construction traffic. But they will be gone and my days will once again be my own and my mouse and keyboard will be getting along and I will even be confidently right clicking again - I can almost smell the yarn already!

I haven't yet peeked at email or Gmail. I haven't Ravelled or visited any one's blog and I likely won't today either. I'll be dashing next to the dining room to put the second coat of paint on the newly repaired wall where the window was replaced. Then its off to my brother's with today's delivery before starting to paint the new baseboard and door trim in the lower level.

With all this progress all around me, could getting back to finishing up Tangled Yoke be far behind? I think not! Thanks for dropping by!

A Georgia Moment

There is a magical moment on March Break car trips from here in Ontario down to Florida when we get out of the car - sometime on the second day - usually in Georgia. I swing the door open and the air outside is warm! In the early, cool dark morning of these trips just a few hours previous, the doors of the car close against a mountain chill as we load up for the final day of driving  from somewhere in the Virginias I think.  The shock and then that thrilling sense of warmth outside is always a highlight of the trip for me.

Its different from the feeling upon emerging from an airport at a southern destination. Having come from the depths of a Canadian winter and just having endured the seasonal deprivation of usually many hours in airport air locks and pressurized cabins, that heat is overwhelming and the accompanying humidity for me, induces a slight notion of suffocation. The Georgia moment is more gentle; more of genuine warmth than full on heat.

This year, with work on the house underway and bank accounts depleted by associated expenses there'll be no trip at March Break for us and to be honest I've been kind of lamenting the absence of an opportunity to get a away - until this morning.

I walked out the door to take Number One Son to school and there it was - that Georgia feeling! Warm air - right there in my very own Toronto driveway! Yesterday, skiing a couple of hours north of here we were bundled up. But this morning I loosened my scarf, I opened my coat - there wasn't even the usual chill in the steering wheel and stick shift to make my unprotected hands ache with cold! 

Having grown up in Toronto I know there's more snow and cold yet to come this season but I also know, once we get a Georgia moment in the weather, our own Florida-esque weather isn't far behind!

Have a great (very late winter) weekend wherever you are! (Unless you're dropping by from Down Under where I guess its getting on to late summer!)

'Could Have Sworn This Was a KNIT Blog...

Sadly, there's little knitting going on chez Sel and Poivre. Instead its all renovation all the time so if I'm going to blog about anything - the construction topic will have to be it. I'm scrambling to stay a step ahead of the contractor with selections, choices and ordering/picking up materials because they are cruising along at a good pace. In fact the final coat of mud was applied to the new walls today.

A big part of yesterday and today was choosing final paint colours.

I enjoy picking paint - especially picking colours in the fantasy stage of a project when the possibilities in a fanned out paint deck seem limitless. 
At the start of redecorating a room any thing's possible. I variously envision the space in vibrant equal tones or maybe in a rainbow of soft milky neutrals. I dream of deep, dramatic, brooding colours or a neutral room with one hit of bright, vibrant colour. The paint deck is great for this part of a project. Its inspiring and lets me pretend I know what I'm doing!

Plus, while shopping, I find the unfettered potential in the paint deck in the bottom of my bag keeps the reality of, well, reality from wrecking everything. Budgets, space constraints, doors and hallways that preclude delivery of over sized items and even other people having their own opinions aren't nearly as pleasant as the blissful, any thing's possible world of colour that the paint deck embodies.

Once into the project though, reality gets into the paint deck. Yesterday it was the reality of minimizing the impact of what can only be described as the "acreage" of the new television. It reduced that array of colours to this...

I was hoping to find a colour that would visually "melt" the TV into the wall - along with all the blinking bits and pieces and speakers that go along with it. I determined that dark grey was the best colour for that but which deep grey is best for the room? It took a ridiculous amount of time and energy to arrive at my final selection and that was only one of four colours I'll ultimately be using in that one room. So I persevered and as of tonight I feel like all the paint selections for the basement work are done.

Unfortunately, as of this morning I determined I also need to re think a couple of rooms on the upper floor and possibly apply some colours from downstairs, upstairs as well to tie everything in together.  Knitting is getting the short stick again tonight hence a blog post that 's devoid of knitting. Kind of odd - since I could have sworn this was a KNIT blog!

Lupie has very kindly nominated me for this award! Thank you so much Lupie! This comes as a wonderful surprise here in the midst of a time when when my knitting, and blogging are both suffering terribly at the hands of my little basement renovation project. 

Passing along an award like this is an interesting exercise as my blog roll is very fluid - a few core sites but the rest change frequently.  (That's why I don't list my blog roll in the sidebar) My "Favourites" list  includes blogs I currently enjoy as well as those I used to frequent but generally don't visit any more but which I might want to catch up with later. (Designers like Brooklyn Tweed who maintain their blogs as on line pattern stores where they once were bonafide blogs are filed here as are blogs I enjoy but whose focus has shifted from knitting to quilting or kids etc.). The time I have for reading blogs is finite. I'm careful about where I'll spend it so as not to eat into real live knitting time!

So I subscribe only to the knit blogs I want to keep up to date with. These are my must visit blogs so I think its appropriate to pass this lovely award onto bloggers from that list.  

Reading the blogs listed below is like having a pleasant visit with the bloggers themselves. They are generally about knitting I find inspiring, have a  pleasant atmosphere and are updated regularly. Sometimes they also feature the likes of spinning, beading or weaving. I love such posts as they provide vicarious thrills via things I'll never find time for in my actual life.

So here they are...

Acorn to Oak - Visit this blog and you're transported to sunny California -  the mountains, the ocean and beach, the desert, Californian cities as well as knitting, spinning, the occasional recipe and peek at adorable pooch Salsa . 

Brenda Knits - A "neighbour" from Ontario, I enjoy Brenda's wit and the weekly reports from her knit group who produce a wide variety of FO's with a rapidity that makes me wonder just what's in the local water!

Laine de Bergere - a blog I've started following fairly recently. Lovely photography that takes me out of the city and into the countryside.  I'd visit just to look at the photo of colour work knitting that tops her blog! 

Made by Rae - Rae knits but generally posts about her sewing pursuits. To be honest I generally don't find sewing to be an interesting topic (Don't get me wrong I've spent more time sewing than knitting by a factor of at least 10, I just don't enjoy reading about it) But I love this blog. Its lovely to look at, Rae's writing is the clear and concise stuff of a busy, creative, young mother. A visit to her her blog feels like stopping by the sunny yard of a friendly neighbour.

Curlerchik - my first commenter - perhaps first visitor to by blog but hers is a favourite blog as she often provides those vicariously satisfying posts about weaving and beading - her knitting is pretty awesome too!  We also live close enough to each other that her occasional posts of sunrises or hot air balloon sitings feature exactly what I just saw out my window - shrinking the knit blog world down to size a bit!

Bottom line - I know some bloggers reason if a blog is theirs it is for them.  I rather think a blog should be of the blogger but for the readers. All the blogs I'm nominating offer me something I value when I visit! Thanks to Lupie (I can't nominate her since she nominated me) and the blogs listed above, your posts so often brighten my day - I know that justifies an award for sure!