Tag Archives: random thoughts

A new direction…with wine

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When I started this blog, I planned on writing about knitting.  Hence the name: Knitting in Flashes.  I’m expanding my writing to include not only knitting, decluttering, redecorating, sewing, and other crafting delights, but the rest of my life, which I thought was going to end last night.

Mr. Aitch and I have friends.  We have friends that drink wine.  We have friends that occasionally give us wine.

Last night we tried one of the wines we recently received.  It’s made by some hippies in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Mr. Aitch poured generous glasses for both of us. 

The bouquet was flowery with hints of raspberries and honey.  It also had touches of  “fragrant” tea and raisins.  Whatever.  I like raspberries and honey.  I drink tea.  It was ok.  Sweet but ok.  For the first few sips. 

I was enjoying our lovely dinner of roasted chicken, mashed potatoes,and corn and sipping the wine when all of a sudden I grabbed my chest to pull out the burning arrow that I was sure pierced my bosom and set me on fire.

My friends, this was not your everyday heartburn.  This was heart inferno. 

Mr. Aitch, the ever attentive husband that he is, noticed my extreme discomfort and rushed to get me some strong antacids.  Fifteen minutes later the flames were extinguished and I knew I would live.

I should have known that when Mr. Aitch took one sip and wanted to give me the rest of his glass, that something was wrong.  One sip for Mr. Aitch  was one sip too many.

I am the most important person in the world

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…or should have been to the bag boy at the market this morning.

I try to help out the person who’s bagging my purchases when I unload my groceries from the cart.  I keep the refrigerated things together so they can be bagged together.  I detest plastic bags and have a variety of bags I reuse.  Some are insulated for cold items so they stay cold and don’t sweat.  The bag boy was yakking to the bag boy in the next lane and wasn’t paying attention to what he was doing.  None of my refrigerated things got into the insulated bags.  Not really a big issue since it wasn’t above 50 degrees today but it still ticked me off.

The checkout girl started helping the bag boy and noticed the insulated bags had not been used.

I said, “He’s not paying attention.”

Bag Boy, “Huh?”

I said, “It doesn’t matter now.”

Bag Boy, “Wha…?”

“Pay attention to what you’re doing, not to your friend over there,”  I said calmly.

Funny how quiet the store got  and this is a pretty big store.  You could have heard a pin drop.  My groceries were quickly bagged and I was out of there.

I worked retail for many, many years and the customer in front of me was the most important person in the world during that transaction.  This was called customer service.

Times are tough out there and businesses need customers.  If you work in retail, do yourself and your employer a favor.  Pay attention to the customer in front of you.   Be courteous.  Be professional.  They are paying your salary.

Mirror, mirror

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Our dinner party turned out wonderfully.  Even though I had a few green beans fall under the steaming basket and cause a bit of a smoky flavoring, one of my friends said she really liked the smokiness.  I didn’t tell her what happened.

I gave the slippers to my friend and she loved them.  I think they were the first knitted item I’ve given her.  I must remedy that.

Great food, great wine, great company.

I promised a picture of the wine glass markers I made the other night.  (Click on the picture to enlarge.)  They were a big hit with the women.  The men, well, they were mildly impressed.

Wine Glass Markers

A few nights ago while I was setting out these wine glasses, I looked up and saw my reflection in the mirror above the buffet.  Sometimes I’m surprised by what I see.

Most of the time I just see the parts of the face and not the whole.  Sometimes I see a tired woman.  Sometimes I see a sad woman.  And sometimes I see an old woman I just don’t recognize.  But this time a contented, confident, relaxed, and (if I may be so bold to say) beautiful woman looked back at me.  And I was surprised.  She’s my favorite woman who I see in the mirror. 

Every now and then I see myself as beautiful and that evening was one of those times.  It completely caught me off guard. 

Who do you see in the mirror?

Background info

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I grew up in a family where people made things.  They recycled things before it became fashionable.  My parents and grandparents lived through the Depression in the 1930’s.  They had a vegetable garden and canned those veggies for the winter.  We had quilts made from scraps of fabric used for our clothes.  Braided rugs made from old wool coats, suits and skirts.  I have two of those braided rugs in my home today.  When I look at them, I see pieces of skirts and dresses I used to wear, suit jacket scraps from my aunt handmade clothing, my sister’s old skirts.  Fond memories.

We also had redesigned blouses, skirts, and dresses made from out of style clothing.  Our clothes were custom-made and the first time I went to a store and tried on a dress that didn’t fit, I was shocked.  Store-bought clothes could be altered but never the way a custom garment fits.

Oversized mohair sweaters were the BIG thing when I was in junior high.  My grandmother FORBID us to buy one.  But my aunt bought one each for my sister and me.  We weren’t allowed to wear them around my grandmother for the longest time but eventually she found out.

My grandmother taught me to knit and sew.  My aunt introduced us to be paint, construction paper and felt.  My mom helped us with papier-mache and rubber stamps and provided a place to be creative.  We made spatter paint and stencil cards with felt and sequin embellishments.  So cool to a kid.

So my interest in all arts, crafts and handiwork came from those people as well as my home economics and art teachers.  I have friends who got me involved in cross stitch, ceramics, jewelry making, paper crafting.

We’re having a dinner party tomorrow night.  Last night I cleaned off the island in my kitchen, set the table and made wine glass name tags.  I’ll post a picture of those tomorrow.

I knit a few rows on the slippers and have four more rows before the decrease rows and then I will have one finished.  I don’t know if I’ll get the other finished by tomorrow or not.  They are a belated birthday present for one of my guest/friends.  I could give her one of the other pairs I have in my stash but I picked these colors just for her.  Again, pictures tomorrow.