Feel that chill in the air? We're having a li'l blackberry winter here in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. I don't mind it a bit, though; it sure makes a nice cup of coffee seem extra good. Here's a look at my purple clematis.
Goodman and I went to Virginia to see Youngest and her DH over the weekend. We had a good visit with them and a very nice time taking in several of their area nurseries. We stopped at the first two and just enjoyed looking, but at the last one this beautiful hanging basket of petite petunias called Superbells caught my eye almost immediately. Youngest noticed how much I liked them and snapped it up for me for Mother's Day. (It looks even better in person. :)
Truly, I'd planned to just look at all the nurseries' offerings, but this burgundy petunia was too pretty to resist. I do love burgundy flowers and petunias especially.
On the way back home we decided to take a back road near the mountains, and what do you think we passed right by? Uh huh, the Lodge Factory Outlet Store in Sevierville. It's one of my favorite places to browse. I could spend a lot of time in there. It takes a while to look at all their cast iron pots and pans and fireplace accessories, etc., but this skillet stood out right away. Yep, those bears followed me all the way home.
Remember the
circular shawl I started a few weeks ago? Well, I've run into two problems with it. First, a disheartening mistake further back than the ones I'd already redone, and then..the book that the pattern is in has vanished. I'm at a loss as to what's happened to it and, frankly, I don't want to think about it right now. See, we took four or five boxes of books to the Habitat Thrift Store recently...oh, yeah. Sigh. So, pressing ever onward, I started crocheting this completely enthrawlin' little shawl. The yarn is CotLin from Knitpicks in their Linen colorway. I'm about one-third finished with the body of the shawl and will start the border very soon, hopefully.
Hope your week is a good 'un. :)
It always amazes me to see this...
...turn into this. Well, I don't actually see it happen, but still. (Fuchsia, it is.)
I finished the main part of my crochet shawl and the picot edging on the long/neck side of it. The lower sides...that's another story.
Here's what it's supposed to look like after the edging is attached. I'm not sure if it's me being a lunkhead or if the directions are less than clear. We'll see if I can muddle through it in a few days. 
Meantime, lettuce dine (take out crochet related irritations) on wilted lettuce. 
I know you're just dyin' to know how to make this great tastin' southern salad, so roughly...a pile of leaf lettuce (torn in frustration), a sprinklin' of apple cider vinegar, dash of salt, bacon crumbled (up maddeningly), a green onion or two chopped with intent to...then wilt/kill the whole mess with some smokin' hot bacon grease. I have to go get the leftovers out of the fridge now...see y'all next week.
