Leaving the house is a good thing

The days are growing shorter and colder in Winter-peg, and I want to hunker down in the house, sit on the couch, knit and drink wine. Not so different from summer, where I sit outside and drink wine. The difference is, in summer I have energy to do things like... clean the litter box.

So, today I had to meet my brother, sister-in-law and their adorable child at an ungodly early hour (10 AM), in order to return their vehicle to them so they could go home.

I had a master plan, in order to get out of the house. Without a master plan, I am useless.

I was going to buy them breakfast, in my old neighbourhood, and then I would not allow them to drive me home. I would go shopping, buy myself a coffee, and do some knitting in a coffee shop.

It worked! We had a lovely breakfast in a delightful greasy spoon (the food was every bit as good as it was when I ate there every Sunday). Adorable niece was good as gold, charming everyone. I presented two pairs of "welcome to 30" socks.

One for each sister-in-law. Have I mentioned how amazing my sisters-in-law are? I have never been close to my brothers. I left home when they were just kids, so I don't really know them as men. We are totally different. I am flaky, artistic, emotional (so they would say. There's more to me than that). They are rednecks. We love each other, and are extremely loyal, but it's the women they married that have brought us together as a family. Oh - and both my sisters-in-law are accountants. What does that say? Especially since my mom's a book-keeper. Freud would have a field day with us. That is so not the point, however.

Later, I indulged in some retail therapy. I used to do this a lot, but for the most part, I've stopped. However, even newly-thrifty people deserve a treat, now and then.

My purchases were the following:

I have wanted a pair of Blundstones for years. However, such boots never really fit into my nice-skirt-and-ironed-shirt professional wardrobe. Now that I work in construction, can wear jeans to the office and occasionally climb honking big piles of sand, I can justify the $180. I wore them out of the shop, and I am thrilled. My feet will be very happy.

And, even though I do not need more sock yarn, and Christmas is coming, I felt the need to buy bright-coloured sock yarn. For me, unless the socks tell me otherwise. Since I just spent $180 on shoes, and I refuse to go to the mall until February, I need more wool socks to wear inside my new boots. I think, also that knitting grey socks right now has also pushed me towards colour. Lordy, I love me bright colours.

And, this had arrived, so I picked it up (note that the all-ready bent cover is being held down by a box o' wine):I had been drunk, divorced and covered in cat hair long before Crazy Aunt Purl came along. In fact, I have found my path, and love it, thanks very much. However, I still struggle with other things (like getting out of the house and cleaning the litter box, see above), and I wanted to read her book for whatever motivational jewels it may contain. I will never forget this sentence from one of her blog posts "My brand of happy is not sold in a store." How true, and rather ironic, considering the topic of this post.

Anyway, I sat in the coffee shop, knitted for a birthday on Friday and read. I'm halfway throughout the book. I think I'll make the knitting deadline, since this was only about an hour-and-a-half's work;

On second thought, blocking may be a problem. Let's see how my TV watching goes tonight, before I make any promises I can't keep.

The pattern is based on the Queen Bee Hat from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation. J requested a scarf to match the oatmeal hat and mitts I made for her last year, but I just can't bring myself to it. A red scarf in the same pattern will have to suffice.

I firmly believe, when it comes to fashion, that one does not want to be too "matchy."

And that says a lot about how I go out the door every morning. But that's a topic for another day. Back to that book now...