18 Under 8

I thrifted a lot of yarn that (weirdly) no one challenged me over during the bidding, and won it for $7.99. It arrived last week right before Thanksgiving.

Altogether there were 18 big skeins of yarn in the box, mostly acrylic with a few wool blends. Quite a few were missing labels but they're likely supersaver or big baby yarn brands. Nothing smells at all, and all but one of the skeins are in pristine condition. One got something dribbled on it, which I already saw from the listing pics (and that was probably why no one else wanted the lot.) Luckily acrylic yarn washes up nicely.

200 gram Caron Cakes like these run $19.99 on Amazon.

Scarfie yarn costs $11.99 per skein on Amazon. My guy and I stopped by JoAnn last week for some fake pointsettias and I noticed even on sale yarn prices are astronomical, so I'm glad I've been able to thrift mine.

Why did I invest in another lot of yarn, you ask? I'm going to do another calendar project next year, and for my idea I need a pile of yarn. Stay tuned to hear the details.

Some Tough News

Ah, the holidays. They always bring calamity into my life, but this year they're outdoing themselves.

Okay, I won't blame Santa for this gift. Having diabetes means plenty of calamity, especially as the disease progresses. I'm having more trouble controlling my blood sugar lately, even while eating the same diet as before and faithfully taking my meds and exercising. That's a sign. My doctor had me take a carotid ultrasound test, and the results showed that my neck arteries are twice as blocked as they were last year (which may explain why my hair is falling out lately. You need a decent blood supply to keep hair follicles alive.) Despite my strict diet my cholesterol has been super high lately, but unfortunately I can't tolerate any of the meds that might lower it.

What does this mean? Well, if I can't control my blood sugar I'll have to start taking insulin by needle, which will be more dangerous and may have consequences. And if we can't figure out how to lower my cholesterol, eventually my arteries will become completely clogged, which means I likely die by stroke or a heart attack some time in the near future.

Yes, it's depressing, especially as I've stepped up my exercise and adhere strictly to my diet, but it's also not unexpected. I've always known my life expectancy has been shortened by diabetes; according to the latest calculations we lose on average 6 years, so that means I might live to be 71 if I'm lucky -- only I've never been lucky. :) I'm probably at stage three of atherosclerosis, so I'd shave off another five years of my life. 66 is probably a more realistic life expectancy for me.

I'll be 66 in 2027.

I will keep fighting, of course. I will go on the needle if I have to to control my blood sugar. I'll exercise more, eat more carefully and try to lose more weight. I'll stay optimistic, too. But with all that, I think it's time to start seriously considering how I want to live from now until 2027.

A Semi-Sweet Trip

I've been out of sugarfree candy for a while now, so my guy took me on a trip to the outlet store where I usually buy most of my sweets for a discount.

Like everywhere else prices have soared, especially on the sugarfree items. Some had ballooned out of my budget range. That was a bit depressing, as I already have pretty limited options on snacks, but ce la vie.

Here's my little haul. With the baking chips I plan to make a batch of sugarfree toll house cookies during Christmas as a present just for me.

Not So Faux

I want to make a couple of winter projects with faux pearls, and decided to thrift them. One 7 lb. lot of vintage pearls on ShopGoodwill.com seemed perfect for my needs, plus it had one interesting necklace that caught my eye. So I bid on it and won it for $16.00.

The majority of the lot is made of freshwater and faux pearls, and a few of the nacklaces were falling apart. Despite that, I got two pairs of pearl stud earrings I'd be happy to wear, plus more than enough pearls for my projects . . . and three very nice bonuses; two of which are quite hefty.

These three strands of dyed freshwater pearls are new and marked $3.99 each. I often use these when I make my crazy quilted bags.

This was the necklace that caught my eye; it's in a very nice black and white velvet presentation jewelry case, which usually means it's worth something -- and it is. It's a cultured pearl necklace with a 10k gold clasp, according to the manufacturer's card that came with it, and was probably given to a lady by her employer when she retired. The stock info on the card dates the piece back to December 2002, but judging by the pristine condition the original owner never took it out of the box.

I did a little research on the company that made it and what their necklaces are selling for now, and turns out it's worth $100.00 to $150.00.

Finally, the very big bonus: this Majestron pearl watch. It's really pretty, and has a mother of pearl face and delicate details. It's not running so it probably needs a new battery, but a little research turned up another, exact same watch being sold here for $195.00.

I got all the fake pearls I need and another $295.00 worth of very nice pearl jewelry. Not a bad way to spend sixteen bucks. :)

Or Maybe This One

I discovered while retrieving the link to Love O2O the series that there is also a Love O2O the movie, and wondered if that was what all the fuss was about. Since it was only a little over an hour and a half I decided to give it a try (the male lead being played by Jing Boran also factored in.)

The movie was made in 2016 like the television series, but from the serious editing done I expect it came after, not before. All of the things I disliked from the series version are gone, including the hugely annoying roommate and the multiple love triangles. The conflicts are simplified and winnowed down to reasonable amount, too. Jing Boran plays a slightly less intense lead role, but also brings plenty of his own charm. The female lead, played by an actor with the rather improbable stage name of Angelababy, is an enormous visual improvement over her counterpart from the series. I thought both actors brought a lot more realism to their roles.

Special effects dominate both productions, but those for the movie were especially beautiful. By the time the movie ended I wanted a sequel, which is a complete 360 from how I felt about the series. So I will recommend this version of Love O2O, which is available on Netflix.

Love Gamer Style

I was interested to see one of the most-watched Chinese dramas that is often mentioned by reviewers as one of the best, so I looked for and found Love O2O on Netflix. This is a thirty-episode romance drama set at a college with students who are avid gamers making up most of the cast. I was surprised to see Yang Yang playing the male lead Xiao Nai; he's a very popular romance actor. Maybe this series is how he got that way.

The story is fairly basic; young and beautiful student gamer Bei WeiWei (Zheng Shuang) is divorced by her in-game husband, as he wants someone prettier and more popular. This causes her to lose face and become the subject of gossip, and then out of the blue the number one player in the game asks her to marry him. They go on various adventures in the game, and WeiWei has no idea her new game husband is actually the most handsome, popular and reclusive boy on campus, who then begins to romance her in real life. Naturally every other character decides to break them up.

There was a lot not to love about this series, so much so that I had a hard time watching all 30 episodes. The female lead looks so thin and malnourished I expected her to keel over or snap like a twig when her boyfriend hugged her. She also has a roommate/BFF who gets my #1 vote as the most annoying secondary character in any drama from any series I've ever seen. The love triangles (there are multiples) are so contrived as to be utterly ridiculous. Almost every female character besides the lead (and sometimes the lead, too) are 2D cardboard who act like caricatures of young women, and nearly all of them are interchangeable mean girls. The world itself is so squeaky-clean and beautiful I wondered if it was China in a parallel universe.

The drama is somewhat redeemed by Yang Yang, who seems almost exasperated as he does what he can to save the series from becoming a complete disaster. He's not only the best visual of any male Chinese actor on the planet, he plays his character with charm, intensity and most of all subtlety, which this series so desperate needs. He's also very romantic in a boyfriend role. Although she's constantly referred to as a stunner, the lead female actor is so underweight it made me nauseated to watch her (disclaimer: I had a family member who suffered from annorexia nervosa so I admit this is a personal issue for me.)

If you want to be exasperated, annoyed or just depressed in between moments of admiration for a very handsome male lead, Love O2O is the perfect series for you. Otherwise, I'd recommend giving it a pass.

How-To Lot

Crocheting is turning out to be a good physical therapy for my trigger fingers, so I want to do more this winter. Most of the crochet patterns I have are from individual patterns I've bought on Etsy or from a few books I own. One that I used to make my winter hat was written by a UK author, so I had to convert all the instructions from Brit to Yank. All the new patterns they sell at my local craft store are way too expensive for me. These are the reasons I thrifted this 13 lb. lot of crochet and quilting books.

The buy-it-now price was $34.97, but it had already been up for bid at $39.97 for a week before the reduction, so I decided not to chance losing it to another bidder.

I like that there are a lot of afghan books. I don't own any crocheted afghans that I've made myself, and I'd like to change that.

This looks like it might be a stash that belonged to one maker. Anyway, we'll see what it looks like when it arrives.

Image Credit: all of the images in this post were taken from the auction listing at ShopGoodwill.com.

Wishing You

Happy Thanksgiving from Valerean.

Lemon Tree

Sometimes when I look at our lemon tree I imagine planting dozens more in the back yard.

Our HOA would probably sue us if we tried that, but it's nice to daydream. I love this tree. It just keeps on producing, no matter what the weather.

In my next life I'd like own a lemon orchard, please.

Thrifting Local

I ran out of binders to use for my day job and my personal writing, so we made a trip over to the local Goodwill to see if they had any. I found two bundles plus an interesting bag of stuff, all of which you see here.

No binders in this bag, but I did spot a few jelly rolls in new condition, as well as some yardage.

Turned out to be a nice selection of three jelly rolls, two yards of orange satin, a brand-new clothesline, a new spool of ribbon, a new cleaning cloth and a cute little garden flag.

My guy can use the cloth and the clothesline; everything else is for me. I'll even find a way to use the flag.

This bundle was my primary reason for thrifting: three like-new binders with view fronts that would cost about twenty bucks new.

I was quite happy to pay $4.99 for the trio. All I need to do is wipe them clean and they'll be ready to use.

I can't show you everything in this bundle, as some of it belonged to a child who wrote their name in it and used it. But I'm happy to reuse what I can from the bundle.

These two binders and the document wallet from the bundle will also come in handy; I'll use the latter when I sort out everything for my taxes next year.

Thanksgiving Past

I was looking through my photo archives the other day and noticed how faithfully I photographed our Thanksgiving table every year. This one is from 2011, when we had a guest along with the kids (I think my nephew, although I'm not sure.) I have always been proud of what I've made for Thanksgiving dinner. I worked very hard on the meal every single year. But unless Katherine or my nephew are visiting I'll probably never make a big one like this again.

Honestly? That's a relief.

Thanksgiving 2008. The tradition of the holiday being my burden started with my mother. She expected me to help with the cooking for Thanksgiving from the time I was five, and put so much responsibility on me that I could make the whole dinner by myself before I was a teenager. I've always liked cooking, but not the stress and effort involved in making holiday dinners. It was what was expected of me. Mom trained me to view Thanksgiving dinner as my holiday job, and I've handled it by myself for 33 years (exception: one year while in the middle of a divorce I went to a girlfriend's house because I was alone and had nowhere else to go, but I brought a dish and helped out with the cooking and cleaning up there, too.)

Thanksgiving 2017. In retrospect I find it remarkably unkind that every year everyone depended on me to produce a huge Thanksgiving dinner without ever once offering to take part in the cooking, serving and cleaning up (to be fair I never asked for help, as that would have shamed me.) I always waited for someone to care enough to offer to help, but no one ever did. Memorably my mother came over one year and sat in the kitchen to watch (and criticize me) but didn't lift a finger to help. After all the years she had to do it I suppose she felt she'd earned the rest, but what about all the years that I helped her?

Thanksgiving 2014. I didn't take pictures of the Thanksgiving when I made dinner for eleven people, the largest holiday meal I ever cooked, because I was too busy. I roasted two turkeys, made five and six times the amount of food that I usually did, and worked myself into utter exhaustion. That year all of the guests interrupted me constantly to pester me with questions (the worst thing you can do to someone who is trying to cook) or ask me to get things for them, but also did nothing. I'm glad I don't have any pictures of that one. It was the worst Thanksgiving of my life.

Thanksgiving 2020. Actually, my guy is the only person to ever offer me any help over the last 33 years. He can't cook, but he always pitched in to help serve the food, carve the turkey and later clear the table for me. For that he is a prince.

Thanksgiving 2015. Making a Thanksgiving meal is really a thankless job, in my case particularly so. I'm not bitter about all the work I did for so many years, but I am glad I don't have to do it anymore. Maybe some time in the near future someone will actually offer to make Thanksgiving dinner for me. Wouldn't that be wonderful? I'll tell you what, if that happens, I won't sit there and watch them work. I'll help. :)

At the Flea Market

My guy and I decided to walk the local flea market so we could look for a brush attachment that would fit our weird vacuum (and found it.) Along the way I saw this plant, growing out of an old plant stall the had to be 12 feet tall. The flowers look like carnations, but I think it's some kind of hibiscus.

Walking through the outdoor section is always fun because it's a true junker's paradise.

I hope Allen stopped before the centipede ate him.

Just when you think you've seen everything made into a quilt . . . .

Chains and old bottles. There's a paranormal story, right there.

Proof that anything can be made into man's image. Sort of.

I love old treadle tables, but my guy dragged me away before I bought it. Do you know they sell these in antique stores as bases for glass-topped tables? For like $500.00?

I've never been into signs, but it's always interesting to see what words other people hang on their walls.

I do love old blue mason jars, but since I own dozens I cannot buy any more. Anyway, it was a fun morning.

Deciding

I have a lot of work left to do to prep for the next series I'm writing for the day job, so I've decided not to write a novel for fun this winter. If I do find some time, I am going to instead write a short story, a novelette or a novella. Stay tuned for more details once I figure out my work schedule for December.

In the Garden

Our fall garden is well underway now, and we're trying a new variety of corn. The bugs certainly seem to like it, sigh. But we might get a few ears to eat this month.

I'm picking radishes to have with dinner twice a week now, and we just had the first green beans, too.

My little chili pepper plant doesn't like the cold much, but it is still producing.

If I can get the current crop of peppers to ripen before the really cold temps arrive, then I'll dry them and hang them in the kitchen.

Our first planting of lettuce bolted due to the hotter weather, but we've got another six heads in now and we're hoping they'll give us salads for Thanksgiving. My scallions are the workhorses of the garden; they keep growing back no matter how many times I trim off pieces to use in my stir fry recipes. In between is my jalapeno pepper, which has given me some nice, spicy peppers for nachos.

Our cucumbers have flowered, but I'm not sure they'll produce before the cold temps arrive. We have spinach and carrots also growing in that bed, but they're developing slowly, too.

Our watermelon has also flowered, but it might be too late in the year for us to get more of them (we loved the ones we grew this summer; thanks again Maria.)