My hands still smell of bleach

...and the kitchen hasn't been so clean since we moved in. I cleaned and moved everything but the stove, fridge, and dishwasher. Even took all the stuff off the fridge--it looks naked now.

I made mead yesterday. Two batches. The first was flavored with a handful of wild plums and about 2 quarts of wild black cherries I picked on the tree trail at work on Saturday. They made a beautiful, dark, blood-red juice which lightened only slightly when I poured it into the honey and water. The second batch was flavored with two quarts of frozen strawberries (don't remember if they were from my patch, or the neighbor's). These made a bright red juice.

They were starting to pressurize when I went to bed last night, but no burping yet.

The waiting begins.

Lady bless, I almost forgot the weekend sock report!

Hey, it's early.

Finished the foot of Ranj's second Turkish sock Saturday at work. Now I need to find the red and black yarn I was using for the bands around the heel.

I'm almost to the heel on the second aran sandal sock--I'd meant to work on it some Sat, but spent the whole day on Ranj's sock Sat. Well, the time I wasn't picking wild cherries and plums. Anyway....I got about an inch done on it Sun morning while we ran in to Joane's for beads and wire.

I'm now 8" into the tied-up tee, and close to finishing the third ball of yarn. The extra two balls of yarn I needed arrived yesterday. Now I can work away without worrying about running out of yarn.

New Project: from the Aug 2003 issue of Bead and Button, a wire-frame goddess form, wrapped in beads. Different sizes, different textures. Mine is in purples, from pale mauve and lavender through shades of amyethyst and dark garnet and shiny metallic ryoal purple. It's very cool. And it's given me ideas...I've got a second frame done, a crescent moon this time, with a wire-wrapped quartz crystal and a drop made of a large glass pearl and gold bugle beads from the top point, and another pearl and bugle bead drop hanging down the center of a short wire spiral from the bottom point. I'm going to fill in the frame with gold and silver beads. It is a very bead intensive project, but that's okay, I've got a bunch of stuff I need to use up.