Water Pipe Leak, Bad Electricity, Indian Summer, and Clotheslines

It’s been a wild week around my home!  I experienced a underground water pipe leak in my front yard, which explained why my grass, trees, and hedges have stayed so green over the summer.  Apparently it had been leaking for quite some time, and last week it reached critical mass.  I arrived home one day to find water running down my driveway, and the lawn completely saturated.  Really a helpless feeling!  Luckily a friend found the leak (which was caused by pressure from a large rock), and fixed it.  But it was pretty wet, muddy, and dirty in the meantime.  It’s amazing how much water can escape from a small break in the line, and it made me realize how much I take water for granted.

Later in the week, half my electrical power in the house went out!  I called PUD, and they immediately dispatched a huge amount of electrical workers, trucks and equipment to my house.  Seriously, the place was swarming!  I have underground wiring, so they were testing and digging to see what the problem was.  They found a big section of the line that had deteriorated and ‘almost caused an open neutral’.  I have no idea what an open neutral is, but apparently it is bad.  REAL bad!  Like destroying all the electronics in your house and causing fires bad.  Anyway, I am very glad that they caught it and fixed it.  I am completely in love with electricity and would never want to live without it. 🙂

The good thing is that we’ve been experiencing an unprecedented dry streak in Seattle.  It has been a glorious Indian summer – dry and warm.  It’s been wonderful to be able to stretch out the outdoor clothesline season for a while longer.  The load of laundry I hung outside today dried in about 2 hours, which is amazing.  I love this vintage graphic of a happy homemaker hanging laundry on the clothesline.  It’s pretty much how I feel when I get to use the clothesline into the fall…and knowing that my water and electricity are working just swell again!

~Marilyn Huttunen

Mod Vintage 60s Granny Square Sweater Crochet Pattern

A mod take on the traditional granny square, this is a great 1966 crochet sweater pattern!  It looks beautiful in black for a chic evening look.  It looks equally fab as a beach cover up.  Love the open work, which gives it a lacy look.  Get crocheting!

Download pattern here

~Marilyn Huttunen

 

Three Vintage Mod 60s Fluffy Mohair Shawl Knitting Patterns

For your knitting pleasure, here are three fab vintage 1966 shawl patterns!  I love the beautiful mod models, and the shawls are absolutely stunning.

Knitted in fluffy mohair, style #3193-135 has a groovy swirly circular motif that is very striking.  Style #3194-135 looks very chic pinned with a giant jeweled brooch.  There is also style 3192-135 on the directions page, which is more of a classic long stole.

All are wonderful.  What are you waiting for, start knitting!  Download pattern here

~Marilyn Huttunen

 

 

 

Clothesline Transitioning

I find that one important factor of being a 100% air-drying laundress, is also being open to constant transition.  I was reminded of this today while hanging my laundry outside on the clothesline;  summer is on its way out.  I hang my clothes in the backyard, which usually gets full sun for most of the summer.  Today I noticed a sharp decrease in the angle of the sun,  being in a more southerly position it casts a longer shadow in my north-facing backyard.

I’m realizing that my halcyon days of sunny summer outdoor hanging are drawing to a close.  Autumn is near.  Shortly I’ll have drying racks filling up my kitchen space — oh, the freedom of having all the laundry hanging outside, soon gone!

In the meantime, I’m doing sort of a hybrid air-drying thing;  I’m using my drying racks outside.  I position them out in the backyard where the sun is still hitting, and load ’em up.  I don’t want to waste any precious sun, limited in scope that it might be.  I will always find a way to air-dry!

~Marilyn Huttunen

 

Kate Middleton (and me) at the Olympics

Being an unapologetic Olympics lover, I’m really enjoying seeing Kate Middleton also getting into the Olympics!  Doesn’t it seem like she is at every event?  With a front row seat to most venues, she can be seen clapping, shouting, jumping, and even doing The Wave.  I can be seen doing these things too…only, I am in the so-called ‘comfort of my own home’.  My son is my spectator;  he retorts with pleas of “Oh MOM!”, along with a lot of eye-rolling.  Kids!

I love that Kate looks sporty, yet elegant.  Totally appropriate for a fashionable modern royal at sporting events.  Looking at her hands, her nails are clipped short and they are unpolished.  Just like mine.  I can’t stand long nails, or fingernail polish on myself.  I always wear toe polish, but fingers – never!

I love her long hair, and the fact that it tends to frizz.  Mine does too.

While Kate is actually there, at the London Olympics, I will be here.  Granted, I have a nine hour time delay (Thanks, NBC!), and watch from my humble home.  But both Kate and I know how to rock the enthusiasm – WOOOOOHOOOOO!  😀

-Marilyn Huttunen

Redheads, Canada Dry Ginger Ale, and Sugar Rationing 1946

I rarely drink soft drinks, but when I do I enjoy a crisp ginger ale.  Ginger ale is one of those vintage-y soft drinks that seems a bit classier and isn’t sickeningly sweet.  I love this 1946 Canada Dry ginger ale ad.  “Go Steady With Ginger!”, features a wholesome looking redheaded (“ginger” haired) woman, swimming and frolicking on the beach.  Canada Dry’s tag line is “The Champagne of Ginger Ales” – again, classy!

It was interesting to note that WWII sugar rationing was still in effect in 1946.  In fact, it lasted until 1947. As noted in the ad, “As sugar rationing eases, Canada Dry Ginger Ale will naturally become more plentiful”.  Which makes me ponder the thought that some sugar rationing would be beneficial to us as a nation now…

~Marilyn Huttunen