I was working on my swatch for my Owl Mitts (I know, swatches are usually done before the project) and I turned it over and saw that I had no gutters. Before someone points out that it looks like I have some gutters going on at the left side, that is where I have the garter stitch.
The Manly Mitts just need a thumb and then some ends woven in. I know it will only be eight ends, but I am pretty sure they multiply when I'm not looking.
The Hubby also didn't come back in to town yesterday because he was just having too much fun with his family. This means that I will have lunch time all to myself and I decided I am going to have another Turkey Day. Well, a Tofurky day.
This is what I have. I'm not vegan or really a vegetarian all of the time, but I do like some of the stuff made for those dietary choices. I feel like they are a bit healthier, even if they aren't. The best part about this little guy is the gravy. The gravy is kind of magical. You can buy the gravy separate, but I wanted to go with the whole shebang today.
I even got a little postcard for the holidays. So many cute pictures on the front. The cow nose keeps grabbing my attention when I look at it. It even took me looking at it a few times to notice the cute orange cat in the bottom right corner licking its little lips.
Holy word count, Batman!
It's the last day. How has a whole month gone by already? Wasn't it day one just last week?
I'm also looking forward to validating my word count. It is always interesting to see the difference in word count between Microsoft Word and the program they use.
I am totally looking forward to January and trying to make 50,000 stitches. I will have a little tally sheet at the bottom like I did for this; but with knit and crochet stitches instead of tons of categories for words.
Write down twenty details of your neighborhood block.
- foxes
- porch swing
- single lamppost
- cul-de-sac
- light-up Eiffel tower
- white Mustang
- German Shepard
- black walnut tree
- basketball hoop
- sparkle spinner flower
- ornamental cherry tree
- dachshund
- tiny sidewalk
- metal pen
- burned out house
- recycle bin
- contractor truck(s)
- old Volkswagen
- fire hydrant
- black and white cat
She blows smoke out into the light cast by the only streetlight on the entire street. This would be like a scene from a movie if the streetlight was one of the full sized ones and not a decorative one in someone's yard at the end of a cul-de-sac. It wouldn't hurt if the ornamental cherry tree would loose some of the cherry blossoms, that would also make a nice dramatic effect.
Signing to herself Laura looked down at her little short haired dachshund, Denver. He didn't seem impressed with her lack luster movie moment either. He was done doing his business and was ready to move on. Before they could get back to the side walk a white Mustang came tearing down the street. With a dramatic screech of the tires it came to a stop under a basketball hoop. Laura smirked because that was not a smart place to leave a car that nice.
A leg with a very high heeled shoe appeared out of the door. A lady with, in Laura's opinion, too much makeup followed the leg. The brunette straightened her expensive dress as she quickly made her way over to Laura. Fearing she had been in this lady's yard, Laura took the last step off of the lawn and back onto the tiny sidewalk.
"Are you Laura Gigen?" The lady more demanded to know than asked.
"I am?" That had not been what she was expecting the lady to say.
"Well, are you or aren't you?" The lady snapped.
"That depends on why you want to know." The shock had worn off.
"My name is Chloé Pennington. I need to hire you." The lady did not offer her hand to shake.
"What do you need to hire me for?" Laura asked, dreading the answer.
"I'm afraid that my girlfriend is screwing me over. I think she is seeing someone else and that she is also taking money from the business we both own." Chloé explained.
"I'm not in that business anymore. I'm a library assistant now." Laura replied.
"I heard you were the best in town, I need your help. I'll pay you double what your old rate was." Chloé bargained.
"How about you tell me more about it before I commit to anything." Laura didn't want to admit that being a library assistant didn't pay as much as her old job had and she kind of missed the thrill of the chase.
"I keep track of our finance books at Shéy Vintage, the boutique I own with my partner, Sherry. I know our sales have not been down but the amounts she has been depositing into our joint account has been smaller than it has been in the past. She has also seemed very distracted and has gone out on these random 'errands' during the day lately." Chloé looked nervous.
"Have you tried asking her about it?" Laura knew most of these things could be worked out if the two people involved just talked to each other about it.
"I have asked a few times and she just shrugs it off and says that I am just being silly." Chloé almost whined.
"Okay, I will take the job." Laura gave in.
"Excellent, now you need to hurry to our shop right now. Sherry said she needed to go run an errand and I told her she couldn't go until I got back. I told her I had to go look at some items we might carry in our shop." Chloé instructed Laura.
"I really should take Denver home." Laura indicated her small dog.
"Oh, well, we don't have time for that. It is a long drive." Chloé seemed to notice the dog for the first time.
Sighing to herself again she loaded Denver into her old Volkswagen and followed the shiny white car. Chloé had not been joking about the drive, it took them almost an hour to get to the shop. This gave Laura enough time to really wonder why this crazy lady went so far out of her way to try and get Laura out of retirement to help her. Laura tried to pull into the employee parking lot in the back, but it was full. The street was also pretty full so she ended up parking next to a fire hydrant.
"Okay, she will be driving the dark blue Mercedes." Chloé informed Laura. She also passed on her cell phone number, Sherry's address, and Sherry's license plate number.
"Alright, I will let you know if I find anything." Laura promised. Denver was being really good and Laura was hoping he would continue to be.
Only a few minutes passed by an a brunette with curly hair who matched Sherry's description came out the back of the store. Laura had been lucky and Sherry turned down the main road the same way that she was facing when she parked on the street.
Staying one or two cars behind she followed the blue car into a very expensive neighborhood. It was hard to tell from just a quick drive-by, but Laura swore she saw a pair of foxes in a large metal pen in the yard of one house. Laura pulled up to a large house that looked like the outside was covered in marble. Sherry parked her car right in front of the house and walked in the front door. Laura pulled around again and found a shady spot under a black walnut tree. Denver was looking eager so Laura let him out for a quick doggy-break on the tree.
A dark grey car pulled out onto the street. It struck Laura as very odd that someone who lived in such a nice area would drive such a run down car. If she hadn't been staring at the car she would not have noticed that Sherry was driving the rusty car. Laura practically threw Denver back into the passenger seat and drove back into her car. This was going to be interesting.
Using her usual trick of staying a few cars behind Laura followed Sherry for a second time. They quickly went out of the ritzy neighborhood into one that was the complete opposite. The yards were brown and patchy, and the houses were a bit worn down. The porch swing on one house was only being held up by only one chain. Laura wasn't sure why Sherry was coming to this neighborhood, but she could see why she wouldn't want to drive her shiny expensive car. Luckily for Laura her own old car blended in fairly well.
Sherry pulled into one of the nicer houses with a sparkle spinning flower in the yard. It added some color and was a nice touch. One of the houses across the street had a light-up Eiffel tower, so at least some people were trying to make the street look happier. After knocking on the door a red headed lady let Sherry in.
"What did you find? What is she doing?" Chloé answered her phone after the second ring.
"Hello to you too." Laura relayed the address of the house that Sherry had gone in to.
"I have no idea what Sherry would be doing in such a disgraceful place like that." Chloé replied.
Laura promised to let Chloé know if she found out anything else. She snapped Denver's leash on him and got out of the car. At least the dog would give her a good excuse to slowly walk by the house.
There wasn't much to see from the front of the house. With a quick look around Laura and Denver ducked down the side of the house. Carefully peaking in a few windows she saw that the two ladies were sitting at a small kitchen table. The room was small but very clean. There were also a few baby items around. Laura was about to head back to her car when Denver spotted a black and white cat sitting on a recycle bin. He went crazy and pulled the leash out of Laura's hand before she could really react.
She didn't bother to look back, but she hoped that the barking hadn't attracted the attention of Sherry or her companion. It wouldn't do if Sherry recognized her or her car parked across the street.
She felt like she ran for miles after her dog and it seemed the farther they went the worse the houses became. She finally managed to step on his leash in front of a burned out house with a contractor truck in front of it.
"We are going to have to get you enrolled in doggy obedience school. That was not professional at all." Laura scolded her dog. He licked her nose in reply.
She trotted back to the house and had hoped that she hadn't missed Sherry leaving. The door to the house was opening when she got close and she saw Sherry walk out. The red headed lady and Sherry hugged. Laura tried to hear what they were saying but only managed to catch the name "Heather" when Sherry was calling farewell before getting into her car.
Laura followed Sherry back to her house where she switched cars again and followed her back to Shéy Vintage. Though Laura normally called her clients, since she was already back at the shop she figured she could talk to Laura in private.
"You figured it out already?" Chloé demanded once she ushered Laura into the back room of the store.
"I don't know that I have but the person she was visiting earlier was named 'Heather,' does that name ring a bell?" Laura asked.
"I knew it! That was Sherry's old girlfriend! She told me that it was over but I knew it wasn't so easy!" Chloé fumed. "I'll show her."
"I would suggest that you talk to her about it first. Getting angry might just make things worse, it might not be what you think it is." Laura advised.
"I will get her now." Chloé gracefully stormed off before Laura could stop her.
"This might not end well." Laura muttered to herself wishing she could escape out a back door.
"I heard you have been messing around with Heather! I thought you said it was over!" Chloé was not following Laura's advice.
"Who is this person?" Sherry asked.
"That's not important. How could you do this to me?" Chloé was starting to really get historical.
"Let me explain." Sherry started.
"It better be good, I know that money is going missing as well." Chloé looked like she was finally going to let Sherry talk.
"Back when Heather and I were dating we had been thinking of having a baby together. We got Fred the German Shepard kind of as a practice child. Since that went so well we started looking into sperm donors." Sherry explained. "We broke up before we could choose one donor we really liked."
"I don't care about all of that, that's all in the past." Chloé pointed out.
"I thought that was the case too. It turns out that Heather had picked a donor and had gotten inseminated while we were still dating without me knowing. She was going to surprise me but didn't want to tell me until she was sure it had worked. We broke up before she was three months along." Sherry explained some more.
"So what does that mean for us, and what about the money?" Chloé asked,
"Since it was mostly my idea, I have been trying to give her some money to support the baby. Her parents cut her off when they found out about the pregnancy. She had only been able to find minimum wage jobs and they wouldn't pay for maternity leave." Sherry said.
"So what about us?" Chloé looked worried.
"I hope we will be fine and grow old together." Sherry smiled at Chloé.
"Come here, wonderful." Chloé hugged Sherry tightly. She hinted that it was time for Laura to leave. She was glad to get out of there and get back to her own home.
I like my stories to have happy endings. I also noticed that I didn't use as many prompts as I thought I would, so I have some wiggle room. I might even use some more randomly throughout the next year.
Monthly count: 50,990 (51,076)
Prompts used: 30
Words from titles: 152
Pattern words: 1,870
Other blog: 1,162
Pictures posted: 4 (counting only finished objects)
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