Real-time post

Well, the biggest thing I noticed on break was that my GI trouble cleared up 100% upon my getting up here. I'm hoping that it is a matter of time and maybe getting away from some of the stress I was dealing with....I hope it's not that there's something wrong with the water down where I live or that there's something I've become VERY allergic to in either my house or workplace. (The good news is, even if it IS something allergic, there's nothing "wrong" with any of the digestive organs....)

I've kept busy. I finished a pair of simple socks (made of some very old Opal....well, old in yarn-world terms, I've had it for maybe about a dozen years) in a bee-stripe pattern. And I finally finished Antarktis.

I also made a couple of "critters." One very tiny - from the Darby the Dragon pattern on Ravelry and one quite huge (a whale shark, which worked up to be about 20" long, and after Queen Chrysalis is the biggest crocheted stuffie I have made). The dragon wound up being named Strawberry - she was very obviously a GIRL dragon when she got done (from the colors). I was a bit puzzled by the whale shark as I don't even know for sure what ocean they are native to....but then when I got him done, I decided on Darwin, because I watched a lot of "The Amazing World of Gumball" while working on him, and Darwin is the name of a character on there (A goldfish that grew legs. It's kind of weird. It's kind of a more-family-friendly and less-topical copy of The Simpsons, many of the characters are similar, and yet it's cute and funny at times, so....)

The whale shark is surprisingly cuddly and would make a good sofa cushion.

I also made a dress. I had been hoping to find the old pattern for a button-front princess line dress I made many years ago, but I couldn't locate it, so I bought a new pattern that is slightly similar (but not button front) and used some of one of those quilting batiks (a solid color - a dark purple) for it.

I go back next Monday. I GUESS I'm ready though I'm not ready for the heat of summer and for juggling all my responsibilities again. It is kind of nice to have no meetings and not have to get up early to work out because there will be time later in the day to do it.