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Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Okay, so I caulked around the tub this morning. Here's a "before" and "after" shot: It doesn't look "professional", but it looks a lot better than it did, and now I'm not afraid to let somebody actually take a shower in it, because the seal around the edges has much more integrity than it did. Our house was built in 1976 I think? During that time, things have shifted, including the tub no longer being right next to the "pretty?" harvest gold tile. This makes caulking a challenge, because with a gap of about 3/8" to 1/2" in some places, it is difficult to both fill the area, yet not have it look like there is too much excess caulk. I smoothed out the edges as best I could to try to avoid the "globbed on" look we had going before. Here's a photo of the prior globs in an area near the tub on the floor: Using only a tube of caulk (easier for me than a caulk gun), many wet paper towels (to keep my index finger "caulk shaper" moist, and for depositing excess caulk), my patience, an hour of time, and this tutorial, here's what it looks like now:So, is the harvest gold color back "in" now? I'm sure harvest gold will be the rage as soon as we remodel this bathroom to a nice calming shade of blue or something, though that won't happen for many years...

I remember telling you that I was going to teach my seven year old how to knit. He has been asking me about it for the past few months, and I told him that I'd show him how during his Christmas break... So, we measured around his teddy bear, and did some math to determine how many stitches to cast on to make a sweater in the round for his bear. I cast on the stitches, then knit a few rows, and then started showing him how to make the knit stitch. He caught on relatively quickly to the concept of making the knit stitch, though the whole coordination thing was a challenge for him.... He'd pick it up now and then and make a few stitches at a time, and become extremely frustrated if something dropped off the needle, etc. Then one day, I asked him if he was going to be knitting much more, and he said, "Well, I *did* knit *a stitch* yesterday," so I suggested that if it was okay with him, we might wait and try knitting with him again some other time. He said that would be good and looked quite relieved. In retrospect, I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to teach him using such a dark color, either. In any case, there appears to be no immediate danger of my stash being snatched up by other members of the family. Phew!

Knitting in my next post!
Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)