There's been living

 going on in our living room, now that it's painted and done.  (Thanks again to Erin and Diana (and Geneva and Lily) xo)

  In fact, there's been a little too much living going on in here.  The last set of weekend guests just left and now it's time for only the four of us to live in here.   No matter how much we love our guests, I am looking forward to having none of them for a while.  September has been a crazy month - full of new people, old friends, weekend guests, parties and dinners, entirely too many paintbrushes, buckets of spackle, trips to IKEA, and back-to-school meetings.  I'm ready for a drink and some knitting, I tell you.

 In the meantime, here's the next finished room.  In our old house, we had an actual family room and an actual living room, which were separated by walls and doors.   Here, we have one super long room that's ended up being kind of both.   In this photo, you are standing in the front end, looking at the back half of the room, with the dining room behind it.  

The front half has our big leather sofa and the TV - hidden in the corner behind the french door there in the corner.  So, we'll call that the family room for now.   I made a questionable decision as a parent of two social kids who live just a block away from their respective schools, and I put an off white rug in front of that baby.  We'll see how that goes.  I did not put a coffee table here, so there's nowhere to put a plate or cup.   Subtle, but it could work, maybe.
 

The back half, which I guess is more the living room half, has the fireplace in it, and an opening straight to the kitchen.   It also has a big bookshelf of things to read and games to play in front of the fire.  (You see that better in the first picture)  Plus, the rug on this half is easy to clean, with lots of colors on it (again, you can see it in the first picture).  I think it's the snacking half of the room, where the kids will ignore the TV, eat snacks, and play board games.  

(I'm not really that stupid, we have an upstairs TV room with a crappy rug and a futon in it.) 

Anyways, that's the living room.  It's a weird space, but I think it'll work out fine.

The only other room to share downstairs is my office, but I have to wait until the hole in the ceiling is repaired and I repaint in there before I can call that one finished.   The guys aren't coming for a few weeks, so I can knit in the meantime and enjoy my guest-free house for a bit while I wait.  (I could paint the upstairs, but I feel like a break.)  

I actually did start some new knitting today, with the lovely yarn below.  Newly sent from The Plucky Knitter, and already a few inches bigger than it is here on the porch.   It's a deep wine-purplish color, and I love it.  She didn't send a tag, so I need to double check the color and get back to you with what it really is....

 

I'm thinking this will be my Rhinebeck Cowl.

Instead of trying to knit an entire sweater for Rhinebeck, I've adjusted my expectations to fit my schedule.  I'll probably be knititng away ON my Rhinebeck sweater while there, but I'm going to shoot to wear a few new accessories at the Fair, instead of an actual garment.   And considering how the weather gets all iffy and my sweater could be hidden under a coat or it could be too hot to wear it without schvitzing, I might be happy with a cowl and hat plan instead anyways.  Unless I do finish the sweater, in which case I'll wear it WITH the cowl.  Right?  I'm thinking I'll just have options this way.

Anyone else going?  I'd love to meet a few of you in person this year!!

Oh, and PS.  At one of those Back To School Nights, a parent came up to me and said she recognized me from somewhere.  We figured out where.  Turns out she owns one of the liquor stores in Arlington that I used to go to, apparently enough to be deemed a regular.   I'm not entirely sure if I should be embarrassed or not.