to deep Navy blue. A leap in colours and a leap into the crazy around here. After a calm spell with my hook and a jewel toned green life flipped into chaos and disorder tearing me away from this project and really from anything other than cleaning and bored kid damage control. But back I am for the 5th colour in our lovely rainbow.

My “nest”… sewing, reading, and school prep… all under a blanket made by Ken. Bliss.

And a welcome addition it is. Blue is my absolute favourite colour in all of its marvelous shades. I know some feel that blue is a sad colour, but for me it is calming. Like a bright blue, clear sky or a large, clear body of water.

One of the reasons I love this pattern so much (Yay for Yarn Patterns thank  you!) is because of the repeating rainbow. There is something even brighter about the colours repeating many times. It will be interesting to see how many rainbows I end up with by the end. This first one has already been a lovely addition to my schedule. Just one more colour and then it will be complete.

In the morning I managed a better colour of the Navy, but that Kelly Green is elusive… it could be that simply some things are meant to be seen in person? I will keep trying!

January 2nd was another busy stitchy day. This rainbow project is by no means the ONLY project I have on the hook, but it is my brightest and biggest. Also on the list are dishcloths, hot pads, an 18 inch doll, a prayer shawl and a lucky orange tree. 

Good company, some fun cartoons and kids’ movies later and I am done the second stripe of our rainbow. AND I managed to get the full list of colour names for those who are interested!

• berry
• carrot
• bright yellow
• Kelly green
• navy
• mulberry

All in all a gorgeous series of colours.

Sadly the yellow was resistant to having its end pulled… the kids say it puked yarn!

The third was definitely a day of no work on this project, airport drop off and more going on. BUT I look forward to further progress in the following days and weeks as I add more projects to the docket and take some off as I complete what I can. But for now, berry and carrot are done with bright yellow next!

From highly supernatural to a taste of the unusual and the witchy… Romeow and Juliet by Kathi Daley is the first in the “A Whales and Tails Mystery”. Aptly named for the central family’s connection to both whales (a brother runs a whale watching company) and tails (cats, cats and more cats). 

Straddling the line between a devote and conservative Irish Catholic family and friends who embody alternative Caitlin is a single girl on a mission. Running a cat sanctuary with her independent Aunt Maggie, trying to start a business with her best friend Tara (Coffee Cat Books… now there is a great idea – cats, coffee and books), and spending plenty of time with her quirky friends who include:

two witches, hippie neighbors, and a cat who apparently has some sort of magical powers. 

I have only one minor beef with this book. I was somewhat overwhelmed with the sheer number of characters introduced in passing at the very beginning of the book. This does illustrate successfully what a large family (diverse as well) Caitlin comes from and has you taking peeks at a number of the eccentric neighbors, but I found it a bit daunting and my fingers itched for a spread sheet to write everyone out… just a little.

Once you get past the first chapter the characters quickly flesh out and start standing out. I especially enjoy the undercurrent of kitty romance between the stray Romeo who has adopted Caitlin and her neighbor Francine’s (used to be friend of Aunt Maggie now main competition for the city council spot) pedigree kitty Juliet. 

Such a busy lady has little time for murder… until she walks in on a corpse and feels the need to figure out what happened. Enter TWO potential love interests – her first (and brother’s best friend) who ran off years ago to join the Navy and the bank manager (sexy, good with cats). There are multiple mysteries to solve, and only one is solved in this volume. The BIG mystery but there is a niggling little one that leads you into a definite wish for the next book! you really don’t feel a lacking in the ending, just an interest in continuing on to the next book in the series. Well played Kathi Daley… well played.

OH make sure you go to the end of the book… there are RECIPES!