Today I would have liked nothing more than to have enjoyed the lovely fall weather by sitting out on my back deck, working on my state fair project and enjoying the crisp autumn weather, but the non-crochet obligations I had been working hard to avoid reached a point that they could no longer be avoided.

Yesterday, in preparation for today, I spent more time than I would have liked getting the house to the point that the carpets could be cleaned. In addition to my own efforts, a neighbor generously offered to help, and her enthusiasm saw me through when I would have rather stopped.

Stripes, my cat, took advantage of the fact that I was busy with other things and converted my Better Homes & Gardens Granny Square Sampler-inspired fat bag into her very own cat bag:

This morning, I had to depose her from her new throne and take my bag on a variety of errands.

My first stop was to get Clooney in for a bath so that the rugs, after cleaning, would stay dog-hair free for a few minutes longer, then a short trip down the road to get my youngest son registered for a standardized test.

Not wanting to double back, I headed out to the next stop on the list, Marsh Woodwinds, to get a Bach 5C cornet mouthpiece. The only problem, when I arrived, the store was not scheduled to open for another hour. Fortunately, I had prepared for just such an event and had grabbed a dozen or so cookies with ends in need of weaving in and wove them in while I waited for the store to open.

Just a minute after the store opened for business, I was through the door and ready to make my purchase. After a nervous moment when it did not appear certain the the mouthpiece I needed was in stock, I was able to complete my purchase and headed home.

As the day unfolded, however, I did manage to get some work done, and by the end of the day, I had completed work on three additional motifs and started on a fourth:

My 2013 North Carolina State Fair project is to the point that I need longer arms to get the best angle, and in short order, I will have trouble finding an pet-hair free zone that is wide enough to accommodate it, but I will persist, one stitch at a time.